Dazzling

"Holy shit, this pose is perfect."

"Yes, yes, yes—lower your eyes."

"Don't move! Don't move a muscle! That's exactly the feeling!"

Yu Lin's brows were tightly furrowed, and his photo-taking movements were exaggerated enough to make him look incredibly professional.

He flipped through the results in his gallery, a smile that said "as expected of me" curling at his lips.

He felt that coming on this variety show had truly been the right choice. How had he never known he had such a talent for photography before?

Shu Menglan, Liang Meichen, and the others took some photos as well. As they shot, they kept marveling at how beautiful the boy looked through the lens. When he smiled, it was even more overwhelming, enough to make people blush and their hearts race.

Afterward, Yu Lin dragged them all over to look at his photos. They thought they were about to see some blockbuster shots, but...

Among the nearly hundred photos in the gallery, either the subject was blurry or the angle was bizarre. The one shared characteristic was that every shot was all scenery, while Li Yu was crammed into some corner of the photo, tiny and pitiful.

"What an absolutely exhilarating photo shoot!"

After looking through them, Shu Menglan sighed. Then she gave Yu Lin a meaningful look and helplessly shook her head.

"If Little Yu weren't so good-looking, these photos wouldn't have turned out too badly. If it were me, I'd be calling the police." Xiang Zhinan chimed in from the side.

"What? They're obviously so pretty! Li Yu, look at them! They're talking about me!"

Yu Lin was a little embarrassed as he tugged on Li Yu's sleeve.

Li Yu flashed his signature smile and said, "They turned out great, but you're not allowed to take pictures again next time, okay?"

[My boyfriend takes pictures of me like this too. I'm used to it.]

[Little Yu's wife is so gorgeous, I'm licking the screen like crazy!!! prprprpr]

[Girls taking photos: I put so much effort into my makeup today, I have to show it off. Guys taking photos: It's all scenery. I didn't come all this way for nothing.]

[Hahahaha, Yu Lin, go ahead and take them. One shot, one silence.]

[I really want to see the photos everyone else took, but I guess we won't get them until the full episode.]

"Hey! Isn't Zhou Yanqing a model? His proportions are the best. No matter what, I won't mess this one up!"

Yu Lin looked at Zhou Yanqing, his eyes gleaming with the determination to prove himself.

Zhou Yanqing was a little reluctant. His lips moved, and as though resigning himself to his fate, he casually picked a tree and went to stand by it.

Unlike the male guests, the female guests preferred taking pictures with all sorts of flowers.

Many plants had been planted along both banks of the Canglang River. Liang Meichen chose a crape myrtle for reasons of her own.

The most famous role she had played was the female lead in a Republican-era film. That character's favorite plant had been the crape myrtle by the entrance to the courtyard.

Shu Menglan kept praising Liang Meichen from the side, saying she was beautiful and had taken great care of herself, making Liang Meichen quite happy. After all, being complimented by another woman really did feel happier than anything else.

Chi Yan was the last to be photographed. Logically speaking, with Chi Yan's figure and looks, he should have looked good no matter how he was shot.

But after taking a few pictures, Li Yu still felt that something was off.

Later, he understood why. In the photos, Chi Yan silently stared at the camera without the slightest smile on his face.

"Chi-ge, give us a smile."

Once Li Yu said it, everyone else echoed him.

Chi Yan said nothing. He pressed his lips together and gave Li Yu a look.

Hm?

Why was Chi Yan looking at him?

After thinking it over briefly, Li Yu suddenly understood. Chi Yan was embarrassed and wanted Li Yu to join him!

"How about this, Chi-ge? Let's take a photo together. Sister Menglan can take it for us." Li Yu slipped his phone into his pocket and draped an arm around Chi Yan's shoulders.

"Okay! Chi-ge, smile a little. Li Yu, get closer. Three, two, one..."

Li Yu posed for the camera and said "cheese," while Chi Yan turned his head to look at Li Yu. The corners of his lips lifted slightly, and his heart was filled with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

"Cheese!"

As Shu Menglan's words fell, a photo that would later be hailed as a god-tier image by Chi-Yu CP fans was born.

"Oh, Chi Yan isn't looking at the camera in this one... but it's fine. It feels really warm."

As Shu Menglan opened the photo, the inexplicable thought that the two of them suited each other perfectly arose in her heart.

Wait! Stop! Her habit of shipping people at random was acting up again!

But... just a little shipping in her heart probably wouldn't hurt, right...

After that, the guests formed groups of two or three and took many more pictures. They could say they spent the whole afternoon having fun.

That evening, the guests ate and strolled along the ancient town's snack street, chatting about everything under the sun in a harmonious atmosphere.

"Hey, if this part gets edited into the full episode, I bet they'll definitely add some soothing folk music in post-production."

Xiang Zhinan held a warm piece of osmanthus cake in his hand. After speaking, he took a bite, and it was so fragrant he could hardly resist.

"Teacher Xiang really has experience." Shu Menglan said with a grin.

"This is so rare. I haven't seen such a beautiful sunset in a long time."

Liang Meichen looked up. Rose-red clouds dyed half the sky, their edges tinged with tipsy purple. Even the outlines of the distant mountains had been clearly traced by the orange glow. It was a beauty beyond description.

"I suddenly remembered a popular comment I saw online before. The rough meaning was that when we photograph the moon or a sunset, the image from our phones is never as beautiful as what we see with our own eyes. But we don't think the sky is ugly—we think the camera simply can't capture its beauty.

"And most of us are caught between being ourselves and feeling that we aren't perfect enough. When others say bad things about us, we start to think we're bad too. But if we look at ourselves the same way, we'll realize that we ourselves are just as dazzling as the evening glow." Li Yu said.

Li Yu had a beautiful voice. Listening to him speak was like a frozen river thawing in spring, inexplicably bringing warmth to the depths of one's heart.

"That's true. When I first started acting, everyone kept saying I had no talent, and it made me doubt myself too... But now I've acted in so many dramas. I can already tell my past self that she did great!"

As Shu Menglan spoke, tears faintly welled up in her eyes. But since the cameras were in front of her, she held the feeling back.

Liang Meichen sensitively noticed Shu Menglan's emotions and naturally leaned over to pat her shoulder.

"That's right! We're all as dazzling as the evening glow! The mood is so good—let me sing everyone a song!"

Yu Lin ran straight to the front of the group. He cleared his throat and walked backward as he faced everyone.

"Soft and gentle longing, in the season of secret love, do you still remember meeting you by the lake~"

The others cheered up as well and joined him in singing.

"Sweet and tender ambiguity, in the season of passionate love, do you still remember how incredibly sweet your smile was..."

Evening glow, young men, singing.

Such a scene was so beautiful.

Xie Jingming also stared at the sky, repeatedly chewing over what Li Yu had said just now.

Could someone like me, someone who would stop at nothing for profit, also... be dazzling?

Xie Jingming thought that today was the first time since escaping that hellish place that he had so vividly felt relaxed and happy.

Li Yu was truly a very good person.

There were no activities that night. They needed to film additional individual interviews for each guest, so the livestream was paused, and the guests were arranged to rest at a local guesthouse.

However, the production team had only rented four rooms. After some discussion, Liang Meichen and Shu Menglan shared one room, Xie Jingming and Xiang Zhinan shared another, and Zhou Yanqing and Yu Lin shared the third.

Among everyone present, only Li Yu and Chi Yan got along well, so they were naturally assigned to the same room.

Perhaps the only one who protested was Yu Lin. He kept yelling that he wanted to stay with Li Yu, but in the end, he obediently gave in.

Since he still had to do an individual interview later, Li Yu did not wash up. He simply lay on the bed scrolling through his phone.

When he saw Chi Yan enter, Li Yu immediately sprang up from the bed. "Chi-ge, I asked the staff to send me all the photos we took this afternoon. Do you want to look at them?"

Chi Yan's Adam's apple bobbed. He sat down at the edge of the bed as well, propping himself up with one hand behind him.

From behind, that posture made it look like he had Li Yu in his arms.

"Hey, I just realized that after knowing each other for so long, we don't even have a single photo together... I never thought our first photo together would be taken on this show. I have to save it..."

Li Yu saved the photo, and Chi Yan said, "Send that photo to me too."

"Oh, okay."

Li Yu nodded.

Chi Yan silently stared at the photo, thinking, It would be nice if it could have a red background.

Suddenly, Li Yu's phone began to vibrate. Someone was calling him.

He stared at the caller ID that popped up on the screen and frowned.

It was Shen Zhonglou.

What did this person want now?

"Chi-ge, I'll step outside to take this call first..."

As Li Yu spoke, he started toward the door.

Chi Yan had naturally seen the caller's name on the screen too. His eyes turned cold as he said, "It's fine. Take it here. There are staff outside."