To be honest, if Xiang Xi hadn’t seen the cannon-like camera in this guy’s hand, he really wouldn’t have recognized who he was right away. Even after recognizing him, it still took several seconds for him to recall the business card of this life photographer, which was kept in a small box, along with the name on it.

“Fang Yin?” Xiang Xi looked at him with some surprise. “Your beard’s grown so much I can’t even see your face.”

“Been so busy lately I haven’t had time to shave,” Fang Yin laughed, patting him on the shoulder. “Young man, it’s been a while—seems like you’ve put on some weight.”

“Ah,” Xiang Xi touched his face. “Eating and sleeping every day.”

“So, how come you ended up around here?” Fang Yin sized him up. “Not at Zhaojiayao anymore?”

“Mm, not there anymore.” Xiang Xi smiled.

“This is…” Fang Yin glanced at the bulletin board nearby. “Looking for a job?”

“Just looking.” Xiang Xi said, not knowing why he didn’t want others to know he was job hunting. Probably because talking about it would reveal he couldn’t even find a simple shop-keeping job, which was embarrassing.

“Got time?” Fang Yin pointed to his car. “Want to find a place to chat?”

“I have time, but no time to talk about life,” Xiang Xi was in a hurry to get money to buy a phone, and there was nothing much to chat about with Fang Yin. He glanced in the direction the bus was coming from. “I’m waiting for the bus.”

“How about sitting at the café across the street and talking business?” Fang Yin lifted his camera. “I’ve been here for a couple of days. Didn’t expect to see you. This is fate.”

Xiang Xi didn’t know what “business” he could talk about with Fang Yin, but after hesitating a moment, he followed him into the café across the street.

Fang Yin was a “normal person.” Whether or not there was real business to talk about, making friends with him wouldn’t hurt. Maybe it was also a step toward a more ordinary life.

“Where are you living now?” Fang Yin ordered a pot of coffee and poured a cup for him.

“Don’t give me that, I’m not used to it.” Xiang Xi opened the pot lid, poured the coffee back, took a carton of milk drink nearby, poured himself a glass, and added two sugar cubes. “I’m still looking for a place, currently staying at a friend’s.”

“Friend’s place? Temporarily?” Fang Yin seemed interested in his situation. “Where do you plan to look for a place?”

Xiang Xi glanced at him but said nothing.

“Looking for something cheaper?” Fang Yin asked again.

“Would you pick the expensive one to rent?” Xiang Xi took a sip of the milk drink. “Maybe you would. You’d lose a 100,000-yuan camera and wouldn’t even look for it.”

Fang Yin smiled, sensing Xiang Xi didn’t want to say more about himself, so he stopped pressing and after a pause added, “Xiao Zhan, I’m working on a project called ‘30 Days’.”

“Project?” Xiang Xi didn’t quite get it. “30 days what? Why not just call it a month?”

“I plan to find some people and shoot a few series,” Fang Yin took a cigarette from his pack and offered it to him. “To film their lives over 30 days. The variety of human life.”

“Oh,” Xiang Xi looked at the cigarette, took it and held it in his mouth. Fang Yin handed over a lighter but he didn’t take it. “Just holding it is fine, I have pneumonia.”

“Sick?” Fang Yin was taken aback, leaning closer. “Have things not been going well for you lately?”

“Pretty good. Why do you want me to be doing badly?” Xiang Xi flicked the cigarette with his mouth, pointing at Fang Yin in rhythm.

“No, I just think,” Fang Yin thought for a moment, “you’re very distinctive, have a story, and ideas. If we film your 30 days, it’ll have a strong impact.”

“You’re crazy.” Xiang Xi frowned and gave a brief summary.

“Don’t you think it’s meaningful? To record a part of your life in images,” Fang Yin raised the camera and, before Xiang Xi could react, snapped a series of photos. The camera clicked rapidly. “Also…”

“Need more meds, huh?” Xiang Xi didn’t like that behaviour. He blew the smoke in Fang Yin’s direction and the smoke dropped into his coffee cup.

“I’ll delete them soon. Just wanted you to see,” Fang Yin turned the camera around and showed it to him. “Look, I told you before, you have a natural presence in front of the camera.”

Xiang Xi glanced at the photos. Besides one time at the photo studio when he got a fake ID under the name Zhan Hongtu, he hadn’t had a proper photo taken in his life. The last time he saw his photo was in Fang Yin’s camera.

Maybe because he rarely saw pictures of himself, he always felt the person in the camera wasn’t really him.

Sunlight slanted in from the right side of the café. Xiang Xi held the cigarette and looked at the cup on the table. His face was at the border of light and shadow, and the background behind him was blurred.

The expression on his face was hard to describe but clearly unhappy, caught between light and shadow, making him look like he was staring at a stranger.

“Right?” Fang Yin lowered his camera and looked down. “I’ll delete it now… Do you want it? If you want, I can send it to you.”

“No, delete it.” Xiang Xi said.

“My assistant and I have been looking for people. I’ve been checking the bulletin board for two days but hadn’t found anyone. Didn’t expect to see you today,” Fang Yin put the camera aside. “Xiao Zhan, are you interested? I want to film your daily life… Of course, there’s payment.”

“How much?” Xiang Xi finally heard a word that caught his interest.

“Fifty a day,” Fang Yin said. “Want to try?”

“Filming for 30 days?” Xiang Xi looked at him.

“The title is called ‘30 Days,’ but the period definitely won’t be just 30 days. Of course, I won’t follow you every single day,” Fang Yin explained to him. “For example, if you don’t go out today and just sleep at home, I definitely won’t shoot. But if you go out looking for work, checking out apartments, basically if you have something going on, I’ll film it.”

Xiang Xi said nothing. He took a cigarette from Fang Yin’s pack and put it in his mouth again, mentally calculating this deal.

He didn’t know if Fang Yin was trying to cheat him with the fifty yuan a day price, but he wasn’t planning to fuss over the amount. If it weren’t for the fact that he was now trying hard to distance himself from his past, he wouldn’t care about fifty yuan. Without giving anything to Ping Shu, he could casually do something to make more than fifteen hundred a month. (NT: 183 euros. As a comparative, the average monthly salary in China ranges from 1690 to 2700 euros, depending on the region)

But things were different now. All the skills he’d learned over more than ten years had to be scrapped. Now, even thirty yuan a day would be worth considering.

“I’ll pay you every day after filming. You won’t be delayed at all. You do your thing, I do mine. It won’t affect you,” Fang Yin said. “So, what do you think?”

“When do you want to start?” Xiang Xi picked up his cup and took a sip. “Are we filming at home? I can’t have filming at my place, and I can’t just bring people to my friend’s house.”

“No, no need to film at your friend’s place. Just like when you went out looking for work earlier, I’ll film that,” Fang Yin said immediately.

Xiang Xi stared at him for a moment. “You’re not going to do anything else with my photos, right?”

“No,” Fang Yin laughed and took out a business card, handing it to him. “I have my own studio, and a column (NT: regular feature or article series published in some media support). You can check it out.”

“Alright then,” Xiang Xi took the card and glanced at it. It was much fancier than the old one, though he couldn’t recognize all the characters and didn’t bother to. He only saw Fang Yin’s name on it. “I contact you when I go out?”

“Give me your number, add me on WeChat too,” Fang Yin pulled out his phone. “We’ll keep in touch every day.”

Xiang Xi gave his number. After Fang Yin input it and dialed, they were silent for a while. Fang Yin listened to his phone and asked, “It connected? Why didn’t it ring?”

“Oh,” Xiang Xi pulled out his phone. It showed an incoming call, but the phone didn’t vibrate or ring, like it was on silent. “Whether it rings depends on this master’s mood.”

Fang Yin took out his wallet, pulled out a 100-yuan bill, and handed it to him. “Count today too. If you agree to the cooperation, I won’t delete these photos from today. I’ll keep them.”

“Wasn’t it fifty?” Xiang Xi took the money and put it away.

“First day, hope we have a pleasant collaboration,” Fang Yin smiled.

*

Cheng Boyan bought noodles and ribs home. He usually ate very casually himself—he could eat mixed bean porridge morning and night for over half a month. But now that Xiang Xi was here, and still a patient, he had to vary it a bit.

One meal was lean meat noodles and egg custard, next lean meat porridge and egg custard, then lean meat noodles and egg custard again, then lean meat porridge and egg custard...

Today, seeing some pretty nice ribs, he bought some. No more lean meat noodles and porridge. He felt a little touched.

When he came in, he saw Xiang Xi sitting in front of his computer, which surprised him.

He had said Xiang Xi could use his computer if he got bored at home, but since the little films got exposed, Xiang Xi hadn’t touched his computer again.

“Off work?” Xiang Xi jumped off the chair, ran over, took the bag from his hand, and walked toward the kitchen, glancing at it. “Ribs? Ribs! Ribs are great, ribs are wonderful, ribs make my heart thump…”

“Hurry up and propose,” Cheng Boyan said.

Xiang Xi laughed and ran into the kitchen. Cheng Boyan changed clothes and glanced at the computer, noticing Xiang Xi was looking at a photography studio’s official blog.

“You looking at this?” Cheng Boyan asked.

“Mm, just seeing what they shoot,” Xiang Xi put the food out and pointed at a photo. “The one who took this photo, Fang Yin. I know him.”

Cheng Boyan raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”

“I told you before,” Xiang Xi chuckled twice. “This guy stayed at Zhaojiayao for a while, shooting… different lives. Before finishing, the camera and stuff got stolen, then he left.”

“You did it?” Cheng Boyan asked again.

“No, if it was someone else, I might have made a move,” Xiang Xi sat on the sofa. “He kept chatting with me. I didn’t have the heart. But if anyone was going to steal it, it’d be those few people. Anyway, in the end, his camera ended up with Ping Shu. It’s worth about a hundred thousand. Ping Shu didn’t sell it to cash in — guess that’s respecting art.”

Cheng Boyan smiled but said nothing. Xiang Xi pressed the bandage on his face. “Last time you said I had ideas. I said someone else said that before, it was him.”

“Oh,” Cheng Boyan turned to look at the photos on the screen. He didn’t understand photography. Most photos he took with his camera were of typical cases at work, but these pictures looked quite good—composition and lighting were pleasing, though the content was hard to describe. “Does he specialize in this kind of content?”

“What content?” Xiang Xi was momentarily stunned.

“Hard to describe,” Cheng Boyan thought for a moment, “it’s like whatever misery you have, that’s what he photographs. The suffering, the homeless, the beggars, thieves, people doing illegal work... maybe these things stir something in people’s hearts.”

“Probably... yeah.” Xiang Xi smiled faintly, pulling at the corner of his mouth. He had originally wanted to tell Cheng Boyan that he had agreed to Fang Yin’s photo project, but suddenly he didn’t feel like saying it.

He suddenly understood why Fang Yin chose him to shoot, and it made him feel somewhat uncomfortable inside.

Although he still had to go to the hospital for injections, Xiang Xi felt his body was basically fine—no pain, no itching, no fever, no cough.

Yesterday, the chat with Fang Yin delayed him, so he didn’t have time to get money to buy a phone. He planned to get the injection today, then buy a phone to continue looking for work or for a place to live.

Before going out, he used his old phone to call Fang Yin and arranged to meet at the bus stop from yesterday.

Even though he felt uneasy inside, he still needed to earn money—besides, it was only a few photos.

When Xiang Xi got off the bus, Fang Yin was already waiting with his camera. Seeing him, he immediately snapped two shots, then looked him up and down for a while: “This outfit’s new, right?”

“Yeah.” Xiang Xi responded.

“Threw away the old clothes?”

“They’re all unwearable now,” Xiang Xi thought of his old clothes and the bruises from sticks and fists on them. “Why?”

“Old clothes feel more authentic,” Fang Yin smiled. “It’s nothing. Are you going to buy a phone now?”

“First the injection.” Xiang Xi said. He tried to go to the hospital for the injection at about the same time every day. Sometimes Cheng Boyan would come check on him in the injection room during his bathroom breaks. He didn’t want Cheng Boyan to notice if he was late.

“Buy the phone first,” Fang Yin said, “that way it’s easier for me to arrange my time.”

Xiang Xi frowned and looked at Fang Yin’s camera for a while. “Okay.”

There was no phone store near the hospital; they had to go to the commercial street. Xiang Xi looked at the bus stop sign for a while—it wasn’t far, about four stops by bus.

While Xiang Xi was checking the sign, Fang Yin took a few more photos of him. Before the bus arrived, Fang Yin answered two phone calls, apparently scheduling shoot times.

Xiang Xi clicked his tongue—this kind of work looked profound but seemed pretty simple… Just how many people would they be photographing in these 30 days?

The bus arrived, Fang Yin followed him on. This time was just past the morning rush, so the bus wasn’t crowded. Xiang Xi sat in the last row.

“Only thinking about changing your phone now that it’s in that bad shape?” Fang Yin sat beside him and asked.

“What else?” Xiang Xi replied.

“Is money tight?” Fang Yin asked again.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Xiang Xi glanced at him and saw he was holding something that looked like a miniature radio. He raised his chin. “What’s that?”

“For recording,” Fang Yin showed him the device. “Not just photos; there will be some text stuff too. That way the story is complete.”

“My story?” Xiang Xi thought for a moment.

“The story of a boy struggling on the edge of darkness,” Fang Yin said.

Xiang Xi turned his face away and looked out the window. Fang Yin paused, then picked up his camera again and said, “Your story.”

Xiang Xi gave him the middle finger.

When Xiang Xi entered the service center, Fang Yin followed him. He didn’t pick a phone but went straight to the counter asking for the cheapest one.

The seller gave him a smartphone priced a bit over 300 yuan. Xiang Xi looked at it and didn’t ask much more. He paid and left the store with the phone.

“Put the SIM card in now,” Fang Yin said standing by the roadside.

Xiang Xi had planned to put it in slowly after getting on the bus, but hearing Fang Yin, he unpacked the box under a tree by the road, took out the phone, swapped the SIM card in, then threw the old broken phone into the trash bin.

“Threw it away?” Fang Yin asked nearby.

“Ah, you want it?” Xiang Xi smiled. “You pay for it, I’ll wait.”

Fang Yin’s way of shooting was not quite what Xiang Xi imagined. Fang Yin said it was their first day, so he wanted to get a feel for it, telling Xiang Xi not to worry about him. He walked closer and farther away intermittently, snapping a couple shots now and then.

At first, Xiang Xi thought it was okay, but as time went on, he began to feel a bit annoyed and distracted.

Especially during the injection. Fang Yin thought the fluorescent lights in the injection room weren’t suitable for photos and insisted Xiang Xi carry his IV bag outside to the small garden to sit. Xiang Xi kept wanting to snap the bag of cephalosporin (NT: class of broad-spectrum antibiotics) water right in Fang Yin’s face.

“Wait, didn’t you say it wouldn’t affect me?” Xiang Xi said impatiently. “My blood’s already back, and you’re still messing around.”

“For the effect, you know how much lighting goes into a photo that looks casual?” Fang Yin circled around him looking for angles. “Now I’m just candidly shooting you. It’s real. Toward the end, we’ll find some scenes to shoot a few shots.”

“I’ve been standing here for five minutes, and you’re still doing candid shots?” Xiang Xi clicked his tongue. “How many do you want to take? Will you even use them?”

“Of course I can’t use them all. After I finish shooting each day, I still have to sort through them,” Fang Yin waved his hand. “Stop chatting with me and just do whatever you need to do.”

Xiang Xi held up his medicine and turned to walk toward the bathroom. “I’m going to pee.”

Fang Yin didn’t follow him to the bathroom. When Xiang Xi came out, Fang Yin was on the phone. After he finished the call, he returned to the injection room and sat down a few rows away from Xiang Xi.

Xiang Xi ignored him, took out his phone, and started calling the few numbers he had written down yesterday, one by one. After asking what kind of positions they were hiring for, he told them he had experience, even saying he had sold clothes in a clothing store.

The last two— a fast-food restaurant and a clothing store — both asked him to come by for an interview the next day.

After hanging up, Xiang Xi felt a little excited. Although he didn’t know if they would hire him, at least he had a chance—and there were still two more calls to make.

While Xiang Xi was on the phone, Fang Yin kept shooting photos for a while, then bought some bread and a bottle of milk for him, and handed him today’s payment.

“Thanks.” Xiang Xi took the money and put it away, then took a bite of the bread.

“Interview tomorrow?” Fang Yin asked.

“Yeah,” Xiang Xi glanced at him. “You coming along? If you go in there snapping photos like that, I bet no one will want me.”

“I won’t go inside,” Fang Yin smiled. “I’ll wait outside.”

“Alright then.” Xiang Xi nodded. He wanted to get these 30 days done quickly—he was already annoyed after just one day.

“You get your injection. I’ll go back and organize the photos,” Fang Yin packed up his camera.

“Good night.” Xiang Xi said.

Cheng Boyan didn’t come over today. After Xiang Xi finished his injection, he went looking for him. The nurse said Cheng Boyan had a patient surgery today. Immediately, Xiang Xi pictured Cheng Boyan holding a hammer, nails, and an axe, doing carpentry work. He laughed all the way home.

At home, he originally wanted to rest well so he could hopefully land a job tomorrow, but lying in bed he was too excited to fall asleep. He got up to watch TV, felt sleepy, went back to bed, thought about it, got excited again, and got up to watch TV once more.

He tossed and turned like this until Cheng Boyan came home from work, and he hadn’t slept once.

“Let’s go eat out,” Cheng Boyan stood by the door without changing his shoes. “I’m tired today, don’t want to cook.”

“Tired and still want to go out?” Xiang Xi slapped his chest. “I’ll cook.”

“You cook?” Cheng Boyan looked at him. “I thought you had no life, so no life skills?”

“I have now.” Xiang Xi smiled.

“Alright then. Let’s see if you can make something less awful than me.” Cheng Boyan put on his shoes and walked in, glancing at Xiang Xi twice. “Did you find some money today? You look so happy.”

“I’ve got two interviews tomorrow.” Xiang Xi snapped his fingers.

“Really? They notified you?” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“Yeah.” Xiang Xi nodded, wanting to say more but couldn’t. If he succeeded at the interviews, he’d have to find a place to move out.

He wouldn’t be able to keep sleeping every day on the thick, springy sofa bed, wouldn’t wake up to the sound of Cheng Boyan making breakfast, wouldn’t chat with Cheng Boyan after eating their bland dinners…

Suddenly, he wasn’t excited anymore.

He felt a little reluctant.

Was this peaceful, steady life really over?

 

Translator : DarNan