All three teams of guests had finished the game.
Meng Xu stood in front of the drum tower, notebook in hand, recording each team's points.
Shen Yuzhou's team had answered six questions correctly and earned six points. Ji Shiyu and Jiang Wantang had answered nine correctly and earned nine points.
As for Qiguan Yuan and Pei Yubai... Meng Xu glanced at Qiguan Yuan, then at Pei Yubai.
Pei Yubai's answer to the final question had been vague, so that earned no points either.
The final prompt he had given Qiguan Yuan was: Qiguan Yuan.
"Your points have been recorded." Meng Xu closed the notebook. "A reminder for anyone who hasn't done today's daily task: you can go now. Transplanting rice seedlings, picking vegetables, catching fish, gathering mushrooms-divide them up yourselves. Just finish before tonight."
Shen Yuzhou stretched, took Cheng Yanqiu and Lin Yanru along, and headed out of the village.
Ji Shiyu and Jiang Wantang also left, one behind the other.
Meng Xu put away his notebook, turned, and went down the drum tower steps. Halfway down, Qiguan Yuan spoke. "Director Meng, do I have to do the daily tasks too?"
Meng Xu stopped and turned around.
He looked Qiguan Yuan up and down. A black shirt, long silver hair, skin so pale it looked as though it had never seen the sun, and long, clean fingers with neatly trimmed nails.
Those hands didn't look particularly suited to transplanting rice seedlings.
He tried to imagine Qiguan Yuan rolling up his trouser legs and stepping into a paddy field. Uh, he couldn't picture it. He could send his childhood friend Pei Yubai, the crown prince of Beijing's elite circle, into the fields without the slightest qualm.
But sending Qiguan Yuan into the fields felt wrong however he thought about it.
Besides, Qiguan Yuan could now be considered his God of Wealth-even more so than Pei Yubai.
"No," Meng Xu said. "You're a special guest. You don't need to do the daily tasks."
Qiguan Yuan nodded. "All right."
Meng Xu left.
Qiguan Yuan turned and walked over to Pei Yubai. Pei Yubai was standing beside a pillar of the drum tower, replying to messages on his phone.
As Qiguan Yuan approached, Pei Yubai looked up.
"Then how about I keep you company?" Qiguan Yuan said.
Pei Yubai glanced at him, but his thoughts were much the same as Meng Xu's.
Whatever color Qiguan Yuan wore, wherever he stood, the words "manual labor" had nothing to do with him.
Besides, he didn't want Qiguan Yuan doing these things either.
"No need," Pei Yubai said. "I'll do it myself."
Qiguan Yuan looked at him, his expression barely changing, but he stepped forward with a meaningful look. "What makes you think I'd help you?"
"The most basic requirement for a competent part... companion is excellent stamina. Pei Yubai, you can finish it on your own, can't you?"
Pei Yubai said nothing. Qiguan Yuan raised his hand and brushed aside a lock of hair hanging over his forehead.
His fingers slid past Pei Yubai's temple, his fingertips cool and his touch light. "I want to see how you complete your tasks. May I?"
Qiguan Yuan lowered his voice a little. "Don't you want to be able to see me whenever you like?"
Pei Yubai looked into Qiguan Yuan's eyes. His reflection was there in those pale eyes, tiny but clear.
He saw a hint of slyness in them, like a cat that had stolen a fish, harboring a little mischief.
Pei Yubai reached out and caught Qiguan Yuan's wrist. Not tightly, just enough to hold it.
Qiguan Yuan's wrist was slender enough for his fingers to circle easily.
Qiguan Yuan glanced down at his captured hand, then looked back up at Pei Yubai.
He neither pulled away nor spoke. After a while, he curled his fingers and lightly scratched Pei Yubai's palm. "Lead the way, Pei Yubai."
Pei Yubai let go, slipped his hand into his trouser pocket, and turned to leave.
Qiguan Yuan followed him, and the two walked back along the flagstone path.
When they reached the stilt house, Pei Yubai stopped and looked back at Qiguan Yuan.
"The fish we caught yesterday are still alive in the water vat, so there's no need to catch fish today. We'll gather mushrooms."
Qiguan Yuan nodded. "All right."
The two went upstairs. Pei Yubai took a bamboo basket from the kitchen and a small spade from the storeroom.
He put the spade into the basket and carried it downstairs. Qiguan Yuan followed at an unhurried pace.
The mountain behind the village lay to the north, about a fifteen-minute walk from the stilt house.
It was a dirt path, lined with weeds and shrubs that left grass seeds clinging to their trouser legs as they walked.
Pei Yubai led the way, with Qiguan Yuan beside him. Qiguan Yuan wasn't walking quickly, but his steps were light, making no sound on the dirt path.
The woods on the mountain were different from those in Cloud-Hidden Town.
The woods in Cloud-Hidden Town were dense, their canopies blocking out the sky and sun, their ground covered in fallen leaves. Walking into them was like entering another world.
The trees on the mountain behind the Village Above the Clouds were more scattered. Sunlight filtered through gaps in their canopies, and grass and low shrubs grew beneath them. It looked less like woods and more like a stretch of grassland divided by trees.
Mushrooms grew beneath tree roots and among the grass. Some hid under fallen leaves, with only their tops showing.
Pei Yubai crouched down and parted a clump of grass, revealing a few gray mushrooms.
They were small, with grayish-brown caps whose edges curled slightly. He cut them off at the base with the spade and put them into the basket. Qiguan Yuan crouched beside him, watching.
"Are these edible?" Qiguan Yuan asked.
Pei Yubai turned one of the mushrooms over to show him the gills beneath its cap. "These are. They're gray, with brown gills. The white ones aren't edible. Their gills are white."
Today's mushrooms were different from those the other day. These were meant to be eaten, so Pei Yubai didn't take the task lightly, carefully choosing varieties he recognized.
He picked only those he confirmed were nontoxic.
After listening to him, Qiguan Yuan stood, walked to a nearby pine tree, crouched down, and brushed aside the fallen leaves.
He saw a few white mushrooms, their caps snowy white and utterly flawless, as though fired from white porcelain.
These mushrooms really were pretty.
He picked one and examined it in his palm. It was small, its cap roughly two or three centimeters across, with a thin stem. The whole thing looked delicate.
"This one's pretty," Qiguan Yuan said.
Pei Yubai came over and glanced at it. "The prettier they are, the more poisonous they might be. This white kind could be poisonous."
Qiguan Yuan nodded to show he understood.
Pei Yubai went back to gathering mushrooms.
Qiguan Yuan didn't throw the mushroom away. Instead, he kept it in his palm and found another white mushroom of about the same size nearby.
Placed together, the two mushrooms looked like twins. Qiguan Yuan glanced at them and untied the red thread around his wrist.
The red thread looped around his fingers, dividing into two lengths that wound around the two mushroom stems.
He tied a knot that didn't look ordinary, winding it around and around before drawing it closed. The loose ends dangled and swayed gently in the breeze, looking very pretty.
The red thread linked the two mushrooms together, like a pair of tethered little things.
He lifted them and examined them against the light.
He was satisfied.
When Pei Yubai finished gathering mushrooms, he noticed that Qiguan Yuan had remained motionless in the same position.
He walked over and stood beside Qiguan Yuan, following his gaze to the two mushrooms tied together.
Holding up the mushrooms, Qiguan Yuan turned to Pei Yubai. "Pretty?"
Pei Yubai was silent for two seconds before answering, "Pretty."
Qiguan Yuan put the two mushrooms on the ground and stood up.
He didn't pick any more mushrooms.
Qiguan Yuan was lazy and didn't want to keep holding them.
Pei Yubai continued gathering, moving a little faster than before, crouching to pick any mushrooms he recognized. Soon the basket was half full.
Qiguan Yuan stood nearby, watching Pei Yubai bend and straighten among the grass.
He waited for him very patiently.
Pei Yubai straightened and walked back with the basket. "That's enough. Let's head back."
Qiguan Yuan nodded.
The two retraced their steps. Halfway back, Pei Yubai suddenly remembered something.
"I promised the village elder yesterday that I'd help him transplant rice seedlings. That work isn't suitable for the female guests, so I took it on."
"The village elder will give us rice once the seedlings are transplanted. Ji Shiyu is cooking, and Shen Yuzhou is helping. Cheng Yanqiu and the other two women are picking vegetables. Once I finish transplanting the seedlings, we'll have enough ingredients for today."
He told Qiguan Yuan that he would be transplanting rice seedlings next.
Qiguan Yuan gave a hum of acknowledgment.