Edited by Zaki
If June was just a prelude to the heat, then as soon as July arrived, the temperature went up to 37-38 degree Celsius.
When Lu Qingjiu woke up, he saw Bai Yuehu, who always liked to sleep with him, lying beside him, wearing a night T-shirt that had rolled up halfway, exposing his white belly. Bai Yuehu’s belly wasn’t soft to the touch, and didn’t have much fat, it felt very average, not as good as Lu Qingjiu’s own.
Hearing the sound of Lu Qingjiu getting up, Bai Yuehu yawned and got up from the bed in a daze. He kissed Lu Qingjiu’s chin naturally, and then the two went to wash up.
It was too early in the morning, and the activities of animals in the yard was slowly increasing. Bai Yuehu took advantage of the fact that the sun was not yet too hot and went to the field, cleaned up the vegetables that should be cleaned up, and watered the plants. Lu Qingjiu cooked a sumptuous breakfast. As the weather got hotter, the food he cooked became more refreshing. He cut the stalks of lettuce into fine shreds and then blanched them in hot water, then put on chili sesame oil and other ingredients, and then mixed them into a cold salad. The dough that was fermented last night was ready to use today, and the filling had also been prepared last night, a pork and cabbage stuffing, with some diced lotus root added for texture and taste.
The filling was wrapped using the fermented dough wraps and cooked in an electric baking pan and the hot sesame seed cake was thus baked. Lu Qingjiu also simmered a big pot of mung bean porridge and boiled five salted duck eggs. He originally planned to make some tea eggs, but he was running out of time, so he thought about making it at noon.
Bai Yuehu worked on the vegetable field, and brought a basket of vegetables back to the yard as he returned. There was less rain this year, and the vegetables didn’t grow as gratifyingly as last year, but they didn’t look too bad. Both the eggplants and the tomatoes were ripe. Needless to say, the tomato tasted just as delicious as last year’s. It was moist and juicy and could be eaten as a fruit, and the eggplant was also quite big. Lu Qingjiu especially reminded Bai Yuehu to pick it as he could use the leftover filling from the sesame cake to make some eggplant dishes to eat.
When Yin Xun arrived, breakfast had just been served on the table, and the three people sat down and began to feast on it.
There was enough sesame cakes and porridge, as well as oily salted duck eggs, which could relieve the heat and cut through the greasiness. The sesame seed cake tasted very good this time, and the added diced lotus root was the key. When you bit into the thin skin, hot gravy oozed out. Once you took a full bite, the skin was crispy, the filling was soft, and the diced lotus root inside perfectly neutralized the greasy feeling of pork. There was also cold shredded lettuce, which was spicy and crisp, making it extra appetizing. Lu Qingjiu ate two cakes and drank two bowls of porridge, and finally he was full. Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu also looked satisfied.
After breakfast, Yin Xun said that the hawthorns in the west of the village were ripe, and they could pick some.
“Isn’t that hawthorn planted by Aunt Liu’s family?” Lu Qingjiu recalled.
“Yes.” Yin Xun said, “But isn’t Aunt Liu dead?”
Lu Qingjiu: “But you’re dead too.”
Yin Xun: “…..” It seems to be right.
Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu, “What’s going on with the people in the village?”
Bai Yuehu took a sip of tea to moisten his mouth, “They don’t know that they are dead, and they still live like ordinary people.”
Lu Qingjiu: “In the eyes of outsiders, they are still alive.”
Bai Yuehu: “Yes.”
Lu Qingjiu thought about it and felt it was right, because at least in the eyes of Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi, Shuifu Village was a living village, and sometimes the villagers would communicate with the outside world to buy and sell goods. The outside world did not find anything unusual about the Shuifu Village.
Xiao Hua, who was lying beside, asked, “Will Li Xiaoyu go to junior high school?”
Bai Yuehu glanced at Xiao Hua: “That depends on whether he can pass the exam.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Qingjiu saw flames burning in Xiao Hua’s eyes. He said, “I know, I will definitely work hard to let Li Xiaoyu go to college. Although he is dead, he has a dream.”
Lu Qingjiu: “…..” All right then.
Yin Xun didn’t care about the future and education of the villagers at all. He blinked and asked, “Then let’s pick hawthorns?”
Lu Qingjiu said: “Go…” The hawthorns at home were almost finished. This sweet and sour thing was a holy food to cool off the summer heat. It was best to have fresh ones. But you couldn’t just pick it up like this, there had to be another way.
So after lunch, Lu Qingjiu went to find Yin Xun’s neighbor, Aunt Liu, and discussed with her, saying that he would buy the hawthorn at the market price.
Aunt Liu originally wanted to decline, saying that it was for Lu Qingjiu to eat, but when she heard that the quantity he wanted was quite large, she finally agreed.
After getting Aunt Liu’s permission, Lu Qingjiu’s family happily picked hawthorns.
This hawthorn tree was quite good. There were clusters of bright red fruits hanging on the lush branches and leaves. Fresh hawthorn has a particularly sour taste, much different from the dried ones. Lu Qingjiu tasted one, and his whole face wrinkled into a ball. He incidentally also stuffed one into Bai Yuehu’s mouth, and Bai Yuehu’s expression remained unchanged.
“Isn’t it sour?” Lu Qingjiu asked.
“It’s okay.” Bai Yuehu replied.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lu Qingjiu smiled and did not think much of it and continued to pick fruits, while Bai Yuehu silently let go of the hand holding the tree trunk, leaving a few obvious finger marks on the originally smooth bark. Hmph, this dragon was not afraid of sourness, neither sour orange nor sour hawthorn could defeat him.
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Thinking of this, Lu Qingjiu planned to buy some other fruits to make together.
After picking several baskets full of hawthorns and paying Aunt Liu, the three went home happily. After returning home, Lu Qingjiu asked them to wash the hawthorns first, and then removed the pits inside. This was a big project, but it was still early, so there was no rush.
Lu Qingjiu fed the cow some chocolate, and then milked half a bucket of milk. He planned to make some popsicles to cool off the heat. After boiling the milk, he added sugar and honey into it, poured the milk into a special mold for popsicles, and then put it in the freezer.
The weather was so hot that even Lu Qingjiu was sweating all over after doing these things. He went to wash his face and planned to make dinner.
They had braised beef for lunch, and for dinner Lu Qingjiu decided to make it simpler, so he fried a few plates of eggplant slices, made garlic-paste white meat and cold chicken, and fried a bitter gourd. There were also fresh lettuce leaves and poached eggs, making the meal very refreshing.
Everyone was a bit hungry after being busy all afternoon. Lu Qingjiu slurped his noodles and then said that he was going to the city tomorrow, and asked if they had anything to bring.
“Why are you going to the city when it’s so hot?” Yin Xun chewed on the tender chicken.
“To buy some fruit.” Lu Qingjiu said, “I’ll make candied fruits for you guys, have you tried them?”
“No.” Yin Xun gave a sad answer.
Bai Yuehu shook his head, and added after a moment’s pause: “But I saw others eat it.”
Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu almost wanted to cover his face, thinking that you might as well not have said anything, the added words made it sound even more heartbreaking.
After dinner in the evening, Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun washed the dishes, while Lu Qingjiu put the peeled hawthorn into the pot and boiled it together with sugar, making a sweet and sour hawthorn sauce. This hawthorn sauce was perfect for summer, or you could even add water and put it in the refrigerator to freeze into popsicles.
After doing this, it was getting late, Lu Qingjiu took a shower and hid in the air-conditioned room. Because of Zhu Rong’s advice before, Lu Qingjiu didn’t dare to turn on the air conditioner all day long, and even drank beer at room temperature when he was eating skewers. For people with a hot body, not being able to eat ice in summer was simply the most terrible torture. Fortunately, Lu Qingjiu had a cold body, so he wouldn’t be affected too much if he didn’t eat it. Of course, he still missed it occasionally.
In the sufficient air-conditioned room, Lu Qingjiu, who was tired all day, fell asleep on Bai Yuehu’s arm as his pillow. He had completely adapted to the slow-paced rural life, and had no thought of returning to the city. Besides, there were still people who needed him here. He just didn’t know why his Grandfather had repeatedly reiterated that he should leave here.
The next day, Lu Qingjiu went to the city as planned, intending to buy some fruits that he didn’t grow at home to make candied fruits. The most primitive candied fruits were made of hawthorns, but in recent years, living standards had improved and the types had become more diverse. Fruits such as strawberries, grapes, and kiwis were all delicious. Lu Qingjiu’s favorite was candied fruits made from strawberries. Strawberries were a bit sour at first, but after being coated with a layer of crunchy sugar, they were both sour and sweet. One bite at a time was most suitable for amusing children.
Neither Bai Yuehu nor Yin Xun had come with him to the city today. Lu Qingjiu assigned them a task to get rid of the grass in the yard. As the weather got hotter, the weeds in the yard became more and more lush, especially near the ancient well, it was almost overgrown with weeds.
After buying fruits such as strawberries and grapes in the supermarket, Lu Qingjiu also brought a box of mangoes and various snacks, thinking of replenishing childhood memories for Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun. It was just that when he was shopping, he felt that there was something wrong with the surrounding atmosphere. After looking around carefully, he couldn’t find anything wrong.
Lu Qingjiu felt a little vigilant in his heart, and quickly left the supermarket to go home, but who knew that when he was about three or four meters away from the truck, he noticed a strange dressed woman standing next to the truck. It was a hot summer day, but she was wearing a thick down jacket, long hair with silver jewelry coiled on top of her head, and exaggerated earrings on her ears, and her gaze fell on Lu Qingjiu’s body, seemingly sizing up something.
This woman was obviously not an ordinary person. If a normal person was wearing this down jacket, they would probably have passed out from heat stroke within half an hour, but looking at her, she didn’t even have a single drop of sweat, and there was still a weird smile on her lips.
Lu Qingjiu’s footsteps stopped, and instead of walking in the direction of the truck, he turned around immediately, intending to leave the sparsely populated parking lot, but just as turned around, hurried footsteps came from behind him.
“Wait.” The woman called out, “Don’t go.”
How could Lu Qingjiu listen to her? He didn’t stop, but instead started to run. He had not even run two steps before a strong force came from behind, pushing him directly. All the things in Lu Qingjiu’s hands were scattered on the ground, he held onto the wall next to him and managed to stabilize himself without falling.
He turned his head and saw a woman standing not far from him, she said, “Don’t go!”
Lu Qingjiu knew that he was not her opponent, so he could only stagger back a few steps, and asked, “What do you want?”
The woman said: “How to go to the Underworld?”
Lu Qingjiu: “….” He knew it.
Seeing that Lu Qingjiu didn’t answer, the woman became a little impatient, and asked again in a calm voice: “I asked you how to get to the Underworld.”
Lu Qingjiu gritted his teeth and replied, “I don’t know.”
The woman said: “You don’t know? Are you not from the Underworld?”
While talking to her, Lu Qingjiu observed the surrounding situation. There was no one in the parking lot just now. At this moment, there was a light ‘ding-dong’ sound from the elevator nearby. It seemed that someone had come down and with a flash of thought, he said, “You go up from there, turn a corner and you will arrive.” He casually pointed out the escape route.
The woman’s face darkened when she heard the words, “You are lying to me.”
Lu Qingjiu: “Ah”. He got exposed just like that.
The woman said: “I came down from there.”
Lu Qingjiu’s face showed embarrassment, but at this moment, a human figure came around the corner, who seemed to have come from the supermarket. Lu Qingjiu saw the situation, turned around and ran again. He didn’t even dare to look back.
In one breath, he rushed directly to the elevator. Lu Qingjiu slapped the UP button of the elevator vigorously, but he was unlucky, and just missed a step, and the elevator door closed in front of him. When Lu Qingjiu heard footsteps coming from behind, he broke out in a cold sweat. Just when he was about to run towards the stairs, a pair of hands pressed his shoulders heavily.
Lu Qingjiu turned his head stiffly, and saw the person behind him, who seemed to have come down from the elevator, with a surprised look on his face, he asked, “Brother, what’s the matter?”
Lu Qingjiu said: “Run!”
“What?” Before the man could finish speaking, a hand passed through his chest and pressed on Lu Qingjiu’s arm.
Lu Qingjiu looked dumbfounded, he wanted to run, but was grabbed tightly by two hands, unable to move no matter what. But he quickly noticed that the person in front of him was obviously not human, because after being pierced by a hand on his chest, he neither bled nor fell down, and had no reaction other than frowning.
“What are you doing?” The man in front of him turned his head and complained to the woman behind him in dissatisfaction, “Didn’t I tell you to stay in the car obediently?”
The woman snorted coldly: “How long have you been there?”
The man said, “I was just buying something.” He lifted the plastic bag in his hand and then gestured at the stunned Lu Qingjiu, “What are you scaring people for?”
“I just wanted to ask for directions,” the woman answered.
The man said, “How did you ask?”
The woman said, “I asked how to get to the Underworld.”
The man looked pained, he took a few deep breaths, just barely controlled his emotions, and then his tone was full of helplessness: “Okay, can you take your hand away from my chest first?”
The woman snorted again: “I’ll take it back, but don’t let him go.”
The man said: “Even if you let go, don’t scare ordinary people.”
Only then did the woman let go, and after she retracted her hand, Lu Qingjiu saw a big empty hole through the man’s torn T-shirt. This man actually didn’t have a chest part, the entire chest was filled with empty holes.
Lu Qingjiu’s eyes widened and blurted out: “You don’t have a chest!”
The man said: “Yes, she doesn’t either.”
The woman said angrily, “Who says I have no chest? I’m not from the Fangfeng clan.”
The man said: “Anyway, I didn’t see that you have a chest.”
Only then did the woman realize that she had been molested, and she raised her eyebrows angrily. On a closer look, one could say that she looked quite pretty. If it wasn’t for her strange dress, it wouldn’t be too difficult to just ask for directions.
When Lu Qingjiu heard the name Fangfeng, he immediately thought of something, and said: “You are from the Guanxiong Kingdom!” The Guanxiong Kingdom was a race in the Shan Hai Jing, their biggest characteristic was that there was a big hole in their chests.
The man was taken aback, he didn’t expect Lu Qingjiu to recognize his identity, he was surprised, but also a little excited: “You are also going to attend the meeting.”
Lu Qingjiu: “Ha” what meeting?
The man frowned and looked at Lu Qingjiu: “You are human.”
Just as Lu Qingjiu wanted to say that he was of course human, the woman behind the man answered, “Of course he is not.”
The man said: “You are not.”
Lu Qingjiu said: “Brother, can you let go first? I think my shoulder is going to be broken by your grip.”
He originally thought that the man would refuse, but he politely said sorry, and let go of Lu Qingjiu. It really didn’t look like he was malicious. Lu Qingjiu rubbed his painful shoulder from being gripped tightly, and carefully observed the man and the woman. The man was dressed in the same way as a human being. If it weren’t for the big empty hole in his chest, no one would think that he was not a human being. But the woman was completely out of place with the surroundings, especially the thick down jacket.
“I’m just passing by, and I don’t know where you guys are going.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Can I go now?”
The man said: “Oh, so that’s the case, then you’re not going to the meeting.”
Lu Qingjiu shook his head, expressing that he didn’t know about the meeting the man was talking about. Hearing this, the man thought for a moment and said, “Then do you know how to go to the Underworld?”
When Lu Qingjiu heard that he mentioned the Underworld again, he immediately became vigilant: “What the Underworld, I am a human being, I can only live in the human world, and definitely cannot go to the Underworld.”
The man was silent for a moment, and said helplessly, “It’s not the actual Underworld, but is there a place called Yinjian near here?”
He also explained how to write the word Yinjian.
Lu Qingjiu immediately understood: “You’re talking about the Yinjian Building. What do you need there?” Yinjian was an office building built by the government. It was quite famous in the local area, and many government agencies had set up offices there. He did not expect the woman to ask about this place.
“Oh, we have something to do there.” The man said, “My surname is Wang, and my name is Wang Rumeng. You can call her girl.”
The woman frowned when she heard the words, as if she wanted to say something, but when she saw Wang Rumeng’s expression, she stopped again.
Lu Qingjiu was still vigilant and didn’t dare to say his name, he said: “The place you are going, let me tell you the direction.” He was about to describe in detail, but Wang Rumeng gripped Lu Qingjiu’s shoulder again and said, “Brother, sorry, can you please take us there? You came here by car, right?”
Lu Qingjiu deliberately showed a difficult face.
Wang Rumeng said: “Look, my clothes are also torn. People might get frightened when they see it, and she can’t mingle with people well. Please we have to trouble you.” Although his words were very gentle, his tone was quite firm and the hand holding Lu Qingjiu didn’t show any intention of relaxing at all. It seemed that he didn’t intend to let Lu Qingjiu go.
Seeing this, the woman said, “He has the breath of a dragon on him.”
Wang Rumeng’s expression changed slightly when he heard the words: “He is a dragon?”
The woman shook her head: “Have you ever seen a dragon with such weak combat power? He shouldn’t be a dragon, but he has lived with dragons for a long time.”
This time, Wang Rumeng looked at Lu Qingjiu even more strangely. Lu Qingjiu couldn’t escape even if he wanted to, so he could only say: “Have you finished watching?”
“I am done.” Wang Rumeng said, “You know dragons ah.”
Lu Qingjiu said: “Why does it matter if I know or not?”
Wang Rumeng smiled: “If you know them, I would be more polite to you. After all, I don’t want to mess with them.”
Lu Qingjiu said: “Okay, I know them, can you let me go?”
But Wang Rumeng shook his head: “No, we won’t be able to find our way if we let you go, Brother, please help us to the end, send us there first.”
Lu Qingjiu knew that the other party would not relent and could only agree, so the three walked towards Lu Qingjiu’s minivan, but within two steps, there was a strong smell of burning, as if something was burnt. Before Lu Qingjiu could ask about the burning scent, Wang Rumeng’s face, who was standing next to him, changed drastically, and said: “Not good.” Then he rushed to the side and began to search for something in the black bag in his hand. This bag was held in his hand when he got off the elevator, it seemed to hold a lot of things, it was quite big and bulging. Lu Qingjiu quickly found the source of the fire. He watched in astonishment as puffs of black smoke began to rise from the girl on his left, and red flames began to erupt around. A normal person would have been rolling in the ground, but the girl looked at Lu Qingjiu indifferently. The two eyes met for a moment, and the girl asked: “What are you looking at, haven’t you seen people on fire?”
Lu Qingjiu: “……” Sorry, he really hadn’t.
The girl’s hair and skin were still unscathed under the scorching flames, but the down jacket on her body began to carbonize rapidly, and emitted a pungent burnt smell as puffs of black smoke came out. Lu Qingjiu stood beside her helplessly, thinking about whether to help her put out the fire. Wang Rumeng rushed back again in a hurry, threw two pieces of clothing to the ground, and then grabbed Lu Qingjiu’s shoulders and twisted him to the side: “Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look, Look again when her clothes are all burned.”
Lu Qingjiu felt that he should take Bai Yuehu out with him in the future, this world was really too dangerous. If he met someone randomly, he might be burned without even being able to say a word.
Fortunately, the girl burned very quickly, about a minute later, a sound came from behind. Lu Qingjiu and Wang Rumeng turned around together, and saw the girl standing on the wreckage, like a nirvana Phoenix.
Speaking of which, Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered that he didn’t seem to have seen a Phoenix at Shaohao’s house, could it be that the person in front of him was one?
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The author has something to say:
Lu Qingjiu rolled up his sleeves: Who cheated my poor fox with a lollipop?
Bai Yuehu rolled up his sleeves: Who used force to suppress my weak Jiu’er?
Oh damn I need to reread it I think I’m a little lost. But thank you very much for picking this story, I missed the descriptions of food and the sweet rural life…
Thank you so much for the update 🤍 I took a long break because I couldn’t comprehend MTL so I’m so glad it got pickup up again (´・ω・｀)
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter. The supernatural characters in this novel are geting weirder and weirder… I wonder where this is going.
Came back to read it after a long time and already can’t remember many things 😢..