Chapter 15
New Beginnings
The Xing family"s estate in B city was located in Palm Hills near the East 3rd ring, a villa full of Chinese design.
Ye Wenxuan came on the a.s.sistants" car and was closely checked when entering the main entrance of the villa. After they went in, he could see even more black suited security guards patrolling back and forth. The security was so strict, it was really a scene only witnessed when coming to a rich area.
He watched the suited security guards contacting each other through their Bluetooth headsets, asking speechlessly: "This……would it be a little too exaggerated?”
Xu Yan was driving the car, and smiled slightly after hearing his question: "The residents here, if they"re not celebrities then they are low-profile rich and powerful people. Even if you just randomly choose one they would own at least tens of millions in a.s.sets. The rich all value their lives, so if the security measures are not good, they would not even live here at all." Saying this, he pointed somewhere not far away: "Those three buildings are all chief Xing"s property, the one farthest east is the family residence and the other two are empty, and are only used when guests or relatives come over to visit.”
Ye Wenxuan stretched his head over to see, and then silently scolded a filthy rich man in his heart.
Both sides of the driveway were full of luxuriant vegetation, as well as finely designed landscaping. Before Ye Wenxuan had a chance to look more closely, the car had already turned into an open-air garage. He got out of the car with Xu Yan, and following the path next to the garage, they pa.s.sed through a floral arch before finally arriving at the destination of their trip.
As soon as they entered the villa area, a security guard had already contacted Xing Yuan, so at this time Xing Yuan just happened to open the door and saw the two people coming. He nodded at them and motioned them in.
Xu Yan: "Chief Xing, sorry to bother.”
Ye Wenxuan followed behind him, smiling: "Chief Xing, excuse the disturbance.”
When he did not have to go outside to work, Xing Yuan only wore a simple set of clothes for staying at home. He bit a cigarette in his mouth and only waved his hand before turning to walk back inside.
Xu Yan had come to send some doc.u.ments, and would leave right after sending them, leaving only Ye Wenxuan by himself to continue his work.
He had already seen the Xing father and Xing Yuan"s younger brother, and was allowed to walk around the first and second floors of the villa. He guessed that Xing Yuan"s younger sister and mother most likely lived on the higher floors, because he never saw any women besides the servants and housekeeper.
From his exterior appearance, Xing father seemed like an ordinary intellectual, a little like a gentle and refined middle-aged professor, but he seemed to also not like smiling very much, never showing much expression on his face.
Xing Yize seemed to be completely different from the other two Xing family members. This year he was 23 years old, and enjoyed smiling very much, even his speaking was mild and polite. When he saw Ye Wenxuan and Xu Yan come he would smile and greet them, and also call the housekeeper to help them prepare some hot tea. In addition, he expressed a large amount of interest in Ye Wenxuan, who he had met for the first time.
"I don"t go outside very much, just staying in the house. Usually only a.s.sistant Xu or a.s.sistant Ruan come over, as well as a few of big brother"s friends who will come here and sit and chat with me for a bit." Xing Yi smiled cutely, his handsome face slightly reddened: "Previously a photographer would also come over, but later on big brother didn"t allow him to come anymore, I was still pretty disappointed. Ah, big brother definitely saw that I was too bored and let you come over to accompany me to chat.”
Ye Wenxuan thought: Brother, I really did not come to accompany you to chat.
He looked at the wheelchair that the other person was sitting on and wisely chose not to refute him.
Xing Yi is unable to walk, this was something that anyone who knew the Xing family would know.
Ye Wenxuan politely chatted a bit with Xing Yi before starting to take photos.
These were truly all model images of aristocratic family life scenes: Xing Yi sitting in the garden painting, Xing father sitting in the gazebo brewing tea, the housekeeper carefully making refreshments, as well as Xing Yuan sitting in the living room, holding a cat and watching the news.
Ye Wenxuan rubbed his chin. He still felt there was something not quite right.
"What"s the matter." Xing Yuan squinted at his new staff member who was constantly staring in his direction, opening his mouth first: "You"re done taking pictures?”
"I"m basically done." Ye Wenxuan responded, and then took another close-up of the Siamese cat in his arms, blurting out: "Chief Xing, has your family always……" He thought for a bit, and still chose to use a more ambiguous rhetoric: "treated each other like guests like this?”
Hearing Ye Wenxuan"s words, Xing Yuan turned to look at him: "You are trying to say that we are very fake ba.”
Ye Wenxuan choked and could only lower his head to take another picture of the cat.
The Siamese cat looked at him contemptuously.
"Where"s the pictures." Xing Yuan held out his hand: "Let me see.”
Ye Wenxuan sat down on the other end of the sofa, giving him the camera.
Xing Yuan didn"t seem to mind him relaxing on the sofa, even throwing the blue-eyed cat to the other person and just focusing only on the pictures.
The Siamese cat meowed a couple times and ran away with its fur raised. After a while it still quietly slipped back and plopped right down next to Xing Yuan"s feet.
Ye Wenxuan found it quite interesting, so he reached out his hand and poked the cat.
The cat turned its head and glanced at him, baring its teeth in a silent threat.
Ye Wenxuan secretly glanced at Xing Yuan, and finding that the other person was looking through the pictures very carefully, he couldn"t help but become somewhat curious.
He waited until the housekeeper placed two cups of tea on the table and left before asking: "Chief Xing, can I ask you a question?”
Xing Yuan didn"t even lift his head: "Ask ba, but I can choose not to respond.”
Ye Wenxuan: "The brother before me……why was he fired?”
Xing Yuan turned and glanced at him. Ye Wenxuan maintained his innocent expression: "Of course, if this question involves some personal topics……”
"It"s not something that can"t be said." Xing Yuan glanced at the door, calmly responding: "He begged me to 艹 him, and kneeled on the ground wanting me to step on him. Then I fired him.”
Ye Wenxuan: "……”
F*k, he completely did not expect that his predecessor was actually such a bold and brave man!
Ye Wenxuan had actually expected this kind of answer, ever since he had seen that room filled with pictures he could sense it. It was just that he had never thought that person would be able to make the meticulous and strict Xing Yuan personally speak what he had just said, it seems like the previous photographer was truly very perverted.
He was rather speechless, coughing dryly a couple times: "That, chief Xing, are you done looking through the photos?”
This afternoon he had taken around a hundred photos, Xing Yuan would take some time to look through all of them. He turned off the camera, pulled out the memory card, and handed the camera back to Ye Wenxuan: "You don"t need to hand in today"s photos to Xu Yan, I will handle it myself. I will first take this memory card and then return it back to you at work tomorrow.”
Ye Wenxuan watched him put that little card into his pocket, feeling as if there was something wrong: "Chief Xing you……”
Xing Yuan looked at him: "What"s wrong, are there some personal things in there?”
Ye Wenxuan: "There isn"t.”
Xing Yuan: "Then I will return it to you tomorrow.”
Who knew what he wanted the memory card for, most likely it would be to import today"s photos into his own computer to prevent Ye Wenxuan from leaking these private photos.
It was only when Ye Wenxuan was on the road back that he finally remembered why he inexplicably felt like there was something wrong.
F*k, before when he was feeling mischievous he had taken a "pa.s.sionate photo” of Xing Yuan and Lei Xiangming"s "affectionate embrace", and before he had been able to save it onto his own computer, it had gone together with the memory card into Xing Yuan"s hands!
Ye Wenxuan: "……" He"s done for.
He maintained this state of awkwardness from his own little thoughts being found out by a client until the next day when he saw Xing Yuan, feeling totally uncomfortable. The other person was still showing that immovable serious appearance, and when he saw that Ye Wenxuan had arrived, Xing Yuan opened a drawer and pa.s.sed over that familiar memory card: "I have deleted those lifestyle photos, and later when you go again, the process will be the same as yesterday.”
Ye Wenxuan took the card: "Oh.”
"Also." Xing Yuan glanced at him: "Some ideas are quite good, but next time it would be best for you to use them on the right person.”
Ye Wenxuan: "……”
Sure enough, it had been discovered.
He pretended to be calm: "Thank you for the compliment, if there"s nothing else I will go back first.”
Xing Yuan: "Today I will be seeing a few people, you will not need to follow to take pictures.”
It seemed like the boss needed to carry out some unspeakable business again. Ye Wenxuan nodded in understanding, he was still in a newcomers" sensitive period, so if he asked too much it would be easy to be suspected, which would not be good for him.
Two weeks pa.s.sed just like this. Ye Wenxuan gradually adapted to his new job of being a photographer, his contact with the Special Affairs Department naturally decreasing to just reporting his work at certain times. He focused on staying in the Xing group, following by Xing Yuan"s side, and carrying out a variety of photography work.
This bit of time couldn"t allow these two people to build some sort of deep understanding of each other, but as a personal photographer who only had to work for Xing Yuan, Ye Wenxuan"s job right now was really too much easier than being a fashion designer.
Until the beginning of March, the personnel going to Britain was basically decided. Ye Wenxuan received the name list from a.s.sistant Ruan Yushan, and looking down the list, he found his own name near the end, finally letting out a long sigh of relief.
In the evening, Ye Wenxuan sent Zheng Xingguo a message.
[Departure on March 5th, staying in the Huaxia Grand Hotel. Princess"s birthday banquet starts at 5 PM on the 10th, location at the Windsor Castle. Target scheduled to return on the 13th, specific itinerary not available.]
A day later, he received a response.
[Try to keep close to the target as much as possible, pay attention to staying hidden, pay attention to personal safety. In case of danger, you can contact Cannibal Flower or Little Sister, who will also be in London during the birthday banquet and can give you some help. Keep in mind, unless critical, do not reveal your ident.i.ty.]
Ye Wenxuan was somewhat surprised, "Cannibal Flower" and "Little Sister" were both code names for the counter-terrorism unit. It seems that Zheng Xingguo was also afraid that he would not be able to handle it by himself, so he had also dispatched two experienced predecessors to a.s.sist from the side.
It"s just that he had always only heard of these two code names, but had never seen the real people, so he only knew that it was one man and one woman, and didn"t know what their personalities were like and whether they would be easy to get along with.
But Zheng Xingguo had reminded him that if there was no danger he should not casually contact these two people, so it could be seen that these two colleagues should also be in a "hidden" state. He thought for a bit, and decided to try not to contact them as much as possible.
During this period of time, Ye Wenxuan went to Xing Yuan"s villa a few times again, becoming slightly more familiar with Xing Yuan"s family members. Because this person always behaved in an extremely upright manner, not like the previous photographer being flattering and somewhat perverted, the Xing family members all had a pretty good impression of him.
The author has something to say: If you want to see the little shou discharge some electricity, you will at the very least need to wait for him to go abroad.
## Ye Wenxuan has a unique photography technique ##
Xing Yuan was flipping through the photos, accidentally seeing several photos of him hugging a bunch of executives.
Because of the angles at which Ye Wenxuan took the photos, every photo seemed to be full of thick emotion.
Xing Yuan looked at them for a while, before sending a photo to Lei Xiangming, accompanied by a message: Looks good?
A minute later, Lei Xiangming called him back: "Lao Xing, are you trying to scam me? I"m telling you, you- you- you are going to be hurting the enemy 1000 and yourself 800, it"s use- use- useless on me!”
Xing Yuan: "How does the photo look?”
Lei Xiangming: "My wife would kill me!”
Xing Yuan: "Then it seems like it was shot pretty well.”
Then Ye Wenxuan successfully became Xing Yuan"s photographer.
En, because of his excellent "scamming" techniques.
Translator Notes:
[1] sorry to bother, excuse me – 打扰, polite expression that has a couple meanings
[2] intellectual – 知识分子, feels really awkward to write this here but that"s what it means so I"ll just put it
[3] unable to walk – 不良于行, actually seems to mean something like his movement is impaired but I think he just can"t walk
[4] treat each other as guests – 相待如宾, idiom, basically be really polite to each other
[5] 艹 – well this was censored in the raws but I"m pretty sure we can all probably guess what the dude wanted him to do…
[6] bold and brave – 勇猛, means bold and powerful or brave and fierce
[7] expected – 心里有数, idiom, means to be well aware, probably like he expected it or was prepared for it
[8] meticulous – 一丝不苟, idiom, means not a thread loose, strictly according to the rules
[9] strict – 严于律己, idiom, means to be strict and disciplined with oneself
[10] immovable – 雷打不动, idiom, literally means not shaken by thunder but basically means not alterable, not changing
[11] scam – 碰瓷, basically to scam someone by setting up an accident in which they seem to have been injured or damaged by the person they are trying to scam, and demanding compensation
[12] hurting the enemy 1000 – 敌一千自损八百, a pretty common saying in Chinese, basically a pyrrhic victory, you would be hurting the enemy but also yourself, just slightly less
[13] my wife – just some context, Lei Xiangming doesn"t have a wife I"m pretty sure, not even a gf
Random Notes:
Took almost 2 hours: 11 am – 12 pm, 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm, for 3.2k characters to 2.6k words. We"re slowly getting to the action guys. Very slowly.