Chapter 2: Signature
Changing grades.
The taxi turned a corner, and disappeared from view.
He Bai wiped his face, was silently depressed for about a minute, and then raised his camera once more.
The little girl had already been led away by her mother, so he changed his orientation and pointed the camera at an old couple holding hands walking in his direction.
The light was just right, the dark orange and blue colors of the old couples’ coats forming an effect that would let people’s eyes light up when they saw it.
Perfect. When the couple walked to the door of the tailor shop with an old-fashioned color scheme, he could press down on the shutter.
One, two… right now!
Ka-cha, the picture was taken right when a light blue taxi stopped in front of him, occupying his line of vision.
He closed his eyes forcefully, putting down the camera.
The car door opened, and a pair of long legs in jeans stepped out.
“Di, Qiu, He.” He Bai gritted his teeth. It was this guy again! The photograph he had taken before his rebirth was ruined by this guy, and now the first and second photographs he had taken after his rebirth were ruined by this guy too. Did he offend this guy or something?
Di Qiuhe turned his head towards the sound, and took one look at him before moving his line of sight towards the sidewalk. He picked up something that had fallen on the ground and stuffed it into his pocket. He suddenly paused, walked in front of He Bai, took out a notebook, and pulled out a pen to write something on it. Then, he ripped out the page in the notebook, and bent over to stuff it into his arms, “Squatting on the side of the road isn’t safe. I’m not going to come back here anymore, so you should go back home.” After saying this, he used his long legs to walk back to the taxi, and sprayed He Bai with another face of car exhaust.
He Bai: “… ” **!
Using the fastest speed possible to finish his homework, he went back to school. He first went to the equipment management office to return the camera, and then took the memory card to an off-campus internet cafe.
After taking him a while to remember the details of the email address that he had used in college, he clicked open a browser to look up his email. When the page popped up he cracked his knuckles and put on an expressionless face to use words full of emotion to send Professor Xu an email full of flattery, repentance, assurance, and appeal, talking about his troubles and how in the future this would not happen again. After attaching the compressed file, he pressed send.
After doing all of this, he opened another browser, hesitated for a moment, before typing in the three words “Di Qiuhe” into the search bar. The page loaded again, he moved his mouse, and clicked open the first Baike page. (Chinese Wikipedia).
Di Qiuhe, male, twenty-three years old. An artist at Huangdu, he debuted three years ago in a group act without much fame for around a year and a half until he went solo. In the first half of last year, he acted in a low budget mystery TV drama as the second male lead, which launched him into the public eye. In the second half of last year, he won the leading role in Director Jia Sheng’s end of year production《Rouge Tears》, which led him to receive the Thousand Flower Award for Best Male Lead in the beginning of this year, sitting on the seat of Film Emperor for the first time, and leading him to bathe in the limelight.
Recalling the photograph that he had taken prior to his rebirth, he closed the page with a complicated mood. He took out the signature that Di Qiuhe had given him from the pocket on his chest, opened the campus network, clicked open the For Sale section, and then posted a picture of the signature, setting the price to start at ten yuan.
Whatever, seeing as this guy was gonna die early and in his golden years, he would forgive his rudeness with a generous heart.
When he returned to the dorms, Niu Junjie, who had passed out dead drunk, had already woken up, and was in the middle of slurping instant noodles while complaining about the girl who had let down his trust and feelings.
“She wanted a diamond ring, so I bought one! She complained about how living in the dormitory wasn’t convenient, so I helped her rent a place and move there! She said that it wasn’t convenient for her company to know about our relationship, and we could only date secretly, I could also endure it, but why did she have to cheat on me!”
The second oldest in the dorm Lao Er, Chen Jie, turned his head to avoid the bits of instant noodles that he spit out as he was speaking, pushed a napkin in front of him, and advised him, “Okay okay, don’t be sad anymore. There are many fish in the sea- when a bad one goes away, a good one will come.”
Niu Junjie wiped away his tears, “I just can’t get over it! She lied to me! Saying that she couldn’t go public with our relationship because of her company was all lies! She dumped me just so that she could sell the idea of a couple with the male anchor that she partners with! All I am is her spare tire, her wallet, a fool that she could play around with!”
“You seem to be quite clear on where your position is in her heart… ” Wang Hu said in a low voice.
Niu Junjie stared at him, “Lao Da, what did you just say?!”
Wang Hu looked towards He Bai, changing the subject, “Xiao Bai, why did you only come home now? Did you finish the homework?”
“I finished it.” He Bai nodded in response, and then seemed to be in deep thought. He dragged over a chair to sit in front of the table where the other three were sitting, put his hand out towards Niu Junjie and said, “Cell phone.”
Niu Junjie stared at him with red and swollen eyes, asking him in confusion, “What are you gonna do with my cell phone?” before obediently taking out the phone and putting it into his hand.
“Help you make Liu Huanhuan cry and beg you to get back together again.” He Bai opened his phone, found Liu Huanhuan’s cell phone number, chose to send an SMS, and then quickly typed in some things into the page.
The other three people all looked at him foolishly, not quite understanding what he meant with these actions.
“It’s done.” After he finished writing the text message and sent it out, He Bai patted Niu Junjie on the shoulder and comforted him saying, “Don’t feel sad anymore, what Lao Er said isn’t wrong. When the bad ones leave, the good ones will come.” If he didn’t remember incorrectly, in the near future, his third sister-in-law would meet Lao San.
Niu Junjie came back from his thoughts after being pat on his shoulder. He quickly took back his phone and opened the page for text messages, urgently asking, “What did you send to Huanhuan? Will she, will she really cry and beg me to get back together again… huh? Why did you tell her my dad’s name?”
“To let her regret her decision.” He Bai tugged at his messy blonde hair, saying with great emphasis, “Lao San, in the future when you’re choosing a girlfriend you have to make sure you wipe your eyes clean so you can see things more clearly. These kinds of women who stick to you just because you spend money generously, and then leave you for people who spend money even more generously, aren’t suitable for you.”
Niu Junjie opened his mouth wide in surprise, “Xiao, Xiao Bai, why are you kind of strange today?”
He Bai smiled, squeezing out a dimple on the left side of his face. Inside his twenty year old body lived his thirty-three year old soul. Being a little weird was normal. He only hoped that this group of lovely roommates would be able to adapt to his changes as soon as possible.
Around midnight, when the lights on the clock tower finally reached their most gorgeous state, he carefully adjusted the of the camera, moving his fingers onto the shutter. The wind started blowing, and a dark shadow could be seen suddenly falling from a high floor of a building next to the clock tower. His hands shook, and the gorgeous night scenery in the camera lens turned into a blurry and distorted shadow.
He Bai suddenly opened his eyes, and stared into space for a while at the ceiling of the dorm, before pulling the blanket over his head.
Damn it, why did he dream about that scene?
“Xiao Bai, why did you fall asleep again? Get up quickly, Professor Xu is looking for you.”
The blanket was pulled off, and Wang Hu’s voice could be heard from the side of the bed.
He opened his eyes, turned over to look at Wang Hu who was standing next to his bed, and asked, “Professor Xu is looking for me?” Why was that strict and serious old man looking for me this early in the morning? Today was the weekend, so there shouldn’t be any classes.
“Yeah, he said that your phone was off and he couldn’t get in touch with you, so he called me instead.” Wang Hu, in a good mood, urged him saying, “Quickly get up, when the Professor talked about you just now he sounded really excited. He praised your homework this time as particularly excellent, and wants to change your grades!”
Change grades?
He Bai’s entire body went still in shock, and he quickly got out of bed.
Changing grades= increase in his average GPA= increase in end of term scores= he still has hope in getting the scholarship money= he can save on next semester’s tuition!
Long live Professor Xu!