CH 18

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells 

The tomatoes in his home were all sold just like that, even the still-unripe ones in his field. Lu Qingjiu had originally wanted Chao Qianyu to stay for lunch, but who knew that Chao Qianyu would make the excuse of having something to do at home and hurriedly left. Even if Lu Qingjiu wanted to stop him, he couldn’t.

After Chao Qianyu left, Lu Qingjiu finally understood that Chao Qianyu had come here for the tomatoes planted by Bai Yuehu. He just didn’t know what other benefits these tomatoes had compared to normal tomatoes.

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But he could see that Bai Yuehu didn’t plan on explaining, simply sitting back down on his chair and dozing off.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went off to the fields, the two of them planning to pick a few vegetables to make lunch with. However, on the way there, Lu Qingjiu received a call from Zhu Miaomiao. On the phone, Zhu Miaomiao exclaimed, “Qingjiu!! You’ve got money to earn!!”

Lu Qingjiu asked, “En?”

Zhu Miaomiao said, “Do you still remember old President Zhang Chuyang from that company we partnered with?”

“I remember, what’s up?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

Zhu Miaomiao said, “He asked my where I got my hair transplant done! I said I just went to go visit a friend for a few days, and it got better!” 

Her hair used to be so sparse, you could almost see her scalp, but after this visit, her hair turned both dark and thick—— even more beautiful than that of a model’s in a shampoo commercial.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The moment she said that, Lu Qingjiu immediately understood, “You told him?”

Zhu Miaomiao said, “How could I have? It’s too mysterious. I just said your family has a secret technique for growing hair…”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Ah, but it’s not like I could just get him to come and pray to that well, could I?” 

Zhu Miaomiao said, “Why not? Let me tell you, this is how you should do it…”

According to Zhu Miaomiao, he just needed to use something else to distract the attention away from the well. For instance: make President Zhang eat something, then get him to go pray to the well and tell him that the thing he ate was the key to hair growth.

Lu Qingjiu said, “That’s fine, but why doesn’t he just get a hair transplant?”

“He had one before,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “But the problem is… it all fell out again. He’s only thirty, and actually quite handsome, but no matter how handsome, a man would be done for after going bald.” No matter how handsome someone was, if they had a Mediterranean Sea hairstyle on their head, they were done for. 

Lu Qingjiu had met Zhang Chuyang before. He was incredibly handsome and also very capable, but had the same habit as Zhu Miaomiao of wearing a hat on his head. It was fine for daily life but not very suitable for formal occasions.

“Let’s talk after I ask about it,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Don’t be in a hurry to reply to him.”

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“That’s not a problem,” Lu Qingjiu said, “He doesn’t know.”

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

After hearing from Bai Yuehu, Lu Qingjiu called up Zhu Miaomiao to let her know she could bring the man over and that she shouldn’t tell other people about this anymore. Zhu Miaomiao instantly agreed. To be honest, she had actually been worried that Lu Qingjiu, after having resigned, had no way of making a living, so she thought of finding him some clients. After all, he had never farmed before, who knew how well he was doing after running off to farm. 

“Then I’ll find a good time to bring him over.” After saying this, Zhu Miaomiao hesitated before asking, “Isn’t that Bai Yuehu staying at your place very skilled?”

“Why’d you ask?’ Lu Qingjiu asked.

“Something happened to my neighbour’s kid,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “They brought him to the hospital, but they couldn’t help. His mother suspects he’s been possessed, does Bai Yuehu know anything about such things? Could you help me ask him about this?”

Lu Qingjiu asked, “Something happened? What?” 

“You know about that school next to our office, right?” Zhu Miaomiao said, “He goes to that school.”

Of course Lu Qingjiu knew about that school. In fact, that school was very well-known in their city. It was well-known for two reasons, one was that the quality of teaching was high, and the other was that it was famous for being haunted.

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Yes, haunted.

Because schools all needed to occupy a large area, they tend to choose a cheaper location. In the city center, there was only one kind of cheap location, which were… cemeteries. 

So most schools were built over graveyards. Superstition aside, it really was because of economic reasons. Of course, if it was just this, it wouldn’t matter. But the problem was that there had been many supernatural incidents since the school’s founding, such as hearing a girl crying in the toilet at night, or security guards hearing noises from dormitories with no one living in them. There were countless such incidents, with not one of them able to be explained away with logic.

Despite such incidents, since none of them ever resulted in the loss of human life, most people just closed one eye and pretended that nothing had happened. Anyways, now, the moment the self-study period in the mornings was over, the school wouldn’t allow anyone else to enter.

Lu Qingjiu had previously been able to scare Zhu Miaomiao just by mentioning that school because that school’s supernatural incidents were just that famous.

“What exactly happened?” Lu Qingjiu casually picked up a pear that Yin Xun had brought over and took a bite. This pear had just been chilled in the fridge and was both sweet and crisp, very delicious. 

“That child can’t walk anymore,” Zhu Miaomiao said.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Can’t walk?” Lu Qingjiu asked, confused, “Did he fall or something?”

Zhu Miaomiao said, “No, it’s like this, one day after he came back from school, his mother realised that there was something wrong with him. When he walked, he tended to walk on his toes…”

Lu Qingjiu: “Tiptoeing?” 

“Right,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “As if he couldn’t put his feet back down. At first his mother thought it was a prank and even scolded him, but afterwards, she realised that something wasn’t right and directly took him to the hospital.”

“Did they find anything wrong?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“The doctor did an in-depth examination of his whole body. They said that there could be something wrong in his brain, but the problem was they couldn’t find out what it was.” Zhu Miaomiao said.

“So they should transfer him to another hospital, right?”Lu Qingjiu said. 

“His mother thought the same way, but then something happened that night,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “Whenever the nurse visited the ward, she always heard the sound of a woman crying inside, but when she went in, she saw the one who was crying was that child. That kid said he was dissatisfied with his death, so he needed to find someone to die in his place.”

If it had been before, Lu Qingjiu would’ve been shocked hearing this, but having met Bai Yuehu and that female ghost in his inner courtyard, he wasn’t too surprised by what Zhu Miaomiao said. He asked, “Then what happened?”

“After that, another patient from the same ward said the child had been possessed,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “His mother let him stay a little longer in the hospital for observation, but they couldn’t find the problem, and the child’s condition became worse and worse… to the point where he even tried opening the window and jumping out once in the middle of the night.”

Lu Qingjiu felt that the situation was a little unbelievable now, he asked, “Was the kid okay?” 

“He was alright, but the situation kept getting worse,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “Actually, I didn’t know about it either. I was taking out the trash yesterday and saw his mother standing in the hallway, crying. That’s when I asked about what had happened, and so I thought of you…”

Lu Qingjiu muttered to himself irresolutely for a moment, before saying, “I’ll help you ask.”

“Thanks,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “That child is really pitiful and his academic performance is really good. If he’s gone just like that, I think his mother might die of heartbreak.”

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Lu Qingjiu made a sound of acknowledgement and hung up. 

After hanging up, he went to find Yin Xun and told him about the matter. After interacting for this period of time, he felt that Yin Xun seemed to know a bit about this kind of topic. It seemed to be a common point among the villagers.

Yin Xun had originally been curled up in the house, using Lu Qingjiu’s computer to watch movies as he munched on pears. After hearing what Lu Qingjiu had to say, he immediately sat up and asked, “You said he tiptoes when walking?”

Lu Qingjiu asked, “What’s wrong?” He saw Yin Xun’s expression wasn’t right and hurriedly asked further, “Is it really serious?”

Yin Xun said, “How long has he been like this?” 

Lu Qingjiu calculated the timeline Zhu Miaomiao had told him, “Should be about half a month already?”

Yin Xun said, “That kid’s in trouble.”

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Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu was shocked, “Why do you say that?”

Yin Xun said, “In our farming village, we have a term, ghost’s tiptoe. It means that the person’s body has been invaded by a ghost. The ghost pulls out the person’s soul from behind, forcing them to have to tiptoe to walk.” 

Lu QIngjiu, “Really? Then what should they do?!”

Yin Xun, “Find a shaman….” When he said the word “shaman”, he paused, then muttered, “Oh, sorry, I forgot, our village’s shaman retired and got married.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…”

Yin Xun, “But do they have another shaman over there? Find a reliable one, then just have them steady his soul and he should be fine.” 

Lu Qingjiu asked, “Then what kind of shaman is reliable?”

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Yin Xun said, “The first requirement, they must not have a lot of hair.”

Lu Qingjiu stared at him, “…Are you serious?”

Yin Xun waved a hand, “Haha, I’m just joking.” 

Lu Qingjiu suddenly felt like his hand was a little itchy, wanting to beat Yin Xun over the head with it several times.