After posting on Douyin, Liang Jiajia couldn't take her eyes off the Douyin post she just published, watching it repeatedly.
However, perhaps because it was early morning, the number of likes did not skyrocket, but it was still better than the random posts she had published these past few days, quickly reaching a few hundred likes.
When Xiao Qi finished training, she saw that her student was still playing with her phone, and felt speechless.
It was only then that Liang Jiajia realized how fast time had passed. She had come to swim, and had intended to also post about herself swimming on Moments.
Seeing that the teacher was doing stretches, she said, "Teacher, I'm going to go swim for a bit. Could you help me take some photos? Just get me in the shots. I've already taken photos of the surrounding scenery."
Since she was posting on Moments, Liang Jiajia was quite a narcissistic girl - she definitely had to post photos of herself, otherwise she would have bought the new swimsuit for nothing.
Xiao Qi wanted to say that her own photography skills might not turn out that great, but then she remembered she seemed to have somehow acquired photography skills, and wondered if she would be able to use them.
Without waiting for a reply, Liang Jiajia pushed her phone into Xiao Qi's hands, and hurriedly prepared to jump into the water.
Xiao Qi shook her head. Although she herself was only 17, compared to Liang Jiajia she felt like a little old man.
Without stopping her leg stretches, she looked at the phone which was already switched to camera mode. She took one photo, but didn't have much feeling about it. Noticing there was a "portrait mode" option, she toggled to that, and the clarity of the person improved at once.
Using portrait mode, she took several photos with the phone.
One photo captured her mid-jump into the water, water splashing around her.
One photo was of her swimming, lifting her arm up and sweeping it through the water with eyes closed, eyebrows arched, looking very cute.
There was also a photo of her standing in the water waving to Xiao Qi.
Xiao Qi deleted the first one, leaving these three photos.
By the time Liang Jiajia swam back, Xiao Qi had finished her stretches too and said goodbye to Coach Wu.
However, when helping Liang Jiajia take photos just now, she had also taken one photo of the coach.
The coach was standing at the poolside in the photo, clapping her hands and calling a team member over - it felt like a special, focused and expectant moment, full of energy.
Wu Peirong urged her to go home and rest properly. This student was extremely self-disciplined in training, that Wu didn't need to worry at all.
She had originally wanted to call over some of the swimming team's best prospect trainees to train together with Xiao Qi, to help Xiao Qi get a feel for competition swimming too, since competition and normal training swimming were still quite different after all.
But when she asked her swimming team members to come compete with a new girl recruit, they were not interested at all, feeling it was a waste of time. Although Wu Peirong was a long-time team member, she also couldn't force them, so today it was still Xiao Qi training alone.
Not only that, they even felt that Wu Peirong was going crazy about wanting to win recently - she had actually signed up a newbie for a competition, forcibly using up a spot on the team's quota.
Xiao Qi was oblivious to all this, she was just focused wholeheartedly on training for now.
Without expecting the teacher's photography to be fantastic, Liang Jiajia was exhausted after a morning's swim, so she first went to shower and change.
After their separate showers, Xiao Qi weighed herself again - 100 pounds, she had lost a bit more weight.
Whereas when Liang Jiajia saw the number on the weighing scale after Wu's weigh-in - she was shocked to see a three-digit number. "Teacher, you don't look it but you're actually so fat?!"
Xiao Qi: ......
Just what kind of education were kids receiving nowadays? 100 pounds couldn't be considered fat at all!
"Teacher, let's go eat together. I know a restaurant with really delicious food. I already told my mum that after our swim today we'd go eat together," said Liang Jiajia.
Xiao Qi thought that since she had already accepted Liang Jiajia's gift, she should treat her to a meal as well.
Liang Jiajia brought Xiao Qi to a restaurant located in a nearby estate. Xiao Qi walked past it frequently but never knew it was an eatery.
Named "Ke Wei Art Space", she had assumed it was some kind of art gallery or museum.
She didn't expect it to be an eatery.
Following Liang Jiajia in, Liang Jiajia seemed quite familiar with the place.
At the entrance was a wall photograph with ancient motifs winding across it. Walking in, there was a somewhat Japanese and somewhat Chinese vibe. The lighting wasn't bright. There was even a little bridge over a stream inside the house! Wearing traditional costumes, the servers welcomed them to a private room. The décor inside the private dining room was also ancient and unusual, filled with many antiquities. There was a table that looked like it was made from a door panel from their rural family home.
In the corner, there was even a stone mill - a real stone mill. Her grandmother had one just like it in her backyard for grinding beancurd.
There were also some old cabinets and other things.
Xiao Qi felt like she was seeing many somewhat familiar items that were common in rural villages. But under this lighting, decorated with flowers and paintings, they suddenly took on an air of sophistication.
The menu was just a small book. There were very few dishes, only eight categories of sets.
Xiao Qi flipped through it - not cheap at all. The most affordable was a 300 yuan set, meant for one person.
She wasn't anxious about being able to afford it. She would take this as a new eye-opening food adventure. 300 yuan for one person, and that was the lowest priced option.
"I haven't eaten here before. Order what you like, I don't have preferences," said Xiao Qi, looking up at Liang Jiajia.
"I've come with my mum a couple times. The food here is pretty tasty. Let's just order a standard set meal, 500 yuan per person," said Liang Jiajia, waving over a server and ordering an ordinary 500 yuan per person set.
Xiao Qi: ......
500 x 2 was 1000 yuan total already. Seeing the little girl order so matter-of-factly, she felt slightly uncomfortable with it.
A thousand yuan for one meal - many families in her rural hometown of Gumulacun earned less than 1000 yuan a month.
But Liang Jiajia didn't even bat an eyelid, as if it was perfectly normal. Xiao Qi didn't say much more either, resolving that she would pay.
She had felt it would be inappropriate to accept Liang Jiajia's gift without returning the favor, and she had thought treating her to a meal costing a few tens of yuan would help even out that favor or perceived "debt". Her parents had taught her since young that as far as possible one should avoid "owing" others or benefiting too much from others' things. Since the meal was so expensive, they should be just about square now she reckoned, and that made her feel much more at ease.
So she looked left and right, settling comfortably into her seat as she waited for the food.
She also gave her auntie a call to say she wouldn't be home for dinner.
Meanwhile, Liang Jiajia was preparing to post on Moments, but when she opened the photos, she was stunned to see the pictures her teacher had taken of her.
Her teacher didn't use beauty filters, but it looked so good even without!
She scrutinized those three photographs repeatedly - how could every single one look so nice? She had originally intended to select just one nice photo of herself to go along with scenic shots, yet unexpectedly all three photos made her look gorgeous.
"Teacher, you take such great photos!" Liang Jiajia loved them more and more as she looked. She felt her teacher was simply unmatched - it was perfect, even more so than just her Douyin post from the morning that she had already felt so pleased about.
"Not bad. Oh yes, I took a photo of my coach as well. Could you send it to me afterwards then delete it?" Xiao Qi didn't have much feeling about the photos she took for the little girl. Liang Jiajia was still young with some baby fat - of course she would photograph well from any angle. But Xiao Qi felt the shot she captured of her coach had a very poetic ambience that she wanted to send to Wu later.
Having obtained such flattering photos of herself, Liang Jiajia was elated beyond measure. She forwarded the pictures to her teacher, then mulled over the perfect caption to pair with it.
She typed and deleted several sentences, before finally settling on an aloof line seeming embarrassed to show affection: "Went swimming with teacher today. These are the pics teacher helped take of me. Pretty nice right?"
She uploaded all three photographs, extremely thrilled.
After Xiao Qi forwarded Wu's photo to the coach, there was still no response yet when the private room door opened.
A server dressed in traditional costume entered half-kneeling, placing the first dish on the table.
It was a creamy white tureen, giving off wisps of steam when the lid was removed.
"This is a bamboo shoot and bamboo pith soup, please enjoy your meal."
