Pingliang Village was originally an undeveloped place. It only became lively in recent years due to some independent travelers promoting off-the-beaten-path tourist destinations. However, it was only bustling during the peak season. After mid-October until the next spring, hardly anyone came. Naturally, Du Yunyan didn’t need to hire any more staff. He could easily handle the occasional guest, like Gu Wenxi today.

After Gu Wenxi went to sleep, Du Yunyan also returned to his room on the second floor.

The night in the mountains was surprisingly quiet. That night, even the nocturnal birds seemed to have disappeared.

The curtains were tightly closed, and the soft orange light from the desk lamp spread out from the desk, gently illuminating the entire room. He liked nights like this, sitting at the desk, reading or writing, sometimes accompanied by a glass of fruit wine he brewed himself.

After sitting for the whole night, he put down his book, ready to turn off the light and sleep, when suddenly he heard a faint sound from outside the room, as if someone was moving around. The village had excellent public security, and although it wasn’t to the extent of leaving doors unlocked at night, it was rare for anyone to intrude into someone else’s home. Moreover, his dogs, Yangyang and Beibei, hadn’t made a sound, which didn’t seem like there was a stranger around.

Curious, he opened the door and looked outside.

“Excuse me—do you need anything?” Du Yunyan saw Gu Wenxi walking up the stairs diagonally opposite, and politely asked. At this time, he didn’t think the other party was just wandering around aimlessly in the dark corridor.

Gu Wenxi’s face showed surprise, as if he had been looking for him for a long time. “So you’re here!”

“Are you looking for me?”

“Yeah,” he immediately rushed down the stairs, taking three quick steps to reach Du Yunyan, “I wanted to ask if you have the air conditioner remote control?”

“The air conditioner remote control?” Du Yunyan looked at him strangely, “Are you feeling hot?”

“How is that possible,” Gu Wenxi shrugged, “I’m actually feeling cold!”

“Cold?”

At the transition between autumn and winter in the southern mountainous regions, it was only cool, and Du Yunyan’s room didn’t even have air conditioning installed. He had long since adapted to this climate and didn’t need any additional heating or cooling equipment.

“Yeah, why is it so cold tonight?”

Gu Wenxi wore a winter coat over his home clothes, arms crossed, and he looked at Du Yunyan with questioning eyes.

“I have the remote control, but the batteries are dead,” Du Yunyan said calmly, “It’s too late today, I can only buy them tomorrow.”

“What?” Gu Wenxi, who had just circled the entire building to ask Du Yunyan for the remote control, obviously didn’t expect this result. He stood in front of Du Yunyan’s door for a while before turning around and continuing up the stairs, feeling a little sluggish.

“Wait,” Du Yunyan stopped him, “The second floor is a bit warmer than the third floor. You can move to the second floor; the room in there also has a large bed.” He gestured towards the direction at the end of the corridor.

“Yeah, okay,” Gu Wenxi’s expression relaxed slightly, “Thank you.”

Du Yunyan’s hand remained on the door handle, taking two steps back, slowly closing the door. “I’ll get the keys.”

---

Gu Wenxi swiftly dragged his few belongings from the third floor to the second floor, where Du Yunyan’s room was on the same level.

Whether it was the running up and down or the second floor really being warmer, when he lay down on the bed again, he indeed felt less cold. He wrapped his whole body in the blanket, wanting to take advantage of this comfort to fall asleep early.

Before falling asleep, the face of the owner inexplicably floated into his consciousness—a cold but exceptionally refined face. From his surname, he should be a local, but he didn’t have the down-to-earth feeling of an ordinary villager.

Gu Wenxi’s eyelids opened and closed, but he found it took much longer than expected to fall asleep.

In the later part of the night, he was awakened again by the cold. The area near his lower back was chilly, even though he had wrapped the blanket around himself, not knowing where the cold air was coming from. Putting on his coat helped a bit, but once he woke up, he couldn’t fall asleep again. Without checking the time on his phone, he lay in bed, staring straight at the dark ceiling.

After lying for a while, he began to hear the sound of chickens crowing outside, sounding very close. The crowing was loud and piercing, seemingly tireless, and there was a growing light behind the curtains, as the birds in the mountains became noisy.

Gu Wenxi still lay stiffly. He felt strange; if he woke up this early on a normal day, he would have a splitting headache, but today his mind was unusually clear.

Just then, he couldn’t help but sneeze due to the chilly air around him.

It was already morning, yet it was still so cold. Gu Wenxi got out of bed, vigorously rubbed his cold hands, and then washed his face with hot water in the bathroom.

Pulling back the curtains, he realized that this room was different from the one on the third floor; it faced the backyard. There were more trees and vegetation in the backyard than in the front, with a forked stone path running through the middle. Directly below the room was a chicken coop, with three chickens wandering around, and Du Yunyan squatting beside them holding a feed tray, still wearing the same sweater as yesterday.

He must have a high tolerance for cold. Gu Wenxi looked at the coat draped over himself and felt cold on his behalf.

The backyard was slightly elevated, with the window close to the ground, and he could even see Du Yunyan’s expression from there: the corners of his mouth were not clearly visible, and the corners of his eyes were slightly downturned, indicating a smile. He picked up the phone on the table, took a picture of the scene downstairs, and then walked casually towards the backyard.

Turning from the guesthouse to the backyard, Gu Wenxi stood just a small empty space away from the chicken coop. He smiled and approached, intending to greet Du Yunyan, who had just turned around.

But as soon as he lifted his foot, he heard Du Yunyan’s loud voice shouting, “Don’t move!”

Gu Wenxi was stopped by this sudden loud voice, not understanding why. He hadn’t done anything wrong; he just wanted to walk over. Under the nervous tension, he accidentally took another step.

Du Yunyan swiftly jumped from the stone path to him, embracing his waist tightly, his movements so fast that Gu Wenxi couldn’t react.

Gu Wenxi was baffled. What was going on? Was the shopkeeper who was indifferent to him yesterday suddenly changing his attitude? But even if the other person was handsome, he was still a man!

He awkwardly pushed Du Yunyan away and glanced at the man’s frosty expression—it didn’t look like he was trying to make advances.

“Don’t move,” Du Yunyan repeated his words with a slightly softer tone, still holding onto him tightly, “You stepped on my cilantro.”

Gu Wenxi dared not move again, slowly shifting his gaze to the ground, where he indeed saw a few green seedlings, probably just sprouted from the soil, looking similar to weeds. He felt embarrassed for his recklessness and excessive inner drama, too ashamed to look at Du Yunyan’s face again.

“Um… I understand,” he withdrew his foot, and Du Yunyan immediately let go of him, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Du Yunyan crouched down to inspect the spot he had stepped on.

“You’re up so early?” Gu Wenxi, feeling mentally agile, thought that the best way to ease the embarrassment was to change the subject and get closer.

“Yeah.”

“Are those chickens yours?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard crowing in the morning. Were those your chickens?” Gu Wenxi ignored the other party’s lack of interest and continued with his questions one after another.

Du Yunyan finally looked up at him. “I don’t raise roosters; those belong to the neighbor.”

“Oh,” Gu Wenxi smiled awkwardly, “Did you lock them up?”

Although the chicken coop in the yard was larger than ordinary cages, it still had a fence around it.

“I did. Otherwise, they’ll damage the vegetables in the garden.”

As he said this, his gaze swept over towards Gu Wenxi, making him extremely uncomfortable.

When things don’t go well, it’s better to keep quiet.

“Breakfast is ready. It’s on the table as soon as you enter the dining room,” as Gu Wenxi was about to leave the backyard, Du Yunyan suddenly spoke up, “Just pick what you like.”

---

Lifting the lid of the rice cooker, a white mist of hot air emerged, mixed with a rich aroma of grains. It was a multigrain porridge made from several types of rice and beans, accompanied by hot soy milk in a glass jar beside the rice cooker. Slices of bread were placed in a small basket, looking like they were self-made. In addition, there were three moderately sized white porcelain plates on the table—one with diamond-shaped white cakes, another with green leafy vegetables that Gu Wenxi couldn’t name, and the third with boiled and cooled salted peanuts.

Gu Wenxi scooped up some porridge with the wooden spoon on the small plate. As he sat down, Du Yunyan also walked into the hall, heading straight to the counter without looking aside.

“Have you had breakfast?” Gu Wenxi asked out of concern.

“No.”

“What are you going to eat?”

“What you left.”

He answered naturally and candidly, leaving Gu Wenxi unable to deduce anything from this seemingly odd response.

“Uh, do you want to eat together?”

Gu Wenxi’s temperament was not solitary; during his travels, he often engaged in small talk with people he met. Although the person this time emitted an aura of keeping strangers at bay, he still didn’t want to be alone.

Du Yunyan was organizing the menu in his hands, barely glancing down, not even looking towards Gu Wenxi’s direction. “No need.”

Gu Wenxi wasn’t discouraged. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll eat everything?”

“Help yourself.”

Gu Wenxi felt a bit bored. It was impossible for him to finish everything, but he had skipped meat the previous night, and when he woke up this morning, he felt hungrier than usual and ended up eating more than usual, trying a bit of everything.

After breakfast, the consequences of inadequate sleep from the previous night began to show. Gu Wenxi started yawning uncontrollably. Setting down his bowl and chopsticks, he returned to his room on the second floor, intending to draw the curtains and sleep some more. But as he lowered his head, he saw Du Yunyan sitting on a motorcycle at the exit of the backyard, wearing a helmet.

In mountainous areas with narrow roads and steep slopes, it was common to use motorcycles for transportation, something Gu Wenxi had encountered on his way here. But hadn’t Du Yunyan not had breakfast yet? Why was he leaving so soon?

Just as he was wondering, the buzzing sound of the engine came from downstairs, and the motorcycle passed through the back door, disappearing in an instant.

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