After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!

Chapter 174: MILESTONE PARTY

The elevator opened on the fourth floor, and Guiying stepped out into a studio that felt wrong from the first step.

The chaos was gone, the rigs packed away, Pei Jiahao no longer shouting schedules into his headset. The room had lost the sharp, crackling energy it carried on shoot days. Now it stood quiet, like a stage after the curtain fell.

Guiying’s gaze moved across the space, every face turning to him. He felt the weight of those eyes settle on his skin.

Behind him the monitor cycled through his photos, his face over and over, clean, lit, finished. He stopped walking and just stood there.

For three seconds no one spoke. Then Bai Zichen broke the silence because he always broke it first. "You’re here," he said, and it came out too loud, too fast. He winced at his own voice, then tried to play it off. "I mean, obviously you’re here. Door just opened."

Jiang Wenxi crossed the room, took both his hands. Her fingers were warm. She did not speak, just led him to the monitor with steps that felt deliberate, like she wanted him to actually see it.

The photos moved through the collection in order, days of work flashing past in seconds. Now everything he had done spread across the screen.

Proof that he had actually done this.

"First collection, done," Jiang Wenxi said, still holding his hands. She looked him straight in the eye. "To think this is your first shoot. I kept waiting for you to mess up."

Guiying almost laughed, because amazing landed like a diagnosis. "I did mess up. You just didn’t use those shots."

Shao Mingye did not look at him, his eyes staying on the monitor. "The lens liked you a little too much," he said, tone dry. "It’s annoying, actually. Made the rest of us look lazy."

Guiying’s fingers twitched at his sides. A little too much could be a compliment or a warning. "Thanks. I think."

Fangfang drifted over with coffee in her hand, steam curling between them. She held the cup out to him. "Told you a week ago. First shoot and you’d already have top models at your send off. Even if you’re not going anywhere."

Guiying took the coffee. "Then I better get used to the rent."

"Pfft! As long as you’re getting the bag you don’t care right?" Fangfang said, mouth curving.

"Definitely."

"Good," Fangfang said, voice dropping half a step. "Because once TongShu drops this next week. They’ll follow you to the bathroom. Don’t say I didn’t warn you."

Lin Yansu pressed something small and wrapped into his palm. "From all of us," she said. "For collection one. Open it when you get home tonight."

Collection one. Guiying turned the package in his fingers.

Not an ending.

But a bookmark.

Bai Zichen was vibrating, trying not to grin too wide and losing badly. "You’re going to be insufferably busy now," he said, words tumbling out. "TongShu will plaster your face everywhere. Collection two will start in a bit. So don’t get too relaxed."

Guiying’s throat closed, but not from grief. From the math of it.

"How soon is a bit?"

"You better rest up. Now that you have the chance." Bai Zichen said, bumping his shoulder. "Cause you won’t be so free next time.."

Pei Jiahao said nothing, just took Guiying’s hand in both of his and squeezed once.

Warm, firm. Approval without words. Then he let go and turned back to the crew.

Then Quinn’s voice cut through from the corner, flat, cold. "It was one collection. Y’all are being way too dramatic." His phone was in his hand, eyes on the screen.

One collection. Guiying’s jaw locked, the room going quiet.

Fangfang turned slow and deliberate, because she had been waiting for this. "Quinn," she said, voice not rising. "Don’t you have a little shame?"

She took one step forward. "For someone as prideful as yourself to be at someone’s milestone party, you must have fallen from grace, if I were you I’d take my pick me ass and go find some more alphas to mooch off."

Quinn’s mouth opened, no sound coming out. His face went blank, like a man who had just realized he walked into a knife.

Jiang Wenxi did not look at him. "That’s a wrap on collection one. Crew can stand down."

The room exhaled. Someone laughed. The tension broke.

Bai Zichen exhaled hard. "Fangfang-jie. I would die for you."

"I know," Fangfang said without looking at him. "So sit down before you drown me in that devotion."

"Hey! Didn’t you say you’d die for me too? Were you playing with me? Do you have two lives where you can die for us both?"

-_-

Bai Zichen chuckled nervously "Did I say that? I don’t mind dying for any of you.." then he raised his hands to make a love sign.

"Pfft! You’re so shameless.."

Guiying smiled, he looked at the gift in his hands and his smile grew warmer.

"Thank you. All of you, for making me feel a little special. I’ll cherish this moment.."

Bai Zichen swallowed hard, then ruined it on purpose.

"Don’t go getting sentimental on us now," Bai Zichen said, voice already pitching up like he was bracing for it. "You’ll make me cry and I refuse to cry in front of Shao Mingye."

"You literally cried last week when the lighting rig fell," Shao Mingye said from across the room, not even looking up from his camera.

"That was grief for the equipment," Bai Zichen said, indignant. "It’s completely different."

Guiying laughed, the kind that came out before he decided to let it, and the room filled with it a little, warm and easy, and for a moment it didn’t feel like an ending at all. It felt like a pause.

Fangfang bumped his shoulder, light, and deliberate. "Collection two isn’t that far," she said, quieter, just for him. "And when they call you back, because they will, you better not act surprised."

"I won’t," Guiying said.

She held his gaze for a moment, that direct, unhurried look she had, then nodded once, like she’d confirmed something she already knew and was satisfied with the result.

Jiang Wenxi touched his arm. "We’ll be in touch about the showcase Wednesday. You’ll come right?"

"I’ll come," Guiying said.

She smiled, the real one, the one she didn’t waste on people who wouldn’t last, and stepped back.

The room shifted into its natural end-of-day energy, people gathering their things, conversations breaking into smaller ones, the monitor still cycling through the photographs behind them.

Guiying stood with the box in his hands and watched it for a moment longer.

His face on the screen, over and over.

Every look, every frame Shao Mingye had decided was worth keeping.