Chapter 10

Two days later, in the morning, the seller of the second-hand tricycle delivered it to the doorstep. A flashy green tricycle appeared in the courtyard.

Ye Chen was fond of his new ride. He rode the tricycle around the yard, and four divine beast cubs stood in a row on the veranda, watching. Under the command of Hou Cub, they all used their chubby hands North Korean leader-style applause to welcome the arrival of the new family member, the tricycle, creating a highly ceremonial atmosphere.

Just as Ye Chen was enjoying himself, his phone suddenly made a “ding” sound, indicating a reminder from Jing Ling: “Hundun Cub has awakened. Please go take care of it immediately.”

“We have a new friend coming.” Ye Chen parked his beloved vehicle and walked over to educate the cubs. “How should we get along with the new friend?”

The cubs chorused in childish voices, “Be… good… friends!”

Ye Chen nodded solemnly and continued, “Can we use our fists to hit the new friend, kick the new friend, or bite the new friend?”

The cubs replied firmly, “No… we… can’t!”

Ye Chen went through this process not for fun but because of past experiences: When Xuanwu Cub had just awakened, the impulsive Qiongqi Cub, annoyed by Xuanwu Cub’s slow movements, sneaked into Xuanwu Cub’s bed one dark and windy night and bit him. However, Xuanwu Cub’s hard shell caused one of Qiongqi Cub’s milk teeth to break… Ye Chen had to give Qiongqi Cub criticism and education. He tied a string to the sharp milk tooth and hung it on a nail by the courtyard gate, both as a warning to future generations and for convenience in opening packages.

The awakened Hundun Cub was about the size of an orange kitten. As Ye Chen entered the east wing, it was fluttering its wings and flying crookedly in the air. When it saw Ye Chen, it flew over like it had eyes, landed obediently on Ye Chen’s shoulder, folded its four wings, and rubbed its fluffy round body against Ye Chen’s neck.

…So obedient! Ye Chen felt a wave of tenderness. It felt like being coaxed by a nursing orange kitten. He walked out of the east wing with Hundun Cub, saying, “My name is Ye Chen, the new master of the Mountain and Sea Realm, responsible for taking care of you divine beasts. You can call me Gege. How about I call you Dun Dun…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the seemingly obedient Hundun Cub jumped from his shoulder to Hou Cub’s head!

In the next moment, Hou Cub disappeared completely, and Hundun Cub’s round body fell to the ground with a thud, its four wings drooping lazily. It even burped, “Gudun.”

“Gege said not to eat friends!” Qiongqi Cub grabbed Hundun Cub and shook it vigorously, threatening, “Spit it out, or I’ll bite you.”

“Gudun!” Hundun Cub pleaded, and in the next moment, the terrified Hou Cub appeared in front of Ye Chen, unharmed except for being soaked.

“You… you don’t even have a mouth, how could you…” Ye Chen was at a loss, pulling his hair in frustration!

This mouthless Hundun is nothing like what I imagined!

At this moment, the handbook for raising Hundun, which was pushed by Jing Ling, arrived late. Ye Chen hastily opened it and quickly browsed through it.

According to the article, Hundun is a unique spatial-temporal divine beast, the only one in the world. Hundun can directly swallow objects into its body on a higher-dimensional level. Adult Hundun can take someone’s head from thousands of miles away as easily as taking something out of a bag. Although the spatial-temporal consumption range of Hundun Cubs is only a few meters and the internal space is less than one cubic meter, it’s no problem for them to swallow a child unnoticed.

In short, Hundun doesn’t have a mouth not because it doesn’t need to eat, but because the mouth… is too low-end, unnecessary.

Ye Chen’s gaze toward Hundun Cub suddenly became scorching.

—This is simply a furry Qiankun Bag!

“…Gudun?” Hundun Cub was startled by Ye Chen’s scorching, almost creepy gaze, and timidly shrank behind the four senior cubs.

However, soon, Ye Chen’s gaze returned to normal.

—This Qiankun Bag will digest whatever is eaten, to be precise, it’s a Qiankun stomach, which isn’t very useful, and it sounds like it can eat a lot…

There was still half of the article left in the push notification. Ye Chen withdrew his gaze and continued reading.

Apart from the miraculous ability to eat without a mouth, Hundun also has an exclusive skill, which is to mark two points in space with “Chaos Marks.” Any creature allowed by Hundun can instantly teleport between the two Chaos Marks. This means…

If Hundun Cub marks both the courtyard and the crew location, Ye Chen can sneak back to the courtyard to farm during breaks in filming!

And even if he goes to film elsewhere, he can return to the courtyard to farm at any time!

No matter where he goes, it won’t hinder him from returning to the courtyard to farm!

Expanding the scale of farming and breeding is no longer just a dream!

Ye Chen’s heart surged with excitement, and his gaze toward Hundun Cub became scorching again.

Hundun Cub: “…Gudun.”

“We have a vehicle today, and Dun Dun is awake. I think we should celebrate.” Ye Chen suggested.

“Aren’t you going to film, Gege?” Pulu Cub, who had finally stood up, asked.

Ye Chen checked the time and said, “There’s still time. My call time is in the afternoon… How about this, I’ll take you for a ride in the new vehicle later, and after that, we’ll each have an ice cream. How does that sound?”

“Okay!” “Okay okay!” The cubs instantly became excited. Hou Cub’s rabbit ears trembled with excitement as he asked softly, “Where are we going for a ride, Gege?”

Ye Chen cleared his throat and said, “To the scrapyard.”

Divine beast cubs: “…”

Ye Chen worked the land with his left hand, acted with his right, and still found time to manage household chores. Time was not abundant, so he naturally had to do something significant with his morning—like going back and forth between the courtyard and the scrapyard to sell the mountains of scrap in the Mountain and Sea Realm.

His next small goal was to earn one hundred bucks!

Once he made money, he planned to plant a few more pear tree saplings. Firstly, to expand the planting scale, and secondly, to feed Shen Mofeng. According to his calculations based on his own divine farming bloodline, a fruit tree that bore fruit once a year in the mortal realm could bear fruit approximately once a month under his care. A month might sound short, but it was still better to plant as early as possible.

However, Ye Chen didn’t intend to squander all his savings at once. He planned to always keep at least a hundred bucks as emergency money to deal with various possible accidents. Therefore, he had to find another way to finance the purchase of the saplings.

Ye Chen and the cubs worked together to package the scrap from the Mountain and Sea Realm and load it onto the tricycle. He was calculating in his mind as he did so.

He had tried using his star power to make money before, such as selling his autographs or private photos, and even changed the ID of his Weibo alternate account to “Ye Chen’s Private Photos for Sale.” Considering that many of his fans were students, Ye Chen priced the private photos at ten bucks each or fifteen for a hundred bucks, all with different angles and attire. He felt like a conscientious idol, a role model in the industry.

An hour after changing the ID, someone came to inquire, and there was even a wealthy girl who bought three hundred bucks worth of photos at once. But frustratingly, the moment those three hundred bucks entered Ye Chen’s Alipay account, they vanished like an illusion, leaving only the heartbreaking words “Balance: 0.00.”

“…” Ye Chen felt extremely wronged. He opened the app that represented Jing Ling and asked, “Does selling photos count as income from performing arts? What did I perform?”

Jing Ling responded firmly, “All remuneration obtained from commercial activities using the identity of an artist counts as income from performing arts.”

“Does selling photos count as a commercial activity?” Ye Chen felt disappointed but unwilling to give up. “Is there any non-commercial activity that can make money using my artist identity?”

Jing Ling pondered for a moment and then said, “Using your artist identity to make money through non-commercial activities… Sponsorship?”

“You, Jing Ling, are very dirty,” Ye Chen retorted.

“Hehe.”

“Can’t you bend the rules a bit?” Ye Chen made a final struggle. “Three hundred yuan shouldn’t be a big deal compared to the 140 million debt, right?”

Jing Ling explained mercilessly, “Although the term ‘Ling(spirit)’ is in the name ‘Yan Ling^[1]From Kotodama or kototama (言霊, sometimes written as 言魂, lit. ’word spirit/soul’) refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English … Continue reading,’ it’s not a sentient being with intelligence. It’s just a set of rules and algorithms. Once a decision is made, there’s no possibility of ‘bending’ the rules. The rules determine that this three hundred yuan is considered remuneration for performing arts, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

In this way, all avenues were blocked, and if Ye Chen wanted to earn cash without being devoured by Jing Ling, he had to abandon his identity as a star.

…

Ye Chen and the other cubs worked together to transfer the scrap into the cargo bed of the tricycle. Then, the five cubs sat on top of the scrap pile, excitedly taking a ride in the tricycle.

The bodies of divine beasts were covered with spiritual energy, which would act as a camouflage unless they willingly let mortals see them. Therefore, the five divine beast cubs sitting side by side on the tricycle did not attract any attention.

As the tricycle chugged along, the four senior cubs lowered their voices and secretly taught Hundun Cub the tricks of scavenging.

“Gege doesn’t allow us to scavenge, but we can do it secretly. Just don’t let him catch us in the act,” said Hou Cub, disregarding the past.

Still unable to transform into a human form, the young Hundun Cub replied softly, “Gudun.”

“This is a plastic bottle,” Qiongqi Cub instructed. “It’s worth more than these aluminum cans.”

Hundun Cub: “Gudun!”

Pulu Cub said softly, “Qi Qi Gege, I heard that manhole covers are the most valuable.”

Qiongqi shook his head. “Gege said stealing manhole covers is illegal, so we can’t do it.”

Pulu Cub asked, “What does ‘illegal’ mean?”

The earliest awakened and most social Big Brother Qiongqi vividly explained to his little friends what it meant to break the law and how they would be caught by the police uncles. When he talked about how the little cubs who were caught would suffer from the beatings of the prison bullies, Hundun Cub suddenly spat out a manhole cover in fear!

Apparently, he had just stolen it using his ability to manipulate time and space when passing by the manhole cover…

Big Brother Qiongqi said with a childish voice, “Damn, you’re in big trouble.”

“Gege, help!” Pulu Cub’s eyes welled up with tears. “Dun Dun is going to be beaten up by the prison bullies!”

Ye Chen quickly parked the tricycle on the side of the road. He turned his head and saw a manhole cover placed in the cargo bed!

“Who stole the manhole cover?!” Ye Chen’s face turned green with shock. Without bothering to turn the tricycle around, he got off and picked up the manhole cover, then ran like crazy towards the gaping black hole in the road surface dozens of meters away, shouting loudly to the passersby in the distance, “Watch out for the missing manhole cover—don’t step on it! Be careful of the manhole cover—!”

Big Brother Qiongqi said, “You’re done for. You’re in big trouble now.”

“Gudun… wuwuwu… GuDun Dun…” Hundun Cub trembled, and a small puddle of water appeared on the cardboard beneath his fluffy body. 

The mighty Hundun divine beast was frightened into wetting himself by the intimidation of his social big brother…

The author has something to say:

Ye Qiongqiong’s account book today:

Almost got money from selling scrap, hang in there…

Ye Qiongqiong, who was running frantically with the manhole cover in his arms: “Watch out for the missing manhole cover—don’t step on it! Be careful of the manhole cover—!”

The passerby who couldn’t see the divine beasts: “What’s going on? Did the manhole cover thief suddenly develop a conscience?”

There is currently no sign of integration between raising cubs and farming and the entertainment industry… Feels like I’m a scumbag who’s two-timing between different scenes, writing about Si Feng today, and the divine beast cubs tomorrow, with colorful flags outside, and Chen Chen’s Red Flag at home is not falling… (。

Getting rich by selling photos? That’s not a thing, just honestly farm… Or else… [doge]