NOVEL NEXT Di Qiuhe gave a tender smile to He Bai and gazed at him with hands supporting the chin. Through Di’s eyes, He Bai could see that he was tipsy, but also seductive.
He Bai thought that he needed to jump into the water again to calm himself down.
After the meal, it had already been dark. Niu Junjie was a cheap drunk, so he had succumbed to it and fallen on the table. Di Qiuhe on the other hand was also slightly drunk and dizzy. He Bai had tried to stop them from drinking too much but failed, so he was a little bit mad now. He called for the servants to carry Niu Junjie into house, and crossed his arms over his chest, watching Di Qiuhe rising from the chair wobblingly and then falling on the ground.
“…”
“My little puppy…” The drunk guy on the ground moved a little and stretched his hand, “Bai, sorry…I love you…”
He Bai was baffled and pulled him up with a clouded face, patting his forehead, “I must have been owed to you in my previous birth. Where there was you, there was ill luck. You will hassle yourself to death sooner or later!”
Di Qiuhe said something vaguely, with his body clinging to He Bai limply, rubbing against his face.
He Bai pushed him away with dislike. When uncle Hu came, He Bai beckoned him over to help him.
With a click, the room door was shut.
Di Qiuhe, who seemed drunk and delirious just a second ago, woke up consciously now. He gave a look at the closed door, and then covered his eyes with hand. After a long sigh, he wrapped the quilt around himself unpleasantly.
When he got up in the next morning, He Bai had already left for work. Niu Junjie invited him to stay but he refused politely and went home. After shower, he changed clothes and called his assistant, Wang. Then, he went to the Red Guest Studio directly.
Frowned, Jiang Xiuwen looked his corpse-like friend lying on the sofa, asking madly, “You told me that you would be pretty occupied when you returned this time, but why do you lie on my sofa like a corpse now?”
Di Qiuhe turned around and watched him, asking in a weak voice, “Xiuwen…am I really lame?”
“You finally realize that you are annoying and bothersome?”, Jiang Xiuwen answered with a surprising face. Then he looked at him mildly, nodding, “True indeed, you’ve got a terrible temperament, but since you are aware of it, you can still make it up. Don’t worry, take some medicine and you will get you chance to be normal.”
Di Qiuhe snorted in the blues and turned his back to him.
It was strange that he should have not rebutted, so Jiang Xiuwen jabbed at him and asked: “What’s wrong? You seemed upset…Your stepmother troubled you again?”
“No.” Di Qiuhe shook his hand and buried himself in the pillow, “Just wait.”
“For what?”
“You’ll see.” Di Qiuhe raised his hand and pointed out of the window, “Today, Saint Elephant Studio will be quite noisy, as Mr. Jia will come to confront them.”
Jiang Xiuwen was confused at first, but then he was quite thrilled, “Confront? By Mr. Jia? That’s an evil day for Saint Elephant, isn’t it?” No wonder he was so excited. As door-to-door competitors, the unluckier the Saint Elephant was, the happier he was.
By the afternoon, two low key SUVs parked at the entrance of Saint Elephant. As the car doors opened, an elder man and five or six middle-aged men got off.
“Here he is. His two sons, sons-in-law and an apprentice also comes. That’s a big troop.”
“Jiang Xiuwen watched through the window, full of curiosity, “How had Saint Elephant offended him? Mr. Jia is noted for his good temper.”
“But also noted for shielding his children.” Di Qiuhe picked up, leaning against the arm of sofa and watching outside, “They deserve it. Saint Elephant should have allowed an amateur to take birthday photos for his granddaughter. The birthday party is on the day after tomorrow, how can Mr. Jia not be angry after seeing such awful photos?” Jiang Xiuwen gave an ill-mannered laugh, “That’s insane. Mr. Jia has been devoted his life to photos. Who could be more particular than him about photos? Saint Elephant should have messed with his granddaughter like that.”
“Isn’t it just?” Di Qiuhe responded emotionlessly, with hand reaching into the pocket and fumbling coins. He saw the manager of Saint Elephant hastily ushering Mr. Jia and others in, and then looked away, asserting: “The boss of Saint Elephant was very shortsighted and favored ‘jobs for the boys’. He will mess it up sooner or later.”
Jiang Xiuwen was a little bit suspicious about that, “But I remembered that Saint Elephant hired a quite responsible director, who has charged everything. Could she allow the boss to do those stupid things?”
“That director has been suspended.” Before he came back, Di Qiuhe had had this thing figured out. Since Jiang Xiuwen asked now, he told him all, “The director had intended to inform Mr. Jia that the originally decided young photographer had resigned, but Saint Elephant forced her to close her mouth, or they would fire her. Without any other means, she compromised and suggested that they could send Ma Xingtong to take the photos. However, somehow the boss believed Ma Xingtong’s slanderous talk and allowed him to send his nephew, an inexperienced amateur, to take the job.”
“He might think that taking birthday photos is an easy job, which could be handled well by an amateur? Or they could resort to retouching?” Since they were all in the same line, Jiang Xiuwen could guess the calculating of Saint Elephant’s boss. This could work for an ordinary client. The worst situation was just a complaint. But when it came to Mr. Jia, it was totally ridiculous. As a professional photographer, he would have taken the photos himself if it had not been his terrible hand tremor.
“They cannot blame anyone for their own stupid faults.” Jiang Xiuwen shook his head and turned to his friend, “But how could you know those things? And, why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“You ask me?” Di Qiuhe turned around and looked at him, saying in a low voice: “Do you remember the night when you hung up on me and said you were finished with me?”
“…”
“I have to go.”
Jiang Xiuwen stopped him, “To where?”
“Hyping.”
“What?”
Di Qiuhe waved his hand and took his bag, left.
Jiang Xiuwen frowned, “He has become more mysterious during the time we haven’t met…” But who was the photographer that Mr. Jia originally set eyes on? The young photographer that had left Saint Elephant…Wait? A young man? Just resigned? That He Bai? The crazy fan of Di Qiuhe?
He turned to the window abruptly, with hand scratching the window unconsciously.
So, Di Qiuhe investigated all of this just to avenge for that fan? That was too much for him. Was there something wrong in his mind?
Di Qiuhe’s phone was off again. He Bai put down his cheap phone that was bought when he applied for another phone card. After packing up his things, he said goodbye to Niu Junjie. When he came back to dormitory, he knew that the haunting event was not real, so he was not afraid now.
Li Ru called him suddenly the next day.
“He, I have a presumptuous request.” Li Ru said in a tired and hoarse voice, “First I need to apologize to you. The day you resigned came a client, directly saying that he’d like to book you, the young photographer who had taken anniversary photos for B City TV Station, to take the job. That client was influential, so the boss wanted to wield the opportunity to promote a new photographer, so he chose another in lieu of you without informing you.”
He Bai was dumbfounded. The client that looked for him? The one that Di Qiuhe had said?
“Is this an elder man who wanted to take birthday photos for his granddaughter?” He asked hurriedly.
It threw Li Ru in surprise a little, “How do you know that? No, I don’t mean that. It’s just…Anyway, the studio should apologize to you.”
Frowned, He Bai asked straightly: “Can I interpret it as your business with that elder man is going wrong? What can I do for you?”
“Yes, it is. Ma Qun took the job this time, and Ma Xingtong directed him during the whole process. However, the photos were…After being retouched, these photos actually had reached the normal standard of Saint Elephant, but the client himself was a professional photographer, quite sensitive to retouching, so…” Li Ru herself also thought her words untenable, so her voice got lower and lower, “Now Saint Elephant hope that you can represent the studio to deliver an apology to that client and take another set of photos as compensation. The studio would like to pay you 5 times the original price.”
He Bai’s face clouded, “Above all, I don’t care about that ‘5 times the original price’; I will try to contact that elder man and compensate him with another set of photos, not in name of Saint Elephant, but myself instead. This chance was created by my friend, so I don’t want to let him down and let him be complained by this older man; at last, I understand it is Saint Elephant that sends you to talk with me. They think that, to oblige you, I will help them to take care of this awful mess. But I can give you a definite answer, I’ll not. Moreover, I will issue a statement on the Internet to clarify the fact that I have resigned from Saint Elephant. I don’t allow Saint Elephant to use my popularity that I have gained through my good luck to do something going against my own principles any more. Saint Elephant deprived my opportunity, and now they want me to deal with the aftermath. This is an absolutely unequal treaty.