Jiang Cheng was still quite surprised about the lip modelling thing that Jiang Cheng mentioned. Ding Zhuxin and her friend seemed to be psychos. Ding Zhuxin designed a uniform for beggars asking for food, with vague and pretentious pictures. He had seen the retouched photos Gu Fei gave her, with all kinds of profound or idiosyncratic copywriting, while her friend wanted to find a guy to put on lipstick and take photos...

But it seemed like good money. For a complete newbie like him, going there for a few days could probably make up for half or more of the money he had given and was going to give to Li Baoguo.

Jiang Cheng didn't care about putting on lipstick or not. After all, he had even worn the Crazy Primitive Man outfit. After all, he was a handsome guy with good looks and physique, so he wouldn't look too bad putting on some lipstick.

"I was going to postpone it until summer break," Gu Fei said, "but they are in a hurry and can't wait. I see they scheduled it the week before final exams. Will that affect you?"

"No," Jiang Cheng said.

"What about your review time?" Gu Fei asked.

"I'll squeeze some time here and there, and sleep an hour less," Jiang Cheng glanced at him. "Learn from me, loser."

"At most I'll use squeezed time to sleep," Gu Fei smiled.

After eating pancakes at Wang Xu's place, everything seemed to go back to how it was before.

Generally speaking, Jiang Cheng had two ways of dealing with things that bothered him but he couldn't resolve. One was to keep thinking about it, going over it repeatedly in his mind, until it lost its original power. When he thought of it again, there would only be numbness, like those affirmations he seemed unable to obtain. Once used to it, he would no longer have any feelings.

The other way was to bury it deep inside and never touch it again, intentionally avoiding it. He would truly forget about it sometimes, like those endless calm reprimands.

Regarding Li Baoguo's death, Jiang Cheng used the second approach. Such a disastrous ending was not suitable to keep thinking about and reliving. He buried those memories deep inside and tried hard not to access them.

Li Hui's side did not notify him of anything. A few days later when Li Baoguo and his wife came to school with a 3000 yuan receipt, they didn't even tell him when Li Baoguo's cremation was.

"Wait, let me take a look," Jiang Cheng stood at the school gate, carefully examining the receipt full of crappy handwriting. Fortunately he was used to dealing with his own crappy writing and could make it out. After reading it, he took out a stamp pad from his pocket, borrowed earlier from Old Xu's office. "Press a fingerprint on your name."

"What the fuck!" Li Hui flared up. "Why the hell should I press a fingerprint! It's just 3000 yuan, you think it's 3 million?"

"Well, with just 3000 yuan you two came to collect it together," Jiang Cheng sneered. "No print, no money. Someday you'll go back on it and say I forged this. Where can I argue then?"

Li Hui glared, about to step forward, when Wang Xu's roar came from behind. "What's the holdup! Are you done or not! Do we brothers need to go out and help!"

Some people were standing inside the school gate, Gu Fei, Wang Xu, Lu Xiaobin and Guo Xu. Of them only Gu Fei knew what was going on. Wang Xu roughly knew. Lu Xiaobin and Guo Xu were called by Wang Xu just for show. Just them standing there scowling was intimidating. Even the gatekeeper looked nervous. Of course Li Hui shut up seeing them.

"Damn it," Li Hui grabbed the stamp pad, dabbed his thumb and pressed it on the receipt.

"Good," Jiang Cheng looked at the clear fingerprint. He took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Li Hui. "Count it."

Li Hui ripped it open, glanced inside without counting, turned and left with a black look on his face.

Jiang Cheng watched their backs until out of sight, before slowly letting out a breath.

Turning to go inside, Gu Fei smiled and quirked an eyebrow at him. He responded with a quirk of his mouth.

After the relief came a feeling of sadness. Li Hui seemed to feel nothing about Li Baoguo's death. He even demanded money forcefully. Jiang Cheng really could not comprehend that mentality.

After Li Baoguo's matter ended, it was as if everything ended. Jiang Cheng buried it deep inside. Even if Pan Zhi never mentioned that person again, he himself would probably never bring it up.

Life and death, it did feel miraculous when he thought about it.

A person just disappeared like this. From someone talked about, he became someone else talked about. Beyond these few streets with the steel factory, no one else knew such a person existed, or how he left.

How he lived, how he died, only existed in the distant memories of pitifully few people.

Jiang Cheng suddenly felt terrified by his own insignificance. Where he came from, how he lived, how he struggled, how he strove, where he would eventually go, was similarly a story no one knew.

Only he knew, whether it was upward or downward, only he knew.

Old Mother Hen Xu had him come talk again after another week. The topic was not Li Baoguo, but the final exams coming in a week.

Looking at Old Xu, Jiang Cheng suddenly felt this guy's EQ had risen weirdly.

"How's your review going?" Old Xu asked while handing him a folder of test papers. "I found some papers for you to do when you have time, okay?"

"Okay," Jiang Cheng took the folder. "It's going alright. I'll be taking leave for two afternoons this week...giving you advance notice."

"Taking leave?" Old Xu looked at him. "What's the matter?"

"It's...personal affairs," Jiang Cheng said. I'm going to put on lipstick and make money, Teacher Xu.

"Can you tell me about it?" Old Xu asked again.

"No," Jiang Cheng declined straightforwardly.  

"Child," Old Xu sighed, thought for a bit, then kindly smiled and asked again, "Are you having financial difficulties? I can apply for assistance..."

"No no, I'm fine," Jiang Cheng quickly said, "Don't trouble the school and country."  

"What a good child," Old Xu said, and thought some more. "Then let's collect donations in the class..."

"Teacher Xu!" Jiang Cheng felt Old Xu's EQ would slide all the way down at this rate. He looked earnestly at Old Xu, just short of tears. "I really don't lack money. I have money, truly, never ever worry about this matter for me, I'm begging you!"

"Alright alright," Old Xu nodded repeatedly, and immediately added, "You must tell me if you have any difficulties."

"I will," Jiang Cheng also nodded emphatically.

Old Xu did not ask again about Jiang Cheng's leave reason, though he did approve the requests. It's just...

Sitting in the cab, Jiang Cheng glanced at Gu Fei beside him. "Did you apply for leave or just skip class?"

"Skipped. Old Xu would never approve my leave," Gu Fei said, engrossed in his moronic candy crush game.

"So does he know we left school together?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Worried he knows?" Gu Fei said. "It's fine. You took afternoon leave tomorrow anyway. I just need to skip the whole day."

"Damn," Jiang Cheng frowned. "I'm not worried about him knowing I left with you. I'm worried he'll ask you about it if he knows."

"If he knows, I have a hundred responses," Gu Fei smiled and nudged his leg lightly.

Jiang Cheng sighed. "Then don't skip morning classes tomorrow."

"Okay," Gu Fei nodded.

Jiang Cheng didn't say more. From the corner of his eye he saw Gu Fei's profile, wanting to say something but couldn't think of anything to say. Gu Fei's state of always aloof from school and peers made him feel something was off, but he really couldn't pinpoint what exactly was off.

He wanted Gu Fei to be like all the other students, but obviously that wasn't possible. He hoped people would see Gu Fei as more than just a truant loser, but Gu Fei didn't seem interested in showing his shining points either.

That disconnect made him feel uneasy from time to time.

He reached behind Gu Fei and squeezed his waist.

The friend of Ding Zhuxin looking for a male lip model was a plump middle aged lady. Despite the plumpness, she had quite nice bearing, looking elegant with glasses on, definitely unlike those marketplace types fighting over gold jewelry and square dancing abroad.

"Young boys nowadays," the fat lady looked him up and down, "each one better looking than the last. I never ran into any when I was young. Now I see them all the time as an old lady."

"Thank you ma'am," Jiang Cheng said.

"You've got it hard," the fat lady said. "Go ahead with the work. Gu Fei, thanks for your hard work."  

"No problem," Gu Fei said while setting up the camera.

"How about I get you to model a set sometime too?" the fat lady asked.

"No," Gu Fei said.

"Oh, that response leaves me speechless," the fat lady laughed. "Alright, I'll leave you to it."

After the fat lady left, there was still a stylist and makeup artist who seemed quite familiar with Gu Fei. The makeup girl would also help out as a photography assistant.

"I thought it was just lipstick," Jiang Cheng leaned back in the chair feeling the makeup artist smearing layers of stuff on his face. "Why so thick on the face too?"

"Can't just shoot the lips right," the makeup artist laughed. "Normally clothes shots don't need such delicate work, but this is all closeups, so bear with it please."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng responded and stretched out his legs, closing his eyes.

He thought it would be just some foundation on the face, then lipstick on the mouth, done deal. But the foundation took forever. After that came endless fussing with his eyelids. Jiang Cheng had been staying up reviewing for exams these days and was already tired. The constant brushing at his eyelids nearly brought him to tears.

"Your eyes are so nice," the makeup artist said. "Much better than surgically created ones."  

"What's surgical eyes?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Puppy eyes," the makeup artist laughed.

"......what are puppy eyes?" Jiang Cheng was mystified.

"His aren't full puppy eyes, looking arrogant and bad instead of cute," the stylist commented. "Quite stylish."

"True," the makeup artist nodded. "I don't even need to draw them specially."

Jiang Cheng gave up on more questions, because the makeup artist started applying eyeliner and he really couldn't take it. "Wait wait wait..."

The makeup artist stopped. "Uncomfortable?"

"I could start bawling for a crying scene right now," Jiang Cheng turned to Gu Fei. "Tissue?"

Gu Fei had been sitting aside playing with the camera without paying much attention to Jiang Cheng's makeup progress. At Jiang Cheng's sudden turn, he glanced over and nearly dropped the camera in hand.

To be honest, the made up feeling was quite unfamiliar for Jiang Cheng. Though his lips weren't done yet, the eyes alone seized Gu Fei's gaze.

The eye makeup was heavy, the kind of heavy makeup Gu Fei would dislike seeing on the streets, whether on a man or woman. But looking at Jiang Cheng he didn't feel that way at all.

Maybe it was his powerful boyfriend filter, but this look made Gu Fei's heart start racing wildly. As Jiang Cheng took the tissue, Gu Fei poured himself some water and gulped it down to force his heart back in place.

The makeup artist continued working on Jiang Cheng. Gu Fei no longer had any interest in playing with the camera. Holding it, he peered through the lens at Jiang Cheng's face.

He had known this makeup artist for quite some time. She often did jobs at the TV station. Her skills were rather high.

Doing others' makeup, the effect wasn't as obvious to Gu Fei as now with Jiang Cheng. She had brought out every advantage in Jiang Cheng's features, eyes, nose, face shape.

And lips.

Jiang Cheng's lips looked...just alright normally. But now with just the base applied, the beauty was already evident to Gu Fei.

"What, filming behind the scenes today?" The makeup artist paused and glanced at his camera.

"Yeah," Gu Fei said, still looking through the lens at Jiang Cheng. "My own record."

"No sneaky shots," Jiang Cheng cracked open an eye to glare at him. "Not even done yet..."

Gu Fei snapped a picture of Jiang Cheng with one eye open looking very sexy.

"Screw you!" Jiang Cheng swore, then asked after a pause, "How's it look?"

"Dunno anymore," Gu Fei said.  

"Whaddya mean dunno anymore?" Jiang Cheng was confused.

"I'm just like that, whaddya want," Gu Fei said.

"......Fuck," Jiang Cheng swore again. "I'm asking how I look!"

The makeup artist couldn't stop laughing for a long time.

"Breathtakingly beautiful," Gu Fei answered solemnly.  

Jiang Cheng gave up on further questions, since the makeup artist started applying lip color, which took a full hour just for the lips, and she still claimed to be speedy. Jiang Cheng wasn't sure whether to believe that or not.

"Done," the makeup artist gave his face two final swoosh-swooshes like sweeping the floor, and stood up. "Ready to shoot."

"Awesome," the stylist gazed at Jiang Cheng's face for a bit. "Just the feeling I wanted."

"Can I look in the mirror?" Jiang Cheng asked.

The stylist moved away from the mirror. Jiang Cheng had avoided glancing that way the whole time. Now taking one look, he jumped in fright.

"Fuck!" He whirled around to stare wide-eyed at the three people, sure his expression was one of utter horror. "What the hell is this!"

"Not used to it?" The stylist smiled. "Very good looking, masculine sexy, not effeminate at all."

Jiang Cheng didn't really grasp what masculine sexy with deep lipstick meant, but a glance at Gu Fei showed him a thumbs up, which set his mind at ease.

Though he figured Gu Fei would still thumbs up if he was painted into a melted chocolate mess, affirmation from Gu Fei reassured him.

"Let's start," Jiang Cheng said. "I still have...homework and reviewing after this."

That sentence seemed to make it hard for the stylist and makeup artist to imagine. But as he went to stand under the lights, they finally responded together: "Oh!"

Gu Fei felt the spirit reawakening inside him. He had shot plenty of hunks, even butt models. But facing Jiang Cheng's face, that feeling emerging from the depths of his heart could only happen bit by bit, slowly creeping along meridians under the skin.

Click.

Face slightly raised.  

Click.

Mouth hooked arrogantly.

Click.  

Scornful eyes.

Click.

Jiang Cheng-style insolent sneer.

The shutter sound was like a rhythm, each frozen expression of Jiang Cheng pushing him closer to the bathroom.

After one set, they prepared to change lipstick. Gu Fei put down the camera and headed to the bathroom.

He had just entered and braced a hand on the wall facing the urinal, not even started self-calming yet, when he heard footsteps and a shadow flashed by.

"You came to fap," Jiang Cheng leaned against the door, voice low. "Or lower the flag?"

"F*ck," Gu Fei glanced at him. "You came to watch the show or help out?"

"Obviously to watch the show," Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes happily and laughed.

"Have some humanity?" Gu Fei went over and shoved him against the wall.

"Young man," Jiang Cheng poked his chin. "If I kiss you now, everyone outside would know."  Gu Fei thought for a moment and lowered his head to kiss Jiang Cheng's neck.

"I'm warning you," Jiang Cheng hugged him, "if you dare bite, I'll dare hit you."

Gu Fei smiled and lifted his head, "Young man, you who are full of weaknesses still dare to provoke me?"

"I'm just here to comfort you a bit," Jiang Cheng laughed.

"Brother Cheng," Gu Fei lowered his voice, "let me ask you something."

"Hmm?" Jiang Cheng looked at him.  

"You said we'd go big for the birthday," Gu Fei looked at him, "how big?"

Author's note: To be continued tomorrow.

Today's word count is a bit low, I'm just really tired for some reason, feel like I could fall asleep standing up....

I'll try to write more tomorrow.