Chapter 438: Chapter 436: "Then What Should the Me You Know Say?
Perhaps seeing that they had been stopped in place for too long, Si Xuan and Yang Nan thought something had happened. They came back down about ten steps and asked, "What’s wrong?"
Sika clutched her stomach and forced a pained smile at Si Xuan, saying she couldn’t climb anymore and wanted to go down the mountain. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with Xu Su’s jacket tied around her waist, and the two men quickly understood.
Si Xuan’s gaze shifted to Yang Nan, completely ignoring the hopeful expression on Sika’s face. "Didn’t you say you forgot your camera and had to go back down to get it? This is a good chance to go with her."
Yang Nan scratched his head, stunned for two seconds before nodding hurriedly. "Right, right! I left my camera in the car. The scenery here is so beautiful, I can’t miss the chance to take some pictures. Sika, I’ll go down with you."
Xu Su felt she had become much more perceptive. She saw right through their little scheme in an instant.
’So Si Xuan just doesn’t want to go down the mountain with Sika and is deliberately making up an excuse...’
If even Xu Su could see it, how could Sika—a girl who’d spent time in the Lighthouse Country—not understand?
She thought about all her overt and subtle advances over the past few days, all of which were like winking at a blind man. This Si Xuan was completely oblivious. Sika’s smile vanished. She looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, let out a long sigh, and simply followed Yang Nan away without a word.
And so, only Xu Su and Si Xuan were left on the mountainside, staring at each other awkwardly.
Si Xuan glanced at Xu Su’s sleeveless top, then frowned, took off his own jacket, and handed it to her. "Put this on. The wind is strong and it’s cold up on the mountain. Be careful not to catch a cold."
The refusal on the tip of Xu Su’s tongue died before it could be spoken. Altitude sickness combined with a cold could genuinely be fatal.
She had always known how to take care of herself and was never one to make things unnecessarily difficult for herself, so she reached out and accepted it.
Si Xuan’s jacket was very long. Even on Xu Su, who was five-foot-six, it still reached past her hips.
She thanked him, rolled up the overly long sleeves, and continued huffing and puffing her way up the mountain with her trekking pole.
When it was time to hang the prayer flags, Xu Su chose a string a hundred meters long. She reverently walked the full hundred meters herself, tying the flag on securely.
She put her palms together and made a wish: ’May the one I love live a life of peace and joy.’
Her prayer finished, Xu Su opened her eyes and saw Si Xuan standing in front of her. The young man stood tall and straight, dressed only in a white collared shirt and long pants. The wind on the summit was indeed strong, pressing the fabric against his body and faintly revealing the contours of his abdominal muscles.
He was very tall, his frame resilient like green bamboo. He didn’t look like a feeble scholar who only knew his way around books; he appeared strong, but not brutish. Everything about him was just right.
He tilted his head toward her, his gaze exceptionally gentle under the refracting golden summer light. A smile played on his lips as he leaned down and asked, "What did you wish for?"
That gentle smile was enough to bring a famous line of poetry to mind, one describing a gentleman as peerless as jade, unmatched in all the world.
Xu Su was momentarily stunned. ’What a heartbreaker,’ she thought to herself. Yet, a perfectly natural smile appeared on her face as she said, "It won’t come true if I say it out loud. I worked way too hard climbing up here for this wish; it has to come true."
Si Xuan raised an eyebrow, just as he was about to say something...
CLICK.
The sound of a camera shutter came from behind her. Xu Su turned to see Yang Nan—who must have returned at some point—lowering his camera.
A flicker of doubt crossed her eyes. ’Was he taking a picture of me and Si Xuan...?’
It wasn’t that she was being narcissistic; there was precedent, which made it impossible for her not to think so.
Caught in the act by both of his subjects, Yang Nan simply strode over, camera in hand.
"I’m telling you, with your looks, just the two of you standing together is a gorgeous scene. Add this background of blue sky, white clouds, and mountains, plus you were looking at each other smiling about something... The whole mood was so beautiful. If I could’ve resisted capturing that, I wouldn’t be me."
Yang Nan said to Xu Su, "Don’t you dare make me delete it! You might not know this, but I, your ’master’ photographer, am a student in the University B photography department. I’ve got skills. Once I get the pictures developed, I’ll show you. You’ll see, it’ll absolutely be one for the collection."
"..." Xu Su thought for a moment. From his angle, he probably only captured a small part of her side profile. Besides, she and Si Xuan weren’t doing anything intimate, so it probably wasn’t a big deal.
They had taken plenty of group photos over the past few days anyway.
With that thought, Xu Su stopped worrying about a single photo and started to hang Sika’s prayer flag.
The slope was steep and uneven, but luckily Xu Su was wearing a pair of incredibly comfortable boots. She nimbly tied the second prayer flag and earnestly made Sika’s wish for her.
Si Xuan, who wasn’t far off, asked curiously, "You’re making two wishes?"
"...No," Xu Su said, feeling like he was implying she was greedy. She explained, "Sika asked me to make a wish for her."
"Oh, I see," Si Xuan said with a smile. "You two must be good friends."
Of course they were. Xu Su quite liked Sika’s straightforward personality.
’Compared to passive-aggressive people who talk in riddles, who wouldn’t prefer a girl who’s direct?’
Speaking of which, Sika’s eyes had been practically glued to him for the past few days, yet he still managed to act as if he hadn’t noticed a thing.
Xu Su found a large rock to lean against, sheltering from the wind, and sat down to rest. She casually tied back her wind-tousled hair with a hair tie and glanced at the man who had sat down beside her.
Si Xuan was the most aloof man she had ever met. It wasn’t that his expression was cold—in fact, he had been quite gentle these past few days. It was just that when it came to girls’ advances, he was completely unapproachable and distant.
Sika was actually quite beautiful, not to mention warm and proactive. Most guys wouldn’t be able to withstand that kind of offensive.
Xu Su was a little curious what a guy so impervious to charm would be like if he ever actually fell for a girl.
Si Xuan turned his head to look at her. "Why do you keep staring at me?"
"Nothing." Xu Su tilted her head, her gaze drifting into the distance as she suddenly thought of Zhou Mochen.
’Zhou Mochen isn’t any easier to get close to than Si Xuan, is he? If he didn’t like me, it would probably be difficult to even get a chance to see him.’
’But once a person like that truly falls for someone, they become a completely hopeless romantic.’
Xu Su pressed her lips together and looked at Si Xuan again.
She asked curiously, "Si Xuan, what type of girl do you like? Do you have a set of standards?"
Si Xuan was taken aback, not expecting her to ask something like that all of a sudden.
He mulled it over for a few seconds. Just as Xu Su was thinking she’d crossed a line and was about to change the subject, she heard his voice. "I don’t have a standard. Liking someone isn’t a math problem with a correct answer. The feeling is what’s more important."
Xu Su couldn’t help but break into a smile. "That really doesn’t sound like something you would say."
’He’s clearly the stoic, aloof, handsome type, yet he’s saying things like ’the feeling is more important.’’
’It’s as if he’s already fallen from his pedestal and found that ’feeling’ he was talking about.’
"That’s not something I would say...?" Si Xuan chuckled. "Then based on your understanding of me, what should I have said?"
"Hmm..." Xu Su thought about it seriously. "You’d either say, ’I’ve never thought about that,’ or you’d just ignore my question completely."
