Ch302 - Tour Group (4)

Because of the chief director’s stupidity and boldness, they still did not get enough single rooms in the end, so everyone drew lots to decide who would get the single room. Because they could not trust each other, they even got He Jun to write the lots and be responsible for ensuring that no cheating was involved.

The chief director sighed, “I really don’t understand you guys.”

Why does drawing lots have to be so solemn?

Everyone thought they were on a variety show except the parties themselves.

In the end, Wen Li and Chen Shen shared a room, Shan Chuan and Ke Bei shared another room, and Butterfly was lucky enough to be alone. They dragged their luggage to their respective places of residence. Although Butterfly’s face was still expressionless, his steps seemed lighter.

“I hope there won’t be any problems.” With good thoughts in mind, Ren Yifei and Saman went to the house where they would stay for two days.

The owners were an enthusiastic middle-aged couple. The woman used a wheelchair and was in poor health, while the man took care of the house. However, they were still full of joy and expectation when they talked about their life.

“Our family’sNannanis away at university, but she’s so happy to know you’re coming. Can you sign for me?” The male host wiped his hands and took out a piece of letter paper from his pocket.

“Yes.” Ren Yifei took the piece of paper, and Saman handed him a pen. He signed his name on the paper and wrote blessings, wishing her good health, happiness and a bright future.

The male host was so happy that he did not even know where to put his hands, “Good, good, thank you.”

After that, Ren Yifei and Saman moved their luggage to the guest room.

The guest room was not large, with two single beds crammed in together, covered with snow-white quilts and pillows. There was a small nightstand in the middle of the beds, presumably placed there by the program crew. Saman directly walked over, dragged the nightstand out, and merged the two single beds into one.

The audience in the live broadcast room burst into a knowing laughter.

Everything was going very smoothly here, but elsewhere, there was one situation after another. Even He Jun, who had been causing very little trouble, encountered a little accident.

“No goose down quilts,” he told the staff seriously, “I’m not used to covering my body with the feathers of other birds. It would be weird.”

The staff blankly took away the soft goose-down pillows and quilts specially prepared: So why was it weird?

“What are you doing holding the quilt?” This staff member’s colleague saw them and was very curious.

“That’s right,” he explained everything regarding the quilt change, “I’ll go get a thin quilt. Even though it’s summer, it’s still easy to catch a cold with the air conditioner on.”

“It’s fine on your end; it’s just a matter of changing a quilt. The real trouble is on my end,” the other staff member sighed.

“What do you mean?” The people passing by were curious, “Is it really possible that there was a fight?”

“That’s not true,” the man waved his hand, “You’ll never guess how they decide who sleeps by the window.”

Everyone was even more curious, “What method? Arm wrestling? Rock, paper, scissors?”

“None of them,” he said with a complicated expression, “They memorised the Analects backwards, and whoever makes the first mistake loses.”

Everyone’s expressions were dazed for a moment, “Backwards?”

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“There’s no mistake. These two are simply terrifying; they’re fast and accurate.” The audience who happened to have the book ‘The Analects of Confucius’ on hand kept watching.

“The legendary backward recitation of the Analects. How bored do these two have to be to have nothing better to do than memorise the Analects backwards?”

The audience was also surprised. Not many people can memorise the Analects of Confucius these days, but they also have to memorise it backwards…… Is the game not fun, or was the video not interesting enough?

“Wait! That was wrong! Someone pronounced a word wrong. The results are out.”

The results were out.

Shan Chuan stopped reciting. He smiled slightly, picked up his suitcase and put it next to the single bed by the window, “You’ve let me win.”

Ke Bei knew where he was wrong as soon as the words left his mouth; it was a polyphonic word, which had another pronunciation. He often mispronounced this word. When he was a child, his teacher always used this pronunciation when teaching him and only later did he realise he was wrong when he took a test.

However, this word represents his forsaken past, which Ke Bei has never forgotten. He constantly remembers to reinforce the memories of that time, drawing energy in the form of hatred from it.

The hatred of those who abandoned him, those who ruined him, those who teased him— The hatred of the helpless past was the sustenance of his present growth.

“I’ve lost,” He said simply.

Ke Bei was so straightforward, but Shan Chuan was surprised, “I didn’t expect you’d slip up on this.”

“I knew it was a mistake, but I never bothered to correct it.”

“Why?”

Ke Bei raised the corners of his mouth. He did not answer but covered everything with a smile.

Seeing this, Shan Chuan did not ask any more questions. Everyone who came to the Cape of Desolation had stories, and usually, they were not willing to share those stories with others, nor were they interested in listening to others’ stories.

If they had not been in constant contact with each other over the years, Shan Chuan would not even ask ‘why’.

As for Chen Shen and Wen Li, there was no disagreement because one preferred to be by the window and the other preferred to be by the door. However, they were not like the usual girls who travel together and would chat, share snacks and gossip.

Wen Li took a book from her bag and put it on the nightstand table, while Chen Shen took out her phone and started browsing the news. The room was very quiet, with only the sounds of flipping pages and breathing; the atmosphere was solemn.

This went on until lunch was served.

The large round table coated with varnish was surrounded on all sides by five benches; one bench could seat two people. The guests sat casually, their eyes surveying the surroundings.

The place where the dinner was held was a large courtyard surrounded by similar newly renovated houses. It seemed to be the village’s newly renovated cultural palace, with plaques on all the houses.

“This village is newly renovated, so it is unsuitable for tourism development. As for the other bamboo forests, streams and valleys, one would have to see them to know.” Generally speaking, Ren Yifei thought this village had little potential to develop tourism, so it made perfect sense to take the handicraft route.

This could be regarded as adapting to local conditions. If you reside near mountains, you would rely on the mountains to eat, and if you reside near the sea, you would depend on the sea to eat. Thus, if you reside near a bamboo forest, you would rely on the bamboo to eat.

“Director, can I go and see how they make the bamboo products this afternoon? They won’t kick us out if we take advantage of the opportunity to steal their technique, right?”

The chief director was eating at another table, where their staff was also dining.

“That’s exactly what I asked for. We would pay to teach you,” the director replied. It was said that Ren Yifei was unsympathetic and unsociable, but looking at him now, wasn’t he quite good?

The director could not wait for them to carefully show the process and results of making bamboo products to more people. It would be great if some of the viewers became interested in placing an order.

In the south, where there is bamboo, there are bamboo craftsmen. Although the bamboo products here have their own characteristics, no one can say whether they would be a hit in the market.

“The food is served.” A tray of authentic farmhouse dishes was brought out. There were braised fish, fried golden tofu (fried firm tofu) with pickled vegetables, fried bean sprouts……

The program team was really refreshing and unpretentious. They said it would be farm food, and it really was farm food. The portions of each dish were very generous, and the cooking style was carefree without too much attention to detail details, which was very Jianghu style.

Ren Yifei picked up a generous portion of fried tofu. It was a piece of fried tofu cut into triangles and fried to a golden brown. It was simmered in pickled vegetable and bamboo shoot soup until it was utterly flavoured. Every small bubble contained a spoonful of thick, savoury soup flavour.

The blandness of the firm tofu nicely defuses the overpowering taste of the savoury dish and brings with it the freshness of the bamboo shoots. There was a subtle broth in every bite, making it a perfect accompaniment to rice.

In addition, there were also common home-cooked dishes, such as steamed salted duckeggs. The steamed salted egg was tender and white, like milky tofu, surrounding a round, warm yellow salted egg yolk, which could be eaten separately or alone.

Ren Yifei only liked salted egg yolks, and the whites of the salted eggs served during the Dragon Boat Festival, which he touched and broke when he was a child, were always quietly discarded.

Think about it now, he felt apologetic to his teacher since it was the teacher’s contribution. Unfortunately, after entering middle school, this extremely important Dragon Boat Festival activity was missing from his school life.

“Eat slowly and drink some soup,” Saman said as he scooped him a ladleful of loofah and egg soup, which was a clear soup with a verdant loofah and light yellow scrambled egg. It was obviously hot, but he felt hydrated and refreshed after drinking it.

“Luffa can reduce internal heat,” Ren Yifei said.

“Then what?” Saman figured there had to be something else following this statement.

“Since my internal heat has gone down, can I drink some iced Coke to balance it out?”

Luffa soup reduces the heat, while iced Coke increases the heat, plus one minus one equals zero; the logic was irrefutable. Ren Yifei, the new generation of ‘health guru’, started the tawdry practice of soaking goji in grape wine.

“……No, that would be like walking down a path to nowhere while being calcium-deficient.” Saman retaliated by scooping him another ladleful of loofah soup.

Kong Que was secretly observed for a long time. After watching them, he nodded secretly: I have learned.

He wanted to share some braised fish to give himself some extra points, but it was unknown whether it was due to a brain twitch or being too nervous, he actually scooped a ladleful ofloofah soupinto He Jun’s soup bowl, and even copied Saman’s words, “Eat some loofah to reduce internal heat.”

He Jun, “……?”

Kong Que, “……!”

“……” He Jun silently pushed the small bowl in front of Kong Que, “Grass, you eat it.” This ‘grass‘ was a real plant.

He Jun’s favourites were small dried fish, snails, and shrimps. He ate aquatic plants for nutritional balance, so there was nothing he could do about it. Except for the braised fish, which he picked up twice with his chopsticks, he only picked one portion of every other dish to taste on this table.

Luffa soup was a delicacy among humans, but it was just like a bowl of weed soup where He Jun was from. He really did not understand why Kong Que served him weed soup.

Kong Que, seated at the table, blushed and wished that time could rewind, but the others were still minding their own meals.

The players from the Cape of Desolation were not picky eaters. They could eat even more unpalatable dishes without changing their expressions, not to mention that the food on this table was well prepared. The audience in the live broadcast room just watched them eat all the dishes on the table, one scoop after the other, leaving only the vegetable soup.

“I’m done eating.” Ren Yifei placed his chopsticks on the bowl and turned to ask the director, “Where is the factory? Or are the products all made at home?”

The chief director told him the address.

“Wait a minute, little rabbit, I also want to see how bamboo products are made,” Wen Li said as she put down her chopsticks and wiped the corners of her mouth.

Everyone else also looked at the chief director.

“Is the old village from before still there? I’d like to see it.”

“Does this village have any old legends?”

“Where has the most animals around here?”

……

They were taking advantage of the other party, and it was not good to travel at the public’s expense and not take the mission seriously. However, not everyone was interested in making handicrafts. Some of them said they wanted to walk around the village, while others wanted to learn about the ancient legends of the village.

There was not just one way to promote this place.

“Can we stroll in the nearby mountains?” He Jun also put down his chopsticks. He wanted to find out if there was any eye-catching scenery here.

“Yes, of course,” the chief director said, overjoyed. He did not expect that each of these guests would be more dedicated than the other.

As the chief director and person in charge, he originally hoped that each guest would have a different route that would allow the audience to follow along with the guests to appreciate the beauty of this small village.

The purpose of this variety show had never been for the guests to have a better personal career, but for the village to get more attention.

“But you must be careful. Poachers are rumoured to be sighted around there.”