But when they went outside, they found no one in the living room.
Qiguan Yuan didn't ask any further questions.
Pei Yubai came out a while later with his phone and explained, "They went to film the other guests waking up."
The sound of running water came from the kitchen; it was Ji Shiyu.
He was the guest who was woken up after Pei Yubai and Qiguan Yuan. After being woken up, he thought about it and got up anyway. He is now making breakfast.
Shen Yuzhou's room door was closed, and there was no sound from inside.
Ji Shiyu explained, "The photography teacher went to Little Shen's room earlier, but he couldn't get up and was still lying in bed."
Pei Yubai nodded.
Qiguan Yuan walked to the window, picked up the two mushrooms tied with red threads, and looked at them.
The mushroom is still alive; its cap has opened up and it's a size bigger than yesterday. The white gills are layered neatly.
Ji Shiyu made three breakfasts first, and the three of them ate them.
After finishing breakfast, Qiguan Yuan looked at Ji Shiyu and felt quite fond of him.
Anyone who can make delicious food deserves praise.
Qiguan Yuan, while pondering what he should bestow upon Ji Shiyu, went out the door and downstairs.
Pei Yubai followed behind him.
The two of them walked downstairs one after the other. The stone path was still wet, and the dew hadn't dried.
Qiguan Yuan walked slowly, with Pei Yubai walking beside him, about half a step away.
" Pei Yubai, do you have any tasks for today?" Qiguan Yuan asked.
Pei Yubai glanced at his phone.
Meng Xu sent a message in the group.
"After being woken up, we need to go to the center of the village to assemble on our own."
Pei Yubai conveyed the general meaning of Meng Xu.
The two walked to an open space in the middle of the village.
The village elder was already standing under the old locust tree, with a long table beside him, on which were several bamboo tubes and a pile of red silk ribbons.
Soon after, the other guests arrived one after another.
Shen Yuzhou yawned, Cheng Yanqiu held a glass of water, Lin Yanru carried a notebook, Ji Shiyu walked at the back, and Jiang Wantang followed behind him, with two people between them.
After all the guests, including the village elder, had arrived, he tapped the ground three times with his bamboo cane.
The sound wasn't loud, but everyone heard it.
In this episode, the village elder, as envisioned by Meng Xu, is a character similar to an NPC in the Miao village.
"Today is Sisters' Day," the village elder said, speaking slowly and with a heavy accent.
The guests listened attentively to the village elder's introduction, pausing to hear every word. The Sisters' Festival was a very new and unfamiliar concept to them.
"The Miao people's Sisters' Festival is one of the most important days of the year. Young people sing and dance on this day, and try to find their sweethearts. You're lucky to have caught it."
Shen Yuzhou stood up from the ground, looking a bit more alert. "What are we supposed to do?"
The village elder pointed to the bamboo tubes and red silk on the table. "Learn the Lusheng dance. During the Sisters' Festival, you must dance with the villagers. It doesn't matter if you don't dance well, but you can't not know how."
Shen Yuzhou looked at the bamboo tubes, then at the red silk.
The bamboo tube is a reed pipe, made of bamboo, and varies in length, the longest reaching a person's waist and the shortest only arm's length.
The sheng pipe is engraved with patterns, bound with thin bamboo strips, and has a copper spring inserted at the top.
The village elder picked up the longest reed pipe and held it up. His fingers were short and thick with large knuckles, but he held the reed pipe very steadily. He blew a note.
The sound was soft and muffled, as if something was coming from a great distance, with the ending note rising in pitch.
"The lusheng isn't just something to be played." The village elder put the lusheng down.
"You also need to dance. Blowing and dancing must be done together. Step on the beat with your feet, blow the tune with your mouth, the two cannot be separated."
Shen Yuzhou picked up the shortest lusheng (a type of reed pipe instrument), held it to his lips, and blew a single note. The sound was like a chicken being killed.
Cheng Yanqiu covered her ears.
Ugh~ That's a really unpleasant, mocking sound.
Qiguan Yuan stood in the shade of the old locust tree, looking at the reed pipes on the long table.
He didn't reach out to take it, he just looked at it; Qiguan Yuan wasn't particularly interested in the lusheng.
Shen Yuzhou blew again, this time a little better than before, at least it didn't sound like he was killing a chicken, but it still wasn't quite right, and the child squatting next to him couldn't help but giggle.
Shen Yuzhou didn't feel ashamed at all. He held up the reed pipe and made a face at the children, who laughed even louder.
Qiguan Yuan watched the laughing little children for a while, then stepped out of the shadows and walked to the children's side. He didn't take the lusheng (a traditional reed pipe instrument); instead, he squatted down in front of them.
The children immediately rushed up and surrounded him.
They still remember this handsome older brother who looked like a god.
"Can you dance?" Qiguan Yuan asked.
The children's voices rang out in unison. "Yes!"
The girl with her hair in a small bun squeezed to the front, looked up at Qiguan Yuan with bright eyes, and exclaimed, "I can dance! I'll dance for you, brother!"
She straightened her back, stood on her tiptoes, raised her small hands above her head, and spun around.
The other children joined in the spinning. Qiguan Yuan sat on the ground, watching them spin.
Several children bumped into each other while jumping around, bursting into laughter.
Qiguan Yuan reached out and helped a little girl who had fallen down brush the dust off her skirt.
He was always very patient with cute little kids.
Qiguan Yuan poked this child and that child, feeling their soft cheeks, and smiled with his eyes crinkling.
The little girl looked up at him, and after a while, suddenly asked, "Brother, are you a fairy?"
Qiguan Yuan shook his head. "Do you think my brother is a god?"
The little girl nodded firmly. "The handsome brother must be a god, because he has hair that none of us have."
Qiguan Yuan ruffled her hair. "Then your brother is a god."
The little girl reached out and touched Qiguan Yuan's silver hair that fell over his shoulder, then pulled her own hair up to look at it; it was black.
She wrinkled her nose and tucked her hair back in. Qiguan Yuan watched her move and smiled slightly, "Black looks good too."
The little girl was happy again and ran into the group of children.
The village elder distributed the lusheng (a type of reed pipe instrument) to everyone.
Ji Shiyu stood in the open space with a lusheng (a traditional reed pipe instrument), watching how the children next to him operated it, and clumsily imitated them.
Jiang Wantang stood not far behind him, also holding a lusheng (a type of reed pipe instrument).
Seeing that Ji Shiyu couldn't produce a sound, she took a step closer and said, "Take a deep breath." Her voice wasn't loud, and it was meant for Ji Shiyu alone to hear.
Ji Shiyu moment, took a deep breath, blew a sound, and it made a sound.
Jiang Wantang retreated, returning to her original position, now two people away. Ji Shiyu held the lusheng (a traditional reed pipe instrument), but stopped playing it.
Qiguan Yuan could see clearly from next to the little baby.
"As for fate," he said slowly, his gaze falling on the guests learning the Lusheng dance, "Once it's broken, it's broken. To mend it, one person can't do it alone."
"If one person holds onto the thread and the other turns their back, the thread will never be reconnected. But if both ends are searching for each other, even if only a thin thread remains, there's still a chance."
In a space unseen by others, Lu Zhao stood resentfully to the side, watching Qiguan Yuan the moment he appeared.
Then, under the children's bright, sparkling eyes, he magically bestowed his beautiful feathers upon those wretched little brats.
However, Lu Zhao dared not say anything about Qiguan Yuan. His appearance was merely to see how far Qiguan Yuan had progressed.
As a result, not only did he get his hair pulled, but he also kept inexplicably feeling a chilling gaze fixed on him.
Lu Zhao was not mistaken; Pei Yubai was indeed staring at him.
Pei Yubai had been keeping an eye on Qiguan Yuan. Even though he couldn't see Lu Zhao, he could roughly guess that Qiguan Yuan was talking to him.
After seeing the situation, Lu Zhao returned home dejectedly.
Qiguan Yuan withdrew his gaze. He stood up and walked to Ji Shiyu's side.
" Ji Shiyu," Qiguan Yuan called his name.
Ji Shiyu turned to look at him.
Ji Shiyu was silent for a moment, then spoke first, "Let's talk over there."
Qiguan Yuan glanced at him, turned around, and walked to the other side of the old locust tree.
Ji Shiyu followed behind him. The two walked to the back of the tree, where they were a bit further from the open space, and the children's laughter could be heard a few steps away.
Ji Shiyu leaned against a thick tree branch, still holding the lusheng (a traditional reed pipe instrument) in his hand.
He thought for a moment about where to begin, and then spoke.
" Jiang Wantang and I grew up together. My house was next door to hers, separated by a low wall. When we were little, I would climb over the wall to go play with her."
"Once she fell and scraped her knee, and she was so scared she cried for a long time. It didn't actually hurt, but she cried so hard that I thought it really hurt." As he said this, the corner of his mouth twitched, not exactly a smile, just a slight movement.
"She's been dancing since she was little. In our small town, many children learn to dance, but she's the best one."
He paused for a moment. "It's not the kind that's best through hard work. She works hard too, but she's mostly natural. Her teacher said she was born to dance; she can learn a move after watching it once, even if it takes others three days to learn."
"I'm the same as her, yet different. I like music, but I wouldn't call myself particularly talented; I just like it."
"We said when we were little that we would stand together on the brightest stage. She would dance, and I would sing."
Qiguan Yuan listened without interrupting.
"We got together naturally during our adolescence. No one pursued anyone; it just happened naturally, as if it was always meant to be that way."
Ji Shiyu switched the lusheng to her other hand, looking at the patterns carved on the lusheng pipe. "Later, I was spotted by a talent scout and had to go abroad to study. The night before I left, I sat outside her dance studio all night. When she came out after practice, it was already very late, and I didn't dare to call her."
He paused, his throat bobbing. "I left a note with two words written on it: 'Wait for me.'"
He didn't say how long he waited that night, nor what happened afterward. He lowered his head, staring at the tips of his shoes.
"During those years abroad, we didn't keep in touch much. She was busy with competitions, and I was busy with training. The time difference and distance meant we gradually stopped talking. But at the time, I thought it was okay; I figured things would be fine once I finished my studies and went back."
"Later I returned to China." His voice lowered slightly. "I debuted and became famous."
The company packaged me as an idol and forbade me from dating.
I have to wear a mask when I go out, and even talking to someone of the opposite sex gets me filmed and made into a news story. My schedule is booked a year in advance, and I don't even have time to sleep.
He finally raised his head and looked at the canopy of the old locust tree. The leaves were dense, and sunlight filtered through the gaps, falling on his face. "She wants to see me, but she can't. I want to see her, but I don't dare to. I'm afraid of being photographed, afraid of implicating her, afraid that people will point fingers at her because of me."
"The day she broke up with me, I was performing out of town. After the performance, I saw her message and stared at it for a long time without replying. I admit I did feel a sense of relief at that moment."
His voice lowered even further. "It's not because I don't love her anymore, it's because I don't know how to continue. Idols can't date. My every move is being watched. She has to stand on the international stage; she shouldn't have to endure malicious attacks from fans."
"Later, she won a major international award for a dance. I saw the news; she was standing on the podium, holding the trophy, smiling beautifully."
Qiguan Yuan looked at him.
"I'm 27 years old, no longer young, and the company finally agreed to let me transition into acting because I can no longer be a singer. Actually, I've never really been a singer."
"It's just that I like to describe myself that way."
"But after I actually did all that, I went from being an idol to an actor, from being the center of attention to becoming just another name that wasn't very popular."
She's not there anymore. It's not that she left, it's that too much has separated us.
Ji Shiyu looked at Qiguan Yuan: " Mr. Qiguan, that's what she calls you. I know she must have looked for you."
"You're the only one who's listening to our story. I'm sorry to have wasted so much of your time listening to my rambling. I just... don't know who else to tell."
Qiguan Yuan didn't speak immediately. He looked at Ji Shiyu's profile, his face flickering in and out of the shadows cast by the trees, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
"You've talked a lot about the past," Qiguan Yuan said. "And now?"
Ji Shiyu raised his head and looked at Qiguan Yuan.
Qiguan Yuan's expression remained calm, neither indifferent nor pitying, just very calm.
He stood there, his silver hair falling over his shoulders, his red clothes fluttering slightly in the wind.
At that moment, he truly resembled what netizens described as a celestial being.
" Mr. Qiguan, is it possible for things to be rekindled between her and me?"
Qiguan Yuan looked at him. "Weren't you there that day?"
He turned around, ready to leave, but after taking two steps, he said, "You should know the answer."
Ji Shiyu stood there, his hand gripping the lusheng tightly, his knuckles turning white. After a while, he switched the lusheng to his left hand, took a deep breath, and walked out from behind the old locust tree.
Jiang Wantang was still standing in the open space.
She watched Ji Shiyu emerge from behind the old locust tree, and Ji Shiyu looked back at her. The two stood a few steps apart, neither of them speaking.
The village elder tapped the ground three more times with his bamboo cane. "Come on, let's learn the Lusheng dance."
The team-up notification sounded, and Shen Yuzhou ran over and pulled Cheng Yanqiu Cheng Yanqiu towards the middle of the open space.
" Brother Ji, it's your turn. Hurry up and learn." Shen Yuzhou waved to Ji Shiyu. Ji Shiyu walked over, holding the lusheng in his hand, and stood in the middle of the crowd.
Qiguan Yuan sat back down under the old locust tree and watched them learn.
A red thread wrapped around his fingers.
This marriage can be rekindled.