2nd Chances 13: Forward Steps

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Chapter 13: Forward Steps

Chen Yijun blinked a little stupidly.

There was a term for this feeling.

What was it… oh, right.

Deja vu.

“Erm… Mister Chen Yijun?”

“A-ah… y-yes… a job offer, is it?”

At the concerned voice on the other end of the call, Chen Yijun snapped back to attention.

What the hell! Since when was it so easy for someone with no qualifications and no background to grub up job offers from big-name people?

If it’s this easy, give him some of it in his last life, where he was a starving artist fresh out of school! Although that kind of time-space bending feat would be impossible now…

The woman on the video call was Rong Yan’s agent, Fu Xinyi.

“Actually, it’s not a job offer. It’s an introduction to Allen Scott, CEO of Morning Light Entertainment Corporation and Paradigm Creative Management Agency. As you probably know, Mister Allen-Scott is Rong Yan’s cousin, and she believes that it would be beneficial to introduce you to him.”

Chen Yijun quickly flipped through his memories.

Whoo-! He really didn’t need to go far, the Scotts were just as internationally influential as the Rongs, but mostly in the world of finances and politics.

Allen-Scott? A major business owner of many famous media companies.

Good lord, first a moderately famous photo studio, then a major entertainment magazine’s photo shoot, and now an introduction to a media mogul?

Neither the previous Chen Yijun nor the current Chen Yijun had these kinds of connections in their previous lives!

“I-I don’t know if you’re aware, but currently, my situation with my niece -” Chen Yijun stuttered.

“Oh, yes. I don’t know the specifics, but Miss Rong and I are certainly aware that you cannot leave your niece alone. We are more than prepared to assist you in finding accommodations for her during the day, if you would prefer, but Miss Rong is certain that Mr Allen-Scott won’t have much trouble with her being by your side, either.”

Well, that was that, Chen Yijun supposed.

If she had just said that they would help him find a sitter or something, he could have said no thank you, but Fu Xinyi had preemptively nipped that thought in the bud. Or rather, Rong Yan had already thought of it, anyway.

… Hey, Wei Mingxin, isn’t there something like employee confidentiality or something? Chen Yijun wasn’t sure what it was that Photographer Wei had told Fu Xinyi and Rong Yan, but he felt like, whatever it was, it was probably too much.

After a long pause, Chen Yijun finally managed to say, “This is very sudden. Can I get back to you at a later date?”

“Of course, Mr. Chen. I hope to hear good news from you.”

With a goodbye that almost sounded threatening (at least to Chen Yijun), Fu Xinyi ended the call.

Chen Yijun stared blankly at where the screen had been moments before, before letting out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

WHAAAAAAAAAT THE FFFFF.

He screamed silently on the inside as he buried his face in his hand.

Even though most people would have been dancing from this golden pie that had fallen from the sky, Chen Yijun would just like to say, being beaned by a freaking chunk of gold flung at high speed out of nowhere is not a very fun experience!

His brain couldn’t even register emotions right now.

“Little Uncle, what was that about?”

Chen Yijun was brought out of his panic attack by Lanlan’s childish, but concerned voice.

“Ah… that was…” Really, what was all of this about?

“Is it another job?”

“I wonder…” Chen Yijun ruffled his hair as he thought about how to explain it. “Rather than a job, they want to introduce me to some important people?”

“Is it for photography?” Lanlan asked.

Chen Yijun honestly had no idea, but he sure hoped not. But he wouldn’t be introduced to a media mogul just for photography, right?

More like, again, he had NO idea what was going on.

With a sigh, Chen Yijun decided to focus on what he knew.

“Does Lanlan want Little Uncle to be a photographer?” he asked. He wasn’t sure, but he kept feeling like Lanlan was pushing him towards photography. However, it was very subtle, so he didn’t feel like he could just assume it without confirmation.

Not to mention, he’s not sure what to do about it even if Lanlan did want him to be a photographer.

He’s not good at photography, after all.

A frown crossed Lanlan’s face. “… Didin’t Little Uncle want to be a photographer?”

“…” Chen Yijun ran through his memories before he replied, but the former Chen Yijun never distinctly said that, so he said, “Not especially.”

Lanlan furrowed her brows, looking up at him, searching his face, but she seemed to see something in Chen Yijun’s completely confused, somewhat blank face, so her brows smoothed out.

“… Little Uncle just looks so happy taking pictures, so Lanlan thought…”

“…” Well, that was true. The former Chen Yijun treated photography as a way to escape from his worries. It’s not unreasonable for Lanlan to notice that – or rather, it would be sillier to assume she never had, huh?

“Rather than photography, Little Uncle likes doing art in general. Little Uncle thinks that taking photographs of his precious people is more fun than doing it for a job,” Chen Yijun said, muddling his words a bit to obscure the difference between himself and the former Chen Yijun.

After all, it’s not like he hates taking pictures. He just takes pictures like most other people take pictures, of friends, family, and fun events. You know, casually.

So yeah, he’ll take pictures in the future. Just … not for work.

Lanlan was silent for a moment.

“Little Uncle… Lanlan … Lanlan will be okay. If Little Uncle has something he wants to do… Lanlan… Lanlan doesn’t want Little Uncle to hate her.”

Lanlan’s voice became quiet.

Chen Yijun sighed, not from exasperation but from having his concerns realized, and reached out, drawing Lanlan towards him.

“Lanlan, Lanlan, Little Uncle won’t hate you, I promise you. Little Uncle really isn’t choosing not to do photography because of Lanlan. Little Uncle really just doesn’t want to do photography.”

“… But Little Uncle stopped working at the studio because of Lanlan.”

“No, like I said, Lanlan was just one of the reasons -”

Chen Yijun paused for a moment as Lanlan stiffened, before he sighed again and rested his chin on the top of her head.

“I promise, Lanlan, the main reason I left the studio was because I thought I wasn’t suited for it. I was going to talk to Photographer Wei about it afterwards, but that situation happened.”

“…Really?”

“Yes. But I was upset it happened, so I may have said it like that because I wanted them to know I wasn’t happy that those people were bullying Lanlan.”

He kissed her her forehead gently, soothing her as she turned to cling him.

Maybe he really was focusing too much on Lanlan. Maybe he really was dedicating too much of his life on her.

Chen Yijun didn’t really feel like that was true, being from a different world where he had a much shorter lifespan, but when he thought about it, dedicating the next thirty years solely to raise a little girl, ignoring and rejecting all the good offers that came his way, was probably very irresponsible.

In more ways than one.

Giving major public figures bad impressions of him is an obviously irresponsible move, but more than that, what kind of impression was that going to make on Lanlan?

Young spirit beasts were very perceptive, and it wasn’t surprising that a white snake like Lanlan was especially perceptive, so what would she think when she sees her Little Uncle continuously refuse opportunities in favor of her?

It was one thing if she just became spoiled, but Lanlan really was especially perceptive for her age. She was already showing signs of thinking herself as a burden, even if she was only four and far too young to be thinking anything like that at all. If he really thought about it, if Chen Yijun continued to follow his plan on dedicating the next thirty years of his life to Lanlan… perhaps it might become something that hurts her instead.

And maybe, just maybe, Chen Yijun was still the same Yijun despite his transmigration, too idealistic for his own good but still too timid to take the necessary risks, just spinning his wheels in place as he navigated this new world that still played by many of the same rules as his previous world. Deep down, in a part of him he didn’t want to visit too much, maybe he was just using Lanlan as an excuse to avoid having to seriously face the decisions he has to make in his new life.

Chen Yijun wasn’t willing to face these unpleasant thoughts now, or ever, but not facing them didn’t mean there wasn’t going to be consequences to the actions he took. Or didn’t take.

So, although it pained him greatly, Chen Yijun decided to be a little more honest with both himself and Lanlan.

“Lanlan, the do you remember the lady who talked to you early on in the studio breakroom? The friendly lady that was friends with the really pretty jiejie? She said that they wanted to introduce me to an important person who might give me a job.”

“The friendly lady? … Xinyi-jiejie?” Lanlan said, tilting her head.

“Yes. The prettyjiejie with her is very famous, and that important person is her cousin. What do you think, should Little Uncle should give it a go?” he asked, tossling her hair lightly.

Lanlan thought seriously for a moment before looking up at him and nodding.

“Getting involved with famous people isn’t always a good thing,” Chen Yijun said hesitantly.

“But it’s easier to do art things when you have a backing,” Lanlan replied.

“… Well, although I’m not certain it’s an art job… you aren’t wrong…” Even in the interstellar age, there’s still the ‘starving artist’ stigma, after all. Although it’s even easier to start freelancing in this era than Chen Yijun’s previous era. Still, working as an artist with a patron is just different compared to working as an artist on his own.

In his previous life, Chen Yijun had to rely on his livestreaming and his ability to make entertaining content to sell his art.

If he had a patron, those frantic days of filming, thinking up new content, and dealing with the business side of things could have been greatly reduced to just doing ART – but then again, he quite enjoyed the frantic scrabblings with his buddies, who helped him with the computer side of things and were always scrambling around themselves in various (sometimes ill-advised) entrepreneurial ventures.

It was risky, it was tiring and frustrating, but it was also fun.

But right now, Chen Yijun didn’t have his buddies.

If he thought about it, rather than a patron or a backer, what Chen Yijun really needed right now were allies.

After all, it’s not just him anymore.

And isn’t that what Rong Yan and Allen-Scott were potentially? This is why Chen Yijun bothered to get Lanlan registered as a citizen and looked into school, right? To make allies?

Well, yes, that’s right, but … Chen Yijun was thinking more along the lines of getting neighborhood aunties as allies rather than major world industry heads.

“Haa… my luck is ridiculous. I’m a little scared that it’s too good to be true, and that bad things will happen right away again,” Chen Yijun sighed, staring off into the distance.

“… Little Uncle is the one who said we shouldn’t hide away like turtles,” Lanlan said, slightly cheekily, and Chen Yijun couldn’t help but squish her cheeks.

She was already in her rebellious stage!

It was making this old man sad… although he’s not really that old.

No, well, he’s already in his mid-thirties, though… although that’s just barely coming of age in this era, Chen Yijun was still having a bit of a hard time wrapping his head around it.

“Is Lanlan trying to scold her Little Uncle?” he said teasingly as he continued to squish her cheeks, smiling as she wriggled around making facings at him, trying to stifle her giggles.

Yeah, he should make up his mind and make a foothold for himself in this life.

He had to protect this smile, after all.

It was only much, much later that Chen Yijun remembered the abilities that white snakes had.

Specifically the ’bringing good luck to those around them’ one.

The previous Chen Yijun had kept Lanlan’s spirit beast qualities sealed away almost her entire life in order to keep her safe by keeping her hidden away, so this ability wasn’t something he had to deal with. The current Chen Yijun had unsealed her to keep her safe by building her a spot in society.

The current Chen Yijun had also inadvertently unlocked his very own koi – no, white snake – when he had undone the seal and allowed her spirit beast qualities loose.
^{<koi fish signify good luck, and a koi is also slang for a person/thing that seems to bring good luck/coincidences to others. ‘Lucky’ people may have their pictures forwarded around on sns/weibo, called ‘forwarding a koi’ for good luck, like a chain letter>}

It wasn’t like that was his intention though-!?

He could only hope the good luck that Lanlan brought him wouldn’t be too eye-catching to the wrong people…

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<a/n: I didn’t realize at the time, but all of the plot armor and lucky coincidences can now be attributed to Lanlan, whether they actually are or not. Of course, bringing some good luck to people doesn’t mean that she keeps bad luck from happening. Good luck also does not mean getting exactly what you want. In short, there is no reason to assume that Chen Yijun’s life is going to be easy, breezy, covergirl>