I'm a web novelist, and you want me to work in the entertainment industry?

After the groups were formed, the bus slowed down, turned off the highway, and drove onto a narrow but smooth cement road.

Low stone walls line both sides of the road, behind which lie vast salt fields, with the reflections of the sky and clouds floating on the water.

Further ahead, you can see a village built against a small hill.

The village faces the sea, with houses stacked one on top of another extending up the gentle slope of the hill.

The village is small, with only a few dozen households, but every house is so exquisitely designed it looks like it stepped right out of a postcard.

The walls are made of simple granite, tinged with a pale beige hue by the passage of time, almost blending into the grass.

The roof wasn't made of tiles, but rather a fluffy, light brown roof covered with thick seaweed. The edges of the eaves were trimmed neatly, and from a distance it looked a bit like a giant mushroom growing out of the ground.

Looking east from the village entrance, you can see a small dock with several small blue fishing boats moored on the water, bobbing gently with the waves.

Tian Xiwei practically pressed herself against the car window, looking out with astonishingly bright eyes: "So beautiful."

Cheng Che also looked out the window, "Indeed, it's like a painting."

Wow! Nobody told me seaweed houses were so dreamy!

[+1, I just saw a comment saying the seaweed houses look like something out of a fairy tale... I thought it was an exaggeration, but it turns out it's a realistic description!?]

[I feel something awakening within my blood, I want to think about it, I want to think about it!]

The bus stopped at the entrance of the village.

The six guests disembarked one by one.

The moment my feet touched the ground, a gust of wind carrying the pungent smell of the sea rushed towards me, salty, damp, and mingled with the scent of fish and shrimp.

It doesn't smell particularly pleasant, but it has a rustic, fresh quality.

"Each group, come and draw a task card," Wang Zheng called out, holding up the lottery box.

Each of the three groups sent a representative to draw a task card.

Cheng Che flipped open the card he had drawn; it showed the location of the next mission.

"Please go to the third house in the east of the village and find Grandpa Xie's house."

……

The village's alleys are very winding, with low stone walls along the roadside, and fishing nets and strings of mussels drying on the top of the walls.

Cheng Che and Tian Xiwei walked along the stone-paved road, counting the house numbers one by one.

"The third house in the east of the village..." Tian Xiwei muttered as she walked, "The first house, the second house, the third house—this is the one."

She stopped in front of a seaweed-thatched house. The gate was a half-open wooden fence with a faded nameplate hanging on it.

A large fig tree grows in the courtyard, its broad leaves peeking over the wall and casting a cool shade on the ground.

"Hello—is anyone there?" Tian Xiwei called out from the doorway.

No one answered.

"It seems like she's not here." She turned around.

"Did he go out to visit someone? Let's ask someone," Cheng Che said.

The two continued along the alley, turned a corner, and vaguely heard some sounds.

They exchanged a glance, followed the sound, and found its source under an old tree by the roadside.

An old man wearing a white vest sat on a small stool, holding an erhu, and pulled the bow like sawing a tree.

He wore sunglasses with lenses that gleamed a deep black in the sunlight, which, combined with his white vest and black flip-flops, gave him a rather carefree and unrestrained air.

The old man was playing with extreme concentration, his head swaying back and forth with the rhythm of the bow, clearly completely immersed in his art.

Countless musical notes flew out of his hands, like thousands of hidden weapons launched from bowstrings, extremely lethal.

[Hahahaha, what's this old man doing! He's so trendy!]

【Hmm? I hope the "trendy" you're referring to isn't the same as the "trendy" in the Shandong dialect.】

[666 Grandpa's erhu skills are amazing! He managed to play the erhu and reproduce my roommate's snoring sound from last night.]

Well, to be honest... the old man's erhu playing was a bit off.

"...?"

Tian Xiwei and Cheng Che stood behind the old man, exchanged a glance, their expressions and eyes complicated.

"Should we...interrupt him?" Tian Xiwei asked softly.

"Let's wait a bit." Cheng Che scratched his head.

Fortunately, the old man didn't make them wait long.

A dozen seconds later, the melody ended with a sharp high note, and the old man sighed and put down his bow.

"Excuse me, sir?" Tian Xiwei immediately approached him upon seeing this.

The old man turned his head, pulled his sunglasses down, revealing a pair of exceptionally bright eyes.

He sized up the young man and woman in front of him, then glanced at the photographer carrying the equipment behind them, and his eyes lit up instantly.

"Ouch!" He ripped off his sunglasses, stood up from the stool, and grinned broadly. "You guys are from the 'Wandering Diary' program, right? You're here to see me, aren't you?"

Tian Xiwei opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the old man had already taken two steps forward, as warmly as if he had seen a long-lost relative.

"I figured you guys should be arriving soon! Come on, let's go home first, don't stand here." He said, bending down to pick up a stool, then looked up as if remembering something.

He pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his shorts pocket, expertly flicked out two cigarettes, and handed them to Cheng Che and Tian Xiwei.

"Want one?"

"...?"

Cheng Che and Tian Xiwei were both a little confused by the old man's actions. They looked at each other and then shook their heads in unison.

The old man didn't press the matter, and his gaze naturally fell on the young photographer behind him. He held out his cigarette pack and said, "Hey, young man—"

Photographer: ...?

The photographer's expression visibly froze.

No?

Grandpa, stop messing around! I'm live-streaming!

If the live stream gets banned, Director Wang will be doomed!

The next second, the camera started shaking wildly from side to side.

The scene was chaotic, the camera trembled as if it were experiencing an 18-magnitude earthquake, as if afraid of capturing the smoke on camera.

[Hahaha, the photographer must have been terrified!]

What bad intentions could the old man possibly have? He's just being hospitable and welcoming you to Mihai.

[Old man: Want one? Photographer: Don't come any closer!]

[Hmm... Am I seeing things? That pack of cigarettes in the old man's hand looks like Huazi cigarettes, and it even seems to be soft-pack??]

Grandpa Xie looked at the machine that was shaking wildly, somewhat puzzled, but still put away his cigarette.

He muttered to himself, "If you don't want to smoke, then don't smoke. Why shake it so hard?"

Tian Xiwei pursed her lips, trying hard not to laugh out loud.

Cheng Che also couldn't hold back for long, and looked at the photographer with a hint of sympathy.

—Oh, speaking of which, this photographer is actually the one who scared me yesterday.

Hmm... Cheng Che sincerely felt sorry for him.