Ch21 - Photoshoot

Gu Qingchi’s schedule was very empty. Other than a photoshoot for the endorsement, he didn’t have any other activities.

However, Ye Li had actually received a lot of offers. 

Half of them didn’t even need to be considered.

As for the remaining half, Ye Li would’ve at least looked through them if it was before.

But things were different now.

Even X Company’s endorsement was only accepted after Ye Li carefully considered it. 

X Company was pretty famous. Their brand took the mid-to-high-end route. From their parent company to their subsidiaries, all of their spokespersons had been famous, reputable, and experienced celebrities.

The reason they made an exception this time and picked Gu Qingchi as their spokesperson was because his appearance was simply too stunning. Gu Qingchi singlehandedly increased the sales of this clothing line by several percentage points. In fact, the outfit worn by Gu Qingchi on the variety show was now completely sold out.

Gu Qingchi was just different.

He was as beautiful as the stars in the sky. You could look him forever without ever getting bored.

He was an incomparable miracle in the world, the pinnacle of beauty, and the peak of artistic pursuit.

Beauty was a rare resource. He deserved to be worshipped on an altar. It should be blasphemous to even glance at him.

Scarcity marketing, Ye Li finally decided on this method of promotion. It wasn’t anything new or innovative, but it was very effective.

Especially when the person in question was Gu Qingchi. No matter who they are, as long as they caught a tiny glimpse of him, they wouldn’t be able to help but want to see more. 

Just look at his follower count of Weibo.

Gu Qingchi hadn’t even officially debuted yet. There was only a one formal-sounding Weibo post, not even a single photo, yet his Weibo already had nearly half a million followers. Not a single one of the followers was bought.

Today was the day of the photoshoot, and Ye Li planned to follow Gu Qingchi through the entire process.

The nanny van was very big. Besides the driver in front, there were only three people in the car, Ye Li, Gu Qingchi, and another girl. 

Ye Li briefly introduced the two.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Ktlr lr sbeg jrrlrajca, Itjcu Bf. P kbc’a yf obiibklcu sbe jgbecv lc atf oeaegf. Po sbe tjnf jcs lrrefr, sbe mjc ub ab tfg.”

“This is Gu Qingchi, you can call him Gu ge. His personality’s a little reserved and doesn’t like to talk. Help me look after him, alright?”

Itjcu Bf tjv j qbcsajli, jcv atfgf kjr j vlwqif lc tfg mtffx ktfc rtf rwlifv. Vtf ibbxfv nfgs mjqjyif. 

“Gu ge, it’s nice to meet you. You can call me Xiao Ke.”

Xe Hlcumtl cbvvfv tlr tfjv.

“Hello.”

The photography studio was at the headquarters of X Company. The car headed straight to the entrance of the studio. There was a young man at the entrance, and he waved when he saw them. 

The car stopped, and Xiao Ke got off the car first. Gu Qingchi was about to follow her, but Ye Li stopped him.

“You should get off the car after Xiao Ke confirms the situation. You don’t have that many fans yet and your popularity isn’t very high, so there won’t be anyone blocking you and not many people will know you. But, from now on, you have to get used to these kinds of things.”

His follower count on Weibo was still growing, but they were too superficial and unreliable. Although Gu Qingchi already had his own super topic, he technically still hadn’t debuted and didn’t have any representative works. His fans didn’t have any content to get to know him, so it was normal that not a lot of people would recognize him.

But Gu Qingchi was sure to have a huge number of real fans sooner or later. 

If it were someone else saying this, then Ye Li would feel that they’re being too full of themselves, but, when it came to Gu Qingchi, he felt that this was a matter of course. Ye Li was holding onto this bright pearl in the palm of his hand, waiting for the opportunity to show it off to the world.

Xiao Ke returned after a while.

“No good, there’s a problem. Some of the lighting equipment inside is broken. I heard that it’s a wiring problem. A whole section of it has stopped working, and it’ll be a while before it’s fixed.”

Ye Li had a lot of experience with these kinds of things. 

“What did the other party say?”

“Right now, there are two options. One, we go back and reschedule, and they compensate us for the losses, or two, we rent a third-party studio, bring the props and backdrops ourselves, and shoot there. I think it’s probably better to do the photoshoot now. I asked around, and apparently the photographer is pretty well-known. His photos come out really well. The company put in a lot of effort to invite him, so he might not be available next time.”

Ye Li didn’t even need to think about it.

“Tell them that we’ll cooperate. We can do the photoshoot today.” 

The nicer third-party studios had all been booked until up to a month later. Even with the rich and imposing X Company behind them, they still needed to wait for the people already in the studio to finish up before they could start shooting.

Two cars filled with props and clothes, Gu Qingchi’s nanny van, and about a dozen people were all waiting outside.

After negotiating for a while, the photographer’s staff began to move the props and clothes into the studio. The photographer also went in to check out the location and lighting as well as making sure the props were put in the right place. He wanted to be ready for shooting as soon as the location was vacated.

Once they arrived, Xiao Ke got off the car. After a while, she came running back. 

“Gu ge, Ye ge, let’s go inside first. This place is pretty big. You guys can get some air.”

Ye Li motioned for Gu Qingchi get off first. As he was walking in with Gu Qingchi, he looked back and saw that Xiao Ke was getting a coat from the car.

This girl had been following Ye Li for a while. Although she was an assistant, she had a lot of contact with the work that Ye Li did.

From a rookie who didn’t anything until now, it could be said that Ye Li singlehandedly taught her everything she knew, step by step. Plus, she really was very clever. She understood everything as soon as she was told and got along well with people. 

There weren’t many people in the studio. Companies that were well-off typically had their own studios, so the people inside were basically Taobao shops taking photos of products or low-tier magazines shooting magazine covers.

Gu Qingchi walked inside. Before he had attracted anyone’s attention, Xiao Ke draped a coat over him and made him wear a hat.

The three of them sat on a prop sofa in a corner.

It was a little chilly in the studio. Ye Li was alright since he was wearing a suit, so he didn’t feel much of the cold. Xiao Ke, on the other hand, was only wearing a short sleeve shirt and jeans. 

Gu Qingchi took off his jacket and gave it to Xiao Ke.

Xiao Ke felt a little bad but accepted it anyway.

Ye Li was about to give his own coat to Gu Qingchi.

“Ye ge, don’t take off your jacket, you wear it. Wait for me for a bit.” 

Xiao Ke went off to who knows where and came back with a military coat. It looked kind of old and out-of-style, but it wasn’t too thick, perfect for this temperature.

Ye Li did not like the coat. Although he wasn’t as nitpicky about clothes as some celebrities, he had been in this industry for a while and was naturally influenced by it. As a result, he did have some standards when it came to clothing.

“Where did you find this? It’s not very clean. Ccan you even wear this?”

“This is actually new. I distressed the fabric. It can be used as a disguise. I’ll wear this and Gu ge can wear his coat.” 

Ye Li pinched a corner of the military coat in disapproval.

“Don’t you still need to go coordinate things with the photographer? You’re gonna go wearing this?”

Gu Qingchi didn’t care about these kinds of things. He didn’t pay much attention to the clothes he wore. So long as it fit, it was fine.

“Give it to me. I think it’s fine.” 

Xiao Ke was a little hesitant.

“That might be a bit…”

But Gu Qingchi had already taken the coat. In fact, he was pretty satisfied with the coat.

The coat covered up his entire body down to his calves. It had long sleeves, so it could also cover up both of his hands. He was originally wearing a hat, but the collar of the coat alone could cover the entire lower half of his face. 

The sofa was placed against the wall. Gu Qingchi nestled into the corner. He gathered up his sleeves and leaned back. Only his two long legs were exposed outside of the coat.

Ye Li sat down in his suit and tie. Next to him was Gu Qingchi, who covered from head to toe by the military coat.

Although they were sitting in a corner, the two of them were still rather conspicuous.

Someone sat down next to them. The person was wearing a baseball cap. 

“Are you waiting to take photos?”

Ye Li glanced at the baseball cap guy. He was rather young, clearly the kind of young man who had yet to experience society. He had to be either a student or a fresh graduate.

“Mn.”

“Are you a model?” 

Ye Li didn’t want to say more. There wasn’t really anything to say.

“No.”