Chapter 31 Variety show starts filming
The plane landed at Guizhou Longdongbao Airport, and after several hours of bumpy drive on the winding mountain road, when the program crew's car finally arrived at their destination - Yuntouzhai, hidden deep in the folds of the mountains in southeastern Guizhou, it was almost dusk.
The air is filled with the scent of moist grass and soil, and nearby are layers of terraced fields and wooden stilt houses built against the mountainside.
The simple opening ceremony was held under the huge century-old banyan tree with a red cloth hanging on it at the entrance of the village.
There was no dazzling stage lights, no swarms of media, only the program creators, a few celebrity guests, the flying doctor Chu Yi, and the villagers and children who had rushed over to look in curiously after hearing the news.
The ceremony was simple. The director and the village chief spoke in Mandarin and the local dialect respectively, expressing their original intention of hoping to make more people pay attention to rural medical care through the program.
The stars also came forward one by one and made brief and sincere self-introductions to the camera and the villagers.
Chu Yi, the only professional doctor on the team, was also invited to speak. His words were concise and to the point, promising to do his utmost to protect everyone's health and assist with medical support. His tone was steady and reliable, reassuring.
After the opening ceremony, the staff led everyone to where they would live for the next twenty days.
The accommodation was a relatively spacious stilt house in the village, which was originally an old house of a family in the village. The program crew rented it in advance and carried out simple reinforcement and cleaning.
The wooden building is divided into two floors. The downstairs houses the main room, kitchen, and a smaller bedroom. The upstairs is a large open room divided into several relatively independent small spaces with wooden boards.
"Our facilities are limited, so please bear with us," the person in charge said, a little embarrassed. "This small bedroom downstairs is for Doctor Chu. It's convenient if any villagers or others need to find him in an emergency at night. Upstairs... you'll need to allocate yourselves. Also, Teacher Qin Yaoyao lives at the end of the corridor, so she can be there if there's an emergency."
As I pushed open the door, the unique aroma of wooden structures hit me in. The room was clean, but obviously very simple.
Chu Yi's room was on the first floor. It was not very big and could only accommodate a single wooden bed, an old desk and a chair.
The bed was covered with a blue printed sheet that looked clean but stiff. The walls were made of wooden planks, with traces of dirt visible in the cracks.
The window is not big, but when it opens, it faces the layers of terraced fields not far away.
"Teacher Chu, look at this..." The person in charge looked at Chu Yi a little nervously, fearing that Chu Yi would not be able to adapt.
Chu Yi just glanced at it and nodded: "Very good, very quiet, thank you."
After seeing off the person in charge of the program, Chu Yi closed the door, temporarily isolating this small world.
The light in the room was a little dim. He fumbled and turned on the old incandescent lamp hanging under the beam. The dim light barely illuminated the entire room.
The air is filled with the mixed scent of old wood and a hint of musty smell, but it is not unpleasant. Instead, there is a sense of tranquility as if time has settled.
Chu Yi did not rush to pack his luggage, but walked to the small window first and pushed open the wooden window with a creak.
A breeze, carrying the crisp scent of mountain vegetation, instantly rushed in, dispelling the dullness of the room. Suddenly, the view opened up, revealing the terraced fields, layer upon layer, winding down the mountainside.
The setting sun was slowly sinking, hanging between the outline of the distant mountains and the surface of the terraced fields, dyeing the sky a warm orange.
The tension from his busy work life had already begun to relax the moment he set foot on this land. Now, facing this tranquil and magnificent natural landscape, Chu Yi felt the last trace of urban restlessness in his heart quietly subside.
An unprecedented sense of peace slowly enveloped him.
Chu Yi stood quietly in front of the window and looked out for a long time, until the sunset sank a little lower and the coolness in the mountains became heavier, then he turned around and started packing his luggage.
He didn't bring much, but it was very practical. He took out a dark gray pure cotton four-piece suitcase and a fluffy thin quilt that he had prepared.
The nights in the mountains were bitterly cold, and the bedding provided by the production crew, though clean, was clearly too thin and hard. Chu Yi's constitution leaned towards the cold, making him sensitive to temperature fluctuations, so he made preparations in advance.
Chu Yi quickly removed the blue printed cloth bedding on the bed, which was clean but had an unfamiliar pattern and felt stiff, and replaced it with the soft four-piece set he had brought with him.
When the smooth grey sheets were spread out and the fluffy quilt was folded at the head of the bed, this simple little room immediately added a touch of neatness and comfort that belonged to him personally.
Then he took out an extra, thicker duvet he had brought with him and put it aside in case of emergency.
After doing all this, the room already looked settled.
Chu Yi walked to the window again. The sunset was now only a golden edge. The night in the mountains was so quiet that one could hear the faint barking of dogs in the distance and the rustling of insects nearby.
The conditions here may be harsh, but there is a pure power that brings peace of mind.
He gently closed half of the window, leaving only a gap for ventilation, then turned around and began to organize the medicines and medical records he brought, preparing for the work that would officially begin tomorrow.
———
It was not until the afternoon of the third day that a burst of unusual engine sounds came from afar, breaking the tranquility at the entrance of the village.
A shiny black SUV, which had obviously just been washed in the county town, stopped under the banyan tree at the entrance of the village, in a posture that was out of place with the surrounding muddy dirt road.
The car door opened, and the first people to jump out were agent Xu Yang and an assistant. Both looked tired and relieved.
Then, a tall figure slowly leaned out.
Zhou Ai has arrived.
He wore a pair of light blue ripped jeans and a white shirt casually covered over a black printed T-shirt. His silver-gray hair was still eye-catching in the slightly gray light of the mountains.
He wore a pair of huge sunglasses, which covered most of his face, leaving only his jaw and lips with clear lines.
Even though she was exhausted and dressed casually, the starlight and aura that was nurtured by millions of people still attracted everyone's attention in an instant.
Several children playing nearby stopped and looked at this person who seemed to have walked out of a picture with timidity and curiosity.
Upon hearing the news, the program director and person in charge rushed over, their faces filled with warm yet slightly apologetic smiles. "Teacher Zhou! Thank you for your hard work along the way! Oh, I'm so sorry, the conditions here are limited, please bear with me!"
Zhou Ai took off his sunglasses. His peach blossom eyes looked a little sleepy due to days of fatigue and long-distance bumpy ride, and the light blue shadows under his eyes were clearly visible.
He casually glanced at the surrounding stilt houses, terraced fields and distant mountains, and his gaze finally fell on the program crew members who came out of the stilt houses after hearing the sound.
His gaze quickly swept across Xie Mo, Gu Jinyi, Zhou Jiashu and Qin Yaoyao, staying on their faces for less than half a second, and he nodded as a greeting.
Then he turned around accurately and caught sight of Chu Yi, who had just returned from the clinic with a stack of notebooks in his hand.
Chu Yi obviously saw him as well, and his footsteps paused almost imperceptibly.
Zhou Ai's lips curved up naturally, as if tugged by an invisible thread. He ignored the director, who was asking about his well-being, and took two steps toward Chu Yi.
"Doctor Chu," his voice was noticeably hoarse, the aftereffect of continuous singing and lack of sleep, but his tone was familiar, as if they had only been separated for a moment. "Am I not too late? How is the situation in the mountains?"
It was as if he had not missed the opening ceremony and was two days late, but had just arrived in time to participate in the core work.
Everyone's eyes were focused on these two people.
Chu Yi stopped and responded calmly, "Welcome, Teacher Zhou. The temperature difference between day and night is large in the mountains, so please keep warm. We have just started our work, and everything is going well."
His answer was polite and professional, with nothing wrong to find, but it also had a clear sense of boundaries, and he directly defined Zhou Ai as a "newly joined work partner."
Zhou Ai didn't seem to mind the alienation in his tone. Her eyes swept across Chu Yi's fingers holding the notebook, then fell back to his face and smiled: "That's good. I'll have to trouble Doctor Chu to take care of me from now on."
At this time, the staff member in charge of arranging accommodation came forward with some embarrassment: "Teacher Zhou, your accommodation... there is one window seat left in the dormitory upstairs, please take a look..."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ai raised an eyebrow and looked towards the open window on the second floor. Then, seemingly unintentionally, he glanced at Chu Yi's tightly closed door on the first floor and asked casually, "Where does Doctor Chu live?"
"Doctor Chu lives in a single room on the first floor, which is convenient for emergencies."
"Oh." Zhou Ai drawled out his words, as if thinking about something. Then he suddenly said to the person in charge, "No need to bother arranging it upstairs. I see there's a couch in the main room downstairs. I can sleep there."
The person in charge was stunned: "Ah? This... How can this be! That's just for daily rest, it's very hard, and it's not private..."
"It's okay," Zhou Ai interrupted him, her tone casual but unyielding. "I'm a light sleeper, and there are too many people upstairs and it's noisy. It's quiet downstairs, and..."
He paused, then looked at Chu Yi meaningfully, "Stay close to Doctor Chu. If I have any altitude sickness or acclimatization problems at night, it will be convenient for me to call for help, right, Doctor Chu?"
He asked the last question directly to Chu Yi, with a mischievous yet self-righteous light flashing in his peach blossom eyes.
Chu Yi: “…”
Everyone: “…”
This reason seems to make sense, but I always feel something is wrong.
In the end, the program crew couldn't persuade this "sugar daddy" and had to temporarily add bedding on the couch in the main room, arranging an extremely "down-to-earth" bed for Zhou Ai.
The location was right outside Chu Yi's door, diagonally opposite.
Zhou Ai casually pushed his suitcase to the side of the couch, seeming quite satisfied with the arrangement.
He looked up and met Xie Mo's playful eyes as he leaned out of the second-floor window to watch the fun.
Zhou Ai smiled lazily at him, then turned his gaze again to Chu Yi's closed door and whistled in a good mood.
Everything in the mountains seemed to finally become interesting.
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