Chapter 44
On the screen, the young man’s expression was languid and drowsy as he lazily reclined halfway on a lounge chair.
Yes, he had even placed a lounge chair under the eaves in front of the wooden cabin.
Or rather, everyone in the team had one.
This kind of technically unchallenging thing had been made by everyone along the way while he was guiding the others in learning “handicrafts.”
The simple electric lamp they had made was placed to one side. Its not-particularly-dazzling glow was very soft, falling on his chin and adding a hazy layer of light and shadow to this corner the sunlight could not reach.
From behind, he looked as though he could glow.
To the viewers watching the livestream and to the director’s team, it was not just that one spot glowing. It felt like his whole person was glowing!
No one knew what the equipment team leader was thinking, but he stared at the screen with shining eyes for a long while. One could even see a hint of fanaticism in them.
After quite some time, he suddenly came back to himself.
For some reason, he typed a familiar line in large letters on the public screen:
[Professional action. Please do not imitate!!!]
Bullet comments: […]
[You’re so kindly reminding me. You’re actually pretty nice, huh? Sarcasm.]
[A physics failure leaves behind tears of grief and indignation!]
[How should I put this? Actually, there’s no need to remind me again and again that I’m useless. Serious face.]
[What? I’m just here for the show, and the production team actually thinks I’ll go make one? What, technical bro, do you want to try?]
[LMAO, hand-making a lightbulb is really not a rhythm I ever imagined! Actually, if you think about it carefully, it’s very simple! When Edison first invented the electric lamp, didn’t he also create something from nothing? Very simple. Simple, simple my ass!!!]
Goat felt guilty watching this. Cough, cough. He had not been thinking of making one himself either.
Just then, Sun Xinping saw that line too. His eyes widened, and he looked toward him.
Goat said, “W-What’s wrong?”
Sun Xinping turned back, took a deep breath, and said, “Nothing. Go do your work. Let me have some peace.”
Goat looked completely confused. He went to poke Xiao Li’s arm beside him and asked quietly, “What’s going on? What did I do wrong again?”
Xiao Li answered in an airy whisper, “Nothing. He’s mentally unbalanced. He’s jealous and feeling inferior.”
Goat: “Oh.”
Goat: “Wait. He’s jealous of Big Boss Shen and feeling inferior because of it? Is there any need? What’s there to compare?”
Xiao Li hesitantly turned his head to look at him. “What do you mean?”
Goat said, “If we threw the director into this variety show, how many days do you think he could last?”
Xiao Li said, “Hard to say.”
Goat was puzzled. “?”
Xiao Li answered with a perfectly serious face, “In ancient times, people could survive by eating tree bark and dirt, couldn’t they?”
Goat: “…”
Good answer. He actually had nothing to say.
Sun Xinping: “…”
No, did these two idiots think that whispering right beside him, at such a close distance, meant he could not hear?
He endured and endured, then turned around and roared at them, “Who exactly was so smart that they left the phones and power banks with them?”
Goat and Xiao Li were both startled.
Old Qian, the head of the publicity team beside them, hesitated for a moment, raised his hand, and replied, “Director, weren’t you the one who said we should deliberately leave the broken phones and power banks behind so the guests could experience the pain of having hope and then losing it? That we should make them hold the only hope of calling for help but be unable to use it, leaving them so tormented they’d scratch their hearts and lungs?”
Sun Xinping: “…”
He took several deep breaths in a row.
Goat, lacking any tact from the side, added another stab. “Sigh, what a pity. Now the one scratching his heart and lungs has become the direc—uh, become us.”
Sun Xinping genuinely felt like he was about to stop breathing.
“All of you, shut up!”
Meanwhile, on the screen, after a short while, someone also discovered Shen Jinfeng’s “idleness.”
He Erwang was the first to run over. His shirt hem flew in midair, and his flamboyant purple hair danced in the wind. As it lifted, it revealed his expectant, eager brows and eyes.
“Boss, is your toy finished?”
[W-What toy?]
Shen Jinfeng did not get up. He only lay on the lounge chair and slowly rocked. When the person walked up to him, he casually handed the electric lamp over. “Here.”
He Erwang froze for a moment. After carefully looking at it a few times, he cried out in shock, “This is an electric lamp?”
To be honest, he had seen all kinds of exquisite, high-end electric lamps outside before. Not to mention the countless ones in his own houses, whenever he attended weddings, the thing other people loved showing off the most was the lighting…
But countless luxurious splendors were far less shocking than this simple and plain electric lamp before his eyes.
“Boss, you made this yourself?”
Shen Jinfeng nodded, his expression indifferent. “It’s too crude, and not very aesthetically pleasing.”
But if he wanted to make a beautiful exterior, like a glass bottle, it would take quite a bit of extra effort. That was rather tiring too.
“Eh, wait. Go bring me that bundle of leaves. Let’s decorate it a little.”
He Erwang obediently went. When the others heard the commotion, they also gathered around one after another.
A group of people who had more or less seen plenty of grand scenes in normal life surrounded the tiny electric lamp, greatly astonished.
“An electric lamp can be made by hand?” Mo Fan pointed at the lightbulb, his face full of disbelief.
Qi Xiu had studied physics quite well, but he was also dazed. “If all the materials were complete, then assembling it by hand probably wouldn’t be difficult.”
But the problem was, this was the wilderness.
Raw materials and processed, complete materials were not the same, right?
Shen Jinfeng picked up the leaves and decorated a ring around the cylindrical outer packaging.
In an instant, the crude electric lamp was still crude, but it did look much better. It was full of a forest-style artistic feeling.
It had evolved from a low-end experiment into something ordinary people might see online and place an order for because of its appearance.
He listened to the others chattering about the difficulty of hand-making a lightbulb. They were actually even arguing over it?
Shen Jinfeng casually stuffed the decorated lamp into He Erwang’s hands when he came back. “Take it and play with it.”
“It’s not difficult. How long did you see me spend on making it just now?” He gave the final conclusion on the difficulty they had been debating. “It’s just a little experiment from Approaching Science.”
“Y-Yeah.” The poor students Mo Fan, He Erwang, and Gu Shengsheng were the first to be convinced.
After all, the world was vast, and nothing was too strange. There were so many amazing people.
Maybe for amazing people, hand-making a lightbulb in the wild was simply very normal?
As for Qi Xiu, who had a bit more academic knowledge, he silently stared at the lightbulb in a daze for a while.
“It isn’t strange that I can’t make it. It also isn’t strange that Boss can make it.”
After all, that was Boss.
Bullet comments: […What kind of goddamn little Approaching Science experiment is this!]
[I’m truly convinced. This group of unlucky—lucky—kids not only can’t make a lightbulb, they probably can’t understand it either. And they believe it after being fooled with just a few words.]
[It isn’t strange that I can’t make it, but it’s very normal that Boss can make it? That makes so much sense, I’m actually speechless.]
[I surrender hahahaha. Why not just rename this show “Big Boss Shen and the Underlings He Conquered”? The central theme of the show: Shen-Boss-ism.]
[LMAO, but seriously, Big Boss Shen is good material for scientific research, right? After he gets out, will the national father come take him away, and then we won’t be able to see him anymore?]
[It’s really strange. In Big Boss Shen’s public information, his university was honestly very average… Although his family background is very good, I always thought he was the kind of ignorant rich kid who didn’t study or have skills. But it turns out he’s a god of learning? And even a talent who can perfectly apply knowledge?]
Yes, it was widely rumored in the entertainment circle that Shen Jinfeng had a first-class family background. Otherwise, he would not have continued receiving resources despite courting death so much and becoming black-red popular.
[Sister above, do you only watch the livestream, or are you a passerby fan who doesn’t know Big Boss Shen’s situation clearly? His family background really is good, and he has money, but his experience has been very rough. A big fan has already dug up Big Boss Shen’s past life experience! Wuwu, he got lost when he was a child and grew up in a very remote orphanage. Both his parents passed away. He was only found and brought back home by relatives three years ago, then was directly sent to a trashy university abroad. After that, he suspended his studies and returned to the country, entering the entertainment industry a year ago… I just want to say, a young master of a wealthy family—whose parents and elders would plan a child’s life like this? Wuwu, I’m putting my words here. If those so-called family members of his don’t have problems, then that would be strange! And Big Boss Shen’s reputation in the entertainment industry was so bad before. His family is an old wealthy family. If they really wanted to suppress it, there’s no way they couldn’t have done so!]
[Why is Big Boss Shen so awesome, awesome to the point that no one can refuse to accept it? We don’t know either. But even if there were a script, only an unparalleled genius could handle a script like this, right? Maybe during his amateur days he had some kind of fortuitous encounter, who knows? But his performance on the show is crystal clear. We aren’t blind!]
[It really is like those entertainment circle novels with the real and fake young masters… Reasonable suspicion that Big Boss Shen’s previous reputation in the entertainment industry, aside from being framed by rivals and his idiot company doing nothing, may even have been pushed along by his current family! Maybe they were afraid he’d go back and fight for the family property, so they praised him to kill him, secretly harmed him, and borrowed other people’s knives to kill him. Hiss.]
[Exactly! Big Boss Shen is amazing, but from his performance on the show, you can tell he’s too kind. Heavy fog. He must have been bullied before!]
[Let me say this formally: our fan support club has big fans with connections who are digging deeply. The truth and the whole logic chain haven’t come out yet. Please give us a little more time!]
[Stop messing around. Those so-called black materials about Big Boss Shen? They don’t even need clarifying! First, exclude gluttony, laziness, and malicious character. Big Boss Shen’s performance on the show is known to everyone. You could say he alone carried the whole third season. As for acting like a big shot, don’t even mention it. Even if you threw a video in front of me, I wouldn’t believe it! As for cursing and hitting people on set, fans already made a video before to clarify that it was just normal scene work! As for loving to leech popularity, I laugh. Once this season of “Being Human” finishes airing, when Big Boss Shen goes out, other people will be the ones trying to leech his popularity! Qin Ye, whose popularity he supposedly leeched before, is probably wishing for it now… As for the last one, bad acting… I can only say that no matter how bad Big Boss Shen’s acting is, if he has a drama in the future, I’ll appreciate it frame by frame!]
[Passerby agrees, plus one.]
[Plus two.]
[Plus 10086. Although I feel like I’m about to become a diehard fan. Laughing crying.]
[Hm? Are you really passersby? We fans haven’t even clarified yet! You don’t need clarification anymore? Laughing crying. But clearing Big Boss Shen’s name is still necessary!]
After all, the entertainment industry was a realistic place.
Today, if you were popular and had a good reputation, all your behavior would be rationalized.
Tomorrow, if you fell down again, even the actions people once joked about and found interesting would become black material and suspicious points.
Sun Xinping looked at the screen full of discussing bullet comments, his expression dark and uncertain.
Beside him, Xiao Li gossiped with Goat. “These past few days, Big Boss Shen has practically been living on the hot search list. Several hot searches a day, none of them repeating. But there’s one topic that hasn’t changed every day, and that’s exactly what the bullet comments are confused about: why his performance on our show is completely different from his previous reputation. I was following it before too.”
Goat only belatedly learned about this matter. He was a technical homebody. Aside from work, he almost never went out or paid attention to the outside world.
“Big Boss Shen must have been harmed.”
“Hm?” Xiao Li’s eyes lit up. He wanted to know more gossip. “How do you know?”
Goat analyzed, “Otherwise, there’s no way our director would have arranged that kind of persona for him. If Big Boss Shen hadn’t gone against the wind and overturned the situation, blinding everyone’s eyes, he would at least have gained several more pieces of black material.”
That was true. This was practically an unspoken “secret” among the staff.
It was just that no one knew the inside story.
Xiao Li’s eyes rolled around. He boldly opened his mouth and directly asked, “Director, whose money did you take?”
He did not directly ask who the mastermind behind the scenes was.
Instead, he asked whose money had been taken.
The question was tactful, yet direct.
Sun Xinping was silent for two seconds before suddenly bursting into curses. “Day after day, you don’t know how to think of solutions and only know how to watch bullet comments. Why don’t you go live with the bullet comments?”
Huh?
Xiao Li’s eyes lit up. “Director, do you mean the bullet comments’ guesses make sense?”
Sun Xinping glared at him. “Who said that? Since you’re so good at interpreting things, why don’t you become the director?”
Xiao Li curled his lip.
What the hell? His answer didn’t match the question at all.
Xiao Li did not continue asking.
But that night—
A certain well-known Weibo blogger suspected of being an entertainment industry insider claimed on Weibo: According to reliable inside information, during the preparation stage for the third season of “Being Human,” director Sun Xinping once accepted a huge “investment” from Shen Jinfeng’s “family.”
One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the spearhead pointed directly at the Shen family.
The president of Shen Jinfeng’s fan support club quickly came forward on behalf of the fans to inquire.
All she received was a secretive guarantee that it was absolutely true.
But this kind of guarantee was the most convincing!
Moreover, according to past experience, this blogger’s gossip had always been rather accurate.
As a result, the scattered energy of Shen Jinfeng’s fans, who had originally been trying to investigate and gather evidence from every angle and from every person who had interacted with Shen Jinfeng while organizing a timeline, was concentrated to a considerable degree onto one path.
Starting with the Shen family.
The fan support club’s management discussed things overnight, bringing in the data group, art group, voting group, anti-black group, publicity group, as well as the Shen Jinfeng fan stations that had recently sprung up like mushrooms after rain, and the rich fans. Each was assigned tasks.
After all, these days, there were also many celebrities whose careers plummeted because of family members.
And just recently, there was also the matter of fellow show guest Gu Shengsheng’s parents causing an uproar.
Not to mention, what they were investigating was only the Shen family group, its business, and the Shen family members who were only relatives.
Of course, the livestream was still continuing.
Sometimes, Shen Jinfeng’s fans all felt resentful—no, happily troubled. It was all this livestream’s fault for being too good! And it was so long too!
Because they had to watch the livestream while doing tasks, it seriously affected their work efficiency!
But they had no choice. Their main idol was simply too capable. A large number of passersby did not even need anti-black efforts and directly turned into fans.
Even in online arguments, large numbers of passersby helped fight back.
Comfortable!
So if their actions were a little slow, that was understandable, right? QAQ.
But the fans did not know that because their movements were just a tiny bit slow, later on… they would not be needed at all.
On the livestream screen.
The “underlings,” who had accepted with clear consciences that Boss was just this awesome, held the lightbulb carefully and looked it over from left to right before going back to work.
They were full of energy and determined to complete the task Boss had assigned!
Qin Ye silently watched that lightbulb and did not speak the entire time.
Naturally, he had noticed Shen Jinfeng’s humble virtue. He had also realized that Shen Jinfeng was truly very capable and well-rounded, even giving people an unfathomable feeling.
“Unfathomable” here was used as a positive term.
For example, the young man before him had beautiful virtues, numerous skills and knowledge, a heart-stirring temperament… The more one dug, the more there was.
A person like this would succeed no matter what he did, right?
But a person like this liked him.
He silently stared at the lightbulb, looking at the lightbulb a few times, then at Shen Jinfeng once. In his heart, there was a feeling that had never appeared before but had been appearing more and more frequently recently, with its intensity growing more and more turbulent. It was as if his heart had gone numb.
He had already done his best to restrain himself and thought he was being calm and unreadable.
But… Shen Jinfeng’s scalp went numb from his staring.
After who knew how many minutes, he finally could not help asking, “Qin Ye, do you need something from me?”
“What?” Qin Ye came back to himself and realized that the person he had been “secretly looking at” was also looking at him now.
Meeting the young man’s “concerned” expression—
Qin Ye tried his utmost to calm his mind and thought for a moment.
Then he asked Shen Jinfeng, “Little Captain, do you like researching and inventing things?”
From leaf ropes and leaf baskets to the wooden cabin, clay pots, and the electric lamp, everything proved Shen Jinfeng’s hands-on ability and creativity.
“I can invest in you and build a laboratory for you. Whatever equipment you want, I can provide it.” He made this promise seriously.
Scientific research was something that burned money. Fortunately, he did not have much of anything else, but he truly had plenty of money.
Between lovers in a good and healthy relationship, both sides should give to each other.
Although he and Shen Jinfeng had not entered that stage yet, during the ambiguous period, one should consciously make the corresponding efforts.
Qin Ye thought seriously and reached this conclusion.
Shen Jinfeng froze for a moment.
Then a huge question mark seemed to pop above his head.
What was this secret admirer talking about?
He widened his eyes in horror. “N-No, let’s not!”
Qin Ye was puzzled. “Hm? What’s wrong?”
He came to a realization. Was it because the relationship between the two of them had not gone a step further yet, so Shen Jinfeng could not comfortably accept his kindness?
Shen Jinfeng had originally been lying comfortably, but he immediately sat up.
Qin Ye’s words had frightened him.
He had come to this world to retire!
Not to continue working in this world!
He waved his hands again and again. “Thank you for your kindness, but I…”
Before he could finish speaking, Qin Ye lowered his eyelashes and took over with some disappointment. “I understand.”
Hm?
What did he understand?
Shen Jinfeng organized his wording and explained, “I’m just messing around on a small scale. If you really made me do scientific research, I don’t have that level.”
Qin Ye looked fixedly at him.
For some reason, Shen Jinfeng actually read a certain grievance and determination from those dark eyes.
Qin Ye said, “You don’t need to belittle yourself.”
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
“I’m not.”
Qin Ye nodded. “I understand what you mean. We’ll talk about it later.”
Later, when their relationship went one step further, they would talk about it again.
After he finished saying this, he felt even his face grow a little warm.
“I’ll go bring those herbs over and follow your instructions to make the medicinal solution.” He got up and walked away, going out to let the cold wind blow on him.
Shen Jinfeng was completely baffled.
Talk about it later?
This matter was not over? There was still going to be a later?
Also, why did he feel as though the secret admirer had misunderstood something again?
[Wonderful. This is truly wonderful!]
[Sorry, I really can’t keep deceiving myself anymore. At this point, Ye-god’s thoughts really couldn’t be any clearer…]
[But Big Boss Shen really is as consistent as ever in carrying out the virtue of humility: I don’t have that level.]
[So… I also don’t understand. What meaning did Ye-god understand?]
[But Ye-god, you’re really too impatient. You scared Big Boss Shen so much he sat up! Even showing off the power of money can’t be done like this! There has to be a gradual process, do you understand?]
[No… maybe the little couple is enjoying themselves? After Big Boss Shen was startled by Ye-god just now, he’s still sitting there watching Ye-god’s back! Has he also become moved?]
If Shen Jinfeng saw this comment, he would definitely stand straight up from the lounge chair.
Moved, my ass!
He was only grieving for the future he might not have predicted, where he would be dragged by someone into making progress.
After a short while, Qin Ye returned with the flowers and plants Shen Jinfeng had already explained the uses of to him on the road yesterday.
“Do we first prepare the medicinal solution to soften the pigskin and keep it elastic? Grind these into one mixture?”
Before he came over, Shen Jinfeng had already lain back down.
This secret admirer still wanted to urge him to make progress.
Go work by yourself!
Yesterday, he had discovered that Qin Ye was actually rather talented at recognizing herbs. He also had the ability to remember things at a glance.
Yesterday, as they walked through the forest, he had picked nearly a hundred types of herbs and flowers with various uses.
They were all kept as backup, just in case.
Every time he picked a new type of leaf or herb, Qin Ye would ask, “What is this? What is it used for?”
Shen Jinfeng had answered casually.
But with Qi Xiu as the “shining example” before him, following right behind him to pick herbs and still managing to mistake mugwort and aconite for the same thing—
Mm, actually in real life, this kind of person was the majority.
Therefore, he had not expected Qin Ye to remember much. He had merely treated it as making some sound and livening up the atmosphere.
Who would have thought Qin Ye had really remembered!
Because when Shen Jinfeng casually muttered, “Pick some more cudweed,” Qin Ye actually pulled out a handful, placed it into the leaf basket, and asked him, “How much more?”
Shen Jinfeng was instantly somewhat pleasantly surprised.
So he had the thought of “testing” him a little.
Then he discovered that any herb he had just introduced, even if it looked extremely similar to another, Qin Ye could recognize it at a glance.
And he could recite its effects and medicinal properties as though listing family treasures.
Good grief. In the past, when Shen Jinfeng had been a doctor in quick-transmigration worlds and taken apprentices, especially in ancient worlds where he always had to recruit apprentices to help him—
He had rarely seen such a good seedling with such shocking memory and sensitivity toward herbs.
If this had still been ancient times and he wanted to be a doctor, he would have at least gotten Qin Ye to stay by his side as an assistant.
He would have recruited him as an apprentice.
But now…
He only wanted to slack off.
Therefore, now that Qin Ye asked, Shen Jinfeng continued answering.
Originally, he had planned to prepare these medicinal solutions himself. But since Qin Ye had remembered everything anyway—
His own clothes, his own effort!
Nothing wrong with that.
He lazily turned over on the lounge chair.
Lying on his side, he watched Qin Ye move and gave instructions aloud.
“First take out the white atractylodes, pseudo-ginseng, and broad-root vine. The ratio is about three-three-four…”
Qin Ye half-squatted on the ground, sorting the herbs into categories and following the steps.
One gave instructions, the other carried them out.
Their efficiency was very high.
It even looked rather like a peaceful, leisurely scene in the mountains, with quiet years passing gently.
If one ignored Qin Ye’s occasionally somewhat stiff movements, that was.
Actually, he could not be blamed.
Whenever he raised his head, he saw Shen Jinfeng lying sideways and watching him.
From this angle, Shen Jinfeng’s features looked even more delicate, and the usual trace of indifference about him was softened.
When Qin Ye carried out a step correctly, Shen Jinfeng would occasionally praise him.
“Not bad.”
“That’s right.”
“Very good.”
The young man’s tone was light and gentle, brimming with a smile.
His eyes were full of him.
Qin Ye’s heart pounded fiercely.
They were making clothes together!
This future pigskin coat was the result of both of their efforts!
It was too meaningful.
After it was finished, he would treasure it for the rest of his life!
