Translated by: Queen Dei Mos
After entering Lu Zhengzheng’s house, Yu Lan was a little surprised.
The whole house was wide open, except for the front left corner which appears to be the bathroom. The rest of the place was used as a photo studio and right in the middle were all sorts of equipment.
There were also two other young men who looked about the same age as Yu Lan – presumably his assistants – huddled in the corner eating instant noodles.
When they saw Yu Lan who entered behind them, the two men’s eyes widened and they choked on the instant noodles they were slurping on half-way through.
“A fairy!” They said in unison with astonishment
Yu Lan, “……”
Lu Zhengzheng rushed to the side to turn down the music, and then excitedly shuffled around the studio, fiddled with the equipment, beckoned to the two young men, and talked to them about something.
While they were talking, the three kept looking back at Yu Lan, as if he was some kind of exotic animal.
Yu Lan braced himself to adapt to the three people’ fervent eyes and surveyed the rest of the corners of the room.
Fang Pingping explained, “The photos to be taken today will be the freelance work by Lu Zhengzheng.”
Yu Lan turned back to look, and carefully listened to Fang Pingping who explained the situation to him.
Nowadays, some of the major fashion magazines would often use the freelance work of photographers from time to time.
Freelance work has become one of the unique features in fashion magazines today. The theme, models, and styles were all up to the photographer, basically it was only about creativity and the magazine would choose whatever they wanted.
The position of freelance work varies from magazine to magazine, with some magazines placing it only on the cover, others on the inside, and some magazines placing it in both categories.
Fang Pingping explained relatively simple and brief, and Yu Lan also roughly understood the situation.
Fang Pingping was at a loss for words again, “Lu Zhengzheng……his performance level is rather erratic, when it sucks, it really sucks, and when it is impressive, it is very impressive. But – the reason why I still want to bring you to meet him is because he really does have skills.”
Fang Pingping looked at his good friend and quietly said, “I can feel that after being in a state of decline for so long, he is on the verge of soaring again.”
“Lu Zhengzheng spent half an hour getting everything ready, told Yu Lan to change his clothes and go over there. One of the assistants pressed Yu Lan into a chair and said, “I will help you with your make-up.”
“Okay,” Yu Lan was a little nervous about this whole unfamiliar situation, “Do I just have to sit down?”
“Yes,” the assistant smiled, “Just do what I say.”
“How exactly are you planning to shoot?” Fang Pingping asked.
Lu Zhengzheng held a pencil in his hands, gauged it at Yu Lan’s chin and beamed, “His face – this face is perfect, just this face is more than enough. This face with this pair of eyes are capable of telling more than enough stories!”
Fang Pingping was stunned and then looked at Yu Lan.
Yu Lan blankly stared back at him.
It’s true that young people have flawless features, but if the whole photo was only focused on the face, it would highlight the model as a “person”. Usually, only famous models or people take such photos.
Despite the fact that Yu Lan was good-looking, in the end, he was merely a newcomer.
Fang Pingping hesitated, “Isn’t it too risky?”
Lu Zhengzheng wasn’t under the employment of any particular magazine, so he could submit his work to any magazine he wanted – of course, he usually opted to work with a long-term partner. Lu Zhengzheng’s long-term partner was none other than the fashion magazine “B.M.” Before he arrived, Fang Pingping knew that the photos this time were also intended for “B.M.”.
Lu Zhengzheng was full of confidence, “Don’t worry, Lao Lin has been pressing me for a while now, he will definitely want the photos I took!”
When Fang Pingping thought about it, he was right. The editor-in-chief of “B.M.” magazine, Lao Lin, was very close to Lu Zhengzheng and loved his style, and as Lu Zhengzheng said, most of his photos would make it to the cover as long as they were given to “B.M”.
In that case, it was him who was worried for nothing?
Fang Pingping cheered himself up again.
He thought about it before he arrived, “B.M.” was already considered a high-end fashion magazine, if the first work of Yu Lan could directly appear on the cover of “B.M.”, it would be an instant hit.
Yu Lan listened at a loss, as Lu Zhengzheng finished with Fang Pingping, half kneeled down in front of him, looked at his eyes, and couldn’t resist saying, “‘Lan’……your parents are really pretty good at picking names. Your eyes are really too beautiful.”
Yu Lan smiled and lowered his eyes.
Seeing his subtle expression, Lu Zhengzheng was confused and said, “What’s wrong?”
Yu Lan moved his lips and said, “……I don’t have parents. This is the name that was given to me by the people at the orphanage.”
“Is that so?” Lu Zhengzheng and the equally stunned Fang Pingping looked at each other.
Yu Lan recalled Fang Pingping’s misunderstanding and explained to him what he hadn’t felt entirely comfortable explaining when they met yesterday. “I’m currently residing in a place which isn’t mine.”
Fang Pingping quickly nodded, “Oh oh, so that’s it.”
The subject was somewhat sensitive so the two men refrained from going further.
The little assistant applied make-up on Yu Lan, while Fang Pingping went to the side to look at Lu Zhengzheng’s computer.
Nevertheless when Lu Zhengzheng finished adjusting the equipment on the side and went past Yu Lan, he hesitated, stopped and said, “Whatever the case may be, the person who gave you this name must love you very much.”
Yu Lan was surprised.
He wanted to shake his head.
None of those adults at the orphanage loved them like their children.
The orphanage was only opened for profit, and an underground black market system.
Speaking of which, Yu Lan also provided information about the orphanage to police officer Song Ze. However, when he came last time, he forgot to ask how the orphanage side was doing. Yu Lan hopes that all those who have done terrible deeds will get the punishment they deserve.
As soon as he moved, however, the little assistant whispered a warning, “Don’t move.”
As a result, Yu Lan wasn’t able to shake his head.
Lu Zhengzheng didn’t even notice anything.
He only said, “Because if they didn’t love you, they would never have noticed your eyes.”
Yu Lan was stunned.
Lu Zhengzheng smiled, “A sapphire-like color, with this color as your name, that person must also love your eyes.”
“Do you like your eyes? Do you like the name you have been given?”
Yu Lan replied, “I don’t know……I’ve never thought about it.”
Lu Zhengzheng, “The picture I want to take is ‘blue’, your color. You can think about your past, your future, the people who love you, the people you love, and what kind of a person you really are as Yu Lan.”
With these words, Lu Zhengzheng walked away and continued his preparations.
Yu Lan, however, froze in place.
These questions were too deep for him to ever have considered.
His past was dark, and his future was white and blank.
Those who love him……were separated by a layer of fog1Out of reach or kept him at a distance possibly.
The person whom he loves was the one with an imposing back.
And as for Yu Lan, what kind of person is he?
Yu Lan couldn’t help but reach out and try to touch his eyes.
“Ah, don’t move.” The little assistant warned again.
Yu Lan came back to his senses, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” the little assistant began to apply make-up on Yu Lan’s face. Before applying it, he thought for a moment, put a little blue dot on the back of Yu Lan’s hand, looked up and smiled, “This is the color I intend to apply on your face, which is also the color of your eyes.”
Yu Lan couldn’t help but look down.
It was a dark blue color.
It’s not that Yu Lan had never looked in the mirror, but this was really the first time he intently looked at the color of his own eyes.
It resembled the color of the dark blue sky and the shade of the sea in his imagination.
“It’s a very free color,” the little assistant concentrated on Yu Lan’s face and whispered, “It’s also very positive and bright.”
Yu Lan pursed his lips.
The person who gave him such a name……loves him?
Rationally, Yu Lan knew that what Lu Zhengzheng said was simply impossible.
But for some reason, he couldn’t help but recall the phrase over and over again.
No one in the orphanage deserved to love him.
And who gave him that name in the past?
Yu Lan tried to recall the……headaches that hadn’t struck for a long time struck again, and as soon as there were signs, Yu Lan immediately gave up trying to remember. It was also at that moment that he was stunned to find that he couldn’t recall many details from the orphanage.
It was strange, Yu Lan was almost certain that someone in the orphanage gave him the name, but who was the person that gave it to him?
Did he ask that question? Did anyone ever answer him?
His heart began to beat faster.
In the dark, it seemed as if there was something in his mind that nearly came to the surface, yet it sank again in an instant.
But at that moment, Yu Lan did feel something.
It was a warm, and tingling feeling.
Could……there really have been someone who loved him like that?
Yu Lan was somewhat at a loss, a bit nervous, and even had a trace of unexplained expectation.
It was obviously a very ridiculous idea, but it was as if there was something enticing him to ponder over it.
If there really was a person like Lu Zhengzheng said, what was that person thinking about when he named him? “What kind of person did he want “Yu Lan” to be when he looked into his eyes?
Yu Lan stared longingly at the blue dot on the back of his hand.
The sky, the sea.
Free and bright.
Yu Lan’s heart trembled.
For some reason, an intense sorrow gushed to his heart, nose, and eyes.
Another half hour later.
When the youth settled down in the position arranged by Lu Zhengzheng, the shooting officially started, Fang Pingping hurried over to see the state of the youth.
After all, it was his first time shooting, and it was directly focused onto his face, so it was normal that he would feel awkward, unnatural, stiff, and his eyes would have no intensity. The most important thing was that Lu Zhengzheng was actually not very patient, once the model failed to deliver, he would easily become irritable. When the time comes, in order to protect Yu Lan, he absolutely must restrain this short-tempered guy……
Fang Pingping was thinking this way as he went over to Lu Zhengzheng to talk, only to freeze when he caught a glimpse of Yu Lan’s state.
A smile spread across the corners of Lu Zhengzheng’s lips.
He asked, “What are you thinking about now, little friend?”
Yu Lan sat behind the stage props and looked straight at the camera.
When he opened his mouth, his voice was slightly hoarse, “If the person you mentioned really exists-“
If the person Lu Zhengzheng mentioned really exists.
Whoever that person was, exactly what role he played in the past, and where he was now.
Yu Lan hoped that after the end of twenty-two years of darkness, he would live up to the expectations of that person when finally becoming a……free, powerful, fearless, and able to keep moving towards the future…..”Yu Lan”.
——Becoming truly radiant blue.
*
“Wait, what did you say?!”
The whole process of shooting was shorter than Yu Lan expected.
He was guided by Lu Zhengzheng to contemplate his life. He was shined by the light and was subject to the camera “snapping” a frenzy of photos. Currently in a trance to remove his make-up and wash his face, he heard Fang Pingping’s frantic shouting from outside.
Yu Lan washed his face, wiped it with a paper towel and walked out.
Fang Pingping didn’t notice him, and roared as he vigorously shook Lu Zhengzheng’s shoulder, “Didn’t you just say that Lao Lin was urging you to get photos? How come he changed his mind, huh?”
“……how do I know,” Lu Zhengzheng trembled, still holding his cell phone in his hand. Apparently just having contacted him, he came back to his senses and indignantly said , “It must be another PY deal with some vixen, that guy is a pervert. This is not the first time he has done this, each time it’s because someone has climbed into his bed again!”
The two noticed Yu Lan as he walked over, and their expressions instantly became extremely guilty.
“Yu, Yu Lan ah……” Fang Pingping’s voice was weak, “The thing is this, just……”
“I heard everything.” Yu Lan gently interrupted him.
In fact, Yu Lan didn’t feel particularly disappointed, after all, he had no particular expectation of any explosive hit, a strike to become a famous model and so on. As a matter of fact, Yu Lan already felt very happy to have met a photographer like Lu Zhengzheng.
He turned to Lu Zhengzheng and said, “Can you send me a copy of the photos?”
“Sure,” Lu Zhengzheng said, vexed, “That old Lin guy……”
At the end of the shooting just a moment ago, whether it was him, his two assistants, or Fang Pingping, all saw the surprise and excitement in each other’s eyes.
This time, the photos were definitely the greatest works that Lu Zhengzheng2I think that there is a typo someway or another here as in the raws it had Fang Pingping who didn’t exactly take the photos so I changed it to our real photographer Lu Zhengzheng instead had taken so far.
The moment the shoot ended, Lu Zhengzheng clearly realized that the young man in front of him would definitely make huge waves in the fashion world in the future.
His heart pounded, but he didn’t expect to turn around and be splashed with a basin of cold water.
That Lao Lin didn’t even bother to look at the photos……It’s not that they can’t contact each other after a while when the other side get curious to see and determine whether they like the photos or not, but – tsk, forget it, since the other side is so perfunctory, then giving Yu Lan’s photos to the other side would be meaningless.
For this kind of outcome, Lu Zhengzheng was naturally dissatisfied.
Wrinkling his eyebrows, he thought for a moment and said to Fang Pingping, “Wait for me for two days, I’ll try again.”
“You want to try other magazines?” Fang Pingping’s eyebrows furrowed as well.
The magazines that Lu Zhengzheng had been collaborating with for a long time, except for one which was “B.M.” a high-end fashion magazine, were not that well known.
To put it in a practical way, Fang Pingping naturally hoped that Yu Lan’s starting point would be as high as possible, but……
“Forget it, you try it first then, let me know beforehand if you are successful.” Fang Pingping said glumly.
Lu Zhengzheng waved his hand, and Fang Pingping took Yu Lan and left.
Fang Pingping looked disappointed, on the contrary, Yu Lan even comforted him a few times, and eventually the two separated, Yu Lan found the driver, got in the car and went back to the manor.
In the following two days, Fang Pingping didn’t contact Yu Lan for the time being, so Yu Lan went to class and worked as usual.
Wang Jialin……continued to work part-time at the milk tea store.
Faced with Yu Lan’s wary gaze, he didn’t care.
Anyway, his identity had already been discovered by Yu Lan, so he didn’t need to disguise himself anymore. From that day onwards he was a genuine part-time working university student, as to whether or not Yu Lan was going to tell Wen Zicheng what happened between the two of them……it would depend on Yu Lan’s decision.
Yu Lan hesitated a few times but eventually gave up.
He knew that it wasn’t easy for Wen Zicheng to find a reliable employee. Although Wang Jialin came to the milk tea store with a purpose, apart from his mission, he was indeed seriously working the rest of the time.
As long as Wang Jialin had no intention of ruining the milk tea store’s business, and won’t have any ulterior motives thereafter……Then, Yu Lan could coexist with Wang Jialin pretending to be harmonious for the sake of Wen Zicheng.
On the sixth day of Mr. Shao’s business trip, which was the third day after the photoshoot, Yu Lan just got off work from the milk tea store when he received a call from Fang Pingping.
Fang Pingping excitedly squealed on the other end of the phone, “Ah Lan, it’s a success, it’s a success! Can you guess which magazine asked for your photo——”
Fang Pingping was chattering on the other side of the phone, while Yu Lan was shocked by what he heard, how could it be so sudden?
Fang Pingping took a breather and added, “However, it was a special circumstance that led them to temporarily use your photos. There is an urgent reprint tonight, so the batch of magazines will be available tomorrow.”
*
Aboard a spaceship in the middle of the universe.
A man came out of the auction hall on the top floor, with several business people following him and jokingly asked, “Why is CEO Shao interested in winning that gemstone? Is it a gift for a beauty?”
The man curled his lips, “En.”
Several people just casually asked, after all, Shao Mingyu was known for his lack of interest in love regardless of whether it was a male or female omega, he was always cold to them. So although they had asked this question, they knew in their hearts that the jewel was more than likely to be given to the elders, but they didn’t expect the man to really respond.
Several people froze in their tracks and looked at one another.
After reacting, each one was surprised.
“CEO Shao……have you fallen in love?”
“Is this a good thing?”
“Which young lady……or young master is it?”
Lin Yu helped to block these people and explained that CEO Shao had a conference call soon and had to hurry upstairs.
After deflecting those people, Lin Yu followed and sneakily asked, “CEO Shao, are you going to make it into an engagement ring?”
Shao Mingyu glanced at him and smiled, “Making it into a ring is too extravagant.”
That’s right, after all, that gem he had seen was super – big! Lin Yu thought.
Boss really spoiled the little omega. I have no idea if these days……isn’t he becoming the same as a normal man in love, thinking about going home every day?
Lin Yu’s little eyes shifted around.
The man who was walking in front of him had slightly intense eyes.
Tomorrow——
I can go back tomorrow.
The author has something to say:
Mr. Shao, get ready for a new world tomorrow~
T/N:
Please comment and or share if you like the story!
If you like what I do, please do support me thru ko-fi~
