Chapter 36 Art Photos in the Corner
"Muntjac? What's that?"
"A creature that looks like a deer but is much smaller. However, we're not hunting them. Today, we're mainly targeting turtledoves. Their calls are easy to distinguish, and they're also stupid and slower than other birds, making them easy to catch."
"oh……"
Along the way, Zhu Yingning talked about a lot of knowledge about the mountains. She was not trying to popularize science, but just talked about whatever came to her mind. But for the first time, Xu Sirui felt that she knew quite a lot. Not the kind of knowledge that comes from reading a lot of books, but the kind that comes from having a wealth of common sense and life experiences.
As they walked, they heard the sound of birds singing. She waved her hand, signaling him to speak more quietly.
She tiptoed in the direction of the bird's chirping. Xu Sirui followed for a few steps, but he soon noticed that his AJs made a lot of noise on the ground—perhaps it was his walking posture, but he was more inclined to blame external things. Compared to Zhu Yingning's agility, he was as clumsy as a monster from Ultraman's world. After two steps, he felt embarrassed to follow any further, fearing he would get in the way, so he simply stood there and waited.
Ahead, Zhu Yingning darted a few steps diagonally across the street, then easily climbed up a nearby tree. The word "easy" is used because she literally hooked her arm onto the branch. Her agility was so remarkable that Xu Sirui, watching from the sidelines, was deeply aware of the shared ancestry of humans and monkeys.
He suddenly felt like laughing, but was afraid that laughing would ruin Zhu Yingning's plans, so he tried hard to hold it back.
But soon, he couldn't laugh anymore.
Because Zhu Yingning drew the bow again.
Although I had just witnessed her bow drawing posture and momentum once, the shock I felt when I saw it again was not diminished in the slightest due to the distance or repetition.
She squatted on a tree branch, breathing very slowly and deeply, her black pupils condensed, her eyes so focused that she looked less like a human and more like some uncivilized, pure mountain beast.
When this description popped into his mind, Xu Sirui was slightly surprised. He thought he knew what Zhu Yingning looked like. While reading "Border Town," he'd been struck by a line about the heroine, Cuicui: "Cuicui grew up in the wind and sun, her skin tanned, her eyes clear as crystal." This line could also describe Zhu Yingning. But unlike Cuicui, she wasn't as soft and gentle as the gentle waves of the river. She was harder, more rigid, and more rigid. She was like this mountain, a hard rock with tiny moss growing at its base.
Xu Sirui couldn't even see the position of the turtledove she was aiming at in the dense tree canopy.
But three seconds later, the moment she released her fingers, he was convinced that there must be a turtledove in the direction the arrow was pointing.
With a whoosh sound.
The arrow penetrated the tree canopy like a hot knife through butter and pierced the turtledove's breast.
**
When they returned to the village with the prey, the hunchbacked old man who was guarding the village entrance saw them and stingily wanted to take back the bow and arrow.
"My mother said you agreed to lend it to me for a day."
Zhu Yingning argued with him in dialect, but Xu Sirui didn't understand. However, he understood the meaning of the hunchbacked old man raising his crutch and tapping Zhu Yingning on the leg. The meaning was concise and clear - get out.
So they left.
When they got home, Liu Guifang came up to them and asked what they had caught. Zhu Yingning handed over the turtledove and snake in her hand. She looked a little disappointed and said, "Why didn't you catch a deer?"
She pursed her lips and avoided the question.
After Liu Guifang took these things to the kitchen to prepare them, Xu Sirui looked at Zhu Yingning and said, "Yes, so why don't you hunt muntjacs?"
He really wanted to see what this thing looked like.
Zhu Yingning glanced at him and sighed softly: "Wild muntjacs have been designated as protected species."
"Ah." Xu Sirui was stunned for two seconds, slightly surprised. "So you guys care about protecting animals when you hunt? I thought you didn't even care about human life. Otherwise, why would you dig a huge hole in the ground for no reason?"
Faced with his sarcastic tone, Zhu Yingning just rolled her eyes at him.
She walked to the desk to organize her homework. Xu Sirui glanced at the unopened package of express delivery that he had placed at the foot of the desk and hesitated for a moment.
It contained the study materials Zhou Tianlan had sent him. He wanted to give them to Zhu Yingning, but he didn't know how or why to ask.
Outright kindness was not at all his strong point.
Just as he was secretly struggling with this, Zhu Yingning, who was sitting at the desk, suddenly turned around, looked at him, and said hesitantly, "By the way, your hair..."
He looked back, not realizing, "What happened to my hair?"
"...So you didn't know it yourself?" She scratched her cheek, picked up a small mirror on the desk and pointed it at his face.
Her reaction made Xu Sirui's heart sink. He stiffened his body and moved closer to take a look. He saw that his originally normal bangs were now half long and half short, as if they had been gnawed by a cow.
Zhu Yingning held the mirror, looking at Xu Sirui's face which gradually turned pale. She laughed dryly and explained in a low voice, "I thought you knew it yourself, so I didn't remind you... Actually... when you ran out of the barber shop, the hairdresser had already cut off a strand of your bangs."
“…”
“…”
They looked at each other in silence.
Xu Sirui slowly straightened his stiff back, his eyes numb: "So I walked all the way with this hairstyle."
She continued to remain silent and did not dare to speak.
"Does the almanac say it's not advisable to go out today?" Too much stimulation has made him numb. Even though he knew that he was being photographed by cameras all the way with this ugly hairstyle, he only felt speechless and wanted to laugh.
This was originally just a casual complaint, and she would have just ignored it, but she actually went to check the almanac and said seriously, "No, the almanac only says that today is not a good day for marriage."
"Oh my god."
Xu Sirui stared at her, his extremely speechless mood pushed to the peak by her inexplicable behavior. He really couldn't help it, his lips moved, he looked at her, and laughed at the same time.
The two of them laughed like lunatics again.
Finally, she finally stopped, holding her stomach that hurt from laughing, and picked up the scissors on the desk: "So what do you do with your hair? Let me take care of it for you?"
"You?" Xu Sirui had just finished laughing, and stood there with his hands on his waist, panting. He couldn't help but reveal a contemptuous and condescending look.
She explained: "My skills are not professional, but I am decent enough. I cut my brother's hair."
"What does your brother's hair look like?"
"Well……"
That's a good question.
Zhu Jixiang wasn't there, and a verbal description wasn't accurate. Zhu Yingning thought for a moment, opened the cabinet under the desk, and pulled out a photo album. "This is a photo my brother took a while ago. It's pretty much like this. Take a look at it for reference."
This album surprised Xu Sirui. It turned out to be a collection of personal art photos. The style was ordinary, studio-style, not high-end. But in a family like theirs, the existence of a personal art collection itself showed how much the parents valued their children. He casually flipped through the first few pages. Zhu Jixiang in the album looked very ordinary, a reserved and dull boy. You'd forget his appearance after looking at him for two seconds. He was the kind of NPC who would be complained about for being too perfunctory if he were put into a game world. However, his hairstyle was different from the other mountain children, who all had round, shaved heads. His hair was slightly longer, and it was obvious that it had been trimmed. It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't wrong either.
"...Alright." Xu Sirui reluctantly accepted Zhu Yingning's hairdressing skills and instructed her, "Just cut it shorter according to my original hairstyle. Don't do anything improvisation."
She nodded and said honestly, "Actually, even if you let me play freely, I can't do it."
He tutted, closed the album, and was about to return it to Zhu Yingning when a thought suddenly struck him. He recalled a vague suspicion in his mind and tried to confirm it, so he asked, "What about you? Do you have any photos?"
Unexpectedly, she said, “Of course.”
"Is this also an artistic photo?"
"right."
"Where?"
She pointed to the book in his hand.
Xu Sirui was stunned: "Isn't this your brother's?"
"Take a look at the next few pages."
"Oh? Could it be a collection of the two of you?" He became interested and flipped through the last few pages as he was told. However, he still saw a solo photo of Zhu Jixiang. Just as he was about to ask her if she was lying, he saw her figure finally appear in the family photo on the last page. The size of her little finger, stuck in the corner. Due to lens distortion, it looked like a big-headed alien. "...Fuck, you call this an 'artistic photo', isn't this just a random gift from the photo studio? And what is this photo of? If you were given a flying saucer, you could drive it directly to Mars."
Zhu Yingning himself didn't seem to care. He turned around and found a piece of plastic wrap to use as a shoulder drape for him, then asked him to sit on a chair. He wiped the scissors with a tissue and shrugged, saying, "It can't be helped. Taking photos is too expensive. Our family can only afford one person. My brother is the youngest, so of course I gave it to him. Didn't my parents take photos too?"
Xu Sirui frowned and wanted to say something, but when he looked up, she had already put the sharp scissors in front of him.
"Hey, hey, hey!" He subconsciously stepped back. "I say, can you give people some psychological preparation before you do anything?"
She looked at him puzzledly: "What kind of mental preparation do I need to have for a haircut?"
"Anyway...don't suddenly point sharp objects at me, it's dangerous!"
She probably thought what he said made sense. After thinking for a moment, she said "Oh," nodded, and said, "I understand." After a five-second silence, she pointed at the scissors in her hand and asked him, "Are you ready now? I'm going to point this sharp object at you."
"?"
Xu Sirui couldn't help but laugh, "Zhu Yingning, you are really..."
When he smiled, she had already leaned in. Although she had given him advance notice this time, she had a different rhythm to her actions, starting everything quickly and abruptly. When her face came so close to his, he fell silent, his posture stiffening slightly.
Her eyes widened infinitely in front of him.
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