Not Allowed

Shen Nian moved a bit further away from the barbecue grill to avoid the smoke. Even though he had only been sitting there for half an hour, he already smelled entirely like barbecue.

To be honest, it actually smelled pretty good.

Shen Nian crossed his legs and rested on the side. It wasn't that he was full; eating one skewer at a time just wasn't satisfying enough. He figured he would wait for Haji Chun and the little loli to grill a bunch more before he really dug in.

After sitting for a while, he patted his butt and stood up. "Don't wander off, you two. I'm going over there for a bit."

Shen Nian hadn't tested his Breeding Mastery yet. If he missed today, who knew when he would come to the farm next. Unless absolutely necessary, he had no desire to visit the breeding farm every single day.

Shen Nian headed straight into the breeding farm, greeting a few workers as he passed by. He was already familiar with these faces.

The activation condition for Breeding Mastery was, first and foremost, breeding—and breeding inevitably required distributing feed.

With this in mind, Shen Nian carefully stepped onto a foam raft, grabbing the rope and pulling himself toward the middle of the pond. Every now and then, he grabbed a handful of feed and scattered it into the water, attempting to trigger Breeding Mastery.

He definitely wouldn't know the exact effects of Breeding Mastery right away; he could only wait until the pond was harvested to check the yield.

The other ponds could conveniently serve as a control group.

"What are you doing, you brat!"

Shen Shi popped out of nowhere. Seeing Shen Nian on the pond, he was instantly infuriated.

Are we that close? We just have a father-son relationship, and here you are secretly using my foam boat and feed!

"Ahem, aren't I just helping you distribute the feed?"

"I just fed them! Get back here right now. Be careful, if you fall in, you'll definitely catch a cold and get a fever."

"Coming, coming."

Shen Nian pulled himself back and swiftly hopped onto the shore.

When the time came, he would just ask his dad about the condition of this pond every now and then. He absolutely had to experiment to figure out the trigger conditions and effects.

His previous two survival skills were both heavy hitters, so Breeding Mastery certainly wouldn't be bad either.

At the very least, he had gained another avenue for making money, and it was the most lucrative one yet. A breeding farm was a legitimate business, after all.

If they could really raise high-quality seafood, making hundreds of thousands or even over a million a year wouldn't be a problem. Once they made money, the scale of the breeding farm would only grow larger.

"Dad, when is the next time we harvest the ponds?"

"It won't be until March..." Shen Shi raised an eyebrow. "What's up, you want to come help?"

"I'll be doing my hundred-day countdown to the college entrance exam by then, Dad..."

"I guess that's true. You don't need to help out here then, so why are you asking?"

"Just curious. After all, this is my magnificent empire."

"You've barely helped out a few times, and now it's yours?"

"Hehe."

Shen Nian played the fool and took the opportunity to slip away.

Returning to the small flat clearing, the two barbecue masters had indeed grilled quite a few skewers, and there were already many empty bamboo sticks scattered on the ground.

"Are you guys full? How come there's so much left over?"

"Take these to your mom and dad, and let the workers have some too. We specially grilled these for them," Xia Yanchun said, casually placing a large handful of skewers onto a disposable plastic plate.

"I suspect you've poisoned them. Let me test them out for them."

Shen Nian grabbed two skewers and started eating.

Li Shiyan watched with trepidation, because those two particularly red ones were the explosively spicy skewers she had grilled herself.

In the end, they were eaten by Shen Nian anyway, which could be considered a good ending!

However, the scene of Shen Nian sticking his tongue out from the spiciness didn't happen.

"This one is really flavorful! This is exactly how you should season them," Shen Nian smacked his lips, full of praise.

Li Shiyan blinked.

Something didn't seem quite right.

So, she picked up one of her own grilled skewers, took a small bite, and chewed.

"Ssss, hah..."

It was so spicy her nose started running...

Li Shiyan gulped down a few mouthfuls of water, getting angrier the more she thought about it.

When Shen Nian took the barbecue to the farm for Shen Shi, Chen Minyue, and the other workers to eat, she stood up, ran to the side, and started kicking stones, sending one flying far away with a single kick.

...

The barbecue lasted until two in the afternoon. Shen Nian poured water over the charcoal, putting out the fire.

From the initial binge-eating to chatting while eating, and finally to being too full to take another bite, it had only taken three hours.

Around a hundred bucks worth of meat and vegetables, plus the many vegetarian options Shen Nian had bought, was more than enough to stuff them. Since the two girls didn't have big appetites, Shen Nian ended up eating most of it.

Anyway, he was stuffed.

Xia Yanchun let out a small yawn, feeling a bit sleepy.

Since there was only one pickup truck, and Shen Shi and Chen Minyue wouldn't be heading back until five or six in the evening, they could only wait around or find something to do for fun.

She was already wanting to sleep.

The sun wasn't too strong, and they weren't worried about getting sunburned under the shade of the trees, but the chairs were quite uncomfortable, making it impossible to sleep.

"Are you sleepy?" Xia Yanchun looked at Li Shiyan, who was looking down at her phone.

"A little bit."

"Me too."

"You guys want to sleep?" Shen Nian scratched his cheek. "If you want to sleep, you can go sleep in the truck. It's unlocked."

"Really?"

Xia Yanchun's eyes lit up. She pulled Li Shiyan along and jogged over to the pickup truck. With a tug of her small hand, the door opened right up.

The weather was cool, and with the doors open, there was no need to worry about the cabin being stuffy and enclosed. They could sleep very comfortably.

Li Shiyan got in first, taking a seat by the edge. Xia Yanchun was just about to get in when she suddenly paused.

If she and Shiyan both went to sleep, wouldn't Shen Nian be left all alone...

Considering this, Xia Yanchun waved Shen Nian over. When he approached, she poked his chest with her finger. "What about you? Are you going to sleep?"

"What's this? Inviting me to take a nap with you? Good grief, I really can't do anything about you."

"..."

She shouldn't have asked.

"Let's take the front seats. We can just let your bestie sleep in the back."

"Alright."

The front seats could recline like lounge chairs, making them even more comfortable for resting, as long as they didn't squish Li Shiyan in the back.

Shen Nian sat in the driver's seat and immediately reclined his backrest. Xia Yanchun was still fiddling around in the passenger seat. She knew she had to pull the lever and push back, but no matter how hard she tried, there was no response.

"Stupid truck."

"Can you even do it? Let me."

Shen Nian leaned over and pulled the lever, and Xia Yanchun's backrest instantly dropped back.

"There you go."

"Alright, you win."

Xia Yanchun hummed and murmured, glancing back at Li Shiyan.

The entire backseat belonged to Li Shiyan. With her feet sticking out and a small pillow propping her up, she was already comfortably lying flat.

"You two have such a good relationship," Li Shiyan mumbled with half-closed eyes, sleepy but still feeling the need to chatter.

Shen Nian chuckled softly. "Of course we do, we've known each other for so many years."

Xia Yanchun didn't deny it either. Things were different now; she no longer felt the need to act tough in front of Li Shiyan.

Li Shiyan had said the phrase, You two have such a good relationship, who knows how many times by now.

Even if Li Shiyan were to discover her ambiguous relationship with Shen Nian one day, Xia Yanchun felt she wouldn't react too strongly.

Shen Nian wasn't even trying to hide it, and she had already mentally prepared herself for Li Shiyan to find out...

In just ten minutes or so, the inside of the truck fell completely silent.

Xia Yanchun had browsed her phone for a while. Just as she was about to go to sleep, she peeked at Li Shiyan in the back, only to see her eyes closed, already sleeping soundly.

She was getting sleepy too and couldn't help but yawn.

"Have a good nap," Shen Nian said gently.

"Mhm." Emboldened, Xia Yanchun poked Shen Nian's cheek with her finger. "You have a good nap too."

"..."

Shen Nian's large hand slid down, coming to a gentle rest on Xia Yanchun's leg.

The air grew thick with a momentary intimacy. Xia Yanchun pursed her lips and pressed her legs together, a pink flush creeping up her ears.

This felt so sneaky...

"You can't..."

She pried his wandering hand away and crossed her index fingers into an X in front of her chest.

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