Although Zhou Gongqi is old, his execution ability is exceptionally amazing.
Just as dawn broke at six o'clock, he tidied himself up and went for a walk in the village by himself.
This walk took more than an hour.
The two cameramen who were filming him had to take turns carrying the cameras and following him, listening to him mutter to himself the whole way:
"Putting a few red bricks in this corner and drawing a groundhog peeking out of its hole would be nice."
"The curve of that street corner is perfect. As you walk in, you can paint a large landscape with great depth along the wall. I need to think about this carefully. Let me think about it some more."
"Huh, where am I?" Zhou Gongqi turned around and looked at the cameraman, saying with a confused expression, "I think I'm lost."
The cameraman, exhausted, put down the camera with a relieved smile on his face, thinking to himself that the old man finally couldn't walk anymore.
Chai Fei and the five members of the zaibatsu were going to the rapeseed field to collect honey early in the morning.
They went out into the living room but didn't see Zhou Gongqi. Just as they were about to knock on the old man's door, Director Chen told them:
"The Duke of Zhou went out for a stroll at six o'clock, and now he's lost."
The surroundings fell silent for a moment, then erupted into unkind laughter.
Shen Yingyu pressed further, "Where is the old man now?"
Director Chen: "The camera PD found a breakfast shop nearby and treated him to some xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). You can settle the bill for him later."
Shen Yingyu, being wealthy and generous, paid for the breakfasts for the three people on the spot.
"Director, please tell Zhou Gong for me that we will go to the village to pick him up after we set off."
After finishing breakfast, the group drove to the narrow alleyways.
Yan Jie parked the van in front of the old store.
Jiang Hexi got out of the car and saw a group of people gathered under a tree, seemingly looking at something.
She squeezed into the crowd and saw Zhou Gongqi had set up his easel and was painting on the canvas.
With just a few strokes, he captured the white hair at the old woman's temples and the wisps of smoke rising from the chimney. The morning light settled in his brushstrokes, and time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Before she could speak, someone behind her covered her mouth and then quietly led her out of the crowd.
Yan Jie led her to the van and released her.
"Don't disturb the Duke of Zhou; he has already reached a state of selflessness."
"So we'll just leave him here?" Jiang Hexi asked uncertainly.
“It takes Zhou Gong two or three hours to paint. We will come to pick him up after we finish collecting honey.”
Seeing that no one objected, Yan Jie drove the van to the rapeseed field.
Uncle Zhong had been waiting impatiently for a long time. As soon as he saw them get out of the car, he urged them to move the beehives onto the wooden frame.
He distributed the snuff bottles, cutters, and bee brooms, demonstrated how to extract honey, and then had them work in pairs.
Chu Yang and Jiang Hexi were assigned to the same group.
Having learned from their previous experience, they were noticeably more cautious this time.
Chu Yang lit his pipe and smoked the area around the beehives before saying to Jiang Hexi, "Sister, you can uncover the covering and take out the iron sand cover now."
Unlike her previous recklessness, Jiang Hexi gently and slowly lifted the beehive cover and removed the iron sand cover. Countless bees swarmed out from the baffle. Chu Yang was so frightened that he kept backing away, but Jiang Hexi seemed to be frozen in place, completely still.
Uncle Zhong, seeing her reaction, nodded repeatedly in satisfaction.
Jiang Hexi waited until the bees had swarmed together before carefully taking out the hive frame.
She gestured for Chu Yang to bring over the snuff bottle, then quickly shook the honeycomb frame up and down to fling the bees away, before using a cutter to slice a whole piece of honey into a plate.
The two of them looked at the plate of sweet and tempting honey, their mouths watering.
Chu Yang reached for the honey, but Jiang Hexi slapped his hand hard across the back.
"You're still wearing a helmet and face shield, what are you going to eat?"
"Sister, I can take off the mask, eat the honey, and then put it back on."
Jiang Hexi glanced around and saw Uncle Zhong instructing the other two groups on how to harvest honey. She eagerly said:
"If we're going to eat, we'll have to find a place without bees and eat our fill in one go."
Chu Yang looked straight at her and said, "Sister, where do you want to go?"
Jiang Hexi shifted her gaze to the van parked by the roadside, silently giving him the answer.
While everyone was busy and no one was paying attention to them, the two excused themselves to go to the restroom, shook off the paparazzi following them, and quietly took the plate of honey they had just taken and hid in the van one after the other.
Jiang Hexi took off her helmet and eagerly put a piece of honey into her mouth.
The burst of sweetness made her squint her eyes in satisfaction, and she kept saying, "Delicious, I've never tasted such pure honey."
Chu Yang also popped a mouthful of honey into his mouth, and he gave two thumbs up, saying, "Sis, this tastes so sweet it's intoxicating, I can eat it all without getting tired of it."
She pushed the plate towards the center: "Then eat more, have another piece."
He picked up a piece of honey and popped it into his mouth. "It's so delicious, sis. Let's finish this plate before we go downstairs."
The two of them were eating heartily, each taking a piece of food from the other.
Jiang Hexi suddenly looked up and met the red light flashing on the monitor in the car. She nudged Chu Yang's arm and exclaimed in surprise:
"Is this a live streaming camera, or just a simple monitor?"
Without thinking twice, Chu Yang immediately turned off the car's security camera and asked guiltily, "Sis, what should we do?"
Jiang Hexi put on her helmet and face shield, opened the car door, and was about to get out:
"Hurry up and go back to get the honey. Just pretend we never stole any honey."
Before she could even get out of the car, she was caught red-handed by four people blocking the door. She tried to ingratiate herself by pushing the plate of honey forward.
Would you like to try some?
"Who wants to eat the honey you left over?"
Yu Xiangwan angrily rolled up her sleeves, showing her the red welts on her body from the bee stings. "Look at these welts! I was stung like a sieve in the woods, and you two, instead, came to the car to steal honey!"
Chai Fei didn't let them off the hook either: "If Director Chen hadn't seen the surveillance video, discovered that you were sneaking food, and told me in time, I wouldn't have known you were this kind of people."
Neither Yan Jie nor Shen Yingyu spoke, but their judgmental gazes said it all.
Jiang Hexi has once again been thrust into the spotlight.
She was incredibly unlucky; every time she tried to sneak a bite, she was caught red-handed, losing all face.
She said pitifully, "You've all misunderstood me and Chu Yang."
Shen Yingyu gestured for her to continue: "Keep making things up, keep making things up."
Jiang Hexi feigned a sense of having no choice but to confess and truthfully said, "I shouldn't have stolen the honey. It was wrong of me, but you can't blame Chu Yang. He did it all for my own good."
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