Chapter 53: Summer Cold (1)
Lin Xia sat back immediately at the moment when He Bai said this.
The man on the other side of the phone said a few words more, and He Bai got more and more confused. He looked at Lin Xia, while trying to make sure on the phone with a slower pace, “I understood. You mean you would like to have your daughter choose her favorite set of clothes to take photos in all of the clothing series to be launched currently by Little Mermaid?”
Lin Xia frowned and her eyes were shadowed with a shade of unhappiness.
“Yes. I’ve heard that Mr. He and my son Qiuhe are good friends. So if we cooperate successfully, then Qiuhe will be very happy as he loves his sister so much.” Qin Li got a gentle and pleasant voice, yet she spoke in a directive tone which was usual to a superior.
He Bai saw that Lin Xia was displeased, and he guessed that Lin Xia was not quite willing to lend out the princess series. Therefore he replied in a good manner, “Mrs. Di, I and Qiuhe are indeed good friends. But I think public and private lives should always be kept separate. I am now just a photographer of the clothes of Little Mermaid, so I can’t decide if the clothes should be lent out or not. Thank you for your appreciation and invitation. I will definitely convey your request honestly to the person in charge of Little Mermaid. And once there is a result the person in charge will inform you instantly. Thank you again for your love and support towards Little Mermaid. Good-bye.” He hung up right after the speech and looked at Lin Xia.
Lin Xia was consoled a little bit by him, and she asked, “It was Qin Li the chairman’s wife of Huangdu who wanted to borrow the Princess collection?” He Bai nodded and showed her the number on the phone.
Being in charge of a luxurious clothing brand, Lin Xia had a whole picture in mind of all the contact details of those wives from the upper class of city B. So after a glance at the last few digits of that number, she was quite sure that it was Qin Li’s daily working number. She frowned and thought for a while, “I’ll handle this, you don’t need to care about it anymore. If she calls you again, just brush her off like before.”
He Bai said yes and asked tentatively, “Then what about Mrs. Di’s request to borrow the Princess collection…”
“Not gonna happen!” Lin Xia replied firmly. She then said ironically, “We have been promoting our brand for so long by saying ‘unveiling the secret Princess collection upon the day we launch it.’ As long as she was sane she would never have come here and made such an unreasonable request. Besides, the Princess collection is the highlight of Little Mermaid, so the company has already decided who to wear it first a long time ago. Not even I can decide it. That’s why there is only one answer to her request, which is no.”
He Bai was struck by thought after hearing it. He recalled the scene of Di Qiuhe falling down from the building in the last life and how Di Chunhua looked like when she cried her heart out in front of the reporters’ cameras. He also recalled the cute look of Di Qiuhe eating noodles in his dormitory, and suddenly wanted to protect him. He frowned on purpose and asked her in confusion, “But Ms. Lin, why didn’t Mrs. Di ask you directly if she wanted to borrow the Princess collection? Why did she call a newly-appointed photographer like me? And why did she mention the friendship between me and Di Qiuhe? What did she mean? If she wanted to seek for a favor through my friendship with Qiuhe, then she should have called him first and asked him to tell me. It would be better that way. I don’t see it’s making any sense the way she handled this matter. But if she just wanted to borrow the clothes and then patronize the work of Qiuhe’s friend, which was me, she should also have gone to you first. She should have complimented me in front of you and then it might work. Now she went to me directly without contacting you so that I still needed to tell you about that. No matter if she could borrow it or not, I would be suspected of taking Little Mermaid as my own wardrobe and doing favors on my own will. Then you wouldn’t be happy about that. This is purely sowing division between us. So what does she want for all of this?”
Lin Xia was quite confused by his speech. She hadn’t thought that much, but now she couldn’t help thinking about it further.
Of course, as the wife of Huangdu’s chairman and the manager of the department of artists reserve, Qin Li would never have done such a stupid thing. Her phone call today was very improper, either out of private or public reason. If she wasn’t by He’s side when he was answering the phone, she would definitely had felt unhappy about him making an unreasonable request when he mentioned it. Although she wouldn’t do anything to He, but if there was a discord between them, it would somehow affect their cooperation and that would be very harmful to the future work.
Little Mermaid was a new brand and it wasn’t easy to find the right photographer. Now a great success was right at the doorstep, if He went into a quarrel with Little Mermaid because of this clothes-borrowing incident, then the popularity of Little Mermaid would probably be halved, as it relied heavily on He Bai’s photography technique.
Moreover, she heard that, as a stepmother, Qin Li didn’t have a good relationship with the oldest son. Now she suddenly made such an improper phone call to the good friend of the oldest son, and also in the name of the oldest son. That was really confusing.
Let’s assume that the phone call was not made by Qin Li out of stupidity, but on purpose…then not only did she want to set the oldest son up, but also she wanted to set the good friend of him up. So she aimed at driving a wedge between the oldest son and his good friend?
She was struck when thinking about that and had a feeling that she might have found the truth. Women know how bitchy they peers could be. Qin Li must have hated the son left by the first wife so much that she wished he had been isolated by all of his friends and family.
Even if she had already had a conclusion, Qin Li asked cautiously, “He, how long have you known the oldest son of Huangdu? Has he got many friends around him?”
He Bai shook his head honestly and kept forging a poor image of Di Qiuhe, “Not for so long. And I think you have already heard that Di was my senior. His family was not in a good condition, and ever since his grandpa died he has been…I never saw any other friend of him anyway.”
The more uncertain the answer is, the more space to speculate.
Lin Xia slightly frowned and her eyes were filled with sympathy. ‘Ever since the grandpa died he has not been in a good situation…That’s why people always say with a stepmother comes the stepfather.’ For all these years, no one ever knew that there was an oldest son in Huangdu. That was definitely because of Qin Li.
Di Qiuhe had always been regarded as a great kid of great personality and capability. He was a senior who took good care of his junior student that he even introduced a great job to him, yet he didn’t have any friends around. Maybe, it was because of the interference of the stepmother that he dared not to make any friends.
Now Di Qiuhe had terminated the contract with Huangdu and left the Di family. He finally made a new friend but the stepmother again…The more Lin Xia speculated, the more sympathetic she was towards Di Qiuhe. She looked at He Bai’s innocent face and sighed, “He, Mrs. Di’s phone call was definitely not friendly, and you should keep distance to her and try not to have any contacts with her. Since Di Qiuhe could introduce this deal with the Jia family to you, he must cherish you a lot. So you should cherish his goodwill as well. I think you should tell him about what happened today.”
He Bai didn’t expect that his camouflage was so successful, so he nodded right after and said that his senior was doing good and he would keep their friendship, also telling him about today’s story honestly.
Lin Xia was satisfied with his words and told him some other stuff about work, then she left to deal with the clothes-borrowing issue of Qin Li.
Watching Lin Xia leave, He Bai recalled the tone of Qin Li in the phone call and labeled her as unfriendly. Then he took out his phone and wrote a message to Di Qiuhe.
“Your stepmother just called me to borrow the Princess collection for your sister to take photos. My boss rejected and felt sympathetic about your situation.”
Di Qiuhe’s call came immediately.
He Bai was astonished for a second then asked surprisingly, “Gee! You turned on your phone?? Is the training over?”
“Yeah, the martial coach just returned me my phone.” Di Qiuhe leaned on the tree with sweat all over his body. His camouflage was totally wet and his face was full of fatigue, yet his voice was quite steady. He asked, “My stepmother called you? What did she say?”
He Bai roughly repeated the phone call and told him about his conversation with Lin Xia, then asked with confusion, “Ms.Lin left with a terrible face. It looked like she was going to handle some kind of national affair, which was super weird. I’ve never seen her that way.”
Di Qiuhe had already analyzed his words and got the whole picture of that story. He couldn’t help laughing and praising him, “Nice job, puppy.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” He Bai got even more confused.
