Divorce Application - Chapter 6
Chapter 6: The Disparity
Liu Sinan had her makeup and hair done, and she happened to overhear their conversation.
Perhaps it was because they were talking behind her back, so the director was a little embarrassed, but she still said something fair. “It’s fine, we’ve already made the changes and can proceed according to Ms. Liu’s request.”
Liu Sinan shook her head. “That’s not what I meant.” She had never before concerned herself with these business details, and she wasn’t saying this now to compromise or seek favor because she was in a weaker position.
“I just heard the photographer’s idea, and I completely agree with it,” Liu Sinan said, walking up to the two of them and pointing at a clock on the wall. “After the Industrial Revolution, ‘the clock’ appeared in everyday life in the form of a mechanical watch. Later, with repeated iterations, it took on various forms and had more value attached to it.”
“No one has ever looked at ‘the clock’ by stepping outside of time itself.”
Lan Qi raised an objection. “‘The clock’ was invented to record time in the first place.”
Liu Sinan nodded and smiled. “Exactly. So no one would separate ‘the clock’ from ‘time.’ Every second people look at ‘the clock’ is spent calculating ‘time’ within ‘time’.”
“‘The clock’ represents a person who works day and night, existing naturally within the scale of ‘time,’ rotating in an orderly fashion. We created the clock to record time, but we have instead become slaves to ‘time’.”
Lan Qi suddenly understood, and the director’s face showed her agreement. “The original design was indeed like that, but it wasn’t as deeply understood as Ms. Liu’s interpretation. We only talked about trying to separate ‘time’.”
If Liu Sinan had only talked about separating ‘time’, the director wouldn’t have been so surprised. What was truly remarkable was that Liu Sinan could, based on their short conversation, grasp the core of what the photographer wanted to express.
This level of comprehension and artistic sensibility was absolutely extraordinary. It seemed that Liu Sinan was not merely a beautiful vase, as the industry had rumored.
Just then, the photographer also walked over.
She had been sitting in a rocking chair by the door, and she had obviously heard Liu Sinan’s words.
The photographer’s expression was much softer than before, and she even seemed a little excited. She looked at Liu Sinan several times in surprise, then extended her hand and said, “Hello, I’m Bai Shu, your photographer.”
Liu Sinan shook her hand and replied politely, “Hello, Ms. Bai. I’m Liu Sinan. Please take care of me.”
After shaking hands, Bai Shu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly remembered something, exclaimed, and hurried away.
The director looked at Liu Sinan several times. “She has agreed to continue the shoot. There was a lack of communication before, and we had planned to hire another photographer, but it seems we can have a pleasant collaboration.”
Bai Shu’s professional skills were no joke. She had rushed off to set up the scene and had it ready in just half an hour.
Liu Sinan was wearing a linen tank top and shorts. The lighting and makeup made her exposed skin appear to have a post-sunburn glow.
It was like the tear-stains on the scorched earth after many days of sun exposure.
This was the “Earth” section of “The Clock” series.
Bai Shu had divided “The Clock” series into four sections: “Earth,” “Star,” “Red,” and “Whale,” each symbolizing time in a different form.
It was the scorched earth, the self-igniting stars, the falling meteorites, and the broken whale fossils.
Her ideas were so fast and unconventional that many of the people on the set didn’t understand what she was trying to convey.
But Liu Sinan was able to cooperate with her very quickly.
With Liu Sinan’s cooperation, the shooting progressed at a rapid pace. Bai Shu couldn’t help but take hundreds of photos, flipping through them on her computer again and again.
Bai Shu’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Liu Sinan. “I have new ideas. Can I ask you to be my model again next time?”
Liu Sinan remembered how difficult her schedule was to fill up now, and she nodded in agreement. “Of course.”
The light in Bai Shu’s eyes immediately brightened. She excitedly took out her phone and held it out to Liu Sinan. “Can… can I add you on WeChat?”
Liu Sinan scanned the QR code to add her as a friend. On the way back, Bai Shu accepted her friend request.
While making a note for Bai Shu, Liu Sinan noticed that her profile picture was a common sika deer.
Li Jinping’s profile picture… also seemed to be a deer.
Thinking of this, Liu Sinan couldn’t help but click on Li Jinping’s WeChat profile picture.
In the snow, a slender white deer fawn was nestled on a slope. Its eyes were wet, filled with curiosity and a natural wildness.
Li Jinping had never changed her profile picture. Liu Sinan remembered one night, after they had made love, she was curled up in Li Jinping’s arms, tired and sleepy, yet she couldn’t bear to fall asleep.
She didn’t remember exactly what happened, but it must have been one of their rare moments of intimacy.
Liu Sinan would only soften up in bed. Her usual facade of being stubborn and contradictory would be gently and forcefully broken down by Li Jinping, time and time again.
She rested her head on Li Jinping’s stomach, holding her thigh, and asked why her WeChat profile picture was a white deer.
Li Jinping leaned against the headboard, one hand holding a tablet to look at documents, and the other gently caressing the top of her head. “Because I like it.”
Liu Sinan felt she was being perfunctory, so she bit a piece of flesh on her thigh in dissatisfaction, but then relaxed her jaw and licked it gently.
Li Jinping, above her, immediately gasped.
She flipped Liu Sinan over, pinned her underneath her, and said in a low voice, “Not being well-behaved, hmm?”
Li Jinping’s face was magnified in front of her. That beautiful and elegant face made Liu Sinan blush. Her voice, hoarse from their recent activities, echoed in her ear, instantly making one side of her body go numb.
Liu Sinan wrapped her arms around Li Jinping’s neck, smiled, and glanced provocatively at her arm. “Do you have the energy for more?”
Then Li Jinping taught Liu Sinan what it meant not to provoke her older lover.
For the rest of the night, she changed her pleas for mercy more than a dozen times, saying “good sister,” “my lady,” “wife”… she even said “husband” but it was no use. In the end, she cried until her eyes were swollen and she fell into a tearful, sobbing sleep.
At that time, just before she fell asleep, she thought she heard Li Jinping whisper something.
It sounded like, “Goodnight, my little deer.”
Liu Sinan put away her phone, rubbed her temples, and repeated in a low voice, “Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Liu Sinan, you can’t think about it anymore.”
If she thought about it any more, she wouldn’t be able to go on.
After the magazine shoot, it was already six in the evening. Lan Qi took her to the next shooting location. They had a commercial shoot scheduled for eight at night.
“I’ve ordered you a steak,” Liu Sinan said to Lan Qi before getting out of the car. “You’ve worked hard today.”
Lan Qi was the studio’s manager and normally didn’t need to be with Liu Sinan on shoots, but she was worried that Liu Sinan would be made to suffer and would encounter problems she couldn’t solve, so she had been by her side the entire time.
After losing her protection, no matter how mentally strong she was, she couldn’t help but try to please others in her daily life.
She couldn’t be without work, and she couldn’t be without Lan Qi.
Lan Qi was a little surprised, but she hid it well. “Thank you, boss.”
In the past, Liu Sinan was a very simple person with very few thoughts. She couldn’t even remember her own three meals a day, let alone remember other people’s hobbies and habits.
Lan Qi’s favorite food was steak, and she thought Liu Sinan didn’t know that.
Liu Sinan breathed on her palm and waited obediently to the side.
The makeup for the commercial was a little rough, and since Liu Sinan had been working all day, her skin was in poor condition after putting on makeup.
As soon as she was on camera, she was replaced.
“Lan, my dear agent, don’t get me wrong, but look at all these bumps and flaws. How are we supposed to edit this?” the director complained.
Lan Qi admitted that Liu Sinan’s skin condition was not as good as it used to be. The shock of the divorce these past few days had been too great for her. Lan Qi didn’t even have to guess to know that Liu Sinan hadn’t eaten properly in a long time.
“She’s been losing weight for the camera,” Lan Qi said with a laugh, joking with the director. “She lost it too quickly, and her skin couldn’t keep up with the moisture. But Ms. Liu is already thin, so she’d have to be edited for the camera anyway. Let’s not make a big deal out of these small issues.”
The director sneered. “To be honest, if this were before, not to mention these small problems, even if Ms. Liu gained twenty pounds, we would have no problem editing it frame by frame. Her market value was there, and no one dared to offend President Li behind her. But it’s different now. We’re paying a lot of money, and Ms. Liu is showing up in this state? Who are you trying to fool? Does she still think she’s the cherished Mrs. Li?”