At that moment, Chen Luzhou gave Zhu Yangqi a meaningful glance — Let’s go, I haven’t shaved yet.
Zhu Yangqi sighed, shaking his head with a hint of schadenfreude, thinking, What a drama queen.
Just as the two were about to stand up, Xu Zhi, biting on her straw, suddenly asked Chen Luzhou, “Did you see the WeChat message I sent you?”
Chen Luzhou glanced at Zhu Yangqi as if to say, It’s not that I don’t want to leave, but look, she’s talking to me. He then settled back down like a stubborn plaster.
Zhu Yangqi: “…”
If you had any backbone, you’d stand up right now!
Chen Luzhou cleared his throat affectedly and said, “No, I left my phone in the room.”
Xu Zhi let out an “Oh,” leisurely sipping her watermelon juice without looking at him, using the straw to poke at the crushed watermelon ice at the bottom of the cup.
Chen Luzhou: “Did you forget something at the bar again?”
Xu Zhi shook her head, finishing her watermelon juice in one go while holding the straw. Refreshed, she said, “No, I just wanted to ask if there’s been any progress on that money-making project of yours. I mentioned it to Yingying yesterday, and she’s very interested too. We’re about to start college and want to earn some pocket money.”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
So you’re planning to latch onto me, huh?
You’re interested in my mom, interested in my money, but not interested in me, is that it?
“I don’t know, we’ll see. Recently, I’ve been busy earning my brother’s first bucket of gold,” Chen Luzhou said as he stood up, this time genuinely intending to leave. He tapped his knuckles on the table in front of Xu Zhi and said flippantly, “Aren’t you going to get some food? Cai Yingying is almost full.”
Cai Yingying, who was busy eating nearby, with a steamed bun in her mouth: “…”
Xu Zhi had been picking tea leaves under the scorching sun all morning and was nearly exhausted. Her forehead was still beaded with sweat, and she had no appetite. “Never mind, I can’t eat.”
Chen Luzhou glanced at her, “Suit yourself.”
What’s with the act? It’s not like I care. Can’t eat, my foot.
Chen Luzhou returned to his room to prepare his equipment for filming on the tea mountain. He was now in the bathroom shaving, while Zhu Yangqi squatted at the door, packing his painting supplies. Zhu Yangqi clicked his tongue twice and teased, not afraid of death, “Still concerned about whether she’s eating breakfast or not, huh? What, afraid Cai Yingying will finish the entire buffet by herself? You sure know how to care for others.”
Chen Luzhou rinsed his razor clean and splashed some water on his face, “You’re sick in the head.”
Zhu Yangqi laughed, “I think Xu Zhi is pretty cool and interesting too. Look how scared Chen Xingqi is of her. But what’s the deal with your money-making project?”
“It’s just something I made up to fool her, it’s not even close to happening,” Chen Luzhou said as he finished cleaning up and came out, packing the drone into his bag. While zipping it up, he added exasperatedly, “Who knew she’d want to get involved? Does she have no self-awareness? Do I look like I want to bring her along?”
Zhu Yangqi still smiled: “You do.”
“Your eyes must be failing you. It’s just a bit of interest, that’s all. If I wanted to date someone, I could date anyone,” Chen Luzhou grabbed his charging phone from the bedside, glanced at WeChat, and saw a prominent ‘1’ on Xu Zhi’s chat box, but didn’t open it. He casually stuffed the phone into his pocket, “I don’t want to argue with you. I’m taking Chen Xingqi with me, you’re on your own today.”
Zhu Yangqi couldn’t ask for more, quickly bowing with cupped hands, “I’ll never tease you again, brother. Your great kindness cannot be repaid with mere words. I’ll be your loyal servant from now on.”
“I don’t need you to be my servant, just try to be a decent human being. And in the future, talk less nonsense in front of Xu Zhi.” Chen Luzhou closed the door.
After breakfast, Xu Zhi and Cai Yingying returned to their room. Old Xu and Old Cai’s phone calls came almost simultaneously. The two girls sat on the bed, exchanged a glance, and sighed. Here we go again.
In recent years, Old Xu and Old Cai have been competing intensely. Old Xu had always been attentive to Xu Zhi, while Principal Cai had been stimulated by Cai Yingying’s constant comparisons of “Look at Xu Zhi’s dad… Now look at you…”
When Xu Zhi answered the phone, she sighed, because of Principal Cai’s silent competition, Old Xu’s concern for her had become more and more frequent in recent years. “How is it at Uncle Fu’s? Are you having fun?”
“It’s alright,” Xu Zhi answered, putting the call on speakerphone while absent-mindedly scrolling through social media. “It’s quite cool here. I went tea picking this morning. Uncle Fu packed two bags for you. I’ll bring them back once they’re roasted.”
“Ah, is Little Cai next to you?” Xu Guangji said on the phone. “That girl is something. She’s going to get a beating when she comes back. She used her dad’s shoe polish as hair oil for her grandmother. Now her grandmother’s head smells like leather shoes, and it won’t wash off. It even glows a bit at night.”
Xu Zhi glanced at Cai Yingying, who was indeed already arguing on her phone.
“Grandma said she wanted to use it herself! How was I supposed to know? Why are you yelling at me? Fine, fine, I’ll kowtow to Grandma and apologize when I get back. Cai Binghong, if you keep scolding me, I won’t come back!”
Cai Yingying angrily hung up the phone. Xu Zhi quickly said to Old Xu, “I’ve got to go too. Don’t worry about me, it’s quite fun here.”
On the other end of the line, Xu Guangji was about to say something when the call was abruptly cut off.
The two girls sat in the cafeteria, feeling equally miserable. Across from them, Cai Binghong’s face was as puffy as fermented dough. “That brat, her temper is getting harder to control. She thinks I won’t dare to spank her. Wait till she comes back, I’ll make her bottom blossom. Just barely scraped by with those test scores, I nearly died on the spot, and she still dares to lose her temper with me—” Old Cai ranted for a while, then noticed Xu Guangji wasn’t responding. “What are you thinking about?”
“Something’s not right,” Xu Guangji shook his head thoughtfully. “It’s not right.”
“What’s not right?” Cai Binghong asked.
“Xu Zhi,” Xu Guangji put down his phone and said, “She said it was fun in there. She’s always found it incredibly boring.”
“You’re being too sensitive. Kids’ moods change in an instant. How can we ever keep up?”
“Is that so?”
“Don’t overthink it. Xu Zhi has been too repressed since her mother passed away. If she’s having fun, let her enjoy herself a bit longer.”
At this time, the tea mountain was still crowded with people taking photos, picking tea, and sketching. The stream of visitors was endless. The sun wasn’t too harsh yet, but in an hour or two, the place would be almost deserted.
Even now, the sun was blazing. Chen Xingqi never imagined his brother would make him help Uncle Fu pick tea.
Chen Xingqi thought to himself, I’ve never done a day’s work in my life. Even my mom hasn’t had the heart to make me do chores. But seeing his brother’s determined look, he decided to ask the most practical question, “Will I get paid?”
Chen Luzhou handed him a bamboo hat that loosely covered half his face. “What about you, bro?” Chen Xingqi asked.
Chen Luzhou, rather shamelessly, replied: “I’ll be recording this historic moment for you from the side.”
Chen Xingqi turned to leave. “I’d rather go back to painting.”
“Weren’t you pretty decisive when you threw away your drawing board yesterday? Alright, no painting today. Uncle Fu is short-handed right now,” Chen Luzhou was adjusting the camera angle, pointing the lens squarely at Chen Xingqi. With a casual, sarcastic tone, he said, “Come on, smile.”
Several clicks later, Chen Xingqi quickly made a peace sign.
Chen Luzhou put away the camera and lazily leaned against a shady tree nearby, checking the photos one by one. He nodded, somewhat satisfied, and said, “Not bad, the lighting is good. Now go work.”
Chen Xingqi reluctantly put on the bamboo hat. “Make sure you take good photos of me. I want to post them on my Moments.”
“Don’t you trust my skills? Others beg me to take their photos, and I don’t even bother, okay?”
That was true. His brother’s photography skills were unparalleled, which was why Chen Xingqi had agreed when he said, “Let’s go, bro will take you for a photo shoot today,” only to be tricked into coming here.
But Chen Luzhou was never one to play nice. As soon as he had fooled Chen Xingqi into going down, he started setting up his drone to film the tea mountain.
Half an hour later, Chen Luzhou skillfully maneuvered the drone up into the air. Fu Yuqing, supervising nearby, had never played with one before. He wasn’t sure if all drones were like this, or if Chen Luzhou’s equipment was just poor quality. Given how wealthy Chen Luzhou seemed, he should have been able to afford better equipment, but the noise was still quite deafening.
As soon as he started working, many people gathered around to watch. Some tea farmers, hearing the buzzing sound overhead, became nervous and uneasy, afraid to continue working. Chen Luzhou, worried about disturbing their work, had to find a secluded spot to launch the drone. However, this made it difficult to capture the entire panorama of the tea mountain, or at least not from the right angle. So, he kept trying to find the perfect position. Fu Yuqing found this young man quite interesting, or rather, extremely interesting. Even though he, the boss, was standing right there and could have asked the tea farmers to pause their work, Chen Luzhou didn’t. Nor did he try to cut corners and just hand over mediocre footage. Instead, he kept increasing the difficulty of his shooting.
Later, after hearing an explanation from a nearby tea-picking veteran, Fu Yuqing understood why.
“Boss Fu, he’s afraid of delaying our progress. He just asked me what time we usually finish picking, and I said generally before 11 because the sun gets harsher around noon. I told him we didn’t mind, he should film first, but he said it’s fine, he’ll keep looking for a good angle and told us not to delay our work. This kid is quite nice. Much better than that TV crew that came last time.”
Xu Zhi had originally planned to visit Fu Yuqing’s tea room after her afternoon nap. Then she remembered that Fu Yuqing should be at the tea mountain with Chen Luzhou for the filming, and since Fu Yuqing rarely brought his phone to the mountain, she stretched lazily in bed and reached for her phone on the bedside table, intending to ask Chen Luzhou if they had finished shooting.
Just as she unlocked her phone, she heard Cai Yingying excitedly scrolling through her Moments feed, making a fuss.
“I… this, this, this, Chen Luzhou is such an amazing photographer!”
Xu Zhi: “Is he done shooting?”
Cai Yingying, eyes glued to her phone, zooming in on the photos: “I don’t know. I don’t have his WeChat. I saw these on Uncle Fu’s feed. He said all these photos were taken by Chen Luzhou.”
“That’s rare. Uncle Fu brought his phone today,” Xu Zhi mumbled as she opened Fu Yuqing’s Moments.
Fu Yuqing was quite fond of posting on Moments, quite in line with the typical middle-aged persona. The latest post was a panoramic view of the tea mountain taken by Chen Luzhou. At first glance, it looked grand and majestic, but upon closer inspection, it had quite an atmospheric feel. The sky seemed freshly washed by clouds and rain, a bright, clear blue contrasting beautifully with the jade-green of the forest. He hadn’t deliberately erased the diagonal shadows of people, and with the burst of light, there was a sense of liveliness amidst the misty mountains.
Xu Zhi thought he was indeed very skilled at photography, capturing the essence of the scene vividly.
However, Cai Yingying was fawning over a different photo: “Look! Chen Luzhou is so romantic. He even managed to capture a pair of pheasants in his shot.”
Xu Zhi: “…”