Chapter 16
“Seaweed paste, black pearl powder, uh, and some unknown fish liquid…”
Ning Zhixia watched with a complicated expression as Popokula mixed these things together, its tentacles stirring the bowl, making a squishing sound.
The visual impact was too much for Qu Banqing, who only liked cute things. He felt dizzy and collapsed on the sofa, refusing to let this dark, gooey substance pollute his eyes.
After Audrow left that day, Popokula returned to its own plane that night and brought back a lot of materials, excitedly showing them the magical ocean mud!
“Moisturizes skin, repairs sun damage, brightens and softens… it does it all!” Popokula enthusiastically recommended. “I have a group of friends who love using it!”
“Thank you.”
Ning Zhixia stared at the ocean mud for a moment, then suddenly grabbed Qu Banqing’s hand and, under his astonished gaze, plunged both their hands into the bowl—
“Ahhh! I’m dirty!”
Qu Banqing’s hair stood on end as his hands were completely enveloped by the cold, wet, jelly-like substance. Every movement produced a sticky, squishing sound.
“Ugh～～～～” Ning Zhixia’s face trembled, his whole body shivering, creating comical waves. After a few seconds, he got used to the strange sensation and started kneading it like slime.
Popokula watched the hourglass and cheered, “Time’s up!”
“Quick, give me a towel!”
Qu Banqing quickly pulled his hands out, grabbed the towel offered by a tentacle, wiped his hands, and froze, staring in disbelief at his smooth, white hands.
“So soft, so smooth, so comfortable…” Qu Banqing stared at his hands, even the love marks left by the cats had disappeared. He exclaimed excitedly, “It actually works!”
“Wow, amazing!”
Ning Zhixia rubbed his face with his smooth hands, his eyes closing in comfort. He turned to ask Popokula, “Can you use it all over your body?”
“Yes!” Popokula played with a lump of mud, rolling it between two tentacles like making meatballs, and said cheerfully, “Just soak your whole body in it!”
They exchanged a look, imagining the scene of being covered in sticky, black mud, and shuddered in unison.
We’ll politely decline, thank you.
Impressed by the ocean mud’s effects, Ning Zhixia bought a batch of delicate jars, divided Popokula’s concoction into them, completed the registration procedures, and planned to offer it to his customers.
Monday appointments were always few, so Ning Zhixia took the day off, cuddling with the kittens and watching cartoons after lunch.
Qu Banqing, fully dressed, came downstairs.
Hearing the noise, Ning Zhixia turned and asked, “Are you going out?”
“Yeah, the supermarket is having a sale.” Qu Banqing slung a canvas bag over his shoulder, neatly folding a thick plastic bag and putting it inside, saying as he changed his shoes, “Don’t eat too many snacks at home, we’re having squid and chicken wing hot pot tonight.”
“Okay, bye Mommy.” Ning Zhixia waved, and received a light tap on the back of his head.
Qu Banqing walked out, turning back to see his friend, just like when they were young, dramatically clutching his head and wriggling on the sofa. He couldn’t help but smile.
A few seconds later, the smile faded from his lips. He watched quietly for a while, then lowered his head and left.
A few rumbles of spring thunder sounded in the afternoon, and soon it started to rain. The recent continuous rain probably wouldn’t stop for a while.
Ning Zhixia was by the window, messaging Qu Banqing, wondering if he had taken an umbrella, then suddenly remembered that Qu Banqing also had car keys, and yawned lazily.
When Lu Yaoguang arrived with a friend, she saw him dozing off, his head resting against the cats on the windowsill.
“Boss Ning, are you closed today?” Lu Yaoguang knocked on the open door. “I brought a friend from out of town who wants a manicure.”
“Hmm.” Ning Zhixia turned his head and saw a familiar woman standing behind Lu Yaoguang. He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully, exclaiming in surprise, “He Mingzhu?”
There were countless influencers on social media, all sorts of people pretending to be rich and famous, but He Mingzhu was an exception, because she was actually the heiress of the Haiyan Group. She didn’t have a huge following, but her influence was strong, her fans loyal, and she didn’t need or accept shady endorsements.
“Hi, I think we’ve met before.” He Mingzhu greeted him openly.
Lu Yaoguang was stunned: “You know each other?”
Ning Zhixia smiled, inviting them to sit down. “My family is also in business. We met at a banquet during university.”
Ning Zhixia’s father’s business had grown significantly since he was in middle school. It was because he was busy with socializing and business that his lifestyle clashed with Mrs. Lu’s, leading to their amicable divorce.
When he met He Mingzhu at that banquet, they had both indulged in the food and drinks, making the most of the free buffet. They had bumped into each other several times, and even with face blindness, they had become familiar.
Lu Yaoguang clicked her tongue in disappointment. She had thought it was some kind of rich family connection, but it turned out they were just two foodies.
“I’m here in Yucheng for a trip and to film a vlog.” He Mingzhu petted a curious kitten and chuckled. “Yaoguang told me about a great nail salon, so I wanted to try it. I didn’t expect it to be owned by Young Master Ning.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place.”
Young Master Ning proudly hummed, waving his hand generously, “Any design you want!”
He Mingzhu knew he wasn’t bragging, and she trusted his skills. She took out her phone and showed him the design she wanted.
Ning Zhixia didn’t find it difficult and took out his tools to start working.
This design was elegant and symbolized wealth, quite fitting for He Mingzhu’s temperament. After applying a nude base coat to the long, almond-shaped nails, he needed to apply a thin layer of cat eye polish, then create small flowers and butterflies with sculpting gel, and finally, apply a top coat and rub on gold mirror powder.
It was simple to do, but to maintain a translucent effect, the cat eye polish had to be of high quality. When Ning Zhixia took out his collection of polishes, He Mingzhu raised an eyebrow: “Young Master Ning, you’re quite extravagant.”
This cat eye polish was from a luxury brand, costing nearly 100 yuan per bottle. Ning Zhixia, mindful of costs when he opened the shop, had only bought this cat eye series.
But it had to be said, you get what you pay for. The thin layer on the nails was shimmery, translucent, and the magnetic particles were smooth and didn’t turn gray.
Lu Yaoguang sighed: “It’s so beautiful, you should just switch to this level of polish entirely!”
Ning Zhixia was about to say, I’d go bankrupt, but then he thought of his generous evening customers and fell strangely silent. It felt like he might actually achieve luxury polish freedom soon!
Lu Yaoguang was simply accompanying He Mingzhu. Ning Zhixia, afraid she would be bored, thought for a moment and suggested, “I have a new hand mask mud, want to try it?”
“Hmm? A new product?”
Lu Yaoguang’s eyes lit up as she agreed, “I love trying new products!”
So, after she washed her hands, Ning Zhixia took out a jar of ocean mud, poured it into a bowl, and placed it in front of her while He Mingzhu was curing her nails.
“You’re saying… this is a hand mask?”
He Mingzhu looked incredulously at the bowl of black, slime-like substance, moving her stool back a bit.
Ning Zhixia nodded, strongly recommending it: “Although it doesn’t look very appealing, the effect is really good!”
It wasn’t just unappealing…
Lu Yaoguang was skeptical, but she hadn’t been let down by Ning Zhixia before, so she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and plunged her hands in.
“Ooh…”
Like perfectly textured slime, her ten fingers instinctively started kneading it.
He Mingzhu, intrigued by her enjoyment, kept glancing back.
“Want to try?” Lu Yaoguang kneaded enthusiastically. “It’s as satisfying as sticking your hands in rice!”
“…” He Mingzhu hesitated, then compromised. “Let me try it later.”
An hour later, there was another bowl of squishing ocean mud in the shop.
He Mingzhu couldn’t stop kneading it, laughing like a fool and exclaiming, “Mass produce this quickly, I want to buy a ton and keep it at home to play with every day!”
“Tsk.” Lu Yaoguang, touching her smooth hands, said faintly, “Some people hoard face masks at home and never use them, but they use one every night when they travel.”
Ning Zhixia added quietly, “Like stuffing books into your backpack during vacation.”
He Mingzhu: “…”
The effect of the ocean mud was beyond imagination. Although it had a slightly salty, sea-like scent, after washing her hands and applying some balm, her skin felt refreshingly fragrant.
He Mingzhu, feeling refreshed, was in a good mood as Ning Zhixia walked her out after she paid. She turned back and smiled, “I envy you, being able to do what you love so well. But with your abilities, you don’t have to stay in Yucheng, do you?”
“I prefer freedom, being able to do what I love every day, see my good friends, enjoy beautiful scenery. After traveling around, I realized how lucky I am to have these things.”
Ning Zhixia shrugged. “I just want to enjoy all of this now.”
He Mingzhu seemed to be infected by his bright smile and smiled as well.
“I’ll see you around. Have a good life, let’s have dinner together sometime.”
She waved and left arm in arm with Lu Yaoguang.
He had planned to take a break, but with the arrival of acquaintances, he had been busy for a long time. Ning Zhixia stood under the eaves, yawning widely, and saw Qu Banqing returning, his shoulders wet with rain, carrying a heavy bag of groceries.
“You didn’t drive?” Ning Zhixia was startled.
“I did, but the rain suddenly got heavier on the way back from the garage, so annoying!” Qu Banqing carried the groceries inside and turned to call him, “Don’t just stand there, the rain is blowing sideways, it’s going straight into your mouth.”
“Oh.”
Ning Zhixia wiped his face and was about to go inside when he caught a glimpse of something outside the courtyard wall and froze.
The camphor trees on Qingxi Road provided ample shade. Water droplets collected on the leaves and dripped onto a black umbrella. Through the countless transparent strands of rain, Audrow quietly watched him.
Ning Zhixia shielded himself from the rain with his hand and splashed across the water-filled stone slabs in the front yard, approaching the wall and asking, “Why are you here?”
After asking, with his face covered in raindrops, he shook his head like a wet puppy, trying to shake off the water clinging to his hair.
Audrow tilted the umbrella towards him, the edge resting against his back, pulling the foolishly rain-soaked person closer, bringing him under the black umbrella.
Ning Zhixia smiled: “Buying cakes again? You never get tired of them.”
“No.” Audrow shook his head, not saying anything else, just glancing at the house behind him.
“Then want to join us for dinner?” Ning Zhixia also looked back, chattering excitedly, “We’re having squid and chicken wing hot pot tonight, have you ever tried it? Let me tell you, it’s delicious…”
“Not to my liking.” He said disinterestedly, like a picky eater.
You won’t even try it? No taste.
Ning Zhixia pouted: “Then what do you like to eat?”
Audrow stared at him, the corners of his lips slowly curling upwards: “Human flesh.”
The hand holding the umbrella handle was pale, the blue veins faintly visible, standing out starkly in the dim, rainy light.
Ning Zhixia froze for a moment, then looked away, muttering, “Stop trying to scare me.”
He had long since realized that this guy, who seemed cold and aloof on the surface, was actually mischievous at heart, and enjoyed scaring people.
Audrow chuckled softly. Before the water droplet hanging from Ning Zhixia’s hair could slide down his cheek and into his neck, he flicked it away with his finger.
“I’m leaving.”
He left the umbrella with Ning Zhixia and turned to leave under the other’s astonished gaze.
He Mingzhu stayed in Yucheng for another day. After returning, she posted her travel vlog. She wasn’t a professional vlogger, just doing it for fun, and the video was casually edited, but this episode surprisingly received a lot of views.
People had originally come to see what kind of high-end manicure the heiress had gotten, but when a bowl of black, jelly-like substance appeared, their attention immediately shifted. When He Mingzhu plunged her hands into it, everyone’s hair stood on end!
“Ahhh! Help! What is she doing with her hands that she just had a treatment last week?!”
“What is that stuff? It looks disgusting…”
“Tsk, tsk, even real heiresses are into this bizarre stuff now?”
“What kind of hand mask is that! It’s clearly mutated slime!”
It was well-known that He Mingzhu didn’t accept shady endorsements, so people couldn’t understand why she would do this, especially when a voiceover gently explained the effects of the hand mask. The fans scoffed.
A thousand yuan for this? Crazy, they wouldn’t even do it for free!
However, later in the video, as He Mingzhu was engrossed in kneading the mud, the “squish, squish” sound attracted two kittens. They tilted their heads, watched for a while, and as if inspired by He Mingzhu, actually squatted down and started kneading the table with their paws.
“So weird, so cute, so weird, so cute…”
“Mad, I actually want to try it now!”
“Wait, haven’t you guys played with slime? Fake water slime, crystal mud, super stress-relieving!”
People no longer cared about the effects of the hand mask, their curiosity piqued. Just as they were about to open online stores to buy slime, they saw He Mingzhu’s hands after wiping off the ocean mud, their eyes widening as they rewound the video.
“No… no editing? No filters?”
“Really, even the lighting is the same, the effect is amazing!”
“Sorry, I just spoke too soon. If this is real, my rough hands are saved!”
“Thinking about it this way, it’s not expensive. The shop owner’s manicure skills are so good, a free hand treatment with a manicure, what a steal!”
Although He Mingzhu’s video didn’t mention the name of the nail salon, it didn’t stop the resourceful netizens from quickly finding the Monster Manicure Shop’s account.
Ning Zhixia had just uploaded a video showcasing his new Swarovski crystals.
The shop owner, as if having OCD, placed each type of crystal in a separate compartment of the acrylic storage box, one crystal per compartment, arranged by color from dark to light, the tweezers placing each crystal perfectly synchronized with the beat of the music.
“Alright, tonight let’s say goodbye to the Hoof Concubine and the Mushroom Noble, and tell the Ear-Cleaning Concubine that I’ll visit her tomorrow.”
As if jumping from one obsession to another, everyone was instantly mesmerized by the sparkling Swarovski crystal mansion.
Thanks to the hand mask’s popularity, the average spending of customers increased, and Ning Zhixia finally bought the luxury gel polishes he had been eyeing, purchasing several series he liked.
“This way, the effect of some designs should be even better.”
Ning Zhixia happily signed for the packages, and Qu Banqing helped him carry the boxes filled with bottles and jars into the house.
Unbeknownst to them, the couple across the street at the Lanhua Head Massage Parlor were watching through the window, their expressions unreadable.
The customers who had initially flocked to their shop had spent money like crazy, coming back every few days for a new design, and recharging their membership cards with each visit. Over time, the pain from their over-treated nails brought them back to their senses, and they gradually stopped coming.
The owner’s wife of Lanhua, looking at the increasingly empty shop, gave her husband a look.
The owner turned around without a word, went upstairs, cautiously looked around, entered his office, and reverently took out a red-cloth-covered object from the cabinet.
The corner of the cloth fluttered slightly in the wind, revealing a shadowy figure moving excitedly inside.
The man, sweating profusely, quickly closed the window, took a deep breath, and knelt down respectfully…
Meanwhile—
Ning Zhixia trimmed the yellowing leaves of the pothos on the windowsill, put down the gardening shears with a satisfied nod, and held up a mirror to it: “Much better now, right?”
The pothos gently brushed his cheek with a leaf.
Ning Zhixia smiled: “Hee hee, good night.”
The pothos lifted a branch with small white flowers, touched the young man’s fluffy black hair, and waved vigorously.
Only after the young man disappeared around the corner of the stairs did it stop waving and hang quietly by the window, swaying gently in the breeze.
