Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

Chapter 709: Street Graffiti Murals, Romance in the Ruins

"Oh, you guys got here fast! Over here, over here!"

Xiao He and the others turned to look, just in time to see Chadley, a camera hanging around his neck, waving at them.

——This actually started with Xiao Chen.

After retrieving the photos taken that day, Xiao Chen immediately contacted Chadley and had a friendly exchange with him.

And this time, Chadley, who had always been passionate about capturing street scenes and local culture, finally extended an invitation to Xiao Chen.

Oh, no, to be more precise, it was an invitation to Xiao He.

As a street photographer, Chadley naturally favored the street culture of various regions. When he didn't have work assignments, he would travel on foot, using his camera to freeze those "moments" of life.

Besides working as a street photographer, just like he had told Xiao Chen before, he also shot basic photography tutorial videos and posted them online for newcomers to learn from.

So, for a renowned street photographer like him to suddenly invite Xiao He to be his model was quite surprising.

After all, most of the time, his lens focused on ordinary people. Even when he was invited by the production team of *Fast Speed Shadow 7* to shoot, he mostly photographed cars, not people.

If you had to put it that way, Xiao He was probably the first celebrity model he had ever invited.

Liu Rulan hardly hesitated and agreed immediately.

It wouldn't take much time anyway, and Chadley had considerable fame in the industry circle. This powerful collaboration would give them both a chance to break out of their niches.

Why not?

It was just that Xiao He never expected that the shooting background Chadley had his eye on was actually the same block he and Lao Qi had visited before...

-

"Hey, Chadley!"

Leading the others across the street, Xiao He approached Chadley and saw the camera hanging around his neck, along with the large bag strapped to his back.

A strange expression couldn't help but form on Xiao He's face as he turned back to look at the alley they had gone down last time on the opposite side of the road.

Great. Although the actual shooting location wasn't in that alley, it was basically only separated by a single main road.

But with Chadley choosing a place like this, wasn't he worried about getting robbed?

After all, the reason they had been targeted by those two robbers was also because they were carrying cameras and bags.

Seeing how familiar Chadley seemed, could it be that he had already come here to scope out the location many times?

He could wander around right in front of people's doors and nothing happened?

Damn! So it really was because of how they looked that they were more likely to be bullied here!

Chadley had no idea about Xiao He's roasting. Seeing them arrive, he first asked with concern about the injuries on Xiao Chen's and Liu Rulan's hands. After hearing they had been robbed, his face flushed with anger, and he clenched his fists. "I should have gone with you back then! Some people nowadays are truly out of their minds!"

Then he patted Xiao Chen on the back and said earnestly, "You need to exercise more too. Learn some self-defense techniques later! As photographers, we need to be strong!"

Xiao Chen stumbled forward from the slap, his face turning red, but he quickly composed himself and scratched his head awkwardly. "R-Right..."

Xiao He also heard the dull thud of the slap landing and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. Looking at the foreigner with a bushy beard, who was a whole head bulkier than Lao Qi, he finally understood why Chadley dared to be a street photographer who traveled on foot.

*"If you insist on stopping me from recording the beauty of life, then I happen to know a bit of martial arts..."*

"Oh, the graffiti murals here are indeed quite interesting."

Liu Rulan didn't want to continue the topic of her injured hand, so she stood at the entrance of the alley and peered inside, a rare look of amazement on her face.

The others followed Liu Rulan's lead and looked into the alley entrance.

On both sides of this alley were closed shops, clearly showing it had been abandoned for a long time. As far as the eye could see, there were dusty rolling shutters, with some piles of useless garbage bags and cardboard boxes on the ground. Even the road itself was a bit narrow, with only a few places where fragmented light spots fell from above, making it look less dark and damp.

With an alley and road conditions like this, not to mention that normal people wouldn't pass through here, it didn't even seem like a suitable place for them to take photos.

But perhaps because the economy here had been quite prosperous in the early years, the city's beautification of this abandoned alley was unexpectedly good.

The rolling shutters on both sides had been painted in various colors—red, yellow, blue, green... stretching all the way down, each stroke carrying the unique wildness of the local street culture. The mottled walls on both sides were also covered in various murals.

Those images had bold lines and daring colors, echoing and interlocking with the colors on the rolling shutters, creating a very harmonious look. There was no sense of messy conflict, but rather a kind of wild yet coordinated beauty.

If this had been in the past, Xiao He would never have stopped for a scene like this. Because compared to being beautiful, it was run-down and dirty, with no aesthetic value at all. Just standing there for a moment had already made him want to turn around and leave.

Yet this hidden world of color had been accidentally discovered by a street photographer like Chadley while he was passing through.

In his eyes, decay was the foundation, vibrancy was the soul, and even in the ruins, there was a shattered kind of romance.

So after scouting and shooting for a few days, because of Xiao He's appearance, Chadley had, for the first time, the idea of inviting a celebrity model.

Because when Xiao He had been promoting on the first day, his outfit and styling were street hip-hop, which unexpectedly matched the background here. So when Chadley first saw him, he couldn't help but think of this place.

And that's how this invitation came about.

"Wow, Teacher Li, how did you even find this place?"

Unlike Xiao He, Xiao Chen also really liked the scene here. This kind of vibrant color background was very rare even back home. As long as you matched it with the right clothes, even if the surrounding environment wasn't great, as long as you found the right angle to shoot, it would definitely produce great photos.

It strangely gave one the feeling of dreaming back to the year 2000, a dazzling beauty of upward economic momentum everywhere.

Chadley was clearly proud of his discovery. He happily explained the mental journey he had taken when he first found it, but then he sighed a little. "But recently, there have been more and more homeless people and thugs around here. I think it won't be long before they break the peace here."

Of course, Chadley's point wasn't that he hated these poor people, but as more and more lower-class individuals gathered here, the environment would inevitably be affected.

And some people with poor character just couldn't stand beautiful things. Seeing the bright colors here actually aroused their desire to destroy. Some would add vicious curses on top of the graffiti, or even deliberately burn the walls with cigarette butts, while others had simply turned the place into a toilet, relieving themselves wherever they pleased...

So after coming here a few times, Chadley had grown to cherish this scene even more. Unfortunately, he knew there was nothing he could do to change it.

All he could do was to record everything now, to permanently preserve the colors it once had.

That was also the reason for his sudden invitation to Xiao He.

By the time Xiao He came to the United States next time, he wasn't sure what this place would look like.