"Hurry up, hurry up!"
A dozen seconds later, the two figures vanished without a trace.
Chai Qianning gently raised her chin towards Sheng Muxi: "Alright, we can go now."
After walking a few steps, Sheng Muxi looked down and noticed that Chai Qianning had changed from loosely holding her wrist to tightly holding her fingers.
Suddenly, my fingertips became scalding hot.
Chapter 31 Strawberries
As they walked, the number of fireflies around them increased. Upon reaching their final destination, Chai Qianning naturally released her hand, as if it had been done casually.
Sheng Muxi rubbed her palms with her fingertips, and when she looked up, the glimmer of light reflected in her eyes.
Fireflies fluttered irregularly, like little lanterns illuminating the dark fields at night.
A mountain breeze brushed her face, and she couldn't help but raise her hand. Fireflies flew by, making her fingertips appear transparent.
Chai Qianning pulled her to sit on a low wall, their toes just centimeters off the ground, their legs swinging gently, letting the wind blow their hair back, their faces full of contentment.
"Is it pretty?" Chai Qianning pointed to a spot, then turned back and smiled at her.
"Yes, it's beautiful." Sheng Muxi looked in the direction she was pointing.
Against the backdrop of fireflies, there are mountains tinged black by the night, with a few stars scattered above them, creating a charming contrast with the fireflies. It's as if the fireflies on earth have all fallen from the sky.
Chai Qianning placed her hands on either side of her and slightly raised her eyes.
Seeing the photographer taking pictures of someone not far away, she climbed down from the low wall, faced Sheng Muxi, leaned one hand on the wall next to him, and said with a smile, "Teacher Sheng, can I take a picture of you?"
"Should we just film it like this?"
Unlike Qiu Jie and Shi Manwen, Sheng Muxi didn't take photos every time she went to a place, but since the other party said so, she decided to record it.
"Okay, just sit like this." Chai Qianning said, taking out her phone, opening the camera, and holding it up while stepping back a short distance.
She raised her phone and waved her hand, saying, "Teacher Sheng, look at the camera."
Sheng Muxi looked over and saw that the other person had taken many photos from different angles. In the last few photos, she unconsciously shifted her gaze from looking at the phone camera to looking at Chai Qianning.
Chai Qianning stared intently at her phone screen, a slight smile playing at the corners of her eyes, as if she were looking at herself intently through the camera.
"Okay." Chai Qianning walked over and showed her the photos that had been taken.
She took many photos, and at a glance they were all basically the same, but Chai Qianning picked one out and said that she thought it was the best one.
Sheng Muxi couldn't see much difference between this one and the others. Besides, some stray hairs had accidentally been blown by the wind and were fluttering in front of her eyes.
“Because of this picture, I feel like you’re looking at me,” Chai Qianning said with a grin.
Sheng Muxi turned her gaze away, avoiding eye contact, and said in a deliberately calm tone, "I looked at you in every single picture, because the camera was right there on your side."
"Then I think the way you look at me is the most affectionate."
".."
Realizing that the two of them hadn't taken a photo together, Chai Qianning found a tourist to take a picture of them together.
The two were sitting on the low wall. Chai Qianning sat next to Sheng Muxi and smiled sweetly at the camera. Sheng Muxi, feeling the other woman's fingers on her arm, subconsciously looked down and was captured in the photo.
So in the photo, she wasn't looking at the camera; her slightly lowered and tilted gaze made it seem as if she was looking at the person next to her.
When Sheng Muxi saw the photo, she remembered that she had been looking at the other person's fingers when it was taken, so she felt a little guilty and wanted to delete it to cover it up. Chai Qianning blinked lightly: "I think it looks pretty good, why delete it?"
"They weren't even looking at the camera; they were daydreaming."
"That looks good too."
After taking the photos, the two stayed a while longer before heading back. This time they took the main road, where there were several stalls selling souvenirs.
Those seemingly useless but exquisite souvenirs were quite attractive to tourists. Sheng Muxi went over to take a look and gave Chai Qianning a souvenir that he had finally picked out, with a cat pattern on the corner.
On the way back, Chai Qianning played with the souvenir in her palm and said, "Teacher Sheng, you seem to really like cats."
"Yes, I quite like it."
"Then why don't you raise one yourself?"
Sheng Muxi thought about this question for a while before answering: "Sometimes I don't have time to take care of it."
Chai Qianning said "Oh," but felt that the way the other woman was looking at her was a little strange. She had only asked her why she didn't keep a cat, but the other woman thought for several minutes before answering. Was that a difficult question to answer?
Upon arriving at the guesthouse, the two parted ways.
Chai Qianning didn't go back to her room. Instead, she went to her grandfather's room and borrowed carving tools from him. With nothing else to do, she tinkered around and created a small cat-shaped wooden carving about the size of her palm, which took her several hours.
Compared to professionals, this wooden cat carving is far from perfect, but to the average person, it is small and cute enough.
Back in the room.
Chai Shuqing was at her desk, struggling with a math problem.
Chai Qianning put down her things, not wanting to disturb her, found some clothes in the wardrobe to take a shower, and then lay down on the bed.
The time on her phone screen showed that it was already past 1 a.m. She glanced in Chai Shuqing's direction and called out to her, "Qingqing, it's time to sleep. It's so late. You can do your homework tomorrow."
"I'll sleep later, I can't sleep right now," Chai Shuqing replied without turning her head.
Chai Qianning withdrew her gaze, opened her phone to play games, and planned to go to sleep after Chai Shuqing fell asleep.
After finishing the last question, Chai Shuqing left her desk and glanced at the cat carving on Chai Qianning's bedside table.
She walked over, picked it up and looked at it: "Sis, where did you get this? It's so cute."
Chai Qianning was playing a game on her phone with both hands, her thumbs tapping the screen repeatedly. She casually replied, "I did it myself."
"Your skills have improved." Chai Shuqing held the food in her hands, turning it over and over. "Unlike the one you gave me before, which was horribly ugly, this one is much better. But why did you decide to make this? My birthday isn't here yet, and Grandpa and Grandma... I don't think anyone has a birthday recently, right?"
"Oh, did you just eat too much and have nothing better to do? Or is it a gift for a friend? That's so thoughtful of you. It's the first time I've seen you make a gift for a friend yourself. You usually just buy it. Are you two very close friends?"
Chai Qianning was engrossed in the game and wasn't listening at all. It was as if Chai Shuqing was talking to herself.
Seeing that the other person wasn't listening to her at all, Chai Shuqing called out her full name: "Chai! Qian! Ning!"
Startled by the loud shout, Chai Qianning finally looked up: "What's wrong?"
Are you listening to me?
"Hmm, what did you say?"
".."
"Tell me, who are you giving this to?"
"Teacher Sheng."
Chai Shuqing touched her neck: "Okay, never mind."
She put the wooden carving back and moved closer to Chai Qianning: "I'd like to play a game too, can I play one?"
"Go to sleep."
No, I can't sleep.
Chai Shuqing watched her play games from the side, and accidentally glanced at the wooden carving on the counter.
Out of boredom, she kept talking to Chai Qianning: "Sister, did you make this wood carving based on the little fool?"
Having just finished a game, Chai Qianning checked the time; it was past 2 a.m. She looked up at Chai Shuqing, then glanced at the wooden carving on the counter.
"Does this look like a little fool?"
Chai Shuqing nodded: "It looks somewhat similar."
Chai Qianning glanced at the wood carving again: "I don't think it looks like it. I just made it up. Go to sleep, do you want to have panda eyes tomorrow?"
"I'll go to sleep if you play me a game," Chai Shuqing said persistently.
.
The next morning, after breakfast, Chai Qianning sat in a rocking chair, scrolling through her phone.
She flipped to the photo she had taken with Sheng Muxi the night before, admired it for a few seconds, and then set it as her phone's wallpaper.
Sheng Muxi appeared behind her, startling her so much that she didn't even have time to turn off her phone screen.
Looking down, Sheng Muxi saw her phone's screen saver and blinked slowly: "You set our photo as your screen saver?"
"Um!"
Since the other party had seen it, she decided not to hide anything anymore.
"Why?"
"nice."
"But I don't think I took a good picture," Sheng Muxi said, clearly feeling a little embarrassed that Chai Qianning had set their group photo as her screensaver.
"It's okay, I think the photos of me turned out pretty well."
"?"
"I check my own profile on my phone every day."
".."
“Then you can set a single photo of yourself as your screensaver,” Sheng Muxi said.
"That would make me seem too narcissistic."
".."
——
In the afternoon, everyone was picking strawberries in the garden.
Sheng Muxi carried a small basket and went inside with Shi Manwen and Qiu Jie.
Under the shade of the canopy, Chai Qianning sat on a bamboo chair, looked around, and finally fixed her gaze on Chai Shuqing, who was playing with a child.
She reached out, picked up the strawberries beside her, and called out, "Qingqing!"
"What?" Chai Shuqing stood up and turned around.