Closer to Revealing My True Self-Chapter 615 - 403: Touched_1

After finishing matters at the conference, he boarded a plane flying to the planned destination.

Feng Yi leaned back in his seat and let out a long sigh.

Finally, peace and quiet!

It had only been a few days, but he was already worn out from dealing with everything.

He stretched out his arms to loosen up a bit.

Soon, once he entered the rainforest and there were no other people around, he could really relax for a while.

Steve had been to that rainforest many times. It was so vast that Steve chose to explore just one area each visit, making extensive notes on the geography, key points of attention, and more.

The notes also listed clever tips for when one encountered certain difficulties.

Based on Steve’s guide, Feng Yi chose the most remote and least modernized area as the "survey" entry point after some consideration.

There was a local village where supplies could be replenished.

Due to its remoteness, the village was significantly behind in the modernization process; even internet access might be an issue. With limited contact with the outside world, the likelihood of anyone recognizing Feng Yi was even lower.

Perfect.

However, they weren’t going directly there. The plane couldn’t land at that place, so they had to fly to a nearby airport and then drive there.

They had found a local as their guide, a man of Chinese descent named Cai Bing.

Steve had introduced him, which made him more trustworthy.

But it was Jia who made direct contact with Cai Bing, without letting him know that it was Feng Yi they were going to meet.

At the pick-up area, a young man with tanned skin and wearing a sun hat was holding a sign that read [Zha].

Chewing on gum, Cai Bing propped the sign casually on the ground while replying to a friend on his phone.

A friend of his was also supposed to come today. Had he not accepted a job, he would already be entertaining his friend now.

Knowing his friend was coming and that he’d need some help, he wouldn’t have taken any other orders, but...

The offer was too good to refuse!

So, he chatted with his friend, asking him to postpone his visit for a few days. Once he was done with this job, he would go help his friend.

Hearing the noise of an airplane landing, Cai Bing spit out his gum, checked himself in the mirror, and neatened up his appearance.

The client was paying well, and he didn’t know if they had any additional demands; he needed to pay attention to give a good first impression to his wealthy customer.

He also wondered about the identity of this "Zha" gentleman and what kind of profession he had. At the time of contact, the client seemed somewhat not to be trifled with.

Well, if he’s difficult, he’s difficult. He’d seen many demanding customers before and was confident, or at least had to find the confidence—after all, the client was paying generously!

He hoped it would be the kind of client who paid well for little trouble and just needed him to show the way, without involving him in anything else.

That was his favorite kind of job!

"Cai Bing?" someone called out to him.

Cai Bing turned to look.

The first person he saw was a resolute-looking man walking towards him.

"Mr. Zha? I’m Cai Bing. You mentioned there would be three of you..."

Cai Bing’s gaze drifted past Jia to the people behind him.

Trailing Jia were two young men, both wearing sunglasses and sun hats, but Cai Bing’s eyes focused intensely on the person to the left.

Even with sunglasses and a sun hat, Cai Bing’s eyesight didn’t fail him—he recognized him immediately.

Internally, he thought: Holy crap! That’s Feng Yi, right? Right?!

He knew Feng Yi was attending a conference in a neighboring country and had wondered if the snake-catcher might go on a field investigation in the rainforest. But then he thought of Feng Yi’s background and reasoned that if Feng Yi were to go on a dangerous rainforest exploration, he would surely have a specialized team, right? A super-cool, flashy team shining with the aura of splendor, doubling as bodyguards!

Yet, he never imagined that today Feng Yi would stand right in front of him!

Without the large entourage he’d expected—just these three people.

Were they really going on a field investigation?

"Ahem, please... follow me, the car is parked over there."

Feeling a bit nervous, he walked towards the car. Once inside, Cai Bing looked back at Feng Yi and stammered, "My car has been reinforced, but it doesn’t have bulletproof capabilities. If you need it, I can switch to another vehicle."

Feng Yi smiled and said, "No need. Just go with what was agreed on before."

"All right, then, you can call me Little Cai! First, we’ll head to my shop to get the supplies ready. I have a resting room there where you can take a short break, though the conditions are just basic."

As he spoke, Cai Bing drove towards his own store.

He ran a general store in the city, catering to both locals and tourists, and the business was doing well.

Now he was taking Feng Yi and his group to his store to purchase supplies.

Cai Bing glanced at the car ornament, which was a rhinoceros hornbill. He felt a pang of regret.

He should have gone with the snake-shaped ornament, that would have probably made a better first impression on his patron, right?

This was Feng Yi, after all!

He spent every day browsing the internet, so of course, he had seen the recent news about Feng Yi. Recognizing Feng Yi so quickly was also because he had seen a lot about him in these past few days.

Anyone who has seen such news should know that Feng Yi likes snakes!

Really, really likes them!

Cai Bing wasn’t just judging from what others said. He had his own theories—

The human body with a snake tail image of Feng Yi that’s going viral online, there are similar mythical figures in stories from many cultures.

And the creation of such images in stories suggests that, regarding the creature of a snake, people are either afraid of it or they like it.

Feng Yi, for one, is definitely in the latter group.

After all, if you don’t like a certain creature, you wouldn’t Photoshop your picture with it.

Just like the internet trend of "everything can be catified."

Photoshopping a cat face onto various creatures usually hits a cute point.

Once popular for a while was the setting of cute cat filters for photos, which also proved humanity’s love for cats.

If you didn’t like or were disgusted by cats, you wouldn’t use such methods.

People’s aesthetics and preferences indeed vary greatly, like Steve, whom I once met, when comparing a cat and a snake, wouldn’t hesitate to proclaim that the snake was absolutely beautiful!

Cai Bing felt average about snakes, after all, he came across them more often in his environment, so he wasn’t scared but didn’t particularly like them either.

He thought the online image of Feng Yi looked cool!

Of course, not everyone could accept an image like Feng Yi’s, a classmate of his disliked anything related to snakes, they even debated over it last night while drinking.

That classmate felt uncomfortable looking at images related to snakes.

He said, "How can you accept such an image? Don’t you find snakes terrifying? Even if it’s just a snake tail, I get goosebumps just looking at it! The most terrifying thing in the world is a snake!"

Instead of replying immediately, Cai Bing searched the internet for some pictures and chose a cartoon image of a person merged with a caterpillar to compare with Feng Yi’s picture, asking his classmate, "Which of these two pictures can you accept more?"

The classmate avoided looking at the images and after a moment of silence, said, "Feng Yi’s picture makes me feel afraid, the fuzzy one makes me want to throw up!"

As he thought about these things, Cai Bing couldn’t help but glance at Feng Yi in the rearview mirror.

Compared to the pictures circulating online, Feng Yi himself looked pretty amiable.

Sigh, by comparison, he still thought that Feng Yi’s online image with a human body and a snake tail looked more imposing and intimidating.

An art representation, truly worthy of the artistic touch.

Cai Bing pondered whether he should use the store’s printer to print out that picture of Feng Yi and have him sign it, to keep as memorabilia in the store.

What a rare opportunity!

While he was considering this, the car arrived at the storefront.

"Knowing you were coming, I closed the store for the day; it’s not open to the public, so you can pick out supplies directly inside.

"Oh, and I have a friend in the store, he’s very reliable, won’t spill anything. Other than him, there’s no one else. If that bothers you, I can have him step aside?"

Cai Bing looked towards Feng Yi.

Feng Yi, discerning the smell in the air, smiled and said, "No need, let’s go in."

Cai Bing’s grocery store looked inconspicuous from the outside but was quite nicely decorated inside, with shelves stocked with a variety of supplies, including some hard-to-find items. Even if something wasn’t displayed, you could just ask Cai Bing for it.

A young man was sitting at the counter.

Hearing the noise, he looked up, his gaze sweeping over before settling on Feng Yi with a mix of surprise and uncertainty.

Feng Yi raised his hand to greet him, "Long time no see."

The young man sitting at the counter happened to be Feng Shou, who had attended the Feng Clan ancestral temple festival as a clan relative. Feng Yi had given him a zodiac coin, and afterward, he frequently delivered fruit to Feng Yi by truck.

Upon confirming his identity, Feng Shou hopped up excitedly and walked over quickly:

"Brother Yi?! I didn’t expect to meet you here!"

As he spoke, Feng Shou flipped his phone, shoving the screen in Feng Yi’s face:

"I was just checking out your news! I saved the clearest shot and set it as my phone wallpaper!"

On the screen, the image that had been endlessly haunting Feng Yi was displayed in high resolution.

Feng Yi: "..."

I’m so touched.