On the way to the watermelon field, everyone was still teasing Jiang Dao and Chu Yinlong.
Seeing that Chu Yinlong was not angry, Cheng Zhiyi even dared to make a joke: "When this episode is broadcast, there will definitely be people who support the couple of you two."
Jiang Dao is no stranger to the term "CP".
In the original book, the protagonists Zhou Wei and Tang Yao were a perfect couple that fans had been pushing for. In the middle, there is a plot where Zhou Wei plays screen brothers with others, and fans are flocking to support the brothers as a couple, causing Tang Yao to become jealous.
But Jiang Dao never expected that this word would appear on himself one day.
Put yourself in the situation in the novel, he and Chu Yinlong... Oh, forget it, the scene is too horrifying. Whether it's him or Chu Yinlong, they probably wouldn't "feed each other with their thighs pressed against each other" or "secretly kiss each other while they're asleep"...
Jiang Dao shrank his neck and shook off the goose bumps.
We chatted and laughed all the way until we arrived at the melon field.
The watermelon field that the program crew has agreed to purchase is located halfway up the mountain. The variety is the smaller-fruited hanging melon, and a mature watermelon weighs only three or four pounds.
"In the afternoon, we help the villagers transport melons to the town to be packed, so we can only earn one dollar for each melon we pick. How good the dinner will be in the evening depends on how many melons we can pick."
Qi Peng reminded the guests on behalf of the director team: "The melons with red strings tied to them are ripe. Don't touch the unripe ones. After picking them, wrap them in foam nets and put them in baskets. Carry them down the mountain and transport them by boat. The melon skin must not be broken. If it is damaged, you will not be charged."
"Got it." Cheng Zhiyi nodded, took the scissors handed to him by Qi Peng, and pointed to the deep part of the melon field, "Shall we start picking from the inside?"
Qi Peng handed An Zhe a bamboo basket and said, "Go ahead, both of you brothers."
Then he threw another bamboo basket to Chu Yinlong and pointed to the other side of the melon field: "Take Xiaodao to pick the melons over there. I'll go see if the boat is ready."
It’s not that he doesn’t like to work, but the program arrangement leaves most of the physical labor to young people and flying guests, so that each episode will have a new focus. Especially when it comes to gimmicks like hyping up CP, the director team will never let it go. Therefore, the original plan of having Cheng Zhiyi lead Jiang Dao and An Zhe lead Chu Yinlong was temporarily changed to "Brothers Combination" and "Cohabitant Combination".
Although the director team did not say it explicitly, Chu Yinlong had some vague guesses. As for Jiang Dao, he had no idea that he had been tricked by the entertainment industry.
Bringing a camera to the depths of the melon field, Jiang Dao picked up a pair of scissors and began to work. He cut a watermelon and handed it to Chu Yinlong, who took out a foam net from the bamboo basket, put it on, and then neatly stacked the watermelons one by one into the basket.
The two didn't have a single conversation during the entire process.
The cameraman carried the camera and sweat began to form on his forehead. After a long while, he trembled and asked in a whisper, "Can you two have a word?"
Jiang Dao turned his head and stared at him.
Cameraman: “…Actually, you don’t have to say it.”
Jiang Dao was happy.
He cut off another watermelon, smelled the broken end of the stem, and smiled at Chu Yinlong: "This watermelon must be delicious. It smells fragrant even before it's opened...Would you like to smell it?"
As he spoke, he held the watermelon in one hand and handed it under Chu Yinlong's nose.
Chu Yinlong cooperated and sniffed it: "It is quite fragrant."
Jiang Dao weighed the watermelon and pretended to be naughty: "How about we open one and taste it to see if it's sweet?"
Chu Yinlong raised his eyebrows: "Do you know how much this melon costs per pound?"
"How much?" Jiang Dao asked casually.
"The market price is five yuan per pound." Chu Yinlong said, "One watermelon is more than ten or twenty yuan. We might not be able to exchange for this one watermelon even if we carry a whole basket of watermelons down."
Hearing this, Jiang Dao held the watermelon in his hand and lowered his eyes silently.
It turns out that even in a world where supplies are not so scarce, there are still things he can't afford...
No, he can afford it! He still has the freedom to spend a dozen or twenty dollars, but due to the requirements of the program, he cannot use his own money to buy ingredients during the recording period.
Jiang Dao handed the melon to Chu Yinlong reluctantly and sighed exaggeratedly: "After the show, I will buy eight or ten of them."
Chu Yinlong took the melon and said with a smile, "Okay, get to work. If you're efficient enough, you might be able to earn enough to buy a melon."
Soon, the bamboo basket was full.
After weighing the physical strength of the two men, Jiang Dao did not argue. He assisted Chu Yinlong in carrying the bamboo basket full of watermelons on his back, and then accompanied him down the mountain.
The boat Qi Peng prepared was the same small sampan he had prepared in the morning.
Seeing Jiang Dao and Chu Yinlong carrying watermelons down, he hurried forward to lend a hand and said casually: "We only have two baskets. When Xiaoyi and An'an's baskets come down, we have to transport them over first... Xiaochu, you and Xiaodao don't have to follow them. Go up and continue picking watermelons and pile them there until we come back to load them directly on the ship."
Probably it was another arrangement by the director team. Jiang Dao and Chu Yinlong raised no objection and returned to the melon field to continue working. The repetitive work was boring, and the camera no longer urged the two to interact.
It was not until a little after five in the afternoon that Jiang Dao finished picking all the melons tied with red ropes in the melon field.
"Dad Qi said this is the last trip, so he asked you two to send them off. My brother is waiting on the boat."
Anzhe was obviously exhausted. He didn't have the energy to be scared or nervous when facing Chu Yinlong. He handed over the bamboo basket in his hand and wiped the sweat off his face: "I'll go back to help Hai Ma and Director Mu."
"Go ahead and have a good rest. We two are enough here." Chu Yinlong waved at An Zhe.
Jiang Dao took the bamboo basket and put the last batch of watermelons into it.
As a result, after the distribution, the two bamboo baskets were filled to the brim and could not hold any more melons, and there were still five melons left on the ground.
"Forget it, you can't carry this basket, so carry less and leave the rest here." Chu Yinlong weighed the two baskets of melons and said helplessly, "It's not a big deal to spend these ten dollars. The mountain road is not easy to walk on, don't hurt yourself."
Jiang Dao squatted down and tried to carry the bamboo basket on his back. With his current physical strength, it was indeed a bit difficult... but he was also able to carry it. If he only had to walk the distance from the melon field to the dock, it would be fine if he gritted his teeth.
It’s a pity that the five melons left on the ground are a bit difficult to deal with.
"Forget it, just leave it here." Chu Yinlong said, "It won't go bad if you leave it overnight."
"Well," Jiang Dao hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded, "Okay, there's no other good way..."
Unexpectedly, just when Jiang Dao was about to give up, the director team who heard about the two’s predicament suddenly added a scene for them - a staff member took out a bundle of nylon rope, handed it to Chu Yinlong, and said: "The director said that if you two can find a way to transport all the watermelons here at once, you will be rewarded with a watermelon for free tonight!"
Chu Yinlong: "We don't need..."
Jiang Dao's eyes lit up: "Really?!"
The second half of Chu Yinlong's unspoken sentence suddenly disappeared and turned into a light laugh.
Jiangdao put down the basket on his back, picked up the nylon rope, squatted beside the melon field, and started tying the melons without saying a word.
I saw his fingers flying with skillful movements. In just two or three strokes, he made a simple cross-net bag for a melon. The watermelon was firmly in the bag and there was no danger of it falling.
Chu Yinlong watched from the side and couldn't help but sigh in amazement: "Where did you learn this?"
Jiang Dao drooped his eyelashes, cracked another watermelon, and was silent for a long time before he smiled and said, "I learned it when I was a child... Let alone making a rope net, if the director team provided bamboo strips, I could weave a basket on the spot, do you believe it?"
Chu Yinlong didn't care about his irrelevant answer. He raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Believe it."
As he spoke, Jiang Dao used a nylon rope to string the remaining five watermelons together and tied the knot tightly.
Then he looked up and asked Chu Yinlong: "If I tie it to the basket, can you carry it?"
Chu Yinlong weighed it and said, "I'm fine, but I'm afraid the bamboo basket straps won't be able to hold up... I'll just carry it with my hands."
"It's best not to carry it with your hands. The mountain road is difficult to walk on. It's safest to carry it with empty hands." Jiang Dao said, picking up the melon string and gesturing to Chu Yinlong, "You can hang this on you."
Chu Yinlong nodded and opened his hands: "Hang up."
Jiang Dao picked up the nylon rope again, put his arms around Chu Yinlong's body, and tied it into a cross strap on him. Her fingertips deftly pulled the rope back and forth, occasionally touching Chu Yinlong's body through his T-shirt, then quickly pulling away.
The nylon rope is too thin and if it bears too much weight, it will cause pain to the person. Jiangdao thought for a moment and decided to use a triple strap structure to share the weight. The rope tightened, creating wrinkles on Chu Yinlong's clothes and showing the shallow arcs when the muscles were compressed. Add to that the complicated pattern of the triple straps, and the ropes look a bit like…
"Are you... planning to tie me up?" Chu Yinlong looked strange and couldn't help asking.
"Yeah." Jiang Dao said nonsense casually, "I'll tie you to the boat and sell you with the watermelons."
As he spoke, he tied the end of the rope to Chu Yinlong's chest, tied a beautiful bow, and finally patted it with his hand.
Seeing that Jiang Dao looked calm and obviously didn't think anything wrong, Chu Yinlong chuckled and shook his head secretly.
After tying the straps, Jiang Dao separated the five watermelons that were strung together and placed them on Chu Yinlong's body.
The shoulder straps made of ropes fell down, and each part unloaded the force and separated. The weight was evenly distributed on the shoulders and waist, and there was no pain due to being too tight - this way of tying the shoulder straps was very scientific, and obviously not something that Jiangdao came up with on a whim or designed on the spot.
"Have you been a soldier?" When asked, even Chu Yinlong himself didn't believe it.
Sure enough, Jiang Dao smiled: "I'm only nineteen, how can I be a soldier? When I was a kid, there was an uncle downstairs who was a soldier. He taught me how to tie a rope every day... Okay, it's not too heavy, right?"
Chu Yinlong didn't ask any more questions, and replied: "It's not heavy. I can even help you share a few more melons."
Jiang Dao ignored him and leaned over to carry his own bamboo basket: "Let's go, deliver it quickly and take the melons home to eat."
Walking down the mountain road to the dock, Jiang Dao walked steadily, and there was no sign that he was carrying too much weight. Only after he had unloaded the bamboo baskets and loaded all the watermelons onto the boat did he finally raise his hand and rub his shoulders.
Chu Yinlong had sharp eyes and noticed something was wrong. He reached out and grabbed the collar of Jiang Dao's T-shirt, pulling it slightly open. Sure enough, there was a purple-red bruise on Jiangdao's fair skin, with spots of subcutaneous bleeding at the edges.
"you……"
"Ah? This guy is too delicate, isn't he?!" Before Chu Yinlong could finish his words, Jiang Dao complained himself. He stretched his neck, squinted his eyes, curled the corners of his mouth, and tried hard to look over his shoulder, not hiding his disgust.
Qi Peng just cried out "Ouch" and was about to go forward to show concern, but was blocked by Jiang Dao's reaction.
Jiang Dao nonchalantly straightened his collar, turned his head and smiled at the assistant director and cameraman who followed him, "We've brought all the watermelons down. Didn't you say you'd give us one for free? Can we just take it from here?"
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