One Useless Rebirth

“Bai…”

“What?” He Bai put the retouched photos into a file and sent it to Xu Yinrong. He then logged in his own Weibo to write a post for hiring an assistant, ignoring those crazy fans who suddenly showed up and were shipping him and Di Qiuhe. Later on, he pinned that post to the top on his personal page, changed his self-introduction and logged off.

Maybe his tone was too calm that Di Qiuhe turned into curious after stopped for a second and asked, “Bai, what you just said at the airport…”

Hearing his rather poor tone, He Bai got a touch of smile flashed across his eyes. He supported the phone on his shoulders and opened the message sent before by Jun Chen. His fingers were dancing on the keyboard as he replied, “What did I say? Oh, by the way, are you in K country now? I remember that the crew’s plane took off yesterday.”

“Just arrived. It’s so warm here.” Looking outside at the shining sun, Di Qiuhe heard some clicks on the keyboard from the phone. He missed him even more and said in a gentle low voice, “Bai, I miss you so much. I…”

Ding.

New email coming in.

He Bai shut down the message with Jun Chen and opened his mailbox to check the email. He got shocked right after, “C Magazine?”

“What?” Di Qiuhe’s expressing of his love got interrupted so he was a bit at a loss.

“C Magazine invited me to shoot their covers.” He Bai sat straight and read that email fast to make sure it was not a prank or spam. He raised his eyebrows and voice getting high, “This is one of the big four fashion magazines, and they only invite senior photographers for their covers. It is just so unbelievable that they invite me to do it now.”

Years ago Ma Xingtong won the respect of Saint Elephant Studio’s boss just because he once shot the covers for the big four fashion magazines, and the boss dared not to treat him casually ever since. Although he found out later that Ma Xingtong was just there with his instructor and didn’t really get the chance to take the pictures, it still showed that the four big fashion magazines were dominating the arena of fashion photography.

But now, C Magazine, one of the big four invited him to do the cover, which was definitely an approval and also an encouragement to his ability, so he felt really thrilled.

“Congratulations.” Di Qiuhe greeted him right after a short while of being stunned. He added with a smile, “You are getting more and more impressive, puppy.” Yet he was still green in the industry himself…which made him feel that he was not good enough for puppy.

“Thanks for the compliment.” He Bai felt a bit tantalized by his gentle voice on the phone, so he put it on the other side and scratched his ear. He then coughed to cover the shyness inside and asked, “What did you just say? I was replying Jun Chen’s message so I didn’t catch you.”

The voice from the other side stopped for a bit and went with a lower tone, “Bai, are you serious that you said you like men?”

He Bai stopped for a few seconds and pretended to answer in a calm voice, “Yeah, so do you, right?”

“…yes, I do.” Di Qiuhe sounded delighted, yet his voice turned a bit careful and attaching, full of affection, “Then what if I say…I never thought I would fall in love with a guy before I met you?”

This was just a normal afternoon. He Bai looked around at his roommates who were occupies respectively, and he took a light breath after the phone speaker was covered tightly by his hand. Then he took back the hand and said in a low voice as well, “Then I could just say, what a happy coincidence, me too.”

Bang!

There came a loud noise from the phone.

He Bai’s shyness suddenly disappeared and his eyebrows were furrowed with confusion, “What is that sound?”

“Sorry.” Di Qiuhe’s voice turned weirdly calm and he said plainly, “I think I need to have a good sleep because I am having illusions again. Goodnight, puppy. See you in the winter break.”

“Goodnight? Why are you saying goodnight in the daytime? And does it make you that sleepy talking with…”

“Toot toot toot…”

“…”

He Bai put down the phone with a poker face and dialed Di Qiuhe’s number right after.

“Sorry, the number you dialed is power off.”

“…”

He Bai clenched his teeth and dialed Wang Boyi’s number instead.

It got through this time and he asked directly, “What is your boss doing right now?”

Wang Boyi glimpsed at Di Qiuhe who was lying on the back seat and staring at the roof after he had got a swollen forehead by hitting on the window, so he tried to answer in a fair-minded way, “Lying down.” Actually his boss looked so out of his mind as if he was bathed in the saint aura. But since he had appeared to be like this a few days before, Wang didn’t explain to him specifically.

He did go to sleep?

He Bai was really outrageous, “Where are you guys now? And is there anyone else with you two?”

Wang Boyi answered frankly, “Except for me and master Di, there is a local driver of K country in the car who doesn’t understand Chinese.”

Very good. He Bai told him with a smile on his face, “Turn on the speaker and put the phone to your boss’s ear.”

Wang Boyi hesitated for a while, but he still said yes because he recalled what Di Qiuhe once had told him. So he turned on the speaker and put the phone to Di Qiuhe’s ear.

He Bai waited for a while and shouted, “Di Qiuhe?”

Lying on the backseat, Di Qiuhe moved his eyes and looked at the phone. He grabbed the cushion on the backseat the moment when he recognized the voice coming through the phone. He covered his blushed face and ear immediately with the cushion and said in a low voice, “Bai, I just had a dream which was so exciting. You won’t believe me if I tell you what that is.”

Had a dream? Exciting?

He Bai sneered and asked, “I’ve got something more exciting. Do you wanna hear?”

Di Qiuhe started to breathe heavily as his blood was getting hot, “If it is you…yes.”

“Then listen.”

“Yes.”

He Bai took a deep breath to calm down and shout at the phone, “Dumbass! I am going to be a monk! Off you go with your daydream! Want to see me in the winter break? Then don’t speak to me before it!”

Di Qiuhe was shocked and suddenly woke up from his disillusion. He sat up and took the phone, saying anxiously, “Bai? No, I was just…”

“Toot toot toot…”

“…Bai?”

The calling interface exited automatically as the call ended and disappeared from the screen.

Di Qiuhe dialed He Bai’s number carefully.

“Sorry, the number you dialed does not exist.”

“???”

He returned the phone to Wang Boyi immediately and took out his own phone, turned it on and called again.

“Sorry, the number you dialed does not exist.”

He opened his eyes so wide and pressed his chest as he felt a bit suffocated.