I Am A Prodigy 131 Ye Lingchen’s Ambitions

‘Hehe, I’m sorry but you’re imagining things. That won’t happen for this entire month.’

‘Furthermore, tomorrow’s training will be doubled!’

Ye Lingchen stared at Little Green and Little Gray thoughtfully then turned away.

Little Green and Little Gray felt a chill down their spine. They then shivered as they exchanged glances. After that, they just yawned and went back to sleep.

‘Those two color wolves. They were the ones that signaled me over to watch, yet they are calling me a creep? Rebellious fools!’

‘Furthermore, can that be considered stalking? I’m doing it for justice!’

Ye Lingchen indignantly tried to justify himself of his peeping. He carefully went back upstairs.

However, right at that moment—

Click!

Along with the clear sound of the switch, the entire room lit up!

Ye Lingchen froze. At the same time, Zhang Yunxi who just got out of the toilet from her shower froze as well.

She did not expect Ye Lingchen to be sneaking inside the living room hall, leaving her dumbstruck.

OMG!

Ye Lingchen took a deep breath, his face immediately flushed red. His chest heaved as he breathed heavily.

“Namo Amithaba! The form is nonexistence and nonexistence is the form.”

“Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, equality, goodwill…[1]” 

“I am a successor of socialism. Without propriety use not your eyes; without it use not your ears…[2]” 

Ye Lingchen went all out trying to hypnotize himself, bringing his self-discipline to its peak.

“Ah!”

Zhang Yunxi’s face was similarly flushed red, like the scarlet cloud of a resplendent sunset. She then immediately rushed back into the bathroom.

“If I tell you that I’m innocent, would you believe me?” Ye Lingchen said quickly while rubbing his nose, then hastily ran back upstairs.

Zhang Yunxi stayed downstairs. It was already almost 10pm and Ye Lingchen did not expect her to have just finished her shower.

Most importantly the timing was just right. It was too much of a coincidence!

‘Wasn’t that ruining my name as a prodigy? Sigh, my great name is ruined in this lone incident!’

‘Damn!’

‘What’s with my recent run-ins with peeping?’

On the bed, Ye Lingchen rolled around. His mind was filled with what he saw earlier. Following that, scenes from Li Muxue’s room and similar scenes were interchanging constantly, firmly stuck in his mind.

He gave up sleeping, deciding to just deal with it since he could not keep it away. He started to replay those memories, appreciating them.

‘When I set my mind to it, I’ll even scare myself!’

The next day, Ye Lingchen got up with dark circles around his eyes.

Zhang Yunxi looked exhausted as well, obviously lacking proper rest. She prepared breakfast while avoiding Ye Lingchen’s gaze.

“I heard Little Green and Little Gray’s call. They were too noisy. That’s why I was downstairs.” Ye Lingchen unhesitantly shifted the blame to Little Green and Little Gray.

“Mm,” Zhang Yunxi answered in a very soft tone. Both of them remained silent and had their breakfast, clearly distracted.

Zhang Yunxi finished her meal. She then took a deep breath and finally spoke up, “Lingchen, I’ve given some thoughts to our cosmetics store’s brand.”

“Currently the competition between cosmetics stores is very fierce. When customers shop, they would focus on the brand. There are many nice brands on the market like La Mer, La Prairie, and so on. However, these brands are too costly. Just a simple set would cost tens of thousands. It will cost us greatly to invest in them. Furthermore, our store is new, so I was thinking if we go for lower-tier products such as Estee Lauder and Lancome.”

“Lower tier?” Ye Lingchen shook his head, vetoing the decision. “No way! You just pick the expensive ones. Money is not an issue!”

As he mentioned that money was not an issue, Ye Lingchen paused for a moment. Come to think of it, he seemed to be running low on money!

He had invested RMB10,000,000 into Huo Yuanjia, leaving him with only slightly over RMB100,000.

Just one set of cosmetics cost over RMB10,000. That was just freaking expensive!

In the worst-case scenario, he still had money in his stream he had yet to withdraw. There should be easily around three to four hundred thousand available.

Why did his money disappear so quickly?

“Lingchen, you have already given me RMB4,500,000. That’s sufficient,” Zhang Yunxi rolled her eyes at Ye Lingchen. This man was truly just leaving everything for her to manage without a care. It seemed like he made it easy for others to scam him.

“Oh, since it’s sufficient, then that’s not an issue.” Ye Lingchen continued with newfound confidence, “We must go all the way. Just pick the expensive ones. Don’t hold back!”

“That… fine.” Zhang Yunxi frowned slightly.

“Oh right, start by getting a set of each brand of cosmetics for me,” Ye Lingchen interjected.

He just had a sudden idea. Cosmetics were truly costly, definitely something with high markup. Why not make a set himself?

“Other than cosmetics, get me a set of skincare products as well!”

Ye Lingchen was like a cat that caught the scent of fish, ‘Will I have to worry about money in the future? No way!’

While in class that day, Ye Lingchen took out his phone and looked up the procedure to produce cosmetics.

The process was rather simple, yet could be complicated. Most importantly were the following steps:

Step one: formula.

Step two: sampling.

Step three: processing.

Step four: experiment.

Step five: refinement.

Step six: production.

Out of those steps, the most important ones were formula and processing, especially the processing part. Not only did it require a good control of the ingredient quantity, but it also required extra care on the temperature, methodology, sequence, oxygen content, etc.

To mass produce, it required specialized machines.

However, with only these challenges, it did not pose a problem to the prodigy.

Ye Lingchen slowly went through the information. As he did that, his eyes glowed brighter, ‘Isn’t this chemistry?’

‘No wonder Chemistry’s proficiency was so difficult to raise. Seems like it plays quite the role in daily life.’

Furthermore, apart from cosmetics, chemistry allowed him to formulate all sorts of medicinal serum, lotion, drugs, and skincare products. He only needed to figure out the materials and chemical reactions involved to have a good chance of making the product!

In the future, his Y-Cosmetics would not solely cater to helping customers with makeup. He would also produce the best cosmetics and skin care products in the world, forming his own empire.

That night itself, Ye Lingchen purchased test tubes, beakers, alcohol, and other apparatus. He then waited for Zhang Yunxi to come home with the different cosmetic products to experiment with.

Unfortunately, reality was cruel. Working late into the night, Ye Lingchen had only created one product. It could only be considered to be average quality, far from the trending cosmetics products.

By then, his room was a mess. Some minor explosive sounds could occasionally be heard, causing Zhang Yunxi who was staying on the lower floor to feel worried, unsure of what was happening.

Ye Lingchen frowned as he looked at the incomplete product in his hand.

It would seem that his Chemistry proficiency was too low as he was lacking a lot of knowledge.

In that, a lot of properties and the overall reaction was neglected. However, he had already gone through most of the chemistry related books at Capital University. It seemed unlikely for him to raise his proficiency any higher while staying within the country…

—

[1] A part of the core values of Chinese socialism. The full thing is: prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, and goodwill.

[2] A section taken from the Analects of Confucius (Book 12): Then said the Master, “Without Propriety use not your eyes; without it use not your ears, nor your tongue, nor a limb of your body.”