CH 15

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells 

This shriek was far too familiar. The moment he heard it, Lu Qingjiu knew it must have been from Yin Xun. Thinking something had happened, he got up in a hurry and ran outside. But before he even reached the door, he saw Yin Xun rush in, grab him by the shoulders and started shaking him like crazy, “Lu Qingjiu, did you f*cking win five million behind my back?!!!”

Lu Qingjiu was shaken until his head spun and his eyes went dizzy, and when he heard Yin Xun’s question his expression became even more confused, “What? What win five million??”

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Yin Xun roared, “Take a look outside your house!!”

Lu Qingjiu hurried to the door, stepped over the doorstep and and saw the “five million yuan lottery prize” Yin Xun was talking about. A gorgeous blue convertible sports car was parked right by the entrance to Lu Qingjiu’s home. The car was branded with a tiny, golden winged man that dazzled in the sunlight. Lu Qingjiu recognised the car as a Rolls-Royce, but as to which model it was, he really didn’t know…

“Whose car is parked here?” Lu Qingjiu was shocked stupid.

“It’s not yours?” Yin Xun turned his head to stare at Lu Qingjiu, “Who in this village would buy such a car? We would have to save up for several years to even buy a Wuling Hongguang.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…Do I look like I could afford a sports car?”

Yin Xun, “Then who’s car is this?” 

Lu Qingjiu turned to look in the direction of his house. After a moment of silence, he whispered, “Have you seen Bai Yuehu?”

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Yin Xun said, “Haven’t seen him.”

Lu Qingjiu stood by the door and called out, “Yuehu!! Bai Yuehu!!!”

The house was utterly silent with no one responding. 

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, then said, “He probably already went off to water the fields already, I’ll go to the fields to look for him.”

“He bought the car?” Yin Xun’s eyes widened.

Lu Qingjiu, “…Well, it’s not like I bought it.”

As the two talked, they made their way toward the fields. When they reached the fields, they happened to spot Bai Yuehu. He had changed into a set of comfortable work clothing and a pair of black rubber boots. He stooped down to weed a tomato plant. If not for his extraordinarily beautiful face, he would really look just like a simple farmhand. 

“Bai Yuehu!” Lu Qingjiu shouted.

Bai Yuehu turned around, no particular expression on his face, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Did you buy that car?”

Bai Yuehu said, “It arrived?” 

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Lu Qingjiu asked, “Then what happened?”

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Bai Yuehu said, “It was abandoned.” 

Not just Yin Xun, even Lu Qingjiu was baffled by this answer. But Bai Yuehu didn’t have any plans on explaining. He gently stroked a plump tomato and continued, “You guys can use it, I don’t drive much.”

“No, I can’t,” Lu Qingjiu was shocked. Even though he didn’t recognise the exact model, from the quality and brand, he could still tell that the cost of this car was in the seven digits, “This car is too conspicuous——”

“Conspicuous?” Bai Yuehu gave him a sideways look.

“Right, too conspicuous,” Lu Qingjiu said helplessly, “It’s not like I can drive this kind of car to sell tomatoes.” 

Who’s to say that the next day, the city tabloids would come out with a headline like: Shocking! Tomato Vendors Make Tens of Millions of Yuan a Month, Driving Luxury Cars to Set Up Stalls… or something like that.

“Then what kind of car do you want?” Bai Yuehu asked.

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“Just a small pick-up, the most plain kind…” Lu Qingjiu wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.

Hearing this, Bai Yuehu nodded, and then waved his hand, saying, “Alright, tomorrow I’ll get someone to exchange it.” 

Only then did Lu Qingjiu let out a sigh of relief. He actually didn’t want to stand out too much. After all, Bai Yuehu wasn’t some ordinary person. Since fox spirits existed, who knew if there weren’t any Taoists priests who dedicated their lives to catching fox spirits. What if it aroused suspicion from others? Or raised some controversy? There was too much at stake.

Even though Lu Qingjiu liked luxury cars, his head was still clear.

Yin Xun finally realised that Lu Qingjiu’s house was hiding a local tyrant. When they got back to the front gate, he pointed at the luxury car and stood there stunned for a long time before managing to choke out, “Bai Yuehu bought this?”

Lu Qingjiu nodded. 

Yin Xun said, “Holy shit, I had assumed he was like me, a freeloader cadging meals.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu sighed and patted his shoulder. He turned away, going off to prepare breakfast, leaving Yin Xun standing in the entrance on his lonesome, lamenting that it turned out that he was the only poor one here…

Bai Yuehu did as he had said. After a day, the luxury car at the entrance of his home disappeared and was replaced with a plain Wuling Hongguang pickup truck. Seeing the truck, Lu Qingjiu was relieved.

Bai Yuehu found Lu Qingjiu’s reaction rather strange. He asked, “Don’t you humans all like expensive things? Why didn’t you want it?” 

Lu Qingjiu replied, “Like is just like, at the end of the day it isn’t mine.”

Bai Yuehu said, “I could give it to you.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “It’s too expensive, I can’t accept it. This truck is very good, it can transport melons, fruits, and meat, and it won’t inconvenience others.”

Hearing Lu Qingjiu’s answer, the look Bai Yuehu was giving him became even stranger. 

Lu Qingjiu did an inspection of the truck. For some unknown reason, he felt that this pickup truck looked a little weird. After studying the truck for a long time, he suddenly noticed that the position of the two headlights was somewhat wrong. The headlights of other such trucks were all centred and circular, but the headlights of this truck were slightly skewed to the left. At first glance, it looked like the car was peeping at something.

“Yi, why are the positions of the headlights wrong?” Lu Qingjiu was shocked, “Did you buy fake goods?”

Hearing this, Bai Yuehu shot the truck a look. He raised a hand and slapped it down on the hood. The very next moment, the headlights returned to normal.

Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu’s expression turned alarmed. 

In the face of Lu Qingjiu’s astonishment, Bai Yuehu responded with abnormal calm, “It’s fixed.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” What the f*ck! What the f*ck! He just knew it couldn’t have been that simple! This truck was obviously a living thing! He hesitated for a moment, before asking in a shaking voice, “Can I ask what this is?”

Bai Yuehu said, “It’s a truck.”

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Lu Qingjiu, “…I know it’s a truck. I’m asking what it was before that.” 

Bai Yuehu was silent for a moment, before faintly asking, “Do you really want to know?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Why was your tone so heavy? What exactly is this?

As Lu Qingjiu was hesitating, Bai Yuehu’s lips moved, about to tell him what exactly this truck had been. At that critical moment, Lu Qingjiu’s unparalleled sixth sense acted up. He held up a hand, blocking Bai Yuehu’s mouth, and said, “Don’t say anything! I don’t want to know anymore.”

Bai Yuehu gave him a doubting look. 

“Anyways I still need to use it, what it was before isn’t important,” Lu Qingjiu’s explanation was also a form of reassuring himself, “Knowing too much isn’t a good thing.”

Bai Yuehu nodded, using his eyes to tell Lu Qingjiu to take his hand off his mouth.

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Lu Qingjiu gave a few dry laughs and hurriedly removed his hand.

“It really isn’t a good thing,” Bai Yuehu said, “You won’t need to add gas. Just use it as you wish, if it doesn’t listen…” He moved his gaze to the truck. Lu Qingjiu clearly saw the truck’s headlights silently move to the side, obviously afraid to meet Bai Yuehu’s eyes. 

“I’ll change it to a new one,” Bai Yuehu casually insinuated exactly what ending the truck would have.

Off to the side, the little pickup truck trembled. Lu Qingjiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He could only pat the front of it to comfort it, silently telling it not to be afraid, he wouldn’t do anything to it. Only then did his little comrade the pickup truck force itself to feel a bit better.

Having finished their discussion of the truck, Bai Yuehu said the rest of the tomatoes in the field were just about ripe, so tomorrow they could bring them over to the market to sell. Since they had a truck now, they didn’t have to trouble Uncle Chen and it could be considered more convenient.

Lu Qingjiu agreed. He saw that spring was halfway over and the weather was steadily becoming warmer. He needed to start preparing a few summer crops. Also, this old house didn’t have any air-conditioning, he needed to find time to get someone from town to help him install some air-conditioners. 

The others in the village, upon noticing that Lu Qingjiu had bought a new truck, were all shocked. Lu Qingjiu mentioned to them that if they ever needed a pickup truck, they could let him know. Since they were all from the same village, helping each other out was only natural. However, Shuifu village didn’t actually have many close connections to the outside world. It was relatively closed off. The newly arrived Lu Qingjiu was the most diligent about going out in the village.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The harvested tomatoes were packed into sacks and then packed into the back of his pickup truck. Lu Qingjiu brought Yin Xun out with him to the market to sell their crops. They brought a lot more tomatoes today and weren’t sure if they could sell them all. If they sold it all, they could buy extra meat, but if they couldn’t sell it all, it didn’t matter. Anyways this pickup truck didn’t need to be refueled, having to drive it a little more wouldn’t cost them anything.

The two of them set off before dawn, thinking of getting there early to get a good spot. When they reached the market, there were already quite a few early-rising farmers setting up their stalls.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun found a spot by the roadside, opened up the back of their truck, showing off the tomatoes inside. They laid a sheet of plastic over the ground and started hawking their produce. 

Even though they brought a lot more tomatoes today, Lu Qingjiu didn’t plan on lowering his prices since business was good last time. This time, even if they didn’t manage to sell them all, there was no problem just bringing them back. Besides, the weather wasn’t too hot, so the tomatoes wouldn’t spoil easily. He was planning on just selling them slowly.

But what Lu Qingjiu never thought of was that the moment he started selling, a big customer showed up. Upon seeing Lu Qingjiu, that person rushed over. He opened his mouth and said, “Little boss, you’ve finally come to sell your crops.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Ah, welcome. Do you want to buy anything?”

“Want, want, want,” That person nodded, and pointed at the tomatoes in the pickup truck, “I want them all!” 

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Is this person serious?