Chapter 16

The common saying goes: “One who possesses the bloodline of Shennong, one part cultivation, ten parts harvest.”

After a period of time tilling the soil with his face to the yellow earth and his back to the sky, Ye “Farmer Little Brother” Chen’s vegetable garden welcomed a batch of ripeness, including three still somewhat weak apple trees.

It was said that the apples in the Mountain and Sea Realm were ripe. Before dawn, the divine beast cubs began to jump up and down to help Ye Chen pick the fruits. In no time, the three trees were picked clean, and the cubs filled pots and bowls with apples.

Ye Chen didn’t have a large scale, so he brought out a small electronic scale used for selling vegetables. He weighed each pot separately and added them up with a calculator. The five-year-old fruit trees had just entered the initial fruitful period, not comparable to the mature fruit trees of ten years. So, this wave could only be considered a small harvest: Red Fuji yielded 70 catties, Golden Delicious yielded 65 catties, Crystal Sugar Heart yielded 50 catties, totaling 185 catties of spiritual apples. When the fruit tree saplings grew to full maturity in the future, the harvest of one tree could yield between 120 and 200 catties, which could match the current three trees.

“Not easy… finally, we have a good harvest.” Ye Chen muttered to himself, nodding one after another absentmindedly. He reached out and lightly stroked the rough and uneven bark of the apple tree. The face withstood the wind and sun, still smooth and tender, but the expression on his face was full of vicissitudes, and his eyes were also filled with vicissitudes…

Hou Cub’s ears trembled with gluttony, representing the little buddies to ask for fruits to eat, “Gege Gege, can we eat a few apples?”

“Eat!” Ye Chen rarely spoke generously, “Eat as much as you want, eat until you’re satisfied. Whatever’s left, we’ll sell at the morning market.”

The cubs were excited and jubilant, picking up apples with chubby hands and munching on them. Ye Chen also picked up a Red Fuji, wiped off the dust with his hand, and took a bite.

The crisp sound of the fruit’s tissue breaking was so crisp that it made one’s teeth sore. The sweet juice spread over the tongue with each chew, awakening the taste buds that had been silent all night as if they had received a sudden stimulus from deliciousness. The unique fragrance of the apple was rich and intense, enticing people’s appetites with each bite… Ye Chen was slightly startled at first, then he took two big bites eagerly, and a few drops of tiny juice splashed on his cheeks, eating ungracefully.

“Delicious!” Ye Chen finished an apple in less than a minute, wiped his mouth, opened the plastic bag he had prepared, picked out a dozen or so apples with the best appearance, and put them in. Then, he carried the bag and wandered around the four pear trees, picking off the few ripe pears on each tree and putting them into the bag.

The ripe pears totaled only fourteen, which was too few. Ye Chen didn’t hesitate to taste them. Anyway, if the apples were so delicious, the pears couldn’t be bad either.

Today was the last day the 《Aspiration For The Throne》 crew was comfortably filming in the city’s studio. Tomorrow, they would move to an outdoor location, and the crew would collectively relocate to a mountain valley that Ye Chen had never heard of before, most likely staying until the end of shooting. It would be difficult to explain the source of the items over there, so Ye Chen couldn’t wait for the pears to ripen on a large scale. He wanted to give Shen Mofeng as much as possible first.

In recent days, Ye Chen has reached a new height in freeload dining. An hour before mealtime, Xiao He would even come and ask him if there was anything he wanted to eat—freeloading with a touch of ordering, truly a unique figure in the history of freeloaders. Of course, Ye Chen’s face wasn’t thick enough to actually order food with Xiao He. Not only did he not order anything, but he also loosely followed the meal mooching schedule of two days on, one day off, not daring to be too excessive.

Apart from eating, these days, Shen Mofeng often called Ye Chen over during the breaks between two scenes to rehearse with him and guide him in acting. Shen Mofeng himself didn’t have a formal acting training background, like Ye Chen, he grew up gradually through practice. Therefore, his experience and insights were particularly meaningful to Ye Chen. With Ye Chen’s inherent talent, coupled with Shen Mofeng’s precise guidance, his acting skills improved rapidly. Yesterday, even the usually critical Director Chen couldn’t help but praise Ye Chen twice.

“I’m really grateful to you,” a few days ago, in the dressing room, Ye Chen sat somewhat awkwardly in the chair opposite Shen Mofeng. The script in his hand was filled with densely packed small characters, all the various analyses, details, and points to note that Shen Mofeng had dictated during this half-hour, “You… have spent so much time teaching me.”

Ye Chen had been expressing his gratitude so much these days that his lips were almost calloused from it. He didn’t exaggerate his gratitude; it was sincere. However, Shen Mofeng always had a casual air about him, as if he didn’t consider these gestures as significant favors. At most, he would lazily smile and say, “It’s okay,” or something like “Just perform well in front of the camera, that’s your way of thanking me.”

However, that day, Old Rogue Shen, seemed to have some abnormal nerve connection, and after Ye Chen thanked him, he meticulously examined him from head to toe. With a slight smirk on his lips, he chuckled softly, “How do you plan to thank me, and with what? Care to elaborate?”

Ye Chen didn’t have any scenes that afternoon. After removing his makeup in the morning, he changed back into his casual clothes. He was wearing a loose thin sweater. From Shen Mofeng’s perspective, he could see a hint of collarbone. The firm skin reflected a delicate sheen under the gentle light of the dressing room.

“Uh, I…” The pears Shen Mofeng had planted weren’t ripe yet. Ye Chen hesitated for a moment. Reflexively, he wanted to say, “Let’s have a meal,” but then he remembered that he couldn’t even afford to treat Shen the big young master to a meal. So the words got stuck in his throat. Anxiously, Ye Chen licked his lips, embarrassed by his destitute reality where he couldn’t even treat others to a meal. His finger joints, holding the script, turned pale, and he stammered, “Um…”

“What’s wrong? You’re blushing, my goodness…” Shen Mofeng was taken aback. He didn’t expect that a casual tease would make Ye Chen so shy and awkward. He wasn’t sure whether to think of this Ye as innocent or reserved… But regardless, Shen Mofeng felt a twinge of guilt for teasing the kid. He quickly restrained his inadvertent rascal habits and said seriously, “I was just joking, no need to thank me.”

“I have to thank you,” Ye Chen hung his head low, whispering, “Can I thank you again in the future?”

He was from a poor family and had lived in poverty since childhood. Plus, after coming to the capital and struggling everywhere, he had developed a thick skin for freeloading. But having thick skin didn’t mean having no shame. During this period, he had been benefiting from Shen Mofeng’s kindness and had even deceived him out of necessity. He had always wanted to make it up to him, but his wallet was too tight. Shen Mofeng had never mentioned anything about being thanked before, so Ye Chen had been pretending to be oblivious. But today, this unintentional tease hit him right where it hurt.

“Okay, anything works,” Shen Mofeng stood up and walked to Ye Chen, bending down to lightly hold the armrests of Ye Chen’s swivel chair on both sides, gently shaking the chair from left to right, teasingly saying, “But can you stop blushing, kid? Control yourself a bit? If someone sees it later, they might think I’ve done something to you.”

“…Alright.” Ye Chen embarrassedly pressed his cheek against the cool script to cool down.

After that, Shen Mofeng didn’t make such jokes again, but Ye Chen kept it in mind to repay Shen Mofeng. He stared at those several pear trees every day, hoping to help his Shenchao clear his lungs and stop coughing.

…

The five divine beast cubs consumed fifteen kilograms of apples, minus the five kilograms for Shen Mofeng to taste, leaving one hundred and sixty-five kilograms. Ye Chen left thirty kilograms for the cubs to eat, then found several cardboard boxes to neatly organize the remaining one hundred and thirty-five kilograms of apples by variety, along with some other vegetables and eggs, and loaded them onto the tricycle.

Five days ago, the spiritual hens began laying eggs. Ye Chen had previously ordered twenty straw chicken nests online, each costing three yuan. Now, each nest consistently produced two spirit chicken eggs per day. Ye Chen kept half to feed the cubs and himself, and saved the other half to sell. Up to today, he had saved seventy-five eggs, which could earn him a little money.

At the morning market, Ye Chen paid the three yuan cleaning fee to the market management and then quickly secured a good spot to set up his stall. Hou Cub and Pulu Cub, who were helping their Gege sell vegetables, squatted in front of the stall, arranging vegetables and apples with their chubby hands. Hou Cub wore a loose knitted hat that covered his two rabbit ears, while Pulu Cub’s appearance completely resembled a human baby, without any disguise needed.

The idea of coming to the morning market to help Ye Chen sell vegetables was proposed by Hou Cub this morning, inspired by the children selling flowers who cling to people’s legs on the commercial street. However, Hou Cub didn’t intend to cling to people’s legs and forcibly sell things; that was too tacky.

“We must charm people with cuteness!” Hou Cub nodded to himself, his jelly-like pink cheeks trembling slightly with the movement.

Ye Chen’s heart softened: “…” Alright, that’s cute.

“Gege, you can price the apples a bit higher,” Military Strategist Hou rubbed his rabbit ears while devising plans, “We’ll let them have a taste, and they’ll be willing to buy.”

“You don’t know, some people keep tasting endlessly…” Ye Chen complained.

Hou Cub patted his little chest, “Hou Hou won’t let them taste too much!”

Ye Chen didn’t hold much hope, but still took two divine beast cubs to try their luck.

With the stall set up, Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the ground, took out a small plastic cutting board and a fruit knife, and carefully cut one apple into sixteen slices to offer samples to customers. Meanwhile, Hou Cub and Pulu Cub bounced around in front of the stall, selling cuteness with their childish voices to passersby.

“Our apples are so sweet!” “Especially sweet apples, Uncle, would you like to buy a catties?”

The two divine beast cubs, with their high attractiveness, instantly attracted a lot of attention with their adorable faces like little dough balls. Ye Chen handed the plastic cutting board with the sixteen slices of apples to Hou Cub, who confidently approached pedestrians, holding up the cutting board, “Uncle, try a piece of apple, it’s really sweet.”

The passerby picked up one-sixteenth of the spiritual apple and was stunned by how delicious it was. They wanted to reach out for another piece, but Hou Cub agilely turned around and quickly ran away, saying softly as he ran, “Each person can only taste one piece, Uncle. Since the apples are so delicious, why not buy two catties?”

The author has something to say:

Ye Qiongqiong’s account book today:

Haven’t finished selling yet, but I have a feeling I’ll be rich tomorrow! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

The crew is about to go to the mountain valley for outdoor shooting…

Director Chen: The situation is like this, maize cornflour wowotou. Make do with it.

Shen Mofeng: Want to starve Dad to death?

Ye Qiongqiong: Get me a chicken, Shen Ge! Let’s make chicken soup!

Wowotu/wotou – a type of steamed bread made from cornmeal in Northern China. It was a cheap food for poor people