Then Like Me Tomorrow

Shen Nian kept his hands in his pockets and jogged to the school gate in no time, where he saw Li Shiyan and Xia Yanchun already studying how to take good photos.

"I'm here, I'm here." Shen Nian exhaled, a wisp of white mist momentarily blurring his face. "By the way, is there anywhere in the school even worth taking pictures of?"

"That's exactly why we have to pick the right angles."

"Sheesh, how particular."

"You definitely can't take good pictures without the right angles. Do you even understand anything, dummy?"

"You've got a lot of nerve. Watch me smash your phone in a minute."

"Blegh."

Li Shiyan was already dying of happiness on the sidelines.

They were just too cute together! Who else could understand the sense of salvation in her bestie's "dummy"? Zero hostility, but the romantic tension was absolutely maxed out, okay!

Why didn't anyone tell her earlier that they were this sweet?

"Here, look at this. You're taking pictures of me and Shiyan in a bit."

Xia Yanchun shoved her phone into Shen Nian's hands. Shen Nian took a look. Well, well, it was a photography guide post on Xiaohongshu.

Stunning Bestie Duo Composition: Absolute High-End Cinematic Vibes

Shen Nian skimmed through it. It was indeed a very proper photography guide. Every angle was listed and analyzed separately, complete with example photos for easy understanding. It actually seemed quite legit.

It even pointed out poses, angles, lighting, and all that.

It was a pity that the school didn't have much of a setup, so their choices were limited and they could only make do with what they had.

"Let's take one here first, then go to the bamboo forest. We can also shoot at the campus wall by Deshi Building." Xia Yanchun muttered as she pulled Li Shiyan into a pose.

It was relatively simple and not too flashy, but it looked nice, especially since both girls were very pretty.

Since it was just lifestyle photography, it didn't need to look too staged. Shen Nian found an angle based on the example photos and casually snapped a few shots. After he finished, he handed the phone over to Xia Yanchun and Li Shiyan for review.

They scrutinized each picture for a long time.

Shen Nian scratched his head. "How is it? Not bad, right?"

"Mhm, not bad at all."

Xia Yanchun nodded, and Li Shiyan followed suit with a small nod.

"Shiyan, help take a picture of Shen Nian and me too."

"Oh, oh." Li Shiyan nodded vigorously, looked at Shen Nian, and reached out her small hand. "Um, the phone..."

"I'm taking one too?" Shen Nian handed the phone to Xia Yanchun.

"Of course! You barely ever take pictures. You need to take more, you know?"

"Alright." Shen Nian looked at Li Shiyan. "Make it look good. There's no reward if you do well, but there's a punishment if you mess up."

"Wu..."

Li Shiyan felt a little wronged, but she didn't say anything.

Her photography skills were definitely better than Shen Nian's. Girls always seemed to have a bit more patience and attention to detail than boys when it came to everyday photography.

Shen Nian didn't know how to pose, so he simply threw up a peace sign.

With a peace sign right next to her, no matter what pose or expression she made, it just felt off. Xia Yanchun puffed out her cheeks, stepped in front of Shen Nian, and grabbed his hand, pressing it down to hide his peace sign.

"You're better off not doing the peace sign at all. Just stand there."

"Like this?" Shen Nian kept his face dead serious.

"You're just here to cause trouble, aren't you?"

"Then... like this..."

"Smile a bit more naturally... Yes, yes, just keep that smile and don't move! Ugh, why did you change it again? I'll hit you, I swear."

"..."

"This is pretty good! Here we go."

After adjusting Shen Nian, Xia Yanchun immediately stood beside him with her hands behind her back. She tilted her head slightly, letting her hair fall down a bit, and then made a very natural peace sign.

Shen Nian waited until he confirmed Li Shiyan had finished taking the picture before he started complaining.

"Aren't you doing a peace sign yourself?"

"Your peace sign makes you look like an idiot, while mine looks very natural. Tell me I'm wrong."

Li Shiyan nodded yet again. That was indeed the case. Photography poses required a lot of care; if the person looked unnatural, no amount of photography skill could make it look good.

After being adjusted by Xia Yanchun, the photo of Shen Nian turned out pretty decent.

Shen Nian didn't know what to say, so he just went along with their wishes, taking pictures of them along the way. After the two girls finished taking photos of themselves, they dragged Shen Nian in to take more with them.

They took over two hundred photos, snapping ten to twenty shots for a single pose...

He was terrified to tears by girls.

Shen Nian couldn't even find a hundred photos in his phone, and they were all screenshots.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Wait for me for a bit, Little Chun."

While passing by the academic building, Li Shiyan whispered softly to Xia Yanchun.

Shen Nian heard everything. Was going to the bathroom some kind of unspeakable thing?

Whenever he was in Xia Yanchun's room, he would loudly declare to her, "I need to take a dump."

Li Shiyan scurried off into the building to use the restroom, leaving Shen Nian and Xia Yanchun to wait for her under the streetlight.

"Look at this one. Don't you look like a fool?" Xia Yanchun tugged at Shen Nian's large hand and laughed, pointing at the rather wooden-looking Shen Nian in the photo.

"I'm not good at this to begin with, okay? We'd be better off taking photo booth pictures at the mall."

"You'd look like a fool taking photo booth pictures too."

"Ah, right, right, right. Chunbao is the least foolish of all, happy now?"

"As long as you know, as long as you know." Xia Yanchun hummed proudly.

She looked up at the pitch-black sky, only able to see a bright moon. She didn't know since when the stars had become so incredibly sparse.

Back when they were little, she and Shen Nian would sit in front of the door and count the stars; there used to be so, so many.

"So fast, another year has passed." She murmured to herself, bouncing slightly on her toes. "If we count by nominal age, we've actually known each other for nineteen years."

"Nominal age is based on the Lunar New Year, dumbass."

"Ugh, whatever, it's the same."

"We didn't remember things when we were babies, so that doesn't count as knowing each other, dumbass."

"I hate you."

Xia Yanchun pouted. Although she didn't say anything else, Shen Nian couldn't help but feel that she didn't want him getting into her bed tonight.

He tactfully picked up where she had left off.

"Nineteen years in the blink of an eye, hehe."

"Hmph, it's been nineteen years and I still hate you this much."

Shen Nian paused. "Aren't we supposed to be the best of friends in the world today? Logically, you should like me."

"No we're not. You just called me names. I'm in a bad mood now, so we're no longer the best of friends in the world. You'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Then you can like me again tomorrow."

"Hmph, well I don't like you today anyway."

"..." Shen Nian smiled faintly. "You're really cute."

Xia Yanchun's small face turned flushed pink. She spun around in a huff so he couldn't see her face, her hair quickly falling down to cover it.

So Shen Nian reached out and tucked her hair back up.

Just enough to clearly see the young girl's reddened ears.