CH 23

After a little bit of effort, the studio looked completely different from before. All of the old props in the studio were pushed into a corner.

In its place were all kinds of unbelievable new props. There was even an expensive supercar. 

Large and complex sets were laid out with unbelievable speed.

Various lights and complex equipment were carefully put in place.

The entire studio looked as if it had been renovated. It instantly seemed much more upscale.

However, the most eye-catching existence in the room was still Gu Qingchi. He stood before the flash of the camera. Around seven or eight people, including the photographer, were all revolving around him. 

The make-up artist was prepped and ready at all times. Assistant Xiao Ke took care of Gu Qingchi’s drinks and clothes.

The studio’s dressing room was far too shabby.

They had arranged a temporary dressing room next to it. However, even though it was a temporarily built dressing room, it still looked very polished.

Everyone in the studio was working on their own thing in an orderly fashion.

The baseball cap guy and his group felt as if they had suddenly crashed into another world. They awkwardly stood there, looking rather out of place.

As soon as Ye Li spoke up, the female model’s expression became unsightly. She spoke with great difficulty.

“T-thank you for the reminder. Maybe…maybe I didn’t look through it carefully enough. But am I the only one who thinks it’s a little weird for one of Starlight’s agents to bring a professional model to a small studio for startups?”

Although the female model was still being stubborn, her voice was clearly lacking in confidence. 

The baseball cap guy pressed the bill of his hat down and moved to pull the female model back, but she avoided his hand. She stared at Ye Li as if she would not leave without getting an answer.

Ye Li sneered. From beginning to end, he hadn’t given them a single glance. He was focused solely on Gu Qingchi.

He put both hands in the pockets of his pants. The bright flashes of the camera were reflected in his eyes.

He spoke leisurely. 

“Ma’am, I don’t have a problem with any of the people here, and I don’t really care about whether you guys are just starting out or not. As for our business, it has nothing to do with you. We’ve acted in accordance with our contract and have respected the time stipulated by it.”

Ye Li felt that this exchange was entirely vapid. It was a waste of time, completely meaningless.

“As for you, feel free to think whatever you want. No one cares about whether you think it’s strange or not, but you’ve already exceeded the time allotted to you by eighteen minutes. Please leave as soon as possible, and don’t interfere with our work.”

After he finished speaking, Ye Li walked over to Gu Qingchi. He leaned against the car next to him, put his hands in his pockets, and supervised Gu Qingchi’s photoshoot. 

Xiao Ke ran up next to him and gave him a meaningful glance.

“Ye ge, they’ve left.”

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Xiao Ke stuck out her tongue and ran off with a pile of clothes in her arms.

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After Gu Qingchi absentmindedly took a few gulps of water, she would back up and hand him over to a crowd of staff members. 

Xiao Ke herself would go chat with the makeup artist nearby.

The advertisement was published very quickly. After a few days, many subway billboards were quietly switched out with pictures of Gu Qingchi.

One girl noticed the change.

“Hey, the billboard’s changed again. Look, who is that?” 

Her friend was busy sipping on her milk tea. She muttered as she raised her head.

“What’s so interesting about a bill—”

Her voice instantly came to a stop.

“Fuck, I’m falling in love.” 

The friend gave her a playful push.

“Hmph, I told you to take a look. Do you know who he is?”

“I don’t know. If I’d seen him before, I definitely wouldn’t forget.”

She stared at the ad for a long time and read out the text word by word. 

“X Company’s YZT clothing line. Hey, I want to buy a set of what he’s wearing for my boyfriend. What do you think?”

Without waiting for her friend to respond, she shook her head herself.

“Nah, that fatty wouldn’t be able to pull it off.”

Her friend laughed. 

“How is your boyfriend fat? Forget it, I’m going to buy a set for myself. Originally, I was just gonna get it in a smaller size, but I just saw that the official website has a version of the same outfit for women.”

“Dang, why are your hands so fast. Wait, buy me a set!”

Similar occurrences were happening everywhere.

The number of advertisements wasn’t much, but the response was very good. The results showed in the clothing line’s unceasing rise in sales. 

Although this clothing line had a good reputation, the sales had stayed stagnant because the design was too avant-garde, too bold.

Basically, it was only people who were interested in fashion and trends who would try it out, but these kinds of people were small in number and couldn’t bring in lots in sales.

But Gu Qingchi’s appearance was able to break this deadlock.

There wasn’t any complicated reason behind it. It was just that he was simply that good-looking. 

Gu Qingchi was still a trainee at Starlight Entertainment, and most people didn’t even know who Gu Qingchi was—

But it didn’t matter. Good looks got the job done and consumers bought into it.

***

Xie Luyu was very free. Xie Luyu was very, very idle. 

His next movie was expected to start filming in about half a year, but, as for right now, he didn’t have anything scheduled.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have resources. On the contrary, Pan Xiaocheng received more offers than he knew what to do with.

Xie Luyu could pretty much have his pick of any project in the country.

But other than Director Lu’s movie scheduled for half a year later, Xie Luyu didn’t look at a single one of them. 

Xie Luyu was indeed very picky. He’d always been picky before, but he had still been quite productive. He pretty much never had any free time.

Now, it seemed like he was going to start his retirement life ahead of schedule. He had even told Pan Xiaocheng that he planned on cashing in all of the annual leave that he hadn’t used before.

Pan Xiaocheng didn’t have a problem with him taking a break. He was actually very supportive.

However, his support seemed to disintegrate more and more every time he was with Xie Luyu for longer than a day. 

Some things, they just shouldn’t be released into the world.

Right after the rural tourism variety show, Pan Xiaocheng indulged Xie Luyu for a couple of days before he started to find him super annoying.

“I’m begging you, pick up another role or something. You can even participate in another variety show, literally anything will do.”

Xie Luyu rarely participated in variety shows. Since his debut, including the rural tourism variety show, he had only participated in a total of three variety shows. Basically, he was just like a passerby on these shows. 

Xie Luyu himself didn’t really mind variety shows, but Pan Xiaocheng didn’t let Xie Luyu participate in too many variety shows before.

His main career path was still that of an actor, not an influencer or comedian or something like that. It wasn’t very good for him, as an actor, to have too much exposure outside of his roles. If Xie Luyu was referred to as “that variety show’s Xie Luyu” and not “that movie’s Xie Luyu” or “that drama’s Xie Luyu”, then it would be rather awkward for him.

But now that his position in the industry was stabilized, Pan Xiaocheng stopped caring so much about these little things.

He just needed something to occupy Xie Luyu for a little while. 

Xie Luyu sighed.

“I ran into a problem and wanted to complain to someone. Can’t you be a little more understanding?”

Pan Xiaocheng’s hands trembled with anger. He sputtered for a long time but, in the end, said nothing.

He had been complaining to Pan Xiaocheng for three whole hours already. 

Xie Luyu, on the other hand, was very calm. He had purposely kept all the details of his story vague.

Xiao Gu had a lot of predestined affinity with him. If you think about, this was almost the same as getting married.

Xiao Gu didn’t like him. If you think about it, this was almost the same as getting married and then wanting to get a divorce.

Xie Luyu felt that he shouldn’t have to bear such important life events by himself. 

Pan Xiaocheng’s frame of mind went from okay, I’ll listen to some gossip—this gossip is a little slow—why is he saying so much nonsense—what the hell is he on now—if you keep blabbering, I’m gonna kill you and me both. As Pan Xiaocheng went through each stage of emotions, his mentality became more and more unstable.

“I want to be understanding, so why don’t you speak clearly, huh?! What exactly is going on? You’ve been talking for three hours, and I still don’t have a clue about what’s going on! Do you even have a conscious?”

Xie Luyu was as steady as an old dog.

“We have to respect the privacy of others.” 

Pan Xiaocheng’s face twitched. If it’s so private, then why have you been talking for three hours?!

Xie Luyu casually selected a script from Pan Xiaocheng’s desk without even looking at it. All of the scripts here had already been filtered through by Pan Xiaocheng. Any scripts that weren’t up to par wouldn’t show up here.

“I actually came here this time to pick up a script. Complaining was secondary. I just didn’t expect you to be so enthusiastic.”

Xie Luyu took the script from the desk and placed it in front of Pan Xiaocheng. He said he’d pick up a script without even giving it a second glance. 

“I’ll take this one then.”

Translator’s Note:

Man, if only he knew.