That evening.
Three young men arrived at the small town.
"Old Jin, is this that place that was trending online a couple of days ago?"
a somewhat burly young man asked.
"It has to be. Old Cui did his research before we came!"
The young man called Old Jin was nearly 1.9 meters tall, standing there like a telephone pole.
The Old Cui that Old Jin mentioned was a young man with glasses who looked quite scholarly.
"Don’t worry, Brother Guo."
"I checked our sources, and according to the GPS, this is the place."
The burly Brother Guo was carrying a huge backpack, and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.
"We got here a little late. I wonder if there’s anywhere to stay in this town."
By now, the sky over Cyan Mountain Town was completely dark, with only a few scattered streetlights illuminating the darkness.
"In any case, let’s head in and take a look. I couldn’t find any information about hotels here online."
"Looks like we’ll have to find a guesthouse."
These three young men were actually a team of avid travelers.
They were all members of the same travel club.
They had naturally become good friends due to their shared interests and passions.
Their greatest hobby was traveling and seeing the sights.
They were freelancers, mainly designing travel itineraries and writing travel reviews.
You could call them semi-professionals.
This time, they had come after seeing the scenic photos Liu Bowen posted online that went viral.
The three put their heads together and decided that since they didn’t know where to travel next anyway, they might as well check out Cyan Mountain Town.
Being men of action, the trio arrived at the small town before anyone else had even set out.
Here to experience it for themselves.
It was now almost ten o’clock at night.
Their car had broken down earlier, which was why they were delayed this late.
The car was parked on the side of the road, and they planned to find someone to fix it tomorrow.
The small town was indeed very quiet. They could hear the calls of unknown animals.
The sky was full of stars.
Old Jin took a deep breath. "The air here is so much fresher than in Yang City. Undeveloped places really do have better environments."
Old Cui adjusted his glasses. "Never mind the environment. If we can’t find a place to stay, we’ll be getting up close and personal with it by sleeping on the streets."
As it turned out, they were in luck.
Liu Bowen couldn’t sleep that night, so he had wandered out to the roadside under a streetlight.
He planned to have a smoke to relieve his boredom.
The people in town all went to bed early.
This was the quietest time of night.
Liu Bowen had originally planned to quiet his mind and think about composing his shots for tomorrow.
He was lost in thought.
Old Cui and his friends had been walking for a long time without seeing a single house with its lights on.
They were starting to feel disheartened when they spotted someone squatting under a streetlight, puffing away on a cigarette.
They were suddenly overjoyed.
’At last, a living person!’
The three of them hurried over to the squatting Liu Bowen.
"Hey, buddy..."
Old Cui stepped forward to greet him.
Unexpectedly, he startled Liu Bowen, who plopped right down on the curb.
Liu Bowen had been thinking about how to frame his shots when a voice suddenly sounded behind him.
He was scared out of his wits.
Someone speaking up behind you in the middle of the night...
Anyone would have jumped out of their skin.
When Liu Bowen came to his senses and turned his head, he saw three large men with backpacks.
He felt a genuine sense of dread.
"Who are you guys? What do you want?"
Liu Bowen subconsciously shuffled backward.
Seeing the look on Liu Bowen’s face, the other three didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
’He obviously thinks we’re bad guys.’
"Sorry, man. We’re not bad guys. We’re here as tourists,"
Old Jin said with a cough.
Hearing the word "tourists," Liu Bowen froze for a moment before it dawned on him.
’People really came here to tour the place!’
And looking them over more carefully, they were indeed dressed like travelers.
"Oh, so that’s it. How come you guys got here so late?"
After recovering from the shock, Liu Bowen stood up, still a bit puzzled.
An embarrassed look crossed Brother Guo’s face as he briefly explained the predicament they had run into on the road.
"The people in town go to bed way too early, so we can’t find a place to stay now. Do you know of anywhere, man?"
Old Jin asked awkwardly.
Indeed, none of them had expected the town to be completely shut down by ten o’clock.
Liu Bowen himself was just lodging at Hu Dawei’s house.
There was definitely no more room in the main building.
However, Hu Dawei and his family happened to have just cleaned up the one-story house today.
They had just finished cleaning it when someone showed up needing a room.
’What a coincidence.’
So, after a moment of thought, Liu Bowen told the three men to wait for him under the streetlight.
"Let me go ask if my friend’s family can rent you a room. Please wait here for a moment."
With that, Liu Bowen ran back to Hu Dawei’s house.
Hu Dawei was exhausted from cleaning the house all day.
He didn’t even notice when Liu Bowen came in; he was still snoring.
Not until Liu Bowen shook him awake.
"What? What’s going on?"
Hu Dawei shot up, his eyes filled with confusion.
"There are some tourists downstairs with nowhere to stay. Is your courtyard house ready for guests?"
Hu Dawei now understood. Business had come knocking.
"It’s more or less ready, but there are no quilts!"
"I can get a couple of sets for them from my house."
Hu Dawei immediately scrambled out of bed.
Although the two of them tried to be as quiet as possible while getting the things,
the noise still woke up Hu Zhanyong and Li Chunfang.
"Why are you two up so late? What are you doing?"
Hu Zhanyong came out of his room, leaning on his cane and rubbing his eyes.
Beside him, Li Chunfang was also yawning.
Since everyone was awake now, Hu Dawei stopped trying to be careful.
Liu Bowen, who was standing nearby, briefly explained what had happened.
As soon as they heard someone downstairs wanted to stay in their courtyard house, Hu Zhanyong and Li Chunfang were no longer sleepy.
"The poor things, still haven’t found a place to rest this late at night."
Yawning, Li Chunfang took out several quilts and bedrolls.
"The beds in the old house aren’t made yet, are they?"
"Old Hu, let’s go over and tidy up a bit for those kids. It’s so late, they should get to rest soon."
Back under the streetlight, Old Cui and his friends waited for ten minutes, but no one came back down.
They looked at each other, all thinking they had been stood up.
"Now what do we do?"
Old Jin was dumbfounded.
The three of them were now convinced they’d been ditched, since no one had come back after so long.
Brother Guo sighed. "What else can we do? If worse comes to worst, we’ll just go back to the broken-down car and make do for the night."
It seemed like this was their only option now.
"Sigh, let’s go."
Old Cui sighed.
The three of them had only walked about ten meters.
when they heard the sound of running from behind them.
They turned to see four people chasing after them, carrying a large pile of things.
Confused, the trio stopped. Looking closely, they saw that one of the people was Liu Bowen, the man they had met earlier.
"Hey!"
"Did you three find a place to stay?"
Liu Bowen said breathlessly, a large quilt slung over his shoulder.
Brother Guo and his friends were taken aback by the scene, shaking their heads in a daze.
"We didn’t find a place."
"We thought you meant there was no room here."
Liu Bowen let out a long breath and explained that there was a courtyard house in the old alley that they could stay in.
The three men were so happy they could have cried.
Just when they had given up hope, they had actually found a place to stay.
"This is my friend, Hu Dawei. Behind him are his parents. The courtyard house was just cleaned today."
"The beds aren’t made yet, so we’re bringing the bedding to go over with you and get things set up."
Brother Guo and his friends were deeply moved.
It was so late; these people must have gotten out of bed for them.
To do all this for three strangers they had never met before...
It truly showed them the simple and honest nature of the people in this small town.
Cyan Mountain Town could fall into a tranquil silence by ten at night.
But Yang City was different.
In Yang City, ten o’clock was just the beginning of the nightlife.
Ever since Yang Qiniang started interning at his father Yang Tianming’s company,
he rarely got to hang out with Lin Feng and the others.
Today happened to be his payday, and with the first bit of money he’d earned from his old man,
Yang Qiniang sent an invitation directly to their four-person dorm group chat:
"I’m treating tonight! We brothers need to have a proper get-together!"
An offer for a free meal was, of course, a good thing.
Besides, Lin Feng didn’t have anything else to do that evening.
He drove straight to the bar, bringing Cao Ming and Jiang Chao with him.
It was none other than Chen Lei’s bar.
Yang Qiniang had already been waiting for a long time in a private room on the second floor.
When he looked up and saw the three of them walk in, a brilliant smile immediately bloomed on his face.
"You guys are so late! I’ve been waiting for half an hour."
Cao Ming, looking completely at home, found a spot at a counter, sat down, poured a glass of wine, and said,
"The three of us were in three different places. Brother Feng had to drive way out of his way to pick us all up."
Yang Qiniang watched Cao Ming’s practiced movements with a surprised look and asked,
"You look like you’ve been here before?"
Cao Ming chuckled and said, "Brother Feng brought our team here for a team-building event before, so I’m pretty familiar with the place."
Yang Qiniang immediately turned to Lin Feng. "I can’t believe you guys had such a great team-building event after I left!"
"And why weren’t there any team-building events when I was at the company?!"
Lin Feng smiled, waved a hand in front of his nose, and said teasingly,
"There’s such a sour smell in this room. Is someone steaming vinegar?"
Hearing Lin Feng’s words, the others burst out laughing.
"Alright, alright, keep making fun of me!"
Yang Qiniang said with an exaggerated sigh.
Jiang Chao, however, looked at Lin Feng with a resentful expression. "I want a team-building event too! My department hasn’t had one yet!"

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