Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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When Hu Ying and the others were about to return to Cabin No. 1, Wen Nuo suddenly asked, “Were the people filming already in the car?”
Everyone was stunned for a moment upon hearing this.
“There were only the two of them in the car, no one in the back seat,” Lin Qingning said calmly.
He had actually discovered it a long time ago, but he just hadn’t said anything.
“Is it like you’re not even following the camera?” Huo Cheng frowned.
When he went on dates with Zhai Xingchen, they were always followed by photographers.
Did they all have paparazzi following them on their dates?
“Pei Xu won’t let us go,” Duan Yihua said.
They didn’t let any third person follow them; it was just the two of them.
Hu Ying took off his hat, smoothed his chestnut hair, and said, “Then we can stop having the cameramen follow us from now on.”
After he finished speaking, he went into the small house and began to clear the dining table.
Wen Nuo and Lin Qingning came over and said, “Let’s do it.”
Hu Ying kept his head down and didn’t say anything. He continued to quietly tidy up the table and took the plates to the sink to wash them.
After leaving Little Arctic, the car entered a winding mountain road.
Zhai Xingchen glanced at Pei Xu’s navigation and asked, “Are we going to the county town?”
Pei Xu grunted in agreement and said, “Let’s go to the county town first.”
Zhai Xingchen reached out and turned on the music. Pei Xu said, “Connect your phone and play the songs you want to listen to.”
Zhai Xingchen said, “I haven’t updated my playlist in a long time. Let me see if there are any good new songs.”
This car belonged to the production team. The person who drove this car before had a very mixed playlist, including folk songs and popular online songs. Zhai Xingchen was switching between songs one by one. When he switched to a certain song, Pei Xu suddenly said, “This song is good. It’s perfect for listening to while driving.”
Zhai Xingchen glanced at it; it was called “Sunset Boulevard.”
Then he heard a male voice singing: “I always dream of flying above the clouds, across the meridian.”
He sat back down and looked out the window as the song played. On the other side of the road was a cliff, and beyond the cliff were rolling snow-capped mountains. On the snow-capped mountains were villages with smoke rising from their chimneys, majestic yet desolate.
“Is this the kind of music you usually listen to?” he asked Pei Xu.
Pei Xu said, “I don’t actually listen to music much. Lately, I’ve been listening to Liu Shuang’s songs a lot.”
Zhai Xingchen simply said “Oh”.
Pei Xu smiled and said, “Really, I didn’t say that on purpose in front of you.”
Zhai Xingchen then asked, “Which of his songs do you like the most, ‘Mohe Dance Hall’?”
“Can I tell you the truth?” Pei Xu’s tone was not obsequious at all, but rather very sincere. He said, “Maybe it’s because I know he’s one of your favorite singers that I’m biased and think all his songs are good. I like them all.”
Zhai Xingchen smiled slightly, then turned to look out the window, recalling the first time he entered the Red and Blue House, when Pei Xu sat there indifferently, not even glancing at him.
Back then, Pei Xu was still the arrogant king.
Let’s look at it now.
He suddenly saw the production crew’s car through the rearview mirror.
It had very obvious red and blue markings.
Pei Xu said, “I told them not to follow, but they still secretly followed us.”
“The guests’ dates are very important to the production team,” Zhai Xingchen said. “Let them film if they want to.”
Pei Xu said, “I told the production team that I brought a handheld camera and we would film it ourselves. We would be more comfortable with one less person following us, and the production team agreed.”
After they arrived in the county town, the production crew’s car followed them from a distance. After they got out of the car, the production crew did not follow them.
Pei Xu, holding a handheld camera, glanced at the production crew’s vehicle, and immediately a staff member ran over.
“Brother Pei,” the other person said with a cautious smile.
“Didn’t you say we’d film it ourselves?” Pei Xu asked.
“Because we didn’t know where you were going today, the director said that in case there were places where it was inconvenient for you to film on your own, so we had them follow you. Don’t worry, we’ll try not to bother you, just pretend you didn’t see us!”
Zhai Xingchen smiled and said, “They’ve already gone this far, so just agree.”
The staff immediately gave Zhai Xingchen a grateful look.
They all knew Pei Xu’s personality, so at this moment, Zhai Xingchen’s words carried the most weight.
As expected, Pei Xu didn’t say anything more after hearing what Zhai Xingchen said.
Ha, he’ll be henpecked in the future!
As they watched the staff run back, Zhai Xingchen said, “Let’s go. Where should we go first?”
Pei Xu said, “Come with me.”
This was a small place, and they only had one day, so going to the city wasn’t very realistic. Fortunately, the tourism industry was well-developed here, and even though it was a small county town, there were many charming little shops.
The first place they went to was a place called “Old Time Workshop”.
This was a conservative and safe choice; it was the kind of date spot that eight out of ten dating shows would choose.
The staff immediately called Guo Bing and his team to inform them of the news.
“Old Times Workshop?”
“I just checked, and it’s a well-known local workshop that mainly does DIY crafts, such as pottery, aromatherapy, paper cutting, and mandala painting.”
Guo Bing said, “It’s alright, it’s still quite romantic.”
“It actually fits Pei Ge’s personality quite well,” a staff member said. “It’s just a little mediocre. I feel like if other guests were going on a date with Xingchen, they would most likely go to a place like this. It seems like we have guests going to places like this to do pottery every season.”
“Actually, spending the whole day on a first date is still risky, it takes too long,” screenwriter Liu said. “But too many activities will make the schedule too packed, and it will lose the original purpose of the date. This kind of time-consuming and romantic place is okay.”
The general consensus was that the reviews were acceptable.
Zhai Xingchen also thought the location was acceptable.
It was a location he had in mind.
He had watched too many dating reality shows. The dating locations in these shows were mostly romantic and atmospheric, such as making handicrafts together, going to amusement parks, having coffee at cafes, or going to bars. These were all common dating locations in dating reality shows.
As soon as they entered the store, staff members came to greet them.
However, the other party did not seem to have seen “Red and Blue Signal” and did not recognize them.
“I called you this morning,” Pei Xu said.
“Mr. Pei, is that right? Welcome, welcome.”
Pei Xu asked, “We’re recording a video, is it okay to film?”
“Sure, sure,” the other person said with a smile. “Many of our online celebrities come here to do live streams.”
However, he felt that these two handsome men did not seem like internet celebrities who came to do live streaming. Although they were both very good-looking, they just both looked too elegant.
“Please come with me, both of you.”
Zhai Xingchen followed the staff inside. Classic old love songs were playing in the shop. There weren’t many people in the workshop. In one corner, two couples were making pottery with the master, and a few other people wearing gloves were making rings around a table. Zhai Xingchen glanced around and saw that the shop offered pottery, DIY silver jewellery, painting, aromatherapy, flower arranging, and more.
There were many kinds.
He was very curious about what Pei Xu had chosen.
The shop assistant led them to a wooden table by the window and handed them over to a pretty young lady.
Zhai Xingchen was immediately amazed when she saw the things on the table.
He never imagined that Pei Xu would ask him to do something so unique to this area: tree bark painting.
“Is it alright?” Pei Xu asked.
Zhai Xingchen said, “Before I came here, my parents told me to buy some local souvenirs. I even searched online and heard that birch bark paintings are very famous in Little Arctic and are an intangible cultural heritage.”
Pei Xu smiled and said, “As long as you like it.”
Zhai Xingchen looked excitedly at the several bark paintings that had already been made on the table: “Are these all made of bark?”
The young lady probably didn’t expect the two guests to be so handsome, and her face turned a little red. She lowered her head and said gently, “Yes, they are all made of birch bark[1]. Our bark paintings are very suitable as souvenirs. Their biggest feature is that they last a lifetime and never fade.”
Those bark paintings were truly exquisite, especially one of the deer paintings, with seven or eight deer in different poses, all lifelike.
Pei Xu placed the camera opposite him and sat down with Zhai Xingchen to learn how to make bark paintings from the young lady.
Making bark paintings was not complicated; it mainly required scissors, knives, tweezers, and glue. However, making them intricate was not easy.
“Let’s make the simplest small paintings. You can look at our photo album and see what you want to make.”
“I want to do this deer,” Zhai Xingchen said.
He felt that this had a local flavor.
He looked at Pei Xu and asked, “Which one do you want to make?”
“I’ll show you when it’s done,” Pei Xu said.
Zhai Xingchen and Pei Xu went to pick tree bark, and discovered that Pei Xu had picked out a lot of pink bark, so they asked, “Are there any pink tree bark[2] left?”
The young woman replied, “Yes, we have over forty different colors for birch bark. Our bark paintings use all-natural colors, without any dyes. We strive for naturalness and purity.”
The young lady smiled and couldn’t help but glance at the two of them again.
Oh my god, these two guys are so handsome, even more handsome than celebrities.
She sensed that their relationship was more than just ordinary. The handsome guy dressed in all black had a cool and aloof demeanor, and his tone and expression were quite serious, but every time he made eye contact with the other guy, he would smile. His voice was also very gentle when he spoke to him; his deep voice was incredibly soothing.
Could these two be a couple?
“Take off your clothes,” Pei Xu said.
Zhai Xingchen took off his down jacket, and Pei Xu took it and draped it over the chair next to him. Then Pei Xu took off his own down jacket and draped it over the other jacket as well.
Zhai Xingchen’s birch bark was brown and yellow, but Pei Xu’s birch bark was more of a light pink. Zhai Xingchen couldn’t help but keep looking at Pei Xu’s hands.
Pei Xu’s hands were still a little red and swollen, and the wounds that bled yesterday had scabbed over with black scabs, but his nails were a healthy pink and very shiny.
Tree bark painting looked easy, but it was not easy to do because the bark was extremely thin, even thinner than paper, and the fibers were delicate. Zhai Xingchen quickly focused his attention on his deer.
Pei Xu suddenly pulled a small box out of his down jacket pocket. The young woman glanced at it and found it was a box of withered flower petals.
Zhai Xingchen heard the young lady instructing Pei Xu, but he didn’t listen carefully and focused on making his own bark painting.
About an hour later, his bark painting was finished. He turned his head and saw that Pei Xu had been staring at him for a long time.
“Are you done?”
Pei Xu hummed in agreement.
He glanced at Pei Xu’s painting, and what he saw stunned him.
“Wow!” he couldn’t help but exclaim.
It was actually a picture of roses.
The roses made from pink bark were a muted pink, yet they had a more refined texture than real roses; they were simply exquisite.
It’s so beautiful!!!
The pale pink petals, outlined with different bark colors, and the slender, dark brown stems, paired with a square frame, make it look like a work of art.
However, the petals had complex and realistic patterns, and didn’t look like they were made of pure tree bark; it seemed like they contained other things.
“You used real flowers, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s a real flower.” Pei Xu said, “When you were in Nancheng, you gave me a few roses, which I took back with me. But those flowers all dried up. I heard that they can be dried here, so I brought one with me.”
Zhai Xingchen paused for a moment, then smiled slightly as he looked at Pei Xu.
Pei Xu handed him the painting of roses: “Here, this is for you. You gave me roses, so I’ll give you one in return.”
A rose that will never fade.
Zhai Xingchen remained silent for a long time.
That’s so thoughtful!!
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This is an example of birch bark painting.
