Chapter 14

After the incident in the lounge where Ye Chen accidentally bumped into Shen Mofeng, Shen Mofeng’s attitude remained as usual, and he didn’t tease Ye Chen about it. However, Ye Chen’s embarrassment from that day lingered, and besides shooting his opponent scenes, he didn’t even dare to look at Shen Mofeng too much. Whenever there was a break, he would slip away to the restroom and then sneak back to the courtyard to tend to his crops through the utility room.

These days, he didn’t seek Shen Mofeng out for scenes, and he didn’t even join him for meals. He was solely focused on mooching the crew’s box lunches.

With the divine beast cubs supporting him, the number of box lunches these days was always just right. The production team seemed to notice something unusual. When the box lunches were delivered one noon, the Life Assistant didn’t go anywhere else. Instead, he sat on a small stool next to the thermal box, wanting to see who was the snail girl that helped them clean up the leftovers every day. When Ye Chen’s assistant Xiao Gao came over, he didn’t even ask and just stuffed four boxes to Ye Chen.

Don’t be fooled by his slender physique, Xiao Gao had a big appetite, always eating three portions per meal. Where did all that food go?

When everyone in the group had almost finished eating, the meal mooching small squad turned out in full force and gathered around the thermal box, where there were still three boxes left.

Seeing the Life Assistant’s gaze elsewhere, Military Strategist Hou swiftly and decisively waved his small chubby hand, and along with Qiongqi Cub and Pulu Cub, they reached into the thermal box and each took a box.

The moment their fingers touched the boxes, a spiritual energy immediately enveloped them, and to ordinary people, it seemed as if the boxes disappeared from the thermal box.

Retreat! Hou Cub raised his chin, and the three cubs holding the boxes promptly put them on their heads and ran away.

Ten seconds later, the Life Assistant turned his head and stared blankly at the suddenly empty thermal box. “…”

Meanwhile, Ye Chen was eating the box lunches that Xiao Gao had brought back while enduring the humiliation. He was halfway through when Xiao He suddenly poked half of his body in from outside the car door, asking with a smile, “Chen Ge, does Shen Ge want to know if you want to eat sashimi? I just bought it from a Japanese restaurant. There’s golden-eye snapper, yellowfin tuna, and snowflake beef…”

He even listed the names of the dishes.

“…” Ye Chen chewed his shredded potato salad slowly, feeling heartbroken and suffocated, feeling that breaking up with his loved one would probably feel like this. But thinking back to the head-bumping incident a few days ago, he still felt so embarrassed that he wanted to scratch his ears and cheeks. So he endured the pain and said, “No, please thank Shen Ge for me.”

Xiao He responded and after a while, he ran over again, “Chen Ge, does Shen Ge want to know if you want to eat crab roe noodles? The one with the gold foil on top.”

Ye Chen, with tears in his eyes, trembled, “No, I’m not hungry right now. Just tell him anything is fine.”

Xiao He ran away again, then ran back, “Chen Ge, does Shen Ge want to know if you want to eat hot pot? With freshly sliced lamb.”

Ye Chen was speechless, “…Hot pot?”

“Yeah,” Xiao He said matter-of-factly, “Shen Ge has a pot and stove in the car.”

Ye Chen still shook his head, “No, thank you.”

Xiao He: “How about Cantonese cuisine? Western food?”

Ye Chen remained silent for a while, his tone heavy with sorrow. “Does Shen Ge usually eat such a comprehensive lunch?”

The stark contrast in wealth!

“No,” Xiao He cleared his throat, speaking slowly, “Shen Ge meant that if there’s anything you want to eat, he’ll go buy it and then… you can eat at his place. Anyway, there’s a long lunch break today.”

“No, no,” Ye Chen almost shook his head vigorously, “I’ve gained some weight recently, and it doesn’t look good on camera. I need to control it.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll let Shen Ge know,” Xiao He glanced at Ye Chen’s sharp jawline and palm-sized face, thinking to himself that the demands these artists have for themselves are really high.

After finishing the box lunch, Ye Chen returned to the courtyard to continue his farming business.

These days, he made full use of his break time to farm, expanding the scale of vegetable and strawberry planting by nearly double. He also planted four pear tree saplings, and the apple trees were about to yield a harvest.

Changing in and out of costumes was troublesome, so Ye Chen didn’t bother. He simply lifted the billowing lower hem of his ancient robe and tucked it into his belt to secure it.

His upper body was clad in a finely crafted ancient robe with jacquard weaving, and his hair bun was neat and dignified. However, his lower body revealed two legs in dark-colored thermal pants, creating a visually contradictory effect.

Even more contradictory was the fact that this clean and handsome little prince bent down to pick up a box of chicken droppings from the ground, muttering to himself, “…I’ll let it ferment in the ground, so I can save some fertilizer money.” His smile was very industrious and brave.

In the backyard, twenty chickens strolled leisurely within the area delineated by Ye Chen with yellow chalk, none of them crossing the boundary. The ground was also quite clean, with no traces of chicken farming visible—due to the weather changes in the Mountain and Sea Realm, which were not synchronized with the mortal world, Ye Chen initially kept the chicks over there. However, after only a few days, he found that when it rained in the Mountain and Sea Realm, the chickens would become soaked chickens. So he had no choice but to transfer them to the backyard, where they could take shelter in the house when it was windy or rainy.

To reduce labor, Ye Chen made two paper boxes, teaching the chickens to go to the designated spot to relieve themselves and to clean up their own feathers and other life rubbish. Most of the chickens were very obedient, not only following the rules themselves but also supervising their companions. Originally, there were two rebellious chickens in the flock who liked to relieve themselves anywhere, but after being pecked by their companions a few times, they became obedient, without even needing Ye Chen, a descendant of Fuxi, to intervene personally…

Just like with planting crops, Ye Chen found that the growth rate of the livestock he raised by his own hands had also noticeably accelerated. Setting aside the meat chickens raised on the assembly line in the chicken farm, ordinary high-quality egg-laying hens typically took four to six months to grow from chicks to adult chickens, depending on their physique and breed. However, the chickens that Ye Chen personally fed had already begun to show signs of maturity in less than half a month. At this rate of growth, the hens would be ready to lay eggs in just a few days.

Ye Chen went to the kitchen, poured the half portion of leftover lunch that Xiao Gao had not finished into the chicken feed tray, and stirred it around—Xiao Gao really did have a small appetite, barely finishing a portion of his lunch, leaving behind half a box of rice every time. During this time, Ye Chen had been taking advantage of his inattention to sneakily take away his leftovers to feed the chickens. Xiao Gao had already gotten used to the mysterious disappearance of the leftovers placed on the table, adopting a very Zen attitude, neither looking for them nor asking about them, but occasionally casting a complex gaze at Ye Chen as if deciphering a complicated math problem… After pouring out the leftovers, Ye Chen added some millet to the feed tray and broke off a large cabbage leaf, stacking the leaves on the cutting board.

With his right hand holding the vegetable knife and his left hand holding up the moon-white long sleeve hanging from his right wrist, he looked like a little prince about to pick up a pen to write poetry. Then, he rolled up his sleeves and started chopping the cabbage with resounding thuds… According to Jing Ling, if chickens were fed with spirit crops, they would turn into spirit chickens with even more delicious meat and higher egg production rates.

The chopped spirit cabbage was also stirred into the feed tray. Ye Chen carried the tray with an ethereal demeanor and went to feed the chickens. After feeding the chickens, he went to the field to water the crops and fertilize them with manure, wielding his hoe. Since the beginning of the *Frost Descent, the weather had been getting colder day by day, but doing agricultural work kept him warm. In fact, it was quite comfortable… Ye Chen easily found contentment in his thoughts.

*23rd Oct – 26th Nov

The Mountain and Sea Realm overlapped with the courtyard’s time and space, so Ye Chen’s phone could receive signals. After finishing his farm work, Xiao Gao happened to call: “Chen Ge, where are you? It’s almost time to come back.”

“Almost done, I just need to use the restroom,” Ye Chen said as he straightened out his messy costume with one hand and held his phone with the other. After leaving the Mountain and Sea Realm, he walked towards the chaotic imprint in the front courtyard.

A young rooster practicing its crowing: “Cock-a-doodle-doo—”

The hens chirping melodiously: “Cluck, cluck!”

Ye Chen abruptly hung up the phone.

The young Xiao Gao put down his phone blankly, once again falling into the confusion of life: “…”

On the other side, five divine beast babies found a quiet spot on the set, divided the two portions of lunch that Ye Chen had given them and the three portions they had pilfered, and began their lunch meeting.

“Did you come up with a new idea, Hou Hou?” Qiongqi Cub picked up a bunch of shredded potatoes and threw them into Xuanwu Cub’s mouth, then held Xuanwu Cub’s chin with one hand, mechanically moving it up and down to help Xuanwu Cub chew.

“Thank… crunch crunch…” came the sound of rapid chewing with the chin being held up, “you… crunch crunch.” Xuanwu Cub stubbornly expressed his gratitude.

Hou Cub also adeptly used chopsticks with chubby hands, sighing in a childish voice, “Have you noticed, Gege hasn’t been eating with Da Gege recently?”

*da gege – big older brother

—Because Shen Mofeng is obviously older than Ye Chen, the divine beast cubs call Ye Chen Gege, while Shen Mofeng is referred to as Da Gege.

“Is Gege feeling shy?” Pulu Cub teased, poking Xuanwu Cub’s cheek with a short finger.

“Definitely, it’s all because I asked you to press their heads last time.” Hou Cub pouted, feeling guilty.

“I pressed the heads myself,” Big Brother Qiongqi said socially, patting his little chest, “It’s on me.”

“Sorry,” Military Strategist Rabbit Head said embarrassedly, “It was my decision-making error.”

Big Brother Qiongqi said lightly, “Mine.”

“Alright.” Hou Cub scratched his head and analyzed with some logic, “Anyway, I think we can’t be so direct this time. Gege gets shy so easily, and once he’s shy, he won’t talk to Da Gege… If we help him too obviously, it’ll backfire.”

“What should we do then?” Qiongqi Cub frowned.

Hou Cub finished eating every grain of rice, even licking the lunchbox clean without leaving a trace of oil, and said, “We have to get Gege to talk to Da Gege first… Come with me.”

Under Hou’s leadership, the divine beast cubs arrived at the parking lot.

“I found… this one, and this one,” Hou Cub said, “are all Da Gege’s cars.”

This included an RV for transporting goods and providing rest and a sedan driven by Xiao He to run errands for Shen Mofeng.

Hou Cub asked for the opinions of the other cubs, “What do you think, if Da Gege comes home at night and finds his car can’t start, will he ride Gege’s car?”

“He should,” Pulu Cub said, “Didn’t Gege say that if you eat someone else’s food, you should help them with what you can? Since Gege has eaten Da Gege’s food, he will definitely help take Da Gege home.”

After a heated discussion…

Big Brother Qiongqi had a face full of resentment as he lay on the ground, holding a tire and bringing his face close to it.

“Wait.” Hou Cub held a tissue, which he had stolen from somewhere, and wiped the tire with it, saying seriously, “Be hygienic, or else you’ll get a tummy ache.”

“…” Big Brother Qiongqi, with tears in his eyes, bit down on the spot where Hou Cub had wiped, with a whimper.

The tire silently, slowly… deflated.

The author has something to say:

Ye Qiongqiong’s account book today:

Today’s income: Six box lunches.

Today’s expenses: Sorry for not being able to mooch a meal from Shen Mofeng and missing out on the precious bluefin tuna. Rounded off, it’s a loss of one billion.

Shen Mofeng: Food Temptation Plan failed. 🙂

Ye Qiongqiong: I didn’t puncture the tire!!!!!!!! QAQ

Hang in there a little longer, Chen Chen will soon be living a prosperous life earning more than thirty eggs a day. (Spiritual hens have to lay two eggs a day)

TN:

Join Discord to get pinged on updates!