Ying'er's words always gave Ye Xi the nagging feeling that she was speaking in double meanings.
Was she talking about simmering every last drop of Silk Flower juice until nothing remained... or was she talking about something else entirely?
Was this woman teasing him, or was this a genuine hint?
Truly worthy of her title — Liyue's reigning Car Queen. Her foundations ran deep. Frankly, it was terrifying. A single offhand sentence and your mind was already running in directions you didn't ask it to go.
As Ying'er had said, the next step was to brew the perfumed balm.
The problem was: brewing required a proper stove.
Originally, Ying'er had planned to borrow the stoves at Wanmin Restaurant. But this quantity wasn't something that could be finished in an hour or two. They couldn't just monopolize someone else's cooking fires during the dinner rush — especially when the evening meal hour was nearly upon them!
For a moment, the girls found themselves at an impasse.
And so, as was becoming something of a reflex, every girl who had grown hopelessly dependent on Ye Xi turned her gaze toward him.
Dehya, Alusha, Dunyarzad, Collei...
Faced with all those expectant little faces, Ye Xi let out a sigh. "Fine. There's no helping it — I'll take care of it."
"When it counts, it's always our all-capable Master who saves the day~" Dehya grinned at him, the picture of shameless flattery.
Amber and Eula, standing nearby, exchanged a look of quiet surprise.
They hadn't expected everyone to rely on Ye Xi quite this heavily. And the man himself looked utterly defenseless against the simplest show of affection — one pout, one soft look, and he caved entirely. It gave the impression that all you had to do was act a little spoiled, and his doting would come pouring out.
Honestly, it made a person envious.
After all — who wouldn't want an older brother who was handsome, kind, and loved you without conditions? Just having those warm, indulgent eyes resting on you would be enough to make your heart go soft.
Nearby, Ye Xi reached a hand into the air.
Space split open along an invisible seam, and from it he pulled a small glass jar. Inside, a transparent, jelly-like substance sloshed against the sides.
"Is that... a Slime?"
The girls crowded around, buzzing with curiosity.
As for Ying'er — this little trick of pulling objects out of thin air had left her completely dumbstruck.
What was going on? Where had that jar come from? She turned it over in her mind for a long time and still couldn't work it out.
Then she remembered something Dehya had said earlier — that Ye Xi had a method to store the perfumed balm without it ever going bad. Could this be exactly that ability?
Eula and Amber, for their part, were entirely unfazed. The first time they had met Ye Xi, he had conjured a full helicopter out of nowhere. Compared to that, pulling a jar out of thin air barely registered.
"This," Ye Xi said, answering the girls' exclamations with a nod, "is a high-purity Slime base plasma I extracted myself."
Ordinary Slime condensate was edible — Xiangling used it constantly in her more experimental 'recipes.' Purifying Slime condensate yielded Slime extract. That substance was not to be touched with bare hands; contact was genuinely dangerous.
Purifying Slime extract one step further produced Slime base plasma.
More potent than the extract, but lacking any instinct to attack. When left undisturbed, it simply moved on its own in small, irregular pulses — which, admittedly, looked rather cute.
Ye Xi opened the jar and poured the Slime base plasma onto the ground. The substance immediately began to wriggle.
"Be careful — don't touch it."
At his warning, the girls all took an instinctive step back. Dunyarzad ducked behind Dehya. Collei and Amber retreated behind Eula, who, despite everything, also looked a little nervous.
Ye Xi was at a loss.
He could understand Dunyarzad being frightened. But these other girls — the ones who spent their days beating Slimes into condensate on a regular basis — what exactly were they scared of? They had personally destroyed more Slimes than he could count. Shouldn't the Slimes be the ones afraid of them?
"M-Master, what do we need this for?"
"Dehya," Ye Xi said, "use your Pyro elemental power. Channel it into the Slime base plasma."
"Channel it? ...I'll give it a try!"
The Pyro Vision at Dehya's side blazed with fierce crimson light. Flames enveloped the Slime base plasma entirely.
Everyone expected the fire to evaporate it on the spot.
Instead, something miraculous happened.
The Slime base plasma began absorbing the Pyro elemental power — and then, in an instant, it swelled and grew, shaping itself into a small, living Pyro Slime.
"Whoa——!"
"It — it turned into a Slime!"
"How is that even possible!"
"Wait, you can actually do that!?"
The girls erupted in collective shock, their faces painted with disbelief.
And indeed, this was one of the more remarkable phenomena Ye Xi had ever discovered.
Slimes, strictly speaking, were not truly alive in the biological sense. When a large Slime was destroyed and shattered into condensate, it was rather like a single large cell splitting into countless smaller ones. Given the right conditions and enough time, those 'smaller cells' could each be cultivated into a full, complete Slime of their own.
For most people, this was an interesting observation with no practical application.
For Ye Xi, it was a major discovery.
Slimes were elemental lifeforms — but Slime condensate, Slime extract, and Slime base plasma were not. Which meant he could use his Copy skill on the substance, reproduce it in bulk, and mass-produce Slimes. He could also store it freely in his portable space.
For Ying'er, who had no Vision of her own, the sight of a living Slime right in front of her drained the color from her face on the spot.
This was a monster. A genuinely dangerous monster. If it weren't for the sheer number of Vision-holders surrounding her, she would have already bolted. As an ordinary person, she had always hoped to go her entire life without ever laying eyes on one of these things.
"Miss Ying'er, there's nothing to be afraid of. Our Master can handle it."
Collei had evidently noticed Ying'er's anxiety and spoke up gently to reassure her.
"Hm? You mean Master Ye Xi?"
Ying'er looked him over again — and confirmed with certainty that Ye Xi had no Vision on him at all.
A person without a Vision going up against a monster? That was just asking to get hurt. One touch from a Pyro Slime and you'd have a burn to show for it.
Ye Xi activated his [Taming] skill.
A complex pattern of light bloomed across his palm. The same mark appeared simultaneously on the Pyro Slime's head.
In the next instant, the Slime extinguished its flames, bounced across the ground, and leaped straight into Ye Xi's arms.
For the girls, this was nothing new. Living at the Ye Family Compound, they had watched any number of Slimes going about their 'work' on a daily basis. They were well past being surprised by it.
But Ying'er was a different story entirely.
She had never seen anything like this in her life. He had just made a monster sit quietly and behave? That was a monster. An actual monster!
Ye Xi reached into his portable space and produced a small stove. He set the Pyro Slime inside, and just like that — they had a fully functional heat source.
"Master is amazing!"
Collei clapped her hands in delight.
Her soft, earnest praise landed very well on Ye Xi indeed.
"Miss Ying'er — will this do?"
"Eh!?"
At his question, Ying'er snapped back to herself and nodded quickly. "Y-Yes! No problem at all!"
Once her heart had settled, Ying'er guided everyone back into the balm-making process.
And she had to admit — the Slime stove was genuinely something else. No black smoke. No need to fan the flames or add fuel. And the heat output was perfectly consistent.
It was almost too convenient.
Before long, the first batch of balm began to take shape.
The vivid, saturated crimson color immediately drew admiring looks from all the girls. Ye Xi found himself nodding as well. Ying'er was clearly a seasoned hand at this — the texture and quality of her work were genuinely impressive.
Under her practiced hands, tin after tin of perfumed balm came off the heat in quick succession.
The fragrance spread outward in waves — rich, sweet, and heady. Within moments, the scent had drifted across several streets, drawing a steady gathering of curious onlookers.
Most notably, a considerable number of young women and female adventurers had been lured in by the smell.
Women simply had an unerring instinct for things like this. And a high-grade perfumed balm was an especially irresistible draw.
They peeked over curiously toward Chunxiang Kiln — and in doing so, naturally, also caught sight of Ye Xi.
Glances were exchanged. One by one, they drifted closer, barely managing to conceal the fact that they were staring. Some even invented excuses to wander into his vicinity, muttering to themselves as a pretense while sneaking sideways looks.
"Oh, he's handsome——!"
"Where did this young gentleman come from? I've never seen him before!"
"From the clothes, he looks like he might be a foreigner?"
"He's really something. Should I go talk to him?"
"Don't be ridiculous — have you not seen all those beautiful women around him?"
"Coming to buy perfumed balm for his girls... this one really spoils his wives. Major points for that~"
"..."
The girls whispered among themselves, cheeks flushed pink.
Alusha, apparently noticing the growing commotion around them, suddenly wrapped herself around Ye Xi's arm — the very picture of a woman marking her territory.
"Hm?"
Ye Xi looked puzzled, but Alusha showed no intention of explaining herself.
He didn't mind in the slightest, honestly. Having Alusha's soft warmth pressed against his arm was its own reward.
"Master Ye Xi, this is the finest batch of balm I've ever made."
Ying'er began packing the tins as she spoke. "Before, I always used Silk Flowers gathered from the wild. But the ones at Yujing Terrace are tended by gardeners — the quality and variety are the best you can find. So this balm has turned out exceptionally well."
Ye Xi paused at that.
Gardeners. So Yujing Terrace had people whose job it was to look after those flowers.
Which meant that tomorrow, when a gardener showed up to work and found nothing but stripped, bare stems...
Those were flowers someone had carefully nurtured over a long time.
...He spared one second of sympathy for that gardener.
Once all the balm had been packed into tins, Ye Xi asked, "Is that everything?"
"What are you thinking?"
Ying'er laughed and shook her head. "That's not even a third of it. There's plenty more to go."
Ye Xi: ???
How much had these girls ordered?!
Truly something else — the moment women got their hands on something like this, there was no stopping them. He used to think more wives was always better. Now he was beginning to realize that if he weren't absurdly well-funded, he genuinely could not afford this many girls.
Not that money was the real issue here. The real issue was that it was getting late.
Burning through this much time and energy on it hardly seemed worth it. He was briefly tempted to just use [Copy and Paste] and be done with it.
But then, from somewhere nearby, he heard the girls' voices.
"Dehya, this balm really turned out amazing! And we made it all ourselves!"
"It really did, my Lady. I never expected to learn a craft like this — all thanks to Miss Ying'er. And in a certain sense... thanks to Master letting me practice regularly..."
"Dehya! Stop talking! You're going to die of embarrassment — you're going to make me die of embarrassment!"
"Dehya's not wrong though. I feel like my technique has gotten much smoother today. I should go practice on Master tonight..."
"Alusha, you too! Enough!"
Dunyarzad looked like she wanted to sink into the ground.
Nearby, Lumine wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, wearing the most gleefully wicked expression she could manage. "Imagine spreading every inch of Ah-Qing with balm I made with my own hands~ hehehe..."
"Traveler, that's... a lot."
"Paimon!? What are you whispering about?! Say it louder!"
"Eh——!? I — I didn't say anything!"
Eula and Collei, for their parts, were simply beaming over the balm they had made with their own hands.
"I'm going to treasure this tin forever. Eula and Collei made it for me!"
"I'll treasure mine too, Amber!"
"You two! Hmph — I'm keeping score."
Watching all of them so genuinely happy, Ye Xi quietly let go of the thought.
Sometimes, even when the convenient tools and shortcuts were right there, they weren't always the right choice. Moments that built bonds between people didn't come along that often. There was a real kind of happiness in getting your hands dirty and doing something yourself — for the sake of enjoyment, not efficiency. Relying on clever skills and shortcuts all the time could make everything feel hollow.
"Ying'er, how much do all of these come to in total?"
They were his wives — it went without saying that he'd be the one footing the bill.
Ying'er beamed at him. "Here, one tin of perfumed balm is ten thousand Mora~ So in total — three hundred thousand Mora!"
Ten thousand Mora!
Ye Xi blinked despite himself.
Ten thousand Mora was what the Adventurers' Guild paid out for a low-tier commission. Truly something women were drawn to — naturally, it had to be expensive.
Catching his expression, Ying'er gave a small smile. "I have quite a few wealthy young ladies who come by regularly. They all adore my balm~"
And that was true.
Ying'er wasn't short on Mora. What she was short on was a safe place to belong.
And from where she was standing, Ye Xi's side looked very, very safe.
Ye Xi nodded and reached into his portable space for his coin pouch.
But just as he held it out, Ying'er made no move to take it.
Instead, she lowered her voice with a look of deep, layered meaning. "There's no rush, Master Ye Xi~"
"The balm isn't finished yet. Why not come back to pay tomorrow~?"
Then she leaned close — close enough that he could feel the warmth of her breath near his ear — and whispered, "If you come to pay in person tomorrow... I promise the price will be very different~"
Whether it was intentional or not, Ye Xi could actually feel the soft heat of her exhale against his skin. Paired with those words — words that scratched at something — it was genuinely, undeniably tempting.
Ye Xi thought it over. He had already moved into the Serenitea Pot, after all. Getting to Liyue Harbor from there was a matter of minutes. Hardly any trouble at all.
Fine. He'd come back tomorrow.
He gave a nod.
"Oh, and Master Ye Xi — please don't get the wrong idea~"
"I won't accept payment until every last tin of balm is finished. That's just good practice on my end — there's always a chance something goes wrong before it's done."
Ying'er sighed with theatrical softness. "In any case, I'm going to be very busy tonight. Toiling away all evening, just for you... losing sleep over you all night long~"
"You really do put people through so much~"
"And if I happen to hurt myself from being so exhausted and overworked, you'll have to take responsibility, you know~"
Ye Xi: ???
By the end of that, Ye Xi was genuinely numb.
"Ying'er," he said flatly, "you had better be talking about the balm."
"But Master Ye Xi~ I am talking about the balm~!"
"You——"
Ye Xi came perilously close to choking on his own breath.
This woman was clearly driving without a license. And the most infuriating part was that there wasn't a shred of actual evidence.
This woman was an absolute menace.
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