Chapter 61

That night, a piglet went missing from the pig farm, and Ye Chen’s courtyard gained a new long-term worker.

To ensure fairness, Ye Chen measured the plot of land assigned to Zhou Buchu and the old dragon, divided the area in half, and marked out a similar-sized plot with hemp rope and wooden stakes for Li Li. From now on, all the produce from this plot would belong to Li Li.

This small patch of farmland now had the appearance of three rival powers!

For carpentry work, Li Li needed to transform into his human form. Ye Chen took the time to buy two sets of men’s clothing for him at the night market and purchased a bunch of colorful, cheap stationery from a store near the local elementary school. He also ordered a complete set of carpentry tools online, based on Li Li’s list of requirements.

Four days later, a heavy, large package arrived at the courtyard. Ye Chen received a call from the delivery guy and teleported back during his lunch break to pick it up. The cardboard box was mummified in layers of tape by the seller. Ye Chen took the Qiongqi milk tooth hanging on the door frame, and with a swift motion, sliced through the thick layers of tape like tofu. Inside were files, saw blades, planes, and other tools.

“Uncle Li, the stuff has arrived!” Ye Chen called as he walked into the east wing carrying the box.

Li Li’s human name was Li Li, and in human form, he appeared to be about thirty years old. He was a muscular giant, standing at 1.93 meters, with a physique that made clothes fit tightly. He looked like an iron tower when still, and when he moved, he resembled a mobile iron tower. His features were handsome and rugged, with facial lines that seemed carved from stone.

When Ye Chen entered, Li Li was sitting at a wobbly old wooden table, using a Peppa Pig pen and a Pleasant Goat ruler to draw chicken coop plans on a My Little Pony notepad, resembling a giant elementary school student. Without lifting his head, he responded in a deep voice, “Got it, put it down.”

Ye Chen placed the delivery box in the corner, where about ten logs of cut round wood, each about as thick as a bowl, were piled up. These were from the batch of You Tan trees Ye Chen had planted earlier.

You Tan was a native spiritual plant of the Mountain and Sea Realm. Its fruit tasted mildly sweet but had a dry, sawdust-like texture. Every harvest, Ye Chen chopped the fruit and mixed it into the chicken feed. The advantage of You Tan lay in its wood. It was hard and lightweight, resistant to dampness, did not rot or mold, did not catch fire, and emitted a natural fragrance that repelled mosquitoes and termites, making it an excellent building material. The name You Tan derived from this fragrance.

Li Li planned to make a bed for himself first, then build a row of chicken coops in the Mountain and Sea Realm. After finishing the chicken coops, he would gradually make beds, tables, chairs, and benches for the divine beast cubs and Ye Chen. The courtyard was bare and desperately needed decent furniture.

Squatting in the corner, Ye Chen unwrapped the bubble wrap from the tools. As he was doing this, his phone suddenly pinged with a notification. He glanced at it casually, and his eyes widened in shock as he instantly went into alert mode.

It was a push notification from the Mountain and Sea Realm app.

—”The young Taotie has awakened. Please attend to it immediately.”

“Taotie has woken up!” Ye Chen jumped up, his tone akin to shouting, “The wolf is here!”

“Hurry up!” Li Li urged him, “Before the little cub gets so hungry that it eats the seeds or something.”

Before he finished speaking, Ye Chen had already entered the storage space overlapping with the east wing. In the dimly glowing darkness, Taotie Cub, looking like a lamb, was standing with its four hooves apart, staring up at the floating spiritual plant seeds and drooling, eager to pounce.

“Hey, go easy on those!” Ye Chen rushed forward and scooped up Taotie Cub.

Taotie Cub went, “Xi Liu ^[1]A loud slurping sound.”

Ye Chen teased, “Is that how you call out?”

Taotie Cub responded in a childish voice, “Xi Liu Xi Liu!”

Ye Chen: “…”

Alright, that’s very Taotie-like.

Taotie Cub was about the size of Ye Chen’s two palms, with fluffy orange and white fur patterned like tiger stripes. It had small black hooves, two curled ram horns on its head, and tiny tusks peeking out from its mouth corners. Despite looking plump due to its thick fur, it was actually quite small underneath, weighing at most two pounds. Given its body weight to food consumption ratio of fifty times, Taotie Cub only needed to consume less than a hundred pounds of food a day. Even if fed entirely on purchased grain, it would only cost about a hundred yuan a day.

“Xi Liu.” Taotie Cub leaned forward and bit Ye Chen’s shirt.

“Let go!” Ye Chen turned pale with fright, “No good food if you misbehave!”

“Xi Liu…” Taotie Cub obediently released, leaving two rows of wet little teeth marks without tearing the shirt.

Ye Chen held Taotie Cub at arm’s length and carried it out of the storage space while introducing himself. Seven divine beast cubs, having heard that Taotie had awakened, were eagerly waiting outside. Upon seeing their new little sister, their seven pairs of eyes sparkled with wonder, and exclamations rose in chorus—

“Whoa—”

“Call…Xuan…”

“A little sister.”

“Xuan…”

“How cute!”

“Ge…ge…”

“Meet Tao Tao, your little sister.” Ye Chen held Taotie Cub high, not daring to put her down, much like the scene in *The Lion King* where Rafiki holds up Simba, “Tao Tao ^[2]Tao from Taotie meaning gluttony sounds like a boy’s name. How about we call you Tao Tao ^[3]桃[Tào] – peach instead?”

Taotie Cub, swallowing her saliva, tilted her head, “Xi Liu? Xi Liu?”

What kind of peach? Crisp and juicy or soft and sweet?

Ye Chen tentatively called, “Tao Tao.”

Taotie Cub: “Xi Liu?”

Is it sweet?

She seemed to like the name, making Ye Chen feel like a proud father.

“Put her down, Gege. We’ll watch her and won’t let her eat anything wrong!” Hou cub eagerly suggested, wanting to play with Taotie.

“Make sure you watch her closely. Don’t let her start munching on you too…” Ye Chen turned and called out to Li Li, “Uncle Li, could you help me look after little Taotie? Maybe cook her a few pots of rice. I need to get back to filming soon.”

Zhou Buchu was more experienced with kids, but the financial magnate was busy with work these days, and Ye Chen didn’t want to interrupt his money-making.

Li Li put down his pen, “On it!”

Seeing Li Li arrive, Ye Chen put Taotie Cub down. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, she lunged headfirst toward the stone tiles she had been eyeing, chomping down with a loud crunch!

“Don’t eat that!” Ye Chen shouted, panicking.

The sharp sound of cracking stone was enough to make one’s teeth ache. Taotie Cub crunched on the stone tiles, but Li Li quickly picked her up, making her swallow the crushed stone bits in a hurry to avoid having her food taken away.

Hou Cub looked down at the stone tile with tooth marks and then up at his little sister, Tao Tao, falling into a contemplation of who would really be pampering whom in the future.

“Little lamb cub, you try eating something else?” Li Li threatened, “I’ll give you a good whack.”

Taotie Cub looked defiant.

Ye Chen wanted to keep an eye on her a bit longer, but Shen Mofeng sent a WeChat message urging him to return, so he had to teleport back to filming with great trepidation.

Li Li grabbed Taotie Cub by the scruff and took her to the kitchen, clumsily cooking rice for her. From the kitchen came occasional frantic roars from Li Li—

“The stove… where are the corners? Where are they!? I just turned away for two seconds and you can’t keep your mouth shut!”

“How did you chew a hole in the bottom of this pot?”

“Alright, since you’ve already made a hole, just eat the whole pot, but this can’t happen again.”

“See this Migou fruit? It’s electrified, dangerous… I said look! Not eat!”

…

“No, I need to get you a dog cage first.” Li Li was so infuriated that smoke seemed to be coming out of his ears. Just as he was about to make a wooden cage, he stopped, slapped his forehead, and muttered, “What am I thinking… if I cage you, the cage will be the first to suffer, no, your teeth will be.”

Taotie Cub looked innocently at him, “Xi Liu.”

After a moment of hesitation, Li Li had a brainwave and placed Taotie Cub on top of his head, threatening, “Don’t leave my head, or I’ll whack you.”

Taotie Cub blinked and slowly lowered her head, secretly nibbling on a strand of Li Li’s hair…

…

The reality show was halfway through filming, and the four boy band members had left a few days ago. The guest stars had been replaced several times, and today’s guest was a popular young actress named He Zhen.

The morning’s task of transplanting rice seedlings had exhausted the guests. As per tradition, the afternoon task was relaxing—fishing for river shrimp using duck intestines and mini fishing rods by the river. The goal was to catch enough shrimp for a plate of oil-fried shrimp by evening.

The river water was clear, reflecting the drifting clouds and sunlight. As Ye Chen fished, his mind wandered to the divine beasts at home. Suddenly, there was a loud splash, followed by screams from the surrounding crowd.

Ye Chen looked up to see someone had fallen into the river.

The water was shallow, and before anyone could react to rescue, He Zhen stood up from the river with a splash. Ye Chen, being the closest, reached out to pull her up. He Zhen, dripping wet, stepped onto the bank with his help and reassured everyone, “I’m fine, I’m fine. The stones were too slippery… I just wanted to get a closer look to see if we had caught anything, but I lost my balance.” Turning to Ye Chen, she said, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Ye Chen glanced at her, his face slightly reddening. He quickly turned away, subconsciously blocking the view of several staff members for her.

—He Zhen was wearing a white half-sleeve shirt, the thin fabric soaked through by the river water, revealing the outline and color of her undergarments.

Most of the staff present were male, and seeing a girl in such a disheveled state made Ye Chen feel awkward. Without hesitation, he quickly took off his shirt in one fluid motion, turned around, and handed it to He Zhen behind him, whispering softly, “Use this… to cover up.”

“Ah… thank you, thank you.” He Zhen was momentarily stunned, then thanked him repeatedly. She used Ye Chen’s shirt to cover her front and was escorted back to her accommodation by the bustling staff to change clothes.

“Wow—” Gu Youyou exclaimed in admiration, “Ye Chen is such a gentleman.”

Ye Chen smiled handsomely. “It’s nothing.”

He only had that one shirt, but going shirtless wasn’t a big deal for men.

Though Ye Chen’s physique wasn’t as bursting with masculine hormones as Shen Mofeng’s, he was slim with little subcutaneous fat. His muscles, though lean, were defined enough to show some abdominal muscles.

Even though having abs didn’t really serve any purpose… his waist was still slender, exuding a fragile sensation that made people want to reach out and touch it.

“I’ll go back and put on a shirt too…” Ye Chen was saying when a shirt floated down from above and landed on his head.

The shirt carried the familiar scent of Shen Mofeng’s cologne, cold and crisp, similar to his current demeanor: “Put it on.”

Just moments ago, Ye Chen was showing off in front of the girl, but now enveloped in Shen Mofeng’s presence, he stuttered, “N-no, it’s fine, you… don’t have to give me this.”

Without saying a word, Shen Mofeng took matters into his own hands and draped the shirt over Ye Chen’s head.

The author has something to say:

The long-awaited Taotie little sister is awake!!!

How about it? Starting off by eating a big iron pot, she didn’t disappoint, did she? (What?

Li Li: A face chiseled like a knife and ax? A real man is one who can chisel a knife and ax.

Shen Ge and Chen Chen, just two elementary school little vinegar jars. 🙂