Chapter 595 - 242: Going Home? Which Home? (Part 2)
Chapter 595: Chapter 242: Going Home? Which Home? (Part 2)
"Sure thing!" Yang Yishui agreed cheerfully. She strode over to them and held out her hand. "Give me the phone!"
Shen Yuan instinctively tightened his grip on his phone. "What for?"
"What for?" Yang Yishui raised an eyebrow, a matter-of-fact look on her face. "To take a proper photo of you two! What’s the point of sneaking pictures? If you’re going to take one, do it out in the open!"
Her gaze swept over the young couple, whose faces were as red as ripe apples in the flickering light, and she gave a mischievous wink.
"You’ve already made it official, what’s there to be shy about!"
"This is a rare opportunity. The background is perfect, and there are still fireworks. Hurry up, hold hands, get closer!"
Li Zhi bit her lower lip, glancing quickly at a smirking Yang Yishui and an expectant Shen Yuan.
The beautiful girl was still blushing, but her body followed her heart, shuffling a little closer to Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan felt her move closer, a jolt of joy in his heart. He immediately reached out and held Li Zhi’s slightly cool hand tightly.
"There we go! Now that’s more like it!" Yang Yishui nodded in satisfaction and opened her phone’s camera. "Ready? Look at the camera!"
Under Yang Yishui’s direction, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi huddled together, illuminated by the fireworks Zhao Yueyang was setting off nearby and the last faint light from the sparklers in their hands.
Their gazes turned towards the lens of Yang Yishui’s phone.
With a CLICK, the moment was captured.
Yang Yishui looked at her phone screen with satisfaction, raising an eyebrow. "Tsk, this composition is great! Again, again!"
She got into it, starting to direct them like a professional photographer. "What are you standing around for? Change your pose!"
"Shen Yuan, you crouch down a bit and wrap your arm around Li Zhi’s waist!"
"Li Zhi, don’t look down! Lift your eyes to the camera!"
"Hey, yes, yes! This angle makes your face look smaller! Li Zhi, try putting your arm around Shen Yuan’s neck?"
Shen Yuan obediently did as he was told. Although Li Zhi’s ears were still burning, she also cooperated with a shy smile, letting Yang Yishui arrange them as she pleased.
Their poses went from an initially stiff side-by-side stance to more intimate ones: huddling close, a side hug, Li Zhi leaning lightly on Shen Yuan’s shoulder... Every adjustment and press of the shutter drew clicks of praise from Yang Yishui.
"Tsk, yes, yes! This one is perfect! Li Zhi, that look in your eyes..."
"This one’s so candid! You two are so lovey-dovey..."
Just as Yang Yishui was about to have them try a back-to-back, glance-over-the-shoulder "artsy shot"—
"What, what? I want a picture too!"
Zhao Yueyang darted over, clutching the empty firework tube he’d just set off.
His face was smudged with some firework ash, his eyes sparkling, full of excitement to join the fun. There was no trace of the deep-seated misery from being forced to copy words earlier.
"I want to be in the picture too!"
He hollered, getting ready to run over, still shouting, "Sis! Take my picture! Make me look handsome!"
"Zhao Yueyang, stop messing things up!"
Yang Yishui took a step forward, precisely grabbed her little cousin’s collar from behind, and plucked him out like he was a little chick.
"I told you to be the lighting guy! Here, this one’s about to go out. Take this one!"
She stuffed a new sparkler into Zhao Yueyang’s hand and then pushed him to the side.
"Your job is to hold it up high and be my fill light! Don’t block their faces!"
"Oh..."
Zhao Yueyang pouted, a little aggrieved, but he still obediently stood off to the side, trying his best to hold the burning sparkler high.
The dancing golden sparks indeed cast a soft, flickering halo of light over them, illuminating Shen Yuan’s smiling profile and the curve of Li Zhi’s lips.
Yang Yishui raised her phone again. "Okay, ignore him. You two, keep gazing deeply into each other’s eyes... Oh no, look at the camera, look at the camera!"
Shen Yuan and Li Zhi exchanged a smile in the flickering light, leaning slightly closer together for the camera with a tacit understanding.
The shutter clicked again, freezing that unspoken warmth between them in a night interwoven with fireworks and sparks.
Shen Yuan’s smiling gaze pulled away from Yang Yishui’s camera lens and inadvertently fell upon Li Zhi’s profile, illuminated by the fiery light.
The curve of the girl’s lips was soft and beautiful, as if sweetened with honey.
Li Zhi sensed his gaze and turned to meet his eyes.
Their eyes met. The dancing flames flickered deep in his, outlining the boy’s clear and gentle features.
’It’s that profile, that line of his lips slightly pursed in Concentration...’
Li Zhi’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. A fuzzy yet clear image crashed into her mind without warning.
The same village on a winter night, at a younger age, outside the courtyard gate on New Year’s Eve.
A tiny little Shen Yuan, the tip of his nose red and frozen, was just as stubbornly tilting his face up, staring hopefully at the light seeping through the crack in her window.
In the memory, her younger self was probably leaning against the windowsill, watching him through the cold glass.
Never before had Li Zhi so clearly felt the burning anticipation in that gaze, piercing through the hazy days of childhood to silently overlap with the scene before her now.
She pursed her lips, swallowing the smile that rose to them, only letting her eyes curve into a deeper arc.
"Alright!" Yang Yishui lowered her phone in satisfaction and deftly began to scroll through her "spoils." "Hmm, this one’s not bad... The lighting in this one is amazing..."
Her fingers swiped quickly across the screen to filter the photos, her face wearing a professional yet teasing smile.
"Tsk tsk, Shen Yuan, you little..."
While she was verbally teasing him, her fingers were already flying, tapping on the phone’s built-in photo editing software and starting to work her magic.
"Come on, let your big sis touch it up a bit for you..."
Zhao Yueyang looked at the couple lost in memories and their shared gaze, then at his sister, who was now focused on editing the photos. The sparkler he held high FIZZLED out completely, leaving only a faint wisp of smoke.
In the distance, the sporadic crackle of firecrackers could still be heard from the village, echoing leisurely in the vast cold of the winter night, becoming the softest background music for this moment.