Chapter 68: Why does the Bird Go Missing? (1)
The weather got cooler and cooler after the arrival of an autumn rainy spell. Major shopping malls stopped selling summer clothing and put autumn wear up for sale. Also, main fashion magazines kept abreast of seasonal changes and focused on recommending fine products of leading brands.
Lin Xia opened Vision and carefully spread the folded page right in the middle. Touching the clothing picture that belonged to her company, she let out a contented breath and smiled at He Bai who sat opposite her, “The magazine is running your photo again. Congratulations!”
“Credit for it must go to costume designers and the whole team.” He Bai never claimed credit for himself, only an adorable smile could be seen on his face whenever he was praised.
Lin Xia smiled at him affectionately, “You always speak in sweet words. For this reason, everyone has been pampering you. Tell me, what are you rushing over for?”
Seeing Lin Xia read his mind, He Bai gave a shy smile and took a stack of invitation letters from his backpack to show her, replying in a fawning way, “Some people have invited me to take photographs. I turned them down previously, while… I hate to bother you, but could you help me deal with them?”
As Little Mermaid became the hottest brand and his photos frequently appeared on major platforms, more and more people came in admiration to make shooting appointments with him. As a student, He Bai felt it difficult to attend simultaneously to his studies and work, and no extra time was left to him for anything else. Besides, once he relented and took an appointment, he could hardly stop even if he would. After all, if he agreed to take photos of one person but refused to another, he or she would see it as sheer contempt.
What was more, he was skilled in photography but lacking in experience, and… he had a striking weak point. From a long-term perspective on career development, he wasn’t supposed to take overly advantage of his popularity at present, and what he needed most was to strive to enrich his mind.
Aware of He Bai’s difficulties, Lin Xia was on one hand gratified that he trusted her company completely and took on no extra-official jobs without their permission; on the other hand, she felt sorry for him in that it quite embarrassed him, a young guy who had few connections in this industry, to afford to turn down those stars who had a lot of contacts in entertainment circle. Softened up, she helped decline a number of offers to shoot in the name of person in charge of Little Mermaid brand and under the pretext that He Bai would be in breach of contract if he took photographs privately.
However, only He Bai and Lin Xia knew whether the contract stipulated that He Bai was not allowed to make private shooting.
“Who are they?” Lin Xia glanced at the pile of invitation letters, pulled them over and flipped through the letters, which got her both annoyed and amused, “It’s really… Those b-list celebrities say nothing but that they look forward to cooperation with you later when we decline their invitations, and some stars just express euphemistically that they hope you can give priority to their business once you are willing to take shooting appointments in the future. In contrast, these starlets who has newly entered entertainment circle and won mediocre popularity were extraordinarily enthusiastic about inviting you to take photos of them. Knowing that you stay at the campus, they have the impudence to send the invitation letter to your university. They’ve really gone too far.”
“They probably do this without the permission of their agent.” He Bai scratched his face and made a guess.
Hearing his words, Lin Xia gave him a quick glance. In her heart, she knew that it was not the case. Those unknown actors had no resources and totally counted upon agents and their company to give support, so they didn’t dare to act rashly in case their agents and the company would be irritated. No doubt that these invitation letters were wrote by agents who considered He Bai a newcomer with no contacts and tried to sound his bottom line out. How stupid they were even not to realize that He Bai was backed by Jia family and Yi Ka! No wonder they remained obscure until now.
But there was no need of explaining it to He Bai who was destined to serve high-end customers and would have no contact with those rash starlets and chaotic brokerage companies. It’s simply unnecessary to tell him the reason behind, which was good for nothing but would get He Bai annoyed.
Sneering at those unqualified actors and agents, Lin Xia threw the letters into the trash can and soothed He Bai, “Don’t worry about this. We’ll help you deal with them. By the way, you come just at the right moment. There is a piece of work for you, so I want to ask whether you would like to do it.”
A piece of work for him? Why did Lin Xia have to ask him first? As autumn clothing publicity came to an end, his shooting had been wound up. What else could be done?
He Bai looked at her, perplexed.
“Don’t worry, It’s not shooting appointment.” Lin Xia eased his mind and took a document out to show him, smiling, “I suggest that you should accept the offer. It will be to the benefit of your career prospects. Of course, it’s up to you. The man gave us three days to decide, so you can give full consideration to the job.”
Out of curiosity, He Bai opened the document and browsed through it rapidly. He couldn’t help crying out in surprise, “What? Jun Chen invited me to shoot the cover for his MV? Why me? Is there something wrong with him?”
Amused by his reaction, Lin Xia burst out laughing and chimed in, “I also wonder why you, an unknown newcomer, should tickle the fancy of Jun Chen, the famous singer who has regular photographers at hand.” In addition, he offered to let actresses wear Little Mermaid costumes when starring in his new MV in order to achieve cooperation with He Bai. In this way, original private appointment was transformed into the cooperation between Jun Chen’s Studio and Little Mermaid brand, bypassing the provision of “No private shooting” which had served as their pretext before.
He Bai leafed through the document, which left him all at sea.
He had never shot MV cover and had no idea what to do with it.
Walking out from Yi Ka’s building, He Bai hesitated for a while and got on a bus to the amusement park as planned. With work to do at weekends and lessons to take in working days, he could only squeeze practice into his negligible amount of free time.
Seating himself in the bus, He Bai took out his phone, enabled the browser and did a search on ‘Jun Chen’.
It brought up a lot of items. The first one was his introduction.
Jun Chen, a man of twenty-seven, was a former singer of Yangyao Record Company and now is in charge of Jun Chen’s Studio. He made his debut at the age of 20 and has created a large number of masterpieces, thus known as ‘Young God of Song’. His records sell like hot cakes in H area every year …
He Bai skimmed through the materials and counted up how many albums the guy had released. Frowning, he struggled to recall songs that had prevailed in the previous incarnation and finally guessed out which album Jun Chen was going to release this time.
… But if he remembered rightly, Jun Chen would make ‘Dear’ his album theme. It was done in honor of his deceased family and thus meant a lot to him. In the last life, the cover of this album seemed to be an old photo which He Bai had noticed many times from some music apps. He vaguely remembered a netizen revealed that it was Jun Chen’s most cherished picture, behind which there was a quite touching story…
Why did Jun Chen change his mind this life? What did he want to do? That album had hit such an all-time high that CCTV (national TV station) played it regularly. He Bai had no idea why he asked a newcomer to shoot its cover.
He Bai racked his brains but failed to figure it out. When he put down the mobile phone and was ready to turn it off, Di Qiuhe gave him a call.
The ring he heard a few days ago—“Let me scoop you up and cuddle you with a warm kiss”—sprang to mind as if a conditioned reflex and was constantly resounding. He Bai raised his eyebrows, hung up without hesitation and sent Di Qiuhe a text.