Chapter 72

In the blink of an eye, another week passed.

During production, the team behind the show “Leisurely Vacation” kept the identity of the mysterious guest strictly under wraps. It wasn’t until the day before the premiere that they dropped a bombshell, confidently revealing the secret—beneath a flurry of over-the-top praise on their official Weibo account was a striking image of Shen Mofeng dressed in workwear, sporting long boots, and carrying a hoe over his shoulder in a rural fashion shoot…

Leisurely Vacation v: “…This national heartthrob, box office king, is about to show a different side of himself on the show!”

Weibo exploded.

The official post revealing the guest’s identity went viral. Some fans couldn’t contain their excitement, ready to swoon over the screen, while others lamented that the actor was lowering his standards. The most intense reactions came from Feng-Ye shippers, whose CP super-topic was flooded with posts within minutes, with a screen full of excited screams practically audible through the text.

[As everyone knows, Feng Ge never does variety shows! No commercials! No reality TV! If it’s not for Chen Chen, then for what?!]

[Not only does he not take them, but when Shen Ge first debuted, he even mocked reality shows. I thought he would always be so fierce and steadfast. Who knew he’d slap himself in the face for love, haha! I’m locking in for the first episode tomorrow at 8 PM!]

[This is hilarious. Someone said he only took it for the high pay. I want to tell them to check last year’s Asian billionaire rankings. Shen Ting isn’t just the internet’s daddy; he’s also Feng Ge’s real daddy…]

[Sisters, calm down, keep it together. We’ve seen sweeter and more intense moments, right? It’s just a reality show… I can’t stay calm, though! Kids, go get married already, please!]

After the official announcement, Shen Mofeng reposted the show’s Weibo.

Early in his career, the young master was notorious for his reckless and sharp tongue, even publicly mocking poorly made reality shows. Seeing his fans teasing him relentlessly, Shen Mofeng decided to join in on the self-deprecation, with only two words in his repost…

Shen Mofeng v: “So good.”

[Who’s good? What’s good? Please explain.]

[Ye Chen Chen, come and accept the compliment.]

[Haha, Ge, don’t do this!]

#Shen Mofeng Breaks Character To Do Reality Show And Calls It So Good# quickly skyrocketed up the trending charts.

Alongside this tag, another inexplicable tag, #First Annual Silly Hair Growth Championship#, also began climbing the trending ranks…

Searching the keyword revealed the most popular post from an influencer with millions of followers, featuring a grid of nine images, each a selfie of users wearing a pyramid-shaped hair growth device. Every photo had a mysterious humorous point, as wearing such a silly contraption with a serious expression was funny enough on its own. The reposts and comments were filled with crazed laughter, along with countless netizens sharing their own baldness photos, some so ridiculous they sparked another wave of brutal humor and reposting.

[I’m 28, not 82. Believe it or not. (Image)]

[Left is me lifting my bangs, right is me letting them down… I’m setting an alarm to snag one. If this is a scam, I’ll go bald right in front of the shop. (Smile)(Image)]

And…

[Hahaha, I’m dying! Are these people not actors?!]

[Haha, third pic! How do you not get fired wearing this in the office?]

It was clearly a festival of baldness, a celebration of baldness.

These images were initially posted by Ye Chen through the shop’s Weibo account. For some time, he had been collecting buyer reviews, organizing them into several folders on his computer, labeled as bald patches, crown baldness, M-shaped baldness, U-shaped baldness… neatly organized and easy to reference, offering a clear view of the hair growth device’s effects on different types of hair loss. As the feedback accumulated, Ye Chen selected some standout photos or ones with particularly good results, and, after getting permission from the buyers, posted the censored reviews on the shop’s Weibo.

Unexpectedly, these photos caught the attention of a marketing account, which created a tag and stirred up a commotion…

The two tags raced up the trending charts, intertwining and competing, with the box office king sometimes getting hilariously overshadowed by the silly hair growth device, and other times rising to the top, overshadowing the device in return.

Shen Mofeng, who opened the trending page to check out the buzz: “…”

Whose crappy product is this?

Ye Chen, scrolling through Weibo at home: “…”

Didn’t expect to steal Shen Ge’s thunder—what a bald move.

Ye Chen used the shop’s account to ride the wave of attention under the marketing post that started it all, promoting his store. As the hype grew, some people laughed, some wanted to give it a try, and naturally, some suspected him of being a fraud. Although his products were genuinely effective and had already earned a stable reputation, these discordant voices didn’t affect actual sales. However, if he wanted to expand the business, he would need to formalize things, which was unavoidable. The real issue was how to pass quality checks under the scrutiny of the regulatory departments. Ye Chen wasn’t worried about the effectiveness; he was worried that the science behind it might be too obscure, leading to suspicion.

Quality inspection departments… the principles behind the effects of spiritual plants… These weren’t issues that could be solved with mere “connections,” but going through official channels didn’t seem feasible either. As Ye Chen pondered, propping his chin on his hand, he suddenly remembered something Zhou Buchu had mentioned and realized there might be a big shot he could rely on. He immediately jumped up and ran to the fields to find him, looking like a brown-noser.

…

“…The one raising Baize?” Zhou Buchu stuck his hoe into the ground and frowned, “Read me the names of the people you’ve looked up, let’s see if any sound familiar.”

Ye Chen vaguely remembered Zhou Buchu saying that the person who nurtured the Baize had won a Nobel Prize. There had been nearly twenty Nobel laureates in the history of the country, so Ye Chen read their names one by one for Zhou Buchu: “He Mingshan? No? Cai Lanjun? No? Zhang Zhaoqian…”

“Hey, hey, hey, that should be him!” Zhou Buchu leaned in to look at the photo, then confirmed again, “Yes, it’s him. He was originally a university professor, hasn’t been seen in over twenty years, and now he looks like this.”

Ye Chen looked down at the photo. Zhang Zhaoqian’s face was thin and his eyes calm. Though he was already in his twilight years, his expression didn’t show his age, and his back was perfectly straight.

Zhang Zhaoqian, an academician at the National Medical Research Institute, Chief Scientist at the Life Sciences Research Institute, and a Nobel Laureate in Medicine, had made recent discoveries about the human eye that were expected to restore sight to millions of people within the next decade.

If Ye Chen could latch onto an academician like this, he wouldn’t need to worry about quality checks for his spiritual plant products. Moreover, Zhang Zhaoqian’s research focused on life sciences and medicine, which aligned with Ye Chen’s field. However, he didn’t know how well Baize’s elixir had been maintained, or whether Baize was currently awake or still in slumber. The thought of dealing with an academician made Ye Chen nervous—he didn’t even know what to say. But he was used to dealing with divine beasts, who, perhaps because they’d lived so long, had returned to a simpler nature. Most of them weren’t pretentious at all; in fact, they were like old children, or even still had some beastly straightforwardness, making them easier to communicate with than people.

“Can you contact him or Baize?” Ye Chen asked.

Zhang Zhaoqian had traded ten years of his life for Baize’s wisdom, so the fruit of the immortal tree would definitely tempt him. Helping each other could lead to a win-win situation.

“I don’t know how Lao Bai is doing,” Zhou Buchu scratched his head, “I’ll ask around some other day.”

Ye Chen was relieved. “You’ve got connections in this area, right?”

“Me? No way, I’m in finance.” Zhou Buchu pulled out his phone, glanced at the encyclopedia page on Ye Chen’s phone, opened the driving navigation app, and started entering the destination while muttering to himself, “National Medical Research Institute, Nanqing Road, Changning District… Oh, I recognize this highway, passed by it last time on the way to Yunnan…”

“You…” Ye Chen was momentarily speechless, “Are you going to fly over there?”

Zhou Buchu switched the navigation mode from driving to walking and said matter-of-factly, “We know his name, what he looks like, and where he works. Just fly over and find him. I can turn invisible and walk around freely; no one can stop me.”

Ye Chen pondered for a moment and then conceded, “That does make sense.”

Only divine beasts could be so willful when looking for someone.

The next day, the first episode of the second season of *Leisurely Vacation* officially aired.

Neither of them had night scenes scheduled that evening. After finishing early, Shen Mofeng drove alone to the set to wait for Ye Chen. They had agreed to watch the reality show together at Shen Mofeng’s place at eight o’clock.

In the parking lot, Ye Chen took out something over a meter high from the company van, carried it to Shen Mofeng’s car, and asked, “Can this fit?”

“What is it?” Shen Mofeng estimated the length, “Maybe if we place it diagonally on the back seat.”

Ye Chen smiled, “Take a guess.”

Shen Mofeng grew wary, “Did you dig up one of your saplings for me?”

“…” Ye Chen shook his head and said seriously, “But if you want one, I’ll dig one up for you. I’ve planted too many anyway.”

“I don’t want a tree,” Shen Mofeng joked, “But I’d really like to come over and help out at your place. You’ve planted so many—can you manage them all? I’ll work for you, and if I don’t finish, you won’t feed me. If I get hungry, I’ll have to bribe you…”

Ye Chen’s ears turned a little red as he shoved the large item into the back seat. He gave Shen Mofeng a deep look, one filled with complex emotions that Shen couldn’t quite read, “If I really do take you home to farm in the future, would you… really be willing?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Shen Mofeng glanced around, then added meaningfully, “I’d even be willing to be your horse.”

Being a horse—did he mean… that?

Ye Chen’s face suddenly burned, and he hurriedly climbed into the passenger seat, pretending not to have heard.

Shen Mofeng got into the car as well and, with an innocent look, said, “What’s there to be embarrassed about with being a beast of burden? Can you explain the thought process of you men?”

Ye Chen: “…”

Slowly, Ye Chen pulled out his phone and switched the topic, “What do you think of this?”

Shen Mofeng: “…Is that what you were carrying?”

The photo showed a jade stone health mattress, with neatly embedded rows of smooth, flat, white jade stones on a light brown mat. Ye Chen swiped to show a close-up, and Shen Mofeng, recognizing the quality, knew the jade wasn’t ordinary. Using it for a mattress seemed almost wasteful.

“Yes.” Ye Chen, feeling embarrassed to spout his usual spiel in front of Shen Mofeng, awkwardly explained, “It’s a gift for Uncle. Didn’t you say last time that his health wasn’t great? This kind of jade mattress can regulate blood pressure and cholesterol. Even if he doesn’t have issues, lying on it often can help prevent them…” As he spoke, Ye Chen still felt like a fraud and uneasily added, “It really works. Trust me, I know medicine. This is just as good as the pillow I gave you last time.”

Uncle Shen, please hold on until the Immortal Tree bears fruit! Ye Chen thought anxiously.

Who knows if there’ll be enough of the fruit to go around.

“This jade…” Shen Mofeng felt a wave of warmth in his heart, “You’re really generous.”

The author has something to say:

[This is the update for the afternoon of the 28th, hhhh, posted in advance.]

[Little Theater]

Shen Ge: “Who sells this meager thing?”

Chen Chen: “My family, and I made a lot of it myself.”

Shen Ge: “I thought so; it looks like high technology!”

Chen Chen: “But your tone just now…”

Shen Ge: “I was wrong.”

Shen Ge (lying on the ground): “Can I get in bed, baby? I really was wrong.”

Chen Chen is not far from falling off his horse…

TN:

I’ve been watching Fangs of Fortune and so many of the divine beasts in this novel are mentioned there!