Chapter 32 First Arrival in Quzhou

Zhejiang is mountainous, with an old saying that it is seven parts mountains, two parts water, and one part farmland. This is especially true in southern Zhejiang, where there are countless train tunnels. As the train passes through the mountains, the carriages are sometimes bright and sometimes dark, like a large-scale revolving lantern.

Xu Weisheng was reading on the upper bunk when he fell asleep. When he woke up, he thought he had traveled back to the summer of his eighteenth year, sleeping on a green train that traveled from north to south, thousands of miles away, heading towards his turbulent and unknown life.

However, the missing electric fan on the roof of the carriage reminded him that it was 2013, and he was sharing a soft sleeper compartment with his junior sister, with whom he had a close relationship, on their way to Quzhou.

He blinked hard, snapped out of his daze, grabbed the armrest by the bed, and strained to sit up—he saw that Jian Zhen was still sitting on the sofa.

How come she's so small? Is she really 1.69 meters tall? She can actually sit cross-legged on that narrow little sofa.

Xu Weisheng stared at the girl for about half a minute, his head spinning. The train emerged from the tunnel. It was almost evening, and the sunset was golden. So we could say that the train had entered a golden dust. Along the side of the train, the line of light and shadow receded rapidly, quickly brushing past the window of carriage number 9, suddenly exposing the girl by the window to a golden light.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Xu Weisheng asked in a hoarse voice.

"Hmm?" Jian Zhen was engrossed in her own world, writing something down in her sketchbook. She was startled by the sound and looked up to meet his gaze.

"Didn't you change into your pajamas? I thought you were planning to take a nap. Aren't you sleepy catching an early flight?" Xu Weisheng sat up, scratched his hair, then jumped down from the top bunk in two steps, found a bottle of mineral water, and opened it to drink.

Jian Zhen lowered her eyes and continued to write and draw in her notebook. She said calmly, "I was planning to take a nap, but I couldn't fall asleep after lying down. I felt like something wasn't clean enough. I was afraid of waking you up if I tossed and turned, so I just got up and sat down."

Her words made Xu Weisheng, who was about to sit down, stop halfway. He remained in the position of sticking his butt out and pointed to the edge of the lower bunk to ask for permission: "May I sit down?"

Jian Zhen looked up and saw his stiff posture, and couldn't help but laugh: "You sit down, I'm not sitting anymore."

Xu Weisheng breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down. The two faced each other across a small table. He tilted his head back and gulped down the remaining half bottle of water, then crushed the empty bottle and "airdropped" it into the trash can.

As soon as he raised his hand, Jian Zhen turned her head to look at him. It wasn't until the bottle slipped from his hand and clattered into the basket that they both turned back to look at each other, met each other's eyes, and laughed together for no apparent reason.

Xu Weisheng joked, "So it turns out you bought a seat ticket."

Jian Zhen was hastily finishing up the scene when she snorted and said without looking up, "Pay up."

She had just blurted it out in a rush, and only after she finished speaking did she realize that Mr. Xu had paid for all the expenses of the trip. She was traveling on business and was not supposed to participate in the payment process, so she regretted it a little and bit her tongue, too embarrassed to look up.

Xu Weisheng hadn't thought of it that way. He generously snapped his fingers and said, "Sure, I'll pay you whatever you want."

Jian Zhen put the pen back in its pencil case and closed her sketchbook. "Forget it, I'm afraid you'll sue me if I extort too much, after all, I don't have a legal team backing me up."

Xu Weisheng chuckled and urged her, "No way—"

"Just treat me to a meal," Jian Zhen suggested. "I'd like to try some Quzhou baked flatbread."

Xu Weisheng thought that Quzhou baked flatbread was a restaurant name that was named after the main dish, like Beijing roast duck and Lanzhou ramen, but actually sold a variety of dishes. However, when he arrived at the restaurant, he found out that they really only sold baked flatbread.

The two stood in front of the pancake stall, and Jian Zhen asked the price: "Boss, how much are the pancakes?"

"Big or small?"

"The little one."

"One yuan each."

"Give me five," Jian Zhen said generously.

Xu Weisheng rubbed his forehead behind her and said in a low voice, "Why don't we go? I'll treat you to a nice meal at a proper restaurant."

Jian Zhen turned around and sternly lectured him: "President Xu, we are here to work, not to enjoy ourselves. We still have a meeting to discuss tomorrow's arrangements. Who has time to go out to a restaurant with you?"

Xu Weisheng was so scolded that he couldn't say a word. He could only take the three hot little baked cakes and eat them with a bag of local soy milk.

"This fresh meat is pretty good." He ate with gusto, hissing, "It's just a bit spicy."

"How can people from Quzhou eat so much spicy food! I wanted it mild!" Jian Zhenyi was exasperated. She had just eaten one bite and was already sweating profusely as she looked for water. Unfortunately, the two of them were on their way back to the hotel, and the nearest convenience store was just across the street. Neither of them had brought any water. She chose between picking some leaves from a tree to chew on and grabbing Xu Weisheng's soy milk to drink.

"Hey—" Xu Weisheng was about to say that he had used the straw when he saw Jian Zhen pull out the straw, grab the bag, and start slurping.

"Ah—" Jian Zhen stared blankly as she took down the deflated soy milk bag, glanced at him, and said with her mouth open, "The fire is out! It's so spicy, I can't stand it... Did you think I was going to use a straw?"

Xu Weisheng immediately turned his face to the other side, looking at the traffic on the main road, pretending that he hadn't said anything.

"Don't worry, I'm a germaphobe, I can't stand other people's saliva," Jian Zhen scoffed.

Xu Weisheng continued to stare at the traffic and fantasize: So she'll never kiss again in her life? Has she ever kissed? Has she never been in a relationship? It's not impossible, after all, she's a dazzling young lady, ordinary people wouldn't dare to pursue her, and even extraordinary people might not be able to catch up with her.

What kind of person am I? Xu Weisheng's brain short-circuited, and he was briefly paralyzed.

That evening, the two held a meeting in Jian Zhen's room, still around a small table, one sitting and the other standing.

On the table was a box of freshly made winter melon and brown sugar mochi, still piping hot. The two of them each picked up a small piece and started eating. This thing is a dessert deep-fried in oil. The outer layer is crispy, coated with bean flour, and the inside is soft, chewy, and stretchy. With one bite, the aroma of beans mixed with the aroma of oil, and the sweetness of brown sugar slightly overpowers the sweetness of the mochi itself. The taste is quite amazing.

As Jian Zhen reached for the second piece, she thought, "This is off the charts in terms of calories."

"What a shame... We're already here." Xu Weisheng asked Jian Zhen while chewing his second piece of food, "Tour guide, what's the schedule for tomorrow?"

"Cave exploration." Jian Zhen took out a tissue to wipe the oil stains off the toilet paper, symbolically pushed the remaining half box of mochi towards Xu Weisheng, leaned back and took out a sketchbook from the backpack behind her, unfolded it and said, "The original setting only said that Pingping came out of a cave, which I didn't think was very original. Before coming here, I checked and found that the natural conditions here are special and there are many caves, so I arranged for a local guide to take us to see them in person tomorrow."

"It's getting better and better!" Xu Weisheng gave her a thumbs up in praise.

"Go away, go away." Jian Zhen's cheeks flushed.

"Can I see what you've drawn in your notebook?"

"Sure, we have everything, but you have to wash your hands first."

Xu Weisheng readily complied, went to the restroom to wash his hands, and came back holding up his two paws for Jian Zhen to inspect, emphasizing, "I even used hand sanitizer, it smells really good, do you want to smell it?"

"..." Jian Zhen sometimes really has nothing to say to straight men. What's the difference between this and sexual innuendo? Xu Weisheng is so stupid that he seems to have never figured it out. He's already in his twenties. Jian Yu pursed her lips speechlessly, rolled her eyes, and told him to get lost: "Smell my ass."

“Farts stink.” Xu Weisheng quickly chimed in, and as soon as he finished speaking, he laughed so hard he almost fell over, while Jian Zhen froze in the wind, feeling cold.

After laughing for a moment, Xu Weisheng suddenly stopped and transformed back into "human form." "Was I too childish today?" he silently asked himself.

Flipping through Jian Zhen's sketchbook, Xu Weisheng found several pages of design drafts he had drawn for the Pingping subplot. He was much calmer now and didn't dare to be sarcastic or boastful for the time being. He thought for a moment and pointed out a blind spot: "Snakes are divided into water snakes and terrestrial reptiles. I didn't design this point when I made the character biography."

This was exactly what Jian Zhen wanted to hear. She leaned back in her chair, crossed the front two legs, and laughed, "So we're not just exploring one kind of cave."

"Anyone wading through water?"

"yes."

"I should have said so, I would have brought a pair of water tracing shoes." Xu Weisheng continued flipping through the pages: "The living habits of snakes... I didn't expect Director Jian to be so realistic?"

“Timid and severely nearsighted.” Jian Zhen craned her neck to look at the flat design drawing with thick glasses on the sketchbook and said, “I think designing the character’s personality from here is much more interesting than the monotonous Medusa. Players will also find it unexpected when they reach this point.”

"What drives the character's personality?" Xu Weisheng looked up at her and pressed for an answer.

“Of course, it’s about plot development.” Jian Zhen raised her chin: “When players enter the instance map, their first task is to find Pingping. Imagine if we changed the first meeting to a pancake stall next to the inn, and the player asked the stall owner about the snake demon’s whereabouts, while the socially awkward but gluttonous Pingping happened to be standing in line behind the player, and upon hearing that someone was coming to find her, she was so scared that all her scales popped out…”

Jian Zhen got more and more excited as she talked, and Xu Weisheng stared at her without moving until her mouth was dry and her brain was oxygen-deprived.

"Have some water." Xu Weisheng unscrewed the bottle cap and handed it to him, nodding and saying, "Not bad idea. It seems you've put in the effort to study the 'Hundred Demon Compendium'."

“Actually, I’m not a professional when it comes to storylines.” Jian Zhen hurriedly took a sip of water and continued, “I’ve seen the storyline designs of several main storylines in your game. Those were done by professionals, right? They’re so much better than Pingping’s side storyline. I originally thought Pingping’s storyline was just average, and I even wanted to advise you to close down and quit as soon as possible. You might as well use the money to buy a house.”

Xu Weisheng chuckled and frankly said, "The money in the company's accounts isn't something I can control as I please. If I had that ability..."

"So what?" Jian Zhen waited for him to finish speaking, but unexpectedly, he stopped halfway and didn't continue.

Xu Weisheng wanted to say that if he had that kind of ability, he should shut down Xunyou and put the Touxue sign back up. But thinking of the Xunyou employees, he couldn't bear to say such a thing. After all, as the boss, he had already betrayed the trust of many people and knew what bankruptcy meant to many people. He dared not go off track again.

"It's nothing, never mind. What time do we get up tomorrow?" Xu Weisheng pulled his legs in a little and straightened up again. He had been in a horse stance to look at Jian Zhen's sketchbook, and after a while, his body was stiff. He couldn't help but complain, "Tell me, I have a tatami chair in my room. We can both sit down. Why do we have to have the meeting here?"

"I'm afraid I won't be able to bear leaving," Jian Zhen said calmly, putting away her sketchbook.

Xu Weisheng moved his chin but didn't open his mouth, silently scolding himself—serves you right for talking too much!

He coughed lightly and changed the subject, saying, "Then I'll head back now. Don't oversleep tomorrow. See you at the breakfast restaurant downstairs."

"I'll see you out." Jian Zhen stood up and escorted him to the door.

Xu Weisheng said "Goodnight" at the door and then fled back to his room as if escaping.

"It's too dangerous," he asked himself, feeling his pulse. "Like dry wood meeting a raging fire, what if one of them loses control? Will they ever be able to turn back? At that point, not only Pingping, but everything they had ever envisioned about the future of their animation career would crumble."

Think twice, Hsu Wei-sheng.

He tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling asleep that night. Fortunately, the cave was deep underground the next day, so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Otherwise, given Jian Zhen's sharp tongue, she would definitely have made fun of his dark circles.

Author, please update soon, it's so good!

Thank you for your encouragement!