Qiao Nan waited another ten minutes outside before Pei Xu finally emerged.
His hair was still dripping, and the overlapping lapels of his bathrobe were slightly open from his movements, revealing a small expanse of his well-defined chest.
Water droplets from his hair dripped down, following his muscle lines and disappearing into the depths of his robe.
There was a distinct, unconventional sexiness about him that Qiao Nan couldn’t help but gaze at for a few extra seconds.
His brother’s physique was truly amazing!
“What took you so long?”
“My clothes fell on the ground and got wet,” Pei Xu gave him a deep look, skillfully concealing the emotions in his eyes, reverting to his gentle, good-brother demeanor, “I’ll wash my dirty clothes first. Give me yours too; I can wash them together.”
The clothes in his small plastic basin were indeed completely soaked.
Qiao Nan felt a bit embarrassed; his underwear was in there!
“I’ll wash them with you.”
Pei Xu, however, dared not indulge himself by being alone with Qiao Nan in such a confined space again.
He somewhat forcefully took Qiao Nan’s small basin, “I’ll wash them. You go rest first; I’ll be done soon, be good.”
Qiao Nan could only obediently hand over the basin and return to his room first.
As he reached the door, he inexplicably looked back. Pei Xu stood with his back to him by the sink.
Those hands, which should have been holding a pen to sign documents, were carefully rubbing the clothes Qiao Nan had worn, white foam bubbling between his fingers.
Qiao Nan’s gaze lingered.
He felt there was something unexplainable about his brother’s movements…
It was a little different from usual.
But he couldn’t pinpoint exactly how it was different.
Maybe he was just particularly sexy today, so much so that he couldn’t help but look at him a few extra times!
Adhering to the principle of “if you can’t figure it out, don’t think about it,” Qiao Nan put the question out of his mind and returned to his room.
The two didn’t have many changes of clothes, but Pei Xu deliberately took a long time, estimating that Qiao Nan must have fallen asleep, before he returned to the room.
Only a dim, yellowish lamp was left on in the room.
Two beds were placed side by side, separated by a curtain in the middle.
The right bed belonged to Zhao Yutong, and the left to Qiao Nan.
The old-fashioned four-poster bed still had a mosquito net.
Through the gauze, only a blurry figure on the bed could be faintly seen.
Pei Xu watched for a moment before stepping to the bedside.
As he expected, Qiao Nan was already asleep.
He lay on his side, facing inward, half of his cheek pressed into the pillow, his slender neck slightly curved, forming a beautiful yet fragile arc.
Pei Xu’s gaze lingered on that fair neck.
Qiao Nan’s neck was very thin; he could control it with just one hand.
Just as a predator in a hunt would first attack the prey’s throat, if he simply choked Qiao Nan’s neck, he would have nowhere to escape.
The imagined scene in his mind stirred up his dark nature.
Pei Xu felt an uncontrollable surge of excitement; even his blood seemed to boil.
He gazed for a long time, then tentatively placed his palm over that slender, fragile neck.
The feeling was even better than he had imagined.
His palm lingered on the neck for a long time before he reluctantly withdrew it.
Taking off his shoes, Pei Xu lay down facing him.
His nose brushed faintly against the back of Qiao Nan’s neck.
Just a little closer, and his imagined scenario could be realized.
However, he merely took a deep sniff, memorizing the clean scent of shower gel, then restrained himself and created distance.
He quietly watched the deeply sleeping person and whispered, “Don’t let there be a next time, Qiao Nan.”
Not every time could he resist the temptation.
***
Because he had to catch a flight, Pei Xu got up before dawn the next day.
Qiao Nan was sound asleep, so he didn’t wake him.
After quietly washing up and packing, he went downstairs to find Peng Yi.
Peng Yi had woken up even earlier than him and was already driving the car around.
When Pei Xu went downstairs, he found that Li Changli was also up very early, practicing Tai Chi in the courtyard.
After all, the man was Qiao Nan’s teacher, so Pei Xu politely greeted him, “Teacher Li, we’re leaving now.”
Li Changli finished his moves and replied courteously, “Travel safely.”
Pei Xu nodded and walked towards the SUV parked by the road.
Behind him, Li Changli suddenly called out to him, “Qiao Nan is a promising talent; his future is vast. You… don’t ruin him.”
Pei Xu’s footsteps halted.
He turned back to look at him, his gaze no longer gentle, revealing a hint of sharpness.
“What does Teacher Li mean by that?”
***
Li Changli waved his hand, “I’ve taught for so many years and seen all sorts of people; you’re not unique. Young people’s feelings are always passionate, prejudiced, and reckless, but few see them through to the end. They usually end in a mess, harming both themselves and others.”
He lit a cigarette, his usually fair and smiling face showing a hint of weariness, “Qiao Nan is a good kid.”
“I know,” Pei Xu’s expression became composed.
He didn’t say anything more to him, turned, and got into the car.
The SUV cut into the winding mountain road, roaring away.
Qiao Nan groggily woke up.
He fumbled for his phone, glanced at the time, and instantly sat up.
—It was already past ten o’clock.
He pattered to the corridor in his slippers and looked down, just in time to see Li Changli squatting in the courtyard, eating self-heating hotpot.
He called out loudly, “Old Li, have you seen my brother?”
Li Changli shouted back: “He left around five this morning.”
Qiao Nan pattered back to his room, picked up his phone, and indeed, there was a WeChat message from Pei Xu.
[I’ve left first. I’ll contact you when I’m back in Nanjiang.]
“He didn’t even call me, just left secretly,” Qiao Nan unhappily threw his phone aside, lay back on the bed in a spread-eagle pose, and muttered to himself, “Who wants to contact you.”
An unhappy Qiao Nan decided: his brother’s gift was gone.
***
After a brief period of relaxation, Old Li started taking them into the mountains again.
Old Li had originally planned to take them to an old abandoned Miao village site on Hongya Mountain for sketching, but the weather didn’t cooperate; it suddenly started raining heavily.
The mountain paths became soft and muddy from the rain.
Not to mention driving, even a person’s foot would get stuck, making it hard to pull out.
They had no choice but to remain in the village.
Fortunately, with the snacks Pei Xu had brought, and Zhao Yutong getting two decks of cards to pass the time, it wasn’t too boring.
Qiao Nan used this opportunity to organize the photos he had previously taken, finally settling on the theme for his exhibition piece—Hope.
The scene of Mingda squatting in front of the wall, drawing, had left too deep an impression on him.
Even without looking at the photo, he could clearly recreate it.
He used hyperrealism for the first time, yet he didn’t entirely follow Lai Ying’s rules of realism.
A small child held a paintbrush, squatting before a faded gray wall.
The sky and mountains behind her were distorted into gloomy, somber color blocks.
Only the little girl, diligently painting with her brush, and the naive sun on the wall became the sole reality, like a beam of light breaking through the clouds.
The distorted, abstract background, contrasted sharply with the meticulously detailed figure, as vivid as a photograph.
Qiao Nan completed this painting in just five days.
When Old Li saw the finished piece, he was stunned for a long time before exclaiming, “You’ve found your direction.”
After that, he, enjoying the drama, tagged everyone in the group chat, [There are only two spots for the exhibition. Qiao Nan has already taken one, leaving only one more. Those who want to compete should work harder.]
***
The continuous overcast and rainy weather intermittently lasted for five or six days before finally stopping.
Old Li checked the weather forecast and waited two more days before restarting the plan, taking them to Hongya Mountain.
Hongya Mountain was quite far from Fengxi Village, a straight-line distance of over thirty kilometers.
They set off at dawn, endured a bumpy two-hour ride to reach the mountain entrance.
The mountain roads further in were too narrow for vehicles, so they had to walk.
After agreeing on a pick-up time with the driver, the group, carrying their drawing boards, entered the mountain.
Having just rained, the mountain path was muddy and difficult to traverse.
The group trekked for nearly another hour before finally seeing the village Old Li had spoken of.
“That’s it,” Old Li said, pointing to the layered stilt houses built into the mountain, a hint of melancholy in his expression.
“So many years, and it hasn’t changed much.”
The silent cluster of stilt houses was embedded within the vast mountains.
Because they had been uninhabited for too long, rampant vines intertwined with the old, ancient structures, revealing a beauty where wild nature coexisted with human creations.
The students eagerly pulled out their phones to take pictures.
“Old Li, have you been here before?”
Qiao Nan asked curiously.
“Of course,” Old Li chuckled, his melancholy completely gone, “Years ago, my partner and I came here to sketch and stayed for several months. Back then, this place wasn’t much different from Fengxi Village. The changwang noodles made by the grandmas were delicious too. Now you can’t get that taste anymore. It’s just that this area is too remote, and cars can’t get through, so the villagers all collectively moved out, and that’s why it’s abandoned.”
Zhao Yutong looked surprised, “Old Li, you had a partner?”
He winked, “We thought you were single all this time.”
Old Li slapped him on the back of the head, “Who didn’t have a younger self?”
He waved his hand, urging, “Everyone hurry up, don’t waste time. We’ll have to go back soon enough.”
The students then giggled and each found their preferred angle to start working.
However, the weather seemed to be against them.
Less than an hour after they started, lightning and thunder suddenly began to strike again.
Rumbling thunder exploded overhead, and blinding lightning seemed to tear the sky apart.
Old Li saw the situation and knew it was going to pour again.
He quickly urged the students to find shelter from the rain.
Before they could even pack up their things, torrential rain began to fall.
The group searched around in the rain for a while before finding a cave nearby to take shelter.
Old Li counted the heads, frowning at the rapidly darkening sky, “I’ll contact the driver to wait for us outside.
Once the thunder stops and the rain lessens, we’ll hurry out.”
The mountains were not like the outside; thunderstorms were very dangerous.
However, they waited until the afternoon, but the heavy rain showed no signs of slowing down.
The rumbling thunder rolled from one end of the mountain to the other.
The only light in the dim sky came from the sudden flashes of lightning, creating a terrifying spectacle.
There were trees everywhere in the mountains, and with people gathered together, they might genuinely get struck by lightning if they were unlucky.
Old Li dared not risk taking them out and could only choose to wait, “The rain is too heavy; it’s too dangerous to go out now. I’ve contacted the driver. If the rain doesn’t ease before six, he’ll go back first and pick us up early tomorrow morning. We’ll make do in the cave for the night.”
The recent bad weather meant they had all brought jackets, rain gear, plenty of snacks and instant noodles, and power banks when they left.
Spending a night in a cave wasn’t a big problem.
Therefore, the students weren’t particularly flustered.
They even started discussing whether to find something to make a fire.
Such an experience of spending a night in a wild mountain cave was far more exciting than camping.
Only Old Li, looking at the rain curtain outside, frowned deeply.
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