Wen Jiu's ears burned. "If you want to learn, then learn."
Had he ever said he wouldn't teach him?
Village Chief Liu couldn't stand watching their sickening sweetness and moved aside.
He had a task today too. This pair of guests was doing fine, but he still had to check on the other groups and teach them to harvest rice.
For example, Lin Shuheng's group.
The two of them were still rooted in the field, staring blankly at the plot above.
Village Chief Liu knew nothing about their tangled loves and grudges. He simply took the sickle from Lin Shuheng and began teaching.
Li Peiqi watched from the side, but his gaze kept straying toward Wen Jiu.
Sickle in hand, the young man smiled brightly among the golden ears of rice.
Who knew what the man said next, but it drew a reproachful look from him. His vivid red lips opened and closed as he spoke, the blush on his face deepening until he looked like a peach blossom.
The wind blew, and the ears of rice swayed across the fields.
[Screenshot, screenshot! Fuck, I'm so moved my tears are flowing out of my mouth.]
[What kind of heavenly romance is this? How can two people look so perfect just standing together?]
[Cameraman, move closer! Let me hear what the actual couple is saying.]
[Feng Chi: How many times tonight? Wen Jiu: Seven. No more than that.]
The sight of their tender affection deeply stung Li Peiqi's eyes. He narrowed them and started toward them.
"Who gave you the nerve to covet my wife?"
Li Peiqi's steps faltered.
In the dark night, the man's silhouette had almost merged with the darkness.
His ink-black eyes glanced coldly over, chilling him to the bone.
He heard himself lose his composure and demand:
"Yes, I'm despicable, but what about you? Aren't you using him too?"
"You knew I was going to drug him. I wanted to sleep with him, but did you protect him that night? Didn't you take every advantage of him?"
"The only difference is that you were the one who slept with him. You're just as despicable as I am!"
"There's no difference!"
He was hysterical, ridiculous as a clown, while the man's expression remained indifferent. Aside from the growing darkness in his eyes, his bearing remained cold, reserved, and elegant.
"Do you know what the difference between us is?"
The moment the man spoke, his mockery was devastating. "You can't compare to me in any way."
"You!"
"He likes handsome, pretty people. You don't even meet his standards for looks. You look like a pig, yet you keep shoving yourself in front of him, imagining that antagonizing him will get his attention?"
The man's thin lips curved into a cold smile as he looked down at him. "Idiot!"
Wen Jiu looked soft and delicate, but he actually had a tough personality. He grew stronger against strong opponents and would never submit to anyone.
All Li Peiqi's years of slowly boiling the frog had done was push him farther away.
Only by putting himself in the weaker position could he draw Wen Jiu's attention.
As Feng Chi spoke, he suddenly remembered a passage he had once read and let out a low laugh.
"Confessions are for children.
Adults, please go straight to seduction.
The first step of seduction: abandon your humanity.
Basically, there are three approaches.
Become a cat. Become a tiger.
Become a soaking-wet dog..."
(-Yuji Sakamoto, "Quartet")
A pretty kitty who acted spoiled and played hard to get, a strong, domineering tiger full of possessiveness, and a dog who inspired tender affection.
More than enough to keep Wen Jiu in his grasp.
"All right, I'm going back to see my wife. I don't have time to waste talking to you."
Feng Chi narrowed his phoenix eyes and warned coldly, "If I ever see you getting close to my wife again, I won't mind making the Li Family disappear entirely."
Li Peiqi gritted his teeth. He had already pissed off that lunatic Feng Chi anyway. If he was dead either way, he might as well do as he pleased!
"Hey-where are you going?"
Village Chief Liu turned around to find Li Peiqi already gone.
Watching the direction he had taken, Lin Shuheng's eyes filled with jealous resentment.
Why was it Wen Jiu again?
Back in the group, the captain and the other members had favored him. Now everyone on the variety show was doing the same.
Why did the whole world have to revolve around him?
Wen Jiu had patiently managed to teach this fussy, hard-to-please spoiled darling, only to turn around and find another person standing behind him.
"What are you doing here? Looking for a beating?"
Feng Chi narrowed his eyes, and the curve of his lips instantly vanished.
Li Peiqi had rushed over in the heat of the moment. Now, faced with the big shot's freezing gaze, he felt a little intimidated again.
He stammered, "I-I don't know how to harvest either. Could you teach me? Even a demonstration would do."
Wen Jiu: ...What the hell?
Feng Chi's patience snapped. He was about to stand when a hand pressed his shoulder back down.
Wen Jiu stood in front of him and said to the person before them, "What the hell is wrong with you now?"
Wasn't he usually so full of himself?
Now he was acting all humble.
Li Peiqi said, "Village Chief Liu can't teach everyone by himself..."
"Village Chief Liu?" Wen Jiu glanced over.
That seemed to work. Delighted, Li Peiqi was about to keep playing pitiful when this guy put his hands on his hips-
"Hahahahaha!"
Li Peiqi: ?
"Village Chief Liu is so smart, and even he can't teach you? Hahaha, how did someone as dumb as you become a domineering CEO?"
Li Peiqi: ?? Had he just said he couldn't learn?
"Look, even Feng Chi learned!"
Wen Jiu looked at Feng Chi with the pride of a schoolteacher boasting that the top student in his class was guaranteed to get into Tsinghua. He patted his shoulder affectionately. "Come on, show him what a real domineering CEO looks like."
Feng Chi hadn't missed Li Peiqi's stunned expression. All his hostility vanished, and like a well-behaved child, he neatly cut a handful of rice stalks and showed Wen Jiu.
Wen Jiu proudly gave him a thumbs-up. "Great job!"
Li Peiqi's mouth twitched. "You spent so long teaching him. Of course he learned. If you taught me, I could do it in half the time."
Feng Chi's heart lurched. He feared his straight-guy wife would rise to the challenge and actually agree to teach him.
He was about to offer to teach him himself when he heard Wen Jiu's surprised voice. "Why should I teach you? What does it have to do with me whether you know how?"
"Do you think I'm stupid? I'd love it if nobody in your group knew how, so you'd stay firmly in last place and I could watch you embarrass yourselves, hahahaha!"
With that director's wicked streak, who knew what ruthless dirty trick he might devise?
"I'll stand on the sidelines and record you embarrassing yourselves, then post it every time I see you. Keep flogging your corpses, hahaha!"
Li Peiqi: ...
Feng Chi: ...Mm, he could relax now.
So there was that too.
Shen Huaian said, "Pfft, hahaha! I want to film it too!"
Li Peiqi gritted his teeth. "Is it really okay to have such double standards?"
Everyone online had to be cursing him.
Wen Jiu glanced at him and smiled. "So what if I have double standards? You're not in our group."
He all but pointed at his nose and called him shameless.
"Move, move! Get back to your own field and figure it out. Don't even think about slowing me down!" With that, he waved his sickle to chase him away.
[I'm dying. I love how wicked wifey is. He really saves us all the worry.]
[Wen Jiu: China's famous double-standard brand ambassador.]
[Even President Feng couldn't hold back his laugh, hahaha. I'll bet a pack of spicy strips that President Feng heard that as him belonging to Wen Jiu!]
[Isn't that exactly what wifey meant? [lights cigarette] He's finally getting somewhere.]
[Fuck, I'm crying. President Feng must be over the moon. Wifey finally gets it.]
[Excellent. Lasting CP's position is secure. Who protected it? Oh, the actual person stepped in to defend it himself. All good, then. [ascends to heaven]]
"Get harvesting! Why are you looking at me?"
After chasing him away, Wen Jiu met the man's smiling gaze. He couldn't help blushing under it and ducked his head to keep harvesting rice.
"I'm aiming for first place!"
Feng Chi was still smiling. "Okay."
The ideal was full, but reality was bony. Wen Xiaojiu had started out brimming with fighting spirit, harvesting a patch like a little electric motor chugging away, but then he couldn't go on.
A solemn declaration: it wasn't that he couldn't handle it. His bladder couldn't.
"I can't hold it! Where's the toilet?"
Wen Jiu stood and looked around. There were roads and fields everywhere nearby, without a house in sight.
If he'd known, he wouldn't have drunk that bottle of water!
Feng Chi came over too, taking a wet wipe from his pocket to wipe his sweat.
"We might have to look along the road we came here on."
"Boohoo, why am I so unlucky?" Wen Jiu asked him, "Don't you need to pee?"
Feng Chi shook his head and said considerately, "I'll go with you."
It was nearly noon, and the sun was blazing. Feng Chi was sweating all over too.
Sweat beaded on his cool, pale face, making him look even prettier. A flush rose to his cheeks, like fine porcelain.
He was clearly unbearably hot himself, yet he was still wiping Wen Jiu's sweat. For a moment, Wen Jiu felt both warmed and distressed for him.
"Hurry up and wipe yourself." Wen Jiu dodged his hand and said bashfully, "I'll go myself. Sit in the shade and rest."
Feng Chi took the pack of wet wipes from his pocket and made to pull out another.
He simply wouldn't wipe himself.
Wen Jiu grew so anxious that he snatched the wet wipe from Feng Chi's hand, unfolded it, and rose onto his toes to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
Feng Chi blinked and obediently lowered his head.
He felt so comfortable that his eyes narrowed.
[Oh my, I can hardly watch. [covers eyes, spreads fingers]]
[It's like a pretty kitty wiping sweat off a gentle golden retriever. How is President Feng so well behaved?]
[I never would've guessed. President Feng is a master at reeling in his wife.]
[Hahaha, An'an is peeking from behind them too. Hubby, can't you feel the sweat getting in your eyes?]
[I'm dying. An'an really is giving it his all to ship them without disturbing them.]
Feng Chi said, "But I'm worried about you. I'd better go with you."
Wen Jiu half pushed him into a seat in the shade beside the road, patting his chest in assurance like a husband settling his wife and children. "Don't worry. I'll be right back. It won't take long."
"Be good and wait here for me."
[Genuinely confused. Can't wifey just pee somewhere? Find a place with nobody around.]
[Hahaha, enough, commenter above. Doesn't wifey have an idol image to maintain?]
Just then, Village Chief Liu came over, fanning himself with his straw hat. Teaching Lin Shuheng and the others had worn him out, and he wanted to escape home for a rest.
Hearing Wen Jiu say he needed the toilet, he immediately volunteered. "I'll take you. Old Wang's house is the closest. Let's go there."
Old Wang was the elderly man who had taught him to catch fish that morning. Wen Jiu remembered him. "Mm-hmm!"
Half an hour later, Wen Jiu had finished using the toilet and Village Chief Liu had finished drinking his water before they saw Old Wang return from the fields.
He was even driving a rice harvester.
It rattled along, leaving a trail of muddy tracks on the concrete road.
Wen Jiu's eyes lit up.
He went over to the doorway to look. "Is this your farm machinery?"
"Yes. What's the matter?"
Wen Jiu's eyes shifted, and he chuckled.