The two left the Mushroom House, climbed onto the motorized tricycle, and bumped their way toward the village entrance.
The moment the vehicle stopped, Cheng Che spotted a familiar figure.
Xiao Zhou stood beneath the big banyan tree at the village entrance, holding a bag and waving at them.
Two cars were parked beside her, with several crew members standing nearby, apparently all waiting for them.
"Come on down." Xiao Zhou approached, pulled two black caps and two black masks from her bag, and handed each of them a set. "Put these on."
Cheng Che took them, a little bewildered.
Yan Ruanning had already put her cap and mask on with practiced ease. Looking back to find him still standing there in a daze, she explained with a smile:
"Of course we have to disguise ourselves. Even if we weren't celebrities, going out with all these cameras would draw a crowd. What if something happened once too many people gathered?"
Only then did Cheng Che understand, and he quickly put on his cap and mask.
He glanced aside and found that the camera crew were changing their appearances too.
The camera operators carrying large cameras packed away their equipment and switched to small cameras hanging at their chests.
Several crew members removed their jackets, revealing ordinary T-shirts underneath.
Even Xiao Zhou changed into an inconspicuous jacket.
Their movements were so practiced that they looked as if they had rehearsed a hundred times.
Cheng Che glanced again at the local man nearby.
The man sat on the tricycle with a cigarette between his lips, perfectly calm, showing no curiosity whatsoever.
A thought stirred in Cheng Che's mind, and he asked Yan Ruanning, "The production team hired this guy, didn't they?"
Yan Ruanning nodded. "Right. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that the moment you walked out, you met a local who just happened to be heading out and just happened to be driving a tricycle?"
Cheng Che marveled inwardly: I've still got a lot to learn. This all comes with experience.
Once everyone had changed, they got into the cars and headed into town.
After driving for ten or so minutes, the cars turned onto a street and stopped outside a market.
Cheng Che got out and surveyed the market before him.
It was rather different from the one in his hometown.
Back home, the market was just a row of roadside stalls, set up in the morning and packed away at noon.
This was a dedicated general food market, with a roof, permanent stalls, and even a live poultry section.
Yan Ruanning walked ahead, making her way inside with familiarity.
Cheng Che followed beside her with both hands in his pockets, then unconsciously reached up to touch his cap.
He had never worn one of these things growing up, and it always felt a little uncomfortable on his head.
The two entered the market, with the crew trailing far behind and keeping their distance.
There were quite a few people in the market, many wearing masks, since the live chicken and duck section was right next door, and the air carried a mingled smell of fresh food and poultry.
Yan Ruanning stopped at a vegetable stall.
"How much are the tomatoes?"
"Four yuan fifty a jin."
"Would four do?" Yan Ruanning picked up a tomato and turned it over in her hand. "Your tomatoes don't look all that great. They're already soft on the outside."
"Four twenty. I can't go any lower. These tomatoes were just picked this morning."
"Four. I'll buy a few more."
The vendor sighed and waved a hand. "Fine, fine. Four. Pick whichever you want."
Yan Ruanning lowered her head and carefully selected tomatoes, her fingers moving among them as she murmured, "This one's too green," and "This one's a little bruised."
Standing beside her, Cheng Che found it rather novel.
He had been to markets growing up, but he had rarely bought anything himself.
His family ran a breakfast shop, and buying groceries was his mother's job. At most, he carried the bags.
This was his first time watching a celebrity bargain and select vegetables as skillfully as Yan Ruanning from up close.
"What are you looking at?" Yan Ruanning asked without lifting her head.
"Nothing," Cheng Che said. "I just think you're pretty good at grocery shopping."
"I've been going to the market with my mom since I was little." Yan Ruanning handed the tomatoes she had selected to the vendor to weigh. "I kept it up after I started working too. Sometimes, when things get too busy, I go by myself, wearing a mask and cap, just like today."
She paid and handed the bag to Cheng Che.
Cheng Che took it, and the two moved on to the next stall.
As he walked, he suddenly sensed something odd about the looks around them.
People in the market were starting to glance their way frequently.
Some older women stopped and tilted their heads to study them.
Some young people raised their phones and secretly took pictures.
A meat vendor still held a knife in his hand, but his eyes followed them as they walked.
Cheng Che thought about it and decided it was only natural.
It was hard for him and Yan Ruanning to walk through a market without attracting attention.
He wasn't being narcissistic.
He stood 182 centimeters tall, with good posture, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. The skin visible between his mask and cap was strikingly fair.
Yan Ruanning went without saying, with her full bust and curving hips. Though her face was covered, her figure and bearing stood out at a glance in a crowd.
Besides, once enough people gathered, his passive [Stars Surrounding the Moon] activated, drawing their eyes.
On top of that, the townspeople already knew a variety show was being filmed nearby. Seeing the two of them like this, they more or less guessed who they were.
Cheng Che found it novel, and something fluttered inside him.
Yan Ruanning, however, was used to it.
She even had enough attention to spare after choosing the vegetables to straighten Cheng Che's crooked cap.
By the time a stir began spreading through the market, they had finished shopping, and Cheng Che was heading outside with two large bags.
As they reached the market entrance, a girl came running toward them.
She looked eighteen or nineteen, with a ponytail and a floral dress, holding up her phone, her eyes sparkling.
She ran up to Cheng Che, but just as she was about to speak, she lifted her head and met his eyes.
Those eyes showed beneath the brim of his cap, clear and clean, as though they held all the stars in an entire night sky.
The whites were very white, his pupils a deep black, and when his gaze settled on her face, it carried an unguarded smile.
The girl opened her mouth.
"Um... I..."
She forgot her lines.
She had meant to ask for a photo together.
She didn't know who the person before her was, but judging by his build and bearing, combined with the variety show filming nearby, he was most likely a celebrity.
Taking a photo with a celebrity and posting it on her Moments would give her something to show off.
But when she saw those eyes, every thought of "a photo together" was washed out of her mind.
She simply stood there blankly, her face slowly reddening from the roots of her ears.
Seeing that she neither moved nor spoke, Cheng Che nodded to her and walked outside with the bags.
Yan Ruanning reacted quickly, catching his wrist and saying softly, "Let's go."
The two quickly left the market.
It took the girl more than ten seconds to come back to her senses. Then she shyly covered her cheeks and murmured:
"I'm going to fall in love with him... Which celebrity is he...?"
The two ran away from the market and turned into a nearby alley. Panting, Yan Ruanning raised her head and leaned against the wall, looking at Cheng Che.
"How are you not tired?"
"I play tennis. How could this tire me out?"
"Then your body must be pretty..."
Whatever came to Yan Ruanning's mind, her little face flushed.
She averted her gaze, swept her eyes over Cheng Che's body, then frowned.
"What are you wearing?"
At her words, Cheng Che looked down at himself in confusion.
A black T-shirt, dark casual trousers, and white shoes.
"What's wrong?"
"It's not bad, but I wouldn't call it good either." Yan Ruanning looked him up and down, her gaze blazing like a torch. "Never mind. Let's shop a little more."
Thinking there was still something she hadn't bought, Cheng Che followed her onward.
The two turned out of the alley and entered a clothing shop along the street.
Seeing this, the crew members following behind excitedly patted one another's arms and whispered.
"They're about to hand out sugar. Hurry up and follow!"
The clothing shop in town wasn't large, and none of its clothes were name brands, but it had plenty of styles.
Yan Ruanning browsed the racks for a while, pulled out several pieces, and pushed them into Cheng Che's hands.
"Go try these on."
Cheng Che understood. She thought he dressed badly.
But he didn't mind. His sense of style really wasn't great.
Since someone was helping him, he was happy to let her, so he carried the clothes into the fitting room.
The first outfit was a light gray sweatshirt with dark jeans.
He came out, and Yan Ruanning took one look before shaking her head:
"Too ordinary. You already have a youthful air. Wearing this just makes you look ordinary instead."
The shopkeeper smiled beside them. "Miss, aren't your standards for your boyfriend a little too high? He's a walking clothes hanger in anything."
Yan Ruanning blushed, but her mask covered most of her face. She cleared her throat. "Try something else."
The second outfit was a white short-sleeved shirt with a light blue casual jacket.
Yan Ruanning looked for two seconds, then shook her head again. "It makes you look broad. Your shoulders are already broad. Adding a jacket makes your whole body look too bulky."
Cheng Che could only go back and change again.
The third outfit was a fitted black short-sleeved shirt under a thin, dark gray cardigan, paired with black cargo pants.
When he emerged, the shop fell quiet for a moment.
Cheng Che stood before the mirror and looked at himself. The outfit defined his shoulder line and waist, and the casually open cardigan added more depth than before without being cumbersome.
Yan Ruanning stared at him for quite a while before nodding. "This one works."
The shopkeeper clicked her tongue beside them. "This outfit really is good, but it's also because he has such a good figure. Most people couldn't get that effect."
Yan Ruanning ignored her, paid, packed Cheng Che's old clothes into a bag, and handed it to him.
Cheng Che took the bag, and a strange thought surfaced in his mind.
It seemed that all the money spent on him today had come from Yan Ruanning.
She had paid for the groceries and the clothes, while he carried things and followed her around. It felt like someone was taking him shopping.
Living off a woman.
When those words surfaced in his mind, he actually thought... it felt pretty good.
Carrying bags large and small, the two returned to the local man's tricycle and climbed aboard.
The man twisted the throttle, and the tricycle puttered back.
The wind blew past, sending Yan Ruanning's hair streaming behind her.
Sitting in the jolting cargo bed, she softly began to hum. The tune formed no song, as though she was humming at random, and the wind broke it into fragments.
Cheng Che sat beside her, watching the scenery along the road.
Field ridges, bamboo groves, and distant mountains.
The countryside around Hang City was different from his hometown. It was more orderly and more delicate here; even the field ridges were neatly aligned.
But that feeling of the countryside was the same.
As Yan Ruanning hummed, she suddenly stopped.
She turned her head and looked at the young man beside her.
The wind had tousled his fringe a little, exposing his clean forehead.
That was how he looked without a cap. With one on, most of his face was hidden, leaving only the contours of his profile and that stretch of fair, clean nape visible.
He was looking into the distance, his thoughts unknown, his gaze quiet, as though he were looking somewhere very far away.
Yan Ruanning suddenly remembered a poem.
You stand on a bridge, watching the scenery,
The person watching the scenery watches you from upstairs.
The bright moon adorns your window,
You adorn someone else's dream.
She recited it once in her mind, remembered the words she had sent him-"I stand on the stage, watching the scenery"-and lowered her head with a smile.
The wind lifted her hair, and a few strands brushed Cheng Che's shoulder.
He said nothing, only watched.
The tricycle puttered onward, the scenery on either side of the road receding behind them.
Just as it had on the way there.