Zhuyin Temple is located on an open platform halfway up the mountain. The ancient temple is quiet and peaceful, with faint Buddhist chants.
The tour guide took the elderly people to visit the temple and explained the ancient legends and mottled inscriptions.
Ye Qingliu was not very interested in the temple itself. He was more concerned with the ancient pines in front of the temple, which had strange shapes and whose ages were unknown.
He stood under the most vigorous ancient pine tree, slightly tilted his head, and through the lenses, his gray-blue eyes focused on observing the deep lines on the bark, the twisted and coiled branches, and the subtle changes in the gloss of the needles in the sunlight.
Sun Guixiang and several other old ladies devoutly burned incense in the temple and surrounded the tour guide to listen to folk stories that were difficult to distinguish between true and false.
When she came out of the main hall and habitually looked for her child, she found that he was being "entangled" by several old sisters.
"Little boy, come here, help auntie look at this!" The fat aunt was holding a mobile phone, and on the screen was a photo of her with a bright smile on her face.
"Look at this background, isn't it a little dark? How can I adjust the lighting to look good?"
"And this," another aunt wearing glasses came over and pointed at a bunch of complicated icons on her phone screen.
"My daughter installed some photo editing software for me. How do I use it? I just want to highlight the people in this photo..."
"Yes, yes, kid, you understand cameras, so you definitely understand cell phones too!"
Several old ladies surrounded Ye Qingliu, talking in a flurry with eager eyes.
They may not really expect to learn any complicated operations, but it is more of a clumsy show of goodwill with a sense of closeness and dependence - they want to share good things with this good-looking and capable child.
Ye Qingliu was surrounded, his body visibly stiff. He frowned slightly, his silver-rimmed glasses reflecting a cold light.
A barely perceptible trace of irritation flashed across his gray-blue eyes, like a stone thrown into a calm lake.
He didn't reach out to take the phone that was handed to him. Instead, his eyes quickly scanned the screen, his lips moving slightly as he uttered a few extremely concise, precise, yet professionally worded words:
"Adjust the EV value, increase it by 0.3 to 0.7."
“Use local brightening tools to avoid global overexposure.”
"This software has redundant operating logic and is recommended for uninstallation."
His voice was cold and his speech was steady. Every word was clear, yet it sounded like a string of cold code.
The old ladies were bewildered. "Hey? What...what's EV value?"
"Partial...partial what?"
"Uninstall...uninstall? My daughter just installed it for me!"
The scene was awkward and silent for a moment. The old ladies held up their phones and looked at each other in bewilderment.
Just then, Sun Guixiang squeezed in like a savior.
There was a smile in her cloudy eyes. She first smiled at her child in a soothing manner, then naturally took the phone from the fat aunt. Her movements were clumsy, but she was extremely patient.
"His aunt, don't be anxious! Those words the child said are too profound! Come, grandma will teach you a simple one!"
"Look, click here...yes, that's right, that sun-shaped icon. Swipe it towards the brighter side...oh, right! Isn't it brighter now? How beautiful!"
As she operated, she explained in the simplest and most straightforward words.
She took another aunt's phone and said, "Well, let's use the built-in... the 'Edit' function. Yes, click on it, select 'Light', and turn it up a bit. See, you feel more refreshed, don't you? We don't need anything fancy. Just do what's enough for you!"
With Sun Guixiang's slow explanation with a strong rural accent and her clumsy but effective operation, the photos on the old ladies' mobile phones really became "brighter" and more beautiful.
Smiles returned to their faces, and their attention was immediately diverted.
"Sister Sun still understands us!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Simple! Just enough!"
"Thank you, Sister Sun!"
The fat aunt turned around and smiled at Ye Qingliu, "The kid is really amazing! It's just that the words he used are too profound! Haha!"
The crowd dispersed under Sun Guixiang's "technical guidance".
Ye Qingliu stood there, watching Granny Sun surrounded by several old ladies, patiently repeating over and over again those operating steps that seemed extremely inefficient to him. There was no impatience on her face, only a gentle smile.
His tense body relaxed and his furrowed brows unfurled.
He turned his gaze back to the silent ancient pine tree, as if the little social crisis had never happened.
Only this time, when his gaze lingered on the gnarled branches of the ancient pine tree, there seemed to be an imperceptible softness in his gaze than before.
Sun Guixiang finally finished her "instructions" and the old ladies went to take pictures of other scenery with satisfaction.
She then walked back to Ye Qingliu, with sweat on her forehead but a smile on her face.
"Tired?" She looked at Ye Qingliu, a knowing smile in her cloudy eyes. "They just miss you and want to talk to you more, but they don't know what to say, so they just fiddle with their phones."
She paused, then lowered her voice with a hint of cunning, "Grandma knows that we children don't speak the same words to them."
Ye Qingliu turned his head, and his gray-blue eyes fell quietly on Sun Guixiang's face covered with sweat and smile through the lenses.
He didn't say anything, just nodded very slightly, almost imperceptibly.
The sunlight filtered through the branches of the ancient pine trees, casting mottled shadows on his cold, pale profile.
Lunch was arranged at a farm-style restaurant in the scenic area. The hall was packed with more than a dozen large round tables, the atmosphere was bustling with people and the clinking of dishes.
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