The contract had too many detailed clauses. In any case, it was a contract Chen Chao had arranged for him. Miao Jiayan had skimmed through it in a daze at the time and only remembered getting eight thousand for three photoshoots within the province.

He had missed the part written on a previous page stating that if he went to the Yunnan base for the shoot, it would be for six to ten days to do four themed photoshoots, and aside from food, lodging, and airfare, they would also pay Miao Jiayan sixteen thousand.

Of course, these photos weren't just for posting on the product details page as advertisements. The contract had broadened the authorization rights, but Miao Jiayan didn't look at any of this closely. Even if he had, he wouldn't have understood; there were many terms he didn't know the meaning of.

To Miao Jiayan, the two words "Chen Chao" represented the utmost safety. Anything Chen Chao had looked over, Miao Jiayan could sign with his eyes closed.

Miao Jiayan had never traveled far from home; he had never even left the province since he was a child. Chen Chao told him to come over a day early, as they would have to get up early the next day to go to the airport.

Making Chen Chao travel with him for so many days, Miao Jiayan felt like he was causing him a lot of trouble. He was very embarrassed, but he couldn't keep saying 'thank you' to Chen Chao.

Saying it too much would seem insincere, and Chen Chao didn't need him to say thank you anyway.

Miao Jiayan left home with only a backpack, which contained a change of clothes and a set of pajamas. His phone, charger, money, and ID card—besides these, he brought nothing else.

He took a bus and left on the afternoon of the first day. Before getting off, Chen Chao called him and asked if he had arrived yet.

Miao Jiayan said, "Not yet, but I should be there soon."

"I don't know where you're getting off. I'll wait for you at the entrance of the mall across from the station." It was very crowded on Chen Chao's end; it sounded particularly chaotic over the phone, with the sounds of cars and people mixed together.

"Okay," Miao Jiayan said, looking out the bus window. "I think I'm here, I'm near the station now."

"Alright," Chen Chao said. "Make sure you have your things."

Miao Jiayan said "Okay" again.

The bus stopped at the station exit, and Miao Jiayan suddenly felt a little nervous before getting off.

He hadn't seen Chen Chao in a long time. Over the past year, their contact had been limited to just a few text messages and phone calls. Last year, during the ten days Chen Chao was briefly home, he left again before Miao Jiayan could even commit his appearance at that time to memory.

So, in Miao Jiayan's memory, Chen Chao still mostly resembled how he looked when he left in the third year of junior high—a slightly frail, tall, and skinny junior high boy. But he was now in his third year of senior high.

Miao Jiayan was wearing a short, white padded jacket, its collar covering his chin, with his hair loosely draped over his back. He carried his backpack, clutched his phone in his hand, and followed the flow of people along the sidewalk across the extremely wide road.

There were many people at the mall across the street, but Miao Jiayan still spotted Chen Chao in a single glance.

Chen Chao probably hadn't expected him to arrive so quickly; he was standing there watching a child cry. Not far from him, a child was clamoring to eat KFC. His mother wouldn't buy it for him, and the child was throwing a heart-wrenching tantrum.

In a daze, Miao Jiayan felt that Chen Chao had changed a lot from his memory. His features had matured, his hair was very short, and his jawline was very distinct. Seen from the side, he was extremely handsome.

Miao Jiayan had already walked up right next to him, but Chen Chao was still watching the child cry.

"Brother Chao," Miao Jiayan called him.

Chen Chao finally turned his head and saw Miao Jiayan looking at him with a beaming smile. Chen Chao said, "I didn't see you come over. I wanted to see when his mom would finally snap and beat him."

"You're not allowed to hit kids nowadays," Miao Jiayan said.

Chen Chao led him forward. The child behind them was still screaming and crying. As they passed the KFC entrance, Chen Chao suddenly asked Miao Jiayan, "Do you want some?"

Miao Jiayan laughed again and asked, "Are you afraid I'll cry like that too?"

Chen Chao laughed too, saying, "Even if I told you to cry like that, you wouldn't know how."

Miao Jiayan had been a well-behaved child since he was young, never asking for things he shouldn't and never crying. When Chen Chao met him, although Miao Jiayan was already in the fifth grade, he still looked very small.

Only after Chen Chao finished speaking did he remember that Miao Jiayan had cried like that once before. That year, when his dad had cut off half his hair with a pair of scissors, Miao Jiayan had cried just like that. Hearing it from the neighboring courtyard was enough to startle anyone.

He didn't know if Miao Jiayan himself still remembered. In any case, he didn't deliberately bring it up to point out Chen Chao's imprecision, only smiling and saying, "Anyone can cry."

They hadn't seen each other for so long again, but unlike last year, there was no sense of distance between them this time. They were both very natural, neither of them acting awkwardly, as if they were still the same as before, together every day.

In the end, Chen Chao still went and bought a family bucket for Miao Jiayan. Miao Jiayan had no choice but to walk the whole way hugging the red bucket, feeling rather helpless and amused. Originally, Chen Chao had only mentioned KFC on a whim because of the crying child. But after they had walked a short distance, for some unknown reason, Chen Chao suddenly turned back and came out with a bucket, and an ice cream cone as well.

Miao Jiayan had never eaten it before. The whole way, he was smelling that greasy but fragrant aroma, only worried that the oil would seep through the paper bucket and stain his clothes.

Eating ice cream outside in the dead of winter was a bit silly. Miao Jiayan felt cold as he ate, but he persisted and finished it. After all, Chen Chao had bought it for him. The ice cream was very smooth. Aside from being a bit cold, it was indeed very delicious.

The honest child didn't know it came with the combo meal and just assumed Chen Chao had bought it specially for him.

Chen Guangda was also home, and in the evening, he took the two of them out to eat. Miao Jiayan, who had been carrying the bucket all this time, hadn't had a chance to eat it yet, so he had to carry it out with him again.

This was the first time in his life that Miao Jiayan had stayed over at someone else's house; he rarely even stayed at his own parents' place. Although he was only staying for one night and would be leaving with Chen Chao tomorrow, Chen Guangda still bought a lot of things for the house—snacks, fruit, yogurt—treating Miao Jiayan completely like a child.

"Miao'er is impressive, earning money before even graduating from high school. And from the looks of it, it's quite a lot," Chen Guangda said, sitting in the living room talking to Miao Jiayan while wearing a set of plaid pajamas.

Miao Jiayan sat with his back ramrod straight, a little reserved, and said, "I haven't earned it yet."

"Won't you have earned it after the shoot?" Chen Guangda was genuinely impressed and asked him, "Do your parents know?"

Miao Jiayan shook his head. "They don't know. I didn't tell them."

Chen Guangda looked at Miao Jiayan's delicate and pretty little face and sighed, "You really don't look like your dad at all. Your dad has a big, round face."

Miao Jiayan said, "My grandma said my dad was also very pretty when he was little, and that I looked a lot like him when he was my age."

"Get outta here!" Chen Guangda blurted out. "I know what your dad looked like as a kid. Your grandma is really not being objective, huh."

Miao Jiayan started to laugh. Chen Chao, who was packing his things in his room, was also amused by his dad's exaggerated "Get outta here!"

Chen Guangda was the kind of elder who made people feel genuinely at ease. He didn't put on any airs of a senior, nor did he act reserved. As he was talking, he even lay down, propped his legs on the back of the sofa, pointed at the eye drops on the coffee table, and said, "Miao'er, hand me the eye drops."

Miao Jiayan passed them over and asked, "Are your eyes bothering you?"

"I've got a sty, it's really irritating." Chen Guangda lay there, pulling his eyelid down to apply the eye drops, and yelled for Chen Chao, "Why aren't you out yet?"

Chen Chao came out carrying a backpack, placed it by the door, and said to Miao Jiayan, "If you're tired, go take a shower and lie down. You don't have to stay here and chat with him."

Miao Jiayan quickly said, "It's Uncle who's chatting with me."

"He's just pent-up. Usually, there's no one to talk to him. Once he finds someone, he won't stop talking."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?" Chen Guangda said with his eyes closed. "You don't pay any attention to me. Look how close Miao'er and I are, chatting back and forth."

"That's because he doesn't dare to leave," Chen Chao said, draping a new towel over Miao Jiayan's head. "Go on."

Miao Jiayan looked at Chen Guangda, feeling a bit too embarrassed to leave. Chen Chao grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. "Hurry up and go."

Only then did Miao Jiayan stand up and leave.

Miao Jiayan slept quite soundly by himself in the guest room at Chen Chao's house. When the alarm went off the next day, there was a moment when Miao Jiayan didn't know where he was.

When he came to his senses and remembered he was now at Chen Chao's house, he quickly got out of bed.

Chen Chao was already up too. He was used to getting up early to memorize things, so waking up wasn't difficult for him. This was very different from his junior high self, who would be grumpy when waking up. Back then, if he didn't sleep well, he'd have a dark look on his face.

Chen Guangda came out of his room yawning and said, "No rush, you two take your time getting ready. I'll drive you there in a bit."

"We don't need you to. I'll just get a taxi. You go back to sleep," Chen Chao said.

"I'm not sleepy anymore. It's on the way, I can run some errands on my way back after dropping you off." Chen Guangda turned his head to ask Miao Jiayan, "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Very well, Uncle." Miao Jiayan had just woken up, his hair was still messy, and he hadn't changed his clothes yet.

Chen Guangda said with a smile, "Then you should come over and hang out during your holidays, don't just stay cooped up at home all the time."

Miao Jiayan smiled and said okay.

Chen Guangda drove them to the airport. Miao Jiayan followed Chen Chao the whole way. On the plane, he was seated between Chen Chao and a stranger. Chen Chao said to him, "This is going to be a long flight. Get some sleep."

"I'm not sleepy. You should sleep," Miao Jiayan said softly.

For Miao Jiayan, this day was a bit of a chaotic mess.

After a few hours on the plane, there was immediately another three hours on a high-speed train. Someone picked them up after they got off the train, and then it was another drive of nearly two hours on country roads.

Looking out the car window at the country road, where another car passed by only occasionally, Miao Jiayan thought to himself, 'This really feels a bit like we're being sold off.'

Later on, flowers started to appear along the roadside, and the scent of flowers could be smelled inside the car. Only then did it start to feel real that they were here for a photoshoot.

The driver was a local and spoke with a dialect that they couldn't understand at all. When they arrived, he got out of the car himself, leaving the two of them with the car. He said something before he left, but they didn't understand that either.

In such an unfamiliar place, Miao Jiayan didn't feel very secure and stuck very close to Chen Chao, practically glued to his side the entire time.

The woman who had been in contact with them finally arrived a while later, greeting them, "It's pretty far, isn't it? I just got here myself, got delayed on the road for a bit."

Miao Jiayan greeted her, then introduced Chen Chao, saying, "This is my older brother."

"I know," the woman said with a smile. "He's very unreasonable."

'Impossible,' Miao Jiayan thought.

The woman looked the two of them up and down and asked, "A biological brother? Are you blood brothers?"

Miao Jiayan shook his head but didn't say anything.

The woman then smiled, glanced at each of them again, and said ambiguously, "I see. I get it."

Miao Jiayan didn't know what she 'got', and he didn't ask. The woman didn't chat idly with them anymore and started talking about work instead.

Miao Jiayan had to go for a fitting tomorrow morning. If things went smoothly, he would have his first shoot in the afternoon, right here.

The first two shoots would be here, and the next two would be in another city, a drive of over four hours.

The woman said, "Just stay at the base today. There are rooms here, and they're very clean. The other models all stay here when they come for shoots."

Miao Jiayan had no objections to whatever she arranged, always replying with an "Mhm" or "Okay."

Until he heard the woman say, "I'll have your hair cut tomorrow. It's too long right now."

Miao Jiayan froze abruptly and asked, "Cut my hair? How much?"

"To about here?" The woman reached out and gestured to a spot on Miao Jiayan's shoulder. "Is that okay?"

"No," Miao Jiayan shook his head decisively. "I'm not cutting it."

He subconsciously reached for Chen Chao and gripped his arm. Chen Chao turned to look at him.

"Just a little trim will be fine," the woman said. "Otherwise, if you never cut it, it won't look good, right?"

Miao Jiayan shook his head.

Chen Chao said, "That's too much. You're practically cutting it all off."

The woman was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry because of the two of them. She had to ask, "Well, it needs to be styled at least, right? Sweetie, your hair is just growing naturally without any shape. It'll look better if we style it."

Miao Jiayan was genuinely a little panicked, looking at them helplessly.

"We're not saying you can't style it, just that you can't cut it," Chen Chao said, reaching out to gesture at a point on Miao Jiayan's back. "To here at the most."

After speaking, he asked Miao Jiayan, "Is to here okay?"

Miao Jiayan nodded repeatedly.

"He doesn't let anyone touch his hair; he's been growing it out since he was a child," Chen Chao said calmly. "You have plenty of photo editing methods. Don't make things difficult for him."

The woman hadn't intended to make things difficult for him in the first place. In the end, she smiled helplessly and said, "You two are hilarious. Don't put me on the opposing side, okay? I'm the one helping you make money here."

Chen Chao said, "We're not putting you on the opposing side. Just don't cut his hair."