One Useless Rebirth (BL novel)

C3. Film Emperor

On the weekend, the administrative building was empty. He Bai walked towards Xu Yinrong's office following the route in his memory, and upon seeing the door was already open, pushed his head in to look inside.

"Why are you pushing your head inside without coming in?" The serious looking old man sitting behind the desk next to the window took off his glasses, put down the photographs that he had just developed, and waved his hands at him, "Come inside and sit over here," saying this as he pointed towards a chair in front of his desk.

The corners of He Bai's mouth raised up, smiling at him flatteringly with his eyes squinted together like two crescent moons. He walked over there to sit down, leaned over, and rested his arms on the table. His slightly round eyes widened just a little, and showing the dimple on the left side of his face, he said, "Good morning Professor, have you eaten breakfast yet?"

Xu Yinrong raised his eyelids to take another look at him. Pressing the pictures in his hands under his arms, he snorted, "Don't try to act like a good student. I already saw the email you sent me yesterday. The photography homework that you retook is pretty good."

The smile on He Bai's face got bigger.

"So now, you better give me a good explanation. Since you obviously have the ability to take good pictures, why did you end up handing in such a horribly composed set of photographs last time? They completely deviated away from the main theme, and the light and shadow was completely overexposed."

The smile on He Bai's face stiffened. So, this is where the Professor was waiting for him.

"You can't speak all of a sudden? It's fine, you can slowly spend time thinking of an excuse, I'm not in any rush."

"..."

The thirty-three year old He Bai, with a memory that wasn't that great, sighed with what seemed like the vicissitudes of life. He tried to remember what had happened this year- how he had felt as though he had been struck by lightning when he received a zero for this assignment, and the empty figures in his savings account. His face fell, and very honestly said where he had gone wrong, "I'm sorry. I'm poor and I'm clumsy."

Xu Yinrong leaned back in his chair, silently watching him act out this scene.

"When I was taking the pictures for the assignment, the weather wasn't good. The camera I borrowed ended up having some little problems here and there... of course! This is definitely not a good reason for me for trying to get away with a lackluster performance. Wrong is wrong. I'm sorry Professor, I've failed to meet your expectations!" After saying this, he lowered his head, looking very much the part of a little pitiful child who was ready to accept any type of scolding and abuse from his guardians.

Xu Yinrong waited for a while, but didn't hear him continue speaking. He looked at the top of his head for a while before asking, "Are you done speaking?"

He Bai raised his head, blinked a few times, and then moved his line of vision towards some plastic flowers inside a vase. He asked cautiously, "Then I... will try to make amends?"

The atmosphere was a little heavy.

Xu Yinrong put on his presbyopia glasses again, lowered his head, and took out the pictures that he had put in his arms. He flipped through them and finally loosed his mouth, "It's possible for me to change your grades."

He Bai's eyes started to sparkle like gold.

"Take two more sets of photographs and bring them to me." Xu Yinrong took out one of the pictures from his hands and placed it in front of him. He lightly tapped on it and said, "At this kind of level, with five pictures for every set. I want ten pictures for two sets sent to my inbox by next weekend."