Last week I was helping my boss, a famous photographer from a respected news agency, to shoot(拍摄)a series of photos on the theme of the “One Child Policy”. Part of my job was to find 30 people born in each year starting from 1984, arrange meetings with them and help my boss to do the photo shooting. Unfortunately, one of our candidates regretted his decision at the last minute and we were missing a teenager born in 2001 to complete the series.After bombing my friends on social network sites with requests, I found a girl who met all the criteria, and she was the niece of a long-unmet(久已未见的 )friend. Atfirst,the girl’s parents were hesitant about the shooting. After all, it is suspicious when a semi-stranger(半个陌生人,因为有朋友连接所以不是完全陌生人)asks to take photos of a teenage girl. So I decided to invite them to a nice Chinese restaurant near our office on a Sunday morning, to introduce my boss and our project, so as to calm their doubts and fears. It was a pleasant meal, the brand name on my boss’ business card(名片) did a decent job to ease their minds(放下警惕), and the following conversation made them interested in the project and willing to participate. The next morning we took a brilliant photo and hence completed the project on time. It appears to me that in China, when you want to ask for help and get things done, it’s always a good idea to invite people to eat with you and talk over the table.