Chapter 33 "Excuse me, is this a couple's photo template...?"
Fang Xingu abruptly withdrew his hand, regretting his rash action. How could he have pressed his bare hand against Jing Yitong's lips like that?
The feeling of Jing Yitong's lips still lingered in his palm; that warm and soft sensation seemed to be deeply etched into his mind through his palm.
Although the lips are not a private part of a person's body, their existence is very special. In daily life, they are definitely not a part that people will easily touch. Even though Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong grew up together, he has never touched Jing Yitong's lips.
...This seems to be the first time.
Upon realizing this, Fang Xin's heart pounded, but he quickly realized that if it were between ordinary friends or brothers, covering one's mouth like this wouldn't be considered out of line. He should act calm and indifferent, instead of not knowing where to put his hands like he was now.
Fang Xingu lacked the acting skills. He felt that if he looked up, he would probably give himself away. Therefore, he didn't dare to look Jing Yitong in the eye at all. He just pointed to the bow of the ship.
Jing Yitong subconsciously looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a white-browed penguin that had jumped on at some point standing on the bow of the ship, looking around nervously.
Jing Yitong understood Fang Xingu's intention just now. He smiled and patted Fang Xingu's arm twice to indicate that he understood. However, Fang Xingu still did not dare to turn around and just nodded randomly twice.
The white-browed penguin isn't particularly brave; most of the time, it would just turn and run away when it sees humans. But today, to escape the leopard seal's attack, it took a gamble and jumped directly onto the speedboat full of humans.
But it only dared to stay at the bow of the boat and dared not go inside, because the scent of humans on the boat and the seals in the sea were both unfamiliar threats to it.
However, the people on the ship clearly had no intention of harming it; they simply focused their cameras on the adorable little creature.
The white-browed penguin lives up to its name, with a semi-circular white feather ring around its eyes that looks like white eyebrows. Its beak is orange-red, and its white belly feathers make it look round and plump. At this moment, its big yellow feet are stepping on the speedboat, looking uneasy.
Just then, a huge, dark gray head suddenly rose from the sea. The head was long and slender, oval in shape, and its arched nostrils turned into two inverted triangles when it breathed. Its eyes were large and deep black, so much so that they looked like two empty black holes rather than eyes.
The leopard seal calmly poked its head out of the water and looked at the little penguin on the bow of the boat.
The first to notice the leopard seal was naturally the already highly vigilant Gentoo penguin. Startled, it squawked wildly. With its life threatened again, it jumped into the inflatable boat without hesitation, spread its short wings, and ran to the center of the boat, completely avoiding the leopard seal's terrifying gaze.
At this moment, all eyes on the ship were focused on the penguin, and no one noticed the leopard seal on the side of the ship until Rhoda turned around as if sensing something and saw the strange head floating on the sea.
"Ha!"
Rhoda gasped in shock, his whole body jolted, and it took him a while to realize that it was the head of a leopard seal.
Rhoda swallowed hard and said to Li Wenyu with a sense of sympathy, "I misunderstood you. This really is a world that judges by appearance. Now I also want to support the little penguin."
Now that everyone knew the little penguin had come to their ship for refuge and wouldn't disembark until the leopard seal left, the group began to whisper among themselves. Li Wenyu, who hadn't yet seen the leopard seal lurking on the side of the ship, asked Rhoda, puzzled, "What do you mean?"
Luo Da pointed behind Li Wenyu. When she turned her head, she saw a terrifying leopard seal behind her. She was so frightened that she collapsed onto Liang Jiyan's shoulder, feeling like she was about to die.
This leopard seal certainly didn't have a kind appearance; it looked fierce and strange. But fortunately, it was very sensible. Realizing that it was no match for the speedboat, it quickly dived into the sea, easily twisting its long, narrow body underwater before swimming away to find new prey.
After hitching a ride on the boat for a while and confirming that the leopard seal had left, the white-browed penguin waddled to the stern of the speedboat with its large feet. It quacked twice, as if saying goodbye to everyone, before jumping into the sea and swimming towards the shore to rejoin its penguin family.
Everyone was completely charmed by the white-browed penguin. Li Wenyu couldn't help but compare the leopard seal to the penguin, shaking his head and sighing, "That leopard seal just now was so ugly it gave me a fright."
Luo Dachang also started talking: "In this world that judges by appearance, compared to it, the little penguin is simply handsome."
"Most penguins are cute!"
Fang Xingu couldn't stand it anymore and reminded them, "Can you two convey some correct values? We're still recording a program."
Rhoda exclaimed, "Oh dear, I almost forgot about that!"
Li Wenyu hurriedly clasped his hands in a fist salute to the camera: "Could you please cut out that part from earlier? Thank you!"
Fang Xingu said calmly, "If you keep cutting bits and pieces here and there like this, will your scenes even make it into the final cut?"
Li Wenyu: "...I beg you to say less."
Jing Yitong smiled and remarked, "Actually, we were quite lucky today. We encountered a minke whale in the morning, and then we saw a seal hunting a penguin in the afternoon. Finally, the penguin even jumped onto our boat."
Wang Peiyang glanced at him: "Uh, is it possible that it's just that you and Xin Gu were lucky? None of the rest of us saw the minke whale."
"...It's alright, this journey has only just begun, we'll meet again eventually. We're happy to share our good fortune with everyone."
His words drew a chorus of boos from the others: "You're just making decisions for Xin Gu like this? Does he even want that?"
Jing Yitong nudged Fang Xingu beside him and asked, "Teacher Fang, would you be willing?"
Fang Xin reluctantly complied: "I'm willing, I'm willing, okay?"
"Haha, Xin Gu, you don't sound too happy about it."
After seeing off the unexpected visitor, the white-browed penguin, the speedboat finally arrived at the shore of Moonlight Island. In order not to disturb the penguins, they chose a relatively remote place as the landing point.
It was a rough pile of stones. Fang Xin got off the boat and walked a few steps across the water and stones to the shore before entering a world of ice and snow.
It was early summer in Antarctica, and the land was still covered with a layer of snow. The advance team of explorers had already cleared a relatively safe path without any holes. All they had to do was follow the guides toward the penguin colony.
Li Wenyu strode forward, running to keep up with the main group, but everyone was wearing the landing boots that had been distributed on the ship, which made movement difficult. Li Wenyu hadn't run two steps before he stumbled and fell to his knees on the snow.
"ah!"
Li Wenyu screamed. Fang Xingu, who was walking in front, turned around and saw her fall to the ground on all fours, as if she was about to kowtow to him. Fang Xingu quickly moved two steps to the side: "What are you doing? You're giving me such a big bow before the New Year?"
Li Wenyu was dressed warmly, and although she wasn't hurt from the fall, she was still unable to move and couldn't stand up. She remained crawling on the snow, and was furious with Fang Xingu: "Why don't you come and help me up!"
Fang Xingu walked over with amusement. Just then, Jing Yitong, who was walking behind Li Wenyu, saw that she had fallen and came over to help. They each grabbed one of Li Wenyu's arms and lifted her up from the ground.
Li Wenyu felt like her arms were about to be torn off by the two of them. She rubbed her arms and looked at them resentfully: "Can't you be a little gentler? Don't you two know what it means to treat a woman with tenderness?"
Fang Xingu asked her very seriously, "...Who is 'Xiang' and who is 'Yu'?"
Li Wenyu choked up. She turned to Jing Yitong for help, but seeing Jing Yitong smiling but not speaking up for her at all, she realized that the two of them were on the same side. She gritted her teeth in anger: "You're 'Xiang' and you're 'Yu,' fine, humph!"
After saying that, she took off running again. Jing Yitong watched her run like a penguin and called out from behind, "Slow down!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Wenyu stumbled, her legs tangling together as if in a fight, and she fell to the snow with a thud. Jing Yitong and Fang Xingu couldn't hold back their laughter and started laughing behind her.
This time, Li Wenyu was completely humiliated. She didn't even dare to utter a sound for help and just pretended to be dead, lying in the snow.
Several penguins passing by stopped when they saw her lying on the ground, tilted their heads to examine this strange human, and quacked incessantly.
Jing Yitong and Fang Xingu suppressed their laughter and tried to pull her up again, but this time Li Wenyu was quite uncooperative. She lowered her center of gravity, nestled on the ground, and refused to move, asking with a mournful face, "Are these penguins laughing at me?"
The penguins let out a mocking cry: "Quack quack quack!"
Li Wenyu, who had been shoved so close to the penguins' faces, suddenly looked up and saw the penguins pounce on the ground and slide away on their round bellies in the snow.
Li Wenyu's pride was hurt: "These penguins are going too far!"
"You still want to cyberbully Tencent?" Fang Xingu said, hands on his hips. "Who told you not to be more composed? Get up now."
Li Wenyu simply rolled over and lay sprawled on the snow: "I just want to fall down wherever I want."
Jing Yitong looked at her and the cameraman next to her and said, "I suggest you ask the post-production team to cut this part out. This part is indeed a bit embarrassing."
"...Brother Jing, why are you even making fun of me!"
Taking advantage of Li Wenyu's wailing, Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong finally managed to lift her up together. Fang Xingu took out a pair of hiking poles from his bag and handed them to her: "Here, walk carefully."
This time, Li Wenyu finally behaved himself and walked slowly with his hiking stick.
Although Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong had fallen behind the group while helping Li Wenyu, the two were young and strong, and soon overtook the main group, climbing over the snow-covered hill first and arriving at the penguin's territory.
Large flocks of penguins live here, and further away, seals lazily lie on the ground. On land, their mobility is not as good as that of penguins, so they can only pupate on the ground.
At this moment, the penguins completely ignored the seal, playing and frolicking on the shore, chasing each other with unsteady steps, and occasionally diving into the sea to hunt for food, but some of them were also arguing and fighting with each other in a disharmonious manner.
On the rock face, a Gentoo penguin was quacking loudly at a Chinstrap penguin, but the Chinstrap penguin turned its back and ignored it completely. Frustrated, the Gentoo penguin turned around and jumped off the rock face, plunging into the sea.
Fang Xingu muttered, "How angry must he be to jump into the sea?"
Jing Yitong whispered to him, "Sometimes you're just like that chinstrap penguin, you can be really annoying."
Fang Xingu looked at him, puzzled: "When did I make you angry... about the pineapple last time? Didn't you say you weren't angry?"
Jing Yitong retorted confidently, "You even said back then that you could tell I was rising."
Fang Xin was speechless for a while: "Wow, you're more like that chinstrap penguin. I'm getting angry at you now."
Jing Yitong laughed and grabbed him: "It's okay for me to make you angry, but you can't jump into the sea like the white-browed penguin."
Fang Xin pulled his arm back to keep his distance from him.
Wang Peiyang followed behind them. Seeing their state, he thought they had started arguing again, so he quickly asked tentatively, "What are you doing?"
Jing Yitong: "When I saw the penguins arguing and jumping into the sea, Teacher Fang seemed to be annoyed by me. I was advising him not to imitate them and jump into the sea."
Fang Xingu kept a straight face and didn't bother to pay attention to this person who just said whatever came to mind in his dream.
Wang Peiyang immediately took on the role of peace ambassador: "Alright, you two teachers, stop arguing. Let me take a group photo for you."
“Okay,” Jing Yitong tugged at Fang Xin’s arm, “How do we film it?”
Wang Peiyang stood there for a moment, pondering, and then quickly began to give instructions: "Jing-ge, raise your left forearm to waist level, palm flat. Xin-gu-ge, raise your right forearm and do the same. Move your body a little to the left... Yes, yes, yes, lean your body a little more towards the center... Yes, that's it!"
Fang Xin was half-forced to pose with Jing Yitong in a strange way. They hadn't figured out what they were filming yet. The pose looked like they were touching something, but there was clearly nothing in their hands.
Wang Peiyang, holding up the camera, said, "Don't look so stiff, smile... OK, perfect!"
A fresh photo was taken, and the two were so curious about what Wang Peiyang had photographed that they went over to take a look and discovered that he had taken a photo of them "touching" the penguin by taking advantage of spatial illusion.
The chinstrap penguin in the photo was originally standing not far behind them, but because Wang Peiyang chose such a good angle, the visual illusion made the chinstrap penguin in the photo look as if it were in their palm.
Wang Peiyang observed their expressions and cautiously asked, "How is it? Are you satisfied?"
Jing Yitong nodded: "Great job, Xiao Pei, you shot it very well."
Fang Xin also said, "Our little Pei has the potential to become a great photographer."
Wang Peiyang was embarrassed by the praise from the two: "No, no, it's just that Brother Jing and Brother Xin Gu look good no matter how they are photographed."
On this Antarctic continent, it is an unwritten rule that people should not touch penguins. Even though there are no secular laws to bind them, everyone still tacitly abides by this unwritten rule.
So Wang Peiyang's incredibly realistic photo immediately fooled many people. The others who followed behind looked at the photo in shock and exclaimed, "How come you two are touching each other?!"
Jing Yitong explained the whole story, and the others, finally knowing the truth, also clamored for Wang Peiyang to help them take photos of spatial distortion.
So Jing Yitong and Fang Xingu were left alone outside the crowd. Jing Yitong thought about how Fang Xingu had praised Wang Peiyang's photography skills so generously, but he always found fault with the photos Wang Peiyang took. He felt a little resentful and said sourly, "You've never praised my photography skills."
Fang Xingu immediately understood Jing Yitong's implied meaning. He raised his eyelids to look at Jing Yitong: "What are you comparing with Xiao Pei for?"
"I can't compare to him?"
Fang Xingu patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "Xiao Pei just has the potential, but our Teacher Jing is already at the level of a great photographer."
Fang Xin's actions immediately pleased Jing Yitong, who couldn't suppress the smile on his face.
The group of people laughed and joked around, taking many photos. The two-hour login period ended quickly.
They returned to the Affogato by speedboat, and after a quick rinse and disinfection, the crew had dinner together.
After lunch, Yan Tu began announcing tomorrow's mission: "Tomorrow afternoon we will arrive near Wenk Island, where there is a Lockray Harbor. We can also go ashore to visit the Bransfield Museum and Penguin Post Office on Goodyear Island. There are a large number of Gentoo penguins and blue-eyed cormorants living there, making it an excellent spot for observation. So from tomorrow afternoon to evening, the Affogato will stay in that area. Tomorrow, your mission is to work at the Penguin Post Office for a day in exchange for supplies."
After a day of rowing and climbing, Rhoda was exhausted. He sat lazily on a stool and said, "Supplies? What supplies do we need? There's food and drink on this ship, all free. Even if we go on strike, what can you do to us?"
Yan Tu smiled sinisterly: "Who said these were supplies for you? We're going to the research station later; those are supplies prepared for researchers. If you dare to slack off... hehe."
Upon hearing this, Luo Da immediately sat up straight: "That's right, as a professional artist, we will definitely cooperate well and work hard."
Penguin Post Office is the southernmost post office on Earth and the only post office open to the public on the Antarctic continent. Every year from November to February, tens of thousands of tourists send letters here with Antarctic postmarks.
Upon hearing this, Jing Yitong asked, "What would you do working at the post office? Would you be handling mail?"
Yan Tu: "This is just one of them. We also need to maintain the houses and test for wild animals and plants. We will split into three groups to carry out the activities."
After getting a general idea of the main content of tomorrow's filming, the group prepared to go back to their rooms to rest.
Fang Xingu was quite tired at this point, but before he left, Wang Peiyang stopped him again: "Brother Xingu, I'm thinking of posting a Weibo tonight, and there might be a photo of you in it. Do you mind?"
They took many photos on the speedboat and on Moonlight Island today. Fang Xingu nodded in agreement without much thought: "It's okay, go ahead and post them."
"Okay! Thank you, brother."
After saying goodbye to the production crew, Fang Xin returned to his room, took a shower, and then collapsed onto his soft bed, rolling around in bed. He was indeed exhausted after a busy day, and after yawning, he turned off the lights and went to sleep.
In the darkness, Fang Xingu, who should have been asleep, suddenly became active, and a question came to mind.
No, Wang Peiyang just said he was going to post his photo. Which photo of him was he going to post?
Fang Xingu suddenly opened his eyes, quickly grabbed his phone and opened Wang Peiyang's Weibo, and was instantly numb.
Wang Peiyang posted a nine-grid photo, five of which were taken that afternoon on Moonlight Island, showing him touching penguins using spatial illusion. The other four photos were solo shots, but he and Jing Yitong were the only ones in a couple photo, which Wang Peiyang thoughtfully placed right in the center of the nine-grid.
Fang Xin was silent for a moment, then mustered his courage and opened the comments section. The first comment made his eyes go black—
"If you don't understand, just ask. Is the one in the middle a couple's photo template? [winking emoji]"
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Author's note: Who dares to click on the sub-comment of this post? [pats head]
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