single sickness

As soon as the recruitment notice was posted, Uncle Li came to the studio.

He was holding fresh shallots in his hand, and he should have just returned from the vegetable market. Although the distance to and from the vegetable market was only a few minutes, he was wearing shiny lace-up shoes, showing the sophistication and refinement of an old gentleman.

"Teacher Xiang, if you want to replace me, you should tell me, right?"

Uncle Li stood at the gate of the small courtyard, speaking to Xiang Mo with a slightly complaining tone, as if saying that Xiang Mo was ignorant and shouldn't make decisions without authorization.But his overall attitude is still polite, after all, everyone is a decent person.

"I don't intend to replace you." Xiang Mo explained, "I just want to find someone else to exchange with you."

This is not a lie.Most of those who have time to be art models are idlers. If the applicants are all retired grandparents, then Xiang Mo is not sure whether he will find a new model.

Anyway, painting Uncle Li is a painting, and painting Uncle Wang is also a painting. They are all paintings of elderly people, and it doesn't make much sense to change people.

Therefore, if he really can't find anyone in the end, Xiang Mo will pretend that there is no such thing and continue to use Uncle Li.And that's why he didn't discuss it with Uncle Li in advance.

"Who else are you looking for?" Mr. Li was obviously persuaded by Xiang Mo, and he stopped worrying about finding a new model. Instead, he raised his opinion, "First of all, you must make it clear that you can't just look for it. This will lower the level of models in the studio."

Xiang Mo couldn't help but find it funny. He knew that Uncle Li had always regarded himself as a handsome man, so he naturally didn't want to be classified as an ordinary person.But in fact, no one requires art models to have good features. The "excellent" he wrote in the recruitment notice is of course the best, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't have it.

"Okay, I will choose carefully." Xiang Mo said.

"And you can't choose Lao Zhang." Uncle Li said again, "That fake foreign devil, who speaks second-rate English all day long, thinks that old ladies use this trick? Everyone is laughing at him behind his back."

The old Zhang that Uncle Li said was an English teacher when he was young, and Xiang Mo probably knew something about it. The two had long been at loggerheads and had been fighting for the "grass" in the area of ​​the old bungalow.

Sometimes, the elderly are more immature than children, and Xiang Mo felt helpless in his heart, but he still smiled and said: "Mr. Zhang didn't come to sign up."

"Hmph, he still has some self-knowledge." Uncle Li showed a satisfied expression. He seemed to think of something suddenly, and said, "By the way, Aunt Wang in the next street is nice, or I—"

Uncle Li couldn't finish the second half of his sentence, because at this moment Du Chi walked over with Sanmao by his hand.

He was wearing a sleeveless sports top, showing his undulating arm lines. His lower body was a pair of tight sports trousers and loose sports shorts. The muscles of his legs tightened suddenly at the knees, as if they contained explosive power.

"Morning." Du Chi took the initiative to greet the two, and his eyes naturally fell on the recruitment notice next to the studio signboard, "Are you looking for a model from the teacher?"

"We'll talk about recruiting models another day." Xiang Mo finally seized the opportunity, deliberately pretended to have something to do with Du Chi, and walked into the yard without any explanation, "Mr. Du, your bed is still ringing." , do you see..."

I don't know if it's because he just finished running in the morning, but Du Chi's skin temperature is very high.He walked behind Xiang Mo inexplicably, like a large dog being led forward by its owner.

After closing the door of the studio on the first floor, he managed to escape Uncle Li's nagging.

Xiang Mo breathed a sigh of relief, let go of Du Chi's wrist, and explained, "Uncle Li wants to recommend his friends."

The third sister on the other side jumped down from the table and came to Sanmao with light steps. However, when Sanmao lowered her head and wanted to rub her with the tip of her nose, she gave a heavy meowing punch without warning. , and then quickly hid under the table.

But this time, Sanmao didn't get confused anymore, and chased after Sanmei, a cat and a dog played parkour in the studio.

The sound of tables, chairs and benches colliding gave Xiang Mo a headache. He was about to ask Du Chi to take care of it, but he heard Du Chi suddenly say, "My bed doesn't make any noise."

Models, cats and dogs, bed noises.

The last topic was the most irrelevant, because it was an excuse for Xiang Mo to say it casually.

"Would you like to try?" Du Chi asked quite seriously, like a rigorous researcher trying to figure out the problem.

Seeing that this person was talking nonsense again, obviously not counting on him, he said "no" to Mo, lowered his head and quickly caught the third sister who was running around.

San Mao, who was following behind, did not slow down, and rushed over, his thick claws slammed on Xiang Mo's body, causing him to fall backwards unsteadily.

Du Chi hugged Xiang Mo's waist in time, and finally shouted: "San Mao!"

The large dog squatted in place aggrieved, and gave a satisfied "meow" to the little cat in Mo's arms.

Putting Sanmei on the table, Xiang Mo continued what he wanted to say just now, but was interrupted by Sanmao: "As long as you don't do 'exercise', your bed will not make noise."

Du Chiying didn't expect that there would be more to the topic, so he raised his eyebrows and pointed out: "But I like doing sports."

Xiang Mo didn't answer any more, he found that he still couldn't talk nonsense about Du Chi.

Du Chi didn't continue this topic anymore, put away his indecent expression, and asked, "Did I wake you up this morning?"

Usually when Du Chi comes back from a run, Xiang Mo is still sleeping.

But he got up early today not because he was woken up by Du Chi, but because today is Sunday, and the studio will open at ten o'clock in the morning. He wants to post the recruitment notice as soon as possible. If someone applies for the job, it's best not to delay his class time.

"No, I had to get up early to recruit models." Xiang Mo explained.

"Uncle Li, can't you?" Du Chi asked.

"I can't keep painting him. I want to find another young man, and the two will exchange."

Third Sister couldn't stay on the table, so she jumped onto the floor lightly, which made San Mao want to move again.

Du Chi glanced at San Mao at his feet, suddenly raised his gaze, looked at Xiang Mo and asked, "Can I?"

"You?" Xiang Mo was slightly taken aback, realizing that Du Chi was signing up.

In fact, as long as they are young people, Xiang Mo welcomes them very much, let alone Du Chi's facial features and body proportions are very good, which is very suitable for teaching.

But the problem is-

"Aren't you working?" he asked.

"That's right." Du Chi seemed to realize that he was not an idler, "I don't have time."

The topic was left alone, and the two cleaned up the studio messed up by the two pets.

There were not many aisles in the studio full of tables and chairs, and the two passed by from time to time, and Xiang Mo could always smell the sweat on Du Chi's body.

Everyone sweats after exercising, and it's nothing to worry about.

But Xiang Mo recalled Du Chi's saying "I like sports", and couldn't help thinking about it.

"Let me clean it up." He snatched the chair from Du Chi's hand, avoiding Du Chi's sight with his eyes, "You don't know the furnishings here."

Du Chi didn't follow Xiang Mo politely, and went upstairs to take a bath.

About ten minutes later, the doorbell rang outside the courtyard.Xiang Mo came out of the studio, and found an old gentleman in a three-piece suit standing outside the door, who was exactly what Uncle Li called "Old Zhang".

"Good morning." Uncle Zhang took off his jazz hat and greeted Mo.

A bad premonition suddenly appeared in Xiang Mo's heart, and he responded with a polite smile: "Good morning, Mr. Zhang."

"I heard that you are recruiting models here." Uncle Zhang glanced confidently at the recruitment notice on the wall, and straight to the point expressed his intentions, "What do you think of me? Teacher Xiang."

Uncle Zhang and Uncle Li are exactly the same type of gentlemen, and Xiang Mo can almost predict that if he lets these two take turns, the students will only say that he changed the soup instead of the medicine.

"You're fine." Xiang Mo began to think about how to politely refuse, "It's just that you and Uncle Li are a bit incompatible, look..."

"Hurry up and fire him." Uncle Zhang twitched his lips in dissatisfaction, "His outfit has been outdated a long time ago, so he thinks he is very fashionable, and everyone is laughing at him behind his back."

These two old enemies even said bad things about each other in exactly the same way.

Xiang Mo felt a little headache when he heard the mixture of Chinese and English, and said with a embarrassed face: "If you fire Uncle Li, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to him..."

"You don't need to explain to him." Uncle Zhang said bad things about Uncle Li endlessly, "Why should he be a model, that little man? He always said that he used to shoot commercials. I don't think there was anyone else at that time... "

A breeze blew by, and the leaves of the sycamore trees rustled.

Xiang Mo pretended to be distracted by the wind, and raised his head to look at the sky, trying to get away from Uncle Zhang's chatter for a while.

But at this moment, he suddenly found someone standing on the balcony on the third floor of his house.

Du Chi was leaning his elbows on the edge of the balcony, looking at Xiang Mo who was looking at the sky at a 45-degree angle, as if he was watching a play.

Xiang Mo frowned suddenly, and complained to Du Chi with his eyes: You just watched?

The smile on Du Chi's face grew stronger, and he withdrew his upper body from the edge of the balcony.And when Uncle Zhang talked about his victory over Uncle Li in the high school sports meeting, Du Chi came out of the studio on the first floor, interrupted Uncle Zhang and said, "Mr. Zhang, the studio is full of models."

"Fully recruited?" Uncle Zhang murmured, "Old Li Mingming told me that he still needs to be recruited."

Xiang Mo really couldn't understand these two people. Sometimes they seemed to be rivals, but sometimes they were on good terms.

"Just recruited." Du Chi said, looking at Xiang Mo, "Teacher Xiang has taken a fancy to me."

...There is no need to use this kind of expression.

But to save trouble, Xiang Mo cooperated and said, "Yes, Mr. Du happens to be free on weekends."

Uncle Zhang also fought with Uncle Li. Seeing that the model job had been taken down by Du Chi, he didn't say anything more, just complained to Uncle Li casually, and left the gate of the courtyard.

"Thanks." Xiang Mo didn't want to recruit any more models, so he tore off the recruitment notice pasted by the door.

But Du Chi suddenly asked: "Can the hourly salary be raised again?"

Xiang Mo didn't understand why Du Chi asked such a question, but he still replied: "No more, I don't want to recruit any more."

"I mean me." Du Chi raised his chin, indicating the last line on the notice, "I'll be your model, can the hourly salary be raised?"

Salary for outstanding candidates is negotiable.

Xiang Mo didn't answer immediately, but asked strangely, "Aren't you free?"

"Three hours on the weekend can still be spared."

If Du Chi really comes to act as a model for Xiang Mo, then the salary can of course be negotiated.

But Xiang Mo didn't want to lose the initiative to negotiate, so he deliberately said: "I haven't agreed yet, you have to apply first."

"Okay." Du Chi smiled, folded his arms around his chest, his eyes were full of fun, "How do you apply?"

"What advantages do you have?" Xiang Mo asked.

"Advantage?" Du Chi raised his right hand, stroked his chin, and said thoughtfully, "I can take it off."

Xiang Mo raised his eyebrows imperceptibly, he recruited ordinary dress models, not mannequins.

Of course, mannequins are even more valuable. Sometimes when Xiang Mo's hands itch, he can't find a mannequin that fits his eyes. Therefore, if Du Chi is willing to "contribute" himself, the price is negotiable.

Xiang Mo couldn't help but suspect that Du Chi was precisely targeting his hobbies and offering him a temptation he couldn't refuse.

But it's not his style to surrender immediately, he raised his chin slightly, looked critically at Du Chi and said, "Then take it off and have a look."

--------------------

Xiang Mo: What are your specialties?

Du Chi: I am good at it.