CH 45

The autumn/winter season for Paris Fashion Week was about to begin in France, and tens of thousands of designers from all over the world were heading over with their teams.

Here were the best designers, the best models, and the most beautiful faces the world had ever seen. 

Paris Fashion Week was one of the top events in the fashion industry. It was the center of wealth and power. It represented the direction in which fashion was headed.

Several sponsors and celebrities had heard the news as well. They were scrambling to get invitations through all sorts of channels.

For celebrities, this was a chance for them to both increase their exposure and get themselves in the good graces of major brands.

Endorsement fees were an important part of a celebrity’s income, especially for those influencers. In most cases, the most important thing was for them to appear in the public eye at their top condition. 

Meanwhile, the more prominent stars were aiming higher. They want to be recognized by well-known designers so as to broaden their path forward.

However, Paris Fashion Week wasn’t like the Xilin Film Festival. There were very few invitations, and most of them were distributed to the brands. The brands were focusing all of their efforts into getting the best of the best to represent them. This would affect their sales for the next half of the year.

There were a few well-known designers who weren’t affiliated with any brand that would receive invitations.

There were also a couple of invitations reserved for those new designers who hadn’t made a name for themselves yet.

This could also be considered a unique feature of Paris Fashion Week. Every season, they would select a few new designers, and those that were selected would receive a ticket to Paris Fashion Week.

No matter how unknown or impoverished the designer was before, after Paris Fashion Week, there would be countless brands offering generous salaries in order to recruit them. They’d become an instant success.

However, more often than not, designers were usually turned away.

Right now, there was one such designer with this dilemma. He may have a little bit of talent, but, in Paris, in France, in the fashion capital of the world, he was still too mediocre. 

His wife, a shrewd and capable American woman, was very clear on this. She knew that her husband needed a bit of a shortcut.

“Laura, we can’t afford her. She walked for Valentino last season. It doesn’t really matter which model we pick. As long as they’re tall enough and know how to walk across the stage, it should be—”

Laura looked at him disapprovingly.

“I know what we need, Charlie. We need a model that nobody can say no to, no matter what they’re wearing.” 

Charlie shrugged. He was the kind of happy-go-lucky person who was fine with anything.

“Oh, I found one.”

Laura looked up and smiled.

Charlie bit into his pizza and took a look. 

“I already know we can’t afford him. Look at his face.”

Laura lowered her head and scrolled. Then, she suddenly looked up at Charlie again.

“No, no, no. Replace all the other models with him. As long as we have him, it should be enough.”

Charlie swallowed down the last bite of his pizza and leaned in. 

“Hey, he’s a foreigner. Let me see. Oh, he’s an actor. He doesn’t seem to be very famous, but China’s a little far away.”

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“There’s this photoshoot happening abroad. It’s very likely you can get into Paris Fashion Week through them.”

Since the role had fallen through, Gu Qingchi’s schedule was incredibly empty lately. Ye Li didn’t want him to have too much online hype without anything to back it up. Besides, a lot of the resources earned through hype couldn’t be used. After all, Ye Li had a clear picture about Gu Qingchi’s position. 

It was a little unbefitting for an actor to attend Paris Fashion Week.

However, since his schedule was empty, he might as well attend and earn some extra money.

Paris Fashion Week had quite the reputation, but Ye Li had seen a lot. Other newcomers may have been fooled, but he knew that this probably wouldn’t make any splashes. At the most, it would be a good learning experience.

The catwalk wasn’t that frightening either. It might be difficult to walk perfectly, but it wasn’t too hard to do a decent job. 

Gu Qingchi was very earnest. After careful consideration, he felt that he could probably do it.

After all, it’s not like he hadn’t modeled before. The last time he modeled was for a Taobao shop in a rental studio.

He’d never thought that he’d end up on a runway one day.

“Mn. I can do it.” 

“You have a flight tomorrow for Paris. You should pack your bags now. Paris Fashion Week officially starts in a couple of days, we’re short on time.”

Gu Qingchi hadn’t heard of Paris Fashion Week before. He just calmly hummed in response as always.

After hanging up the phone, the cat dashed out of the consulting room, and Gu Qingchi picked it up.

The cat buried its head into Gu Qingchi’s chest and dove into his arms. Its body heaved up and down, as if it was about to start sobbing. It looked as if it had suffered a great grievance. 

The vet, who had chased after it, was relieved to see that it hadn’t run away. He didn’t forget to give Gu Qingchi an explanation.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry. It’s just pretending, being dramatic, you know how it is. It probably just wants a treat or something.”

Xie Luyu had come with Gu Qingchi.

“Do you have work?” 

Gu Qingchi nodded. He put the cat, who was licking his chin nonstop, back onto the table. Then, he went to pick up the invoice from the veterinarian.

Xie Luyu didn’t ask anything more.

“Do you want to leave the cat at my place then? I’m pretty free the rest of this year.”

Xie Luyu pressed a hand down on the cat, which was about to jump off the table. Although this cat had a bad temper, it never bit anyone or scratched at anyone. 

He pretended to speak very casually.

“Cough. Speaking of, I noticed that it’s going to be your birthday in a couple of days.”

Gu Qingchi looked up at Xie Luyu.

“I don’t have a birthday, and I don’t celebrate my birthday.” 

This time, Xiao Ke was the one to accompany Gu Qingchi to France.

Xiao Ke had even brought a translation device with her. She was only slightly able to read and write in English. This sudden jump in difficulty made her a little nervous.

However, after they got there, she discovered that there wasn’t any need. Gu Qingchi could handle it himself.

Xiao Ke was very shrewd. She didn’t speak the language, and she had never participated in Paris Fashion Week before. However, she did a lot of prep work before coming here. She quickly discovered a problem and immediately gave Ye Li a call. 

“Ye ge, they don’t even have an invitation to attend. Should we go back?”

Ye Li was quite calm.

“What did they say about the pay?”

“If we stay, they’ll add an additional twenty percent. If we leave, they’ll only pay the deposit and travel fees.” 

“Negotiate with them. If they bring it up to fifty percent, you guys can stay. If they don’t, just leave.”

As an artist, Gu Qingchi was supposed to stay on the sidelines and wait for the results. However, since Xiao Ke didn’t know enough English, he needed to act as a translator for them.

In the end, Charlie and Laura agreed to pay an additional fifty percent.

It was just that Gu Qingchi didn’t have any experience with runways before. 

He spent all of his time practicing his runway walk. He would need to be ready for the runway in just a couple of days. Apparently, this would be a preliminary selection. Charlie had already submitted a sample of his work before this.

The official fashion show would be held after the preliminary selection. If they weren’t able to get selected, their Paris Fashion Week would end there.

As Gu Qingchi was waiting for his turn to enter, Xiao Ke kept cheering him on and gassing him up.

“Gu ge, don’t be nervous. All you have to do is walk across the stage. Just walk according to the rhythm of the music. There aren’t too many requirements. The brands all invited their brand ambassadors for Paris Fashion Week. They’re all celebrities, so they haven’t learned how to model either.” 

Gu Qingchi hummed in response. Then, he took the clothes into the changing room.

There weren’t a lot of people in the changing room. However, after Gu Qingchi changed into the clothes, he found that there weren’t quite a few people backstage.

As soon as Gu Qingchi entered, all of the models and designers started looking over at him.

No one spoke. The music from the runway could be heard clearly from backstage. The air was full of a faint sense of vigilance. 

The models were all tall and thin. Most of them were causasian. They were all from various countries across the world. At this moment, they were standing tall, full of momentum. The hostile atmosphere between them was even worse than that of the designers.

Charlie cheerfully greeted them.

Afterwards, he slowly started to realize that something wasn’t right. He coughed and awkwardly walked with Gu Qingchi over to the side.

The models at the scene were all gorgeous. Even the worst of them were still tall and possessed outstanding temperaments. A beauty meeting another beauty was like a king meeting another king. Daggers were drawn. Each and every one of them was as arrogant and proud as a swan. 

Gu Qingchi seemed to fit right in with this kind of atmosphere.

Actually, he wasn’t exactly arrogant. He just didn’t care about everyone else’s presence. He had that cold kind of temperament by nature.

For the sake of the clothing, there were a couple of chairs on site, but there weren’t very many people sitting down. Some of the designers sat down, but none of the models did.

Gu Qingchi walked in and stood in an open space to the side. 

All of the nearby models subconsciously avoided him.

Charlie followed closely behind him.

It was the autumn/winter season of Paris Fashion Week, so the theme was naturally focused on autumn and winter clothing.

Charlie’s father was German, and his mother was British. He was greatly influenced by his parents. It could be seen with just a single glance that his style was cautious, within the box. However, he was surprisingly daring when it came to details. 

His clothing had both the cautious style and tailoring of a uniform, but it also had the garishness and splendor of aristocratic clothing.

Gu Qingchi was currently wearing one such example of that uniform style clothing. It outlined the slimness of his waist in the most perfect manner.

The uniform jackets had two rows of decorative buttons. The buttons ran all the way up his neck. They blocked most of his collarbone, but there was a tiny patch that was slightly exposed.

There was also a decorative badge pinned upon his chest. 

A cape hung from his right shoulder. It only covered his right shoulder. Then, it extended down to his back, cutting off just below the ribs.

There were several loops of thick, gold trimming laced along the sleeves, as well as two pairs of beautiful cufflinks.

He was also wearing a black glove on his left hand.

The belt was brown. It was a wide belt with solid metal buckles on the front. 

As for his lower body, he was just wearing a regular pair of pants. However, he was wearing a tall pair of boots on his feet. They were made of leather and came with a bit of a heel. The boots made a very particular sound whenever he walked across the floor.

His calves were beautifully outlined by the boots. The pants were tucked into the boots, naturally forming creases.

He was wearing a military-style hat on his head. However, the place where the insignia was supposed to be was instead a logo that Charlie had designed himself.

In order to match the outfit, Gu Qingchi had gotten his hair cut. Now, there were only a few loose hairs peeking out from beneath the hat, reaching down to his neck. 

He was standing tall, as sharp as an unsheathed blade. Everyone subconsciously avoided his gaze.

It was as if a young and promising military officer was actually standing before them.

The other models and designers, either intentionally or otherwise, turned their attention to Gu Qingchi.

However, Gu Qingchi turned a blind eye to it all. He stood behind his designer. Gu Qingchi was a bit taller than Charlie, so, every now and then, he’d bend over and listen to Charlie’s murmured exhortations, responding once or twice.