“Alright, you win.”
Ye Lingchen shrugged his shoulders and looked at Huang Lei and the others. “I tried my best. This director is a tough one.”
[PFTT, hahaha… God Ye, do you have to be so funny?]
[Damn, I thought God Ye was going to go berserk in public and beat the director.]
[Don’t be scared, God Ye. You know kung fu. Be like The Flash and attack at once!]
[In terms of character, I—God Ye—am unwilling to pass on my responsibilities to others. I’m still so handsome even though I’m terrified.]
…
Zhao Liangying and Hu Yue’er were both similarly speechless when they looked at Ye Lingchen. They were all ready to intervene in the case of a fight, but they were caught unprepared and never expected Ye Lingchen to be so terrified.
“Although you don’t have money, you can harvest corn and other crops from the farmland and to trade or sell at the market. Perhaps you can also find other ways to make money at the market,” the director said with a smile.
It signaled the official start of the struggles in Life’s Struggles.
“What should we do? We can’t just eat corn for lunch, right?” Wei Daxun felt extremely agonized.
“Of course not, we still have milkshakes sponsored by the advertisers,” He Jia said and made an advertisement while they were at it.
“I’m fine with eating it for breakfast, but I’m going to throw up soon.” Huang Lei shook his head, then said, “I’ll do my best and see whether I can gather one hundred and eight ways to eat corn.”
“How could it be possible for us to just eat corn?” Ye Lingchen said with a chuckle.
“God Ye, you have a way, don’t you? How about I accompany you to the market to sell corn and potatoes,” Zhao Liangying offered.
In fact, she was still very interested to sell corn and potatoes, but the crux was that Ye Lingchen would keep her company so she would not be too bored when she sold the items.
“Sell these? Whether anyone buys them is one thing, and even if they’re all sold, we won’t even get a pound of meat in return.” Ye Lingchen rolled his eyes, then pointed to the direction outside the house. “Isn’t that meat? ”
Everyone looked over and saw a duck with its eyes closed, sitting quietly on the eaves. It could remain motionless for an entire day, and those who did not know about it might assume it was a statue.
“It’s a Muscovy duck and it’s one of us. We can’t eat it!” Hu Yue’er said.
“Yes, the Muscovy duck is so docile. How can we eat it?” Zhao Liangying said the same too.
“A Muscovy duck isn’t an ordinary duck. It’s a Muscovy duck!” Ye Lingchen smiled slightly and continued, “It’s also known as a musk duck, Brazilian duck, ocean duck, or turkey duck in Europe[1]. Without a doubt, it’s a fine poultry duck with excellent meat quality. Less fat, more lean meat, and high protein content. It’s regarded as a treasure for strengthening one’s body and is very nutritious.”
“Wow, really?” Zhao Liangying’s position changed in an instant. Her eyes looked at the Muscovy duck and there were already various convoluted intentions in her heart.
Ye Lingchen struck while the iron was hot and continued. “Aside from that, I have 23 methods—whether it’s boiled and cut, braised, steamed, or making duck soup—that are guaranteed to satisfy you. It is a rare taste.”
“Then what are you waiting for? The lunch menu is all set,” Zhao Liangying’s eyes lit up.
“Where’s the knife? Where’s my knife?” Hu Yue’er also began to help.
The duck seemed to have sensed the crowd’s murderous intent. It finally opened its eyes, flapped its wings, and quacked, before running past the yard as fast as possible.
“Calm down, calm down!” Huang Lei and He Jia hurriedly grabbed everyone. Their faces were flush, they were the resident guests in Life’s Struggles and had been there since the first episode. The Muscovy ducks had been with them from the beginning, so it was only natural that they have deep feelings toward the ducks. They had to stop them after seeing that there were people actually wanting to eat those ducks.
“I’ve always regarded the Muscovy ducks like my own children. Eating them is the same as eating me!” Huang Lei’s tone was firm.
Ye Lingchen stopped then, looked at Huang Lei, and could not help his surprise. “Huang Sensei, much respect for you! You treating the duck like a son! I feel so inferior.”
Huang Lei’s face became embarrassed all of a sudden and everyone laughed.
“God Ye, are you still going to catch the Muscovy duck? It’s about to fly out,” Zhao Liangying remarked anxiously.
Ye Lingchen flicked her forehead and shook his head. “A foodie like you really wants to eat it?”
“You’re the one who brought it up first!” Zhao Liangying said in a rage.
“I said I’d make fish soup for you, so I won’t break my promise, of course.” Ye Lingchen said lightly, “It’s clear that there’s no way to buy fish, so I can only catch it myself. I’m going to the mountains now.”
“Are you going to catch fish? I’ll go too!” Zhao Liangying trotted along and caught up immediately to him. “I’ll follow you.”
“I’ll go too.” Hu Yue’er also followed suit.
“I…” Wei Daxun was about to speak, but he was immediately pulled back by He Jia. “You little kid. Can’t you see the situation? Why would you want to butt in?”
Huang Lei also told him, “You’re responsible for cutting wood!”
Wei Daxun: “…”
Ye Lingchen and the other two girls took the hand net and slowly began their mountain ascent. The houses in Green Grass Village were built along the stream and they were going to the upper area of the stream. Ye Lingchen surmised that there would be a river upstream.
Along the way, Zhao Liangying and Hu Yue’er looked a little lively and their beautiful eyes could not resist admiring the surrounding scenery. They took a deep breath from time to time and gasped in amazement, like spirits returning to nature.
Most of the time, Ye Lingchen only walked forward silently. The two of them became more and more interested and laughed like silver bells, making the journey up the mountain no longer lonely.
No matter what the situation was, allowances could be made for beautiful women, since they could cheer up anyone’s heart. Imagine if two men followed Ye Lingchen at this time: noisy chattering could probably be heard all around him and he would have already slapped the daylights out of them.
If it were two ugly women, Ye Lingchen would have run away if he did not slap the daylights out of them.
“The environment here is really good, and I didn’t expect the mountain scenery on Life’s Struggles to be so beautiful,” Zhao Liangying said with passion.
“Yeah, it seems that none of the guests came out of the Mushroom Hut in the previous episode. Even if they came out, they just wandered around, which is a big loss,” Hu Yue’er also agreed.
“God Ye, do you think we can catch any fish?” Zhao Liangying asked.
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to catch it!” Ye Lingchen was confident.
“But we walked along the stream and didn’t see any fish at all. Do you think there might be no fish in the water?” Zhao Liangying was worried.
“I heard that there will be no fish in clear water. The stream is so clear that there’s no fish at all.” Hu Yue’er’s brows were also frowning tightly.
There were no aquatic plants in the stream at all, let alone fish…
[1] These other names that Ye Lingchen refers to are used by Chinese literature, but translating their names into English would certainly cause some confusion if not clarified. A Muscovy duck is sometimes referred to as ‘musk duck’ in Chinese literature, but the name is more appropriately used to refer to Biziura lobata, which is native to southern Australia. While Muscovy ducks do in fact originate from South America, the supposed name ‘Brazilian duck’ actually refers to Amazonetta brasiliensis, another different species. As for ‘ocean duck’, there is no English literature that supports this nickname. Finally, his so-called European name for Muscovy duck is also dubious because no one in Europe calls it that—Googling turkey duck will get you results of a dish called three-bird roast.
