2nd Chances 5: Looking Towards the Future

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

Chapter 5: Looking Towards the Future

Ai… so Little Bro Le finally got married to the little heiress of his dreams.

Wei Mingxin rubbed his temples, feeling exhaustion deep within his very bones.

He had come off the adrenaline high during the wedding reception, after the festivities of introductions, speeches, cake cutting, and champagne towers, and he was definitely crashing hard now.

But he didn’t dare rest.

After the chaos and disaster that his studio had caused, he was going to burn the midnight oil in order to sort through all these photos, edit them, and get them out to the Le Family within two days!

Fuck, he owed his bro, Big Bro Le (Le Zihuan) at least this much!

Wei Mingxin had some fame after winning a few photography awards, and had opened Blue Bird Studio together with his business-minded buddy, Min Yao, and then their good buddy Le Zihuan remembered them and made sure to use their studio to book a photographer for his lil’ bro’s wedding.

But for this sort of disaster to happen…

Compensate! They must compensate them!

If it wasn’t for that photographer kid, Le Zihuan might have become sworn enemies with him today!

Speaking of that kid…

Upon returning to the studio, Wei Mingxin had been extremely curious and had gotten He Jiujiu to show him the kid’s photos almost immediately.

He Jiujiu had displayed them in the air, spreading out all 35 of Chen Yijun’s photos on display after removing the duplicates and the completely unusable pictures.

Staring at the spread, Wei Mingxin stroked his moustache thoughtfully.

“Well, his technical skills aren’t really that great.”

He Jiujiu laughed. “I’m pretty sure he had everything set to auto. He was smart, though; took a lot of duplicates on the images he liked, probably hoping that at least one would be close to perfect.”

“Hm…”

Wei Mingxin’s eyes glimmered as he continued to look through the unedited photos.

A lot of the photos were, for lack of a better term, gimmicky. The kid had them standing in formations or posing in ways that really looked ‘arranged.”

That in of itself wasn’t that strange; a lot of young photographers would do this sort of thing, trying to ‘force’ visual interest artificially through contrived positioning or angles purely to make the photo artsy.

The difference here was that the gimmicky photos … didn’t feel out of place.

No matter how the wedding party was arranged, there was a feeling of joy and mischief shared by all the subjects that was usually lacking when an inexperienced photographer tried such a thing.

Wei Mingxin especially liked the photograph in the water rose hall, where the groom’s parents, the bride’s father and the young flower girl, and the bride and groom themselves were all in the same pose while framed under crystal rose archways.

There really was a sense that two families were joining into one, and the love in each of the subjects’ eyes and expressions was so sweet it almost moved one to tears.

It wasn’t the love of romance and passion, but of simple adoration. A cherishing love.

Even the photos that had some of the subjects a bit embarrassed to be posing a certain way didn’t feel awkward; instead, it almost felt like those photos were centered around that awkwardness, to a comedic effect.

The technical ability these photos showed weren’t good. But the ability to convey and grasp the mood he wanted…

Wei Mingxin’s fingers felt itchy.

He soon followed his impulse and called up his buddy on his light brain.

Li Zihuan soon popped up on the interface, looking sleepy but still in his formal wear.

“Ah, Old Wei. How you doing? Although I booked your studio, I was surprised you were the one who ended up coming.”

“Haha, after our studio caused an accident like that, how couldn’t I rush over?” Wei Mingxin sighed, rubbing his temple.

Seriously, a missing wedding photographer was a huge pain. Especially since the client was his good friend’s brother, who was also a somewhat famous influencer!

Luckily, his friend didn’t seem like he was holding a grudge.

“Mm, well, it was a disaster for your side as well, wasn’t it? Is the photographer alright?” Le Zihuan asked.

“He’s alright, he’s alright. Ah, that idiot. It’s still his fault. He went unconscious almost immediately after entering the suspension car, so there’s no doubt that he was actually in pain for quite a while, but he didn’t even call the studio or warn anyone. Not only did it cause so much trouble, it would only be his fault if he didn’t survive!”

Acute appendicitis was nothing in this era. The surgery and aftercare was so trivial that most people would be up and about within 2 hours, almost like nothing ever happened.

But that’s only if you get to the hospital in time! And that photographer almost didn’t make it!

That idiot… appendicitis wasn’t just a stomachache! There’s no way he shouldn’t have known that something was terribly wrong, but he kept shooting and tried to persevere through!

Idiot! Fool!

We Mingxin was only letting himself be furious because the photographer survived; if the poor photographer had died he’d naturally be in mourning instead.

Haa… Wei Mingxin didn’t know whether to praise his subordinate for his professional determination or his complete lack of self-preservation.

“… No, I suppose it’s actually my fault. We usually do jobs in pairs, but I didn’t bother stopping Old Min when he spread us a bit too thin. Since today is an auspicious date for a wedding, we had so many requests for bookings and … ai… it’s always difficult when you have to balance making money against logistics,” Wei Mingxin said with a sigh.

These days, one person could handle the professional lighting and photography by himself, but Blue Bird Studio usually had two photographers working together in case of emergencies, as well as for off-shoots and efficiency.

But this year had an especially auspicious date for weddings, and it was such a shame to turn down so many jobs with increased rates… well, it proved that the ONE time they decided to give in and split up to cover more weddings, something actually happened!

“Haha, well, it all turned out alright in the end, so you don’t have to beat yourself up too much about it.”

“Aah… you wouldn’t be saying that if that kid hadn’t shown up and smoothed everything over.”

“… That might be true. Actually, I’m quite curious about how his photos turned out.”

Wei Mingxin smiled wryly at his friend’s comment.

“That’s actually what I’m calling about. That kid … do you have his contact information? You should, right?”

If not, Wei Mingxin was going to be in trouble. How were they supposed to give the kind compensation otherwise.

“Ah, yes. The wedding planner took it just in case. Although he didn’t seem like paparazzi, you can never be too sure these days.”

Wei Mingxin snorted.

“That kid didn’t even realize your brother was Le Zhiji until Jiujiu told him at the reception hall, so I don’t think he intends to do anything like leak the wedding photos. Anyway, give me the kid’s number, won’t you?”

“Eh… isn’t that improper? Why do you want it? Did it turn out the kid’s a genius photographer or something?”

Le Zihuan was a true lover of gossip as usual.

Wei Mingxin laughed and shook his head.

“Ah, that’s … he sent the photos over for us to edit. That kid… his technical skills are lacking, but his ideas and compositions are pretty good. And most importantly … hm, well, what did you think about him? He was talkative, wasn’t he? Really skilled at interacting with people? It looks like he stole the entire wedding party’s hearts.”

“Aah, him and his niece were very cute. How did you know?”

How could I not know? Wei Mingxin looked at the photos as he sighed.

It was obvious that at the beginning, everyone seemed nervous and frustrated, although they were smiling through their emotions. But that was just the first photo. Pretty soon, everyone had genuine smiles, sometimes genuine laughter, and then the last few photos the kid took were just radiating with love.

Even without retouching the photos, they had a particular warmth to them that made even the harshest critic reluctant to toss them away, despite their technical failings.

“Not only did he have good concepts in his head, it’s obvious that he excels in interacting with his subjects. I bet he just had to say a few words before he was able to coax the emotions he wanted out of you guys. Haa… I’ll have to get He Jiujiu to edit these. Even though they’re no good, they’re also too good to throw away.”

Especially the lighting. If only the kid had reflector bots or light bots, how much better could all these photos be?

Such a shame!

“Anyway, I don’t know about hiring him as a photographer, but there’s something about him that makes me want to see how he does as my assistant,” Wei Mingxin finally concluded.

“… Alright. I’ll send the information to you. I think he said he didn’t have a job right now, so he might actually be willing to take you up on that.”

After chatting about a few more things, like where Le Zhiji and his new bride were going to be honeymooning, or how Le Zihuan was doing with his new business venture these days, Wei Mingxun ended the photo call and sighed, cricking his neck this way and that.

“You’re thinking about hiring that kid?” He Jiujiu asked, from where he was already beginning to edit photos that Wei Mingxin had marked for him.

Wei Mingxin hummed, stroking his moustache.

“Mm… That kid is … he doesn’t have the sense of a photographer, exactly, but his artistic sense is high, and his ability to explain and direct the subjects into doing precisely what he wants is also high. Well, I’m just being curious. There’s no harm in trying him out even if I’m wrong.”

—

After playing at the theme park and attending the wedding reception, Chen Yijun and Lanlan slept in the next day, and then Chen Yijun took Lanlan out to the local mall to do some shopping.

In this era, almost everything can be bought online and shipped to your door within minutes of your order. You can even try on clothes in virtual reality before you buy them.

Most grocery and food stores were more like warehouses with a small kiosk in front, since most people bought groceries by drone orders.

These days, only restaurants and shops for nonperishable goods were actual stores that people would go visit in person, and even going to the stores in person was much more streamlined with the presence of unmanned suspension cars that could be called and dismissed very easily.

No parking problems!

Of course, some people still owned their own cars, and Chen Yijun made sure to show Lanlan which lanes were for the public owned suspension cars and which ones were for private owned cars – because you had to be careful when crossing just in case some crazy person decided to man their car and started driving recklessly.

When they returned home, Chen Yijun also began teaching Lanlan how to circulate her spirit energy, hoping to undo the damage that the seal had done to her.

Chen Yijun felt like cussing at the former Chen Yijun a little.

Why did he seal her like that!?

Spirit beasts go through multiple growth stages, and each growth stage is accompanied by an explosion of spiritual energy, which can easily ‘out’ someone as a spirit beast.

The first growth stage is no exception, and can be even more dangerous, especially for bird and reptilian spirit beasts who molt, making many parents rent secret isolation chambers in order to keep the spiritual energy explosion hidden.

Normally a spirit beast would go through his or her first growth stage at the age of 5 or 6, but since the former Chen Yijun had sealed all of Lanlan’s spirit energy… who knows what will happen now-!

In the previous life, Lanlan had gone all the way up to the age of 10 without undergoing her first growth stage-!

That’s 5 years of maybes-!

Would he have to rent an isolation chamber for 5 years just to make sure there was one available whenever Lanlan underwent her molt? Would he have to watch her like a hawk for 5 years?

Chen Yijun felt like pulling out his hair.

Well, actually, it probably wasn’t that bad. Lanlan wasn’t sealed in her earlier years for fear of distorting her development, so she’d only been sealed for 5 months. It was likely that her growth stage wouldn’t deviate by that much … hopefully.

He hadn’t thought that much about it at first, but right now he was wondering how the heck he would be able to get a job while having to keep Lanlan under close watch.

What kind of job will let a new employee bring around a child?

But it’s not like Chen Yijun can just drop her off at a childcare center or hire a nanny!

Sure, Chen Yijun was originally a human, making him more willing to take risks than someone who was actually born and raised as a spirit beast, but he wasn’t STUPID, okay?

Meeting and interacting with other people regularly was one thing, but entrusting Lanlan fully to someone else was an entirely different matter.

There’s no way he’ll take that risk if he wants to make sure Lanlan can have a peaceful life, both now and far into the future.

Ping!

Chen Yijun’s light brain rang.

Distracted from his stressful thoughts, Cheng Yijun tapped on the notifications, glancing at them lazily before bolting upright.

Sister Xiulan had sent him an SMS!

[Orchid Atop a High Mountain: I thought about what you said. Fine. But only after her first molt.]

Chen Yijun took a deep breath.

This was already a big step forward, but only after her first molt? That will be difficult…

[Chen Yijun: Sister Lan, starting school late will be a problem for her future.]

Even with the much more international and advanced future Earth, there is still far too much emphasis on schooling in an eastern metropolis like Shenzo, and the discrimination against those who delay or fail their schooling isn’t anything to ignore.

[Orchid Atop a High Mountain: I thought you’d say that. <link>]

Oh?

Chen Yijun clicked on the link, bringing it up in a separate window next to the chat.

He took a sharp breath.

[Chen Yijun: This is…]

[Orchid Atop a High Mountain: You can join a local co-op homeschooling system. You have to help teach Lanlan yourself, but there are teaching materials and curriculum, and organized tests. There are even playdates you can schedule in vr. I’ll give you permission to send Lanlan to an actual school after her first molt.]

Ai…. He had completely overlooked such an option – or more like, Chen Yijun didn’t know this option even existed.

Like this, he would have more time to search for a stable job, and there was far less risk to Lanlan undergoing her first molt in school; although that wouldn’t be horrible in a vr setting, but it could be slightly problematic.

[Chen Yijun: I understand. I’ll join a co-op school program for now. But I’m going to get Lanlan citizenship, and I won’t take no for an answer.]

[Orchid Atop a High Mountain: … Alright.]

[Chen Yijun: Oh yeah, here. <img><img><img><img>]

A few minutes after he spammed some images, Sister Lan replied.

[Orchid Atop a High Mountain: ! !! You dumb little brother, I can’t save these! cry.jpg]

[Chen Yijun: I’ll save them, I can send them whenever you want.]

After a bit more bickering, with Chen Yijun sending more pictures of Lanlan being adorable and Sister Lan wailing at him, both sides ended the conversation, deleting all signs that it had happened.

Chen Yijun sighed.

It had been a long time since Chen Yijun had chatted light-heartedly with his older sister. They usually avoided contacting each other.

Chen Yijun felt sad about this family that always thought of each other, but never talked to each other.

---

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

---

<a/n: Okay, missed getting the FL out in 5 chapters. Hoping to introduce her before chap 10…
I guess it can’t be helped, since there’s sooo much world-building and character background that needs to be trudged through, but it’s certainly not boding well for my reputation with romance stories.>