Chapter 7 - I Really Want to Bite You to Death. (1/2)
Mi Chen had ever read some reports about Li Mojun （厉墨钧, originally 厉秣钧） and it was said that the two Chinese characters (秣钧) of his original name came from two set phrases, one of which (Mo, 秣) meant keeping the army ready for combat and the other (Jun, 钧) meant the great power of thunderbolt. Obviously, his former name sounded too murderous, so he changed his name when he debuted.
“Have you ever seen Li Mojun?” asked Fang Chengye with a smile on his face.
“No. But I have seen his work The Story of an Empty City. His smile could give people a strong sense of warmth.”
“This is what a qualified actor should do. Li Mojun is able to change himself into different characters when he meet different scripts. But actually he is quite difficult to get along with. And…” Fang Chengye got close to Mi Chen, whispering to her ears in a low tone, “I heard that he has changed his cosmeticians six times in a year. That means he would expel a cosmetician every two months.”
“What?” Mi Chen raised her head looking at the man in the playbill. She never expected that Li Mojun could be so bad-tempered.
“So, you’d better to follow our boss wholeheartedly!”
When she left, Mi Chen took one look backwards subconsciously. Her eyes suddenly got painful when she caught sight of the brow ridges of the young man.
Even though she didn’t get anything that she wanted, Mi Chen was not nervous at all. After all, it would be useless to have those unsuitable things and they could only turned to be waste.
When Mi Chen got back to her small apartment, Meow was conscientiously making pumpkin porridge with all necessary ingredients prepared. She also planned to make two dishes when Meow came back. If they kept eating instant noodles, Mi Chen believed that they would became mummy that no poison could hurt them.
When Mi Chen turned on her computer, Mi Chen logged on a French website. As she click on the page, various cosmetics appeared on the interface. She then clicked the option ‘Men’ and began selecting products. As she finished putting all the suitable things to her shopping cart, she then called Fang Chengye. Fang Chengye immediately remitted a sum of money to her credit card. Finally, Mi Chen perfectly finished her task.
Meanwhile, Meow also came back. Along with the sound of a key turning in the lock, Meow’s voice came into Mi Chen’s ears too.
“Mi Chen! Mi Chen! Tell me! Are you the private cosmeticians of Bai Yihan now? What kind of person is he? Is he as generous as what he is in the interviews? Does he behave like a bad-tempered big shot? Has he ever ordered you to do so many things for him? Or those rumours are true and he is really a gentle man?!”
Mi Chen got pretty surprised. How could Meow ask so many questions at one sitting? She suddenly had no idea how to answer her.
“Don’t worry. Bai Yihan is really a good person. By now he has still been a flawless white jade and no defect could be found on him!”
“Wow, it’s really unbelievable! You can even use such an advanced metaphor with your poor Chinese!”
“What do you mean?! Are you serious? Is my Chinese so poor?”
“Well, how many points did you get in our monthly Chinese tests when we were in middle school?”
“I got more than eighty points!”
“You thought the full mark was one hundred?! It was a hundred and fifty, ok? Listen, forget the rhetoric, whether it’s simile or metaphor. What matters is the deep meanings in people’s words! If you want to get along well with those people around you, you must learn to get their true meanings! That’s the so called connotation, hidden under the conceptual meaning! Of course, connotation was more important than the other. Do you understand?”
Mi Chen sighed, replying, “Can’t people express their feelings directly? Why do they have to make their words so complex…? Meow, don’t you realize that you might think too much about it?”
It was really annoying to listen to those kind of “meanings”!
“Now you can see how extensive and profound language is! You are not working at the shabby photographic studio now. But think the words that those guests ever said to you! You even can’t understand them without me! There must be various kinds of people and troubles around Bai Yihan. The same sentence that Bai Yihan said to you may has different meanings in different places with different circumstances.”
“For example?” asked Mi Chen. She hadn’t intended to understand the clients’ words at all in the studio!
“For example, ‘I really want to bite you to death.’”
“What…” Mi Chen recalled her former boss in the photographic studio. When their client complained about her, he would say those fierce words to Mi Chen. “Why do you take this as an example? I’m clear with its meaning!”
It was really easy to understand! And it seemed that Meow really regarded her as an idiot!
“Do you really understand it? If a handsome man pinches your chin with a charming smile on his face, will you understand what he really means at that time?”
Mi Chen shrugged as she felt it so nauseating.
“Look! The same sentence will have different meanings when it is told by different people in different contexts. Just try to understand the art of words!”
Meow slightly patted on Mi Chen’s shoulder and kept eating the pumpkin porridge.
As Bai Yihan’s schedule had not been arranged for the time being, Mi Chen didn’t have a lot work to do as well. She bought plenty of fashion magazines and started studying the male models’ makeups of the magazines on her bed.
At that moment, her phone suddenly rang.
“Hello, this is Mi Chen.”
“I know it. I’m the leader of cosmetic group, Lin Ruyi.”
The voice sounded so cold and was filled with arrogance and disdain.
It then occurred to Mi Chen that she had kept following Fang Chengye all the time since she entered Starry Cosmo. She had never met her immediate superior Lin Ruyi once.
“Hello, Miss Lin! I’m so sorry. I planned to meet you today. But they told me that you were shooting on location.”
“Well, you don’t need to say these polite words. I know Bai Yihan has no work to do now, but our group is short of staff. Liao Bing has a fans meeting at three o’clock this afternoon. Many entertainment media will come to report the event. Her cosmetician was pushed down the stairs by those radical fans and has been sent to hospital. You have to reach the Dream Chasing Square and temporarily work as her cosmetician. Do you have any problems with that?”
“No! I will prepare for it now!”
“All right. That’s all.”
As the phone was hung up, Mi Chen patted her chest and realized that she’d better invite Lin Ruyi to dinner.
According to Meow’s opinion, office politics could be found in every place.
But Liao Bing… She was the supreme female singer of Starry Cosmo and her gramophone record was also the bestseller. She was the only person who was equal to compete with those top singers of Great Waves.
She was such an important singer of Starry Cosmo, so Mi Chen never expected that Lin Ruyi could let her do the job.
However, there was also a problem as Liao Bing was a woman and she only prepared some cosmetics which were suitable for female. Mi Chen took one look at her watch. It was ten o’clock, so she still had enough time. She quickly rushed to the supermarket and selected some high-quality cosmetics which she had ever used before.