The car moved through Beijing in the Sunday morning light, the roads quieter than their weekday selves, the city briefly behaving like somewhere that had a pace other than relentless.

Guiying sat in the back and looked out the window and let his mind settle.

The TongShu building came into view after forty minutes, smaller than expected from the outside but clean and well positioned, the logo above the entrance understated and precise. He got out, stood on the pavement for a moment and looked at it.

New environment. New people. New version of himself to hold together under a camera.

Then he walked in.

The lobby of TongShu was modest but well kept, clean walls, good lighting, the TongShu logo in understated lettering above the reception desk. A receptionist looked up when Guiying walked in, a young Beta woman with a neat ponytail and a bright alert expression.

"Good morning! You must be Mr. Tang... welcome to TongShu." She was already reaching for her phone. "I’ll let the team know you’re here."

"Thank you," Guiying said.

He stood and looked around while he waited. A few framed campaign shots on the walls, the space clean and functional. Nothing that announced itself too loudly.

The elevator opened.

Jiang Wenxi walked out first. She was in her early thirties, sharp-eyed, dressed practically, and she crossed the lobby with the direct stride of someone who had a schedule and intended to keep it. Behind her came the others in a loose cluster... Bai Zichen, who was already looking at Guiying with the undisguised curiosity of someone who had been forming opinions in advance and was now rapidly revising them.

Then Shao Mingye with his equipment bag, his gaze moving over Guiying the way photographers looked at everything, assessing angles and light.

Then Lin Yansu, quiet, her eyes moving over him with the focused attention of someone already making decisions. And Pei Jiahao last, planner in hand, offering a small polite smile.

"Mr. Tang." Jiang Wenxi extended her hand. "I’m Jiang Wenxi, head designer. We’re glad you made it."

"I apologise for the reschedule," Guiying said, shaking her hand. "It won’t happen again."

Something shifted briefly in her expression. "Not at all. These things happen." She gestured toward the elevator. "Shall we go up? I’ll introduce everyone properly and we can walk you through today’s plan."

They went up to the second floor where the studio opened up considerably, the shooting area large and well lit, the styling station arranged neatly along one wall, morning light coming in clean through the windows.

Guiying stood in the middle of it and looked around.

Better than the lobby had suggested.

Jiang Wenxi gestured to each person in turn. "You’ve come in together so I’ll do this properly... Shao Mingye, our photographer. Lin Yansu, stylist. Pei Jiahao handles production. And Bai Zichen——"

"Creative," Bai Zichen supplied, with the energy of someone who had been waiting for his introduction. "And general moral support." He looked at Guiying with open interest. "You’re younger than I expected."

"Zichen," Jiang Wenxi said.

"It’s a compliment!" He spread his hands. "I just meant he photographs well in person, that’s all."

Guiying looked at him. There was nothing malicious in it, just the irrepressible energy of someone who said everything before finishing the decision to say it.

Shao Mingye set his bag down on the equipment table and looked at Guiying directly. "Have you modelled before?" Not unfriendly, just practical.

"Not professionally," Guiying said.

Shao Mingye nodded slowly. "We’ll do test frames first, see how you take direction."

"That works," Guiying said.

Lin Yansu stepped forward. "I’d like to go over the looks before we start." She glanced at his face briefly. "We’ll also be adjusting your makeup for the shoot... what you have on works for everyday but the concept today needs something with more definition. I’ll handle it."

"Of course," Guiying said.

She led him to the styling station and he sat in the chair and she began moving through the rack with focused efficiency, holding pieces up, checking them against him, setting some aside. Then she turned to the makeup station and started laying out what she needed with the quiet deliberateness of someone who had already decided everything in advance.

Guiying watched her work.

"You have good bone structure," she said, the way people in her line of work said such things, as information rather than compliment. "The definition will come through well once we add contrast."

She picked up a brush and started working.

Her hands were precise and unhurried, and Guiying sat still and let her, watching his reflection shift gradually into something different from what he’d put on at home that morning. More structured. More present. Tang XiaoYu not as an everyday construction but as something deliberate and considered.

He looked at himself when she stepped back.

"Better," she said simply, and went back to the rack.

Across the room Bai Zichen had apparently decided that if he couldn’t ask Guiying questions directly he would simply talk near him at significant volume and hope for the best, telling Pei Jiahao something that had happened in the building recently with the animation of someone who had been waiting for an audience. Pei Jiahao listened with the patient expression of someone who had heard this story before and had made peace with hearing it again.

Jiang Wenxi stood near the shooting area reviewing something on her tablet, occasionally glancing over at Lin Yansu’s progress, and Guiying caught her eye once across the room.

She gave him a small, brief nod.

He gave one back.

He didn’t know yet what any of them thought of him, and he wasn’t going to assume. But there was a good energy underneath the wariness here, the kind that came from people who worked hard and took it seriously.

He turned back to the mirror as Lin Yansu held up the first look.

Whatever happened under Shao Mingye’s camera today, he intended to make it count.