Paper flowers
"Hello. We are students. We were driving past here and would like to rest here for one night. Is that okay?" Ye Jing'an said.
"Student? Can students drive?" the uncle questioned.
"We are both in our twenties and graduate students. Uncle, do you think I look young?" Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
"This is not a hotel, you should go somewhere else." The uncle was about to close the door, but Ye Jingan held him back with one hand.
The uncle's hand strength was far inferior to Ye Jingan's, and the door was not closed but pushed open completely. The room was full of white wreaths that came into view. On the ground was a large area of white sand paper flowers piled up in layers. The pale paper flowers were lifted up by the night wind that blew in from outside the door, rustling and fluttering like a group of ghosts fleeing in panic.
Ye Jingan retracted his gaze and pleaded, "Uncle, please have mercy on us. My eyes are blurry from driving all night. Who knew the mountain road here would be so dangerous? If we continue driving, we'll really flip over."
"You have a car, wouldn't it be nice to sleep in it?" said the uncle.
"Three grown men like us sleeping in the car?" Ye Jingan laughed. "Uncle, look at our body shapes. Are we supposed to sleep on top of each other?"
"Sleep however you like, it's none of my business!" the uncle said impatiently.
"Wait, wait! Here's the money!" Ye Jing'an said.
The uncle hesitated for a moment and asked, "How much?"
"How much do you want?" Ye Jing'an asked back.
"Three thousand." said the uncle.
"How much? You are robbing me!" Ye Jing'an said speechlessly.
"You can stay here or not!" The uncle was about to close the door again.
"Two thousand! It's enough for three or four days in a hotel. We're students, we really don't have that much money!" Ye Jing'an muttered softly, "If it weren't for the discomfort in my eyes, who would want to stay in this shady place..."
"Who are you calling a scam? Two thousand is two thousand." The uncle opened the door, "Come in!"
The three of them walked into the room and found a pile of blood-red paper flowers piled up behind the door. It was like a pool of solidified blood, covering the entire room, leaving no place for them to step. Ye Jingan was surprised and asked, "Uncle Ho, what are you doing?"
"Mind your own business, sleep upstairs!" The uncle led the others upstairs and pointed to the southeast room. "There are only these two rooms, squeeze in."
"It just so happens that we only need two rooms." Ye Jing'an said while hugging Liu Muzhe.
The uncle looked at them in confusion and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"We are not coming here. We are going to the Dark Cloud Realm and passing by here." Ye Jing'an said.
"Where are you going and what are you doing?" the uncle asked again.
"Well, our major is folklore. The final test requires us to submit a short micro-film about folk customs. Let's go and collect some materials." Ye Jingan said.
The uncle muttered something incomprehensible in dialect and went downstairs.
"You rest well in your room and don't come out. Brother Liu and I will go out to help you find someone." Ye Jing'an said to Song Yiyu.
"I want to go too!" said Song Yiyu.
"Where are you going? Can you find anyone? Don't make trouble. Didn't you see that uncle downstairs is suspicious of us?" Ye Jing'an pushed him into the room. "If you want your girlfriend to come back safely, just stay in the room and sleep. If there's a fight over her, don't hold her back!"
"Okay, okay, then you just take care of yourselves." Song Yiyu reluctantly returned to the room.
Ye Jingan and Liu Muzhe looked at each other and walked downstairs.
When the uncle saw them both leaving, he asked cautiously, "Where are you going?"
"Hold the luggage. We just came here empty-handed. We need to change clothes before going to bed, right?" Ye Jing'an put his head on Liu Muze's shoulder and said, "Brother Liu, I'm tired. Can you help me get it?"
"Well, wait for me downstairs." Liu Muzhe rubbed his head and said.
"Thank you, Brother Liu. Brother Liu is so nice to let me say it in person." Ye Jing'an leaned over.
"Hey hey hey! What are you two doing? You two grown guys, why are you kissing each other? Isn't that cheesy!" The uncle threw a paper flower at them.
"What's wrong? Can't we even kiss when we're in love?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Let's kiss in the room, don't disgust me here!" said the uncle.
"Uncle, you are so feudal!" Ye Jingan sat on the sofa and picked up a paper flower to look at it. "Uncle, why do you have so many wreaths at home? It's creepy to look at them at night."
"For sale, do you want to buy it?" the uncle asked.
"No one has died in my family." Ye Jing'an asked again, "Then why are you making these red paper flowers?"
"You're asking nonsense. It must be sold to someone else." The uncle said speechlessly.
"Uncle, you are color blind. Who would make red flowers for a dead person?" Ye Jing'an sneered and picked up two colors of paper flowers to compare with each other.
"I think they are sick too! They don't explain clearly and make me work overtime late at night." The uncle kicked the paper flowers that were blocking the way at his feet aside impatiently.
"Is it true that people use safflower when someone dies? That's quite interesting. Uncle, is this the custom here? Tell me about it, we can use it as a material." Ye Jing'an asked curiously.
"Don't ask so many questions, just go to bed!" said the uncle.
"Uncle, please explain it to me. Our test is an elimination system. Two out of eight groups will definitely be eliminated. Then we'll fail the course and won't get a penny of the 12,000 yuan prize. So we have to find eye-catching material, please! If the plot of this micro-film is novel, we can get an additional 10,000 yuan reward if we win the prize. How about we split it equally?" Seeing his hesitation, Ye Jing'an chuckled. "Uncle, if the folk customs here are good, we don't need to go to the Dark Cloud Realm and can live here with you. I'll give you 2,000 yuan a day. Staying here for a few days is more than you can make from making paper flowers in one night."
The uncle thought what Ye Jingan said made sense. He worked so hard to make these paper flowers, but he didn't make much money. They asked for more, but it was not as much as the money from these silly boys. The uncle said, "What if you run away with the money later?"
"Where would I go? I'm a student. If you find out about me trying to cheat you out of your money, we'll all be expelled. Is it worth it for a few thousand dollars?" Ye Jing'an whispered. "Hey, let me tell you, the guy sleeping upstairs, his father is Song Shuhuan, a big boss in Huaiyang. He's very rich, have you heard of him?"
"No." The uncle shook his head.
"He hasn't heard of it?! Then has his fiancée's father, Chen Guohui, heard of it?" Ye Jing'an asked again.
"No." said the uncle.
"Tsk, uncle, you can't do that. Go out and ask around. The person living upstairs is his beloved son Song Yiyu. There is no way he would cheat you out of your money. You've made a fortune." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
"Really? You don't look like you are rich." The uncle asked doubtfully.
"If you don't believe me, just go and ask. Everyone in Huaiyang knows about the Song family. If I lie to you, you can deduct the money from us and make us fail the exam and unable to graduate!" Ye Jing'an said.
"Okay, I'll go ask tomorrow," said the uncle.
"Then tell me what the local customs are like here first, so I can consider whether to stay or not." Ye Jing'an said.
"Someone is getting married." said the uncle.
"Huh? What's so special about getting married? There are many people getting married. It's definitely not possible. Let's go to Youhu Lake tomorrow. It seems that my uncle can't make tens of thousands of dollars from me! Oh... Go to bed and set off tomorrow." Ye Jing'an waved his hand and walked upstairs slowly.
"Hey, I haven't finished yet. What we are holding here is a ghost marriage." said the uncle.
"Ghost marriage?" Ye Jing'an became interested and sat back down immediately. "Ghost marriage is fine! We learned about it in books. Ghost marriages are no longer practiced these days. Filming this will definitely win you awards and money. Uncle, please explain it in detail."
"Let me find out tomorrow if your friend upstairs is really rich. If he's not lying to me, I'll let you stay," said the uncle.
"Okay! Why hasn't my boyfriend come back yet? Damn it! I forgot that his eyesight is a little poor at night. He probably couldn't find the car. Look at my head!" Ye Jingan ran out, looked around, and walked towards the car.
Liu Muze had already walked around the village and returned to the car, intending to take his bag back. Ye Jingan quickly ran to Liu Muze and whispered, "Brother Liu, did you find anything?"
"No, the person has been hidden. Let's go back first." Liu Muzhe said.
"Brother Liu, I got some information from them. It's a ghost marriage." Ye Jing'an said.
"Ghost marriage?" Liu Muze frowned, "This is not in accordance with the rules of ghost marriage."
"It's not clear yet. The uncle refused to say. Let's see tomorrow." Ye Jing'an pulled Liu Muze back. Seeing that the uncle was still sitting there, Ye Jing'an took out a bottle of drink and handed it to him, "Uncle, wake up. We're going to bed. See you tomorrow!"
Seeing that there was indeed nothing wrong with the luggage in the hands of the two men, the uncle glared at them and warned them: "Don't go out and wander around at night!"
"It's night time, who would go out and wander around? Don't worry." As soon as Ye Jingan returned to his room, he collapsed on the bed, covering his eyes and shouting, "Ahhh... My eyes, they hurt so much!"
"Still hurting?" Liu Muze took his hand away, "Let me see."
When Liu Muzhe got close to him, Ye Jing'an raised his head and gave him a kiss.
Liu Muze said helplessly: "Don't your eyes hurt?"
"Just give the one you love a kiss, that's what my grandfather said." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
"Be good! Go to bed quickly, there are still many things to do tomorrow." Liu Muzhe said.
"Okay, okay, the Grandmaster has the final say." Ye Jing'an hugged the man into his arms, "What's wrong, Brother Liu?"
"What's wrong?" Liu Muzhe asked.
"I feel like your pressure is a little low." Ye Jingan said.
"It's okay, I'm just a little sleepy." Liu Muzhe breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then go to sleep." Ye Jing'an pressed the quilt.
After a long while, Ye Jingan whispered in Liu Muze's ear: "Aren't you sleepy? Why haven't you fallen asleep yet?"
Liu Muzhe remembered what Ye Jing'an had said about his sleep state, so he turned around and snuggled into Ye Jing'an's arms.
"Is it so obvious that you're being perfunctory to me?" Ye Jing'an didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What's making you unhappy? Tell me, don't keep it in your heart."
Seeing that Liu Muze had no intention of paying attention to him, Ye Jing'an bit his earlobe and said, "It's useless to have long ears. I'll bite them off for you!"
"Stop making trouble and go to sleep." Liu Muzhe pushed him away.
"If you don't tell me the reason today, don't even think about sleeping!" Ye Jing'an shook Liu Muzhe's arm, "Tell me."
Liu Muze was also annoyed and said, "Don't you care?"
"What do you care about?" Ye Jing'an asked back.
"He said we were disgusting..." Liu Muzhe said.
"I don't mind. I think it's quite interesting. I just like seeing them with those screwed-up faces, like groundhogs that have drunk a few pounds of aged vinegar. Hahahahahahahahahahaha… I'm so jealous of them!" Ye Jing'an laughed and felt the pressure on the person next to him become lower. He restrained his smile and asked, "Is Brother Liu unhappy about this?"
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