Shu Bai looked at Li Yuheng, who was almost touching his nose, and calmly called out, "Li Yuheng."
"Hmm?" Li Yuheng responded immediately, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from turning up, happily waiting for the praise to follow.
Shu Bai raised her hand, pressed a finger against his forehead, and pushed him back to a normal social distance:
You're cross-eyed.
"...Would that make me less handsome?"
"..."
"Admit it, you also peck at rice for me."
"..."
"Hey, what's there to be shy about? Look me straight in the eye, I won't laugh at you. It's only natural to be infatuated with me, there's no need to feel inferior. Wow wow~ yay yay~"
Shu Bai was forced to turn her head and watched Li Yuheng humming an off-key song with great enjoyment. Suddenly, she said, "You're such a handsome idiot."
Li Yuheng's humming stopped abruptly: "...Huh?"
"I'm praising you."
Li Yuheng narrowed his eyes, but a smile still lingered on his lips: "What? You think I only know a sentence or two? Trying to test my listening comprehension here?"
Shu Bai remained unfazed: "Wasn't that a fair compliment?"
"That 'idiot' you used... tsk, it has a really insulting tone to it."
Li Yuheng suddenly switched to a fluent Northwestern accent, "You really think I can't understand?"
Shu Bai readily agreed and immediately switched to a soft Wu dialect: "What do you want to say? You're the best, okay?"
Li Yuheng raised an eyebrow and blurted out in Cantonese, "So you're just messing around?"
Shu Bai: "..."
Where did this guy secretly learn so much?
Seeing that Shu Bai was stuck, Li Yuheng finally curled up the corners of his mouth in triumph.
He was a genius.
How could a mere dialect possibly stump the Crown Prince of the Underworld?
Just as he was about to show off a few more words, President Chen Niansha's voice interrupted: "You two over there! Stop exchanging secret signals! Come and help start the fire!"
Shu Bai stood up: "Okay."
Li Yuheng: "Now that the club president is here, it's the perfect opportunity to show you the fire-making skills of the number one A in the interstellar space!"
Chen Niansha: "...There's no need to be so extravagant, just light the firewood."
…
The campfire in the center of the camp crackled, dispelling the growing chill and darkness of the mountains.
The dozen or so members of the mountaineering club sat in a circle, the atmosphere much more relaxed than during the day.
Everyone took out their dinners, and the rustling of various packaging bags and simple conversations mingled together, revealing a sense of tranquility after exhaustion.
Shu Bai tore open a bag of energy bars and ate them silently.
Li Yuheng, standing next to him, was rummaging through his backpack, muttering, "Let's see which lucky person I'll be favored tonight... Beef jerky? Hmm, too hard. Self-heating rice? Too lazy to wait... I'll just have potato chips!"
His gaze swept over Shu Bai's backpack, and his eyes lit up: "Little Shu Bai, did you bring any fruit? How about some dessert?"
Shu Bai glanced at him, said nothing, took a bright red apple from the side pocket of her backpack, and handed it to him.
Li Yuheng took the apple, weighed it in his hand, and his smile became somewhat mysterious.
He didn't eat it right away, but gently stroked the smooth peel with his fingertips, then suddenly looked up and stared intently at Shu Bai.
“Little Shubai,” he lowered his voice, his tone carrying a deliberately profound allure, “come on, look at me.”
Upon hearing this, Shu Bai looked up at him in confusion and asked vaguely, "What are you looking at?"
Li Yuheng didn't answer directly, but slowly asked, "Do you know what a 'knife-cut chin' is?"
Shu Bai paused in his chewing motion.
"...What are you up to now?"
This is exactly the effect Li Yuheng wanted.
He chuckled smugly and said nothing more.
He was holding the apple when his wrist suddenly jerked, the movement so fast it almost left a blur.
With an extremely precise and fluid motion, he swiftly and lightly sliced the fullest part of the apple down his jawline.
The movements were graceful and the force was skillful.
The next second, a miracle happened.
The whole apple looked as if it had been sliced in an instant by an invisible, sharp blade, neatly divided into two perfectly symmetrical halves, with smooth and flat cross-sections of the flesh.
Li Yuheng held the two halves of the apple steadily in his hands, offering one half to Shu Bai and bringing the other half to his own mouth, taking a crunchy bite.
He chewed, then raised his chin at Shu Bai, who seemed not to have fully reacted yet, his eyes filled with smugness.
"Here it is."
He spoke indistinctly, as if he had just demonstrated a routine operation as simple as breathing.
Shu Bai: "..."
He silently took the half apple and took a bite without expression.
Click.
The crisp chewing sounds were especially clear amidst the crackling of the campfire.
He chewed a few times, swallowed, and then looked up at Li Yuheng: "Remember to peel the apple next time you peel it; there's wax on the peel."
Li Yuheng was expecting a look of astonishment from him, but upon hearing this, he almost choked on the apple in his mouth: "...Is that the point?!"
"Otherwise what?" Shu Bai took another bite of the apple. "Or are you planning to use your 'knife-cut chin' to peel apples for me for the rest of your life?"
Li Yuheng was instantly pleased by those words, and his slight annoyance vanished. He leaned closer and asked, "Hey? A lifetime? Are you implying something, Xiao Shubai?"
"...implying you should stop pretending."
Li Yuheng smiled enigmatically, finished his half-eaten apple in a few bites, and licked his lips with lingering satisfaction: "Mmm, sweet. The apple you picked is sweet."
His gaze lingered between the sparse white leaves and the remaining apple core, then he paused, casually stroking his chin, his eyes becoming inquisitive.
"Hey Xiaoshubai, you don't actually have a hidden Apple logo on your butt, do you?"
“…Li Yuheng, I think your condition has worsened and you are hallucinating. Why don’t you go back to the hospital and have your brain checked again? Don’t worry about the money, as long as you can be cured.”
"Tsk, how can you call it an illusion? It just means you're really good at picking apples! You're exceptionally talented! It's a certification of honor!"
"Oh? According to your logic, what kind of mark should you have on your butt?"
Li Yuheng immediately perked up and straightened his back.
Hehe, you've finally gotten to the point!
“Me?” He gave a thumbs-up, pointing back at himself, his voice resolute and booming, “It has to be—”
He paused deliberately, attracting the attention of a group of team members who had overheard the conversation and were secretly listening.
Amidst the flickering light of the campfire and the curious gazes of the crowd, Li Yuheng declared in a clear, resonant voice:
"A dazzling, domineering character: 'Handsome'!"
"..."
A brief silence fell over the camp.
The only sounds were the crackling of the campfire and the faint sound of the wind in the distance.
A few seconds later.
"Pfft—" Someone couldn't help but burst out laughing first.
Immediately afterwards, as if a fuse had been lit for laughter, the team members sitting around burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha...I'm dying of laughter."
Wu Yue was laughing hysterically, and casually patted her newly met omega friend, Yu You.
Yu You was peeling a durian candy with her head down when she was slapped on the ground. Hearing this, she looked up in confusion: "Huh? What? Who? Oh, yeah, does he always do this?"
He looked at Shu Bai with a hint of natural curiosity in his eyes.
Shu Bai: "...I don't know."
He mechanically chewed the last bite of apple, feeling a slight throbbing in his temples.
He began to seriously consider whether the half-eaten apple Li Yuheng had eaten had been poisoned by the Americans...
Or perhaps the merchants imported a mutated variety from the nuclear-contaminated area of Japan...
Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why Li Yuheng's symptoms are so unusual and severe at this moment.
He even started recalling the source information of the supermarket where he bought the apples.
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