CH 18

Chapter 18 – Injustice Provokes An Outcry

It seems as if he really isn’t gay.

Inevitably, once they became the center of everyone’s discussion, rumors about their group spread rampantly again, especially those about Fang Juexia, who had a stormy and bloody past. The only difference was that compared to before, he now had more fans who were counterattacking the antis, and received more support from the netizens. For the first time, the number of clarification Weibo posts and popular forum posts was more than the rumor posts. Many of the more extreme antis opined that he was purposefully making himself look pitiful just so that he would have more fans defending him. 

In reality, Fang Juexia, who was at the center of this whirlpool, had no emotions to spare or time to pay attention to these matters. After the livestream of the accident and their performance, Kaleido’s commercial activities increased rapidly, with big brand companies and major program groups throwing olive branches at them one after another. They had a lot more to do than pay attention to online public opinion.

The other members had their own personal schedules, and Fang Juexia’s latest upcoming job was a two-person photoshoot for the cover of a magazine with Pei Tingsong. This cover could count as being his first job in the fashion industry, and moreover, it was also for one of the five major fashion magazines. If the effect was good, it would unlock a whole new circle for them. If the effect wasn’t good, then their plane would have crashed upon takeoff.

At 5:30 in the morning, Cheng Qiang came to the dormitory to wake up Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong, so as to get them ready for the photoshoot for the magazine. The weather was getting colder and colder, and it had snowed heavily the previous night.

Pei Tingsong’s bad mood at having to get up early was serious, and even after they reached the dressing room, where they had to choose outfits, he was still making a face, not caring the slightest about even pretending to put on the image of being a kindhearted and dedicated idol. Like an overworked demon in hell who was assigned to push others— this was the novel simile that Fang Juexia’s brain came up with after looking at him.

“Morning~” The door was pushed open, and a tall, strong man in a fluorescent colored down jacket entered the room, after which his rough voice pinched sharply up as he greeted, “Hi~ I’m today’s modeling director, you guys can call me Andy.” His fingernails were very long, with glitter and small gems on them. Fang Juexia politely smiled at him and greeted, “Hello.”

“Do you have no makeup on, darling?!” Andy talked in a very exaggerated way, exactly like an actress in a musical. He suddenly drew closer, which made Fang Juexia unconsciously lean back. “Wow, you have the palest and most beautiful skin of all the male artists I’ve worked with. Many artists like to say that they’re naturally pale, but in fact, they usually lay on three layers of makeup in private.” Saying this, he suddenly saw the birthmark at the corner of Fang Juexia’s eye and reached out to rub it. “Eh, I’ve been surprised this whole time oh, this mark on your face…”

“Don’t be curious, really.” Pei Tingsong grabbed his hand and pulled it away from Fang Juexia’s face. Pei Tingsong had a fake smile on his face as he said, “Andy Ge, shouldn’t you go find clothes for us?”

Andy saw Pei Tingsong, and his expression suddenly turned a little shy. He went along to lightly pat Pei Tingsong’s sleeve as he said, “Aiya, yes, yes, yes, going to find clothes. Tingsong is so tall, he should have been a model.” Pei Tingsong was rarely called that, and so he directly broke out in goosebumps and let go of the other person’s hand. Andy took off his coat and revealed the slightly slim-fitted black T-shirt he was wearing. He reached out to fan himself. “Coco, take out the design plan for the photoshoot.”

Fang Juexia didn’t have a good or bad feeling about Andy. When they were just an obscure group, he had gotten used to the contempt of the staff. In fact, there had been many times where his face after getting made up looked worse than when he didn’t have any make-up on. Idols were different from other artists, they relied a lot on their stylists, and thus, the status of stylists in this small circle was not low. This Andy was famous, but he didn’t put on any airs, which already counted as very good. He glanced at Pei Tingsong and felt that his reaction was actually much more obvious.

It seems as if he really isn’t gay—Fang Juexia thought.

Coco, the modeling assistant who distributed the materials, was a girl who talked very fast. “It’ll be spring soon, so the magazine has decided on a ‘colorful spring day’ concept. Because the studio picked a greenhouse for the shooting location, we will also do some styling with natural scenery, such as with flowers and plants.”

At this time, Xiao Zhou, the assistant photographer who was responsible for communicating with the modeling department, also entered. He discussed some things with Andy for a bit and confirmed on the style of makeup again.

Fang Juexia opened up their plans, and inside the file were some abstract design drafts and color combination schemes. It did look good, but he possessed a good memory. He remembered that the star-making role of the actor who had previously cut him out of this job had been a florist, and this design plan seemed to be tailor-made for him.

He flipped forward some more pages, and sure enough, both the concept and the overall style were born out of the theme “florist”. From the text of the concept, the parts regarding “spring” looked like they had been added on later, making it all feel as if this design plan had been done in a very impromptu manner.

However, Fang Juexia knew that he could not ask too much based on his qualifications. If this was a job on the stage, he would definitely not permit even a speck of dust to enter his eye, and even if there was a slight flaw in the headset, he wouldn’t accept it. But he already wasn’t that enthusiastic about jobs aside from work on the stage, so he naturally wouldn’t put up a fight about this matter. 

The assistant photographer also cooperated. “Yes, the magazine also feels that both of these people fall in line with the concept of spring in terms of image and temperament. The style of young people in florals has been enduring, and recently, the popularity of these two has also been very high, so we would like the two of them to get similar makeup, so as to give the idea of them being twins.”

It seemed that in their desire to make the whole design easier for themselves, they had just fitted this leftover florist-themed design on the two of them. Fang Juexia closed the planning book, vaguely worried about whether this kind of floral concept makeup would make him look feminine or vulgar.

“So we will highlight the similarities between the two with their makeup….”

“Excuse me.” The assistant was interrupted.

Fang Juexia looked back and saw Pei Tingsong slowly raising his hand. “Can I join in on this discussion?”

Artists from idol groups interfering with photoshoots was a regular occurance, and they’d come across many rude requests, so surprise only flashed for a moment on the assistant photographer’s face before he said, “Of course.”

However, Fang Juexia understood Pei Tingsong’s personality, and was sure that this person was definitely not going to do something as simple as just joining in on the discussion. From the start just now, his expression hadn’t looked very good.

“Then I’ll say it directly, this design is very good.” Pei Tingsong sat on the sofa, raised his head, and smiled before he continued, “But it’s not suitable for Juexia Ge at all.”

Fang Juexia was a little stunned.

“Also, I don’t look like him at all. The concept of twins will be very difficult to apply to us.”

The words didn’t count as being the slightest bit euphemistic, and everyone in the room now carried a different expression. Even Cheng Qiang, who had been checking the questions for the interview the whole time, felt the embarrassment that now floated in the atmosphere. He looked up at everyone and immediately laughed while excusing, “That’s just what our Xiao Pei is like. Having grown up abroad, he says whatever he thinks; everyone can just listen to him speak, but you don’t have to take his advice.”

Coincidentally, the door was pushed open at that moment, and this time it was the tardy photographer Lin Mo who entered. His position in the circle was extraordinary, and what he was best at was excavating and magnifying anyone’s most brilliant features. No matter how generic a model looked, the picture he would shoot of them would be absolutely beautiful. 

The only trouble was that this photographer was eccentric, difficult to work with, and worked only on projects that attracted his attention. The magazine managing to invite him this time was purely due to luck; because of a scheduling problem, a famous foreign actor had canceled their photoshoot, and only then could they take advantage of this vacancy in Lin Mo’s shooting schedule.

“Xiao Zhou? Are the lights ready?” His tone didn’t sound very nice, and he took a general look at the situation in the room before asking, “What’s wrong?”

Assistant Xiao Zhou laughed twice and replied, “Oh, there’s no problem, there’s no problem, I’m going to find the lighting technician.”

“There is a problem.” Pei Tingsong looked at Lin Mo, and his tone was neither humble nor overbearing as he stated, “Mr. Lin, I just looked through your assistant’s design book. To be honest, it doesn’t look like your style.”

For Lin Mo, this job was just a job to fill the hole in his schedule. When his assistant had offered to plan it, he had agreed. On the other hand, he was biased against the profession of idols.

In his opinion, beautiful faces often had no story to tell, and the photos that he took of them couldn’t speak and possessed no soul. Moreover, the main requirement of these beautiful faces was often “please make me look more beautiful”, which made Lin Mo unable to realize the true value of his work when shooting them.

From the start, this was the attitude with which he had regarded these two boyband members who had become very popular recently. When he heard Pei Tingsong being critical of the design, this view of his solidified further. Lin Mo laughed and looked at Fang Juexia, who hadn’t reacted at all. “Do you also think so?”

Just by glancing at him, he could feel that Fang Juexia was more like an exquisitely made, flawless doll, rather than a human being.

Fang Juexia had always been weak in expressing himself. 

Yet somehow, he had a kind of subtle tacit understanding with Pei Tingsong. For example, just now, when Pei Tingsong had interrupted the assistant, he had immediately understood what Pei Tingsong had meant by “not suitable.” Originally, he had wanted to compromise, just like how he had done many times before, because he felt that these matters were not important, and that they could all just go through the motions together.

However, it was obvious that Pei Tingsong would just not stand down on this matter, and so he had to stand up and lift aside the white curtain here. 

As a bandmate who had debuted together with him, Fang Juexia didn’t like this kind of solitary courage. So he chose to express himself this time, and even Cheng Qiang was surprised at this.

“When Xiao Pei said it wasn’t suitable, he wasn’t negating the entire design; it is very good in itself and very suitable for Pei Tingsong.” Fang Juexia kept up a polite smile as he explained, “It’s just that… If we simply try to combine the two of us in line with recent network trends, that may not be the best solution. We are very different.”

Lin Mo nodded thoughtfully, glancing a few times back and forth between these two boyband members that he wasn’t familiar with, and then took a design book from the table, flipping it open to look at it. 

“As soon as I got the design, I knew that it wasn’t your work,” Pei Tingsong directly laid it bare. “After all, you’re the photographer who dislikes assembly line photos the most.”

Hearing this, Cheng Qiang’s heart was completely on edge; such a statement was directly equivalent to Pei Tingsong slapping the face of Lin Mo’s studio. He wanted to speak, but Fang Juexia, who was standing beside him, gently pulled at his arm to stop his movement.

Lin Mo paused in flipping through the book. He raised his head, squinted at Pei Tingsong, then stood up and walked towards him step by step.

For a while, the atmosphere in the room dropped to below freezing, and even Andy, a worldly-wise person, didn’t dare take a breath. 

Only once he walked and stood in front of Pei Tingsong did Lin Mo finally open his mouth and comment, “You’re quite capable ah.”

Fang Juexia silently breathed a sigh of relief.

“Xiao Zhou,” Lin Mo turned around. “You came up with such a perfunctory design for me, so did you think I also regarded this job as just something to go through the motions with?”

These words were very artful, not only separating the matter of this design from himself, but also expressing his attitude towards his work.

Xiao Zhou mumbled in agreement. The boss was bad-tempered and cursed him out almost every day. He counted it lucky that he had just been reprimanded and not cursed out today. What’s more, he really had been lazy. Knowing that that leftover design plan was still around, he had just gone to discuss it with the modeling team and had then changed it a bit to reuse it. 

Lin Mo drew closer to Pei Tingsong, and in a volume that only the two of them could hear, asked, “If you were photographed using this design, you would still be brilliant, so why did you stick your head out like that?”

“Isn’t this a two-person shoot?” Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows.

Lin Mo nodded with a smile. “Sure enough, you’re just the way your Jie said you were.”

Pei Tingsong smiled and replied, “She definitely didn’t say anything good.”

Lin Mo turned around and said, “Xiao Zhou, change the design right now. We will keep the spring concept only for Pei Tingsong’s shoot.” Xiao Zhou exclaimed in a hurry and flipped open his laptop. He saw the boss walk to a stop in front of Fang Juexia and look at him. He spoke slowly, “Just…. We won’t do spring for you. Fang Juexia’s features are too delicate, and being surrounded by masses of flowers will look too vulgar on him, while making any of his distinguishing features disappear.” Then he asked, “What ideas do you have?”

Fang Juexia had remained so silent all this while that he didn’t seem like an artist, and he didn’t seem to show much emotional fluctuation upon hearing the question.

“Winter.”

Lin Mo’s eyes flashed with surprise. “Why?”

As Fang Juexia recalled something, the constantly pursed corner of his mouth suddenly curved imperceptibly, giving off an effect totally different from all his previous professional smiles. This was a smile from the heart.

“Some people say I look like ice.”