The person leading the way was a handsome young man, who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, with a neat crew cut, and wore a local short linen vest and loose coarse cloth breeches. His skin was dark and shiny, and whenever he talked and smiled, his white teeth showed off.
The sun is shining and the weather is full of vitality.
The young man didn't speak Chinese very well, so he introduced himself with gestures: "I'm from Si... Lan. I'm here to help you find a friend."
Everyone: “…………”
Everyone was confused by the local dialect and the local "Mandarin". Director Zhao and others stared at each other with their panda-like eyes in silence.
The two sides stared at each other for a while, and the young man seemed to realize that they were having difficulty communicating. He scratched his head embarrassedly, grinned, and took out the latest fruit machine from his wide trouser pocket. His slender fingers quickly poked on the mobile phone keyboard, and then pointed the receiver towards Director Zhao and the others.
An electronically synthesized mechanical voice sounded: "My name is Sang Tai, you can call me A Tai or Xiao Tai, my sister is Yilan, the one who just talked to your people, she asked me to take you to find my brother-in-law."
Everyone looked at each other, and Director Zhao asked in confusion: "We just want to find a place to rest, why did you bring us to find your brother-in-law?"
Sang Tai obviously could listen but not speak. He blinked his big eyes that were exactly the same as his sister's, smiled, lowered his head and wrote quickly: "My brother-in-law is the innkeeper."
Director Zhao and the others suddenly realized that it was actually soliciting customers.
...
...
Fu Le watched from afar as Mrs. Sang typed swiftly, and said hesitantly, "Why do I feel that this scene... is a little incongruous?"
Qin Yan glanced at him and said nothing.
The logistics girl next to him sighed: "The emergence of smartphones has really made human life more convenient."
Jing Cheng nodded in agreement.
Sang Tai wrote again: "You are lucky, our home is a popular inn on the Internet, usually there are many tourists, but the weather here is bad recently, so there are fewer tourists."
Another internet celebrity...
Are there so many internet-famous inns here?
Jing Cheng's mood suddenly became unhappy, and he said with a toothache: "Is there someone live streaming there?"
When talking about live streaming, Jing Cheng thought of the comments made by people on the Internet. It was really an unpleasant experience.
He probably just doesn't get along with "netizens", a magical creature. Jing Cheng had experienced two incidents after live broadcasts, one in a haunted building on campus and the other in a live broadcast of a parade. The Internet exposed him "clearly" and forced him to recognize his "father and stepmother". The last time he broke the demon barrier in the parade, it was captured by the live camera, and netizens exposed him as a little Taoist priest. Many netizens said that he was not doing his job at a young age and would do anything to attract attention.
In the real world, he is still an unknown master, but on the Internet, he has carved out a path to fame with labels such as "the youngest son of the national father", "the younger brother of the domineering president", "the wealthy stepson of the best actress", and "the third brother of the national sister".
To be precise, he can now be called an Internet celebrity.
However, one thing that is different from other internet celebrities is that while others became famous on their own, he became famous with the help of his "family".
In the words of netizens: There are five people in the family, four of them are top celebrities, but he is the only one who is unknown. It reminds me of my own uneducated self, and it really makes me feel sad to see him.
Jing Cheng no longer wanted to recall how he felt when he saw this comment from a netizen that received more than 100,000 likes.
What netizens? Netizens are not friendly at all!
They should be called Internet bad guys! Internet hackers!
They are a bunch of people who don't care about anything else.
Thinking of this, Jing Cheng felt even more uncomfortable. He pinched his eyebrows, trying to suppress the irritability that did not suit his mood.
Qin Yan stared at him for a long while, took out a mint from his pocket and handed it to him, comforting him: "After the show is broadcast, everyone will be able to see the right and wrong."
Jing Cheng didn't comment. He took the candy, opened the package and ate it. The unique cool and spicy fragrance of the mint candy filled his entire mouth. The cold feeling rushed straight to his forehead, making his mind clearer and his irritability disappeared.
"Delicious." Jing Cheng put the tip of his tongue against the mint candy, his round eyes narrowed like a cat, and he praised lazily.
Qin Yan felt itchy in his heart and moved his fingers in his coat pocket, but the camera was on and considering that there were many people here, he had to cough lightly and look away.
Sang Tai didn't seem to understand and looked at other people with confused eyes. Director Zhao was obviously paying attention to the news on the Internet. Because the program had not been officially broadcast yet, Jing Cheng's "real identity" could not be revealed, so it had not been clarified on the Internet. He couldn't help but touch his nose guiltily and patiently explained it to Sang Tai again.
Sang Tai shook his head and wrote: "You can take photos, but you can't live broadcast, which will affect tourists."
“Then why don’t we record the show here?” The cameraman was surprised. They weren’t allowed to broadcast live?
Mrs. Sang saw that everyone was carrying large and small bags and various camera equipment, so she guessed that they were not ordinary tourists. She rubbed her face in confusion and wrote, "I don't know. You have to ask my brother-in-law."
Director Zhao yawned again, wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingers, and urged, "Okay, okay, take us there first no matter what. Who said we must record the show at your house? You can rest assured."
Hearing this, Sang Tai stopped hesitating and quickly turned around to lead the way.
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Everyone looked at the plaque with the three large gold-plated characters "Tingxi Pavilion", and countless big question marks hung in their little heads.
After confirming with Mr. Sang again and again that there was only one "Tingxi Pavilion" within a radius of dozens of miles and there was absolutely no other restaurant with the same name, everyone in the program crew looked at each other and fell silent.
"Hey, Director Zhao, it seems that you gave up your ambition too early." The cameraman coughed lightly, "We are so destined to meet here, so just finding a place to live is our destination?"
"Our Director Zhao's mouth must have been blessed." A staff member teased.
The girl from the logistics department clenched her hands and said with longing, "I'm going to buy a lottery ticket when I get back. Director Zhao, if you say 'I definitely won't win', maybe I will win."
Others: “…”
Sang Tai, who was standing at the gate and knocking, scratched his head in confusion, wondering why everyone looked so strange.
After a while, Director Zhao, who was teased by everyone, finally came to his senses and greeted everyone: "Why are you still standing there? It seems that you are all alert. No need to sleep? Then let's start shooting directly?"
"No, no, I need to sleep." Professor Fu objected quickly. He was old, and could not compare to the young people in the program crew. His body would have collapsed after not getting a night's rest.
Professor Fu hadn't spoken since the second half of the night because he was extremely tired. His face looked really bad. Director Zhao couldn't joke with him anymore. Seeing that Mrs. Sang had already opened the door and went in to call for people, he said, "What a coincidence. Don't waste time here. Let's go in first."
From a distance, Tingxi Pavilion looks like an isolated large mansion, but when you get closer you will find that it is actually made up of several stilt houses of varying heights, with a simple ancient-style gate in front of the building.
The buildings are surrounded by a spacious courtyard, with a loquat tree in the center. The store owner has designed pavilions, gardens, rockery, a small arch bridge made of stone bricks, and a pond full of lotus flowers...
The crowded scenery, when you stand on a high place and take a glance, will give you a feeling of being "very crowded", but you will not think so once you step into the courtyard.
There is a cool breeze, the fragrance of fruit wafts through the courtyard, the water is gurgling, and fish are swaying their tails, appearing and disappearing under the lotus leaves. It has quite a bit of the charm of the Jiangnan water towns.
Everyone walked over with a look of amazement in their eyes.
"This internet-famous inn is different. Other inns only have a small building, but this one is surrounded by a circle."
"The small bridges, flowing water and houses are so beautiful. This design style... makes me feel like I'm traveling through time."
"Hey, didn't they say that this inn had caught fire many times? Why can't we see any traces of it outside?"
"You are talking nonsense. If there are really traces of fire, how can people do business?"
"There's such a big pond in the yard, and it can still catch fire. This is a bit weird. Oh, you know what, I'm a little scared."
"If it's not weird, would the boss come to our production team? No matter if it's a monster or a ghost, with our Taoist priest Xiao Jing backing us up, what are you afraid of?"
Jing Cheng stepped on the wooden floor, followed at the end and looked around. Suddenly, his eyes fixed and his steps stopped: "This design..."
As soon as he said this, the people from the program crew stopped and looked at Jing Cheng's solemn expression. Their faces changed immediately and they all gathered around him, discussing in a low voice.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?"
"Is there something wrong?"
"What did Taoist Xiao Jing see? Is there a monster hiding here?"
"Aren't there a lot of tourists? Why is the inn so quiet? Are there some unclean things and everyone is afraid of disturbing them..."
"I'm impressed by your imagination. Look at the time now. It's 5:25. How many modern people, except farmers, can get up so early? If there really is something dirty, who would dare to live here? You're not a moron."
"Do you feel that there is always a breeze blowing in this yard? Do you think it is the cold wind?"
"This inn is in a very remote location. It's actually a popular online inn. Logically, the surroundings of a popular online inn should be bustling. Why is it so deserted here?"
The group discussed for a while but could not come to any conclusion. Sleepiness coupled with fear made them more and more anxious. The mood of appreciating the beautiful scenery before had long disappeared. Now the trees seemed to have double images, and everything seemed eerie.
Jing Cheng was listening at the side and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't expect that just a casual remark of his would trigger so many suspicious speculations from everyone. He guessed that everyone had seen too much recently and started to suffer from nervous breakdown.
"What's wrong with the design? I think it's pretty good." Fu Le jumped twice on the spot, and the floor "tapping" twice. Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something magical. He squatted on the ground, lowered his head, stretched his neck, and looked through the cracks in the floor. "Fuck, look! There seems to be a living thing underneath!"
Director Zhao and the others were startled by his startled appearance and asked hurriedly, "What what?"
Qin Yan looked down and said calmly, "It should be fish. Haven't you noticed that the water here is flowing? The pond in the yard is connected to the river outside. The veranda is paved with wooden boards and there is water flowing underneath. It is probably built very high to avoid moisture."
Jing Cheng said, "I saw them when I walked in just now. They were a few golden carps, about fifty centimeters long."
"..." Seeing that he didn't scare the two people, Fu Le stood up boredly, "So that's how it is. I was wondering why I kept hearing the crashing sound along the way. I thought I had tinnitus."
Director Zhao complained, "You kid, you almost gave me a heart attack. Oh, by the way, Master Jing just said there's something wrong with the design of this courtyard? Is it related to Feng Shui?"
Jing Cheng nodded and said after careful consideration: "This yard is arranged with a Feng Shui layout for attracting wealth... a semi-finished product."
Semi-finished product? Everyone was puzzled. Is there such a thing in Feng Shui?
Jing Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "No, it can't be called a semi-finished product. It can only be said to be neither fish nor fowl."
Everyone was puzzled. What was going on? Why didn't you explain it more clearly?
Fu Le winked at Qin Yan and said: Eldest disciple, please translate it for me.
Qin Yan glanced at him coldly: Get out.
Just when everyone was about to ask, a strange and clear male voice asked first: "What do you mean?"
Jing Cheng pointed forward and said, "Look there, in the middle of the yard."
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed. The corridor was located on a high level, so they could easily see the layout of the courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard there was a tall rockery with an old loquat tree planted on it. There was a pond under the rockery, and the golden carp in the pond were clearly visible.
The pond is not closed, but connected in all directions. Thin streams of water crisscross the courtyard, pass through the corridor and connect to the outside world.
Of course, these are scenes that ordinary people can see.
But in Jing Cheng's eyes, it was a different scene.
"The four sides are high and arc-shaped, with a courtyard in the center, like a bowl or a hood, with a rockery in the middle, which means a mountain of wealth, like a cornucopia. The river in the courtyard is diverted to form a pond, the hall gathers water, and trees are planted on both sides. The water flows and the trees gather wealth, which means increasing income and reducing expenditure, and at the same time attracting wealth from all directions."
The wealth coming from all directions surged around the courtyard, and was suppressed by the rockery, unable to leave for a long time. The courtyard was filled with flickering golden light, almost blinding Jing Cheng's yin-yang eyes. No wonder this remote place can become an Internet celebrity inn, and there is a reason for it.
"There are many golden carps and koi carps raised in the pond. Both are meant to attract wealth. Koi carps have a round red spot on their heads, so they are also known in the industry as 'good luck'."
Jing Cheng paused, "What a pity..."
"What a pity?" the male voice continued to ask, this time a little more hurriedly.
"Too much is as bad as too little." Jing Cheng said the second half of the sentence and stopped talking. He turned back to look at the person who came. After a moment's observation, he looked at him with understanding and asked, "Are you the owner of this inn?"
Only then did everyone notice that a stranger had sneaked in among them.
The man was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, wearing a light blue Tang suit and a thin figure. I don’t know if he didn’t get enough rest, his face was a little pale, his eyes were swollen, his cheeks were sunken, and his energy seemed to be drained, like a dying old man.
Hearing Jing Cheng's question, he nodded. Noticing Jing Cheng's young and immature face, he didn't know what he was thinking. A complicated expression appeared on his face. After a long while, he replied, "Yes, I am the boss here, Lu Keyuan."
-----
The author has something to say:
The Feng Shui layout of the courtyard needs some minor adjustments.
The short drama was deleted and Lu Keyuan’s character was modified.
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