Translator: Lan Editor: Efydatia

  Cong Nianwei was really happy. She poked at the small hole with the rake and discovered a clam. Clams of different kinds fell into her plastic bag. When she stood up and massaged her stiff waist, the sun had almost disappeared under the horizon. Qin Guan and his friends had already begun to clean up their stand.

  With a red, sunburnt face, she bounced towards to their stand, holding the small bag of fresh clams in her hand. Li Jian sighed, "You don’t need to study. You can make a living by selling seafood."

  Qin Guan was concerned about his girlfriend. "Look after your burnt cheeks. Apply some oil to your face and put some ice on your skin." Cong Nianwei nodded before Qin Guan took her back home on his tricycle.

  Cong Nianwei divided her harvest into two parts and shared it with Qin Guan. Then she waved goodbye at her boyfriend and ran into the building happily. In case you’re wondering why she hadn’t shared with Zhou Jing and Li Jian as well, they were not her friends. Who cared about them? They had both left the beach unhappily.

  That evening, the two families had a feast of clam noodles and fried spicy crab meat.

  Cong Nianwei didn’t show up the next day, as her skin had been slightly burnt. In 1999, using sunscreen hadn’t been widespread, and her straw hat hadn’t been enough to protect her from the sun. She stayed at home for a week to let her skin heal.

  At the end of July, inspired by Cong Nianwei, the boys started selling small fishing baskets and iron rakes at their stand. They were traditional and very popular among the tourists, and they earned them a small profit. At the end of July, their personal income had exceeded 3,000 yuan. After mid-August, when Qin Guan left, Zhou Jing and Li Jian’s profits would get even higher……

  Hosted by the China Art Photography Association, the China Figure Photography Association, and the New Face Education and Media Company, the New Face Model Competition was a national competition for new models. The participants were models who had been trained by a professional model organization (including college students majoring in fashion design). It was a comparatively professional competition for new models, and could be classified as a domestic B+ competition.

  Sister Xue took that competition very seriously. She called Qin Guan every day in August, which annoyed him to end. She was getting more and more rude on the phone, which eventually made him decide to return to college in advance to get prepared.

  As soon as he returned to the capital, he met Professor Li and Sister Xue. First, Sister Xue had to teach him the basic rules of the competition. I can’t send him to the competition blindly. She made an introduction, holding a guild book in her hand. "The competition includes a local mass-election, a local final, a national quarter-final, and a national final."

  The competition seems quite long. Qin Guan was a little hesitant. Sister Xue could guess what he was thinking, and she patted the material in her hand. "The local finals will be finished within the semester, and the national quarter-final and national final will be held in the capital. The competition is not full-time. You can only show up when necessary, so you won’t need to skip any classes."

  "Besides, why are you so confident that you’ll get to the national final? You need to pass from the local final first." Sister Xue ground her teeth in hatred. So many green hands were itching for a chance to try, and this guy was playing hard to get.

  Sister Xue opened the material and resumed reading, "Age limitation: women have to be under 22, and men have to be under 24. Height requirement: women have to be over 170 centimeters tall, and men have to be over 180 centimeters tall. All participants should be healthy both physically and mentally. They should have a slim figure and a nice face. Basic skills for performing on a T stage and before a camera are required."

  "You meet all the requirements. Fill the application form in and give me a copy of your ID. I’ll prepare the photos and background material for you." Qin Guan nodded and stood up to take the application form. Suddenly, Sister Xue seemed to recall something. "Do you have any talents?" she asked.

  Qin Guan was taken aback. "What kind of talents?"

  "Singing, dancing, playing instrumental music…… Anything will do. Forget it, it’s nothing important. You won’t need to think about it until the national final." Sister Xue shook her head hopelessly.

  "Does dancing socially count?"

  Sister Xue was slightly surprised. "Fine. I’ll find a tutor for special training before the final. You fill the form in and I’ll prepare photos."

  After filling in the form, Qin Guan started training hard. It was the middle of August, and the sun was shining bright above the capital. It was also the deadline for the New Face Model Competition applications. The busy assistant of the organizing committee of the local competition was deeply troubled. He let out a long breath after he filed all the forms and photos.

  Several assistants knocked on the door of the office of the preliminary judges, holding thick folders of paperwork. There were four judges sitting around the meeting table. The assistants put the male and female model applications separately on the table, gave the four judges a short introduction, and left the office.

  Looking at the two distinct piles of paperwork, one of the four judges said, "This is the preliminary competition. It’s just a formality. We’d better work in pairs. One pair can take the male models, and the other one can take the female models."

  The youngest judge touched his glasses and said, "I agree with Professor He." The other two nodded as well. They all looked at the table again. Professor He pulled the thickest pile over, flipped over several pages and smiled. "These are the female models. Here are the statistics. There are 286 applications from female models and 82 from male models."

  He pushed the paperwork back naturally and turned to the pile of the male models. He pulled them over and told the others, "Don’t blame me for taking advantage of my seniority. I’m old and I’m short on energy. I will be the judge for the male models."

  The other three cursed silently, "That old fox."

  Being a preliminary judge was a hard and unrewarding job.