"You're talking nonsense. I don't understand."
Zhou Yun ignored Tang Zhi Chu and played dumb.
Tang Zhi Chu didn't look at her. He simply held out his hand.
"What?"
"Didn't you ask me to take your picture? Give me your phone."
Zhou Yun clearly knew how to take photos. She deliberately chose a spot where sunlight and shade mingled.
In the frame, the girl in the white jacket smiled toward the camera, then turned slightly to show off her pert backside.
Tang Zhi Chu froze for a moment, then tapped the shutter.
Zhou Yun was on the slender side, but she had a small frame and some meat on her bones, all of it toned. You could tell just by looking at her legs.
On the way up, Tang Zhi Chu had planned to pretend he was exhausted.
In his view, you couldn't go head-to-head with a strong-willed girl like her. Acting weak might make her back down.
I'm practically dead on my feet. Even if you're still mad, surely you can let off some steam now?
But Tang Zhi Chu had overestimated his stamina—or underestimated Zhou Yun. She was genuinely in great shape, and he was genuinely exhausted.
At one point, climbing the slope, he couldn't even speak. All he could do was gasp for air.
"How is it? Does it look good?" Zhou Yun asked.
Tang Zhi Chu was still a little out of breath. "Y-you can see for yourself."
"No way. Of course I'll think I look good. I need you to judge it objectively."
Tang Zhi Chu handed her the phone. "It looks good."
"Really?"
"There are just a few strands of hair stuck to your forehead."
Zhou Yun had been about to take the phone, but pulled her hand back. "No, let's take another."
After saying that, she took a mirror out of the little bag she'd left on the chair, touched up her makeup, then hurried back to her spot.
In the end, it took three or four tries to get one good picture.
Tang Zhi Chu treated it as a chance to rest. The main goal today was probably just to help this young lady cool off.
But he blamed Chen Si Yang for all of this.
Without Chen Si Yang, Tang Zhi Chu didn't think he would ever have offended Zhou Yun.
After the photo session, they continued climbing.
Zhou Yun still jogged along ahead of him, light on her feet. She didn't say anything, and whenever she got too far ahead to see him, she waited.
By the time they reached the summit, it was almost four.
There were lots of pavilions up here, and the wind was strong.
As soon as they reached the top, Tang Zhi Chu collapsed onto a wooden bench in one of the pavilions, all pretense of dignity gone.
Women really can be heartless.
Tang Zhi Chu had thought that after acting so weak and getting himself into such a miserable state, Zhou Yun might soften up.
But she hadn't softened a bit. She'd just worn him out.
Zhou Yun bought two bottles of water from a little shop nearby. Seeing Tang Zhi Chu looking like he was about to keel over, she sighed and thought, Fine. I'll let you off the hook.
"See? Wasn't I right? You should really start exercising more." Zhou Yun set a bottle down in front of him.
Tang Zhi Chu sat up and leaned against one of the pavilion's pillars. He didn't feel like talking, so he just took several long gulps of water.
"I was going to take you cycling, too. There's a beautiful bike path here that winds through the woods. Hiking was just the warm-up."
Tang Zhi Chu glared at her. "You—"
Zhou Yun grinned, then finally let out a long breath.
"Relax. Do I look like some cruel person? You should've said you were tired. We could've driven up the mountain. It's not like there's no road."
Tang Zhi Chu said, "I—"
"Hahahaha!"
Zhou Yun sat down on the wooden bench beside him, imitating his posture as she leaned against the same pillar. She thought she'd been pretty kind, at least. She hadn't resorted to any tricks to deal with Tang Zhi Chu.
"Hey, what did you mean by asking me to read that book?" Zhou Yun asked.
Tang Zhi Chu had recovered a little by then. "So you didn't read it at all?"
"I did. I just couldn't get into it. Zhi Ji? Were you calling me a little schemer? Or making fun of me?"
Tang Zhi Chu thought about it. He'd asked Zhou Yun to read the book because the first line of its preface was, "We always think we can control the little world we inhabit, instead of facing ourselves."
He'd wanted to say that no matter what your goal was, if you did your best, someone who liked you would eventually notice. Trying to control or manipulate others only wore you down.
But Tang Zhi Chu didn't think he was qualified to say that.
"No. I just mentioned it offhand."
"Yeah, right."
Zhou Yun fell silent, picking up her phone to start writing a post.
Tang Zhi Chu looked into the distance. From the mountaintop, the sprawling city stretched farther than he could see. The city of steel and concrete weighed on him with its sheer scale.
How many people lived in this city?
Tang Zhi Chu decided that whatever Zhou Yun's motives were, they didn't matter that much.
It was like the city itself. There were so many people—how many of them could climb a mountain at this time of day?
From Zhou Yun's stamina, he could tell she wasn't the type to blindly chase shortcuts.
And wasn't he the same? How could you build a business without a few tricks?
If you trudged forward by the book, how long would it take to achieve what people called success?
You couldn't be the only one allowed to take shortcuts. That would be awfully arrogant.
Zhou Yun was like that. So was he. And wasn't Chen Si Yang the same?
"Quick, like my post on DY!" Zhou Yun suddenly said.
She'd spent ages putting it together, adding music to the photos she'd taken along the way before posting it on DY.
Tang Zhi Chu took out his phone. "What's your DY username?"
"X!"
"X?"
"Yeah, it's just a name. What's there to be confused about?"
Tang Zhi Chu found Zhou Yun's DY account and casually browsed through her posts. "Whoa. No kidding."
Zhou Yun blushed. "What do you mean, 'whoa'? Never seen a pretty girl before?"
She had dozens of posts. More than half were the kind of pictures people took at the gym, showing off her legs and curves, as well as her clearly defined abs.
She had plenty of followers, too—more than two hundred thousand.
Tang Zhi Chu liked her new post and thought, No wonder she stopped updating Weibo. She moved to DY instead.
"I'm not too bad, am I?" Zhou Yun asked again.
"Not bad at all. You're way better than those people who go to the gym just to take pictures and check in. At least the gym's actually yours."
Zhou Yun rolled her eyes. She was about to say something about the gym when she suddenly frowned.
"Your DY account is called Little Tang Who Can't Sing?"
"Yeah."
Zhou Yun's eyes widened. "Nine hundred thousand followers? And no posts? Did you buy the account?"
This was the first time Tang Zhi Chu had properly looked at his own account.
That was the greatest treasure the original owner had left him. Not the account with nine hundred thousand followers, but the fact that he'd earned them through real talent.
He'd built his following to over nine hundred thousand by singing.
"Just assume I bought it."
Zhou Yun suddenly got annoyed again. As if she'd believe he'd bought it! She worked herself to the bone at the gym, then took pretty pictures, and after six months had only managed to get two hundred thousand followers. Meanwhile, this guy had over nine hundred thousand without posting a single thing.
But Zhou Yun felt she'd uncovered Tang Zhi Chu's secret.
He really wasn't just a restaurant owner.
Before you continue