Chapter 23 Landscape (Three-in-One)

The lazy afternoon sun shines on the earth, and the white Ferrari speeding on the road is dyed with a faint golden halo. Countless passers-by cast curious and envious glances.

Li Zhuangsheng felt uncomfortable in the car. The heating was so hot that he was almost sweating. But after all, he was in a luxury car and could only sit quietly. His expression was bitter: "I never thought that one day I would ride in a Ferrari." The co-pilot..."

Qin Luanyu raised the corner of her mouth slightly and teased: "Then do you want to try the main driver's seat?"

"No, no, no, no, I can't drive..."

Li Zhuangsheng refused casually. After a while, he couldn't help but take a breath and subconsciously sighed, "Hey, it's like Nono."

Qin Luanyu's eyes squinted: "Are you scolding me again? You said I was Su Youran before, but now you say I look like Chen Motong, how many downgrades have you been demoted?"

Li Zhuangsheng was surprised: "You also watch "Dragon"?"

Qin Luanyu was startled for a moment, and then he reached out his hand and punched Li Zhuangsheng angrily: "Brother, I am the head of Village Chu!"

"Oh oh oh...yes, yes!"

Li Zhuangsheng slapped his forehead fiercely. She is the head of Village Chu. How come she hasn't watched "Dragon"? When she opened the mic to criticize Jiang Nan in the group, she helped him a lot.

In the final analysis, I still have never equated the village chief Chu with the long-legged rich woman in front of me.

Qin Luanyu sighed helplessly and shook her head: "Is it so hard to accept that the number one sponsor on your list is a girl?"

"Actually, I have been waiting for you to suddenly say to me: 'You have been fooled. In fact, I am an actor invited by Village Chief Chu!'"

"Then I'm really sorry for you. Or should I go to Thailand to change my personality tomorrow?"

Li Zhuangsheng clasped his hands together and apologized sincerely: "Sorry, sorry, I will definitely treat you as Village Chief Chu!"

Qin Luanyu bared her teeth and reached out to grab his hair: "I am the village chief Chu!"

"Yeah, yeah, you are, you are, you are!"

After being beaten, Li Zhuangsheng surrendered again and again. He glanced at her long legs and thought to himself, this couldn't really be Su Youran, it looked too much like her.

Smoothing his messed up hair, Li Zhuangsheng looked out the window at the familiar scenery of the county: "Where are you going now?"

Qin Luanyu said casually: "Xiangshan Park, I saw someone checking in on Douyin. There is a big lake there, and it has become an Internet celebrity attraction."

Li Zhuangsheng's face showed the disdain unique to locals, and he laughed: "Hey...has that thing actually become an Internet celebrity attraction?"

"It's quite popular. To me, it's more like a pilgrimage to the Holy Land."

The car stopped slowly in front of the traffic light. Qin Luanyu took out the gum and handed a piece to Li Zhuangsheng.

"Then please turn off the navigation. I will show you the way. I know how to go."

Although it was the first time for the two of them to meet, and even though they had only known each other for less than two hours, they quickly became familiar with each other, like old friends for many years, chatting casually without any restraint.

Although the two are indeed old friends.

She is the head of Chu Village!

Under the guidance of Li Zhuangsheng, the Ferrari entered the mountains. After a few turns, it passed through a long cement road and stopped on a flat gravel road.

Li Zhuangsheng got out of the car and saw a green fence with a height of at least two meters by the lake.

He quickly walked to the fence and couldn't help shouting: "Holy crap! When did the iron fence be installed!"

Qin Luanyu exhaled a breath of white air and straightened her scarf. The cold wind blew her hair, and her eyes stared at the lake behind the fence with surprise: "Wow, this lake is really beautiful... such a beautiful color."

The azure lake water is pure and deep, like a beautiful sapphire, filled with faint blue light. It's a nice day today, and the lake becomes more and more charming under the sunshine. She seemed to be a peerless beauty, so incredibly beautiful.

The breeze caressed the lake surface, causing ripples, and it was like a roll of blue silk slowly unfolding between heaven and earth. The microwaves blown by the wind knead the sunlight and turn it into fine powder for decoration.

It is like a dream, elegant and mysterious, full of poetry and painting. Standing on the edge, it seems that you can wash away the mundane world.

Qin Luanyu took a deep breath, as if he could smell the refreshing water vapor this way.

"It's okay. This used to be a mine, and the bottom was hollowed out. I heard that the deepest is more than seventy meters... Look at this blue one. There should be a lot of minerals in it, so the color is nice. I just don't know if it's there. Poison... Ouch, when did it get surrounded? It wasn’t there before!”

Li Zhuangsheng said and stamped his feet regretfully.

"When did you say that before?" Qin Luanyu asked.

"Four or five years ago?" Li Zhuangsheng was startled, and then he seemed to have come to his senses. He slowly lowered his head and whispered to himself, "Actually, it makes sense to surround it. Every year, I hear that people drown here... …”

"Almost every one of your novels mentions a beautiful lake. Is this the prototype?"

"That's right... I would come here when I was in high school."

"I remember you also wrote about a small pavilion, where is it?"

"It should be on the other side, but it shouldn't be possible to get in..."

Qin Luanyu gently rubbed his cold hands, smiled and patted Li Zhuangsheng on the shoulder: "Go and have a look, even if it's just through the fence."

Li Zhuangsheng pointed the way: "Well, it's just ahead."

"Okay, let's run, let's run..."

Qin Luanyu smiled and ran forward, then turned back and waved to Li Zhuangsheng with a smile.

On this dust-free winter day, the afternoon sunlight poured over her body, shrouding her in a faint halo. Her beautiful cheeks were slightly red, adding a touch of beauty and cuteness, as if the peach blossoms had bloomed in advance in spring.

The sun slowly plucked the strings, and her laughter was a beautiful piece of music.

At this moment, the passage of time slowed down gently, and the girl's figure became dreamlike in the sunlight, as if she disappeared as soon as she stretched out her hand.

Perhaps infected by the youthful atmosphere of the other party, Li Zhuangsheng temporarily forgot the sorrow in his heart and started running along with him.

It couldn't really be Su Youran... But Su Youran was a character from a long time ago, and he couldn't remember it clearly.

However, not long after running, Li Zhuangsheng discovered that the guy in front of him was running faster and faster. No matter how hard he tried, he could not catch up with those beautiful long legs.

"Stop, stop, stop...you are running so fast!" He was so tired that he finally couldn't help but stop and gasped for air. I remember that Su Youran is also physically very strong. Isn't this guy really the one Su Youran came out of the book to mess with me?

"Can you do it? I'm out of breath after just a few steps!"

Qin Luanyu stopped with a smile and walked back to Li Zhuangsheng. Although she was still gasping for air, she was much better than Li Zhuangsheng, and she still seemed to be able to do it with ease.

"You, you, are you practicing sports?"

"Hey, he is indeed practicing track and field, a first-class athlete!"

Qin Luanyu stretched out two fingers, raised the corners of his mouth, and looked proud of "the trick was successful".

Li Zhuangsheng took a look at her legs. They were indeed beautiful and toned. He had read countless photos and had never seen such beautiful legs. Even if he wasn't a foot control, he couldn't help but feel slightly moved when he saw this.

"Aren't you an athlete?" Li Zhuangsheng asked with some shame.

"You know a lot..." Qin Luanyu's smug smile faded a little, she gritted her teeth, and muttered unwillingly, "Almost, just a little bit."

Li Zhuangsheng took a long breath and finally recovered. He did not continue to attack him, but comforted him: "It's okay, there will be another chance in the future!"

Qin Luanyu shrugged, lowered her eyes, and said nonchalantly: "No chance, I have given up, I got started late, and I don't have enough talent to begin with."

"That's fine, you don't have to rely on this to make a living anyway..."

Li Zhuangsheng didn't know how to respond for a moment, so he could only agree dryly.

After they walked for a while, Qin Luanyu suddenly grabbed the fence and said excitedly, "Oh, I saw the pavilion!"

Li Zhuangsheng looked in the direction of the sound and saw the small pavilion he remembered, but now the entire lake was surrounded and he could not get in at all.

"When we were there, the lake hadn't been fenced off yet, and many people would come here to play during holidays..." Li Zhuangsheng also held onto the guardrail, chuckling as he recounted the past, "At that time, I had a second-year syndrome, and I always fantasized about taking a small boat on the lake at night, and then lying on a bamboo raft looking at the stars and the moon, fantasizing about that kind of surreal dream scene. But I was in high school at that time, and I couldn't do it at all..."

"The west wind blows the waves of Dongting Lake, and Xiangjun has many white hairs overnight. After getting drunk, I don't know that the sky is over the water, and the boat is full of sweet dreams that overwhelm the stars."

Qin Luanyu recited softly.

"This was written by a Yuan Dynasty poet. It is said that because this poem was so well written, it was mistakenly thought to be from the Tang Dynasty and was compiled into the Complete Tang Poems. Do you like poetry?"

"I see you always write poetry in your novels, so I've read some of it with interest."

"That's great. In fact, when I was writing, I was thinking that I hope someone will become interested in traditional culture because of me."

Qin Luanyu poked Li Zhuangsheng and said loudly, "Great writers are different. They are determined to carry on the legacy of the saints from the beginning!"

Li Zhuangsheng's face flushed, and he shook his head repeatedly: "Don't make fun of me... I just thought that when I was a kid, when I read online articles, the authors seemed to be very good, like natural teachers. In areas that I was not familiar with, my thoughts were easily influenced by what they wrote..."

"So when you started writing books, you decided to use the author's natural influence on readers to promote traditional culture? You are really different from others. Others are thinking about making money, but you think about these messy things all day long." Qin Luanyu smiled sweetly, revealing her little canine teeth, and her eyes curved into a beautiful arc, "No wonder you failed!"

"You praise me too much. I just want to make money. I add some poetry and ancient Chinese literature just because I am interested. It's not that noble. Most authors will put their own personal opinions into their works, hoping that the whole world will recognize their works. It's just that my personal opinions happen to include poetry."

Li Zhuangsheng laughed at himself, then suddenly lowered his head and laughed faintly twice.

"You..." Qin Luanyu felt that Li Zhuangsheng's mood seemed to be wrong, as if there was something else behind his words, so she instinctively changed the subject, "By the way, it seems that you also let Lin Mo lie on the bamboo raft and drift in the lake."

"Yes, I can only make up for the regret that I didn't achieve in the book." Li Zhuangsheng looked a little embarrassed, but also a little envious, "I couldn't do it in high school, but he can definitely do it. His family will support him in whatever he does."

"After all, he is the national chess champion who crushed all the middle school students in elementary school, the school idol, he easily passed 8 points in IELTS in junior high school, he never attended classes but was more than 30 points ahead of the second place, he has the ability to read people's minds and logical reasoning, he is the youngest IMO gold medalist, and the inventor of the future time machine..."

"From what you said, isn't this character Long Aotian?"

Qin Luanyu laughed and scolded: "You just realized it, this character is too good!"

Li Zhuangsheng also grinned: "Then he seems a bit miserable. The treatment in the book does not match his character... It is mainly because the author's own ability limits his upper limit."

"Is it miserable to have seven wives?"

"It's just miserable that he has seven wives. His moral bottom line is too high."

"Why, you want to turn over a new leaf and write a book with a single female protagonist?" "...I don't know." Li Zhuangsheng paused, slowly shifted his gaze away, staring blankly at the pavilion by the lake, "Originally I wanted to write a book with a single female protagonist, but it seems that having no female protagonist is also good?"

"Is the male lead a handsome guy?" Qin Luanyu asked.

"There is no female lead. She looks like an ordinary person. Next time I will write an ordinary male lead... Well, his name is Jun Zimu, a modest gentleman, humble as he is..." Li Zhuangsheng's eyes gradually became blurred, as if he was in a trance.

"It's really rare. The male protagonists in every one of your books are basically T0 in appearance..." Qin Luanyu patted Li Zhuangsheng on the back and laughed teasingly, "I thought you were so handsome too."

Li Zhuangsheng was awakened from his dream by Qin Luanyu's palm strike. He came to his senses and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't meet your expectations, haha."

Qin Luanyu was startled again. Looking at Li Zhuangsheng's sincere apology expression and the self-mockery in his eyes for some unknown reason, her heart twitched slightly.

"Just kidding, it fits my imagination of you. At least you're not ugly. If you clean up a bit, you can be considered above average!" Qin Luanyu hurriedly tried to make amends.

"I think that the heroines in novels are all prettier than each other, so how could they fall in love with an average-looking boy...so the hero has to be a handsome guy to be convincing, right!" said Li Zhuangsheng.

At the beginning, I always thought that it was vulgar to only look at the appearance in love. But the older I get, the more I realize that most people in the world are vulgar.

Don't men also like beautiful women? Isn't it normal for women to like handsome men? You can't complain that women who like handsome men are too realistic just because you are not handsome and popular.
Perhaps due to differences in social attributes and physiological structure, women do not value appearance as much as men do. Perhaps women pay more attention to men's inner qualities and other values. However, the degree of happiness of having a handsome boyfriend and having an ordinary boyfriend will be different!

Who doesn’t want to see a handsome face when they open their eyes in the morning? Not only women, but men also want it!
Why did Zhang Xu make Hu Mengke so devoted to him before? Why did Hu Mengdie like her brother Qi? Even if there were thousands of reasons behind it, the most decisive one was that they were all handsome.
Nowadays, there are more and more handsome protagonists in male-oriented online novels, which proves that most male readers also agree with this point of view. Why would girls really like you if you are not handsome?
The man himself couldn't believe it.

More and more men are giving up in the marriage market, and a big part of the reason is that the Internet has allowed boys to see clearly that just as cruelly as girls are to the lickers they don't like, they will be just as proactive towards handsome guys.

The simple sentence "Just kiss at first sight, no marriage" is enough to wake up a group of little virgins who have fantasies about love and marriage.

No one wants to be a clown who fails in pursuit, and no one wants to be a second-rate spare tire in the eyes of others.

The only things that should be compared in price are objects, not people, and certainly not yourself.

They will eventually understand that although about 60% of the women around them are attractive in the eyes of men, women will only cast their most enthusiastic attention on the top 10% or 12% of men, and then settle for the second best.

Of course, even if these men realize all this, they will not complain, but will just silently remember the lessons of others. Since they don't want to humiliate themselves, they will naturally collectively give up. Only when other men cry about their failed marriages and relationships will they rush to stand up and laugh: Look at this turtle, a clown, look at me, I don't have any problems if I don't fall in love!

While laughing loudly at others, you are also laughing loudly at yourself.

Then they all dispersed after laughing, and no one cared what happened.

Anyway, women are the only delicate flowers in this world that need care, and not many people care about men’s inner world.

"I really like handsome girls, but as for ordinary girls, I can only get along with them." Li Zhuangsheng added.

He suddenly felt a mouthful of foul air in his chest that he couldn't exhale, making him feel very uncomfortable.

Qin Luanyu's expression changed slightly, she completely suppressed her smile, bit her lower lip, and asked him with a strange look: "Why do you think beautiful women will definitely like handsome men?"

"Don't you like handsome guys?"

Li Zhuangsheng asked back.

Qin Luanyu was speechless for a moment: "I... this is not a question of like or not."

Li Zhuangsheng smiled and spread his hands: "Don't you still like handsome guys?"

Qin Luanyu was anxious and angry. She opened her mouth and then closed it again.

She felt a ball of heat rising to her head, as if someone was urging her to speak out her thoughts out loud.

"Do you think I'm a beauty?"

Qin Luanyu scratched the hair on the back of her head hard, her cheeks flushed, but her previous playful expression changed and became extremely serious.

“…Of course.”

Li Zhuangsheng was stunned for a moment, then nodded. If Qin Luanyu wasn't a beauty, then there would be no beauty in the world.

“Then let me tell you, although I’m single and don’t have a partner yet. But even if the other person is not as powerful as Lin Mo, not as handsome as him… even if he has no money, even if he is just ordinary, I can totally accept it! When I like someone, I will never look at his appearance! I believe that there is still true love in the world!”

Qin Luanyu looked straight into Li Zhuangsheng's eyes and patted her chest vigorously. The sky was dyed with rosy clouds and the golden sunset dotted her pupils, like amber glass, firm and beautiful.

Li Zhuangsheng stayed there for a long time, and an inexplicably ambiguous atmosphere spread in the air.

We are just having a peaceful discussion, why are you so anxious? He thought to himself. Besides, you are still young, you don't know shit.

"Yeah, you're right... inner qualities are also important... But I'm writing a harem novel, and so many girls are devoted to the male protagonist, so it makes sense for the male protagonist to be handsome!"

Li Zhuangsheng scratched his head.

He knew that a man's appearance was not the only factor, and he was just trying to avoid it. By attributing everything to uncontrollable objective reasons, he could lie down and accept his fate with peace of mind.

"Well...what you said makes sense."

Qin Luanyu seemed to have noticed the strange atmosphere just now, and nodded in agreement a little awkwardly.

The two of them laughed dryly at each other.

"Oh, by the way, how about we climb over and take a look?" Li Zhuangsheng pointed at the fence, with an eager look on his face.

"Have you turned this over?" Qin Luanyu blinked and looked Li Zhuangsheng up and down. "It's a bit dangerous."

Sure enough, it wasn't Su Youran. If it was Su Youran, she would have taken the initiative to pull Lin Mo in. Yeah, that should be the case.

Although he is Su Youran's creator, Li Zhuangsheng is not absolutely confident in his opinion.

"Well, it's quite dangerous, so let's not turn it over." Li Zhuangsheng successfully changed the subject and continued with a smile, "You know, I heard that people drown here every year, so the negative energy is very heavy, and there are ghosts screaming at night."

As Li Zhuangsheng spoke, he made faces at Qin Luanyu.

Qin Luanyu was amused: "Haha, aren't you a materialist? Are you afraid of this too?"

"Of course I am a materialist. Let me tell you, when I was in high school, I came here several times late at night!" Li Zhuangsheng smiled and shared his youth stories with Qin Luanyu, "Once, a classmate and I rode electric bikes here during evening self-study. It was the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar that day, and the moon was very round. There is no light pollution here, and it was pitch black, so I wanted to come in to see the moon. My classmates were afraid to come in, so I came in alone."

"It takes a lot of courage for a person to go into the mountains alone." Qin Luanyu nodded.

"To see the moon. I was particularly fascinated by the moon at that time. Maybe it was because of the second year syndrome. I often talked to myself about the moon... Of course, these are not important. Anyway, I came in, recited a few poems facing the moon and the lake, and then left. But when I left, I thought of the legend that there are ghosts here at night, so I pretended to be possessed by a ghost, tilted my head, and walked towards my classmate step by step. He was scared to death and called my name but I ignored him... Then guess what happened?" Li Zhuangsheng had a mysterious look on his face.

"Hurry up and tell me, why do you have to tell a story in sections?" Qin Luanyu raised her fist, pretending to hit me.

Li Zhuangsheng didn't dare to keep it a secret any longer: "Ahem, that bastard was so scared that he got on his electric bike and ran away. At that time, he came here on my electric bike. We only had one electric bike. This place is so remote, how could I get back if he ran away on his bike? I chased him desperately from behind, but when he saw that I was chasing him closely, he stepped on the accelerator to the bottom and ran as fast as he could. I was so tired that I vomited blood, but I still couldn't catch up with him!"

This classmate is Zhang Qixiang. Recalling the past, Li Zhuangsheng became more and more angry. What an ungrateful bastard!
Thinking back to when he threatened Li Xiu Yu like this, although the other party was also frightened, he not only did not run away, but also kept calling Li Zhuangsheng's name hoping that he could regain his sanity. It turned out that his own sister was more reliable than men!
Of course, Li Zhuangsheng was subjected to the most inhumane beating by Li Xiuyu afterwards.

But there is no way, sometimes I just like to be a bit rude to Li Xiuyu.

Qin Luanyu was so amused by Li Zhuangsheng's self-exposure that she laughed so hard that she held her stomach and bent over with laughter.

"You deserve it, you deserve it! Hahahahaha!"

She held Li Zhuangsheng, rested her head on his shoulder, and laughed so hard that her whole body shook.

Li Zhuangsheng shook his head speechlessly. Even though he told her this just to make her laugh, was it necessary to laugh so loudly... As expected, if she wasn't Su Youran, she wouldn't laugh so loudly over such a small matter. She would only laugh like this in front of Lin Mo.

The two chatted and laughed until dusk fell. They returned to the parking lot, where two girls were taking selfies with the Ferrari, one of them even sitting on the front of the car and posing. Qin Luanyu walked up and rudely drove the two away, inviting Li Zhuangsheng to get in the car.

"I feel that the water is not as blue as before." Li Zhuangsheng said suddenly as he got in the car.

"What?" Qin Luanyu started the engine and turned around, not paying any attention.

"I remember that when I was in school, the water was a little clearer than it is now."

"I think it's beautiful enough."

"How does it compare to your West Lake?" Li Zhuangsheng asked with a smile.

"The last time I went to West Lake was ten years ago." Qin Luanyu disagreed.

Li Zhuangsheng was surprised: "Aren't you from Hangzhou?"

"Who said that people from Hangzhou like to go to West Lake?" Qin Luanyu said confidently, "Do you eat Huaiyang cuisine every day here? West Lake is much bigger than here, and it's full of people. There's nothing to see."

Li Zhuangsheng muttered softly: "I really want to go and take a look."

Qin Luanyu raised the corner of her mouth and teased, "Why, do you want to go find your White Lady?"

"No, I want to visit the Yuewang Temple and Yu Qian Temple, and pay my respects to Zhang Cangshui if I have the chance."

"Zhang Cangshui was just a coincidence. We are all national heroes, but you still divide us into different levels. It's really disheartening!" Qin Luanyu showed contempt.

"Stop making trouble..." Li Zhuangsheng was speechless.

Qin Luanyu smiled mysteriously: "By the way, there is another person's tomb by the West Lake, you should also be interested in it."

Li Zhuangsheng was puzzled: "Who is it?"

"Su Xiaoxiao, don't you want to pay a visit to this beauty?"

"Is this person really from history? I thought she was a fictional character like Qin Luofu and Nanyue."

Qin Luanyu frowned slightly and pouted: "I don't know about that. Maybe it's just a far-fetched story by later generations, and it was made into a memorial cenotaph. Anyway, there is a tomb, right by the West Lake."

Li Zhuangsheng nodded and stopped talking. After a while, he opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopped, and said nothing.

But in the end, he couldn't help but recite the poem "Su Xiaoxiao's Tomb" by the poet Li He:

"The orchid dew is like crying eyes. Nothing can bind our hearts together, and fireworks cannot be cut.

The grass is like a carpet, the pines are like a canopy, the wind is like a skirt, the water is like a pendant.

The oil-painted carriage awaits us in the evening. The cold green candles shine with great effort. Under the Xiling Mountains, the wind blows the rain.

(End of this chapter)