Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

After the director contacted the teachers at the primary school in the village, the children were dismissed at noon. Because of the heavy rain, the electricity in the mountains was cut off. Therefore, there would be no more classes in the afternoon.

There is a small stream in the middle of the village leading to the old village primary school. Because of the rain, the stream was quite fast, so they had to put on life jackets along with the villagers before they set the ropes rigidly in place to bring the children from the other side of the streamlet.

The elementary school is located to the east of the town where the village is located. As children from different nearby villages go to school, the school was built by the side of the mountain so that children from other villages further away could come to class.

The village cadres had already contacted the program team. When the time came they hurriedly met the program team at the village entrance and led them up to the mountain road.

For fear of the equipment getting wet from the rain, photographers wore big thick raincoats to cover the cameras. The equipment has been reduced to several units, so that if necessary they might just use their mobile phones to film.

The village cadres said to them as he walked, “You’ve come at the right time to help me publicize the news.We’re going to build another road in the mountains soon. We’ll also move the school to a safer place when the time comes.Thanks to the current policy, many young people have come to our village and formed volunteer teams to bring textbooks and food to the children.It rains a lot in the summer and there are many streams in the hills, so it’s dangerous if the water rises.Many children have to go home after school because there are only old people at home and there is no one to look after them.They have to go back to cook and wash clothes for the elderly.”

“Do the young people go to work outside (the village)?” The director asked him.

“That’s right.” The village cadres said, “Although there are young people returning to the village but in the mountain most of the children are still staying behind to take care of things. You can help us to appeal. We have a rural support program that provides free skills and resources to young people who return to start their own businesses.The soil here on our hills is particularly good for growing fruit.At that time, you guys can also come to our village office building. Later I’ll send you guys some fruit to try.”

“No need! No need! We can instead spend money to buy it.” The director was a little embarrassed and turned back to discuss with the assistant director whether they could help them broaden the marketing of the fruit and solve the burden of the village cadres in poverty alleviation.

“Like this,” Lu Ji said, “We ‘Lu’s Group can provide you with several ‘sales representative channels’. We have the largest internet platform in the whole country.When the time comes, you can send people to us to learn about internet marketing and broaden your market.”

The village cadre was very astonished. Only after listening to the director’s explanation did he realise that this person was the president of Lu’s Group.He had heard Lu Ji’s name slightly before. He was busy thanking him, saying that he would find opportunities to connect with people from his company afterwards.

It was raining,moreover everyone was in a hurry too, so it was not convenient to talk in detail.They could only talk about it later. Just like this, they arrived at the side of the hill.

Here, indeed, the stream water was flowing fast, there was a small bridge, but it was already half flooded by the rising water level.

The village cadres said, “It’s always like this when it rains here. We thought it would rain after lunch and wanted to get the children back before it rained.I didn’t expect it to rain so early, so I’ve caused you trouble.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay! Didn’t you just say that this is all volunteer work? Just think of us as volunteers.If you want to talk about trouble, it’s us who have given you trouble.”

The village cadres were very polite and the people of this place were very friendly and treated the guests well.

The photographer went a little further away. There was a pavilion where they could take shelter from the rain.

There was no time to pay attention to their image (to look good) in front of the camera.Although they had raincoats but after getting caught in the rain, they all looked like a person who was drenched and bedraggled. Zhou Chenxi rolled up his trouser legs and put on his life jacket.

Lu Ji gave him a look from the side and said, “You can stand behind me later.”

Zhou Chenxi shook his head and said, “It’s alright. It’s not safe for us to drag each other in this situation.Let’s get the children back first! I’ll take care of myself.”

The crew had filmed this episode with the intention of promoting poverty alleviation and conveying positive energy, but to their surprise it had instead caused the guests to get wet and exposed to the scorching sun. The director remembered that the producer, Zhu Fang, had reminded him earlier that Mr. Lu was coming for the purpose of taking a holiday this time.

Shivering, the chief director glanced back in Lu Ji’s direction and found that he had no expression of impatience. He was teaching the other guests how to put on their life jackets properly right now, so the film director breathed a sigh of relief.

Plans could not catch up with change and it had already come to this point so he could only pretend to have a memory loss for the time being.

Everyone stood on the small bridge with water flowing through them, holding the children’s hands as they crossed the river. Some people were afraid that the children would not be able to stand up firmly so they carried them directly on their backs. The village cadres led a few volunteers to pick them up at the other end of the bridge. Soon, several children returning home from school were safely brought to higher ground.

Everyone gathered around the pavilion, each wiping their wet hair with dry towels. The village cadre said, “Thank you everyone, if you guys don’t mind, come and have a cup of hot tea at our place.”

It was easy to catch a cold after being in the sun and in the rain, so some villagers boiled ginger soup for them and brought it to the village office.

The village office building was short and dilapidated. The offices of the village cadres have no air-conditioner, so they all made do with the electric fans.The director was very saddened and asked the cameraman to take more shots as the material.

Luo Xinghe was sitting next to him. He could no longer hide the impatience in his expression.Once again, he regretted coming to this variety show.

It was strenuous and unrewarding work, not to mention, he didn’t know what was the point of it at all.

He had just been waiting for Zhou Chenxi to make a fool of himself at the small bridge, but nothing unexpected had happened.

Moreover, Lu Ji had been standing behind Zhou Chenxi so much so that, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Zhou Chenxi almost fell once, but was steadily held by Lu Ji.

Was his ‘koi luck’ still working this time?

Luo Xinghe was beginning to have some doubts.

He and Zhou Chenxi are newcomers who debuted at the same time. For some reasons, Luo Xinghe’s popularity is obviously much higher than Zhou Chenxi, but now it seems that people here like Zhou Chenxi more in comparison. Just like the aunt who sent ginger tea just now, she smiled at him as soon as she saw him and said, “Xiao (little) Zhou, you’ve worked hard ah! Today’s amount of exercise should be enough, right?”

Not only that, even Shao Yunyi, Ren Qian and the rest of the people were still talking about Zhou Chenxi who wrapped himself up like a mummy at the fabric dyeing workshop today.

Was it that funny?

Luo Xinghe thought indignantly, why did they just stare at that unlucky guy?

Obviously he worked hard enough too, today.

Zhou Chenxi was holding his ginger tea, suddenly his nose felt a little itchy so he couldn’t help sneezing.

Lu Ji looked back and saw him facing toward the blowing electric fan, so he went over and moved the angle of the fan, then asked him, “Catching a cold?”

“This is just the beginning.” Zhou Chenxi boasted shamelessly and said, “One sneeze is when someone scolds me, two sneezes is when someone misses me, three sneezes is when I have a cold. I’m still two sneezes away from catching a cold, still far from it!”

Lu Ji: “…” Why did he think that this saying sounded a little bit familiar to him?

“Ah-choo-ah-choo!” Zhou Chenxi suddenly sneezed twice in a row.

He turned his head with a guilty conscience yet he found Lu Ji was looking at him profoundly and mysteriously.

Zhou Chenxi rubbed his nose and sulkily said: “Fine, now the cold and me are already at a negative distance!”

[负距离了 : in other word it mean no distance or zero distance]

The author has something to say:

The ‘unlucky person’ and ‘the very busy life’ person overall are similar to each other.