because i'm pretty

Yuan Zhiming thought that Li Yikai would get angry and continue to argue with him, or turn around and leave.

When these words came out of his mouth, he had already started to feel annoyed, but he couldn't find any other way out of his annoyance-at least at the time.

But Li Yikai didn't, his eyes darkened, his face became colder, but he still gently hugged Baoyuan Zhiming.

"I take what you said as angry words. If you are tired, take a rest for a few days. We will talk about it after you calm down."

After finishing speaking, he stood up and went into the bathroom without waiting for Yuan Zhiming's reaction.

There was the sound of water in the bathroom. Yuan Zhiming silently packed up the finished food. When sorting the garbage, he accidentally threw the spoon into the wet garbage. When he put on his gloves and hurried to pick it up, the lunch box he was holding fell off When he came out, the cold wonton soup spilled all over his body, including on the ground.

He squatted on the messy floor and wiped it. The sound of water in the bathroom stopped. When Li Yikai came out, he didn't seem to hear or see any movement here, and went straight to the bedroom.

Yuan Zhiming held the rag in his hand and wiped it until there was no trace of it on the ground. The oil stains on his clothes were about to solidify.

He stood up, took off his T-shirt and threw it straight into the trash.

The window of the balcony was still open, and the wind blew in, and the room quickly became cold and quiet, just like when he just came back.

Until entering the bathroom, the remaining water vapor kept the temperature of the previous person, the shower spouted hot water, and the small space was filled with high pressure.

Yuan Zhiming felt that he could hardly breathe.

The hot water was getting hotter and hotter, and the oil stains on his body seemed impossible to wash away. He turned off the water, squatted down again, and breathed heavily silently, desperately absorbing oxygen in the mist.

But the surrounding air is like a solid wall, squeezing around and trapping him tightly in such a suffocation.

The light in the bedroom was turned off, only the faint breathing lamp illuminated Li Yikai's body lying on his side, and an intoxicating warm light flowed out from the gap in the door.

Yuan Zhiming knew that he was not asleep, so he ignored him because he was angry, and he didn't get angry because he wanted to wait for him to bow his head voluntarily.

If he climbed into bed at this time and gave Li Yikai a hug from behind, even if he didn't say anything, maybe everything would be wiped off, just like the nights in the past few months, the two fell asleep silently at night.

But he didn't. Instead, he put on some clothes casually, and turned off the light in the living room, leaving only the soft click of the door.

He was afraid that tomorrow morning, he would be completely unable to leave, and could only be a coward curled up next to Li Yikai's body.

This year's rainy season came a bit late. It seems that the patter of rain barely started after leaving that night.

Yuan Zhiming woke up in the damp old building, washed, ate biscuits, and drew.

No one looked for him on WeChat, and there was no phone call.It seemed as though the past few months had been a hallucination, or that the world had finally taken pity on him and given him a day off.

On another day, he took the initiative to call Gu Changfeng and was invited to meet him at his residence.

In a high-end residential area very close to the old broken house where he lived, Yuan Zhiming took the elevator to the 27th floor, and when the elevator door opened, he was directly facing the empty and spacious living room.

Gu Changfeng was being interviewed by the media, and Yuan Zhiming was waiting in the corner, noticing that there were few traces of life in this large one-storey house with only one floor, except for calligraphy and painting.

He has seen many homes of art practitioners, most of which are messy and crowded, hiding some of the owner's preferences-plants and animals, or tea and incense, as well as family space.This is the first time I have seen such a living environment as Gu Changfeng.

The reporter asked: "You have been single for so many years, have you ever had a lonely moment outside of your artistic career?"

Gu Changfeng simply said two words: "Very few."

The reporter asked again: "Then do you intend to maintain such a minimalist life?"

"Maybe subconsciously, artistic creation is standing on the edge of a cliff. For me, real life, emotions, and trivial matters can be watched, but I can't immerse them. They will destroy the creator's imagination."

Yuan Zhiming listened casually. He had no interest in Gu Changfeng's personal life. His recollection of his success history made people feel even more ironic.

"What was the opportunity for you to resign as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts and decide to step into the field of art business and design?"

"Survive. Artists need to survive. Apart from being bought and sold at auctions, there should be more ways to survive. The school environment cannot carry out such exploration."

"I heard that you are still vigorously supporting newcomers in recent years, and exploring more art commercialization models?"

"Yes," Gu Changfeng nodded.

Yuan Zhiming looked over and heard him continue: "Don't talk about the benefits of the world, I also want to pave the way for the people who come later. I have been doing this kind of thing for the past few years, connecting the art and commercial markets, and practicing a set of ideas. Working rules allow young artists to have more space to survive and successfully complete commercial transformation..."

Apart from those empty words, after hearing this, Yuan Zhiming was sure that his and Li Yikai's visions were almost identical - but in very different ways.

Gu Changfeng's eyes turned to him, and he pointed at the end: "Standing over there is a new painter whom I admire recently. I hope my experience can help him."

Yuan Zhiming lowered his head, not dodging the flash.

The media group left quickly, Gu Changfeng sat back to his original position, and called Yuan Zhiming over.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" he asked.

Yuan Zhiming was ready for his own negotiation, but when he was asked this way, he was talking about what he just said: "Survival space is not just money, but also creative space."

He knew that what he said might be useless at all, and Gu Changfeng's values ​​were not something he could shake.

But he still wants to say: "If for the sake of commercialization, you can only be limited to a fixed routine, and take the routine as your own, with such behavior, and become an industry standard model... that is destroying the living space, I'm on a creative level."

Gu Changfeng said calmly: "The question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, this debate will not reach a conclusion."

"Okay, maybe", Yuan Zhiming lowered his head, he had no hope at first, so he was not disappointed or regretful.

"But Li Yikai and you are not in a competitive relationship. He doesn't want to get involved in the artist's business. I mean, he won't interfere with the creation, and he doesn't plan to sign an exclusive contract. He's just acting as an agent to bridge the two parties."

Gu Changfeng laughed: "You are still too naive, why don't you just say, what do you want?"

Yuan Zhiming said: "In the short term, I want you not to interfere with his current project. In the long term, I just want to remind you of this."

"This reminder is meaningless to me," Gu Changfeng replied, "As for the short term, have you thought about it?"

"Well, I have already submitted my resignation to Mu Jia. The copyright of ice sculptures can be authorized to you in my personal name." Don't involve other people—the cooperation with Mu Jia is going on normally, and Li Yikai's project can be completed smoothly."

"that's it?"

"There is still a price," Yuan Zhiming typed out on the phone: "I want the money."

Gu Changfeng glanced at it: "Yes, but this is the price of ice sculptures, what about your own?"

Yuan Zhiming took back the phone: "I won't sign a contract with you."

"That's not the same quid pro quo as I thought."

Yuan Zhiming lowered his head and took a breath, and continued: "I know that the idea of ​​ice sculpture has been determined, you have to do it. If you want to complete this project, if you don't want me to post anything on social media, let this matter become If it doesn't look good, you can only agree."

Gu Changfeng looked at him: "Who taught you this?"

Yuan Zhiming shook his head: "No one taught me."

"Yes", Gu Changfeng smiled thoughtfully.He leaned over to the table, and found a stack of contracts from under the old photo albums that he had just used to take pictures for reporters: "This is a template for an authorization contract. You can go back and read it and fill it out, then contact my assistant to sign the contract."

Yuan Zhiming had been standing not too far away to talk to him, and then he stepped over and took it with his head bowed.

When he looked down, he inadvertently noticed the old photos that had been taken out of the photo album. In the black and white corner, the words "Huaizhou Academy of Fine Arts" were written.

Coincidentally, there are only a few well-known art academies in China, and the painters in surrounding provinces and cities may all have connections with the Huaizhou Academy of Fine Arts...Yuan Zhiming didn't think about it, and quickly looked away.

It was raining outside again, Yuan Zhiming didn't bring an umbrella, but fortunately it wasn't raining heavily, so he put the contract in his schoolbag and ran quickly under the trees.

The greening in the community is very good, and the garden-like curved corridors and plants separate the space, which also blocks a lot of sight.

Li Yikai and Zhao Kaisi each held an umbrella, bought beer and fruit from the convenience store, Zhou Xing called them to hurry up, Li Yikai was impatiently agreeing, feeling someone touched his arm.

Zhao Kaisi stared blankly in one direction, and bumped Li Yikai with his elbow: "That person looks like Xiaoyuan."

"You read it wrong," Li Yikai hung up the phone.

"No." Zhao Kai thought for a while, and suddenly became more determined: "No, no, every color of his schoolbag is unique, I can't admit it wrong, hey, you go and ask him..."

Li Yikai's gaze also followed the direction, but he grabbed Zhao Kaisi who was about to shout, turned around and continued walking deep into the community.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Kaisi shut up obediently, and caught up: "Have you had a fight?"

"Well", Li Yikai didn't say much, put away the umbrella in silence, entered the corridor, and pressed the elevator.

Xiao Zhao is almost blank in terms of emotions, especially Li Yikai's emotional problems, he knows that he is even more incapable of enlightening.

So he went upstairs, turned around and told Zhou Xing about it.

Zhou Xing was very excited, and he chased after him and asked, "Tell me, we will help you relieve your worries."

"Go away," Li Yikai said irritably.

"Don't be like this Kai, you don't want to think about Zhao Kaisi, he is so worried about you, seeing you like this, how can you go to Japan with confidence?"

Li Yikai ignored his nonsense.

Zhao Kaisi wanted to go to Japan for further studies. This opportunity came suddenly, and the decision was made quickly.He was both happy and a little disappointed when he learned about it.

It seems that in such a short period of time, many people and things are changing suddenly.

Zhou Xing's plan failed, and another person was replaced: "Then, does Qi have a chance? Yikai, if you don't speak, you will acquiesce."

Unexpectedly, Qi Jiu pushed down his glasses with a smile: "I don't want to be a spare tire."

Zhou Xing made fun of himself: "One or two are so arrogant, please don't eat at my house."

The clues that had just been suppressed by emotions suddenly appeared in his heart, Li Yikai turned his head and asked Zhou Xing: "Is there anyone else living in your community?"

"You suspect Yuan Zhiming is cheating?"

"Can you walk around a little more normally?" Li Yikai got up angrily.

"Okay." Zhou Xing waved his hand to calm him down: "I mean, if you guys quarrel and you can't let go of your arrogance, I can call him and ask him to meet and talk about it..."

Li Yikai turned a deaf ear to it. He searched on his mobile phone, and the result seemed to be consistent with what he was most worried about.

"Is it okay?" Zhou Xing asked, "Did I call him?"

"Don't", Li Yikai stopped him.

His mind was a little confused, after two days of avoiding, he finally seemed to come to that door.

He is afraid to step forward, and the so-called calmness may be an excuse, because he is too afraid of the one in ten thousand possibility—maybe the person he believes and knows really has another side.

But he had to step over, even so, Li Yikai did not allow these things to happen when he didn't understand.

After struggling for a while, it finally occurred to him that another person might be able to help.

Coward got himself a reprieve, he thought to himself, as he dialed the phone.