The Villain Runs Wild

Ch 47 - Newest Top Celebrity x Washed Up Film Emperor: Honey Peach Smoke


“Boss, we’re almost at IN’s photography studio, just let me deal with it if you’re dissatisfied with anything once we get there.”

The car advanced smoothly, and Fu Nai spoke as she looked at Lin Sui, who was resting with his eyes closed.

Lin Sui’s prediction had been right, IN had been especially persistent regarding this collaboration, or perhaps it would be better to say they had been especially insistent regarding this two-person collaboration. After she had tactfully declined, someone from their side came looking for her to invite her for a meal just to talk about this business.

In order to test the meaning behind her boss’ words, Fu Nai had probed their disposition by proposing a single-person cover shoot, but the other party was particularly stubborn in that it could only be a two-person shoot. Fu Nai deliberately relaxed her tone and dragged her answer out for two days.

As she looked at Lin Sui in this moment, she admired him more and more.

Lin Sui agreed. He met Yan Qin, who had also come to the shoot, when he got out of the car.

Yan Qin was wearing casual clothes and sunglasses, only exposing his thin lips and the line of his lower jaw, and his figure was tall and straight, which gave people the feeling of being calm and reserved, like a piece of black jade.

Lin Sui’s sight swept over and past his body, treating it as though he wasn’t there.

With his popularity flourishing even more recently, his arrogance naturally also had to get bigger and bigger.

Yan Qin silently walked behind him, attentively watching his back.

His sunglasses covered up the greed and longing in his eyes, and he appeared calm and breezy.

Monina told them about the two programmes planned for the shooting, and Lin Sui proceeded into the dressing room without objection to change his makeup and clothes.

Putting makeup on actors was usually faster than on actresses, and since Lin Sui and Yan Qin were both born with naturally superior looks, the makeup artists didn’t need to spend that much effort before they were ready for the shoot.

Lin Sui wore a white suit, and Yan Qin had on a black suit that formed a clear contrast.

“Mr. Yan, just stay like that, raise your head a tiny bit more, yes.”

Su Rui grabbed the camera and directed the people in the set, quickly pressing the shutter.

In the set, the young master in the white suit sat down on a chair, coldly looking down at his own cuffs as the attendant fastened its buttons for him.

Su Rui found that she basically didn’t need to direct Lin Sui, he simply portrayed his inner qualities to the extreme, making it look like he was a cold, arrogant, selfish, and contemptuous young master, treating the attendant waiting on him with complete indifference.

Yan Qin’s expression was mild, but his eyes always followed Lin Sui.

Su Rui had been a little worried before the photoshoot, after all, the two of them seemed to have unsuitable atmospheres and she was afraid they wouldn’t harmonise within the scene. But after going into the shooting, Su Rui discovered she had been wrong. The atmosphere between the two was completely natural, the difference between the follower and subordinate obvious at a glance, but something was hidden within this discrepancy that was just beginning to stir.

It was just too obscured, like a monster underneath the calm surface of the water, hibernating and only revealing its faint shadow. Su Rui wanted more of the audience to understand this feeling.

“Mr. Yan, pull off your tie and fasten it over Lin Sui’s eyes, then look at him.”

The theme for this issue was called [Gaze], the audience could regard the subject as the focus of the photo, and they could also regard the object as the focus; Gaze was a combination of both dynamic and static processes in which one party transmitted feelings or received feedback from the other.

Lin Sui slightly wrinkled his brows, but he didn’t say anything in rejection.

Yan Qin showed Su Rui an appreciative gaze, she really was a professional photographer.

He undid his tie and covered Lin Sui’s eyes, and his fingers accidentally flitted past the outer corner of Lin Sui’s eyes through the cloth as he gazed at him through the black material.

Both calm and ardent, overcast and bright.

In the black-and-white photos, his gaze was like a wild fantasy, the taboo of disrespecting one’s superiors, and the suppression of emotions was veiled within its dark view.

Su Rui continuously clicked the shutter, she wasn’t shooting Yan Qin’s face from the front, she only needed this interaction.

Even though his eyes had been covered, the young man’s seated body language was relaxed and at ease, as if he could skilfully handle every situation, outside of his range his sight, the man that had originally been his subject was now spying on him.

Whether he knew about the insubordinate heart of the person next to him or not was naturally up to the audience to determine.

This set of photos went exceptionally smoothly, and Su Rui beamed as she spoke: “Let’s go do to the next one.”

Lin Sui got the clothes he was going to use for the next set of photos, it was a black T-shirt and a loose pair of casual shorts.

The fabric of the shirt was very textured, it felt and looked very smooth as it draped down, but it just seemed a bit too wide, not at all Lin Sui’s size.

“Did you give me the wrong one?”

Fu Nai looked at Lin Sui, whose neckline slid down as he walked and exposed a small part of his shoulder, and knit her brows.

Monina explained: “It’s supposed to be like that, we wanted to show the painter’s causal and relaxed attitude through the clothes, it should be fine, right Suisui?”

People in the industry would sometimes refer to each other in this way to indicate closeness.

“Just hurry up.”

Lin Sui pulled up the collar of his clothes, cold and impatient.

Monina smiled and said: “We’ll go as quickly as possible.”

Lin Sui went to the other photo studio. Although the colour palette of this set was still black and white, compared to the dark tones from just now, the overall style was lively and warm.

The room was neat and spacious, with warm-toned lighting, and there was a drawing easel and paint brush to be used as props.

Yan Qin was wearing a white shirt which, under Su Rui’s discretion, exposed his collarbones, and the hem of his shirt was also slightly raised, his faintly-discernible Adonis belt tempting people to take a peek.

Lin Sui pressed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, feeling a slight itchy and numb sensation.

“You guys just interact casually first, try to find the feeling.”

Su Rui was actually thinking about how to direct their poses, but she felt like they hadn’t gotten into the mood yet, so she had to wait a bit more.

Apart from the lighting technician, she was the only one in the studio so as to prevent others from disturbing the mood.

The interaction between a painter and model was, of course, one posing and one painting.

Lin Sui grabbed the dry paintbrush and twirled it between his fingers as he looked Yan Qin up and down once.

Yan Qin faced him with a somewhat uneasy gaze, like a model who’d just entered the industry, silent and inexperienced, yet also exuding a particularly masculine charm.

“Why is Professor Yan so stiff? How could this sort of model catch anyone’s eyes?”

Lin Sui walked next to Yan Qin, using the paintbrush to poke at his stiff muscles.

When people called Yan Qin ‘Professor1’, it was as a way to respect the status of his acting skills, but when Lin Sui called him that, it always carried a hint of sarcasm and ridicule.

“What do you want me to do?”

Yan Qin lowered his eyes as he asked, his gaze falling on the small exposed part of Lin Sui’s smooth and fair skin.

Lin Sui lifted his arm, touching Yan Qin’s face with the paintbrush in his hand. The brush wandered over his skin, sweeping over the high bridge of his nose and cheeks with careless movements.

The loose cloth on his body tilted to the other direction as he lifted his hand, and the thin and pale, flippant painter drew over the body of the taciturn and docile model.

Su Rui immediately raised her camera and began taking pictures, concentrating on capturing and recording the scene with single-hearted devotion.

“Sit on the ground.”

Lin Sui pushed him lightly with his hand, and Yan Qin obediently sat down on the ground, lifting his head to look up at Lin Sui, both dangerous and harmless.

Lin Sui leaned over, both sides looking at each other.

Su Rui took pictures excitedly. She had shot many models and stars before, but no matter how familiar they were with their partners, they could never produce this kind of feeling.

These were clearly just casual actions, but they had even more feeling than her detailed plan.

As Lin Sui leaned closer and closer, Yan Qin became somewhat dizzy from smelling the warm fragrance of his body.

Under the bright light, vague scenes flashed through his mind, seemingly fake and seemingly real.

He sat on the floor in a cramped room, and Lin Sui stood not far from him, quietly watching his profane actions.

And… he stepped on that place with his foot.

Thinking about that scene made a tide surge within his heart, and made him remember that time he held Lin Sui’s ankle on the first day of the year.

Lin Sui probably grew up pampered, so the sole of his foot was also soft and fair, and turned red after a while.

Yan Qin steadied his breathing, if his current abnormality was discovered, Lin Sui would treat him like a pervert.

As the warm fragrance grew closer and closer, Yan Qin heard Lin Sui whisper in his ear.

“Didn’t you refuse my compensation back then? Why are you running to tie yourself to me now? It seems that some people are hypocrites, unless you feel like becoming popular is more important?”

His warm breath carried dense malice, filled with disdain and ridicule.

Yan Qin titled his head, looking at his beautiful face with red lips and white teeth. He knew Lin Sui had misinterpreted his actions, but he wasn’t going to explain himself.

In light of Lin Sui’s temper, he would probably be mocked if he revealed his true feelings and thoughts, so it would be better to let Lin Sui think he was doing this for his own interests, this way, he even had a reason to approach him.

Lin Sui liked when others begged him, so he would voluntarily be the beggar under his control, and invade little by little.

Su Rui didn’t know and didn’t care what Lin Sui and Yan Qin were talking about, she was pressing the shutter so fast it almost turned into a Gatling. She wasn’t the kind of photographer that chose a single moment to capture, she liked capturing as many scenes with feeling as possible, then pick what to delete and adjust.

“Are you agreeing tacitly?”

When Lin Sui finished his question, he increased the distance between them and drew the outline of Yan Qin’s collarbone with the brush in his hand.

This toed the line between flirting and provocation, but the unconcerned expression on his face made it seem like he only wanted to tease.

Lin Sui was a little dissatisfied. If they weren’t in a photo studio and there weren’t other people around, this wouldn’t be the place he’d be tracing over, another place was much more interesting.

Seeing Yan Qin didn’t say anything, Lin Sui left his side and stood in front of the drawing easel.

A piece of white paper was spread out on the easel, Lin Sui dipped the paint brush in black ink and began drawing over the white paper.

Su Rui wasn’t planning on going and shooting the easel from the front, after all, she couldn’t estimate what Lin Sui’s drawing skills were, so she went and shot from the side, controlling the whole atmosphere.

The beautiful, laid-back, conceited painter and the model he was guiding, the scene seemed like a warm and humid forest with a faintly-discernible ambiguity, concealed under the sun, like vague dreams.

The indoor space was still clearly pleasantly cool, but for some reason Su Rui felt sweat on her back. She was inspired and had a new idea, so she took out a cigarette pack from her bag, then grabbed a cigarette and a lighter.

“Lin-ge, can you try smoking for a bit? You don’t have to do anything, just choose a pose and light it up. This won’t be used on the cover, I can pay more.”

If she used it on the cover, there would inevitably be suspicions that she advocated it, which was not good. Su Rui wasn’t going to do that, she just wanted to take the pictures of Lin Sui she felt like taking, so she would pay for it herself.

She really liked the decadently seductive and unrestrained feeling on Lin Sui, it did not give the sense of depravity, but rather that of a gorgeous mystery, making people unable to stop themselves from wanting to catch a glimpse of it.

“I can,” Lin Sui raised his chin, naturally prompting for Yan Qin to take the prop for him and looking at the people inside the room, “But I need to find the feeling, can you go out first?”

Although he had asked a question, the manner in which he spoke was undoubtedly a statement.

Su Rui: “Is around 5 minutes fine?”

Lin Sui nodded, so Su Rui and the lightning technician left. The door of the room closed quietly, leaving both Lin Sui and Yan Qin as the only two people in the studio.

“If you want to cling to me to become popular again, you have to pay a price, right?”

Lin Sui sat on a chair, crossing his legs and calmly looking Yan Qin as he bit down on the flavoured cigarette.

“I need to have a teacher on call.”

Lin Sui allowed Yan Qin to light his cigarette, biting down on the flavour bead inside of it.

Honey peach flavoured smoke escaped from his slightly parted lips, and the loose black clothes on the young man’s body contrasted against his fair skin all the more.

That attitude left no room for discussion, lively and fragrant.

 

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1 If you remember the previous note about this, the vast majority of the time when characters address Yan Qin as “Mr. Yan” they’re actually calling him ‘Yan-laoshi’, but in english you don’t really call people ‘teacher’ or ‘professor’ unless they’re actually educators so I haven’t been translating it literally.