One Useless Rebirth

Filming set, deep jungle, frontier province.

“Cut! This shot passes!”

Jiang Guanshan waved his hand. First it was silence, then came the loud, thrilling cheers. The staff all surrounded Di Qiuhe, who had already worn out. They gave him a towel, checked whether he had been injured and praised him for his excellent performance in that chasing shot.

The supporting actor, Yang Wentian, drank the water given by the assistant, watching Di Qiuhe with a smile, who had picked himself up. Yang thumbed up and praised, “You’re amazing. The shot where you avoid the broken glass is impeccable.”

Di Qiuhe restored his normal breath and responded with a fist bump, smiling, “You have refused to use substitute and completed your fighting shot between the roofs of two running trucks. If such a brilliant actor says I’m awesome, then I’m really super awesome.”

As an action movie actor, audience were familiar with Yang Wentian, but he didn’t play in a hitting movie. Therefore, his popularity was just so-so and the resources given to him were also barely satisfactory. He was often marginalized and mocked directly and indirectly by some popular actors. He had thought that Di Qiuhe, as a popular star and a young mater of Huangdu, must be arrogant. But he found that Di Qiuhe was actually mild and easy to get along with just as the hearsay-Di Qiuhe didn’t put on airs or emphasized his relation with Huangdu, showing great respect to this senior.

The indirect praise by Di Qiuhe satisfied him a lot. He wore a more sincere smile and said in a milder manner, “That’s a piece of cake. My shot on the car roofs just seemed dangerous, but the whole team was ready to get my back, so nothing risky. But yours is different. The trajectory of the broken glass was uncontrollable, but you really took the risk and rejected substitute, very professional attitude. Amazing!”

Di Qiuhe squinted a smile and lowered his head, rubbing the nose. It seemed that the compliment from the senior made him shy.

“After all this work you should still have energy to compliment each other? You don’t look tired, how about another shot?” Jiang Guanshan shouted behind the camera, and the staff broke up with smiles.

Di Qiuhe and Yang Wentian looked each other and also burst out laughing. They became closer virtually. Then they came to Jiang Guanshan together.

After the director’s summary, Di Qiuhe backed to the makeshift resting area. He entered his room and asked the Wang Boyi who was coming towards him, “Have anyone wanted me?”

Wang Boyi didn’t attend the night shot, so he just got up. Hearing Di Qiuhe’s question, he checked the working phone that Di Qiuhe gave him, shaking his head, “Nope. The team said Qin Li has been quite well-behaved recently, nothing happened.”

Di Qiuhe nodded and let him leave. Having washed up, he reclined on the bed and took out his private phone from the drawer. It was dead. Frowned, he found the charger and connected the phone.

It took a little more time for an old phone to turn on. After all-night work, he had been extremely tired. When the phone finally turned on, he had closed his eyes unconsciously and almost felt asleep.

Ding Dong.

The ringtone of messages rang one after another.

He opened his eyes abruptly and became wild awake quickly, raising the phone in front of his eyes.

There were three messages. One from Jiang Xiuwen, one from Niu Junjie, and the last one was a missed call.

He rubbed his dilated eyes and checked them one by one.

Jiang Xiuwen: Don’t be discouraged. I will apologize to He Bai and intercede for you in a couple of days. You can only chase him step by step. Focus on your film first.

Niu Junjie: Xiao Bai had checked the things you mailed, but he was quite indifferent. I couldn’t see through him. Try harder!

His shining eyes dimmed, and he checked that missed call reminder. Actually, he didn’t attach much attention to it, thinking that it must have been from Jiang Xiuwen who didn’t like sending messages. It was not necessary to scan carefully.

But He Bai’s bark was always worse than his bite. Being indifferent and showing no thoughts might be his best response... “Or maybe I should go back to city B another time and talk to him seriously...and buy him some food and things he likes...”, he thought.

Then, he gradually lost his consciousness again. Just as his eyes almost closed, his blurred sight swept over the dimmed screen, and he saw “He Bai” vaguely. He was surprised and again became clear-headed.

He touched the screen and saw two words, “He Bai”, stood in the top of the screen, middle of the brief message. On the end of this message was the time of this call...10 p.m. yesterday!

Di Qiuhe sat up with rounded eyes. He repeatedly checked the content of this message with disbelief.

“It was him! He Bai called me at 10 p.m. yesterday.” It seemed that Di Qiuhe just finished a shot and took a short break at that time...but he didn’t bring his phone!

He...didn’t...bring...his...phone!

So he missed He Bai’s call.

He hit the bed and looked at the time. He Bai must have gotten up now. Di Qiuhe rubbed his face to cheer up and called back cautiously.

“Sorry, the number you dialed is no longer in service.”

He was baffled and called again hurriedly.

“Sorry, the number you dialed is no longer in service.”

“...”

So...he had been blocked again? Because he didn’t answer the call?

He pressed his head unconsciously.

He Bai was willing to call him probably because his heart had been softened and ready to forgive him. But Di Qiuhe’s phone was dead...he missed the call...

And then got blocked again...

His brain got blank for a while and then the relationship tips sent by Jiang Xiuwen flashed in his mind. In “One hundred behaviors lovers hate”, there was “Not answering the call!”

He lowered his shoulders and suddenly something occurred to him. He immediately got out of the bed and turned on the computer, connected campus network and searched for the account of He Bai. He sent a bunch of explanation messages. Then he logged on his Weibo alter that he had registered recently, clicked his only “special attention”, and then another bunch of messages were sent again.

These were not enough for him. Di Qiuhe took out the camera and began to record apologizing videos again.

Yep. He Bai called him after watching his “apologize by drinking three shots” video. So if Di Qiuhe sent more videos, he would call again?

Xu Yinrong took off his presbyopic glasses and frowned for a while. He looked at He Bai whose eyes were full of anxiety, asking, “I told you to hand me one photo each week, why do you give me ten now?”

He Bai scratched the belt of the camera bag and came up with numerous excuses and reasons in his mind. However, ultimately, he said honestly, “Because...I think none of them is satisfactory.”

He felt upset as he said, so he lowered his head gradually, “I have mastered the basic theory for group portraits photography, but when it came to practice...”

Xu Yinrong glanced him, saying nothing. He tiled the photos in front of He Bai and asked, “Then you tell me what their problems are.”

He Bai raised his head and carefully examined these photos one by one, criticizing himself without any consideration, “The color processing and the composition proportion are bad. The primary has been confused with secondary, and no theme is highlighted. Some portraits are even taken on the wrong angle, which has led to proportional distortion...Sorry, sir, I will redo it.”