WBAI Chapter 68

Jiang Xiaotian was still unaware that Yu Feng and Xie An’yu were already together, so he found Yu Feng’s reaction rather baffling: “What’s wrong with being gay…?”

He sensed that Yu Feng’s underlying tone sounded almost accusatory—as if questioning why they would assign a gay makeup artist to Xie An’yu.

In that instant, it suddenly dawned on Jiang Xiaotian.

Right—Yu Feng was gay too.

Previously, he only knew that Xie An’yu was staying at Yu Feng’s place. In his eyes, Xie An’yu was just a younger brother figure under Yu Feng’s care. He had never considered the possibility of a romantic relationship between Xie An’yu and Yu Feng.

Jiang Xiaotian licked his lips and fell silent as he watched Yu Feng stride directly toward Xie An’yu.

That makeup artist was quite well-known in the industry. Many models Yu Feng had photographed had hired him before, and it was no secret in the circle that he was gay. Not only was he gay, but he was also a gay that was notorious for his flirtatious pursuits. He had even hit on Yu Feng before—back when Yu Feng had just started working at 《Charm》 and hadn’t yet risen to his current position. At that time, the makeup artist had pursued him relentlessly and fearlessly.

So when Yu Feng saw him smiling and chatting with Xie An’yu, he couldn’t help but feel irritated.

Back then, the guy had failed to seduce him, and now, years later, he was trying to hit on his boyfriend.

The way he was staring so blatantly, it was as if he wanted to pluck his own eyeballs out and stick them onto Xie An’yu’s face.

As the photographer for this shoot, Yu Feng was expected to greet the model.

When Yu Feng approached, the makeup artist glanced up. They crossed paths quite often—they had just seen each other last month. Besides, the makeup artist had thick skin and didn’t dwell on his failed pursuit of Yu Feng years ago. Every time they met, he acted as if nothing had happened and struck up a conversation. Today was no exception.

“Teacher Yu,” the makeup artist said with a smile, his eyes crinkling. “Nice new glasses.”

Yu Feng gave a noncommittal ‘Mm’ and said, “Thanks.”

“They suit you perfectly. You should always wear this style.”

Yu Feng didn’t respond further and turned his gaze to Xie An’yu, speaking politely and professionally, “I hope we have a pleasant collaboration today.”

The two of them maintained a tacit, businesslike demeanor. Xie An’yu looked at him and nodded, “Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Yu.”

Yu Feng gave Xie An’yu a meaningful look, inwardly amused.

After makeup, they moved on to styling. By the time Xie An’yu’s hair was nearly done, Tang Shu finally arrived, entering the room surrounded by a group of people. Yu Feng was directing the staff to adjust the set when Xie An’yu noticed Tang Shu walking toward him.

“Handsome Brother?”

Hearing Tang Shu’s voice, Yu Feng turned around. Tang Shu put on an exaggerated expression of surprise, half-jokingly and half-seriously saying, “It really is you! I almost didn’t recognize you with the new glasses.”

“You wore your old pair for a long time, didn’t you? Why the sudden change?”

“That pair broke.”

“Why bother photographing models? You should just shoot yourself,” Tang Shu joked with a laugh. “What was Irene thinking, hiring you just as a photographer? Who ever heard of a photographer being more handsome than the models?”

Irene was the editor-in-chief of 《Charm》 and also one of its shareholders. She was the one who had recruited Yu Feng into 《Charm》 back in the day. At that time, Yu Feng had already won numerous photography awards—in documentary photography, artistic photography, and various other photography competitions—and had built a modest reputation in the industry.

Yu Feng initially joined 《Charm》 for no other reason than the high salary—he needed money, and he needed to stay by Cheng Sheng’s side.

“Go chat with your partner for a bit first. Get familiar with each other before the shoot starts,” Yu Feng said.

Tang Shu glanced back at Xie An’yu, who was getting his styling done, and chuckled. “What’s there to get familiar with in such a short time? We’ll just go with the flow later.”

“Just because you can go with the flow doesn’t mean he can. He’s a bit slow to warm up and will probably need some time to get into the groove.”

“Hey.” Tang Shu raised an eyebrow and lowered her voice. “What’s your relationship, really?”

“Boyfriend.”

“Not your tenant?” Tang Shu laughed. “You wouldn’t admit it before.”

“He was my tenant before. Now he’s my boyfriend.”

“Nice. ‘The pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first’.” Tang Shu crossed her arms. “Teacher Yu, you’ve got skills, landing such a young handsome guy.”

Yu Feng glanced at her. “Not as impressive as you, casually snagging a company CEO.”

Tang Shu grinned. “Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t know the story. What do you mean ‘casually’? I put in a lot of effort to chase her back then. You think it’s easy to land a CEO?”

Tang Shu’s assistant came over and called out to her, “Stop chatting! Hurry up and try on your clothes. After that, you still need to do your hair. Quick, quick, quick!”

“Hey, stop rushing me.” Tang Shu was dragged toward the fitting room by her assistant.

Yu Feng turned and glanced over at Xie An’yu. Xie An’yu had already changed into his outfit and finished his styling. This issue’s fashion theme was retro-inspired, and Xie An’yu was wearing a Hong Kong-style printed shirt¹港風印花襯衫 (gǎng fēng yìn huā chèn shān): T/N: I’ve no idea what Hong Kong-style printed shirt looked like, according to Baidu, it’s something like this:
with a standard pair of black suit pants. The shirt was tucked in, clearly outlining the lines of his waist.

His makeup was also done to match the outfit, making him look slightly more mature.

This kind of flamboyant style could easily look tacky if not worn well, but Xie An’yu’s calm and detached aura tempered the outfit’s inherent extravagance, making it look sexy instead.

Irene hadn’t chosen Xie An’yu without reason—she had her own considerations.

The stylist was fixing Xie An’yu’s hair, and the makeup artist, having finished his makeup, was still sitting beside him, chatting with a bright, cheerful smile.

The camera was mounted on a tripod. Yu Feng walked behind the camera, checked the settings, and said to Jiang Xiaotian beside him, “Ask Xie An’yu to come over for a test shot.”

Jiang Xiaotian responded, “Got it. I’ll go get him.”

Jiang Xiaotian called Xie An’yu over. Yu Feng looked toward the arched window and said to Xie An’yu, “Go sit on the sofa.”

Xie An’yu did as he was told and sat down. Yu Feng picked up the camera, pointed it at him, and checked the frame through the viewfinder.

Xie An’yu looked a bit lost, and his posture was somewhat stiff. Yu Feng had expected this—it would take him some time to get into the zone.

“Lie down on the sofa for a bit,” Yu Feng said to Xie An’yu.

“Huh…?”

Yu Feng walked toward him as he spoke. “Tang Shu is still changing. You can rest for a while.”

As he said this, Yu Feng also sat down on the sofa, camera in hand. He turned his head to look at Xie An’yu. “What was the makeup artist talking to you about?”

The studio was quite noisy, and Yu Feng’s voice was low, so only the two of them could hear.

Xie An’yu wasn’t sure why Yu Feng was suddenly asking this and felt a bit confused. “…I wasn’t listening.”

Yu Feng chuckled. “In one ear and out the other, huh?”

Xie An’yu smiled. “He talked too much, so I just tuned him out.”

“Block him as a person too,” Yu Feng said.

“Huh?” Xie An’yu didn’t quite understand.

“He’s gay. He’s interested in you.”

Xie An’yu was momentarily stunned.

Yu Feng asked him, “Besides your nose, where else did he touch you?”

Xie An’yu glanced at him: “Your eyes are so sharp.”

“Mm, that sharp. So? Where else did he touch you?”

“My forehead. I told him not to rub my face with his hands, and he didn’t touch me again.” Xie An’yu tilted his head and looked at him, “Is this jealousy?”

“Mm,” Yu Feng looked at him, “The kind that bottoms up in one gulp²T/N: Because jealous is written as 吃醋 (chī cù), lit. to eat vinegar. So, the kind of vinegar that bottoms up in one gulp mean that YF was instantly jealous as soon as he saw the make up artist flirting with XAY..”

Xie An’yu lowered his head and laughed.

The author has something to say:

Recently I’ve been a bit stuck, writing has been rather halting, and the pace might be somewhat slow. I’ve never been very good at writing daily life after falling in love. This time I want to extend the daily life storyline in the later parts to work on this weakness. This book has actually been quite difficult to write so far. Thank you all for your patience.

I forgot to say, but the author use both gay (in English) and 同性戀 (tóng xìng liàn), homosexuality; homosexual; lesbian(woman); gay(man); queer. I use bold to indicate that it was written in English.

List of Idiom in Chapter 68

無所畏懼 (wú suǒ wèi jù): fearless; dauntless; undaunted; have iron nerves; have nerves of steel; rise above fear; unafraid of anything; have nothing to fear; be not afraid of anything; without fear; utterly without fear.

窮追猛打 (qióng zhuī měng dǎ): hotly pursue and fiercely attack; vigorously pursue and fiercely maul; to pursue a defeated enemy relentlessly. This idiom is often extended to describe the continuous application of pressure in competition, such as “pursuing social phenomena relentlessly”.

近水樓臺先得月 (jìn shuǐ lóu tái xiān dé yuè): lit. the pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first (idiom); those on the waterfront are the first to see the rising moon―enjoy the benefits of a favourable position; proximity or closeness to someone or something grants an advantage or priority in gaining certain benefits; to benefit from intimacy with an influential person. The original meaning of this idiom is that the tower near the water gets the moonlight first. Later, it was used to describe the first person to get some benefits or conveniences because of being close to certain people or things.

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  港風印花襯衫 (gǎng fēng yìn huā chèn shān): T/N: I’ve no idea what Hong Kong-style printed shirt looked like, according to Baidu, it’s something like this:
  
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  T/N: Because jealous is written as 吃醋 (chī cù), lit. to eat vinegar. So, the kind of vinegar that bottoms up in one gulp mean that YF was instantly jealous as soon as he saw the make up artist flirting with XAY.