He raised the wine jar and drained the remaining wine in one go.
Wine spilled from the corner of his mouth, ran down his chin, and dripped onto his dark red robes, soaking a small patch darker.
The wine jar was empty.
He tipped the mouth of the jar downward. The last drop of wine fell to the ground and seeped into the soil, leaving only a dark dot.
Qiguan Yuan set the empty jar beside him, leaned against the tree trunk, and closed his eyes.
The wind swept through the woods, stirring the red cords all over the tree. Their rustling sounded like talking, or perhaps singing.
The bronze wind chimes rang by the courtyard gate, their faint, scattered notes sounding both far away and very close.
Qiguan Yuan's breathing slowly deepened. His head tilted slightly to one side, and his silver hair slipped off his shoulder to hang over his chest. His fingers still rested on the mouth of the empty wine jar, their tips tinged a faint pink.
He had fallen asleep.
The old elm's shadow moved across him, shifting from left to right, growing from short to long.
Sunlight filtered through gaps in the canopy, fell across his face, then moved away. The red cords swayed in the wind. One hung so low it almost touched his forehead, but it never quite did.
He slept for a long time.
When he woke, the sun was already sinking in the west. Sunlight streamed in from the other side of the canopy, dyeing the entire courtyard orange.
The shadows on the ground stretched long-the old elm's shadow, the wine jar's shadow, and his own overlapping until it was impossible to tell which was which.
He opened his eyes and gazed at the canopy overhead. The branches swayed gently in the wind, the red cords fluttered, and the sky had already grown a little dim.
He sat up straight and looked down at the empty wine jar beside him, then at the row of unopened jars in front of him.
He stood and went into the inner courtyard, then came back carrying a fresh jar of wine. He placed it among the seventeen jars, picked up the shovel, and began filling the soil back in.
One shovelful after another, neither hurried nor slow. The soil fell back into the pit, covering the mouths of the jars, their bodies, and their bases. He patted the soil flat, then tamped it a few more times with the back of the shovel, making the surface level with the surrounding ground.
Once he had finished, he propped the shovel back beside the tree roots, stood up, and dusted the dirt from his hands.
He tilted his head, looking at the old elm. "I truly am tired. I'll have a sleep first, then come find you. Wait a little longer."
He paused, his silver hair stirring in the breeze. "Yun Yin, you know I can never help hitting people when I haven't had enough sleep. You wouldn't want me to hit you as soon as we meet, would you?"
With that, he turned and strolled through the moon gate.
His dark red robes flashed through the doorway before disappearing into the depths of the covered walkway. The courtyard fell quiet, with only the rustle of wind through the red cords, like someone sighing.
On the bus, the jolting continued.
They had been driving for almost two hours. There had been no stops along the way, and the guests had been jostled into exhaustion. By now, most of them were asleep.
The livestream was still running, but with little to watch, only the viewers kept posting bullet comments.
The guests' individual livestream feeds had been shut off, leaving just one cameraman filming the inside of the bus.
Pei Yubai sat by the window on the other side of the back row.
He was not asleep.
Ever since boarding, he had kept his head lowered, looking at his hand. More precisely, he was looking at his wrist.
He had pushed his sleeve up a little, exposing the red thread around his wrist. As the bus jolted, the red thread swayed slightly with it.
The air-conditioning on the bus was not running very high, and the temperature was just right, but he felt that the skin beneath the loop of red thread was a little warmer than elsewhere.
He turned his wrist over and looked at the knot. Reaching out with a finger of his other hand, he touched it gently. Then he touched the end of the thread, which brushed against his fingertip, tickling.
Shen Yuzhou had woken at some point. He rubbed his eyes and turned his head to see Pei Yubai staring into space.
He followed Pei Yubai's gaze and saw the red thread.
"Brother Pei, what exactly is that thing on your wrist? You've been looking at it the whole way. Is there something special about that red thread?"
Pei Yubai lowered his sleeve, covering his wrist.
"It's nothing."
Shen Yuzhou pursed his lips but did not press him. He yawned, took his phone out of his pocket, opened Weibo, and started scrolling.
After scrolling for a while, he suddenly sat up straight. "Huh? Brother Pei, Qiguan Yuan's trending again."
Pei Yubai said nothing.
Shen Yuzhou held his phone out to him, the trending list on the screen.
In third place was the hashtag #Qiguan Yuan interprets fortune sticks#, followed by a "boiling" label.
Shen Yuzhou tapped it. The first post was a screen recording of Qiguan Yuan interpreting fortune sticks in the side hall yesterday morning.
The video had already been reposted over a hundred thousand times, and the comments had passed a hundred thousand too.
Shen Yuzhou scrolled down and read out a few comments.
Most were either curious about the fortune-stick interpretations or swooning over his looks. Ever since Qiguan Yuan first appeared on the livestream,
similar topics had kept trending.
After remarking on just how good-looking Qiguan Yuan was, Shen Yuzhou backed out and continued scrolling through Weibo. A while later, he spoke again.
"Someone edited clips of Qiguan Yuan's appearances together into a video. It's already got over ten million views." He paused. "Some people are even saying they want to crowdfund his debut."
Pei Yubai did not open his eyes.
Shen Yuzhou glanced at him, then at his wrist. His sleeve covered it, leaving nothing to see. Shen Yuzhou opened his mouth to say something, then swallowed the words.
Pei Yubai was acting seriously strange. The first two days of filming this show had been fine, but during these two days at the Yue Lao Temple, he had kept looking as though he had lost his soul.
He had a bizarre guess...
Could it be...
Had Pei Yubai fallen in love with Qiguan Yuan at first sight?!
As soon as that thought occurred to him, Shen Yuzhou shook it off.
Surely not. Qiguan Yuan was good-looking, but Pei Yubai had seen so many handsome men and beautiful women. Surely he wasn't completely immune to none of it.
There had to be another reason.
The bus stopped at a service area. Meng Xu stood up and clapped his hands.
"Half-hour break. Get off and stretch your legs. If you need the restroom, go. If you want to buy something, go buy it. If you're hungry, get something to tide you over. Meet back here in half an hour. We need to try to arrive before dark."
The others immediately got up and stepped off the bus to stretch their legs.
Pei Yubai stayed in his seat rather than getting off. The bus fell quiet, with only the hum of the air-conditioning.
He turned his wrist over and looked at the knot. Qiguan Yuan... when would he come find me?
He relaxed his hand and lowered his sleeve.
His phone vibrated. He picked it up and saw a message from Meng Xu: "I've decided on our next stop. Guess where?"
Pei Yubai did not reply.
A few seconds later, Meng Xu sent another message: "You'll never guess. You'll know when we get there."
His phone vibrated again.
It was still Meng Xu.
He had sent a screenshot of a post.
It read: Could the production team invite Qiguan Yuan onto the show?!