Chapter 62

Ye Chen, like a child being fussed over, half-heartedly put on the shirt Shen Mofeng was dressing him in.

This was the only tropical island in the country, and even in early spring, a single layer was enough. Everyone was dressed in half-sleeves or vests, and now, it was Shen Mofeng who was shirtless. Ye Chen caught a glimpse of Shen Mofeng’s cheetah-like athletic upper body with the corner of his eye. Knowing that the shirt he was now wearing had just been against Shen Mofeng’s taut, beautiful skin made his own skin feel prickly, as if brushed by wheat awns. His ear tips gradually grew warm.

I’ve been led astray by Brother Shen! Turned into a lecherous rascal, Ye Chen cursed silently, resentfully shifting the blame.

Just as Ye Chen finished putting on the shirt, Xiao He approached, holding two spare shirts over his arm, and asked, “Brother Shen, which one do you want to wear?”

Having worked as an assistant for the demanding young master for years, Xiao He had developed the skills of Doraemon, carrying a whole house with him, including spare clothes.

“This one.” Shen Mofeng casually took one and put it on.

Ye Chen’s eyes lingered on the other shirt, and he hesitantly said, “The other one, could I…”

Xiao He’s clothes were all clean and new, whereas the one Ye Chen was wearing was soaked with Shen Mofeng’s scent. The back was slightly damp, and besides the cologne and faint tobacco smell, there was a hint of sweat. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact, it was… rather nice.

But…

It was too torturous.

Ye Chen clenched his fists, his lungs felt like a bellows, each breath fanning the tiny flame inside him.

Shen Mofeng examined him for a moment and mischievously said, “Not fully dressed yet.” With that, he put on the other shirt as well, despite the heat comparable to a northern summer.

Ye Chen’s slowly heating ears turned bright red instantly, and he said in embarrassment, “Aren’t you hot?”

Shen Mofeng, with a face full of sage-like dignity, replied, “Teacher Shen is old, and afraid of the cold.”

Gu Youyou suddenly turned and started playfully tussling with Jiang Xiyue.

Ye Chen, who had been worried he was the only one with dirty thoughts, was now sure it wasn’t just him. Feeling overwhelmed, he turned back to focus on catching shrimp, directing all his attention to it, not daring to think too much about the shirt he was wearing.

That day’s filming wrapped up after dinner.

Worried that Taotie Cub might cause trouble, Ye Chen didn’t dare to change clothes after work. He was afraid that if he went back to his room and ran into Shen Mofeng, he wouldn’t be able to leave. So, he hurriedly slipped into the restroom, found the mark of Hundun, and returned to the courtyard house to check on things.

The divine beast cubs were playing a game of phoenix chasing the chicks in the courtyard, but Taotie was nowhere to be seen. The eastern wing was aglow with the light of the Migu fruits. Before Ye Chen even entered, he could hear the sound of sawing wood inside.

“Uncle Li, how’s the chicken coop coming along? How did Tao Tao behave…” Ye Chen stepped in, only to be shocked speechless by the sight of Li Li’s shiny bald head.

“Xi Liu…” Taotie Cub called out gloomily, moving her four hooves up and down with Li Li’s head movements to maintain balance on his smooth, bald head. She looked like a lion in a circus balancing on a ball.

“You little lamb, I’ll flick you!” Li Li grabbed Taotie Cub and flicked her sturdy horns twice before complaining to Ye Chen, “She took a chunk out of your stove. I’ll fix it with a wooden piece in a few days… and she ate a big iron pot too!”

Ye Chen was already mentally prepared for this and wasn’t too surprised. He just sighed helplessly, “People eat iron pot stew with goose, and you eat the iron pot itself… fine, think of it as an iron supplement. So, what happened to your hair?”

Li Li continued his complaint, “I couldn’t keep an eye on her, so I put her on my head, thinking she wouldn’t reach anything there. But she went ahead and chewed up my hair!”

Taotie Cub, having been flicked on the horns, puffed out her little cheeks in displeasure.

Ye Chen, unwilling to scold his little girl, hesitated for a moment and then said humbly, “At least she didn’t waste anything… that’s a virtue.”

“A virtue?! She chewed it up like a dog! I shaved it myself!” Li Li glared, annoyed for a few seconds before, thinking about how he still relied on Ye Chen for planting spiritual plants, he sighed and pointed to his bald head. “Fine, I won’t argue. But I lost my hair babysitting for you; does that count as an injury on the job?”

Ye Chen glanced at him with a guilty smile, feeling a bit remorseful. The once handsome man now looked like he could be mistaken for a debt collector with a gold chain floating in water.

“It counts,” Ye Chen coughed lightly. “You can chop down one of the fully grown Qingsi ^[1]Fine black hair or green silk not sure which so I went with the Pinyin Mu^[2]Wood.”

The Qingsi Mu wasn’t mentioned in “The Classic of Mountain and Sea”; it was one of the four types of spiritual trees Ye Chen selected for his two thousand tree planting task. Now, two of them had fully matured, dozens of the second wave were nearing maturity, and the remaining few hundred were still saplings.

The trunk of the Qingsi Mu was short and sturdy, reaching only about 1.5 meters when fully mature. However, its crown was extraordinarily lush, spreading out in a circular shape with a diameter of up to six meters, resembling a giant mushroom. The tree’s branches would bloom with Qingsi Flowers, which, unlike ordinary petals, were long and silky. These strands swayed and intertwined in the wind, and apart from their colorful hues, they closely resembled human hair, hence the name Qingsi Mu.

The Qingsi Mu has a rather special effect. Its trunk and branches can nourish hair just like it nourishes its own flower strands, stimulating hair follicles and accelerating hair growth. If used correctly, significant hair growth can be observed within a week.

Nowadays, hair loss, insomnia, rhinitis, and obesity have become the four major afflictions of modern youth. On Weibo, if a well-known blogger complains about their baldness, it often results in a flurry of sympathetic responses. Young men and women, much like the British habit of talking about the weather, have started routinely sharing hair growth tips and lamenting their hair loss, giving rise to the notion that “one cannot truly discuss life without experiencing hair loss.” Professionals in medicine, IT, and design are particularly prone to hair loss. If the miraculous hair-growing properties of the Qingsi Mu were widely available, it could save countless despairing youths from their hair loss woes.

However, Ye Chen faced a cost problem—

He had previously read materials on planting the Qingsi Mu and had even tested its effects on his leg hair, confirming that the hair growth stimulation was based on a substantial amount of spiritual energy nourishment. Once the Qingsi Mu is cut down, it turns from a living tree to dead wood, and the spiritual energy contained in the wood is limited and dissipates once used. Hair loss patients would need to consume a large amount of Qingsi Mu wood to see results. Therefore, regardless of how Ye Chen sold it, the cost would be enormous, making it difficult to keep prices low.

Additionally, the Qingsi Mu doesn’t cure all ailments. If the underlying cause of the hair loss is not addressed, the hair will fall out again even after it grows back. The Qingsi Mu only works on the hair follicles on the skin surface, treating the symptoms but not the root cause. For someone like Li Li, who lost his hair by accident, one round of treatment might suffice. However, if the hair loss is due to a stubborn condition, the patient would need to continuously use the Qingsi Mu, making it too costly. Thus, except for a few wealthy individuals who don’t care about money, very few people would buy it.

Li Li touched his bald head and said, “Give me a Qingsi Mu… sure, it’s worth it.”

“By the way, Uncle Li, I just happened to want to ask you something.” Ye Chen didn’t have high hopes, but since they were on the topic, he shared his concerns about the profitability of the Qingsi Mu with Li Li, hoping he might have a solution.

To his surprise, Li Li laughed it off, not seeing it as a problem at all. “That’s a small issue, easily solved. You should have mentioned it earlier.”

Ye Chen was both surprised and delighted. “I asked Uncle Zhou, and he said he didn’t know what to do.”

“What does he know? Apart from making money, he knows nothing.” Li Li boasted, “Just use the Qingsi Mu to make a Spirit Gathering Formation. The Qingsi Mu can first absorb spiritual energy from the heavens and earth through the formation, and then release it through the wood itself. Problem solved.”

“Spirit Gathering Formation?” Ye Chen asked nervously. “That sounds pretty complicated. Is it easy to actually implement?”

“It’s not complicated.” Li Li waved his hand, thinking of the right words. After a few seconds, he said, “You know pyramids, right? I’ll just carve a few small wooden sticks from the Qingsi Mu, assemble them into a pyramid, and wear it on your head. That’s how it promotes hair growth.”

Ye Chen immediately recalled a popular Weibo post from a while back, a compilation of silly Taobao products with tens of thousands of shares. Among them was the “Pyramid Energy Generator,” a small metal-framed pyramid meant to be worn on the head. According to the shop owner, it was designed to help practitioners accelerate their cultivation and aid in meditation, completely unrelated to hair growth. However, due to the similarity between the Chinese characters for “generator” and “hair growth,” many netizens misread it as a “Pyramid Energy Hair Growth Device” and mocked it. Even those who read it correctly thought that the idea of using pyramid energy to assist in cultivation was utterly ridiculous, and the shop owner faced a lot of laughter from the Weibo crowd.

Ye Chen: “…”

Am I really going to sell a Pyramid Energy Hair Growth Device…

In disbelief, Ye Chen asked, “The Spirit Gathering Formation is a pyramid?”

“Yeah,” Li Li replied cheerfully. “Why do you think the Egyptians went to all that trouble to build pyramids? For fun? But whether it can gather spiritual energy and the specific effects depend on the materials. A pyramid made from spiritual wood can gather energy, but one made from an ordinary roadside poplar can’t.”

As long as the hair growth effect is good, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, the points of mockery might even work in its favor during promotion. After all, human nature is to laugh… Ye Chen pondered for a moment and said, “Can you make a sample for me? I need to test its effects… If it really works and we start selling these, I’ll give you a commission for each one.”

The spiritual plants were Li Li’s reward for lodging and furniture, and he might help Ye Chen with mining in the future. However, for mass-producing products, it wouldn’t be fair to rely solely on that small vegetable plot. Besides, getting a commission for each unit made would give Li Li more motivation to work.

“Sure!” Li Li agreed readily, beaming with delight. “This time I’ll make some money too, so Zhou Buchu can’t keep saying I’m broke. How about that? In the future, I’ll not only have money but also be able to spend it, making him green with envy.”

With the hair growth device matter temporarily settled, Ye Chen turned to solve another issue.

He made a 300 chapter provisional constitution with the Taotie Cub, explaining what she could and couldn’t eat, and then started testing her.

Ye Chen: “Can you eat rice?”

The Taotie Cub eagerly nodded, “Xi!”

Yes!

Ye Chen: “What about floor tiles?”

The Taotie Cub shook her head dejectedly, “Liu…”

No…

“Trees.”

“Liu…”

“Buns.”

“Xi!”

As Ye Chen was engrossed in testing, Shen Mofeng sent a WeChat message: “Where did you run off to?”

The author has something to say:

Shen Mofeng: Wearing two layers, nearly got a heatstroke. 🙂

Chen Chen: Whose fault is that!!!

Li Li lived up to expectations and ended up bald, yet the ever-principled Chen Chen chose to side with Tao Tao.

Chen Chen: After all, hair can grow back, but a broken heart can’t be mended!

Tao Tao: Xi Liu.

Li Li: Enough with the excuses, you’re just biased! My heart is broken too, who’s going to fix it?

Chen Chen is going to sell a silly hair growth device… That Pyramid Energy Generator is actually sold on Taobao = =, and its sales are, surprisingly, not bad…

And many people really did mistake it for a Pyramid Energy Hair Growth Device, hhhhhh. The shop owner even added a note in the product description saying, “Does not promote hair growth”…