Abstract Art Award Winner

"Wow, it's Da Tou Fei Niao! Zhou Le went to Japan for only a few days and he's already hooked up with Da Tou Fei Niao?"

"As expected of Brother Le, you actually went to Disneyland together. Promise me, after you're done at Disneyland, okay?"

"Haha, I'm going to send this video to my Japanese classmate. He's a fan of Asuka, and I want to see what kind of expression he'll have."

"Hey bro, got a reply yet? Keep updating!"

“I told him that he was looking for a kitchen knife to cause trouble for Zhou Le, but I persuaded him to stop.”

After they finished shopping that day, they did indeed go home separately.

They first sent Saito Asuka back home, and then the group returned to the hotel.

"I'm so tired, even more tired than last time. Who said this is a place for children to play? What child could stand walking around like this all day?"

After getting off the bus, Zhou Le sighed and said.

The other men were also exhausted.

"I think it's alright. Besides, the Disney here seems to be more geared towards adults. There are no haunted houses in the Disney parks in China, but combining a haunted house with a drop tower is really impressive."

Zhao Jinmai, on the other hand, looked radiant and showed no signs of fatigue.

“Brother Le, are you really not interested in Feibiao? Although we don’t follow each other on Douyin, I’ve added her on WeChat,” Zhao Jinlai said. “I think she’s really cute. If you’re interested, I’ll chat with her more in the future and try to set you two up.”

"You should just relax. You didn't do a single word of your homework this time. I think you've been letting your sheep roam free."

"Oh, how can that be the same? I came out to work. Brother Le, you should praise me. I'm so young and I'm already making a living."

"Okay, then I'll praise you to your mother. You didn't do your homework and just played around. You said you were going to a film festival, but you didn't bring back a single award."

"Brother Le~" Zhao Jinmai immediately started to act coquettishly.

"Alright, alright, we know each other well, there's no point in you telling me this. But we won't be back until the day after tomorrow, what are your plans for tomorrow?"

"I'll be doing my homework all day at the hotel tomorrow. Just call me when you're eating," Zhao Jinmai said, clearly indicating that she would be working hard all day tomorrow, afraid that Zhou Le would complain.

“Okay, you said it yourself.” Zhou Le then looked at Guo Fan.

"What about Fan-ge? Any plans for tomorrow?"

"If you're going, let's go out for a walk tonight. I want to rest well during the day. After all, I'm an old man and can't keep up with you young people. I'm exhausted today." Guo Fan nodded repeatedly, his body unable to take it anymore.

"What about dumplings?"

"I've arranged to visit Hayao Miyazaki tomorrow and have a chat with him. After all, he's a veteran in the film industry, and I plan to learn from him."

"pretty good."

Then Jiaozi asked, "And you, Teacher Zhou, what are your plans for tomorrow? If you don't have any, how about we go visit Miyazaki Hayao together?"

"I think I'll pass. I'll think about it again tomorrow."

"Okay, anyway, if you want to go, you can tell me tomorrow."

Zhou Le went back to his room, took off his clothes, and sat on the bed. He didn't have any plans for tomorrow, since he had come here specifically to attend the film festival.

They also booked an extra night's stay here, and Zhang Ziyi and the others flew back to China today.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Le searched on his phone again, but there was nothing that particularly interested him. The only place he was somewhat interested in was Mount Akina.

But that's just a filming location for Initial D, so I can only take a look around; there's nothing particularly special about it.

"Never mind, I'll talk about it later." Zhou Le tossed his phone onto the bed and went to take a shower.

Meanwhile, Saito Asuka, who had been resting at home for a while, guessed that Zhou Le had returned to the hotel. She lay on the sofa, swinging her legs, and looked at Zhou Le's old posts on her WeChat Moments on her phone.

Most of the photos showed people enjoying various kinds of delicious food, along with some movie stills. Before I knew it, I was completely engrossed.

"Mr. Zhou Le is so serious when he's filming, but this mullet hairstyle looks so cute." Because she flipped through the earlier parts quite quickly, she slowly flipped back to the earlier parts after seeing the later ones. When she got to the stills from "Caught in Time," she paused.

Then I saved this picture.

It's cute because of the straight bangs.

But the more she looked into Zhou Le's eyes, the fiercer they seemed. It was completely different from the Zhou Le she had seen in the past few days; they were two completely different people.

After reading through Zhou Le's WeChat Moments, she thought for a moment and then typed a message for Zhou Le.

Is Mr. Zhou Le asleep?

But several minutes passed after the message was sent, and Zhou Le did not reply.

This made her face feel hot and a little uncomfortable.

"Why isn't he replying to my messages? Did I talk too much today? That shouldn't be the case. He talked to me a lot, taught me Chinese, and even taught me how to post videos on TikTok in China."

But the news was there, glaringly obvious and extremely irritating.

After thinking it over, she sent another message: "Okay, sorry to bother you, Mr. Zhou Le, good night."

After that, she went to take a shower.

But just as I filled the bathtub with water, put the bath sponge in, and lay down to take a good soak...

She suddenly heard a cell phone ring outside, which was very sensitive to her ears.

Upon hearing the sound, she immediately stood up, ignoring the water and foam on her body, and ran barefoot to the living room. She picked up her phone and saw that it was an advertising text message.

Furious, she threw her phone on the sofa and prepared to go back to take a shower.

But just as she turned around, her phone rang again.

Therefore, Saito Asuka quickly picked up her phone again and saw that it was indeed a message from Zhou Le.

"Not yet, I just took a shower, I was too tired from going out today."

Saito Asuka stood in the living room, holding her phone, pondering how to reply.

A minute or two later, she replied, "Oh, I see. Mr. Zhou, you should get some rest. You must be very tired today, but you had a lot of fun."

"It's alright, I usually have to check my phone again around this time before I go to sleep. As long as Asuka-chan has fun, that's all that matters. But I also want to thank Asuka-chan for being our guide today."

"It's okay, it's been a long time since I've been there either. Luckily, I didn't lead everyone to a bad experience."

She chatted with Zhou Le back and forth for five or six minutes until a cool breeze blew by, and she was surprised to find that she had been standing in the living room for so long.

So she quickly went back to the bathroom. Fortunately, the water wasn't cold, so she continued chatting with Zhou Le while taking a bath.

Saito Asuka sent messages in Japanese. WeChat has a translation function, so every time the other party sent a message, Zhou Le could long-press the translation button to understand what the other party meant.

But it has to be said that Saito Asuka is quite interesting. After all, she is a young person and has a lot of jokes. Although many of them are from this region, it doesn't stop Zhou Le from chatting.

After a while, Saito Asuka suddenly asked, "Mr. Zhou Le must be very tired today. He must be planning to rest well tomorrow, right?"

Looking at the obvious words, Zhou Le sighed.

Everyone has their own things to do tomorrow. I feel bored being alone.

Going out for a walk with the other person is also an option.

"Tomorrow is fine, but Xiao Zhao will be doing his homework in the hotel, Director Guo Fan will be taking a day off, and Jiaozi is going to visit Miyazaki Hayao. I don't have any plans yet."

"If not, how about we go horseback riding tomorrow? I know a membership-only horse farm near Tokyo, and I happen to be a member there, so I can bring a friend."

"Riding a horse? That sounds great! I don't think I've ever ridden a horse before."

"Then we'll go there tomorrow, and I'll pick you up by car."

"Okay, then thank you for your hard work, Asuka-chan."

Zhou Le really wanted to ride a horse, after all, when he was a child, he watched martial arts movies and the way those heroes galloped on horseback was incredibly cool.

Even now, Zhou Le can still recall many images of horseback riding.

Having filmed so many dramas, Zhou Le had always been thinking about when he could film a period drama related to horseback riding.

After chatting for a while longer, Zhou Le turned off his phone and went to sleep.

The next morning, he grabbed a small bag and went out.

Before leaving, I sent a message to the small group they had created before coming to Japan: "I'm going horseback riding with my friends today. Dumpling Bro is probably going to have lunch at Miyazaki Hayao's place. Director Guo, remember to take Xiao Zhao out for lunch and dinner. If Director Guo hasn't gotten up by noon, Xiao Zhao, give him a call."

Dumpling: "Sure."

Zhao Jinmai: "Okay, but who is Brother Le going horseback riding with? Can I come along?"

Zhou Le: "You probably can't bring a friend here. It's a membership-based place, and each member can only bring one person in. Maybe next time. I'll take you to a horse farm in China next time."

Zhao Jinmai: "Okay."

She also added a wronged emoji afterward.

Not long after, Saito Asuka arrived at the hotel entrance in a purple Toyota Supra.

After getting into the car, Zhou Le exclaimed, "This car is quite nice." He spoke in English because he had discovered yesterday that Saito Asuka could also speak English, but her Japanese accent was too heavy, so she didn't speak much.

"Because I filmed an advertisement for Toyota this year, they gave me one as a gift. But I don't drive much. However, I saw online that you are a race car driver?"

Zhou Le nodded: "Yes, but my team is all Subaru, while your cars are right-hand drive, so I can't drive them."

"It's alright. Although I don't drive much, I haven't had an accident yet. I'll drive a little slower in a bit. As long as Mr. Zhou Le doesn't mind my poor driving skills."

"It's not that serious. When driving, safety should be the top priority."

The two of them made their way to the horse farm, and once there they went to choose a horse.

As a member here, Saito Asuka also has her own pony, which is a perfect fit for her 158cm height.

"Would you like to give it a try?"

Zhou Le had never ridden a horse before, so he tried to sit on Saito Asuka's horse, but at 1.85 meters tall, sitting on the horse's back felt like riding a dog.

"Haha, Mr. Zhou Le is too tall. Let's get a bigger one."

So they asked the person in charge here to bring out a large horse.

Zhou Le sat up again and immediately felt different.

As a high-end horse farm, there are people here who understand Chinese. Although they don't speak it fluently, they can still have normal communication.

The horse trainer led the horse along while explaining the precautions for riding to Zhou Le.

After a while, Zhou Le said he wanted to ride it himself.

At first, he walked forward slowly and normally, then controlled the frequency of his body's rise and fall, then got faster and faster, and finally started galloping on horseback.

The horse trainer was terrified, because he had never seen a horse run so fast as soon as it was put on its back in his career.

They kept calling out, "Please give me a bean bag~" and "Ya me~" to tell Zhou Le to slow down.

Saito Asuka, however, was too preoccupied to care about anything else at the moment.

She picked up her phone and started snapping photos.

"Mr. Zhou looks so handsome riding a horse."

Saito Asuka couldn't take her eyes off him.

At this moment, Zhou Le felt like he was the embodiment of freedom. He finally understood why ancient knights-errant rode horses. On the one hand, it was because transportation was inconvenient in ancient times, and riding a horse was the fastest way. On the other hand, it was because this thing was just so damn cool.

As Zhou Le rode along, he felt it was about time, so he pulled the reins as the horse trainer had instructed, and the horse's two front hooves immediately lifted up.

At that moment, he truly felt as if he were flying. His heart skipped a beat, but he gripped the horse's belly with his legs and held the reins tightly. Finally, when his front hooves landed safely, a sense of pride inexplicably rose within him.

"With my horse riding skills and adaptability, I would be a martial arts master in a wuxia novel."

Zhou Le was so fond of horseback riding that he stayed there for a whole day, even having lunch at the horse farm.

The two didn't head back until the afternoon.

"Is there anything you want to eat?"

"No." Zhou Le wasn't lying, because there really wasn't anything he particularly wanted to eat in Japan.

Saito Asuka thought for a moment and said, "How about we have dinner at my house? I have some ingredients at home."

"Sure, but can you cook?"

"I can cook a little bit, as long as you don't mind how bad my cooking is, Mr. Zhou."

"Then let's go to your house. My biggest advantage is that I'm not a picky eater."

Since the other party had taken the initiative to extend the invitation, Zhou Le naturally had no reason to refuse.

Although there are Japanese girls in some nightclubs in China, Zhou Le is always very careful outside and never touches them.

And so, Saito Asuka drove all the way home.

Actually, she had considered inviting Zhou Le to her house yesterday, so she specially cleaned the house.

Saito Asuka's home is not large, but it is decorated very warmly.

Soon, after tidying up a bit, the two started cooking.

At first, Zhou Le thought that Saito Asuka was a very good cook.

But it wasn't until the other party opened the video software to search for recipes on the spot.

Zhou Le knew that the other person's cooking skills were probably on par with his own. (End of Chapter)