One Useless Rebirth

Chapter 6: Notebook Paper

One ugly ass dog.

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Jiang Xiuwen took a look at that face that was so handsome that it made people of the same sex jealous, and people of the opposite sex obsessed. He sourly made a noise of disapproval, and couldn’t help but to use his legs to kick him again. He suggested unkindly, “You can try sunbathing, making your skin a bit more rough, and then moving bricks in construction to get some muscles. As for your hair, you can just shave it all off. If you do all of these things, I promise that you’ll look like you’ve lived through hard times, and look more like a rough and tough manly man, never to look young and handsome again.”

This idea couldn’t be more off the mark. Di Qiuhe rolled his eyes at him, avoided the leg that he tried to use to kick him, raised his long legs, and deliberately put them down on the tea table in between the sofas. He lay on the sofa like he had no bones at all, lifted his cell phone, and sneered, “If just doing this would let Uncle Jiang agree, then I would have done it sooner.” What Uncle Jiang wanted was a feeling, not the appearance, and he already made the decision of putting the script on the backburner if he couldn’t find a suitable actor. This kind of attitude that put quality over anything else really let people have headaches, but was also something that was worthy of respect.

A good movie needed a good director, a good script, good actors, a good team, and a good attitude. When he read the first draft of this script in Uncle Jiang’s hands, he was immediately blown away. With the premise of having a good script, Uncle Jiang would definitely put together everything that was needed to make sure the good script was utilized to its full potential.

He was now blocked by Huangdu, and his jobs were stopping one after the other. In not even half a year, he would completely disappear from the public eye. Besides his true love fans, there would be nobody else paying attention to this new actor who popularity was so fleeting.

On this point, he really had to admire that woman Qin Li, because she chose one of the most smart, and most simple ways to let him slowly, but surely, lose everything that he had worked hard to achieve.

Letting warm water slowly become cold was a lot more effective than putting ice in boiling water to force it to lower its temperature. If an actor lost his exposure, and missed the golden age for development, the result would be exactly the way you imagined it to be.

Jiang Xiuwen looked at his lazy appearance, and knew that his mood started to become bad again. Thinking about his current situation, he sat up and said worriedly, “That stepmother of yours blocked you in the industry, and is even holding your contract. Your father’s being swayed again by her pillowtalk, so what are you planning on doing? Even if you manage to persuade my dad, your contract is still with Huangdu. That stepmother of yours won’t let you easily jump to my dad’s boat.”

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The background picture on his phone was of a foolish looking handsome student’s ID. He using his hands to poke the dimple on the other person’s face, raised the corners of his mouth in a not so obvious manner, and said indifferently, “If Uncle Jiang decides to use me, then I naturally have a way to make that contract useless, and even let that woman suffer a loss.”

Jiang Xiuwen saw that he said everything with everything in mind, knew that he had his own ideas on how to handle everything, and put down the worries in his heart. He leaned back into the sofa, and went back to his not-so-serious appearance from before, asking, “Then what if my dad isn’t willing to use you no matter what? Are you really going to let your stepmother block you for five, ten years?”

“Two years, at the most.” He put down his cell phone, squinted at the delicate ceiling over his head, and said casually, “Half a year. I can still spend half a year trying to convince Uncle Jiang. If after half a year, it’s still not possible, then Lin Mo still has a TV drama waiting for me.”

“Lin Mo?” Jiang Xiuwen was stunned for a moment, before stretching out his legs to kick his feet that were resting on the tea table, annoyed. “Leave leave leave. I just wasted my worries on you. I even used my thick skin to try and help you say good things in front of my father, and here you are with such a big escape route. Why don’t you just ascend to heaven already? Looking at you makes me annoyed. Quickly leave, quickly leave.”

Di Qiuhe took back his legs, turned over, and faced his back at him. He opened his phone again, opened the campus network, and pressed again and again impatiently.

How come the transaction still doesn’t have a response? That little “pup”arazzi, did he not appreciate the fact that he helped him earn ten yuan? Does he know how hard it is to earn ten bucks? He really doesn’t understand human suffering, huh!

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He Bai sneezed three times in a row, before finally finding two photographs of Di Qiuhe, that were taken on the street, that he was satisfied with.

After being accustomed to shooting scenery, sure enough, he preferred these photographs of people blending in harmoniously with the surrounding landscape. Not to mention, the photographs of Di Qiuhe taken on the street were even more casual and natural, looking even more realistic than his photo shoots and stills, making it a lot easier for him to edit.

His mind flashed through the image of the other person falling from the building, and he quickly sat up straight, taking out his cell phone to open the picture of Di Qiuhe that his Professor had praised. He took two hard glances, and then recalled the feeling that he had when he was taking the picture of the bus driver, while gripping at the mouse again.

People’s emotions can be expressed through action, expression, language, and so on and so forth, whereas a person’s personality was more like being made up of a variety of different emotions pieced together. A person’s character could speak more about their soul. When you discover the charm in another person’s personality, you would naturally discover the shining points hidden within their soul. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, if a photograph could show the unique and attractive parts of someone’s personality capturing that person’s actions or expressions through pictures, then that photograph would be considered successful, and to have a soul.

He took a long time to ponder over this question. In the two pictures that Professor Xu had complimented, both the emotions expressed through Di Qiuhe’s actions, as well as the emotions expressed by that of the bus driver’s actions, shared similarities. Even though he was still a little confused as to what the emotions that Di Qiuhe was trying to show through his actions were, he still felt like he had a better understanding of how to take good photographs of people.

And editing portraits was different from taking portraits. When he was editing a picture, the actions and expressions of the main character were set in stone. He couldn’t change any of these things, so why couldn’t he simply just regard the person in the picture as a part of the landscape, and use that part to enhance the beauty of the picture as a whole?

With a clear train of thought, doing things naturally took half the effort.

He chose street photographs- one of Di Qiuhe’s side profile, and one of Di Qiuhe’s face close-up; one that used actions to express emotions, and one that used expressions to show emotions, just right for him to put what he just learned into practice.

He imported the photos into the software, zoomed in, edited some obvious flaws first, and then took a moment to stare at Di Qiuhe’s handsome face for a while, recalling that day when he had a conversation with him in a small alleyway, and moved the mouse.

This person... was full of contradictions- a contradiction between his facial expression and his eyes, a contradiction between his actions and the personality that he projected through the way he spoke, and a contradiction between his outward appearance and his soul. And what he had to do now, was to emphasize these contradictions.

When a gentle person was dyed with other colors, that kind of impact would definitely be exciting.

Li Ru basically looked at He Bai’s edited portraits in amazement, not wanting to move away her eyes, with her gaze glued to the screen.

“You...” She was once again at a loss for words.

“This is the most I can do.” He Bai saw that she didn’t speak, thought that she wasn’t satisfied, and like a actual twenty year old young man, said nervously, and with a little embarrassment, “Sister Li, I tried my best already. If you’re still not satisfied, then I...”

“No! I’m very satisfied!” Li Ru interrupted him, and finally tore her eyes away from the photograph. She looked at him with a complicated gaze, took a shallow breath, and held out a hand to him with a smile, “You’re too modest. The level of your editing on portraits is comparable to that of your editing on landscape photos. They’re both really good! He Bai, welcome to Saint Elephant.”

Comparable? The fact that she gave such a high evaluation was a little unexpected.

He Bai squeezed out the dimple on his left cheek, shook her hand, and said, “Thank you Sister Li. Actually, I kind of have a little request...”

“What kind of request? Just say it, and as long as it doesn’t violate any company regulations, I can help you fight for it.” Li Ru was always easy to talk with when it came to talented people, and she had a very good impression of He Bai. Intuition told her that this person wouldn’t open his mouth to ask for crazy conditions just because he was a little talented.

He Bai smiled at her ingratiatingly, saying a little shyly, “Well you see, I’m still a student right now. From Monday to Friday, I have classes. I don’t have time to stay at the company all the time, so I hope that I can take my work home with me...”

It was actually such a simple request. Li Ru couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and intimately patted him on the shoulder, saying, “We were recruiting a part-timer. We weren’t asking for punctuality and punching in. As long as you can finish the work we give you on time, it doesn’t matter where you edit the pictures. Of course, it’s better if you come in on the weekends when you have time. The company has employee benefits, so remember to come and take advantage of them.”

He Bai nodded happily, thanking Li Ru incessantly, making the smile on her face never stop. Then, he read the atmosphere, asked to leave first, and asked for the two portraits that he had edited before leaving. He wanted to bring them to Professor Xu to look at, and to research a little his new approach in taking pictures of people.

Happily coming out of Saint Elephant, seeing that it wasn’t early anymore, he found the nearest noodle shop to fill his stomach. Then, he strolled out onto the street to head for the closest bus stop.

“Little ‘pup’arazzi.”

He took out his phone, looking at the two edited portraits back and forth. His hands began to itch, and he took out his camera from his camera bag, put his phone back into his pocket, stopped, held the camera in front of his eyes, and aimed his camera lens at a little girl walking her dog. Seeing how the other party cutely squatted down to pet the little doggy, the corners of his mouth turned up, and his finger reached for the shutter.

“Little ‘pup’arazzi.”

A tall and slender figure suddenly appeared two steps in front of him, arrogantly taking up the shot in his camera lens.

Ka-cha.

He Bai’s hands tightened, he took a deep breath, and put down the camera. Looking at Di Qiuhe standing in front of him, he smiled without it reaching his eyes, “What a coincidence, huh, Mr. Film Emperor. I just so happened to want to take a picture of a dog, and then you appeared.”

“Pu.” Sitting in the driver’s seat in a black car two meters away, Jiang Xiuwen couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Di Qiuhe’s habitual gentle smile stiffened for a moment, before unhappily putting the ID card in his hand back in his pocket. He pushed down the baseball cap on his head, and asked indifferently, “Why are you here?”

He Bai had stared at his picture for the better half of an afternoon. He already didn’t want to look at this face of his anymore. So, he moved his eyes away, and answered, “I’m here to find a part-time job. Many thanks to Mr. Film Emperor for your concern. Sorry, but I have to go back to school now. If we’re fated, let’s meet again.” After saying this, he lifted his feet and left, in a very heartless manner.

Di Qiuhe’s heart skipped a beat, and he raised his legs to chase after him. Barely maintaining his aloof and cool image as a Film Emperor, he used a low voice and a flirtatious tone to say, “Little “pup”arazzi. Last time, you read my fortune from my face. There were some parts that I didn’t quite understand. I wanted to discuss it with you again.”

He Bai stopped in his steps, took out a notebook from his camera bag, found a pen, and randomly drew a seal. Then, he tore out that page of notebook paper to solemnly stuff it into Di Qiuhe’s hands. He said seriously, “You’ve recently offended a bad person. You shouldn’t leave the house. This is for you- it can help you avoid one disaster. Farewell.” After saying this, he stepped back, turned around, and quickly ran onto the bus that had stopped a couple of steps away, mixed in with the group of other boarding passengers, and disappeared.

Di Qiuhe’s watched the bus drive away with eyes wide open in disbelief. His brows twisted and twitched. He looked down at the pink notebook paper in his hands, saw the ugly ass dog that was drawn on it, and couldn’t help but grind his teeth in frustration.

“He, Bai.”