2nd Chances 12: The Supermodel Life

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Chapter 12: The Supermodel Life

The Rongs, like many powerful and influential people, had a luxurious mansion with a courtyard in the 2^nd Ring of the Shenzo Metropolis, but that’s not where Rong Yan lived.

Instead, Rong Yan lived in an apartment in the high-end apartment complex in the CBD(Central Business District) that was gifted to her Da-ge, Rong Min, when he got married.
^{<Da-ge/eldest brother>}

With 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a private elevator, and a walk-in closet, even Rong Yan, a woman who was raised on luxury, thought it was excessive for a single woman living on her own, but a member of the Rong family couldn’t settle for less.

Anyway, this entire side of the complex was only for the Rong family and their people, so it couldn’t be helped that Rong Yan, her Da-ge, and her Er-ge were living in the largest apartments if even their bodyguards and personal assistants got at least a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment.
^{<Er-ge/ second elder brother>}

And at least Rong Yan was actually living in her apartment.

Her brothers were often more away than not, since her Da-ge also owned a house that he lived in with his family, and her Er-ge spent his time … well, it was better not to ask how he spent his time.

He was either on a base somewhere doing something, or else somewhere else doing something else Rong Yan wouldn’t even know how to predict.

Even though he was a Master Sergeant, Rong Yan wondered if the more … hands on approach her Er-ge took was actually in line with his duties.

She couldn’t say that she approved of nepotism, even if it was in her brother’s favor, but she also agreed that keeping a man with a SS-grade physique and an A-grade Mental Ability, Split-time, capable of greatly increasing his thinking speed and reaction time, off the frontlines seemed like a huge waste.

It was only unfortunate that the Split-time ability only increased his mental speed capacity and not his intelligence quotient – not that her Er-ge was stupid by any means, but compared to Rong Yan and her Da-ge, he was certainly a bit inferior. Especially concerning his EQ.

Of course, comparing anyone to Da-ge, who could be considered to have an SS-grade intelligence (although grading intelligence in all its facets is still an imprecise science even in the interstellar age) was unfair. Anyway, he had one of the highest IQs in the world at 265.

Her super intelligent Da-ge, Rong Min, and her super strong Er-ge, Rong Zhen.

Perhaps many people would develop a complex when compared to such superior siblings, but Rong Yan never felt the pressure.

For one, she was objectively beautiful, which got you far even in the interstellar era.

For another, she was also rather high-specced. She herself had an A-grade physique (although she only managed to reach it after gene therapy), and her IQ was 155 (with the interstellar IQ average being 120-129), but most interestingly, Rong Yan had one of the rare Elemental Abilities.

Eh, her emotional EQ? … Well, she was average at best, but going back to the first point, being beautiful got you far even in the interstellar era.

Powerful, influential, beautiful, and talented; the Rongs and their high specs were like a fairy tale race of humans even among the gene-enhanced humans of the interstellar era.

Which made impolite, blunt people who weren’t dazzled with her status rather precious to Rong Yan.

Like her agent, Fu Xinyi.

“Yan, you’re so rich but you’re eating cartridge meals,” Fu Xinyi didn’t hide her disgust as Rong Yan selected a meal cartridge and inserted it into the meal generator in her kitchen.

“These are pretty expensive, though,” Rong Yan said, carelessly flipping the box covered in words like ‘organic’, and ‘tastes like real food!’ over to show Fu Xinyi the brand.

It was one of those personalizable ones, that would produce the cartridges according to the customer’s specifications.

They were certainly expensive.

“The price isn’t the problem. There’s just no way they’re ever going to make cartridge meals as good as real food. If you’re going to bother ordering a side salad from a restaurant anyway, why don’t you just get the whole meal delivered? You can literally afford to eat whatever you want at wherever you want, but you’re here eating something barely better than military marching rations.”

Although the perfectly nutritionally balanced slurry in the main chamber of the cartridges were capable of being shaped into meat shapes or pasta shapes, and the brand Rong Yan picked up always had side chambers with extra sauce and seasonings, the appearance and flavor could do nothing for the lackluster texture. And simulating fresh vegetables and fruits was impossible.

Basically, this food designed for space voyage was only in demand on Earth among hardcore dieters, hospitals, and other such consumers that focused more on nutritional balance (or lack of food storage) rather than taste and mouth feel.

Technology would have to improve drastically before cartridge meals became more popular, many people said. And many of those people estimated that such a time would would only come once the universe ended.

For Rong Yan, however, cartridge meals were extremely convenient. She didn’t need to count calories, prepare, or even plan meals. She didn’t even need to worry about time to prepare, since the meal generator took 5 minutes to turn the cartridge into a meal, and could therefore eat at precisely scheduled times when she wasn’t on a job.

As a model, she couldn’t just let herself go and eat whatever she felt like whenever she felt like it, after all.

In fact, although Rong Yan’s status could have made things easy enough for her to remain a popular spokesperson for luxury brands even without doing anything, there’s no way Rong Yan’s status as a top supermodel could have been made if she didn’t put the effort in herself, and watching what you ate was the most basic of basics.

(Of course, most models and actresses wouldn’t go to the extent of eating cartridge meals all the time. For one, the meal generator is a fairly expensive piece of equipment, and for another … … … it was just bad, okay? They’re already abstaining from good food, why should they go out of their way to eat extraordinarily bad food?)

Besides, it wasn’t like Rong Yan never ate real food. In fact, eating cartridge meals regularly made it much easier for Rong Yan to count her calories in case she did chose to find her meals outside of the meal generator.

By no means did Rong Yan eat mostly cartridge meals because she was too indifferent to care about what she ate most of the time. Honest.

Unfortunately, Fu Xinyi knew Rong Yan too well.

“I know you don’t care about food outside of its nutritional factors, but it’s been clinically proven that eating good food also enhances mental health and increases satisfaction,” Agent Fu said, rolling her eyes.

‘I believe I’m fairly satisfied, though.’ – Rong Yan didn’t even need to say it, since the two of them had this discussion far too often, and she just remained in the kitchen, standing as she polished off the ‘chicken in garlic sauce’ that had come out, steaming, on a tray.

“At least think of my mental health, having to watch you eat this stuff everyday,” Fu Xinyi gagged a bit as she watched Rong Yan finish off her meal in a few bites.

“Enough. What’s my schedule tomorrow?”

Even though Rong Yan tolerated a lot of Fu Xinyi’s shenanigans, as expected, being harassed about her eating choices every day was a bit much.

“Aah … you have a meeting with ShanXia’s designer at 1PM and a fitting for Seduire’s shoot next week at 4. In the evening is Bon Bieri’s new ‘Estrella del Cor’ line launch party at 8PM. Also, please update your microblog soon.”

Rong Yan hummed a bit before she lightly tapped the counter on her kitchen’s center island, prompting a thin screen to raise up at the end of the counter.

Although the light brains are extremely convenient and can do almost everything you’d need to use a computer for without any accessories, sometimes it’s just easier to use a larger screen with a higher fidelity than the neural holographic screens.

With a wave of her hand, Rong Yan connected her light brain to the screen and sent the photographs that Blue Bird Studio had just sent her this afternoon.

Fu Xinyi raised an eyebrow as she watched the pictures appearing on the screen one by one.

“What are these?”

She wasn’t asking about where the photos came from or what they literally were – they had taken them just that morning, after all – but was questioning why Rong Yan had them.

It wasn’t extremely common for same-day proofs to be sent out to the models, after all, even if she WAS Rong Yan.

“It’s for a happy cooperation,” Rong Yan said seriously as she popped a cork and poured herself a glass of wine.

“… Okay. So these are offshoots and photos they won’t be using for the article? Wait, is that why you did the shirtless blazer pictures?”

Fu Xinyi finally understood. Rong Yan’s whims aside, she had thought it odd that Photographer Wei had also deigned to take those photos when they didn’t suit the theme.

If she hadn’t been distracted with the little girl and her uncle, Fu Xinyi should have realized sooner that no one would overlook the chance to use Rong Yan’s influence when they had her in front of their lens. Some sexy photos of Yan? What photographer would pass that up?

Even if they couldn’t use it for ALaMode’s article on Blue Bird Studio or Rong Yan, Blue Bird Studio could still use it to generate hype.

“Pffft… and here I was thinking you were finally taking an interest in the opposite sex.”

Fu Xinyi snickered as she scrolled through the photos, quietly calculating which one Yan should post.

Rong Yan paused, raising an eyebrow.

She appeared to thing for a moment, before saying, “Are you talking about the photographer’s assistant?”

“’Are you talking about the photographer’s assistant?’ Don’t even act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Yan. Since when have you paid any interest in a boy your age?”

Rong Yan was actually 8 years older, but 8 years isn’t a large age difference in the interstellar era. Even a 20 year age difference was more or less acceptable – as long as both parties were over 35.

“You’re overthinking things, Fu-jie. He just happened to give both Photographer Wei and I a good chance for a better cooperation, so there’s no reason why I should ignore it,” Rong Yan said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, so you’re saying you didn’t enjoy teasing the boy, huh?” Fu Xinyi said, her own voice tinged with stifled laughter.

Rong Yan mentally sighed at this love-gossip-monger, nursing her wine glass as she leaned back on the bar facing Fu Xinyi sitting at the island. It was unfortunate Fu Xinyi had been with her almost 3/4s of her career, and thus knew her agent knew her too well.

“There aren’t too many people in this circle who are so obvious with their emotions,” is all she was able to say.

Fu Xinyi snorted, but decided to give Rong Yan a break as she chose a photo of Rong Yan, holding onto her lapel with one hand, with one leg crossed lazily in front of the other, hips cocked and thumb hitched in the top of her low-rise pants, the jaunty position causing the suit jacket to slant outwards and showing the crisp line of her waist.

As Rong Yan watched her agent update her microblog for her, with Rong Yan’s normal, taciturn style of “[Yan]v: [img] @[BlueBirdStudio]v”, she idly fingered the stem of her wine glass as she thoughtfully sifted through the photos on her own from her light brain.

She kept flipping between the two different concepts they had shot.

It was obvious to her that the second concept was something the studio had cobbled together because they had been dissatisfied with the first concept.

Although Blue Bird Studio and Photographer Wei did their best to cover it up, Rong Yan had been in the entertainment circle for a long time and could tell when things had gone ‘off-script’, so to speak.

She was rather interested in that photographer’s assistant, whether or not it was the way Fu Xinyi thought she was interested in him is not important.

Rong Yan might not be intimately knowledgeable about the ins and outs of Blue Bird Studio, but after observing Blue Bird Studio’s employees at work, it was obvious that the second concept was an input from that young man.

There really was nothing wrong with the pictures from the first concept; they were well-taken and had a good theme.

It’s just that the second concept was much MORE.

And it kind of felt like that assistant pulled the entire idea out of thin air.

Rong Yan narrowed her eyes.

If he was just a pretty face that was surprisingly more interested in behind-the-scenes work than model work, that would be all Rong Yan would have noted and he’d just be another person she’d met and worked with in the long list of people she had to meet and work with every day.

However…

This … surely this was that ‘artistic inspiriation that’s lacking the entertainment industry’ her cousin has been ranting constantly about.

With Allen-ge harping on it so often, it can’t be helped that Rong Yan took another look when the young man Photographer Wei seemed to hold in unusually high regard showed something that sparked her recollection of something among the many things her cousin had said.

It was a shame that Chen Yijun man was already affiliated to Blue Bird Studio, or else she’d try to poach him for Allen-ge’s company.

However, Rong Yan drew a firm line between her and Allen Scott’s businesses. She didn’t mind keeping an eye out for talent or lending a hand (or her image) for a collaboration, but she wasn’t about to go offend other people for him.

She wasn’t one of his artists in his talent agency, and she didn’t need his influence, or the influence of his media company, for advantages in this industry.

Still, Rong Yan was sympathetic to her cousin’s frustration with the stagnation of good works in an industry that often focused on capital and profits over artistry.

It wouldn’t hurt to make a call, at least.

—

“I’ll agree that it wasn’t the ideal situation, but in that instance it should be better to favor the models. The girl was from Dinghua Talent Agency, you know? It’s better to maintain good relations with them,” Min Zhen said stubbornly.

“The girl from Dinghua, huh? I hope you’re talking about Ann-Xia, the girl who actually debuted and not that little trainee who barely squeezed in to a trainee spot through the backdoor,” Wei Mingxin sneered.

“I think you’re being malicious,” Min Zhen said with a scowl, “She seems to be a promising girl, and Agent Xiu said she has a bright future, so it’s unwise to make her an enemy.”

“I’m being malicious,” Wei Mingxin asked, his voice rising an octave as he pinched at his moustache in disbeliefe, “You’ve GOT to be joking, Old Min, you’re saying that girl, who threw our entire studio into a bad mood, is worth defending? You’d better be telling me she got into Dinghua by hugging a big gold thigh, or I can’t justify what you did today to myself.”

“Why must you be so vulgar? Agent Xiu assured me that Lu Qiu got in with her own merits, and has been working hard with nothing but her talent.”

It wasn’t like Wei Mingxin had been accusing Lu Qiu of doing the ‘unspoken rules,’ he only meant that Lu Qiu might have some sort of backing, but Min Zhen is saying that she doesn’t have anything at all?

Wei Mingxin shook his head and said, in disbelief, “So you’re telling me that, for a girl who bullies a little girl over 15 years younger than her and hasn’t even actually made it into the circle, and doesn’t even have any backing to make it worth it, you risked offending not only Miss Ann-Xia but also giving Xinren Talent’s up and coming actress Du Lingyu a bad impression of our studio? Did you know, thanks to that pointless bullying, that assistant I’d set my heart on refused my long-term job offer?” Wei Mingxin was huffing in rage, and out of sheer pettiness, he decided not to tell Min Zhen that Chen Yijun would have probably made the decision to leave even if the fuss didn’t happen.

“You’re talking about that surnamed Chen? I understand his situation, but having to bring a child with him around has a big risk, especially in a photo studio like ours, where we do cater towards a lot of people in the entertainment circle and the rich and famous, it’s just asking for trouble. Besides, I don’t think Lu Qiu did it on purpose.”

“Didn’t do it … …” Wei Mingxin scoffed, “Fine. Whatever your opinion is on that situation, fine. But just so you know, Little Yi deciding against working for us didn’t come scot free. Thanks to this, we’ll have to cross out all that talk about doing the photography for Le Zhiji’s wedding.”

Min Zhen frowned.

“What? Why? Didn’t we agree that it would be good exposure?”

Wei Mingxin looked at Min Zhen like he was crazy. Honestly, he was kind of wondering if Min Zhen really did go crazy.

“You want to admit that we botched up on Le Zhiji’s wedding so badly we almost caused the bride to cry? You also want to ruin Le Zhiji’s marriage with such an inauspicious ‘blessing’ published in a major entertainment magazine? Did your IQ go offline, Min Zhen?”

Min Zhen furrowed his brows, saying, “But I thought we said it would be alright to…”

Bam!

Wei Mingxin slammed his hand on the table, “Yes, we said it would be alright to talk about it, and introduce how our studio found a valuable talent because of it! Without Little Yi working for our studio, the story with a good ending for everyone involved turns into an episode best kept secret! Especially when it turns out that our studio then allowed a girl who should know better bully an innocent child without evidence, and that innocent child is being raised in a single parent home by a young man who is struggling by himself to keep her safe! Min Zhen, you’re the one who came up with the idea on spinning Le Zhiji’s wedding photo story into a good story, so how are you having so much trouble understanding it?”

“I… I… I…I I I I I …”

Wei Mingxin was startled as Min Zhen suddenly sounded like a broken record, his eyes going glassy for a moment before they cleared up and, even though he didn’t say anything, his face was clearly displaying a, ‘What have I done?’kind of a face.

Something seemed off.

Wei Mingxin stared at his good old buddy, who would never pass up a good business opportunity with the tenaciousness of an old fox, and his anger dispersed into a kind of anxious worry.

Min Zhen’s face looked pale, and he was clearly dazed and confused.

“… Hey, are you alright?”

“I…” Min Zhen’s brows furrowed as he felt unsteady on his feet.

Wei Mingxin sighed.

“Look, you’re obviously not having a good day. Go home and get some sleep, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

Min Zhen frowned, feeling a little unsteady on his feet.

Holding his head, Min Zhen managed to stammer, “Y-yeah, maybe I’ll do that.”

Just what had happened today? How had he made such questionable decisions, both from a business standpoint as well as a moral standpoint?”

He needed to go home and have a good think about things.

As Min Zhen opened his light brain to call a suspension car, he remembered the name Lu Qiu.

For some reason, he didn’t really want to get involved with her again.

---

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<a/n: I thought I was rambling at the beginning, talking about the Rong siblings’ specs, then going on about awful future instant meals, but it surprisingly ended up being good characterization, so oh well?
btw, in the Rong family the three kids refer to each other as Da-ge (Eldest Big Brother), Er-ge/di (Big Brother Two/Little Brother Two), and San-mei (Little Sister Three). I think normally the girls are counted separately from the boys, but the Rongs don’t do that.

Geez, transmigrator cheats used poorly are a big pain in the butt for the other people involved aren’t they?>