Back at the base camp, Zhou You lay down on his own bed. No matter how nice a hotel was, it couldn't compare to the comfort of home.
So in the future, he still needed to buy a house in the city he frequented as a backup, just in case.
Full and satisfied, exercise done.
This kind of happy life—even being an emperor couldn't compare. An emperor didn't have the freedom of a modern person.
"You Ge, the swimming pool has been pretty crowded after the New Year, so we hired another cleaner. Originally, Wang Ping and I handled the cleaning part-time, but now it's getting too busy to keep up," Wang Fangfang said while putting on her clothes.
Watching her beauty get covered by the clothes, Zhou You's heart felt covered too.
"It's fine, don't push yourself too hard. This is just the beginning. When we open chain stores later, it'll be even busier. You need to learn to manage," Zhou You said, shifting his gaze away.
"Have you analyzed the customer base yet? What kind of people are they?"
"I have a rough idea. Right now, the proportion of women is slightly higher. Mainly nearby university professors, corporate executives and bosses, and some students," Wang Fangfang said, genuinely dedicated to running the shop.
"That fits our customer positioning pretty well. We're mainly targeting the high-end market. There are still too few swimming pools in Luzhou right now. Once we have more customers and build up loyalty, they'll bring in new ones through referrals, and we won't have to worry about clients."
He added, "The water quality has to be good, and the service has to be good too. But you can't shortchange yourself either. If it's not worth it, just quit. Got it?"
Wang Fangfang felt a warmth in her heart and couldn't help hugging Zhou You. "I know, I'm not stupid. I have you as my backup."
The clothes she had just managed to put on were stripped off by Zhou You again because of a few touching words.
Another few thousand words of indescribable content.
"The CCTV documentary team is coming to Huangshan next week to shoot. Do you have time? If you do, come along and relax, and see how they film," Zhou You told her, noticing she'd been a bit tired lately.
Wang Fangfang thought it over. She really hadn't spent much time with Zhou You recently, often busy with her own things to the point of neglecting him. As Zhou You said, life wasn't just about making money.
"Sure, I've never seen how they film either. It'll be a good chance to check it out. I'll let Wang Ping know," Wang Fangfang nodded. "How many days will we be gone?"
That caught Zhou You off guard. He didn't have much sense of time these days, unlike before when he counted the days one by one. "Three or four days. We'll leave after I finish my classes."
Hearing that he still had classes, Wang Fangfang felt a bit relieved. No matter how far he went or where, as long as he was still a university professor, he'd have to come back here.
Zhou You was still a bit embarrassed. After all, he'd just started working and hadn't even been there a full year yet, so swapping classes with other teachers every day wasn't a good look.
He planned to wait until he got more familiar with everyone, then swap classes to free up a big chunk of time—half a month or so—to travel all over the country or even the world.
...
With a small bag under his arm, he rode an electric scooter to class.
If he were a kite, then the school and students were the string holding it, keeping him from losing his way.
Sometimes, looking back at his current life, it felt like a dream. Only when he stood at the podium teaching did he feel grounded.
Zhou You stood at the podium, looking at the neatly seated students below. He felt like today was missing a lot of fun, especially since a few students who often skipped class were actually here.
"Let's start with roll call," Zhou You said, scanning the room with his eyes.
"Forget it, I'm in a bad mood today, so I'll skip it."
A few students below couldn't help laughing at Zhou You's gloomy expression, especially Huang Jiankai: "Teacher, go ahead and call it! I'm here!"
Zhou You couldn't help but laugh too. "I don't call it when you're here. I only call it when you're not."
Huang Jiankai's smile instantly vanished, and the smile transferred to the other students' faces.
The classroom atmosphere couldn't help but liven up again.
...
The CCTV documentary crew had already arrived at the confirmed location. Zhou You and Wang Fangfang drove there together.
From Luzhou to Huangshan, it was a straight highway drive that took just over two hours.
They had to pass through several tunnels along the way, so they needed to be careful. Since it was a highway, Zhou You didn't let Wang Fangfang drive; he handled it all himself.
Wang Fangfang was still excited the whole way. After all, a road trip was a completely different experience from taking a car or a plane.
They weren't in a hurry either, stopping to rest a bit whenever they hit a service area.
They went straight to the documentary's filming location. Zhou You had no idea how the crew found it. He'd eaten stinky mandarin fish a few times before, and depending on the chef's method, some were okay, while others were pretty awful.
From a distance, they could see the crew, a group of people with all kinds of cameras and equipment filming.
The scenery around Huangshan was truly beautiful—towering mountains, clear waters, and lush greenery. Unfortunately, during feudal times, it couldn't support many people.
Huizhou Prefecture was known as "three mountains, six waters, one field." The reason Huizhou merchants became famous was out of necessity—they had to leave home to make a living.
Their filming location was in She County, which also had the famous Xidi and Hongcun villages, both great spots for tourism and relaxation.
Zhou You had once dreamed of renting a homestay here for a week or so, enjoying a leisurely life, but he'd never been able to make it happen.
Now that he was here, it really felt like those ancient Jiangnan villages—a land of mountains, water, and abundant fish and rice.
The houses were scattered in an orderly way along both sides of the river, with green tiles and white walls, eaves curving up like antelope horns.
What he loved most were the lakes. He figured they must have been good for fishing in the past, though he wasn't sure if it was still allowed now.
Zhou You once had a dream: a river behind his house, full of fish, so he could fish whenever he wanted, without having to wake up early and stay out late, only to catch nothing.
Was that even a life worth living?
They watched from the side for a while until the crew finished setting up their shots. Director Ren spotted them and raised his right hand in greeting from a distance.
Zhou You raised his right hand too, waving back as he walked over.
"I saw you guys filming so seriously, so I didn't want to interrupt. With all this footage you're shooting, how much actually ends up being used?" Zhou You asked. He used to think they shot only what they needed, but now seeing so many people filming so much, he remembered that the final segment probably wouldn't exceed ten minutes.
"That's hard to say. We'll be here for a few days shooting. At most, maybe half an hour will make the cut. A lot of footage can't be used, and a lot needs to be compressed. Editing is a massive project," Director Ren replied.
Well, it was true that every profession had its own mysteries. Zhou You had indeed been naive.
He figured making a movie was the same—a film was only about 90 minutes, two hours at most.
But the production cycle for a movie always took months at a minimum.
Sure, setting up the crew took time, and actors not being available wasted time too, but in reality, a lot of shots couldn't be used or were cut in the end.
He'd watched behind-the-scenes documentaries about filmmaking before and learned a lot, but it didn't compare to seeing it in person.