The two followed Ren Baiping's route, passing a lake with many birds, such as swans, mandarin ducks, mallards, and geese...
Among a flock of white swans, a pair of black swans stood out, and Cheng Qicai raised her camera to take pictures.
She took several photos, but wasn't very satisfied with the composition.
Ren Baiping noticed her frowning as she looked at the camera, so he leaned closer and pointed to a willow tree in the distance, saying, "Where? Use the willow branches as the foreground."
Cheng Qicai went to the location he suggested and took a picture; the result was quite good.
"How is it?" Ren Baiping asked.
Cheng Qicai handed the camera to him, saying, "It's fine."
"There are also many black swans in our school's lake. If you like, you can come and see our school next time."
Cheng Qicai was taken aback by his sudden invitation. After a moment, she reacted and nodded, saying, "Okay!"
As they had expected, the number of people in the park increased significantly.
Thanks to Ren Baiping's planning, the two perfectly missed the peak hours of the crowds.
Around 1 or 2 a.m., the two left the zoo.
After walking around for so long, the two of them were getting a little hungry.
"What would you like to eat?" Ren Baiping asked her.
The two walked along the street outside, where a long row of restaurants dazzled them.
"I don't know, is there anything you want to eat?" Cheng Qicai asked, looking at the shops.
"Do you want to eat sushi?" Ren Baiping asked, looking at a sushi restaurant in the distance.
Hearing the word "sushi" immediately brought back unpleasant memories for Cheng Qi.
She secretly grinned. "You want to eat sushi?"
"No, it's just that all around us are stir-fries and hot pot restaurants, and this sushi restaurant is the only one with a quiet and comfortable environment. I thought it might not be appropriate to eat something with a strong smell since it's our first time dining together."
Hearing Ren Baiping's explanation, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he didn't really want to eat sushi. "It's okay, there's no need to be so particular. How about we go eat hot pot?"
"Okay." Ren Baiping nodded.
"By the way, do you eat spicy food? What kind of spice do you usually order?" Cheng Qicai asked, holding up the menu.
"I eat spicy food, so when I go out with friends I order medium spicy, but it depends on what level of spiciness you prefer, I can handle it."
Hearing Ren Baiping say that he eats spicy food, Cheng Qicai's eyes lit up. "Really? Then let's order medium spicy."
The two selected their dishes and handed them to the waiter.
"You don't know, all my friends can't handle spicy food. I'm always the only one eating spicy food, and it's not very satisfying when we eat hot pot." Cheng Qicai brought up this topic immediately.
"Then next time you want to eat hot pot, we can make a date!"
"Great!" Cheng Qicai exclaimed happily.
As the two were chatting happily, a yellow dog came up to them. The waitress who was serving the food saw it and called it away, but when the waitress brought the food again, it followed them.
Cheng Qicai couldn't resist touching it after seeing its appearance.
She couldn't help but think of Golden Bean, another mixed-breed dog. She hadn't seen it in a long time and wondered if it had grown up. She thought it would look similar to this dog when it grew up.
“It’s rare to see people in the city keeping local dogs these days.” Ren Baiping reached out and patted its back.
“Yes…” Cheng Qicai agreed with him, but thinking of Huang Jindou, she smiled and said to Ren Baiping, “But a friend and I found a stray dog before. He took it home and raised it. My friend is very rich. Even the dog lives in a luxury single room.”
"Humans are worse off than dogs, right?" Ren Baiping thought in sync with her.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Cheng Qicai nodded. “I even want to live in its room.”
It's past lunchtime now, and there aren't many tables left in this restaurant, so their dishes are served very quickly.
The two put the vegetables into the pot. This place was spicy enough that she was sweating while eating.
Ren Baiping, sitting opposite him, also blushed from the spiciness.
Looking at him, Cheng Qicai asked suspiciously, "Are you really eating spicy food? Your face is so red."
"It's food. I just get flushed easily. Eating spicy food and drinking alcohol make my face turn red, and I look like a noob."
Seeing that he had no other symptoms besides his face turning red, I said, "Haha, that's right. When I saw your face was so red from the spiciness, I thought you were pretending to be able to handle spicy food."
"No, after just one day of our interaction, you've concluded that I'm an faker? That's quite an accusation! I don't seem like someone who'd be good at faking it." Ren Baiping laughed helplessly.
That's true. After getting to know him, Cheng Qicai felt that he was a really nice person.
"Just kidding! Just kidding!" She gave him a thumbs up. "After getting to know you, I can tell you're a really good person."
"It sounds like a friend rejection." Ren Baiping looked at her with a smile.
Cheng Qicai quickly waved her hand, "No, that's not what I meant."
"I was just kidding."
"Okay, then we're even." Cheng Qicai picked up a piece of beef and started eating.
"Actually, I saw your photo when Teacher Yun introduced us."
"Huh?" Cheng Qicai's curiosity was piqued by this topic. "When?"
Ren Baiping explained, "It was Teacher Yun last New Year's Day when you went to the lantern festival, and Teacher Yun sent you some photos."
Cheng Qicai remembered that her uncle's social media posts seemed to include her.
"Later, we even teased him about how good his photos were, and he said, 'You took these photos. Teacher Yun has mentioned you several times before.'"
Cheng Qicai was curious about what Yun Rucheng and the others had said. "Was it good or bad? What did he say?"
"Of course it's a compliment, saying you have a lively personality. But now it seems that Teacher Yun was underestimating you."
After they finished eating, the two left the restaurant.
Ren Baiping glanced at the message on his phone and looked at her apologetically, "I'm sorry, my junior just said there was a problem with our experiment, so I might have to go back first."
"It's okay. If you have something to do, go back first. I'll go back with you. I got up too early this morning and I'm a little tired after walking such a long way."
"Okay, let's meet again next time."
Watching Ren Baiping's disappearing figure, Cheng Qicai let out a breath.
To be honest, I enjoy my time with Ren Baiping, but I don't have any romantic feelings for him yet. It's more of a comfortable friendship.
Cheng Qicai got home early and exported the photos from her camera.
I looked at the photos Ren Baiping took of her, and they were indeed quite good, requiring little editing.
She glanced at them casually, found nothing wrong with any of them, picked out a few, and posted them on her WeChat Moments.
When she checked her phone messages later, they were all teasingly asking her: "[Who did you go out with?! /evil grin]"
Cheng Qicai frowned as she looked at the uploaded photo. When Ren Baiping took the photo of her, his figure was reflected in the glass wall behind her.
It's really impressive how these gossipy people managed to see this.
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