The afternoon sunlight was warm, casting a golden velvet-like glow everywhere it touched.

Since he started eating lunch, Gu Wenxi hadn’t seen Du Yunyan. The main door was half open, and aside from the occasional tinkling of wind chimes, there were sporadic rustling sounds outside, as if something was rubbing against the branches and leaves of the trees.

He glanced outside and saw Du Yunyan standing under the two pomegranate trees, holding a long-handled tool, probing among the branches and leaves to reach the fruits on the tree. For every fruit he picked, he placed it in the basket beside him.

Sitting in a blind spot during the meal, Gu Wenxi hadn’t seen this direction and naturally didn’t know that Du Yunyan had been in the courtyard the whole time.

He walked over, and Du Yunyan was still focused on finding the ripe fruits. The yellow dog lying beside him barked twice before he noticed someone approaching. “Done eating?”

“Yeah,” Gu Wenxi glanced at the basket almost full of fruit at his feet. The pomegranates’ skins were red and shiny, and the top two had split open. “Are they all ripe?”

“Yeah, this variety ripens late.”

Actually, Gu Wenxi was just asking casually; he had no idea when regular pomegranates ripened, nor did he know how much later Du Yunyan meant by “late ripening.”

After picking three more fruits, Du Yunyan used the tool to probe the branches again. When there was nothing else to see except leaves, he held the tool in his left hand and prepared to lift the basket with both hands.

“Let me help you?” Gu Wenxi volunteered. “Are we carrying it into the house?” As he spoke, he reached out, touching the edge of the basket before Du Yunyan and exerted force upward with both hands simultaneously.

However, the basket didn’t budge from its position, remaining firmly nailed to the ground.

Blushing, Gu Wenxi looked up, and Du Yunyan bent down, grabbing the side closer to him. He said to Gu Wenxi, “Help me bring it inside.”

With the additional help, Gu Wenxi finally felt that the basket wasn’t so heavy. He also grabbed one side with both hands, lifting the pomegranates into the dining room together.

“Thank you.”

Du Yunyan dragged out a cardboard box from behind the bar counter, which looked like the remaining box from mailing items, with addresses and names written in bold marker pen. The name conspicuously consisted of three large characters, “Du Yunyan.”

Gu Wenxi was slightly stunned. So, the third character of his name was the “yan” from “inkstone.”

But, did he want to put the pomegranates in the cardboard box?

“How long will these last?”

“I’ll give some to others,” Du Yunyan wiped the surface of the pomegranates with a warm towel, “and keep the rest to eat slowly.”

Gu Wenxi felt neither inclined to leave nor to stay. It didn’t matter much that he had helped carry the basket earlier, he wouldn’t have the patience to do such tedious tasks like Du Yunyan did, especially since he was just a guest and didn’t need to take on this trouble. But seeing Du Yunyan so busy, he felt awkward about slipping away directly.

Du Yunyan saw through his embarrassment. “It’s fine, you don’t need to help here.”

Gu Wenxi felt relieved and turned away.

“Wait,” Du Yunyan put down the towel and the fruits in his hand, and pulled out something from under the bar counter, handing it over. “The air conditioner remote control.”

Gu Wenxi remembered what happened last night. “Where did you buy the batteries?”

“There’s a small store at the entrance of the village.”

“I see,” Gu Wenxi wasn’t very familiar with the roads around here and didn’t know how far it was. “Was it troublesome?”

“Not really, just a few minutes ride.”

Seeing him leave in the morning, he probably went to buy batteries. Gu Wenxi took the remote control, running his thumb over the buttons below. Du Yunyan went into the kitchen to wash his hands and came out with water droplets on his wrist.

“I’ll go upstairs first.” Gu Wenxi gestured upstairs.

“Okay.”

Gu Wenxi took out his camera bag from his travel bag and slung it over his shoulder. He enjoyed taking photos when he went out, using both his camera and phone, but never taking selfies, only capturing landscapes or people he found touching. After sleeping all morning, he finally felt energetic enough to explore.

Leaving the guesthouse building, he saw the black dog basking in the sun under a tree. The dog seemed to be more accustomed to him today, not reacting as strongly as yesterday, just staring with bright eyes and wagging its tail as it circled around him.

“Are you called Yangyang or Beibei?” Gu Wenxi playfully teased the dog.

As he walked away, the dog followed him.

“There’s no food for you if you follow me!” he shrugged, leaving the guesthouse’s fence, then said to the dog, “Go back quickly.”

The dog didn’t follow him anymore.

Gu Wenxi turned onto the sloping path leading upwards, then descended along a mountain trail, passing through two slightly steeper slopes, until he saw water.

It wasn’t the rainy season now, so the water level of the river wasn’t high, flowing downstream lazily. The weather was very clear, with some fluffy clouds drifting aimlessly in the sky, and the outline of the distant mountains was clearer than yesterday. Gu Wenxi aimed the camera lens at the other side of the riverbank. He had been to many places, but there weren’t many authentic rural areas like this, giving him a sense of freshness.

People are often attracted to unfamiliar environments; rural people yearn to pursue opportunities in big cities, while urbanites continuously seek various remote “quiet places” for some spiritual solace. The blogger from Weibo probably recommended Pingliang Village with such a mindset.

However, judging from the relatively complete facilities at this Yaning guesthouse, it was far from being as impoverished and remote as one might think. Gu Wenxi also saw many private cars parked in the courtyards of many households.

On the way back, he met the girl from yesterday, the one Du Yunyan called “Yan Yan.”

“Are you finished with school?” Gu Wenxi asked, noticing she was still carrying her school bag while riding her bike, initiating the conversation.

“Yeah!” The girl’s eyes sparkled, perhaps remembering the stranger uncle she had met the day before. “Uncle, do you live at Uncle Yunyan’s inn?”

“Yeah,” Gu Wenxi replied, “Are you close to him?”

“Yeah,” she got off her bike and walked beside him as they chatted, “Uncle Yunyan has cooked delicious food for me and helped me with my homework… He’s really nice!”

“Is he?” Gu Wenxi pretended to think deeply. “By the way, is he really from here?”

“I’ve known Uncle Yunyan since I was little.” The girl got back on her bike when they reached the fork in the road near the inn. “Uncle, I’m going home now!”

“Okay, be careful.” Gu Wenxi smiled and watched her go.

He had lingered outside for too long, and when he turned back, the western sky was filled with crimson clouds.

The restaurant’s French windows reflected the silhouette of a person sitting inside. Gu Wenxi didn’t need to look closely to guess that it was Du Yunyan. Stepping over the threshold, he instinctively glanced in that direction.

Du Yunyan was eating pomegranates, with a small bowl of peeled red pearls on his right side, and a paper-folded small trash bin next to it for the seeds he spat out.

It was the first time Gu Wenxi had seen him eating in front of him. His actions were much gentler than those of the average man, using a small spoon to feed himself, spitting out the seeds onto the spoon, and then pouring them into the small bin, all done slowly and carefully, without a trace of stain around the mouth.”

Du Yunyan noticed the other’s eyes staring at him without blinking, finally putting down the small spoon. “Do you want some? There’s one on the counter.”

Gu Wenxi caught sight of what he referred to with his peripheral vision, probably also ripe and not put into the box. However, he wasn’t just looking at it because he was craving; prompted by Du Yunyan’s question, he shook his head awkwardly. “No, no need, that… pomegranate is fine, but it’s too troublesome to eat.”

“Troublesome?”

“Yeah,” Gu Wenxi pulled out a chair and sat across from him, pointing at his bowl. “Look, it’s quite troublesome to peel, and you have to spit out the seeds while eating.”

“You don’t have to spit out the seeds,” Du Yunyan continued, picking up the spoon, “it’s even more nutritious that way.”

“Forget it, pomegranate seeds aren’t tasty anyway.”

Gu Wenxi crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table like playing a piano, occasionally glancing at Du Yunyan across from him.

Completely undisturbed, Du Yunyan continued eating his pomegranate, not saying another word. After a while, just as Gu Wenxi was about to get up feeling bored, he heard the other’s voice, “Do you have any special requests for dinner?”

He sat back down. “None.”

“Then I’ll go heat it up for you.”

“Ah, no rush, Boss Du,” Gu Wenxi couldn’t help himself anymore. “Can’t you just drop the customer service attitude? I mean, other bosses can chat with customers casually.”

Du Yunyan’s brows furrowed slightly. “You want to chat casually with me?”

“I-I was just giving an example,” Gu Wenxi tried to persuade him. “I mean, being more enthusiastic might improve your business.

“It’s all voluntary,” Du Yunyan scooped up the last spoonful from his bowl, “if others don’t want to come, I won’t force them.”

“Why are you so rigid? I walked around nearby this afternoon, and, believe it or not, most places I saw have their own charm, including your inn,” Gu Wenxi looked around. “It’s just not fully developed.”

“We don’t need that here,” Du Yunyan said disinterestedly.

“Well, it’s good to maintain traditional characteristics, but what about promotion?” Gu Wenxi took out his phone, scrolled through his WeChat Moments, “These are the photos I took this afternoon. After I posted them, people asked me where it was, and some asked about accommodation.” He had many friends, and within an hour of sending one WeChat message, there were quite a few comments and likes. “You should thank me, shouldn’t you?”

“It’s your freedom, but I didn’t ask you to do that.”

Gu Wenxi listened to his indifferent tone and felt somewhat annoyed. After all, hotels outside were eager for guests to post photos for promotion. Originally, he wanted to ask if Du Yunyan had Weibo or a public account to follow, but seeing his attitude, it seemed futile.

“I’ll go prepare dinner for you.”

Ignoring the other’s face, Du Yunyan repeated the words he had interrupted earlier, turned and left, taking the bowl and spoon used for the pomegranate with him.

Gu Wenxi rested his head on his arm, boredly lying on the table, with the window showing a half-red and half-purple light. There was a pendant lamp hanging overhead, with a round lampshade emitting a soft yellow light. Because there were few people, only this lamp was lit in the hall. The light spread out, creating a fuzzy boundary halo, falling around him.

Dinner consisted of carrot and bamboo shoot stir-fry, pan-fried tofu, potato cakes, and red bean and coix seed porridge, all brightly colored, but Gu Wenxi didn’t feel much appetite.

“Ah,” he called out to Du Yunyan, who was about to leave, “you haven’t eaten yet, have you? Let’s eat together, the table is big enough.”

After a few conversations, Gu Wenxi also figured out that Du Yunyan was a stubborn old stickler, but his rebellious heart was heavy, the more he was defeated, the more he wanted to tease overtly and covertly.

Glancing down at the dishes on the table, Du Yunyan eventually brought his own bowl and chopsticks.

“Boss,” Gu Wenxi toyed with his chopsticks on the plate, “is it your rule to have vegetarian meals six days a week and meat on the seventh?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you have to choose Sunday then?” Gu Wenxi exaggeratedly raised his eyebrows. “Why not Tuesday or Wednesday?”

Du Yunyan almost rolled his eyes. “Does it make a difference?”

“Of course, it does,” Gu Wenxi’s voice raised a bit. “It’s Tuesday today, and my room is booked until Thursday. I might leave the day after tomorrow. It’s rare for me to come here, eating vegetarian every day, how miserable!”

“I eat vegetarian every day,” Du Yunyan calmly maneuvered his chopsticks. “I never feel miserable.”

“Well—” Gu Wenxi almost blurted out ‘but I’m a guest,’ but that would be too presumptuous. He had just said this afternoon that he didn’t want Du Yunyan to treat him as a guest.

Forget it, he didn’t want to bother building a friendly relationship with such a stubborn person. It was a waste of his good looks.

After turning on the air conditioner and sleeping, Gu Wenxi felt much better. The rooster’s crow didn’t even wake him up the next morning. It was only after nine when he yawned and went downstairs. As he approached the dining area, he heard voices of chatting and laughter. Besides Du Yunyan, there was someone else here.