APCF -Chapter 20 (2)

Old Zeng’s house was built large, with three or four rooms in each building section. This time, the guests finally did not need to share their rooms anymore.

At night, Qi Xingchen strained his ears to listen to the sounds of the courtyard. Until only the chirping of the cicadas was left, clutching the bedding he had borrowed during the day, he knocked on the door of Bo Ye’s room.

Thus when Bo Ye opened the door, all he saw was a tall pile of a white quilt, with a small head poking out diagonally behind the quilt.

The little head said in a whispery voice: “Don’t ask, let me in first.”

“……En.”
Bo Ye turned his body sideways, making way for the little head.

Qi Xingchen hugged the quilt and made a beeline towards the single bed. Sure enough, the bedding had all been lifted up and piled aside by the bed’s owner, revealing the hard panel of the bed beneath.

Qi Xingchen huffed and puffed as he laid out the new bedding, then huffed and puffed again as he folded the damp bedding. Dusting his hands off, he said, “I don’t like white quilts, it’s like being in the hospital, this blue one of yours is much nicer. Bo Ye-ge, can we exchange?”

It turns out that the reason why the little fan ran out to find the quilt was for him. Bo Ye froze for a bit, then raised an eyebrow: “Aren’t you all done exchanging them already?”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

Fearing that he would be discovered, he set about doing it once he came in and really forgot to ask Bo Ye first.
If by any chance, the other person did not wish to exchange it, then wouldn’t he be doing a bad thing instead even though it was out of good intention?

Qi Xingchen fell silent for a long time. Seeing him defeated, Bo Ye finally let him off, the corners of his mouth rippling with a light smile: “But what a coincidence, I just happen to like white.”

Qi Xingchen heaved a sigh of relief, completely reassured.

“I’ll take away the blue one then,” Qi Xingchen picked up the exchanged quilt, “By the way, don’t tell anyone about tonight’s incident oh.”

He was very careful as soon as he came in, doing his best not to make a sound, just so as not to let the audience know about Bo Ye’s condition, to avoid him getting accused of throwing his weight around.

Bo Ye was also very cooperative, imitating Qi Xingchen and saying in a whispery tone, “Thank you, I won’t tell anyone, just that—”

He curled his index finger and gave Qi Xingchen a not-so-gentle knock on the forehead, “Just that there are cameras in our room, have you forgotten?”

…

As a poor thing who participated in a show the first time, Qi Xingchen often forgot the existence of such a thing as the camera. He gloomily tossed and turned for a long time before being able to sleep.

Rather, it was Bo Ye, who was lying on a fluffy clean quilt, smelling the unique grassy breeze of the countryside, who fell asleep fast.

At dawn the following day, a big rooster called the deeply slumbering guests up.
The one crueller than the big rooster was Director Zhao. In the courtyard of the Zeng household, he held a loudspeaker in one hand, and pulled a middle-aged man in the other, shouting: “All awake now?”

“Ah? Oh oh oh,” the guests reacted sluggishly, “Awake now.”

Director Zhao: “……Okay, then I will announce today’s mission.”

“The one standing beside me is called Old Tie, a blacksmith who specialises in making washbasins, water ladles, and other household items. Your mission today—come here, Little Li —”

After hearing the voice, the production assistant, Little Li, slowly drove a loader rickshaw out of the carport.
The open-topped container was filled with all kinds and sorts of iron household utensils.

“Your mission today is to go to the market with Old Tie and sell the ironware. The more you sell, the higher the mission completion level.”

Hearing the unfamiliar term “mission completion level”, Zhou Yu asked: “What’s the difference between having high or low completion levels?”

“If the mission completion level is at less than 50%, it will be treated as a mission failure. If the completion level is above 50%, no deduction or bonus will be given, if 100% is reached— namely, everything is sold, you all will obtain a hidden reward.

Everything? Is? Sold?
That is an entire huge cart of ironware ah! How can they all be sold?

The courtyard was momentarily filled with cries of complaints. No matter which family needed any household items, they would have a limit to how much. With this huge cart, don’t mention selling half of it, even selling a tenth of it would be a big problem!

While everyone was complaining, Qi Xingchen’s expression was not too good either. When he was chatting with Zeng Er last night, Zeng Er had said that the one in the most difficult circumstance in the village was the blacksmith next door.
It seemed that it was this Old Tie.

If there was a market for ironware, Old Tie would absolutely not be in this state.

It was evident from this that Old Tie’s goods were definitely harder to sell than one might think.

But even if it was difficult to sell it, they still had to go. Under the urging of the programme team, the group carried their own bags and set off into the first rays of the morning sun.

There were not many customers at the market yet. Old Tie drove forward leisurely, and said while smiling: “We are almost at my stall, my son has bought you all soy milk and youtiao. It’s not expensive, but it’s hot, so don’t mind!”

Everyone expressed that they did not mind; no one could say for sure that 2000 would be deducted from their travel funds today, if they can eat without paying for one meal, it was still one meal.

More than ten meters further on, the word “IRONWARE” in massive font came into view. Under the shop signboard made up of two bamboo poles and a piece of cloth, the stall had already been set up. There were no goods on it, just seven sets of breakfast.

Behind the stall, a boy aged 14 or 15 was holding a pen, appearing to be writing something.

“Uncle Tie,” Qi Xingchen’s brow immediately furrowed, “is your son not going to school today?”

“He was supposed to go, but the teacher had a family emergency and took leave at the last moment.”

“……With one teacher having a family emergency, can’t the other teachers just teach as a substitute?” Liu Ziyu was unable to understand, “Besides, there can’t be only one course a day, right?”

“Aiyoh young lady, you don’t understand us here! There’s only one teacher altogether at Little Tie’s school, teaching both Chinese Language and Maths. When the teacher has a family emergency, of course there aren’t any classes to attend!”

Once Liu Ziyu heard of this, she revealed a shocked face. But in reality, there were many impoverished mountainous areas where this was the case. Teaching resources were scarce, and one teacher had to hold several jobs.

Not to mention the quality of teaching, if by any chance the teacher couldn’t come in on one day, the entire grade would have to follow suit and stop classes.

“Alright, here we are,” Old Tie pulled up in an open area, taking the lead to jump out of the car, “Little Tie, come over and call their names!”

Little Tie put down his pen, and after he had finished greeting the guests, very sensibly invited everyone to eat the breakfast.

As he ate, Qi Xingchen watched Little Tie out of the corner of his eyes, only to see him return to where he was just now and continue writing, wiping the corner of his mouth as he wrote.

Qi Xingchen said: “Little Tie, come here.”

“Xingxing-gege.” He came over as he was told.

“What are you writing?”

“Writing yesterday’s homework.”

“Do you know how to do all of it?”

Little Tie scratched his head, “There are a few application problems that I can’t do.”

“Okay, I’ll help you look at it later,” Qi Xingchen picked out a youtiao from his own plate, “In exchange for doing the question, you can help gege eat this youtiao that I am unable to eat anymore.”

Little Tie’s personality was simple, honest and pure, and he was unable to tell the genuine from the fake in Qi Xingchen’s words, happily accepting the youtiao.

Looking at him wolfing down the food, Qi Xingchen felt both gratified and distressed, and passed him the soy milk, “Eat slowly, don’t choke.”

While passing the soy milk, he suddenly noticed that he had an extra youtiao on his plate.

He twisted his head to look at Bo Ye. Bo Ye seemed to be eating so earnestly and he didn’t see him.

When breakfast was over, Qi Xingchen made good on his promise, asking Little Tie to bring over the exercise book.

“Application problems?” Zhou Yu heard Qi Xingchen’s words and came near.

“Didn’t you specialise in the Arts?” Zhou Yu cast a sidelong glance at the exercise book in Qi Xingchen’s hands, “And you also know this stuff??”