One Useless Rebirth

“I know about her plan to run away,” he sighed, shaking his head. He was getting better at this now. “She was sad at that time. My aunt would like her to settle abroad and never come back, but my cousin didn’t like it. That’s why they quarreled. My uncle never cared about this. The elders in my family had already scolded him.”

He Bai frowned, and he felt sorry for that. He never expected that the buyer was in a much worse family environment than he previously imagined. All this time the buyer had been pretending to be lively when they were chatting. She must have been really depressed.

Noticing his silence, Jiang Xiuwen held back his desire to ask about the condition of his ‘cousin’ and pretended to be depressed for a while. Then he changed the topic, “My cousin has mentioned that both of you are the fans of Di Qiuhe. And you are very good at taking photos and editing. Well, are you interested in working here with us?”

He Bai suddenly got out of his trance. Fans of Di Qiuhe? Did the buyer have any misunderstanding about who he was?

"Thanks for the offer. What a pity. I have a part-time job at the Saint Elephant." With a smile he took a sip of tea and then he took his leave, "Since your cousin is abroad, you will have to receive these on her behalf. And thanks for your time. I really enjoyed it. "

Jiang Xiuwen finally felt a ton being lifted off him. He tried to restrain himself from appearing too excited and got up to see He Bai off at the door. He put on a hospitable face and sighed “What a pity. I was a step late in winning you over. Thank you for the fruits. I will convey your concern to my cousin. You will always be welcomed in the Red Guest.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

After a short conversation, Jiang Xiuwen saw He Bai off at the door. He was suddenly reminded of something and stopped him, “Wait a minute. You said the fruits were send by your friend from border province. They have just arrived here?”

He Bai nodded in agreement, "Right. He sent an urgent delivery. The fruits are still fresh now. Any problem with that?”

“No, nothing. I notice that the fruits are very fresh, so I want to buy some for my family, too. It seems you have a good friend. Even in border province he still remembers to send you fruits. I’m a bit jealous.” He laughed, but deep in his heart, he had chopped Di Qiuhe into meat sauce. Di never gave him a call, but he had time to send fruits to He Bai. And he made such a mess for him to clean up? WTF. He should stop making shitty friends going forward.

Astonished by his overly radiant laugh, He Bai quickly left and strode back to the Saint Elephant.

After Jiang Xiuwen saw He Bai off, the smile on his face suddenly disappeared. Turning around, he entered the Red Guest in a rage. Seeing the employees looking at his direction, he shouted with widened eyes, “What’s so funny? Have you finished your work? Don’t you dare talk about what happened today. You do well to remember this!”

Employees were deeply shocked and started to go about doing their usual businesses...

After returning to the Saint Elephant, He Bai felt strange when others looked at him.

“What’s wrong?” He got hold of a passing driver, and asked, “Why do they look at me like that?”

"No, nothing. They are thanking you for those fruits." The driver muttered a reply, and then he ran away, pretending that he was needed elsewhere.

This reaction looked very odd.

Raising his eyebrows, He Bai swept a look at the people who was peeking at him. Having thought about it for a few seconds, he walked towards Li Ru’s office.

"Okay, I will have a talk with him... Well, thank you for your invitation... Ok, talk to you soon." After Li Ru hung up, she heard a knock and saw He Bai’s head coming up from behind the half-closed door. The expression on his face became relaxed and he waved to He Bai. "Just in time, I have something to tell you."

With a smile, he walked up and took a seat opposite of Li. He magically produced a big and delicious fruit from his bag and presented it like a treasure to Li Ru. “Here you are, Sister Li. I have been hiding this one from others. It smells the sweetest among those fruits. It must be delicious.”

“Aren’t you sweet?” Li Ru smiled and promptly accepted it without being coy. After that, they got right down to business. “Here is the thing. The work over the TV station is coming to an end. The busy period is over, so the demand for part-time workers is not as urgent as before. But considering your ability, the company decided to keep you.

Putting on a serious face, He Bai sat up straight and listened carefully to what she said.

“Don’t be so uptight.” Li Ru smiled to soothe his nerves and suddenly changed their topic, “Have you logged on Weibo recently?”

He Bai froze for a moment and shook his head. “No, I have been busy with my exam recently. I haven’t turned on my computer for some days... Why do you ask?” Is the topic of Di Qiuhe still trending? Have there been some new developments?

"Nothing. It’s just you are famous now." Li Ru replied in a teasing way. She clicked on the tablet on the table and held it up for him to look, "Look, what are the odds? A while ago, some negative news of an actor went viral and the actor ended up closing his Twitter account. Right before he closed it, he reposted a behind-the-scene video of the B City TV station and praised the person who provided the materials. Later, when the netizens wanted to help redeem the actor’s image online, they dug into the posts which he posted before closing off the account, and among those posts the one commending you was second to last, so you are also noticed by the netizens. The B City TV station noticed that the behind-the-scene video was gaining popularity at the actor’s expense and decided to take advantage of the situation. They removed Liu Huanhuan from her place on the album, and instead used the set you shot for Yang Fu and posted it.

On the screen of the tablet were the hot topics on Twitter. Under the trending hashtag #Please come back, Di Qiuhe# was a topic #want to be photographed by the young, handsome photographer#. He clicked on the topic link and all he could see were the selfies of netizens captioned with mawkish subtitles.

‘These people just want to post their selfies,” He twitched his lips.

Sensing his silence, Li Ru thought he was shocked and she proceeded with a smile. "You did a good job on the photos of Yang Fu. The enthusiastic responses that you received from the netizens speak volumes of your ability. Considering your current popularity, the company decided to offer you the position of photographer after discussion. Your will be responsible for the promotion of commercial films on Weibo. We think that will strengthen your popularity.”

‘Strengthen popularity? Are they going to make me an Internet celebrity and a poster boy for Saint Elephant?’

He Bai immediately put down the tablet and asked with hesitation, “Ms. Li, if I am not mistaken, the company wants to move me off the probationary period?

“Yes. That’s it.” Li Ru nodded her head. Then she took out a document from the drawer and delivered to him, “This is the contract. Your salary will be almost as high as the team leader Ma. Since you are a student and have classes, the company agrees to reduce your monthly workload and you don’t need to clock in. The only thing that the company needs is your full cooperation when the it needs online promotion.”

When taken at face value, this offer sounded very good, but He Bai knew things would not be as simple as that.

He did not answer but took the contract to look it over. He paused over two articles in the contract and looked up at Li Ru with a serious face, "Ms. Li, the company wants to sign a ten-year contract with me? And this supplementary clause here says the adaptation period is one year. After one year, the company will consider whether I should be transferred to another position. What does this mean?"