At this moment, the buyer-show photoshoot for the shop "Persistent Access" was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
"Right—sit on the table, tilt your head back. Yes, yes—click, click!"
"Right—cross your legs, lean your body toward the side of the sofa. Yes, yes—click, click!"
"Let's get a back shot. Put the pillow under your hips. That curve isn't good enough—sit a bit farther back and exaggerate the arc. Yes, yes, very good, hold it! Click, click!"
After shooting for about half an hour, Cheng Zhu, holding the camera he'd borrowed from Jiang Wanzhou, said, "That set's about done. Go change into the next one."
Then he added without forgetting, "Move it. Don't dawdle—don't take ten minutes every time you change. What, are you getting paid to admire yourself in the bathroom?"
Ye Zi was furious enough to shoot him a highly flirtatious eye-roll.
The boy in front of her was clearly still young, yet he was extremely good at stirring emotions—one sentence could make you laugh, the next could make you mildly annoyed.
—Very good at playful banter.
To be honest, the reason Ye Zi had been dragging her feet was because she was mentally preparing herself. Taking this kind of job made her a little awkward, unsure whether something "unexpected" might happen later.
But after shooting for half an hour, she saw that Cheng Zhu was genuinely absorbed in work, with zero extra reactions—and for some reason, that actually made her a bit displeased.
She was quite confident in herself, especially when it came to her figure.
That damned competitive streak was triggered.
At first, she'd held back a little while posing, not fully letting loose.
Later on, she went all out.
"No way—he just graduated high school. Impossible!"
"I don't believe it!"
"This little wolf pup—I'm definitely taking him down today!"
"Let's see if I can't out-sexy you!"
And what she got in return was:
Why the hell are you admiring yourself in the mirror in the bathroom—getting paid to slack off? Hurry it up!
The ugly face of capital was laid bare.
"Which set next?" Ye Zi asked through clenched teeth.
"The one with the tail," Cheng Zhu said seriously.
…
…
Being a Taobao model was actually very hard work.
At the beginning, Ye Zi still had plenty of little thoughts.
During breaks, she'd observe Cheng Zhu's micro-expressions, even acting like a 'pants-watcher,' checking for the boy's reactions.
Telling you to shoot the kitty set, and you really turn into a cat—what, want a cat teaser?
But as the shoot went on, after working continuously for over two hours, she gradually went numb.
It was exhausting—really exhausting.
Many poses focused on accentuating curves. Holding them for too long led to sore waists, aching backs, even cramps.
By the three-hour mark, Ye Zi was already a bit dazed.
"Why did I even take this job? It's more tiring than when I used to model clothes!"
Cheng Zhu hadn't done anything at all—he was just shooting from a distance—yet it felt like she'd been hit with some kind of remote spell. Her pupils were starting to lose focus.
"Take a break," Cheng Zhu said. "I'm going out for a smoke."
Cheng Zhu left the room and went to the suite's living area. After plopping down, he smoked while playing on his phone.
"Huh? So many unread messages. Let's see which girl is looking for me," Cheng Zhu thought.
Opening WeChat, he found it was almost all message spam from Wang Anquan.
Even though he wasn't at the shoot, his heart definitely was.
The guy was extremely concerned about the progress and details.
More absurdly, the busier Cheng Zhu was—and the less he replied—the more Wang Anquan's imagination ran wild.
"What's he so busy with that he can't even type?"
"It's been three hours already!" Wang Anquan thought.
He suddenly understood why their brand was called "Persistent Access."
He'd grasped yet another layer of meaning behind the name.
"This is some serious persistence! How many times has he 'accessed' already?" Wang Anquan was stunned.
With a cigarette dangling from his lips, Cheng Zhu replied: "Stop yapping. We're only two-thirds done."
"Brother Zhu, send me a few buyer-show photos to look at first," the other side begged impatiently, wanting an early peek.
"You're insane. Unedited buyer-shows can't be leaked—that's disrespectful to the model," Cheng Zhu refused, immediately elevating it to a matter of principles.
Normally, product images like these were heavily retouched, making the person in the picture look quite different from real life. The prettier and less recognizable, the better.
That was often a request from the models themselves.
Once Cheng Zhu finished retouching everything, he'd send the images to Ye Zi for review—this was also something she'd requested.
Since she'd been sourced through flirtatious chatting rather than formal channels, her rate was much cheaper than standard QQ models, so Cheng Zhu was willing to accommodate as much as possible.
As long as it didn't cost extra, everything was negotiable.
Ye Zi had real capital. Ordinary QQ models might not compare to her—she could even be developed into a long-term partner for the shop.
After chatting with Wang Anquan a bit more, Cheng Zhu began replying to other messages.
First was his mom, Xu Yun, asking if he'd come back to the restaurant for dinner. He wouldn't make it in time and planned to eat something simple later, so he replied that he wouldn't be back.
Then Shen Minglang @-mentioned everyone in the five-person group.
That WeChat group had an extremely dumb name: "Me and My Younger Brothers and Sisters."
One glance and you could tell Shen Minglang named it—zero taste, yet he thought he was hilarious.
The reason he summoned everyone was because his birthday was coming up. He invited them to dinner and karaoke tomorrow.
He actually had a third event planned—going clubbing—but he didn't intend to bring his biological sister along, so it wasn't mentioned in the group.
Since they'd last parted, Cheng Zhu hadn't seen Shen Qingning or Lin Lu, the two campus-goddess-level beauties.
At present, he didn't have the qualifications or conditions to organize a gathering himself—unless there was a catalyst.
He'd been waiting for Shen Minglang, the king of organizing hangouts, to do his thing.
He hadn't expected this tool man's cooldown to be so short. It'd only been a few days, and he was already setting something up again.
"Cousin Shen is really useful," Cheng Zhu thought. When he saw that Lin Lu also said she'd attend, he replied in the group that he'd definitely be there tomorrow.
After extinguishing his cigarette, Cheng Zhu went back into the room and saw Ye Zi rubbing her thighs one moment and her waist the next.
Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Need a male technician?"
"Sure. I'm sore as hell," Ye Zi replied, currently wearing a stepmother dress.
"It's paid service. I'll deduct it from your wages," Boss Cheng said, never missing a chance to squeeze value.
Ye Zi looked at him speechlessly. "Boss, you really don't know how to be gentle with women. You're abusing your employees."
"Who was it chatting with me, saying she had a bit of an M streak?" Cheng Zhu looked at her. "If I don't know how to cherish women and I 'abuse' you—wouldn't that just make you more comfortable?"
"That's because I work night venues every day, I'm exhausted every day, I don't want to do it—but I still go the next day. That's why I said that!" Ye Zi argued. "You're not reading in context—zero points for reading comprehension! That was self-deprecation!"
Cheng Zhu snorted and teased, "Tsk, that's a shame. I actually really like the M-type."
"Oh," Ye Zi replied stiffly. But her eyes subtly shifted, and her fingers clenched slightly.
—She believed him.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup