23
Chen Linyao felt that she shouldn’t trust Xie Zhengjie too much.
The next workday, nearing noon, the young woman began to wonder if Xie Zhengjie was still staying quietly in the apartment as he had promised.
She picked up her smartphone and sent him a message via WeChat.
‘Prince, where are you right now?’
Last night, Chen Linyao had taught him the basics of using WeChat and showed him how to take a profile picture for his account.
After a while, the young woman began to feel anxious because the other party had not replied.
‘Are you still at the apartment?’ she sent another message.
‘I’m at the apartment,’ he finally replied.
‘Really?
Why did it take you so long to reply?’ She followed up.
After another short delay, he answered again.
‘I’m still not very comfortable with this device.’
This response came slightly faster than the previous one.
Chen Linyao figured he was probably taking a long time finding the characters to type his reply.
‘Can you take a picture and show me?’ She send a message again.
Then, she picked up her phone and turned it to an angle she knew would make her look good in photos.
Out of habit, she chose a pose with a slightly visible background but made sure her face was the focal point.
In twenty seconds, she snapped seven photos, picked the best one, and sent it to him.
‘Take it like this, showing the background.’
Looking at the photo she had just sent, Chen Linyao couldn’t help but admire herself.
Why am I so beautiful?
Maybe I should use this as my new profile picture.
She gave him instructions on how to send pictures.
Soon, Xie Zhengjie sent a photo back to her.
She burst out laughing.
His photo was worse than a passport photo.
Chen Linyao had always thought that people who took passport photos—or those who approved them—must be a bit sadistic.
For someone as beautiful as her, it was very hard to take a good passport photo.
She had to retake them multiple times, as they were often rejected.
She ended up toning down her beauty significantly before they begrudgingly approved it.
This was the plight of a beautiful person.
As for the photo he sent, the young man’s face filled the entire frame.
While he was undeniably handsome, with skin so flawless that even a high-resolution camera couldn’t hide its radiant glow, his photography skills were abysmal.
‘You need to hold the phone farther away so I can see the background too,’ Chen Linyao messaged him again.
She followed it up with a picture of herself giving a two-finger peace sign.
The second photo from the prince of the Xie Kingdom showed significant improvement.
As they say, once you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.
‘Why didn’t you make the peace sign like me?’ Chen Linyao demanded, expecting him to follow her example.
She even took a picture of her hand making the “V” sign and sent it to him to demonstrate how to pose.
She felt that doing it alone made her look silly.
Xie Zhengjie disappeared for a while before finally sending a reply.
‘Baidu says that’s the pose of a fool.’ (Baidu is a Chinese search engine similar to Google.)
Chen Linyao was stunned.
Had he been consulting Baidu this whole time?
‘Foolish?
Not at all.
This is a universal pose recognized worldwide.
Don’t believe Baidu too much.
Take a picture doing this pose and send it to me.’
This time, Xie Zhengjie took a very long time to respond.
Chen Linyao waited until her break was almost over.
Finally, the young man sent another photo.
She was stunned again.
The photo looked like it was taken secretly when the young man wasn’t paying attention. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
He looked incredibly handsome—like a dashing man caught off guard by a stalker obsessed with him.
In the photo, the young man gazed thoughtfully out the window, with an open book in front of him.
The curtains in the background billowed slightly, completing the scene.
Everything was staged perfectly in her own room.
‘Who took this picture for you?’
Chen Linyao felt a pang of concern.
Did he let a stranger into her apartment?
‘I opened an image on Baidu and tried to replicate it.’
‘But it looks like the photographer was standing quite far away.’
‘I used the timer function.’
Chen Linyao was annoyed.
It seemed his photography skills were improving far too quickly, robbing her of the chance to see any clumsy, awkward pictures of him.
‘Take a picture with a peace sign for me,’ she insisted, sending another message.
This time, he replied with a sighing sticker.
It seemed his WeChat skills were also developing quickly.
Chen Linyao hoped he wouldn’t progress to the point of sending her “Good morning” photos anytime soon.
As she pondered this, another photo arrived.
Chen Linyao was stunned.
She could hardly believe it.
The photo showed Xie Zhengjie holding up two fingers in a peace sign.
But he had also puffed out his cheeks and hunched his shoulders slightly.
‘I feel strange.
Why do people who make the peace sign always pose like this?’ He messaged afterward.
‘Where did you see this?’
‘Baidu.
It seems a lot of people take photos like this.
What a peculiar culture.’
‘Don’t worry.
Our Baidu is a trustworthy search engine.
You’re just not used to it yet.’