What happened afterwards to the dramatically renovated home, food, flowers and general store of young Li Bailu?

I'll keep you in suspense for now. The floral designer I'm introducing today is very handsome and is many people's male idol~ For those who can't wait to scroll down, let's show some restraint, okay?

It wasn't easy to get this interview. More than a month ago, Shaoyao went to Chengdu and set a time to visit him (and try the internet-famous desserts while at it), but a heavy rain "turned the city upside down," and our "appointment" fell through.

Afterwards, we each got busy, and the interview was postponed for more than a month. Today it's finally here. Perhaps you've heard of him before. He was invited onto Day Day Up because of his dramatic home renovation, is a post-90s handsome cook, and has a small general store courtyard. But today, his identity is floral designer.

Still want to hear your story

 Count as clouds and smoke

Xie Chunhua 

00:00/04:43

{Shaoyao Girl Vol.868 }

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Just let the white deer roam among the green cliffs

What are the 28-year-old men around you busy with?

Busy with blind dates, dealing with their parents; busy working overtime, getting promotions and raises; busy making money, saving up for a down payment on a house.

But at 28, Li Bailu doesn't worry about promotions or raises, nor is he crushed by housing prices. His life: one courtyard, two dogs, three meals of good food, and flowers in all four seasons.

Many people know Li Bailu because four years ago, at 24, he dramatically renovated his rented apartment.

At the time, he rented a place for 1000 yuan/month,

The decoration was rough, it was completely empty, and it was truly painful to look at.

After getting the landlord's consent,

Li Bailu scrounged up some old furniture and decorated it with green plants,

Spending only 3000 yuan to turn the "old and broken" into an "internet-famous" style.

Flower pots were placed at varying heights on drawers and wooden boards,

The small balcony actually held dozens of kinds of flowers,

Becoming a small garden.

After his dramatic rental renovation became a hit, Li Bailu hasn't been idle these years. In 2016, he simply rented a broken-down courtyard and did another "Li Bailu-style" dramatic renovation, which is today's "Ruyun Wu."

The walls were peeling, the ground was covered in moss,

A perfectly good little pond had become a stinking ditch...

A run-down place others would walk around,

Li Bailu thought it was great.

Paint the white walls, knock out the mossy ground.

Pave a small path with bluestone slabs,

Let the rest stay "bare"

Perfect for planting little flowers and grasses~

More and more flowers and plants were planted in the courtyard,

Maple trees, datura, fern leaves, Chinese snowball...

The small courtyard gradually became beautiful.

When free, you can sit on the tatami under the eaves,

On sunny days, watch the flowers and plants grow freely in the garden,

Secretly photograph the cat cooling off~

On rainy days, listen to the rain hitting the banana leaves through the reed blinds.

Watch flowers in spring, admire leaves in autumn.

Inside the house, it's filled with his beloved objects,

Wooden items, bamboo woven baskets, plain ceramic bowls...

He loves cooking and has always done food photography,

His passion for life is all in the daily necessities of firewood, rice, oil and salt.

If friends come from afar, they must have a serving of Ruyun Wu's tea snacks to feel satisfied.

The tea snacks Shaoyao wanted to eat but didn't get to,

I can't be the only one craving them~ If we're craving, let's crave together

Sophora flower dew made from sophora flowers that bloom in April and May,

Topped with a layer of ice jelly made from wood lotus seeds,

Smooth on the tongue, reminding one of the sophora flower fragrance filling the streets in late spring.

Sophora flowers are limited, and the wood lotus seeds are made on site, so if you want to taste the sophora flower dew at Ruyun Wu, you need to make a reservation in advance~

This one, Qingdai, is intoxicating just to look at,

The white is yogurt, the green is cucumber,

Probably the gentlest panna cotta in the world.

Yuzhi is made from lychee and guava,

One is snowy white and clear, the other is cinnabar-like jade,

Both appearance and taste are multi-layered.

Many people mistakenly assume that Li Bailu, like most "dramatic renovators," studied art. In fact, he studied English in university. Art, aesthetics, design? Not even close.

In his view,A good living environment can heal a person. Though it is silent, when the lights come on at home at night, no matter how much exhaustion and grievance there is, it can all be smoothed away.

He spares no effort renovating rental apartments and courtyards himself, simply because he wants to decorate the place he lives into the home in his heart.A table, a floorboard, a wall, all hide the evidence of how seriously you've lived.

Li Bailu's life flows gently on one side, while on the other he's constantly busy making changes. Since last year, he has frequently appeared in the floral design world. I once thought that someone who could design a style as quaint and serene as "Ruyun Wu" would surely make very elegant flowers.

In reality, his floral works and the courtyard he designed have completely different faces.One is a white rose, plain and quiet; the other is a red rose, intense and gorgeous.In interior design he prefers Chinese and Japanese styles, but in flower arranging he prefers large color-block floral materials.

Inspired by the poster of Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace,

Using orange-toned fruit-type floral materials, he constructed a Qing palace,

The deep palace, the powerful, the turmoil, the rise and fall, the proud spirit,

All contained within.

Orange-toned floral materials are his favorite,

Amaryllis, bird of paradise, Phalaenopsis orchids, dahlias, etc.,

In his works, they combine into a rich and elegant texture.

A few stems of deep blue anemones,

Give the white and green floral materials a classical quality too.

Pink anthuriums, purple clematis, white calla lilies,

Colors that seem like they would clash,

Can also be paired in his hands to create a harmonious beauty.

Sometimes, you'll see seven or eight colors in one work,

Hmm? But it looks great~

When arranging flowers, he respects the inherent beauty of the floral materials,

He arranges flowers following the plants' natural way of growing,

So in his works,

The plants are all in a state of stretch and freedom.

Li Bailu hasn't been doing floral design for long. He only truly got into floral art starting in July last year. Ruyun Wu already keeps him busy enough. By his count, he only has one or two days a month to play with flowers, and those two days are his most relaxed time.

In his view, flower arranging is beautiful and full of creativity. It can make people forget their worries, and whatever emotions you want to express, flowers can give you.

Many fans, upon seeing Li Bailu's floral works, want to learn flower arranging from him. However, Li Bailu hasn't yet opened floral design training classes. Instead, because he fell in love with flower arranging, he brought his photography hobby from food to floral art.

Photography is a very important part of floral art. Li Bailu hasn't put down his camera since he picked it up 11 years ago. Gradually, photography became both a hobby and a job. In Li Bailu's flower and plant photography class, mastering basic photography techniques is only the foundation; aesthetics is also very important.

Photographing a single floral material,

Using a clean background to show the lines and beauty of the flower.

Based on the lines of the plant,

Using vases and other shapes to combine and shoot,

A single floral material can also present an artistic effect.

Using natural light and changes in brightness,

Interweaving a dramatic feeling.

Dark-toned floral works,

Whether intense colors or pale white,

You can sense the emotion of the flowers.

Photographing table floral arrangements,

The composition must be clean enough.

Bright yellow against the black of night,

A stage play with surging undercurrents is about to begin.

Besides conventional shooting scenes and techniques,

Wonderful ideas often pop into his head,

For example, wearing a pair of rubber gloves in the same color family,

Is this the first time you've seen it?

His floral design is good, and he's great at photography. Anyone else would have long opened a flower shop and started floral design training. But Li Bailu didn't. From the very beginning, he chose to learn floral art simply because it's fun and full of creativity, with no naked purpose.

He believes a true floral designerMust not only have "flowers," but alsoThe "art" part. In the process of making flowers, one must learn toRespect flowers. Only those who truly love flowers can do the "art" better.

Li Bailu's collaborative class work with Twenty-One,

Tough and lonely,

Quiet yet with a sense of dancing airflow.