Sha Qing

Chapter 53: Advertisement Sheet (2)

An hour later, he found an abandoned four-story building and walked to the second floor. The stained narrow stairs led into a spacious reception room and a staff member immediately approached him to make some inquiries. After several questions, the staff gave him some forms to fill in.

In the Relatives and Contact Address columns, Daniel filled it with [None] after much thought. After submitting the form, he was led into another large room and was asked to continue waiting. He was told that the results of the review would come out soon, and they would decide whether they'd hire him or not.

There are still about forty or fifty people in the room, all of them waiting for the result in a bored manner. Daniel glanced around, black men in fat football shirts and dirty sneakers, middle-aged blue collars with worn-down suits and leather boots, and thin elderly men who were trying to hide their gray hair by wearing caps, and some were obviously from the 'streets'. And as for the little young man who passed by ... he suddenly felt a little strange. Why did this environmental agency put the job advertisements in the unremarkable corners of the darker side of the neighborhoods? Don't they want to hire higher-end people?

Perhaps, there is something shady about it, such as the salary figure-maybe the hired ones would actually get much less than promised; or that certain safety or health measures do not meet government standards and therefore the agency made the listing as inconspicuous as possible, Daniel thought.

But he did not intend to leave on this. In fact, he has nowhere to go.

After waiting for such a long time, the crowd inevitably became irritable. But just in time, the staff brought meals, bread, pizza, sandwiches, coffee, and juice. The variety and quantity were more than enough for all the people inside the room.

Daniel also kept some portion aside for him to eat later without hesitation. After a full meal, he wanted to smoke a cigarette, but he wasn't expecting much since the agency had already given much hospitality. Still, he wanted to try his luck - he made a request to the staff and unexpectedly, they fulfilled the request very politely. Everyone who wanted to smoke received a small box of tobacco. Although it was a not some famous brand, it still pleased everyone.

After eating and drinking, he deliberately studied each people carefully, and in boredom, he tried to guess the ones who might become his temporary colleagues. After some time, his gaze stopped on a figure in the corner of the room.

--Leaning on the couch with his legs up was a young Asian in fancy clothes, age ranging around twenty to twenty four years old. The man, either Chinese or Japanese, was playing with cards. Under the bright fluorescent lamp, his sharp profile was facing Daniel. His long eyelashes and chiseled beautiful jaw was akin to an art which could belong to a painter's proud collection.

Daniel stared at him, hoping to capture the moment the other person turned his face towards his direction.

Soon after, he got his wish--the young man seemed to feel that someone was gazing at him, so he turned his face to glance at the owner of those probing eyes.

After seeing man clearly, Daniel nodded courteously and then turned his face away. The other person's looks were handsome, but he wasn't as beautiful as he was supposed to be. The cheap clothes and the light golden-dyed hair had reduced that person's beauty. Daniel had always believed that for those people with warm skin tones, the most suitable hair color was still black. Pale hair colors don't match everyone-- it would simply drown a person's charm.

This Asian young man looked like a bird with too many colorful feathers, which gave Daniel the urge to grab him over and repaint him. If it was eight years ago, he might have done as such but now, he doesn't have the time and money to leisurely spend it those pretty guys and girls. In fact, he himself is also being painted and tuned by the present society's color.

At this time, a staff entered the room again and distributed some numbered badges to selected people. A total of 24 badges were issued, and the others who weren't given one were kindly invited out.

Looking around the room with dramatically lesser number of people, Daniel knew that the remaining twenty-four people, including himself, should be the ones who passed the preliminary review. The strange thing was that those who were somehow a bit decent were eliminated.

For the next interview, each of them was called in turn to a small room next door, and there was no one who returned to the waiting room. Inevitably, the people who hadn't had their turn yet, began to feel nervous and they started talking to each other in a low voice. Daniel had nothing to say to these guys. He preferred to stand in front of the coffee machine to refill his cup.

On a nearby sofa, the young Asian man was still playing with the cards in his hands. While Daniel despised his sloppy sitting posture, he admits that among these people with a very toxic aesthetic, that person was a rare, eye-catching existence.

He thought that as a member of the Appearance Association, (t/n, basically handsome beings XD) they might as well get acquainted with the each other. If they could develop a certain relationship further, it wouldn't be a big deal to have an affair with this person.

"Hey, do you want some coffee?" He walked over to the sofa and handed over a clean and coffee-filled cup as he greeted the man in a relaxed and friendly tone.

The young man looked up at him and took the cup without being polite. He didn't thanked Daniel, but a grin formed across his mouth.

With that smile, Daniel couldn't help but think of a certain famous director's words, "Some are born to add luster to this messy world."

The cheap clothes, messy collocations, and that hateful mismatched dyed hair (black hair could be even seen at the roots, oh goodness) .... Just because of that perfunctory smile, all those inconsistencies faded, like all of it was just a coating of something truly beautiful inside.

Suddenly, Daniel became really interested on understanding this man deeper I terms of both identity and in a physical level.

"My name is Daniel," he reached his hand out. "Maybe we'll become colleagues and partners in the next three months. How about getting to know each other?"

The young man shook his hand indifferently, "Luo Yi."

Daniel sat down next to him and like countless street conversations, he naturally placed his arm on the back of his chair. "Their job advertisement attracted you, about environmental protection, right? Honestly, I also I feel that human beings have too much demand for the earth, wantonly cutting down forests, hunting wild animals ..."

" --No , I have no interest in environmental protection, or others." Luo Yi interrupted him.

Daniel hid his embarrassment very well and instead turned to smile at him, "So what are you interested in? Maybe we have something in common..."

"Money." The Asian youth answered very simply, "I'm only interested in dealing with money."

He harshly glanced at the appearance of the man who striked a conversation with him and said in a careless tone, "I know what you want to do. You want to sleep with me, don't you? No problem. Two hundred for one night, five hundred for three nights and there's a separate fee if we're using props. I haven't done this business for a while, but because you're a handsome guy, I will reconsider whether to take your order."

It turned out that he is a male prostitute ... Daniel was shocked to speechlessness for a while. . A sex worker who has no shame with bargaining prices for his services in public.... It's not like he hadn't had one, but he wasn't expecting to meet one in here. The previous idea about having some kind of affair was thoroughly soaked to the mud, since the other party was a type of public bus. He couldn't be bothered with the cleaning of the engine and repainting, which made him annoyed for one reason, now, he can't afford any prostitutes at all--not even one night. Besides, it's not like once would be enough for him.

He turned his face almost immediately, got up and uttered, "Sorry, I haven't gotten to the point where I need to buy someone to solve my needs!"

The young man didn't seem to mind being discriminated against with because of his occupation. After drinking all the coffee inside the cup, he handed it back to Daniel, "Excuse me, pour another cup for me."