The wind at the service area was strong.
Pei Yubai sat in the vehicle, looking outside through the window. Shen Yuzhou squatted outside the convenience store eating a grilled sausage, while Cheng Yanqiu stood beside him, holding a cup of hot water.
Ji Shiyu leaned against the wall, head lowered over a phone. Lin Yanru came out of the restroom, drying her hands with a tissue.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wantang stood some distance away, her round fan tucked into her sleeve, looking at an osmanthus tree beside the parking lot.
The screenshot Meng Xu had sent was still on his phone screen. The post was titled "Could the production team invite Qiguan Yuan onto the show?" Several replies had already appeared below it.
Pei Yubai glanced at it, then turned his phone facedown on his lap. He neither replied to Meng Xu nor looked at the post again.
He actually wanted to see Qiguan Yuan soon, too.
But Qiguan Yuan had not told him exactly when he would come to see him.
Someone outside the window was calling him. Pei Yubai looked over.
Shen Yuzhou held up half a grilled sausage, speaking indistinctly with the food in his mouth still unswallowed. "Brother Pei, aren't you coming out for a walk?"
Pei Yubai shook his head. Shen Yuzhou did not insist and turned back to his sausage.
Half an hour later, everyone was back in the vehicle.
Everyone had picked up some snacks. There really was nothing to eat in the vehicle. However generous the production team was, and however excellent the vehicles they provided, riding in one was still not particularly comfortable.
The jolting had left them without even the desire to use their phones, so they had simply bought some snacks to pass the time.
Otherwise, it really would have been hard to bear.
The vehicle started moving again.
Pei Yubai still sat by the window in the last row. He draped his overcoat over the seat beside him, just as he had on the way there.
The scenery outside slowly changed.
Some time after they left Cloud-Hidden Town, the houses, which had grown more numerous, changed again.
There were fewer and fewer houses along the national highway, and more and more fields. The fields gradually gave way to hilly terrain, and the hills gradually became mountains.
The road began to narrow, and the bends grew more frequent.
Shen Yuzhou was rocked to sleep again. The bread bag in his hand slipped to the floor, and Cheng Yanqiu bent down to pick it up for him and put it in his pocket.
Just before dark, the vehicle stopped.
Meng Xu stood and clapped his hands. His voice was not loud, but he still sounded energetic. "We're here."
Shen Yuzhou rubbed his eyes and sat up straight, glancing out the window. Then he froze.
Outside were tier upon tier of terraced fields.
They stretched from the foot of the mountain all the way to its summit, level after level, as though someone had built countless flights of stairs up the mountainside.
The water in the fields reflected the light of the sky. It was already evening, the hour of dusk.
The sky was orange-red, and so was the water. Grass grew on the ridges between the fields, its deep green drawing line after line across the orange-red water.
At the very top were a few homes, wooden houses with black roofs, hidden between the mountains and terraced fields. Without looking closely, one would not have spotted them at all.
Shen Yuzhou leaned against the window, his chin resting on its ledge. "Where is this?"
Meng Xu flipped something open and introduced the place to them. "A Miao village. It has no official name. The locals call it the Village Above the Clouds, because it looks as if it's above the clouds."
He pointed at the terraced fields outside. "These terraces are hundreds of years old. They rise layer upon layer, with the highest ones above the clouds."
Cheng Yanqiu leaned back in her seat, looking at the terraces outside without speaking.
Ji Shiyu rolled down the window. Cool air rushed in, carrying the dampness unique to flooded fields, mixed with the scent of earth and fresh grass.
Pei Yubai looked outside. In the twilight, the terraced fields resembled shattered mirrors, their scattered pieces covering the entire mountain.
For people like them, who had long lived in big cities, such entirely natural scenery was a rare sight indeed.
For a while, everyone got out of the vehicle to admire the scenery in the dusk.
Only after a long time, when the sun's last light faded, did they come back to their senses.
Meng Xu said that it was already dark, so there would be no tasks tonight. Everyone could rest first.
The guesthouse was at the very top of the village, a walk away.
They got out of the vehicle.
The air was much cooler than at noon. Breathing it in made their lungs feel clean all the way through.
Shen Yuzhou shivered and zipped his jacket all the way up. Cheng Yanqiu followed him, reminding him to watch his step. Ji Shiyu walked in the middle at an unhurried pace.
Lin Yanru walked at the very back, taking pictures of the terraces with her phone. It was too dark, and she could barely capture their outlines.
Jiang Wantang walked silently beside Pei Yubai, but Pei Yubai noticed her gaze resting on him.
More precisely, it rested on the red thread around his wrist.
But Pei Yubai had never been particularly talkative. Since Jiang Wantang did not ask, he would not say anything more.
The stone-paved path climbed upward, step by step.
The houses on either side were all wooden, with black roof tiles and golden ears of corn and bright red chili peppers hanging beneath the eaves. A few homes had their lights on. Thin strips of light leaked through gaps in the wooden doors and fell across the paving stones.
After walking for about twenty minutes, they reached the top of the village. The guesthouse was a three-story wooden building with two red lanterns hanging by the entrance.
Meng Xu stood at the entrance, handing out room keys one by one. Pei Yubai received a room at the end of the second floor. He pushed the door open and went in. It was small but very clean.
Wooden walls, wooden windows, a wooden bed. The window faced the terraces, but it was already dark, and he could see nothing except the scattered lights of the town far down the mountain, like a handful of broken gold.
He put down his bag and stood by the window. Outside was very quiet, with no traffic and no voices, only the swishing sound of wind blowing across the water in the terraces. It was soft but constant.
He lowered his head to look at his wrist. The two ends of the thread dangled over the back of his hand, swaying gently in the wind.
He brought his wrist to his nose and sniffed. The scent was gone.
Perhaps because he had been away from Qiguan Yuan for too long, Qiguan Yuan's cool fragrance had dissipated completely, leaving only Pei Yubai's own scent.
He lowered his hand and pulled his sleeve down.
Meanwhile, in the house in the forest of Cloud-Hidden Town.
Qiguan Yuan lay in bed. The bed was wooden and small, and the clean bedding smelled of sunshine.
He lay on his side, his silver hair spread over half the pillow. His breathing was soft and slow, his chest rising and falling slightly.
A pair of ears had appeared on his head. Furry and silvery-white, they were exactly the same color as his hair.
The pointed ears stood atop his head. Relaxed in sleep, they drooped slightly to either side, like two blades of grass bent by the wind.
They had emerged at some unknown point while he was relaxed in sleep.
Someone knocked on the door.
Three soft, quiet knocks.
Qiguan Yuan's brows furrowed briefly. He did not wake, merely frowned, turned over, and pulled the covers up over half his face.
The knocking sounded again. Three knocks, a little louder than before.
Qiguan Yuan's ears twitched. The silvery-white ears bounced against the pillow, as though displeased at being disturbed, twitching twice on their own before going still again.