What’S Wrong With Just Eating His Majesty’S Soft Rice? Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Aura of a Broke and Unkempt Person

Fang Cheng had a regular barbershop he frequented. In the past, places like this served as the base of operations for his hairstyles. He hadn’t been a good student growing up, and there was a time when he cared deeply about his hair, following trends, dyeing it various colors, and trying many styles. It wasn’t until later that he returned to his natural look.

Of course, it was also because he was older now and lacked the edgy, impulsive energy of the youth to fuss over it, so he mostly stuck to a simple and comfortable buzz cut. (It definitely wasn’t for financial reasons.)

The moment he stepped through the door, Fang Cheng heard Xiao T’s greeting, which sounded like a madam welcoming guests to a brothel. “Oh my, look what the wind blew in. It’s our Brother Cheng! Hurry up and sit down, I’ll personally give you a cut.”

Xiao T, dressed in tight black clothes, leaned delicately toward Fang Cheng, revealing a long stretch of his pale, thin waist.

Even among the flamboyant standards of fellow hairstylists, he was a bit much.

Fang Cheng naturally pushed him aside, took off his hat, and revealed his bizarre hairstyle. “Hurry up and fix this for me. I have things to do this afternoon.”

Xiao T took one look at the patch of hair that had been shorn off, which was nearly skin-short.

A perfectly good hairstyle had been abruptly sliced away at one corner, looking rather ridiculous.

Xiao T, showing a complete lack of professional ethics, burst into a fit of laughter. “Who did this? How did our Brother Cheng end up like this?”

Fang Cheng cast a sinister glance at Zhou Yinli, who was standing at the door, and began to spout nonsense. “I ran into a lunatic with a meat cleaver while walking. He was hacking at everyone. He was aiming for my head, but luckily your Brother Cheng is fast. In the end, he only managed to shave off a bit of hair.”

Zhou Yinli shifted uncomfortably.

Xiao T followed his gaze and looked at Zhou Yinli. His eyes instantly lit up. His small salon had never seen a handsome guy of this caliber before. He immediately forgot about Fang Cheng and threw a wink at Zhou Yinli. “Hey handsome, here for a haircut? I’ll give you a twenty percent discount.”

He didn’t realize at all that this person was with Fang Cheng, nor did he even think in that direction.

Zhou Yinli was startled by the man’s sudden enthusiasm and looked at Fang Cheng with a stiff body. Fang Cheng was quite satisfied with this reaction; as long as the guy didn’t step forward to punch Xiao T, he was being sensible.

It seemed the scare from earlier had been effective. He clearly didn’t dare to act rashly now.

However, Fang Cheng was still angry about his hair. He turned his head away and ignored him, letting Xiao T throw wink after wink, even attempting to reach out and hang onto Zhou Yinli.

The handsome man ignored him, but Xiao T didn’t care. He became even more enthusiastic, reaching out to touch the man’s hair. “This hair quality is so good, and you’ve grown it so long. Could you sell it to me…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the other man blurred. No one in the salon could see his movements clearly. It felt like a gust of wind, a mere shadow.

Zhou Yinli was already standing next to Fang Cheng, not letting the stylist touch him.

When the others in the barbershop snapped out of it, they were all bewildered. How was that man in one spot a second ago and on the other side in the blink of an eye?

Xiao T’s hand remained raised, grasping at empty air, his face full of confusion.

The shop had never been this quiet. Several hairstylists looked at each other, the same question in their eyes:

Did anyone see how he moved to stand over there?

No one could answer. Only Fang Cheng, who had already witnessed the man’s immense strength and agility, remained perfectly calm.

Fortunately, Xiao T was quick to react and realized the man had come with Fang Cheng. He shot Fang Cheng a look. “Brother Cheng, is he your friend? Why didn’t you introduce us?”

Fang Cheng nodded and said impatiently, “Don’t worry about him. Just hurry up and fix my hair. I have things to do.”

Seeing that he didn’t want to say more, and realizing that the hair was indeed a challenge, Xiao T began to work.

He was very skilled at cutting hair and didn’t stop talking throughout the process. He turned his head whenever he got the chance to strike up a conversation with Zhou Yinli, his eyes practically dripping with affection, focusing mostly on Zhou Yinli’s head.

From beginning to end, Zhou Yinli’s expression remained unchanged as he flipped through posters of various colorful and strangely shaped hairstyles.

Consequently, he didn’t notice Xiao T talking to him at all—or perhaps he did notice but simply had no desire to respond.

Because the starting point was so disastrous, even with Xiao T’s good technique, the final result was an even shorter buzz cut.

But it was still better than the strange missing patch from before.

Fang Cheng looked at himself in the mirror. No matter how he looked at it, he looked like he had just been released from prison. He already had a somewhat thuggish appearance, and with his habitually improper expressions paired with this “labor reform” haircut, he didn’t look like a good person at all.

Looking on the bright side, it might be more convenient for fights in the future; it could intimidate others.

Although men generally didn’t care much about their image, Fang Cheng felt a surge of irritation the moment he looked at Zhou Yinli. Why did you get to keep your flowing long hair while I ended up with a prickly stubble?

Anger rose in Fang Cheng’s heart as he pointed at Zhou Yinli. “He needs a cut too.”

This time, Zhou Yinli couldn’t pretend to be a mute. He covered his hair. “I am not cutting it!”

“You have to! If you don’t cut it, don’t even think about leaving this door!” Fang Cheng shouted.

Xiao T saw the signs of an impending brawl and quickly intervened. “Hey, if he doesn’t want to cut it, he doesn’t have to. I think this handsome brother looks great with long hair. There’s no need to force a cut. It’s his style.”

Fang Cheng was about to say more when he received a message from Lin Er asking if they had arrived.

Fang Cheng replied “immediately” and pointed at Zhou Yinli. “I’ll let you off this time, but we’ll talk about it next time. That hair definitely has to go! Or my last name isn’t Fang!”

Zhou Yinli didn’t even give him a glance, appearing completely indifferent to Fang Cheng’s threat.

As they were leaving, Xiao T pulled Fang Cheng aside to ask for Zhou Yinli’s WeChat. Zhou Yinli didn’t even have a phone, let alone a WeChat account. Naturally, it was impossible to give it to him. He just stood there with a stiff face, enduring it.

Fang Cheng enjoyed the sight of the veins throbbing in the man’s forehead as he was harassed by Xiao T. Just a second before he was clearly about to explode, Fang Cheng laughed it off with Xiao T and dragged Zhou Yinli away.

In that moment, Fang Cheng clearly saw Zhou Yinli’s expression toward him change slightly. Perhaps it was gratitude.

The address Lin Er sent was quite a distance away. Fang Cheng was reluctant to call a taxi. He had plenty of time, so he took the bus for long distances and relied on “Route 11″—his own two legs—for short ones.

After checking the navigation, he decided to drag Zhou Yinli to wait for the bus.

Two tall men standing together on a bus was quite an eye-catching sight, mostly because the contrast between them was so stark. One had extremely short hair and wasn’t bad-looking, but his expression was always a bit too improper and grinning. He didn’t look very trustworthy.

The other man had long hair and a very handsome face, but he had a “do not approach” aura, radiating a coldness that made him look even less like a good person than the first guy.

The bus was full of elderly people, and few dared to look at them for long, let alone get close. A small empty space was practically carved out for the two of them in the cramped bus.

On the surface, Zhou Yinli appeared motionless and serious, but Fang Cheng, standing close to him, noticed his body was trembling.

This was his God of Wealth, after all; he hoped the guy wasn’t having some kind of fit. If something happened on the bus, he wouldn’t be able to escape the trouble.

He leaned closer to Zhou Yinli. “Are you motion sick?”

Zhou Yinli closed his eyes and didn’t speak, which was as good as an admission.

Fang Cheng saw he didn’t have any other symptoms and thought for a moment. “It’s fine. You’ll get used to it. You should ride the bus more often in the future.”

Just then, the bus stopped at a station and someone got off, leaving a seat vacant.

A man nearby stepped forward quickly to take it, but he stopped when Fang Cheng glared at him fiercely. Then, Fang Cheng pulled Zhou Yinli over and made him sit down.

The man, having missed his chance, gave Fang Cheng a nasty look. But he was likely intimidated by Fang Cheng’s appearance and didn’t dare to say anything, choosing to endure it instead.

Fang Cheng didn’t care; he didn’t give a damn what that man thought. Zhou Yinli was genuinely motion sick, so what was wrong with him taking a seat if he needed it?

Zhou Yinli didn’t notice the man glaring at them. He just looked down at his hand, which was still being held, so surprised that he forgot to pull it away.

Fang Cheng leaned over and opened the window for him. “If you’re motion sick, getting some fresh air will help.”

With the air slightly better, Zhou Yinli stared out the window for a while, his profile unreadable. His complexion, however, returned to a much more normal shade.

Good, good. Fang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the person was fine, the money was fine.

After getting off the bus, Fang Cheng followed the navigation for a while before reaching the Film and Television City.

When they finally entered Lin Er’s set, the place looked quite decent at first glance, with a fair bit of scale.

Out of curiosity, he had watched Lin Er film web dramas before, but those were all modern dramas filmed very crudely. Often, they would just find a street corner or a hotel and start shooting. Now, he had actually set up a studio, built to look like a scene from a period palace drama. It looked similar to the sets he had seen on TV. Clearly, the hardware had improved this time.

However, the actors were still the familiar faces Fang Cheng knew.

After all, Lin Er couldn’t find legitimate stars to act in this kind of low-tier web drama. So, they were either college students who hadn’t graduated or bit players from other sets. Fortunately, the actors he worked with were people he knew well, and their acting skills weren’t necessarily worse than those of popular idols.

The last time they were drinking, Fang Cheng had casually called his work a “crap film,” which had made Lin Er cry his eyes out. After crying, Lin Er had hugged his wine bottle and said sorrowfully, “What do you know? Do you think I want to make crap films? Do you know what it takes to make a good movie?”

Fang Cheng had asked, “What does it take?”

Lin Er counted on his fingers. “Connections, resources, funding, technology, equipment. I’m someone who started filming halfway through my life. To be able to produce anything at all with nothing is already impressive.”

From then on, Fang Cheng stopped teasing him. He hadn’t meant to look down on him, of course; he himself didn’t have a proper job, so he had no right to laugh at Lin Er. Moreover, Lin Er was full of passion for his career. Compared to Fang Cheng’s “live for today and ignore tomorrow” personality, Lin Er was definitely more proactive.

As soon as Lin Er saw them, he scanned Zhou Yinli like a searchlight, not giving Fang Cheng a single glance.

Fang Cheng didn’t mind and walked over to pat Lin Er on the shoulder. “How is it?”

Lin Er’s small mustache twitched. He noticed that Zhou Yinli was no longer wearing the ancient clothes from the photo, having changed into a plain white shirt and black pants. He didn’t look as intimidating as he did in the photo; he seemed a bit more approachable.

The “approachability” mainly referred to the aura of a broke and unkempt person that came with the clothes. After all, it was hard to pass off wrinkled, yellowing old clothes as intentional “distressed fashion.”

Lin Er stared intently at Zhou Yinli. Up close, the man looked even more real than he did in Fang Cheng’s low-resolution photos taken with non-existent photography skills. His features possessed a purely masculine grandeur without a single flaw. He was definitely the type who could make a living based on his face alone.

After all, this kind of top-tier beauty was a truly scarce resource.

Lin Er was secretly delighted, but he still felt a bit of doubt. He pulled Fang Cheng aside and whispered, “Who is this? Why would he agree to come here? Is he not signed with another company?”