Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

Liang Yanyan ignored him, so Black Glasses opened his bag and started taking out a few packages that were neatly wrapped in newspaper. Liang Yanyan weighed them in her hand, chose two, and then pulled Ah Tou to leave. 

Black Glasses took a sip of beer as he watched them leave and then slowly followed behind them. 

The building right next to Ah Tou’s factory was a photography studio. When Black Glasses went to the second floor, he could directly see into Ah Tou’s second-floor window. The photography studio appeared to be out of business since there was no one there and the second floor was covered in dust. There was only a set of sofas, along with a bookshelf full of photography books and some magazines. It must have been a waiting room for assistant photographers to rest in. 

Black Glasses moved one of the sofas closer to the window facing Ah Tou’s second-floor window, sat on it, and then dialed a number. 

"They get along pretty well," Black Glasses said. “Ah Tou appears to have been conquered by her, so I don't see any hope for you. The woman stayed with her to poach her, while you’re just a remotely controlling boss. The sincerity is different."

"Ah Tou won’t be conquered. This girl is different from ordinary people," the other person said. "Don't be fooled by her appearance.”

"Since when did you get to know her so well? I heard you only spent a few hours together?"

"I've seen a lot of people. Some of them are truly timid, but Ah Tou isn’t. She's similar to someone we know. She’s always trying to act like a normal person, but in fact, she has control over everything."

"Such a high rating." Black Glasses laughed.

"That's not my assessment of her, it's someone else's. You should know who it is."

"That Tu guy? If you team up with him, I won't take this case.”

"Relax." As Black Glasses hung up the phone, he saw Liang Yanyan walking up to the second floor. Ah Tou was nowhere to be seen. He sipped his beer and got ready for the show.

Meanwhile, Ah Tou was unwrapping the packages downstairs. There were a bunch of tinfoil and some weird metallic paints inside the packages. “Cover the floor with tinfoil and get some liquid foundation for the primer. We need to cover our bodies with the paint and foundation," Liang Yanyan said from upstairs.

Ah Tou immediately followed her instructions. When she was done, Liang Yanyan finally came downstairs. The two then started applying the foundation to their bare skin. “Use this metallic paint to draw some patterns on our bodies. The denser the better.”

"Huh? Why?"

"We’ll sleep upstairs tonight. There’s definitely going to be a conflict, but this paint has lead in it. The metal parts can protect our minds while the paint on our bodies can protect our nervous system."

"Oh." Ah Tou took out her paintbrush, dipped it in the paint, and looked at Liang Yanyan, "What kind of pattern do you want?"

"Doesn’t matter."

Ah Tou thought for a bit and then started painting. As she made a lot of twisted circles and lines, Liang Yanyan looked at them and asked, "What's this?"

"Van Gogh's Starry Night."

Ah Tou soon finished painting Liang Yanyan’s body and moved on to her own. After she finished, the two stood in front of the full-length mirror and Ah Tou started laughing. 

It wasn’t as amazing as she had expected it to be. In fact, it was just really funny. 

And now they couldn’t go out because other people would think that they were silver avatars (1).

The two sat down and looked at the clock. There were still eight hours before it got dark out and thirteen hours before they could go to sleep. Liang Yanyan looked at Ah Tou and said, "We can chat. I’m really curious about you, so you can ask me questions while I ask you. How about it?”

"Sure."

"Then let me go first. I heard you asked Xie Yuchen to help you find someone, right? Why do you need to find her?"

****

TN Notes:

(1) She means avatars from the 2009 movie Avatar. You know, because they’re blue in the movie.