LWDC Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Even a Love-Struck Brain Has to Work

Chapter 4: Even a Love-Struck Brain Has to Work

Chapter 4: Even a Love-Struck Brain Has to Work

Ning Fei quickly returned to the vicinity of the living room, where the waiter who had received his tip earlier was standing.

As Ning Fei approached, the waiter turned his head and gestured towards the outdoor area.

Ning Fei followed his gaze and saw Teresa, the editor-in-chief of V Magazine, standing in the garden and talking to other guests. One of the main reasons why Su Cenxi’s skipped show was so important was that this editor-in-chief would be attending. She was not only the editor-in-chief of a top fashion magazine but also one of the casting directors for this fashion week!

Ning Fei knew that big names were likely to appear at Baron’s gatherings, but he didn’t expect to run into Editor-in-Chief Teresa.

He immediately gave the waiter another tip, signaling him to leave. Then, he stood there for a few seconds, carefully observing Teresa’s position, and went up to the second floor of the villa to survey the surroundings. He put on his earphones and called Su Cenxi.

Soon, Su Cenxi’s voice came through the earphones: “…Hello?”

Ning Fei went straight to the point: “Tell the others ‘excuse me’ and come to the second floor.”

Su Cenxi: “Huh?”

Ning Fei: “No ‘huh,’ move. Now!”

Su Cenxi hesitated for a second, glanced at Gu Hechen, who was chatting with the Baron and others a few steps away, and replied, “…Okay.”

He hung up the phone and returned to Gu Hechen’s side, smiling: “Excuse me for a moment.”

The others naturally nodded politely, while Gu Hechen tilted his head and whispered in his ear, “Where are you going? Did Ning Fei call you?”

“Yes. I’m not going out, don’t worry.” Su Cenxi replied in a low voice, affectionately patting the other’s arm, and then turned and left. He went inside, went upstairs, and found Ning Fei leaning against the wall at the entrance of the stairs, waiting for him.

Looking around, there was no one else on the second floor, which was much quieter than downstairs.

Seeing that Su Cenxi had obediently come, Ning Fei stood up straight and greeted him: “You’re still talking to the Baron? What did you talk about?”

“A-Chen is talking to the Baron, I don’t understand much.” This was also why Su Cenxi was willing to come; he was actually a little bored. “Why did you call me here?”

“To find you something you can understand to do.” Ning Fei gestured for him to follow. “I told you to practice smoking poses before, you haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“I haven’t forgotten, why are you asking this?”

“Later, on the balcony, I’ll give you a cigarette, and you’ll be responsible for smoking.” Ning Fei stopped at the entrance to the open-air balcony and quickly instructed, “Just pretend there’s a camera on the lower left, but don’t look at the camera, understand?”

“What, really smoke?” Su Cenxi paused. “A-Chen doesn’t let me smoke, he’s still here…!”

Before he could finish, Ning Fei pushed him directly onto the balcony.

“Stop talking nonsense, just smoke if I tell you to.” Ning Fei followed him onto the balcony, his tone low but unquestionable. “If Gu Hechen complains about this, tell him to come to me.”

As he spoke, the two had reached the railing. Ning Fei took out a pack of menthol cigarettes from his inner pocket, tapped one out on the railing, and handed it to Su Cenxi. Su Cenxi hesitated, but still took it and put it in his mouth.

Ning Fei lit it for him, then took a step back, looking like a dutiful manager standing by.

It had to be said that Su Cenxi hadn’t practiced in vain; even smoking was pleasing to the eye. Combined with the hazy night, a sense of lonely beauty appeared in an instant. Unfortunately, after a while, no one downstairs looked up.

Ning Fei clicked his tongue softly and stepped forward again, seemingly casually placing his hand on the railing, but actually putting the cigarette pack on it as well.

He whispered, “When I push you later, smile at the people below.”

Su Cenxi: “Huh?” again.

Ning Fei ignored him, leaning his elbow on the railing, causing the cigarette pack to fall.

*Clatter.*

The cigarette pack fell right at Teresa’s feet. She subconsciously looked up and saw Su Cenxi with a cigarette in his mouth, looking confused, and Ning Fei next to him, looking surprised.

“Sorry, I’ll go down and pick it up…!” Ning Fei dropped this sentence and turned around, nudging Su Cenxi’s back with his elbow at an angle Teresa couldn’t see.

Su Cenxi turned his head to look, but Ning Fei had already left the balcony neatly. Su Cenxi had no choice but to turn back, smiling a little awkwardly at Teresa below: “Sorry, it wasn’t intentional…did I hit you?”

He had already recognized the editor-in-chief of V Magazine downstairs, surprised by Ning Fei’s boldness and trying his best to maintain his image.

“It’s nothing.” Teresa also recognized Su Cenxi, casually asking, “Why are you smoking there by yourself?”

Su Cenxi: I didn’t know the reason before, but now I understand.

But he couldn’t tell the truth, so he had to bite the bullet and answer, “Haha, my boyfriend is chatting with others, so I came out for some air…”

His thoughts were all messed up, and he didn’t know what he was saying, or if it was right. Fortunately, Ning Fei had already arrived downstairs and appeared in time to save the day.

“I’m sorry.” Ning Fei naturally walked to Teresa’s side while picking up the cigarette pack. “Did I disturb you all?”

“It’s nothing.” Teresa gave him a glance, but quickly looked up again. Su Cenxi was “actually smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves,” and when she suddenly looked up again, he froze for a moment: “Uh, Editor-in-Chief Teresa?”

Teresa smiled, didn’t say anything to him, but turned her gaze back to Ning Fei: “I haven’t seen him smoke…it’s quite good-looking.”

Ning Fei: Otherwise, why would I let him smoke in front of you? Did you think I didn’t spend time studying your social media account’s last ten years of content?

But what he said was: “He smokes occasionally. I also think it’s quite good-looking, but unfortunately, many platforms don’t allow posting this kind of photo now.”

Teresa said meaningfully: “If you can’t post photos, someone can just see it, right?”

Ning Fei understood, didn’t panic at all, and smiled calmly: “That’s true. Being appreciated by the editor-in-chief is also like having a good photo taken.”

“You have a lot of ideas, Ning Fei, and you’re also very bold.” Teresa smiled. “How about this, if Gu always accepts an interview with V Magazine, Su Cenxi can also come and shoot an inside page, what do you think?”

Ning Fei replied immediately: “Okay.”

Teresa raised her eyebrows: “Really? Gu always has never accepted a fashion magazine interview, and you dare to agree to me without even thinking?”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Ning Fei smiled. “It’s just that with Gu always’s status, it must be the September issue, right…”

The September issue is the most important issue of the year for all major fashion magazines. Ning Fei had been very direct.

But Teresa said: “Actually, Y Brand is preparing to launch a new series in V Magazine, and there’s a temporary vacancy. I can recommend this replacement.”

Ning Fei: “New series? Designed by the Baron?”

Teresa: “Otherwise?”

The Baron personally designed Y Brand’s new series, and it was being launched in V Magazine! This kind of work that could be counted towards MDC points actually had a temporary vacancy. Ning Fei’s eyes widened a bit.

He immediately nodded: “No problem, happy to cooperate!”

*

Later, when Su Cenxi returned to Gu Hechen’s side, Gu Hechen really smelled the faint scent of menthol cigarettes.

The domineering CEO immediately frowned, leaned close to Su Cenxi’s ear, and whispered: “Did you smoke?”

“Editor-in-Chief Teresa of V Magazine came, and I smoked for her to see. She likes to see this. I only smoked half a cigarette.” Su Cenxi also leaned over and briefly explained the ins and outs of the matter.

Gu Hechen said upon hearing this: “I thought Ning Fei was so capable, but it turns out he’s using me as a resource for exchange? And he didn’t even ask me?”

Su Cenxi remembered Ning Fei’s teachings and didn’t answer this question, only frowning: “I often accompany you to business events, is it not okay for you to be on a top fashion magazine with me?”

Gu Hechen: “…”

Su Cenxi continued the “Ning Fei version” output: “I thought that you agreed to bring me here tonight because you felt that you could also accompany me to do some work in the fashion circle.”

Gu Hechen: “Alright, alright, let the magazine contact the secretary’s office.”

……

On the other side, Ning Fei went around the villa, inside and out, but couldn’t find the handsome “good deed” anymore. He checked his phone again, but “good deed” still hadn’t given Ning Fei any information or phone calls. It seemed that leaving the second business card was also useless.

–Tsk, unwilling to leave a contact method? I thought he felt something when I kissed him just now.

Oh well, a chance encounter, play or don’t play.

*

The next day, V Magazine contacted Gu Hechen’s secretary, and Su Cenxi’s replacement work was officially settled. Teresa had said before that this job was temporary, and Ning Fei only found out during the signing process that it was really “temporary” – they would be shooting in a few days!

Ning Fei quickly rearranged his work, squeezing things around to successfully send Su Cenxi into V Magazine’s photo studio.

But the moment Su Cenxi saw the photographer who was preparing, things suddenly went wrong again.

“Huh? You don’t want to be photographed by Albert?!”

Ning Fei was pulled to the end of the corridor by Su Cenxi, hearing the other party’s unbelievable request: “Why? Albert is V Magazine’s favorite legendary photographer right now. Not to mention how many celebrities he’s photographed, the number of supermodels he’s photographed is more than the total number on the current MDC list. How many models dream of working with him, and you still want to pick photographers?”

“I’m not picking photographers…” Su Cenxi looked embarrassed. “Anyone else is fine, just not him, really can’t!”

Ning Fei raised his eyebrows: “Reason. I remember you guys worked together before, how come you suddenly can’t?”

Su Cenxi frowned and lowered his eyes for several seconds, finally blurting out a few words: “…He pursued me.”

“And then?” Ning Fei was really annoyed by his stammering state at critical moments, directly guessing, “Did you sleep together?”

“No!” Su Cenxi immediately retorted, “He just pursued me, I never agreed to him!”

“That’s it? What’s there to be taboo about, I thought you guys had a blood feud.” Ning Fei scoffed. “Albert is a professional photographer, Ning Fei, don’t tell me you still don’t know what a ‘professional supermodel’ is!”

“But he made quite a scene back then, uh.” Su Cenxi continued to “struggle.” “Many people know about this…”

Ning Fei suddenly “understood”: “‘Many people’? Gu Hechen also knows about this, right? He told you not to cooperate with Albert again?”

Su Cenxi “uh…” a sound, did not answer directly, but Ning Fei knew the answer.

“Su Cenxi ah Su Cenxi, are you two too arrogant, unilaterally NG a famous photographer?” Ning Fei was really amused. “I ask you, even if he pursued you, even if everyone in the studio knows he pursued you, what can happen? Will he strip you naked just by taking a photo of you? Or will the photos he takes of you become especially good, or especially bad?”

Su Cenxi couldn’t answer.

Ning Fei sneered again: “To be honest, if he likes you, he’ll give you awesome hard photos, then I’d be happy to send you to his bed. But the best photos he’s ever taken weren’t of you, does he think you’re his muse? Don’t be so ridiculous.”

After saying that, he didn’t care that Su Cenxi’s face looked bad, and before the other party could open his mouth to argue again, he grabbed his wrist and walked towards the photo studio.

“I don’t want to hear your love-struck stories anymore, go to work. You better remember how this opportunity came about, think about your MDC ranking.” Saying these words in a cold voice, Ning Fei pushed Su Cenxi into the photo studio.

“Go. If Albert harasses you, I’ll go harass him, alright?”

——————–

Ning Fei: Resources, use them as much as you can, don’t be pretentious!