The cottage Butler’s System voice was rambling through the rules for today’s daytime task while Qian Xingzhi sat on the sofa with a cold expression, his right hand resting across the iPad—
He was not listening.
Under the camera, Qian Xingzhi’s long fingers tapped lightly against the screen in a distinct rhythm, as though playing a chaotic little tune with no melody. His gaze was frosty as he stared coldly at the social-status post he had just made in the cottage System, set to “Visible to Shen Li Only.”
But none of the viewers knew what he was looking at.
The viewers’ hearts were simply being tormented by the sight of that well-defined hand tapping the screen.
[Damn, Qian Xingzhi, stop acting cool. Acting cool is prohibited here.]
[What do you know? My guy is being elegant! Elegant, understand?]
[I can’t take this elegance anymore. Based on how he’s behaved since entering the cottage, I have a bad feeling this man is actually hopelessly love-brained.]
[How could he possibly be love-brained? Not even slightly. You people don’t know my guy. He’s lived like an ascetic for years, even studied traditional Chinese classics and the Book of Changes, and read the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries! He personally corrected logical errors involving the Book of Changes in his dramas. I’m afraid his next step will genuinely be leaving society to become a Taoist. How could he possibly be love-brained?]
[Are the Piggy Banks still struggling? So strong. With that kind of perseverance, you’ll succeed at anything.]
[Thanks. I’ve thought it through now. So what if he has a marriage history? He’s divorced anyway.]
The comments fought endlessly. Qian Xingzhi tapped for a while longer before swiping the System interface upward, apparently returning to the iPad home screen. The camera could not capture what he opened next.
In reality—
Qian Xingzhi opened a perpetual calendar with the traditional almanac and, without changing expression, began recalling his interactions with Shen Li over the past several days.
Yang Wood–Monkey month, Yang Earth–Horse day, just after the Ox hour began.
Shen Li had been the one to say, “It’s after one,” ending their call and cutting off Qian Xingzhi’s attempt to continue reminiscing about their youthful school days.
Yang Wood–Monkey month, Yang Earth–Horse day, around the Dragon hour.
Qian Xingzhi had only just woken up and heard Shen Li say, “Mm, I’m here.” He had wanted to ask, “How did you sleep?” when Shen Li immediately said, “If you’re awake, hang up and go to work.”
Yang Wood–Monkey month, Yang Metal–Monkey day, around the Rat hour.
Shen Li had come to deliver medicine of his own accord and agreed to stay overnight.
Yang Wood–Monkey month, Yang Metal–Monkey day, before the Horse hour had ended.
Shen Li had mercilessly rejected his proposal to share a room… So could it also have been because the Wu Fire of the noon hour clashed with the Zi Water that served as a favorable element in Shen Li’s original chart, making Shen Li physically uncomfortable and mentally irritable, which was why he rejected him?
Forget it.
After nine tonight, he would ask Shen Li again whether he wanted to share a room.
Shen Li had a Yin Wood–Rooster day pillar. His Eight Characters chart was weak, Rat Water was a favorable element, Fire was unfavorable, and he disliked clashes.
A weak chart burdened by heavy Wealth meant Earth was unfavorable too.
Metal controlled Yi Wood, so Metal was likewise unfavorable—
Therefore, the coming Monkey, Rooster, and Dog hours—that was, from three to nine in the afternoon—were actually all bad times to discuss romance with Shen Li.
Everyone knew that when a person was tired and irritated, how could they possibly be in the mood for romance?
Qian Xingzhi coldly stared at the perpetual calendar for ages, practically burning holes through the words “Yang Water–Horse hour: inauspicious” and “Yang Earth–Rat hour: auspicious,” before finally swiping upward again with one elegant motion and closing the old-almanac page.
At that exact moment, Shen Li came out of his room.
Qian Xingzhi raised his eyes. Shen Li’s thin figure was tall and straight, yet the steps with which he tried desperately to conceal his difficulty walking created an illusion that he might snap at any moment.
It was a pale but determined kind of beauty, carrying a fatal pull.
Qian Xingzhi instinctively stopped looking. Before Shen Li could reach him, he arrogantly turned his eyes away.
The next moment, Shen Li’s uneven footsteps, one light and one heavy, came closer and closer. They passed not far in front of him, then coldly receded into the distance.
No one spoke.
Just as Qian Xingzhi thought Shen Li would leave completely like that, Shen Li’s calm voice really did sound.
“Come here.”
It was almost like an auditory hallucination.
A tingling sensation ran from Qian Xingzhi’s eardrum all the way down his throat. He turned to look and saw Shen Li had already reached a camera blind spot and stopped there.
Qian Xingzhi continued looking at the iPad for a while. Only after quite some time did he stand in what he considered an extremely cold manner and stroll casually toward Shen Li.
“What?”
Qian Xingzhi spoke coolly, hands in his trouser pockets, body leaning slightly backward, his whole posture radiating careless arrogance.
Shen Li tilted his head a little. His quiet gaze rested on Qian Xingzhi with a hint of scrutiny, studying him silently for several seconds. Those few seconds of silence seemed infinitely stretched, an invisible tension filling the air.
“And another thing,” Qian Xingzhi said mildly, the corner of his mouth lifting in a cold sneer. “Don’t call me like you’re calling a dog. You say one ‘come here’ and I just come over. It’s really…”
Before he could say the words “very rude”—
Qian Xingzhi felt a cool touch against his forehead.
Shen Li’s left hand gently touched his forehead just as it had when Qian Xingzhi grabbed it the night before.
Only this time, Shen Li had done it entirely on his own initiative.
“Who called you like a dog?” Shen Li frowned, thin lips parting. “…Then what am I doing now, petting a puppy’s head?”
Qian Xingzhi’s eyes darkened another degree. His gaze shot away like lightning and landed on some empty point farther off. “I didn’t ask you to touch me this time.”
Shen Li frowned slightly, stopped joking, and was not intimidated by him either. His thumb wiped all the sweat from Qian Xingzhi’s forehead before he lowered his hand.
“You’re sweating this much, and you still feel a little feverish.”
“…”
“Go let the on-site doctor look at you first. I already called him up. Let the doctor examine you.”
Qian Xingzhi’s expression grew even colder and more aloof, as though his face were covered in frost. Yet his Adam’s apple did roll almost imperceptibly, and he was just about to say something.
Then Shen Li’s gaze left him too. A somewhat complicated expression entered his eyes, his beautiful brows drawing together gloomily as he calmly asked,
“Are you choosing Task A or Task B later?”
…
Today’s daytime production activity was divided into A and B categories. Task A leaned toward physical labor, while Task B leaned toward mental work.
Guests could also choose both. More work meant more pay. But each smaller task had to be claimed first; once claimed, it had to be completed and could not be exchanged or returned. If it was not finished by six o’clock, the corresponding contractual penalty would even be deducted.
Qian Xingzhi had already seen the show’s setup and knew in advance what today’s tasks were. He did not think they were difficult. The instant A and B became available for selection on the iPad, he chose both.
The specific task slips, however, had to be drawn at the application desk. The crowd there had been too dense, so he had planned to wait before drawing.
“I chose both A and B… You want to do them with me?” Qian Xingzhi asked carelessly. “What did you choose?”
Shen Li’s dark gaze swept over the veins in Qian Xingzhi’s arm. Avoiding the question of whether they would do the tasks “together,” he still answered mildly, “I chose both A and B too. I’m going to draw the tasks now… Want me to draw yours as well?”
Qian Xingzhi nodded. He thought that if Shen Li was drawing his tasks, then perhaps that probably meant they would do them together.
So he glanced between the application desk and the medical vehicle in two different directions. Seeing that Shen Li showed no intention of accompanying him to the medical vehicle, he assumed Shen Li meant for him to go see the doctor first, then meet up to do the tasks together.
“Whatever.” The corner of Qian Xingzhi’s mouth lifted very slightly, then he pressed it firmly back down. He walked away before Shen Li, becoming the one who cared even less. “If you want to draw them, go draw them.”
“All right. Then go to the medical vehicle.” Shen Li seemed to think for a moment before adding, “The task deadline is seven. There’s no need to rush. If the doctor tells you to get an IV, listen to the doctor.”
“Got it.”
Only after Shen Li watched Qian Xingzhi’s back disappear in the completely opposite direction did he walk toward the application desk, where the crowd had thinned.
Seeing the two emerge one after another from a camera blind spot, the viewers’ imaginations immediately ran wild.
[Ahhhhh, did they secretly kiss behind our backs?!]
[August weather is so cold. It froze President Qian’s ears red. [smile]]
[Yes, yes. I think Shen Li looks even prettier than before. QAQ Was he kissed?!]
[Help, these two have mouths harder than our boss’s connections. Do their mouths genuinely have the function of kissing other people???]
[I don’t know whether their mouths are hard, but Mr. Qian’s hook looks hard. [smile] When he walked past just now, it looked a little bigger than usual. [smile]]
[Fuck, where are you looking??? I’m reporting upstairs for spreading rumors.]
[Piggy Banks, don’t get defensive. From what I can see, your guy’s physical attraction to your former sister-in-law is practically overflowing through the screen…]
[So what even if it is? They’re still divorced???]
[…Can I say this… Based just on that meeting just now, Shen Li is genuinely so cold. He looks like he doesn’t care about my guy at all. [shattered] He doesn’t seem to pay any attention to my guy. [shattered] It’s not that I don’t want my guy to date. He’s this old; he should. But at least find someone who likes him, cherishes him, and treats him well, right? I really don’t want my guy to become a simp. [shattered]]
[Lol. In less than twenty minutes, you already decided Shen Li treats him badly?]
[It’s obvious. Shen Li doesn’t respond at all. He lets every sentence my guy says fall to the ground. [smile] If you love someone, how can you bear to let their words fall unanswered? [shattered]]
With some difficulty, Shen Li crouched down and picked up the task slip that had fallen to the ground.
He brushed the dust from it.
He had just chosen two A tasks and two B tasks from the few remaining slips in the respective containers.
Today’s daytime production tasks were somewhat different from previous days. The Butler’s assignments were all individual pieces of farm work that had to be completed alone.
For example, Category A included feeding pigs, milking cows, spraying pesticide, weeding, repairing fences, grafting seedlings, and so on—physical tasks of varying difficulty. Each task slip also listed a different cash reward, some high and some low.
Category B consisted mostly of mental work such as bookkeeping, calculating costs and expenditures, and sorting files. Most of the easy, well-paid tasks had already been taken by those who arrived earlier.
From the projects remaining, Shen Li selected two from A and two from B and was just about to turn around and leave.
Then Ke Jiujiu came trotting back with a slip of paper, apparently wanting to exchange it.
“Wow, Brother Shen, why did you come so late?” Ke Jiujiu looked eagerly at the task slips in Shen Li’s hand. “What did you choose? I want to swap my A task! I just went to look, and this chicken-catching one is way harder than I imagined. I can’t do it.”
Before she finished, Ke Jiujiu had already seen what was in Shen Li’s hand.
“Whoa, why did you take two?”
Shen Li frowned and, somewhat displeased, covered the two slips against his chest without changing expression. “The others are someone else’s. I picked them up for him.”
“Oh~ President Qian’s, right?” Ke Jiujiu tilted her head and, with very little sense of boundaries, continued curiously, “Huh? But why did you take the two hardest ones? I remember there were several slips left in there. Those two are exhausting and barely pay anything. Do you want to swap for something easier—”
“No, thank you.” Shen Li did not let her finish and clearly intended to leave. “Go ahead and switch yours.”
Then he walked away first under Ke Jiujiu’s deeply puzzled gaze.
The moment Shen Li stepped outside the cottage, he happened to run into Xiao Zhang smoking.
After thinking for a second, Shen Li walked over.
“Zhang Min.”
“Hey!” Xiao Zhang came back to himself and blew out a ring of smoke. “What—what’s up, Brother Shen?”
“Are you going toward the medical vehicle later?”
“Uh, I—I can. Or I don’t have to. Why?”
“There’s something. Would you mind giving it to Qian Xingzhi for me?”
“S-sure. No problem. Easy.”
Smiling cheerfully, Xiao Zhang accepted the two task slips Shen Li handed him without thinking much about it.
Shen Li, however, frowned and thought for a moment before adding, “If he’s being examined or resting, wait a little before giving them to him.”
“O-okay. Got you, bro,” Xiao Zhang readily promised.
Shen Li said nothing more.
He turned and headed for the strawberry garden where the A task was located, still riding the little electric scooter.
After arriving, Shen Li once again studied the fixed positions of the cameras he had already inspected the day before yesterday. Then he glanced at the area that needed weeding and the damaged fence waiting for repair. After roughly estimating the time, he held onto the fence assigned to him and fiddled with it a few times, then quietly drifted out of camera range again.
Only after confirming he had reached the blind corner did he leave the fence behind, grit his teeth, crouch down, and begin swiftly pulling weeds from the extra area that had been marked out, his movements noticeably practiced.
Manual weeding was the most common method, particularly suitable for a small strawberry field. It could remove weeds effectively but demanded considerable labor. In August, with high temperatures and abundant rain, weeds grew quickly and densely, and many began to lignify and develop greater resistance. If they were not removed promptly, they would compete with the strawberries for water and nutrients, affecting plant growth and yield.
This estate had been rented directly to the production team. Although the rental period was only around ten days, Shen Li had at least seen people doing basic yard maintenance on the day he worked as security. Therefore, the farmwork assigned today was not limited to the areas visible to cameras. There were other sections that needed to be cleaned as well, amounting to roughly two-thirds of the total area. Once the work was finished, workers from the estate would definitely have to inspect it.
Shen Li had already looked over the condition of this strawberry garden before, so he basically knew what he was dealing with.
Whether repairing the fence or pulling weeds, farmwork like this came easily to him and was not difficult.
Other than being somewhat brutal on his leg, it had virtually no downside.
Once Qian Xingzhi recovered, he could come over himself and pull a little from the area directly under the cameras.
A pampered young master like Qian Xingzhi had hardly ever done miscellaneous physical work. On top of that, he was sick, and he definitely had not slept well last night.
Whether catching chickens, milking cows, feeding cattle, or feeding pigs, none of those tasks were really suitable for him. And in a natural outdoor garden like this with no heat-protection measures, the less time he had to spend there, the better.
…
But would Qian Xingzhi be unhappy that Shen Li had not waited for him?
Sweat quickly soaked Shen Li’s entire face, beads pouring down through his collar in rapid streams. Even his normally pale lips had taken on a vivid red tint.
Distractedly pulling a few more handfuls of weeds, Shen Li weakened enough to sit on the ground. After breathing for a while, he took a tissue from the backpack he had deliberately brought, wiped his hands, then pulled out the iPad.
He found Qian Xingzhi in the cottage System contacts.
Qian Xingzhi’s profile icon was lit. At some point, he had changed the default profile image to a pure black square. Shen Li frowned.
At least in Shen Li’s own circles, only someone whose family was holding a funeral would use that kind of image…
But if it was Qian Xingzhi, using it to express his mood was actually understandable.
So he really was angry…
Shen Li took a deep breath. After repeatedly considering what to say, he typed for a while and finally decided to start with a topic that was easier to approach, soothing Qian Xingzhi’s injured feelings first.
[Shen Li]: [Are you done over there?]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [No.]
…Quite aloof.
Shen Li unconsciously thumped his useless leg several times, pressed his lips into a straight line, and pondered for a long while.
Only then did he send another greeting, tentatively carrying a slight coaxing tone.
[Shen Li]: [Still feeling unwell? What did the doctor say?]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [It’s okay. The doctor recommended I just get an IV to bring the fever down.]
[Shen Li]: [Oh. Then while you’re on the IV, you can start doing that Category B bookkeeping task. [head tilt]]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [?]
[Shen Li]: [?]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [Head tilt?]
[Shen Li]: [Tapped it by mistake.]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [Ha.]
[Shen Li]: [?]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [Fine.]
[Shen Li]: […]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [Anything else to say? If not, I’m going back to pressing the calculator.]
Shen Li sighed, unable to tell whether his maneuver had managed to calm Qian Xingzhi down at all.
He expressionlessly stared at the slightly smudged screen. A tremendous wave of exhaustion pressed over him like dark clouds gathering overhead, settling heavily in his chest. Somehow, it felt even more suffocating than the half hour of weeding he had just done.
He no longer wanted to be so indirect.
Shen Li became more straightforward and asked anyway.
[Shen Li]: [Are you angry?]
Qian Xingzhi was silent for two seconds before replying.
[Qian Xingzhi]: [? Angry about what?]
[Shen Li]: [Why did you change your profile picture to that?]
This time, Qian Xingzhi remained silent for a full ten seconds.
Then two long strings of text arrived.
Shen Li’s brows abruptly furrowed more deeply. His dark gaze deepened, his long, thick lashes trembling several times. Even his pale expression became somewhat strange.
[Qian Xingzhi]: [Black belongs to Water. For someone whose favorable element is Water, black is a very auspicious color because black can strengthen Water energy.]
[Qian Xingzhi]: [It should make you feel a little better. Do you feel any better? [head tilt]]
[Shen Li]: [[smile].. ?]