…
Their President Huo followed with thunder, frost, and snow.
Liang Xiao had been turning over in the hot spring’s snow for who knows how long, completely satisfied, slowly melting while resting his head on President Huo’s arm, thoroughly crossing hot springs off the crew’s list of safe words.
He really had no proper sitting posture, and his body was indeed soft and relaxed without any strength. As he rested his head, he began to doze off, his entire body slowly sliding down along the water’s surface.
President Huo was worried Liang Xiao might choke on water, so he held him up to sit, leaning against himself: “Be careful.”
“No problem,” Liang Xiao noticed him checking his pulse, turned his wrist, and grabbed President Huo’s hand. “I could still run around half the mountainside right now.”
President Huo looked at him for a while, his eyes completely warm, and stroked his hair.
Liang Xiao comfortably narrowed his eyes and nuzzled his palm: “I’m thirsty.”
He didn’t move himself, concentrating on making a small snowman with some snow that hadn’t melted yet, directing Assistant Huo with a clear conscience.
President Huo’s lips tugged slightly as he cooperatively nodded, took the fruit platter, and waited beside him.
Liang Xiao still wanted to stir things up a bit more, to have their President Huo completely level this small mound. The fruit platter came, and after waiting for a long time with his eyes closed, he closed his mouth in surprise: “Is there still a procedure?”
…Perhaps their President Huo had made rapid progress and had already learned to exchange a kiss for a piece of fruit.
Liang Xiao felt somewhat embarrassed by his own thoughts, coughed lightly, and vaguely pretended to decline: “Not appropriate…”
President Huo: “Very appropriate.”
Liang Xiao happily changed his stance: “Yes.”
Liang Xiao perked up, poked the small snowman he had been playing with to the edge of the pool, maintained human form as he pounced over, ready to climb up and give their President Huo a kiss.
Just as he was gathering momentum, he watched as President Huo handed over the fruit platter: “…What are you doing?”
“Waited too long,” President Huo said. “It’s not cold anymore.”
Liang Xiao: “…”
Liang Xiao: “Oh.”
“I make snow,” President Huo analyzed in detail. “Localized cooling isn’t very effective, affecting the overall appearance. We need ice cubes-”
Liang Xiao was embarrassed and angry, biting down on their President Huo’s shoulder.
President Huo had become skilled at relaxing his neck and shoulder muscles when Liang Xiao pounced on him. He was solidly bitten by Mr. Liang, vaguely felt pain, but still promptly raised his hand to protect Liang Xiao, preventing him from hitting the rugged stone wall at the edge of the hot spring.
The two had been together for far more than a day or two. President Huo was thoroughly familiar with Liang Xiao’s attack patterns, one hand firmly protecting Liang Xiao, the other barely managing to keep the fruit platter steady.
Liang Xiao was kissed on the forehead by their President Huo, but his anger hadn’t subsided, and he snatched the reddest piece of watermelon from the fruit platter.
President Huo pressed the corners of his mouth and said softly to coax him: “I know I was wrong.”
“Is this how pheromones are meant to be played with?!” Liang Xiao criticized him with heartache and indignation. “The snowman is going to melt!”
President Huo promptly made some snow for the little snowman.
Liang Xiao wanted to righteously double-standard a few more sentences, but when he looked up and met the smile in President Huo’s eyes, before he could react, he couldn’t hold back and made a small patch of hail.
Liang Xiao: “…”
President Huo was quick, caught some to place in the fruit platter, carefully chilled them properly, and peeled a grape for him.
Liang Xiao hadn’t yet recovered from that hint of a smile in their President Huo’s eyes. Covering his chest, he struggled to stay clear-headed, opened his mouth to accept the grape, and accidentally touched President Huo’s slightly cool fingertips.
Both of their minds uncontrollably fluttered.
“No good,” Liang Xiao said with the grape in his mouth, in unbearable pain, clutching President Huo’s wrist and urgently asking for a suppression patch. “Snow is romantic, but hail will make us cry…”
President Huo shielded him from the small ice cubes falling with a crackling sound, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably lifting as he lowered his head to kiss Liang Xiao’s eyes.
Even kissing in the rain is romantic enough, but Liang Xiao really couldn’t imagine what romance could be found in hail. He raised his head to emphasize the problem, but meeting the smile in President Huo’s eyes, he ultimately couldn’t control himself and completely lost his bottom line as well.
…
Let it hail then.
Not having taught their President Huo to drive, but having taught him to joke, was also a great achievement.
Liang Xiao really loved seeing President Huo smile like this. He casually splashed a handful of water on his face, seizing the opportunity to mess up President Huo’s hair.
–
The next day, President Huo requested leave for Liang Xiao from the early recording.
“…” Su Man, eating a sandwich, looked at her company’s CEO with an expression that was somewhat hard to describe: “Is it that urgent?”
President Huo frowned: “What?”
Almost the entire crew knew the details. This morning, a group of people received sandwiches sponsored by room number four. In addition to being moved, they had nothing better to do and pooled their resources to place bets.
They were betting on when the investor would be unable to resist and ferociously take care of the overly delicious omega artist.
There were still two days and one night of recording left. Su Man had bet two bottles of beer that President Huo could hold out until this afternoon, which was already one of the earliest among everyone.
Unexpectedly, they had all somewhat underestimated the top-tier alpha.
President Huo still couldn’t understand this level of coded language. The PR department head, worried to the point of premature gray hair, came up to explain: “No… Mr. Liang injured his leg.”
He spoke seriously, and the group that had been casually chatting and joking was also taken aback, realizing it wasn’t a joke, and all expressed concern: “Is it serious?”
PR department head: “Not serious…”
Considering the need to record the program, President Huo and Mr. Liang had actually been very restrained and hadn’t done anything that would affect the filming.
…It’s just that Mr. Liang hadn’t made hail many times, and relatively speaking, his experience was somewhat lacking.
When the two were coming out of the hot spring, Mr. Liang didn’t notice the small ice chips, slipped, and was momentarily careless.
He did a split.
Although President Huo reacted promptly and didn’t let Mr. Liang suffer further injury, the established fact had undoubtedly seriously harmed Mr. Liang’s physical and mental well-being.
The PR department head had gone to report work in the morning and accidentally heard the details. He was still very worried about being silenced and cautiously looked at President Huo’s expression: “Rest… half a day’s rest will be fine.”
“That’s good,” Yin Chi breathed a sigh of relief. “Do we need to go pick him up?”
Yin Chi seized the opportunity: “We happen to have a sponsored off-road vehicle, which can cross mountains and ridges as if walking on flat ground. We just need our staff to carry Mr. Liang to the car first-”
President Huo said in a deep voice: “No need.”
Yin Chi: “…Alright.”
Yin Chi watched as President Huo went up the mountain to pick up Mr. Liang, called back the cameras, and softly comforted the marketing team: “We can… pretend Mr. Liang is sitting in our smooth-riding off-road vehicle as he comes down.”
After all, scenes of Mr. Liang participating in the program without his legs had to be strictly edited according to the principle that the two weren’t familiar, so taking this opportunity to help the investor add an advertisement was also a reasonable win-win.
Yin Chi had been a variety show director for many years and remained calm. He directed the program team to park an off-road vehicle outside the old house and introduced its fuel consumption, configuration, and stability in a race against time.
The camera switched to Mr. Liang, who had been personally carried down the mountain by President Huo and was now sitting steadily in the tea room.
…
“Rolling is considered the last step in tea making, after which it only needs to be dried.”
Liang Xiao took over the instructional work, calm and cool, showing no sign of having done a split the night before: “Generally, handcrafting has a special rolling table with bamboo strips. You need patience; it can’t be too fast or too slow.”
Liang Xiao had worked in a tea garden for quite some time and was still adept at it. He gathered the tea in his palm, turning it over and unhurriedly kneading it on the bamboo strips: “For the drying process, baking or stir-frying is more common, steaming and sun-drying are also options, depending on the type of tea.”
Su Man quickly crushed her lump, rummaged through the tea leaves Liang Xiao had rolled, and asked curiously: “Is the tea we usually drink rolled like this?”
“Machines are probably widespread now,” Liang Xiao smiled. “In our time, it was mostly done by hand.”
President Huo’s tea leaves were also quite broken. Liang Xiao reached over to help adjust them and patiently explained: “This way, it breaks down the tissue, squeezes out the tea juice, which adheres to the surface, and when steeped, the tea soup comes out beautifully.”
The host felt there was something worth exploring here and held up the microphone: “Have you really done this work before?”
“More or less,” Liang Xiao smiled. “It’s all ancient history now.”
The host had done his homework specifically and focused the camera on Liang Xiao’s skilled movements, sighing: “I wonder if tea garden tea-making is listed among Yun Lian’s experiences…”
Tea naturally appeared particularly elegant. Yun Lian’s past was shrouded in mist, and the Jiangnan charm and antique tea room in the drama complemented each other, creating an unexpectedly harmonious effect.
“Light pressure, short kneading.”
Liang Xiao thought about the not-at-all-elegant tea processing workshop but didn’t burst the bubble. He guided President Huo through several attempts: “These are tender leaves; you can’t use too much force.”
Liang Xiao saw that he still hadn’t gotten the hang of it and simply moved over entirely: “Lighter, yes-”
The camera followed Liang Xiao for a short distance before watching Mr. Liang being picked up by President Huo. It quickly looked away out of propriety and turned to the other guests.
“Teacher Liang is blatantly showing favoritism,” Meng Feibai joked. “We’ve also crushed quite a few, why don’t we get this treatment?”
“They’re not familiar with each other.”
Su Man took another lump, couldn’t control her strength, and spoke off the cuff about the broken leaves in her hands: “They need more interaction.”
This work was undoubtedly particularly unfriendly to alphas. Jiang Pingchao had also failed for the third time, put down his tea leaves, and sighed dejectedly.
Yin Chi pondered for a while, his eyes brightening with inspiration: “Whether he had it before or not, wouldn’t it be fine if he has it in the future?”
The screenwriter thought along the same lines. The two huddled together, whispering for a while, and called over a special camera.
Liang Xiao was focused on guiding President Huo when he noticed the camera approaching and couldn’t help but be curious: “What are you recording?”
“Many years later,” the screenwriter gestured for him to smile at the camera. “After weathering all storms, brothers remain; meeting again with a smile erases all grudges.”
“Year’s End” had finished its satellite TV premiere, with an average rating of 3.0. The finale’s single episode rating soared above 7. Although they had let Yun Lian appear alive in a vague shot, the screenwriter still received a flood of knife-shaped letters from heartbroken viewers.
The online broadcast would include some deleted scenes, and the segments that Liang Xiao had been tricked into filming would also be released as easter eggs with each episode. The ratings were undoubtedly already guaranteed.
But if they could add icing on the cake, of course they wouldn’t miss the opportunity.
“We’ll make it into a mini-drama,” the screenwriter supervised and explained. “After the storms have settled and peace reigns, the brothers Jing Ming and Jing Zhe have put aside their past grievances and bring their loving families to visit their old friend who has opened a tea garden…”
The screenwriter: “…”
The camera dutifully turned.
Jiang Pingchao was making more and more mistakes. Seeing that his pheromones were about to become unstable again, Meng Feibai quickly protected the innocent tea leaves and handed him over to Chi Che, who was disguised as a Follow PD.
Su Man was guided by Yu Zhi, who held her hands and spoke softly, coaxing away her temper as she followed step by step to learn the operational essentials.
The elegant old friend who opened the tea garden, embodying the misty rain of Jiangnan, sat on the investor’s lap, steadily encircled, concentrating on rolling the tea leaves in his hands.
…
The screenwriter pondered for a long time, put the lens cap on, and pulled the director out of the tea room.
##
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Baklava tasting tour This city tour gave me a deep appreciation of Turkish history. https://bloomstonejewels.com/?p=1593