CH 7

Chapter 7: Photoshoot

This studio had mirrors as well as some miscellaneous clutter. It seemed to be a room used to hold clutter.

There was a prop sofa in the middle of the room. Gu Qingchi stretched his legs and leaned back on the sofa, one hand loosely circled around the vodka bottle.

He had never been a model before. He was a little unsure of how to go about it, so, no matter what advice others gave him, he would take it all to heart and implement them straight away.

Hong jie was right. Emotions were really important to how people presented themselves.

But it's not that easy to just cry when told to cry and laugh when told to laugh. Generally, models would use body language and conscious facial management in order to enter the right state.

Compared to actors, the emotional requirements of models were rather low.

And even if they were actors, they wouldn't let themselves be too immersed in certain emotions.

It was not a good thing to be too immersed in a role or emotion. The most typical example was actors who developed mental illnesses, such as depression, because of being too immersed in a role. This kind of thing happened most often to method actors.

But Gu Qingchi didn't know any of this, and Hong jie didn't really understand it either.

If asked to maintain negative emotions and present a dejected and decadent appearance, he would try his best to immerse himself in that state of mind.

Even if it meant using other methods, like alcohol. For Gu Qingchi, alcohol usually helped catalyze this kind of state.

Gu Qingchi had a pretty good alcohol tolerance. It was mainly because he needed a way to pass the time when he was alone, and alcohol seemed like a good choice.

He especially liked the burning sensation of spirits passing through his throat before finally settling in his stomach.

It was originally a way of passing time, and, gradually, he developed a liking to it. Now, he liked to have a drink every now and then,

But, when he started to drink, it meant that he was letting himself sink into those negative feelings.

More than half of the vodka was gone.

Not a good sign.

He was falling into the abyss. Gu Qingchi realized it but didn't make any moves to save himself.

He hadn't eaten anything before drinking, and the alcohol he was drinking was vodka. His stomach was already starting to ache.

Gu Qingchi didn't care. In fact, the pain in his stomach gave him an inexplicable sense of pleasure.

The blue team had a total of four people. The captain was an idol, and the team members were basically all younger industry newcomers. Under the leadership of the captain, the team's overall style was more daring and unique.

They were very prone to coming up with mind-boggling and unique ideas, often skirting past the right answer. When looking for clues, it all depended on luck.

In one episode, they weren't even able to find a single clue. The most dramatic part of it was that they actually ended up finding the treasure entirely by chance.

As per usual, they once again veered off the right path.

And yet, the captain was still confident.

"Listen to me, my instinct tells me that this place is definitely important. See, there isn't even a single light over here."

One team member hesitated a little bit.

"There aren't any lights, but there aren't any props either. Have we gone out of bounds?"

The other two team members immediately denied it.

"We haven't even walked that far yet. You know how rich the program crew is. Last time, we drove a bumper car for a whole 20 minutes and still didn't drive out of bounds. Based on last time, the most inconspicuous places are definitely where the clues are."

Finally, the captain confidently came to a conclusion.

"I think, this time we're definitely on the right track."

Two or three live streaming cameras circled around them, broadcasting the stream to the entire internet.

This scene, coupled with the staff's indifferent and ruthless deduction of points and explanation, made for an unexpectedly hilarious comedic effect.

The comment barrage was filled entirely with hahaha.

[Official face slaps are the deadliest! Confident team leader: Don't you know how rich our program crew is? Staff: As you all know, our program crew is poor.]

[Give them a break! Their points are gonna go into the negatives.]

[Every time the captain speaks, I think, "I knew it, they're done for."]

[Hahahahaha, I don't care what you think, I only care what I think.] 1

[Hahaha, there aren't any lights because the crew can't afford to rent the studios over there!]

However, the blue team couldn't see the comment barrage. They continued cautiously walking down the wrong path.

The captain of the blue team stood in front of the studio, took a deep breath, and spoke solemnly.

"What if there aren't any clues in there?"

The team members looked at him nervously.

Then, he anxiously spoke again.

"What if the treasure is over there? What should we do? That would mean the game is over. Wouldn't that be a slap in the program crew's face? They prepared everything for nothing. Won't the sponsor be angry?"

He turned around, smiled, and then went all-in on promoting the sponsored product.

"XXX Dairy, dairy that you can trust."

The comment barrage burst again.

[Captain: I'm always thinking for the good of the program crew.]

[Your concerned face looks like me when I'm about to win a million dollars.]

After speaking, he twisted the doorknob with confidence.

There was a single light turned inside the studio, so it wasn't very bright. Under the light was a small round table. The sofa was just to the left of the light, so it was a little hard to see.

The rest of the studio was dark and looked a little eerie. Four people huddled together. None of them thought of turning on the lights. The captain was forced to the front to lead the way.

The other three people continued walking forward while the captain tried to lean back.  Then, he saw Gu Qingchi on the sofa.

"Hey, wait, there seems to be someone over there."

When he heard movement, Gu Qingchi thought it was someone here to call him to begin the shoot, so he stood up. His hair hung by his ears. Because he had so many accessories on his body, there was the sound of metal clinking when he moved. He still had that bottle of vodka in his hand.

The light did not reach where he was standing, only outlining a silhouette.

The barrage was still flooding the screen.

[Holy crap, there really was a hidden plot point here!]

[Is it just me or does this NPC gege 2 look kind of handsome? I can tell from just his back that he's definitely the handsome type.]

[What kind of luck is this...]

[Didn't they say they didn't rent this place? Why are you all assuming he's an NPC?]

The commentator was also very confused. After inquiring about the situation, he then clarified.

"This is indeed not one of the studios we rented, we also did not arrange any staff members over here."

On the other side.

The blue team members and Gu Qingchi were both entirely unaware.

The live stream camera automatically found the ideal filming angle.

Gu Qingchi slowly walked into the light, paused, and put the vodka on the round table. Then, he looked up at them.

"Are we shooting now?"

He just drank alcohol, so his voice was a bit hoarse, seeming as though it carried electricity. As soon as you heard it, it felt as though an electric current was shooting up your spine, numbing.

For a moment, the comment barrage stopped entirely.

Then, the comment barrage burst, frantically covering the entire screen!

[This I can get behind!]

[Fuck, fuck, this face and this figure, ah I'm gonna die!]

[I want every bit of information about this guy within one minute! I beg you, humbly waiting online!]

[He needs to debut right now, on the spot.]

[I always thought that wearing that many rings and necklaces was super tacky. I was wrong. These sorts of things were meant for adding beauty, the more the better. (Not really)]

[Screen record screen record! Sisters, hurry up!]

[Get every single shot of him for me! Focus on him, don't move away for a second!]

The four members of the blue team were stunned by the impact of his beauty. It was only after they heard Gu Qingchi speak that they came back to their senses.

The captain of the blue team heard his question and began connecting the dots. His assigned role in the game was that of a photographer.

"Y-yeah, I'm the photographer."

Gu Qingchi was modeling for the first time. He didn't know what the process was, so he just watched them calmly.

The blue team wholeheartedly thought that they had triggered the game's plot and carefully followed the script.

The captain of the blue team also had a camera prop hanging around his neck. He took it off his neck at this moment.

Gu Qingchi looked up and saw the captain of the blue team pointing the camera at him.

Although he didn't know much about modeling, Gu Qingchi at least knew that they usually used tripods as well as a lot of lights to adjust the lighting of the photos.

"You're just using this to shoot?"

The blue team felt a little embarrassed. Usually, when going through the plotline, they just did what they needed to and nothing more, but, now, they felt like this kind of person deserved better than their crude run-through of the plot.

"Yes, we'll just use this for the time being."

Footnotes:

1 Spoof of a 2019 meme of Huang Xiaoming. Here's a link to the vid! (No subs) ↩

2 Gege(哥哥) means "older brother" and is often used to refer to guys who are slightly older than you. ↩