Chapter 44
Ji Wei’s heart pounded. He couldn’t help but open his Weibo client and post another update.
[Brother Lu’s Little Fanboy]I like my partner so much.
The two fan friends from before were surprisingly still awake and immediately commented.
[Lulu ah]This is why I don’t like to interfere in other people’s family conflicts. One moment they’re fighting, the next they’re all lovey-dovey.
[Lu Wei is Real]I’ve watched with my own eyes as a celebrity-following blog turned into a post-marital emotions blog. My heart aches.
Ji Wei sheepishly apologized to them, then put down his phone and slept exceptionally soundly.
***
The next day, Zhao Yue stretched and left his room. As he went downstairs, he was greeted by the fragrant smell of shiitake mushroom and shrimp congee.
He entered the kitchen.
Xiao Chi was up earlier than him, helping to carry the bowls and chopsticks from the kitchen to the table. He said to Old Sir Ma Liqing, “You’re getting older, you should rest more. You went to the supermarket so early to buy ingredients. Next time, just ask me to go.”
Old Sir Ma Liqing tasted the congee, added a little more salt to the pot, then turned off the heat and shook his head. “I didn’t buy the ingredients. Xiao Lu did.”
Zhao Yue yawned. Hearing Old Sir Ma Liqing’s words, he was utterly incredulous. “Senior Lu?”
It wasn’t that he was discriminating against disabled people.
But waking up early in the morning to buy a loving breakfast for everyone… just didn’t seem like something Film Emperor Lu would do.
[Film Emperor Lu must be cold on the outside but warm on the inside.]
[Everyone is slowly getting familiar with each other. That’s great.]
[Film Emperor Lu went to the supermarket in his wheelchair so early. This variety show is really heartwarming sometimes.]
Everyone except Ji Wei, who was still in his room getting dressed, was at the table. The atmosphere was cheerful and harmonious.
Zhao Yue expressed his thanks, “Thank you, Old Sir and Senior Lu.”
Old Sir Ma Liqing waved his hand. “There’s no need for thanks. I enjoy cooking in my spare time. I’m happy as long as everyone enjoys eating it.”
[I want a Grandpa Ma too!]
[I want to go to the Palace Museum Little Shop for a free meal. The congee looks so delicious.]
[I’m getting hungry just watching through the screen. I’m going to go cook a pack of instant noodles.]
Lu Shenxing said nothing.
Zhao Yue looked over at Lu Shenxing. The man picked up his phone from the side and then spoke, “Let’s add each other on WeChat.”
Zhao Yue was flattered. Film Emperor Lu was taking the initiative to add him on WeChat? What an honor! He quickly stood up and took out his phone. “You can just scan me.”
After adding each other, Zhao Yue sat back down.
He hadn’t even had two sips of congee when he felt Lu Shenxing’s gaze fixated on him. His hand trembled as he drank, and he couldn’t help but start wondering if he had said something wrong.
But he had only exchanged a few sentences with Lu Shenxing in total! As his heart pounded with anxiety, Lu Shenxing raised an eyebrow and asked, “Shouldn’t you ‘like’ it?”
His tone was so matter-of-fact, as if not “liking” his posts was something incomprehensible.
“Alright.”
Zhao Yue nodded quickly. He was also quite curious about what content had been posted.
But when he clicked into Lu Shenxing’s photo album, he almost choked. It was all content about Ji Wei, making it look like a very one-sided display of affection.
He felt a pang of jealousy and didn’t really want to “like” them. But with Lu Shenxing’s gaze lingering on him, he had no choice but to “like” them all one by one. Only then did that gaze disappear.
Zhao Yue was speechless. …Is he for real?
[Curious about what Film Emperor Lu posted on his social media. Zhao Yue looks so unwilling.]
[Zhao Yue is a bit tactless. It’s one thing to argue with Xiao Chi, but Film Emperor Lu probably rarely posts on his social media. And he’s like this when asked to give a ‘like’.]
[+1, if I had Film Emperor Lu’s WeChat, I’d ‘like’ his posts every day! The grass is always greener on the other side.]
Xiao Chi suddenly felt a gaze land on him. He immediately and tactfully took out his phone. “Liked, liked! I already liked them last night.”
The atmosphere at the table returned to its cheerful and harmonious state.
He exchanged a look with Zhao Yue, a look of shared suffering.
When Ji Wei came out of his room, this was the scene he saw. He sat down to drink his congee, and the app suddenly popped up with a message.
—Please achieve a turnover of two hundred thousand US dollars. Task reward: Shopping List.
A shopping list?
Although he didn’t know what it was, judging from the previous rewards, it probably wouldn’t be bad. But a turnover of two hundred thousand US dollars was double that of last week, making it even more difficult.
After finishing breakfast, the group walked out of the small shop. The goods that the production team had air-freighted over were already placed at the entrance.
Ji Wei took an inventory.
This time, the shipment was quite generous: two boxes of washi tape, two boxes of notebooks, and one box of lipsticks.
The washi tape was priced at five dollars, the notebooks at fifteen dollars, and a set of lipsticks at one hundred dollars. If they could sell everything, it would definitely be far more than two hundred thousand dollars.
But the difficulty lay in how to sell them.
“Handing out flyers last time worked pretty well. Should we go to the plaza to hand out flyers?” Zhao Yue said.
Xiao Chi also nodded. “There’s a lot of foot traffic there, and everyone comes out on the weekends.”
Old Sir Ma Liqing also nodded in agreement.
Lu Shenxing lowered his gaze. “We can also promote it on social media.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up at once. They hadn’t thought of that. The impression the show had always given them was one of simplicity and being close to nature, where they had to do everything themselves. They hadn’t thought of using the internet.
Zhao Yue immediately registered accounts on Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms, filmed a short video introducing the products, and uploaded it.
[I never thought I’d be watching other people use the internet on the internet.]
[Hahahahahaha, I even went and gave it a ‘like’.]
[Me too!]
While the guests were putting the goods on the shelves, they got their first comment.
[Elisa]Can you take a picture and show the swatches?
Swatches?
Ji Wei was a little troubled.
This set of Forbidden City lipsticks, apart from the relatively light Shanli Bean Red, had very intense colors, like Gejin Purple, which were not very suitable for men to wear.
Fortunately, Xiao Chi had experience. He opened a set of lipsticks, rolled up his sleeves, and applied different shades in streaks on his arm.
Zhao Yue took a picture and sent it.
[Elisa]Sorry, I’d like to see a picture of it on the lips. Do you have one?
They really didn’t have one of those.
This set of Forbidden City lipsticks was a new product that hadn’t been officially released yet, so they couldn’t even find promotional photos. Zhao Yue sighed, “Then we’ll have to wait for a customer to come and take a picture.”
“Maybe I can try?”
Ji Wei suddenly said.
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Is Weiwei going to wear lipstick? Exciting!]
[Not discriminating against boys wearing lipstick, but some of the colors are obviously not suitable for him. They’d only look good with heavy makeup. On a bare face, it would look really strange.]
[He probably doesn’t get it? Xiao Chi should know more about makeup, and he didn’t offer to wear it himself. It’s easy to get screenshotted into an unflattering photo.]
Xiao Chi handed the lipstick to Ji Wei.
Ji Wei took a tube of Shanli Bean Red and applied a thin layer to his lips. His complexion was already fair, and his usual aura was more of a vibrant, youthful one. Now, he actually looked somewhat glamorous.
Lu Shenxing’s gaze fell on the young man’s face, then slowly moved down, from his smooth forehead to the curve of his nose, and then to his tightly pressed lips.
After a moment—
He averted his gaze, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
The bullet comments were frantically spamming “I’m so here for this.”
[Ahhhhhhhhh, so good-looking!]
[Give me a dozen of such little brothers!]
[Why can’t we buy online? I want to buy the lipstick in Weiwei’s hand too.]
After applying the lipstick, Ji Wei looked at the camera, then went back to his room and brought out a set of watercolors.
The bullet comments were confused.
[What is he going to do?]
[Is he going to paint?]
[Probably. Whispering here, but it wouldn’t take much time to swatch all five lipsticks. There’s no need to paint.]
Ji Wei planned to paint a poster.
For a product like lipstick, the most suitable promotional method was a strong visual impact, which was much more effective than just talking about it.
He took out an 8K sheet of Waterford Fine Grain Paper, sketched a woman’s face with a pencil, and then opened his solid watercolors.
—Schmincke Artist Grade.
He used the wet-on-wet technique, first quickly brushing a layer of water on the watercolor paper, then blending it with cobalt yellow. He then dabbed carmine red on the eye sockets, cheeks, and neck shadows to create the skin tone.
[Is he really painting? But doesn’t that seem like a waste of time?]
[But his movements are so smooth and fluid, it’s very satisfying to watch.]
[Okay, I’m done painting.]
After applying the base color, while the water on the paper was still wet, Ji Wei mixed Prussian blue and manganese violet with water and boldly painted it on the paper.
[Is this… a disaster? A purple face is too weird.]
[He’s not done yet.]
[Maybe it’s just that kind of artistic style? I don’t really get it.]
While the face was drying, Ji Wei began to paint the clothes with purple, layering the paint to create a silk shirt with a distinct sheen.
[Why do I find the face so harmonious now?]
[It’s the difference between local color and environmental color. A person wearing purple clothes will have a different face color than someone wearing other colors.]
[Thanks to the person in front for the explanation! I’m watching Weiwei paint on my knees.]
After washing his brush, he began to work on the details of the face, from each individual eyelash to the strands of hair. The last thing he painted was the lips.
The difficulty lay in mixing the colors.
He mixed Indian yellow into carmine red, tested the color on a piece of paper—it was a bit too heavy. He added a little more water…
After repeated swatching, he finally mixed a color he was satisfied with.
He applied it to the paper.
After applying the base color, he began to work on the shadows and highlights, switching to a finer brush to outline the fine lines of the lips.
He wasn’t even finished, but the bullet comments were already filled with gasps of amazement.
[Oh my god, is he really not painting a real person? It’s giving me goosebumps.]
[I went back and watched it again, and I still don’t understand how he painted it. It suddenly became so realistic.]
[It’s the shadows and highlights. They make it look three-dimensional right away. That being said, to paint to this level is truly amazing. It’s just that the lip color is darker than the one he swatched just now.]
[It does seem darker.]
Ji Wei finished painting the person but didn’t put down his brush. He painted a tube of Shanli Bean Red lipstick on the side. After the paper dried, he posted it outside the shop.
Zhao Yue also used a marker to write down the types of products for sale on a white sheet of paper, posted it next to the poster, and took a picture to send to Elisa.
Ji Wei returned to his seat. Xiao Chi handed him another lipstick of a different color, but Ji Wei didn’t take it.
Xiao Chi was a little surprised. “Don’t you need to swatch it before you paint?”
Ji Wei shook his head. “No need.”
When he tried the Shanli Bean Red, he had already understood the texture of his own lips. He could completely imagine the color of the other four lipsticks on his lips; there was no need to try them.
[But the lip color on the poster is indeed darker. And that was after swatching. Without swatching, the deviation might be even more severe.]
[I think so too.]
[The poster doesn’t have to be accurate, right? As long as it looks good.]
By the time Ji Wei finished painting the last poster, it was almost noon. The effect was indeed significant. Passersby would stop curiously, and with Zhao Yue’s sales pitch, they would enter the shop to have a look.
In Ji Wei’s opinion, this set of Forbidden City lipsticks had colors that were on the darker and heavier side, but surprisingly, they suited the tastes of Americans.
The best-selling one was not the fresh and light Shanli Bean Red, but the intensely colored Gejin Purple.
He could only attribute it to different aesthetic preferences.
After posting the posters, he and Lu Shenxing sat at the counter, collecting money and packaging items. Xiao Chi and Old Sir Ma Liqing went to the plaza to hand out posters, constantly bringing people back. The two of them were so busy they could barely manage.
By the end of the morning, the shelves were half empty.
However, they were still far from the required turnover of two hundred thousand US dollars; they only had eighty thousand now.
Because customers were still pouring in, they could only take turns eating lunch. When Ji Wei was pushing Lu Shenxing into the kitchen, Zhao Yue suddenly called out to him, “You should go check outside the shop. Something’s happened.”
Ji Wei’s heart skipped a beat, wondering what had happened. He looked outside and saw a white woman standing in front of the poster, talking to Xiao Chi.
He walked over and asked, “Is there a problem?”
She frowned and said, “I came here because of the picture you posted. I thought it was a photo, but I didn’t expect it to be a painted poster.”
She glanced at Ji Wei’s lips. “The color is also lighter than on the poster. You can’t even call it a swatch.”
Ji Wei understood. She was Elisa from Twitter.
[When Zhao Yue took the picture and sent it earlier, I wanted to say that the color didn’t seem right, but nobody noticed.]
[She seems hard to deal with.]
[+1, I thought she was a sweet, soft girl from her profile picture.]
Xiao Chi was apologizing, but Ji Wei didn’t say anything. He turned and entered the small shop, bringing out the set of lipsticks that had been opened earlier.
“I only applied a thin layer,” Ji Wei said, opening the Shanli Bean Red and darkening it on his lips. “This is the proper thickness.”
It was exactly the same as the lip color on the poster.
The bullet comments were shocked.
[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! I kneel before the master’s lipstick swatch.]
[A swatch? He can just paint it for you directly.]
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I’m going to repost this on Weibo! I won’t allow anyone to have not seen this video!]
Elisa seemed a little surprised. Xiao Chi sensed the change in her expression and persuaded her, “Since you’re already here, why not give it a try? You’d look great in this color.”
[Hahahahahaha, the classic Chinese phrase: ‘Since you’re already here…’]
[Xiao Chi’s got this!]
[A man’s words are a deceiving ghost.]
Under Xiao Chi’s persuasion, Elisa decided to try the lipstick. However, she didn’t take the Shanli Bean Red, but… the Gejin Purple.
She looked in the mirror, applied an even layer, and then looked at the poster with suspicion. She found that the color was indeed exactly the same, with only subtle differences due to her original lip color and texture.
Only then did her anger subside. She happily bought a set of lipsticks and five notebooks. Before leaving, she praised Ji Wei, “You paint so well. I’ll recommend my friends to come and buy.”
[Hahahahahaha, a hater-to-fan conversion scene.]
[If I were her, seeing such a handsome little brother, why would I still be angry? I’d just take out my money and buy a hundred sets.]
[A hundred sets? It has to be a thousand.]
Receiving the customer’s praise, Ji Wei smiled shyly.
He turned and entered the shop, planning to have lunch first before working again. At the current rate of earning, he would likely have to work until the evening and might not even finish.
So he had to eat more.
He walked into the kitchen and felt Lu Shenxing’s gaze fall on his lips. He suddenly realized he was still wearing lipstick. “I’ll wipe it off with a tissue first.”
“It won’t come off,” the man said, retracting his gaze. After a pause, he added, “Follow me.”
Lu Shenxing wheeled himself outside. Ji Wei followed, and after a few steps, he realized they were heading back to their room.
He immediately understood. There should be makeup remover in the room. This kind of makeup was indeed hard to remove with just a tissue.
They entered the room.
He suddenly heard the man’s hoarse voice say, “Close the door.”
He closed the door, blocking the cameraman outside. There were no cameras in the room, and he felt much more relaxed.
He had been working all morning and was quite tired.
He beat Lu Shenxing to the sofa and sat down. The moment he sat, he felt a lot of his fatigue disappear.
Then, Lu Shenxing came to his side.
The man raised an eyebrow, his voice low and deep as he asked, “How about I help you wipe that off, okay?”
Ji Wei nodded. He didn’t usually wear makeup, so he indeed didn’t have things like makeup remover in his suitcase.
The man leaned forward. He thought he was going to be given makeup remover, but before he could hold out his hand, the back of his head was firmly held, and his chin was forced up by a hand.
And then—
Warm lips descended. This series of actions came so suddenly that he stared wide-eyed, completely at a loss, never having expected this kind of… wiping method.
The man kissed him slowly and deliberately, as if trying to forcefully wipe off the lipstick, demanding again and again, tirelessly licking and sucking.
His mind went blank.
His breathing became more and more difficult.
Ji Wei subconsciously tried to struggle free, but the man held his chin, and he could only tilt his head up and be forced to accept the kiss.
When the kiss was over, Ji Wei’s face was beet red. He thought to himself, how is his idol so good at kissing, and getting more and more skilled at it?
His brain was still in a state of oxygen deprivation, and he couldn’t help but ask the question on his mind, “Have you kissed a lot of people?”
He sobered up the moment he asked the question and instantly felt a little regretful. His question sounded vaguely like an accusation.
It wasn’t like he cared that much.
Just.
A little bit, that’s all.
Hearing his words, the man looked up, met his eyes, and reined in his casual demeanor. “Only you.”
“However—” his gaze shifted down, stopping ambiguously on Ji Wei’s lips. He paused and said, “I’ve thought about it many times.”