"Young by ten years?!"
Xu Qingya and Wen Rou, upon hearing Mu Jinyu's answer, couldn't help but open their mouths wide and stare with their beautiful eyes, looking incredibly cute.
They thought this was a bit too exaggerated, right?
If it were true, wouldn't that mean a forty-year-old woman, with his secret recipe, could become ten years younger and revert to the prime of her beauty as a charming lady?
And a woman in her thirties could look like a young lady experiencing her first love?
And a woman in her twenties could turn into... a legal Lolita?!
"Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
Even though Xu Qingya and Wen Rou deeply believed in Mu Jinyu and admired him immensely, Mu Jinyu's claim was after all too far-fetched, making them inevitably express their doubts.
Gu Xiyan felt the same, thinking that Mu Jinyu was bragging.
Seeing their disbelief, Mu Jinyu wasn't surprised, since, after all, they were women with long hair and short sight.
With a slight smile, Mu Jinyu said, "It's okay if you don't believe me, reality will prove everything. Sister Qingya, go get the ingredients listed on my prescription, just one portion will do, and I'll prepare a sample for you to try soon."
"Okay."
Xu Qingya didn't hesitate, but cautiously said, "I'll make a copy again."
After saying that, she walked to the office chair, took out some papers, and wrote a few new prescriptions.
The new prescription was half true, half false—an effect of being frightened by Xu Xiaojiao's betrayal.
After writing, Xu Qingya immediately called her secretary and had her collect one portion of each ingredient listed in the prescriptions.
The secretary took the orders and left.
"Actually, there's no need to be so cautious."
Mu Jinyu saw Xu Qingya taking serious protection measures even though she didn't believe him, which made him feel both moved and amused.
"Hmm? Why?"
Curious, Xu Qingya looked at Mu Jinyu.
Mu Jinyu explained, "Because even if someone else were to get their hands on the prescription and make it exactly as I do, without me crafting it, the pills would have no effect at all— at best, they might make someone a bit healthier."
Thinking it over, Xu Qingya glanced at the prescription Mu Jinyu wrote and murmured, "It seems they are all quite common ingredients."
"Then why are they useless if not crafted by you?" Gu Xiyan also curiously asked.
"Because of spiritual energy," Mu Jinyu casually explained, "The beauty pills I craft contain spiritual energy. Even if others mimic the process, because they lack spiritual energy, they can't evoke the miraculous effects of the beauty pills."
"Spiritual energy?"
Gu Xiyan and the others didn't quite understand.
However, Mu Jinyu didn't bother to explain further.
As it would probably take a lot of time and effort to explain, there was no need to.
It was enough just to let them realize the true effectiveness.
Seeing that Mu Jinyu wasn't saying more, although Xu Qingya and Wen Rou were curious, they didn't ask further.
Gu Xiyan, who tended to dwell on things, couldn't relax without understanding the matter thoroughly and asked Mu Jinyu several more times.
But Mu Jinyu merely smiled and didn't explain, leaving her no option but to sit aside, sullen.
Her pout so pronounced, Mu Jinyu thought, it could probably tether a donkey.
Soon.
Xu Qingya's secretary brought over all the various ingredients Xu Qingya had previously instructed her to fetch.
She placed down the medicine bag and consciously exited the office.
"With the supplies ready, Little Mu, how do you plan to proceed?"
Xu Qingya curiously looked toward Mu Jinyu.
Mu Jinyu said, "Bring a cup over here."
Xu Qingya then handed her usual drinking cup to Mu Jinyu.
Mu Jinyu took the cup, went to the office bathroom, turned on the tap, first washed his hands, and then started filling the cup with water.
While filling the cup, he channeled the Nameless Cultivation Technique taught by his master, drawing the sparse spiritual energy from the surrounding air into the cup in his hands.
After filling the cup with water, Mu Jinyu walked out of the bathroom toward the office desk.
The three women had been watching his movements, seeing him emerge with just a cup of water, their curiosity intensified.
Mu Jinyu reached the desk and unpacked the medicine bag.
The various medicinal ingredients he needed had already been processed into medicine powder beforehand, as the secretary had been notified earlier.
Leaving out the fake medicinal ingredients that Xu Qingya had mockingly included, Mu Jinyu poured all the medicinal powders for making the "Advanced Beauty Pill" into the cup.
"This..."
Gu Xiyan, watching this, frowned and couldn't help but question, "Are you sure you are making pills?"
"Of course,"
Mu Jinyu answered without looking up.
Then, he unbotheredly put on disposable gloves, dipped his hand into the cup to stir and knead until the sticky medicine paste in the cup became dough-like. He then laid a piece of cling wrap on the desk and started kneading it as if it were dough.
The three women standing by, watching his every move, reacted with: "???"
What the heck?
Is this how your family makes pills?
Regardless of their rolling eyes and internal complaints, Mu Jinyu eventually formed the medicine paste into pills that looked like glass marbles.
The pills were black, dirty-looking, somewhat resembling Leg-Stretching Death Pills...
Picking up one of the dusky pills, Mu Jinyu turned and beckoned to Gu Xiyan, "Yanyan, come, try the effects first."
"I don't want to." When Gu Xiyan heard this, her expression tightened, and then she cautiously eyed Mu Jinyu, refusing.
Just kidding, with his method of making pills, who knows what they really were, especially since the water he used to mix the medicine powder was just tap water!
She didn't want to be a guinea pig, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea after eating his pills.
"You're being naughty now," Mu Jinyu remarked, looking at Gu Xiyan with displeasure.
"How should I behave around you?" Gu Xiyan rolled her eyes and retorted, "You made them, you should be the one to eat them, right?!"
"I would love to," Mu Jinyu shrugged helplessly, "but I am already quite young, I don't want to get any younger."
Hearing Mu Jinyu say this, Gu Xiyan finally realized something. Mu Jinyu was actually just a teenager, about seventeen or eighteen years old, with only fine fuzz over his lips.
"This guy took so much advantage of me and he's just a little brat," Gu Xiyan muttered within her heart.
Since Gu Xiyan was unwilling to experiment on herself, Mu Jinyu didn't insist and turned his gaze toward the other two women.
Wen Rou pursed her lips, considering going all out to test the pill, even if it meant suffering from vomiting and diarrhea afterward.
But Xu Qingya, thinking of how bad the company's situation had turned because a traitor from the Xu family had emerged, felt the need to atone, and thus, she clenched her teeth and said, "I'll do it."
After speaking, she walked over to Mu Jinyu, under the astonished gazes of Wen Rou and Gu Xiyan, and reached for a black pill on the desk.
Then, she closed her eyes and threw it into her mouth.