Chapter 205: I'll Only Be Good With You
After reaching the foot of the mountain, the group bought their tickets. Fan grabbed Zheng Sisi and immediately took the lead, running up the mountain!
"Why are they running? Aren't they worried they'll run out of energy later?" Chen Yao asked, completely baffled. Zhou Fan held her hand as they walked at a leisurely pace.
"Those two just got together, so they need some personal space. Is that so hard to understand? Besides, we need a little space of our own, too!" Zhou Fan said with a sly grin, lifting their clasped hands as he spoke.
"Get lost! Who wants personal space with you? You're the one who promised to take me out!" Chen Yao shot him a glare, her cheeks flushing. She feigned a kick at Zhou Fan, but he easily dodged it.
Along the way, whenever they found a scenic spot, Chen Yao would stop and have Zhou Fan take a photo of her. It had to be said, Chen Yao was genuinely beautiful, with a perfect figure. It was just that Zhou Fan's photography skills... were another story entirely.
"Zhou Fan, just look at these photos you took! I'm almost five-foot-seven, but you somehow managed to make me look like I'm four-foot-eleven!"
"And in this one, my face isn't even in focus!"
"You're so hopeless! You have to find a good angle. That's how the pictures turn out well, got it?"
Chen Yao looked at the photos on her phone, and while she complained about Zhou Fan's cringeworthy photography skills, she was also smiling happily.
"Alright, one more time. You just stand still, and I guarantee I'll take the perfect photo this time. How dare you question my skills!" Zhou Fan retorted, refusing to admit defeat. They had just reached a stone monument with the words "Yazi Mountain" carved into it. Zhou Fan looked at Chen Yao, who was standing in front of the monument, and began backing away step-by-step, carefully searching for the perfect angle.
"Seriously? You've been studying this for three minutes already. Haven't you found an angle yet?" Chen Yao urged, growing impatient as she watched Zhou Fan glance this way and that.
"Don't rush me. This is an art form, and art can't be rushed!" Zhou Fan suddenly walked down a few steps, then slowly squatted down and raised his phone.
As he looked at his phone's screen, he saw Chen Yao with her coat open, her perfect, long legs showing below her jeans, and her short hair fluttering in the night breeze. For a moment, Zhou Fan was completely captivated. A nearby streetlight cast a single ray of light across her cheek, making her look so sweet and moving, so poised and elegant.
CLICK!
Zhou Fan pressed the shutter button, walked over to Chen Yao, and handed her the phone without a word.
"You have such a strange look on your face. I bet you made me look ugly again!" Chen Yao muttered. But when she opened her photo album, she found a picture she was very happy with. She gave Zhou Fan a light smack. "Hey, this one's actually not bad! So why do you look so down?"
"Pfft. I'm not down, I'm just lost in admiration—admiration for my own unparalleled photography skills. To think I could make a feisty woman like you look so gentle and graceful!"
"You're the feisty one! Hey, don't run! Get back here!"
As they chased each other and joked around, the stone steps that would have normally felt steep and exhausting didn't seem so difficult anymore. Once they passed the halfway point up the mountain, small shops began to appear along the path.
"Zhou Fan, are you hungry?" Chen Yao suddenly grabbed his hand, her eyes on a wonton shop by the road as she asked timidly.
"I am. My esteemed Miss Chen Yao, would you do me the honor of having a bowl of wontons with me?" Zhou Fan said, looking at her with amusement. 'If you're hungry, just say so. Why beat around the bush and ask if I'm hungry?'
"Fine. Seeing as you look so pitiful, and since you've been taking photos for me this whole time, I suppose I can humor you with a bowl of wontons," Chen Yao said, tilting her chin up haughtily while trying to suppress a smile.
Chen Yao's tastes were quite unique. She didn't eat scallions or cilantro but added a ton of vinegar to her bowl, so much that Zhou Fan couldn't help but grimace. 'Are those wontons or just a bowl of vinegar with some wontons in it?' he thought.
"Jeez, are you trying to drown those poor little wontons in vinegar?" Zhou Fan joked.
"That's right, and I'm going to drown you next!" Chen Yao shot Zhou Fan a glare, then picked up a wonton with her chopsticks and held it to his lips. "If you eat it, I'll save all my niceness just for you!"
"Pah! Who are you kidding, trying to trick me like a child?" Zhou Fan reached out and tapped the tip of her nose, but still, with tears welling in his eyes, he ate the vinegar-drowned wonton.
"Actually, I didn't always like vinegar this much," Chen Yao said. Seeing Zhou Fan eat the wonton made her laugh like a child, but her laughter soon gave way to tears. "My mother loved it, though. I once asked her why, and she told me that while vinegar might cover up a lot of good tastes, it also covers up the bad ones." Her voice trembled. "After she passed away... even though Chen Shilei was good to me, I gradually grew to like eating things her way."
Seeing this, Zhou Fan took out a tissue and gently wiped the tears from her face. He then put his arm around Chen Yao's shoulders, letting her rest her head against him. "It's just the two of us here. You can cry for a little while. It's okay."
Hearing his words, Chen Yao looked up, her big eyes glistening with tears. She gave his chest a light tap with her fist before wrapping her arms around him, burying her face in his chest and beginning to weep softly.