2nd chances 3: Making People Happy 1

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Chapter 3: Making People Happy 1

Chen Yijun gently put his hand on Lanlan’s shoulder, intending to give a polite nod and then get out of the way of the happy couple (he’d been involved with several of his friends’ weddings before, he knew how busy they could be), but he flinched as he caught sight of the bride’s face.

At his flinch, Lanlan looked up at her Little Uncle, then back over at the people dressed up in fine clothes.

The entire wedding party was filled with a negative anxiety, and the bride herself looked like she was about to cry.

“… how could this…”

“…what do we do…”

The bridal party was muttering to each other in hushed whispers.

Chen Yijun was a romantic at heart, and he was really upset at the thought that a wedding could be less than perfect for a bride and groom’s big day.

Of course he understood that there was very rarely anything in life that could be perfect, but even if it couldn’t be perfect, for something to have happened that made the bride want to cry? Even if you weren’t superstitious, there was no way this didn’t feel like an inauspicious omen for their marriage!

Standing inconspicuously to the side, Chen Yijun eavesdropped a bit before he figured it out.

While their wedding photographer was on the way, he suddenly developed acute appendicitis!

He had been by himself and was in such great pain, that he’d only barely been able to switch his suspension car’s destination to the hospital before passing out. If the bridal party hadn’t called the photo studio asking what had happened, they would still be waiting.

They only had an hour and a half before the reception dinner to take photos, and nearly thirty minutes had been taken up with waiting for the photographer and calling the studio.

It would take twenty to thirty minutes for the studio to send a new photographer, and then they had to consider the travel time back to the banquet hall.

They would be lucky to have half an hour to do the photography-!

Even though they had reserved the Enchanted Rose Garden in a somewhat famous theme park for the photos … who wouldn’t want to cry with all this bad luck?

Chen Yijun frowned.

The studio would probably compensate them, but a bad memory on a day that should be full of blessings would be hard to erase.

He looked down, thinking quietly.

Oh, Lanlan was looking up at him anxiously.

“… Little Uncle, what should we do? They look so unhappy,” she said, then looked back at the bridal party.

Chen Yijun smiled a little. Lanlan was such a good girl.

“What should we do… well, we can try to make them happy, I guess?”

Chen Yijun patted her on the head, then took her to the balloon vendor stall nearby.

Luckily, this was PDA-land. All the props he could need were nearby.

—

Le Zhiji was frustrated.

He was a popular starnetwork content creator who had some public status and a decently large amount wealth, but what was all that worth when he couldn’t give the girl he fell in love with her dream wedding?

Although he wasn’t his emotionally sensitive bride, even he felt a little like wanting to cry with what was going on.

But he couldn’t show it.

If he showed it, A’Ling would definitely feel even more anxious. He had to be her pillar of support right now.

“Um…”

Just as Le Zhiji was at a loss as to what to do, a cute, loli voice spoke up next to him.

“F-for, the bride…”

Le Zhiji and his bride, his A’Ling, looked over, startled out of their negative thoughts.

Next to them was a young girl, holding a rose globe balloon, the Enchanted Rose Garden’s most iconic couple’s souvenir, out towards the bride and groom.

Le Zhiji looked around and soon spotted the man that was probably the little girl’s quite-a-bit-older brother watching them with a bit of anticipation, and he suddenly realized that some strangers were aware of their current situation.

Although he was very badly embarrassed, he also felt a bit encouraged from the gesture of kindness.

Turning his attention back to the girl, Le Zhiji said, “Thank you,” as he stepped to the side so she could give the beautiful glowing orb of flowers to his bride.

But the little girl shook her head.

“N-no, this … a prince should be the one to give it to the princess.”

Even if she was embarrassed as she repeated her Little Uncle’s words, Lanlan didn’t think there was anything wrong with what she’d said.

That’s how it always is in fairytale stories, and for Lanlan, a wedding is the ‘happily ever after’ of a love story.

Chen Yijun: … We’ll deal with whether that’s a healthy perspective for Lanlan to have towards marriage later.

Le Zhiji was a bit surprised, but he couldn’t help a small smile spreading across his face.

“You’re right. Thank you very much,” he said as took the rose globe balloon from her, then turned to his bride.

“My princess.”

His voice was full of doting, and bit of soothing, as he handed the rose globe balloon to his bride.

Thank you, little girl and brother-! That’s right, right now he should be comforting his beloved.

Affected by Le Zhiji’s tone, his bride blushed, and although she was still blinking back tears of frustration, her tension loosened a little as she shyly accepted the balloon.

Kacha!

-!

Although Le Zhiji was an internet celebrity, he wasn’t the type that sold his image, which meant he wasn’t usually subjected to paparazzi.

But that didn’t mean he was careless, and he was sensitive to the sound of a camera shutter.

It’s just … for a paparazzi, the camera is a little too visible, isn’t it?

Not to mention that girl’s older brother was even cheekily giving an ‘ok’ sign with his thumb and forefinger.

“Ah… haha, the beautiful couple was too eyecatching, I couldn’t resist,” the young man said, running over to show them the picture he just took.

“Such a harmonious couple, I don’t think I’ve taken a picture of something so beautiful. Like this, it really is like a fairy prince and princess returning home, with all their elven entourage.”

Chen Yijun was very good at flowery language, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.

The groom was handsome and the bride was delicate looking. Not to mention the wedding gown, a beautiful pearly white mermaid dress with beads and gems and lace roses, looking every bit like a fairy princess’ wedding dress.

Lanlan didn’t have to pretend one bit as she nodded in agreement; the pretty older sister was really like a fairy.

Le Zhiji was a little wary of this young man and little girl, but the look on his bride’s face had become a lot better as she blushed at Chen Yijun’s excessive praise.

As the young man continued to talk to him, Le Zhiji could tell he was exaggerating a little bit, and even acting a little bit theatrical as the attempted to wheedle a smile out of Le Zhiji’s bride, even egging the little girl in on it.

Le Zhiji didn’t spend years as a star network host without being able to tell when someone was playing up a persona or not, after all.

Did this pair come over solely to try to cheer everyone up?

Le Zhiji was shocked to realize that the young man had already managed to engage the more sociable members of their wedding party in small talk.

What? It had only been few minutes!

“You know, I’m a complete amateur so I can’t guarantee the quality, but would you guys want me to fill in while you’re waiting? And since I’m an amateur, we can even take silly staged shots. It’s a day of happiness, so we should fill it with laughter,” the young man said.

At that, Le Zhiji started.

“You … knew we were missing our photographer?” he asked.

The young man rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Well, yes we did overhear what’s going on. With this sort of thing, it’s better to do something than just stand around waiting. You could check out the sites first to save time later, even. We were just in there, and there are a lot of really beautiful places for photography, right Lanlan?”

The little girl nodded, holding the young man’s hand nervously.

Le Zhiji’s eyebrows quirked a bit in displeasure, but he thought about what the man was saying.

It’s true that… just waiting around like this might make everyone so anxious and upset that his darling bride might end up crying.

It’s also true that it would be helpful if a photographer, even an amateur, could help them scout out locations to pose in for when the replacement photographer arrives.

But … Le Zhiji he glanced at his brother, who was better at reading people than he was, and his brother, Le Zihuan, quickly came over.

Even if he wanted to believe that there were simply people who enjoyed being altruistic, Le Zhiji was still somewhat of a public figure, after all.

Le Zihuan, the brother, was even more aware of that than Le Zhiji himself.

He had been coolly analyzing the entire situation, and had come to some sort of conclusion.

First, who had ever heard of a paparazzo bringing a kid along?

Second, the Le and Qi families had been very secretive about this private wedding. He’d hope that the paparazzi wasn’t able to find out about it.

Third, this young man and little girl didn’t have a nervous, eager look to them like paparazzi or fans would.

But that didn’t mean they didn’t have some other motives for stepping out like this, other than purely being nice people.

Le Zihuan tapped a finger on his arm for a moment.

“So how much are you going to charge us?” Le Zihuan bluntly asked.

Chen Yijun’s eyes went dead for a second.

“ … … Bro, I’m such an amateur, I’d be arrested for charging anything for my skills. If anything, I should be paying for the chance to get such amazing models.”

Le Zihuan watched Chen Yijun warily, but there wasn’t a trace of a hidden agenda; actually, it looked kind of looked like the young man died a little inside when he admitted it.

Chen Yijun: 彡(-_-|||)彡

“Quite shameless of you to suggest it if you don’t have the talent for it,” Le Zihuan tried quipping.

“It’s because I have no talent that there’s no shame,” Chen Yijuan returned, “Besides, my Little Niece said she wanted to make people happy, so what could I do? You also understand…”

He gestured towards the bride and groom with a ‘you know,’ look, and honestly? Le Zihuan did know.

He too was helpless to do anything but try to make his brother and his new sister-in-law happy.

This young man’s too good; Le Zihuan could only lift his hands in defeat, and he decided to see what kind of tricks the kid had.

And nearly twenty minutes later, he was only too happy that he made took the risk!

He didn’t know how, but this young man and the little girl were milling around, flitting here and there, and coaxing smiles and laughter out of the seriously stressed out wedding party as he had them pose here and there.

Even the bride’s father, who had been about to burst from fury due to this setback, had softened completely, the worry lines on his forehead gone.

Finally, Le Zhiji was convinced to sweep up his bride, in all her splendid glory, holding her with a loving gaze so sweet Le Zihuan felt like he was going to get diabetes.

Suddenly, two small bots flew in out of nowhere, opening their reflectors and situating themselves around the happy couple, startling them.

“Don’t move, don’t move-! Keep that pose!”

The man running towards them, red-faced and sweating, was unmistakably a photographer. The replacement photographer, to be exact.

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<a/n: ugh, overshot this chapter, and was stuck deciding between on super long chapter or two short chapters… and then the two short chapters were only a tiny bit short. Le sigh.>