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Home/ The Selfish Gene/ Chapter 18

The agreed shooting time was ten o’clock in the morning, but since I didn’t get up, I had to let Cai Congcong take people there first, while I planned to go later.

It was already one o’clock in the afternoon when I drove to Hezi Fashion. As soon as I was led inside the studio by the receptionist, a middle-aged woman in white with shoulder-length hair walked over from afar with several subordinates accompanying her.

“Aunt Xin.” I slightly nodded at the other party.

“Xiao Nian, long time no see. It’s been, what, two years since we last met? Time really flies so fast.” Aunt Xin smiled as she patted me on the shoulder, and took me into the studio together.

In the middle of the shooting, Cai Congcong stood outside with his arms crossed, staring intently at the male model in front of the background. His expression was between serious and relaxed, as if his nerves were tense at all times.

Seeing us coming, he immediately lowered his arms and walked towards us.

“Mr. Sang, Ms. Xin.” He reported the progress to us, “The filming is going well, and it should be finished before six o’clock today.”

“It’s good if everything is going well. It’s still your Alia’s model. After so many years, I have never been disappointed, and I hope we can continue to cooperate in the future.” Xin Hezi waved back, and a young woman in her thirties slowly walked out from behind her. Her hair was tied in a bun and she wore an all-black outfit, with a reluctant expression on her face.

“This is our chief designer for men’s clothing, Han Ru, who is very young and promising.” Xin Hezi introduced her to us with a smile.

“Hello.” The corners of her lips rose up in a somewhat pretentious manner, then quickly fell down.

After a brief greeting, she silently stepped back, and stared at the male model who was posing skillfully in various poses in front of the camera with her arms crossed.

“Don’t pay attention to her, she’s just like that. She really liked the model before, that’s why she’s like this after she found out that the model was replaced.” Xin Hezi sighed and explained, “It’s because she’s angry with me, it has nothing to do with you.”

After only staying for five or six minutes, she took Han Ru with herself and left as there was an important meeting to be held. Before leaving, she told us not to leave after the shooting, saying that she will treat us to dinner tonight.

“There’s no need……”

“It’s settled then. Don’t be polite to me.” Without waiting for me to refuse, she turned around and left as if the matter had been finalised, without giving me a choice at all.

If it was someone else, I could just leave without giving any face to the other party, but it happened to be Zheng Jieyuan’s mother, who is also an elder, so it wouldn’t look too good to do so.

Fuck, why did Ji Chenfeng took a break today? Any other day would’ve been fine. I took a deep breath and tried to suppress the restlessness in my heart.

I just came here to show my face while Cai Congcong was the one who kept an eye on the progress of the shooting. So all I needed to do was sit in the corner lounge of the studio, and read magazines while drinking coffee.

This lounge was also a dressing room, made of fully transparent glass, located in a huge studio. It was equipped with a high-end coffee machine and a three layer snack stand.

Flipping through the magazine, I happened to see an interview of Lu Sui.

He made his debut when he was 18, walked the runway in Paris at the age of 20, and now at 22, he is already on the cover of one of the top four US magazines. His ranking has been steadily progressing, and maybe in a few years, he might be able to become the new darling of the fashion circle.

I seem to have heard Xu Xi say before that this guy is a double-faced person, who pretends to be sunny and cheerful in front of others.

Moreover, he also looks down on the staff around him and treats them as inferior, let alone being cheerful and sunny, don’t even expect a polite look from him. It is also said that he has already found a new home and is considering terminating the contract, so recently even Xu Xi has been acting a bit inconspicuous, making it difficult to make a move.

【Is your work going well?】

Staring at the words “Ji Chenfeng” that popped up on the screen, I didn’t click on the app, and directly put the phone aside.

Originally, I wanted to meet him and have dinner together, but now should I bring him to this work dinner party? Who is he? Wouldn’t people ask about him? That would be too strange. What’s more, Cai Congcong and the others are also here. What if they talk too much with Xu Xi later?

And even if Cai Congcong doesn’t talk too much, it wouldn’t be a good thing for me to let Ji Chenfeng mix too deep into my circle. He doesn’t need to know who my family and friends are, just like a pet dog who never needs to know what its owner is doing when he goes out everyday.

Thinking about telling Ji Chenfeng about cancelling the dinner later, I didn’t look at the phone anymore, and flipped through the magazines on the shelf one by one. I even ended up going to the toilet several times because I had drank too much coffee.

“I said it’s not of my size!”

As soon as I returned to the dressing room, I heard Lu Sui losing his temper. The staff responsible for changing clothes was a young designer assistant, who was holding a shirt in his hand, looking at a loss, while Cai Congcong was standing beside him with a black face, looking like he wanted to put the shirt on Lu Sui’s head and hang him to death.

“It’s really not of your size. It was prepared according to Ah Ji’s size before. They must have changed it in a hurry and may have missed this one. The photographer wouldn’t need to take pictures of the back, so they must’ve removed the thread on the back of the clothes, and sewed it again so that it won’t be visible.” Cai Congcong persuaded earnestly.

“Then why do we have to use this one? Let them change it.” Lu Sui glanced at the clothes in the assistant’s hand with disgust, and remained motionless. “Anyway, I won’t take pictures in these clothes.”

Wiping my hands, I slowly entered the lounge.

“What’s going on?”

Cai Congcong quickly walked up to me as if seen a saviour, and explained the current predicament in a low voice.

The brands shoot their advertising campaigns for the two quarters in advance. So of course, it is impossible to mass-produce clothes at this time, so most of the models wear hand-sewn samples. The model previously chosen by Hezi Fashion was Ah Ji, who was not as tall as Lu Sui, nor did he have the same size as Lu Sui. So after replacing the model, people here worked overtime to change the size to Lu Sui’s, but there may have been some issue, causing one of the clothes to be missed. Now Lu Sui found out that he couldn’t put on these clothes, so he insisted on changing his look, and refused to continue shooting no matter what.

“You all go out.” I stuffed the wet tissue into Cai Congcong’s hands and grabbed the shirt from the little assistant, standing in front of Lu Sui instead of him.

The two of them left the lounge one after another, and instead of watching outside, they walked towards the photographer not far away, presumably to negotiate and appease him.

“Mr. Sang…” Lu Sui’s attitude towards me was still obedient and not too domineering, “I’m really not being unreasonable here, I have already completed the previous shoots well, and you can see it here. I just don’t want to wear clothes that don’t fit me. Let them change to another sample. I am a standard size and should be able to wear other samples.”

“The main look is not something you can change whenever you want. If you don’t wear it, it will cause trouble for many people.” I handed the clothes to him and tried to persuade, “Be good, put on the clothes.”

Lu Sui frowned and didn’t take the clothes in my hand, but still refused to cooperate: “This problem is obviously caused by them, then why should I have to compromise? I’m not short of work.”

Then why does Alia have to pay for your willfulness again? Is it alright for the model to ask Party A to change the main look of their advertising campaign?

My meagre patience was exhausted in just two sentences, and I ordered him with emphasis: “I’ll say it again, put on your clothes.”

Sometimes, the dispute is a process where the other party’s attitude changes according to your own. So, as my attitude became bad, Lu Sui’s stubborn temper also came up. He grabbed the shirt from my hand and threw it on the ground, spitting a single word with no expression on his face.

“NO!”

Previously, it was always me who threw things at people, or women threw things at me. But this is the first time in my life that a man has dared to throw things at me.

If it wasn’t for this damn advertisement, I’d be having dinner with Ji Chenfeng right now, instead of standing here arguing with a bastard about whether to wear clothes or not. With my plan being disrupted again and again, and after repeating a simple command over and over like a kindergarten teacher, I was almost about to blow up.

In just three seconds, I decided not to reason with him anymore. The efficiency of reasoning is too slow.

So I grabbed Lu Sui’s cheeks and leaned down in front of him, saying in a soft voice that was completely different from my previous tone: “You know that even if I slam your head into the mirror right now, nothing will happen, huh? There is no surveillance here, and there are no witnesses either. I will tell everyone that you accidentally tripped over, and no one will accuse me except you.”

Lu Sui’s eyes widened in disbelief, and his cheeks deformed due to the force of my fingertips, making him look even more stupid.

Looking at his silly look, I laughed a little and pinched his cheek, saying: “If this important face of yours gets ruined, what would you do then, huh? I’m not Xu Xi, she can tolerate you saying ‘NO’, but I won’t.”

I let go of his face, and opened his shirt with my index finger, “Now, pick up the fucking clothes from the ground for me, and let the assistant change your clothes. Don’t act like a monster, don’t say stupid things, and finish the job obediently. After this, you can do whatever the fuck you want for all I care.”

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of someone outside the lounge, causing me to stop my voice and look over there. The receptionist looked at me in the lounge with some embarrassment, while Ji Chenfeng beside her just looked at me without any expression on his face. The two stood side by side outside the door, unsure of when they came or how long they had been watching for.

Fuck, I forgot to send the message. But now it’s not even five o’clock, and it’s obviously not the agreed time, so why are you already here?

I let go of my grip on Lu Sui as if I got an electric shock, and when I straightened up to chase after Ji Chenfeng, he had already turned around and walked out.

How can I be so unlucky? Why did he happen to see me like this? What a fucking coincidence! Since we have already agreed on a time, you should abide by it, and don’t just show up at people’s workplace indiscriminately.

Ji Chenfeng took big strides and walked quickly. I barely managed to catch up with him, and as soon as I grabbed his hand, he reacted violently and pushed me away.

“Sorry, I came at a bad time.” He raised his hand which I had just grabbed and rubbed it vigorously with his other hand, as if wanting to get rid of the touch I left on it as soon as possible.

This guy… could it be that he thinks I’m dirty?

“It’s not what it looks like.” I quickly took a few steps and stopped in front of him.

Ji Chenfeng stopped, his expression was very calm, neither angry nor reluctant to be played with.

“I didn’t see anything.” He was even very polite, “If you’re busy right now, let’s just cancel today’s dinner and make an appointment for the next time.”

Any fool would know that I can’t just let him go like this. There won’t be a “next time” because he will definitely put me on the blacklist after this. I used to be very good at using this trick to coax others.

There happened to be a men’s restroom right next to us, and there were no other departments on the first floor, only the reception desk and a studio were set up, and the frequency of toilet use wasn’t high. So I directly pushed Ji Chenfeng inside, and then locked the door behind me.

“If you saw it then you saw it, why pretend otherwise? You just don’t believe me and think I’m a casual playboy.” I pushed him against the door and propped my hands on his sides.

He leaned against the door and calmly asked, “Aren’t you?”

I am indeed. But how could I just admit it in front of him?

“I did have a few girlfriends before, but to other men…” Those words weighed like a thousand pounds on me, I took a deep breath, before saying through my gritted teeth, “No. You should be able to feel it, don’t you? I’ve never been intimate with a man.”

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