In the morning, Lin Mu woke up and found himself curled up like a spring roll.
No wonder he dreamt that he was stuck in a little black room last night, and nobody was answering regardless of who he called and how he shouted.
He laid down on the bed for quite a while. After the alarm rang, Lin Mu slowly rolled himself out of the spring roll then rolled out of bed.
It was only after he got dressed and folded his blanket did Lin Mu finally remember the dog who came to sleep with him last night wasn’t in bed with him.
He turned to look at the dog bed and found that it was empty too.
Lin Mu paused, made his bed and went down the stairs. He saw his dog laying in the open front door, and there was a sweet scent coming from the kitchen.
Lin Mu’s sleepy brain finally woke up after he took in a deep breath. He looked into the kitchen, and found that the rice cooker was in its warming mode. Opening it to take a look, he saw that there was a pot of millet congee, with two thin strands in ginseng in it.
Lin Mu was the one who had bought this millet rice from the mall. He had made congee with it several times, but they were never as fragrant as the one cooking today.
It seemed that this fragrance came from the ginseng strands.
Lin Mu placed the lid back on, then turned and walked out of the kitchen to the opened front door, where he saw the Ginseng Baby digging the ground with a shovel.
“Good morning,” Lin Mu greeted Milky and the little Ginseng.
The little Ginseng realised that Lin Mu had arrived and raised his head to show a sweet smile as he greeted with a childish tone, “good morning Lin Mu!”
The dog just shook his ears and didn’t even look at him.
Lin Mu looked at the dog, then squatted down to pet his head.
The dog continued to ignore him, and even shook his head to shake Lin Mu’s hand off.
This was the moment when Lin Mu noticed that something was wrong.
His family’s dog seemed to be angry with him.
— But they were still sleeping together so sweetly last night!
Lin Mu took back his hand, looked at the dog which was lying on his side with a serious expression, and started to think about what he had done wrong.
It probably wasn’t about him bringing Da Hei back, Lin Mu thought. Milky had suddenly started to get close to him after Da Hei left. Da Hei had also said that Milky was willing to be his dog — although those weren’t his original words, the meaning was there.
Yesterday, Milky had also eaten the pigeons and the old hen happily.
So what was it that went wrong?
Lin Mu frowned slightly and thought for a long time but didn’t come up with any reason.
It couldn’t be that he had kicked Milky out of bed in the middle of the night, right?
Lin Mu: “……”
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.
Oh shit.
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“Yeah, I saw you use it before.” The little Ginseng nodded his head, and his voice sounded soft and carried a hint of sweetness, “so that you can sleep in longer.”
Lin Mu was stunned, and his heart felt as if it had been gently poked by something small, causing all the warm emotions to flow out, sweet and tingly, crawling over his whole body.
He slowly came back to his senses, rubbed the smile on his face that had appeared without him knowing, and nodded, “well, I’m going to go and have breakfast.”
The millet congee containing ginseng had a slightly sweet flavor. Upon finishing the entire bowl, he felt that there wasn’t a single shred of discomfort in his whole body. It felt as though he had undergone a thorough body scrub, received a full relaxation package massage, and enjoyed a deep sleep. His energy levels were replenished, and his eyesight even improved.
Lin Mu had never eaten ordinary ginseng before, but he could definitely be sure that it wouldn’t have these sorts of effects.
The only thing was, just a few strands of root had such an amazing effect that if the whole root was made into a stew, it could probably cure all illnesses, restore youth, and prolong life. It’s no wonder why the Ginseng Baby had to look for places to hide.
Lin Mu gave the remaining congee to the dog, and since it was still early, grabbed a hoe and went to the yard to help the Ginseng Baby turn up the earth.
Yesterday, he had informed the little Ginseng that he planned to grow some vegetables in the yard, and the response he received was very positive. The Ginseng Baby was thrilled to have something to do.
Lin Mu swung his hoe, and with a single swing, turned up the thin layer of soil was easily.
He raised his eyebrows and turned to look at the little Ginseng. “Did you loosen the soil?”
“Yeah, I’m good at loosening the soil. Back in the mountains, I used to help those older plants loosen the soil,” replied the little Ginseng, wiggling and twisting his small dudou. Then, in a soft voice, he asked, “Lin Mu, can I plant some spiritual medication here?”
“Spiritual medication?” Lin Mu asked skeptically, “what kind of spiritual medication are you talking about?”
Lately, there have been numerous monster coming to the mountains, and conflicts have been happening. Some of the old trees I know have been injured, so I want to get some medicine for them……” explained the Ginseng Baby, pulling out a bulging bag from who knows where. “I’ve collected a lot of seeds over the past few hundred years.”
Upon seeing the seeds, Lin Mu decided to give up vegetables and instead joined the little Ginseng in planting them, carefully burying them in the soil.
After finishing his breakfast, the dog observed the two busy figures in the yard for a moment, then returned to the kitchen and tossed his bowl into the sink.
Lin Mu was nearly late for work when he arrived at his office. As he entered, he noticed Da Hei slouched in a chair, in a daze.
Upon hearing Lin Mu’s arrival, Da Hei to greet him with a hum, but then returned his gaze and continued to stare into the air.
Lin Mu sat down in his own seat, then looked at Da Hei who was obviously in a bad state. He hesitated, then asked, “what happened? You don’t seem very happy.”
“En.” Da Hei nodded, “the old lady departed last night.”
Lin Mu’s mind went blank for a moment before he mumbled, “sorry.”
“What are you apologising for?” Da Hei asked.
“Last night, weren’t you at my house……”
“No, I went to see her after I left your place. I saw her one last time before she was taken away by the ghost messengers.” Da Hei said, and unconsciously rubbed his arms, “she passed away very peacefully.”
Da Hei had used his human form to go.
When he arrived, the old lady’s soul was sitting peacefully on the sofa. Her remains were on her bed with closed eyes. There were neither sadness nor joy present, which meant that she had stopped breathing peacefully in her sleep.
Nobody else was in the room, and everybody was asleep since it was quite late at night. There was only the old lady on the sofa in the room, waiting quietly.
It was during this wait that Da Hei had entered through the window. The two of them looked at each other for a while, then Da Hei shook his head and turned back into his original form.
The old lady had lived her last days, and she felt at peace and tranquil. Seeing the person in front of her turn in a dog, she was only slightly surprised for a moment, before waving to Da Hei with a loving smile on her face.
“She said…… when she first saw my human form, she felt a sense of kinship, so she told the people in the nursing home that if I came, they should let me in.” Da Hei said and a foolish smile appeared on his face. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to enter all this time.”
Da Hei rambled on for quite a while, and he didn’t know when all the sadness in his heart disappeared, and his heart was filled of gentle and beautiful memories when he thought of the deceased old lady.
“Ay, it’s so nice talking to you.” The dull gloominess on Da Hei’s face had vanished, and he’d returned to his energetic self. He complained, “if I told this to that Old Turtle, he would have just recited some great philosophy.”
The truth was that Lin Mu simply didn’t disturb Da Hei’s rambling. Once he saw that Da Hei had returned to his original state, he said, “one should also listen to the elder generation’s philosophies.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I understand the reasoning.” Da Hei muttered, “from this day on, I’ll be a serious monster that will not get involved with humans anymore, and the Old Turtle won’t be able to chant at me anymore.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, he heard a knock on the door.
Lin Mu went to open the door and found out that it was a charming and beautiful woman. When she saw him, she seemed a little stunned before she smiled and said with a sweet sounding voice, “young man, you’re new?”
“Yes, hello.” Lin Mu hesitated for a moment, and felt that the other party’s aura made him feel a little uncomfortable.
He paused and nodded. He didn’t know how to tell apart monsters and humans, besides, he couldn’t tell the difference between the different kinds of aura, and only felt that since the woman knew he was a newcomer, she was probably a monster.
He opened the door, “please come in.”
“I won’t be coming in. The head of your office doesn’t like humans very much.” After speaking, the woman turned to look at Da Hei in the office and said, “I came to get the letter.”
Lin Mu didn’t really understand, and could only turn to look at Da Hei.
At this time, Da Hei had already looked over. When he saw the woman at the door, the smile on his face froze and his expression became worse as he took a box out from the drawer and handed it over to the woman.
The woman didn’t mind, and with a charming smile took the box and left.
Lin Mu watched her go away and turned to ask Da Hei, “that was a human?”
“En.” Da Hei nodded, “she has to come over once a month. In the future, if you’re here, just give her the box in the drawer.”
Lin Mu looked at the lacquered box, “what’s this?”
“The fruit of the Yao plant. After eating, a person would be able to become charming and beautiful for quite a while, and become the type of person that could hook another human with a single glance.” Da Hei said while rolling his eyes, “that woman got together with a monster, and after finding out that there was such a thing, she made a lot of noise saying that she wanted it. But there’s only one such plant in the world, and the fruit is more expensive, so no ordinary monster can get it.”
“Then these fruits……” Lin Mu looked at the boxes.
“Oh, that monster is dead. He used his life to exchange for these fruits, and pleaded with us to give it to that woman.” Da Hei said and snorted, and his attitude showed that he had obviously been unhappy about this matter for quite some time. “Monsters who fall in love with humans are all like that. Monsters live long lives, and their perception of time is totally different from human beings, the whole of a human lifespan is considered a honeymoon period for them, and if the one they love dies during the honeymoon period, most monsters would remember them for over hundreds of years, or even throughout their life. But humans? Living so happily.”
“I say, for those monsters who had the courage to come in contact with human beings, or even had in depth contact and fell in love are all very courageous.”
Da Hei concluded, and felt happy about the fact that he didn’t get into a romantic relationship with a human.
Lin Mu just listened in a daze, and couldn’t help but think about his own parents.
He rarely thought deeply about the matters of his birth, and actually didn’t even want to think about it.
Because to him, whether a father was present in his life or not was the same, and since the mother who raised him was gone, he’s been living alone and had a good life.
But just by mentioning the relationship between humans and monsters, he would inevitably think of this matter.
Lin Mu spent the whole day in a trance. When he went back, he bought a roast chicken from the market, went home, and fed it to Milky and the little Ginseng. Under the gaze of a ginseng and a dog, he went up to his mother’s studio.
The notebooks and folders that Lin Mu had found in the attic but hadn’t had the time to read were still lying on the desk.
Lin Mu opened the folder.
The insides were full of information about his mother’s adventure in the wild. Photographs and information of rare plants and some hand-drawn references, along with photos of his mother out in the field covered with dirt.
Lin Mu skimmed through them, then stopped at one of the photos.
The photo was probably taken deep in the mountains. His mother was hugging a huge tree with huge roots, with her face stained with dirt, and all the equipment on her back covered in a layer of soil. She was hugging the tree with a very happy smile on her face, showing her neat rows of teeth, her eyes were bright, and she was very visibly happy.
Lin Mu glanced at the tree, but because there wasn’t a full picture of it, he couldn’t tell what kind of tree it was.
But it wasn’t the tree that attracted Lin Mu’s attention, but in this photo, there was a phantom of a person sitting at the side.
The phantom was sitting on an exposed branch with his other leg hanging. He wore a dark green robe embroidered with golden leaves, and his black hair was tied high with a black hair band. He held a black and round object in his hand and seemed to be looking at the woman next to him who was covered in mud.
Lin Mu looked at the thing he held in his hand and felt that it looked very familiar.
The phantom was too weak, and there were some parts couldn’t be clearly seen. Lin Mu frowned and tried to look carefully, and as he continued to look, the phantom gradually solidified.
Lin Mu realised that the person recorded by the camera wasn’t human.
He glanced at the black and round object about half the size of a person’s palm in the hands of the man he suspected was a monster, suddenly raised his head and looked up at the fruit that was carefully preserved in a box on the book shelf.
Lin Mu didn’t recognise where this fruit originated from, but it had always been kept very well preserved by his mother, so he thought that it was an ornament in the shape of a fruit.
Lin Mu paused for a long moment, and turned his head to look at the face in the photograph, and somehow felt it was a little familiar.
He took the mirror out of the drawer and looked at the face in the mirror.
…… Looked alike.
Lin Mu covered the mirror and turned to look at the photo album left by his mother.
In the album that had been read by Lin Mu countless of times before, in the many single photos of his mother, there was another male figure.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Reminder for everyone: it’s not a horror book!
Thank you for your translation and Happy July for everyone 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Aaahh I hope Lin Mu finds more about his father! ><
Thanks for the chapter!
Something so bittersweet about how he could’ve lived his whole human life with an album of his mothers photos, not realising they’re his fathers photos too
Found his dad.. at long last !!!