CH 21.2

translator: baumkuchen  editor: baumkuchen

The sky hadn’t yet brightened, so their surroundings were still shrouded in darkness. Even though he’d turned on some of the lights in the courtyard, but the amount of light they gave out was very little. In the darkness, the incense that Lu Qingjiu had lit earlier let out a slight, weak red glow. There was the special smell of incense in the air. Lu Qingjiu carried a rooster in his hands, walking in the very front. 

Zhang Chuyang shot Lu Qingjiu a glance, not knowing why he inexplicably felt a little apprehensive.

Lu Qingjiu’s face didn’t have any of its usual warmth, filled with a much more indifferent coldness. He stood right next to Zhang Chuyang, but he made Zhang Chuyang feel like he was very far away from him. He originally wanted to call out his name, but while his throat bobbed up and down, he still swallowed this call back down.

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Lu Qingjiu walked up to the well. The knife in his hand sliced down, chopping the rooster’s head off in one go. His movements were incredibly nimble. The rooster didn’t even have a chance to scream before dying under the sharp edge of the knife.

The rooster’s head fell to the ground, fresh, bright-red blood gushing out. Lu Qingjiu had made preparations ahead of time, and poured the chicken blood into a pre-prepared big bowl.

After that, he casually threw the rooster to the side, picked up the bowl of blood, and handed it over to Zhang Chuyang, letting him have a mouthful.

When Zhang Chuyang received the bowl, his hands were trembling. But sensing the atmosphere, he didn’t dare ask why, simply obediently held up the bowl, and took a drink.

Fresh chicken blood was very difficult to drink, having a pungent fishy smell, but Zhang Chuyang forced himself to drink it down.

Seeing that he’d drank it, Lu Qingjiu then nodded, and used a voice utterly void of emotion to say, “Just face the well and pray, and that’ll be it.” 

Zhang Chuyang hurriedly made a bow towards the well.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu said, “Alright, you can go back now.”

Zhang Chuyang breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked up and gave Lu Qingjiu a glance. This look made his heart beat rapidly for a moment. He saw Lu Qingjiu, his face stained with a few drops of chicken blood. His eyes were half-lidded, covering up the light in his eyes. The drop of blood below the edge of his eye was like a teardrop mole, giving him a slightly more inhumanly beautiful and seductive appearance. Zhang Chuyang didn’t dare look any longer, turning and leaving. As he left, he even stumbled quite a few times, almost falling down.

Lu Qingjiu stood behind him, watching his sorry figure fade into the distance as he seemingly fled for his life with an inexplicable look on his face. He reached out a hand, and wiped his face, finally realising that his face seemed to have been stained by blood from when he had been killing the chicken. 

F*ck, he hadn’t scared the gold master by killing the chicken too cruelly, had he?! Lu Qingjiu hurriedly shouted after him, “Yi, President Zhang, President Zhang don’t be scared, I don’t usually kill chickens like this——”

Zhu Miaomiao was awakened by all the noise from outside the house. Yawning, she got out of bed with a dazed look on her face, and was met with the sight of Lu Qingjiu, carrying a dead chicken as he tried to explain something to Zhang Chuyang. Zhang Chuyang’s expression was extremely subtle. It could be said to be scared, but within the fear there seemed to be a little something else…

Seeing Zhu Miaomiao had arrived, Lu Qingjiu hurriedly looked to her for help, “Miaomiao, tell President Zhang for me, I usually rarely kill chickens, right?”

“What’s wrong with killing chickens?” A blank expression appeared on Zhu Miaomiao’s face after hearing Lu Qingjiu’s words. She asked doubtfully, “Are you guys done with the ceremony?” 

“It’s done,” Lu Qingjiu’s voice was filled with helplessness.

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“Nothing,” Zhang Chuyang replied confidently. 

Lu Qingjiu’s lips moved, still wanting to explain something, but it was obvious from Zhang Chuyang’s attitude that he wouldn’t listen to anything at the moment. In the end, he just sighed, looked at the chicken in his hands, then turned and left.

Upon seeing Lu Qingjiu leave, Zhang Chuyang let out a sigh of relief. Zhu Miaomiao, seeing this, hurriedly asked, “President Zhang, what exactly happened?”

“Didn’t you say that that Bai Yuehu I saw yesterday was the most fearsome person here?” Zhang Chuyang still had a lingering fear, “But from what I can see, this Lu Qingjiu is clearly much more fearsome than that Bai Yuehu.”

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Zhu Miaomiao asked, “Why do you say that?” 

Following that, Zhang Chuyang gave Zhu Miaomiao a vivid description of the morning’s events. After hearing it, Zhu Miaomiao’s expression turned a little strange. She really couldn’t relate the bewitching, sinister man in Zhang Chuyang’s story with Lu Qingjiu, but seeing Zhang Chuyang’s face full of conviction, in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything to persuade him otherwise, only casually letting out a few affirmative noises.

Lu Qingjiu had no idea whatsoever why Zhang Chuyang had suddenly become afraid of him. Hadn’t he just killed a chicken? Even though it had been a little cruel, it wasn’t that terrifying. He took another look at Zhang Chuyang’s terrified gaze, looking as if he’d seen a ghost. He had no idea what he could say to make Zhang Chuyang return to normal.

Ah whatever, whatever, anyways when this business was over, everyone would go back to walking their own separate paths, as it should be, and they shouldn’t be having much more interactions in the future. As Lu Qingjiu thought about this, he turned on the stove and started to boil a pot of water, casually plucking the freshly killed rooster as he did so. Today for brunch, they’ll be eating chicken claypot…

From the example of Zhu Miaomiao, after praying to the well on the first day, his hair would probably grow the next day. They’d probably head back soon after his hair grew, so they shouldn’t be here for much longer. After comforting Zhang Chuyang, Zhu Miaomiao ran over to the courtyard and patted Lu Qingjiu on the shoulder, saying, “Qingjiu ah, you really frightened President Zhang this time.” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “Yi, you can’t blame me for this. All I did was kill a chicken in front of him.”

“It’s not that,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “After a round of careful questioning, I think it also has something to do with the dream he had last night.”

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As Lu Qingjiu listened, his movements didn’t pause even once. With a swift slash of a knife, he split open the rooster’s stomach, and expertly pulled out its internal organs.

Watching Lu Qingjiu’s profile and the swift, clean movements of his hands, Zhu Miaomiao swallowed silently, “He bought train tickets for tomorrow, saying that no matter whether his hair grew or not, he’d be leaving tomorrow morning.” 

Lu Qingjiu asked, “I really frightened him?”

“He’s terrified.” Zhu Miaomiao nodded.

“Alright,” Lu Qingjiu sighed, “I never thought he would be so timid.”

Zhu Miaomiao cocked her head to the side, “I also don’t really get it. When he first came here he was clearly really strong-willed/full of confidence, he even said that for his hair, he was willing to do anything.” But in the end, after just watching someone kill a chicken, he was immediately incapable of holding on any longer. 

With another slash of his knife, Lu Qingjiu directly chopped the chicken in half. He didn’t mention Zhang Chuyang’s matters again, simply asking, “Is having chicken claypot for brunch fine with you?”

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“Yes yes yes,” Zhu Miaomiao nodded giddily.

As usual, Bai Yuehu had gotten up early to water the fields, and had returned to the courtyard to laze around. The rain had finally stopped today, so the chicks ran about on the still muddy ground, dirtying their little feathers. On days with good weather, Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei would occasionally escape their pigsty to bask in the sun or scrounge for scraps, but they didn’t like coming out on days like today, where the ground was still wet from rain, clearly unwilling to get their clean trotters dirty.

The chicken claypot was extremely delicious. It was paired with potatoes, onions and green peppers, which had been cooked along with the chicken till they were soft and had absorbed the flavour of the chicken. The rich oils from the chicken were poured onto the rice, making a good meal together. 

The five people ate the poor rooster with relish. Bai Yuehu had a particularly mysterious trait — when eating chicken, he’d eat the bones as well. No matter which part it was, he’d stuff the entire thing into his mouth, then use those beautiful, white, clean and neat teeth to crush it to pieces, and easily swallow it all down.

Lu Qingjiu knew what Bai Yuehu was, and Yin Xun was also used to it, so the two of them didn’t find this particularly strange, but Zhang Chuyang, who’d suffered a shock this morning, was a little unaccustomed to hearing the sound of Bai Yuehu crunching on bones. He quietly asked Zhu Miaomiao, “You can just crush these bones with your teeth?”

Zhu Miaomiao’s movements paused. She dug out a chicken leg bone from her mouth, and said, “President Zhang… I’m a normal person.”

Zhang Chuyang, “…” 

Listening by the side, Lu Qingjiu felt the inexplicable urge to laugh.

Bai Yuehu had also clearly heard the conversation between Zhang Chuyang and Zhu Miaomiao, but didn’t have any intention of changing his ways. With his chopsticks, he picked up a piece of the chicken’s neck, and with a few crunches, he swallowed the whole thing, making Zhang Chuyang, who was watching from next to him, shiver.

Like this, Zhang Chuyang passed the day trembling with fear and trepidation. Lu Qingjiu completely gave up on changing his view on him.

In the end, the next morning, Lu Qingjiu lying on his bed heard a familiar shout. This shout wasn’t a miserable screech, but rather a shout filled with surprise and hope. 

“I’ve grown hair!!! I’ve grown hair!!!” In the past, on an early morning where the sun had yet to rise such as this, Zhu Miaomiao had also let out this kind of excited shout, just that this time, the person shouting had become Zhang Chuyang.

“Mister Lu.” Zhang Chuyang’s smile froze on his face, and was replaced by an indescribable cautiousness, “You’re awake.”

Lu Qingjiu had a hard time describing Zhang Chuyang’s expression. If he had to describe it, it would be that Zhang Chuyang was looking at him with a gaze he’d use to look at an otherworldly being. Moreover, at this time, Zhang Chuyang was full of awe and a trace of fear for this otherworldly being.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Hey,” Lu Qingjiu said, “President Zhang…” 

“Sir, don’t call me President Zhang! Just call me Chuyang,” Zhang Chuyang interrupted Lu Qingjiu, hurriedly saying, “Sir, you don’t need to be so polite!”

Lu Qingjiu looked at Zhang Chuyang. He had taken off the hat on his head, showing a head full of beautiful, dark hair. Other than this hair being just slightly too long, it didn’t look any different from his own hair. If he had to say if there was anything abnormal, it would probably be that Zhang Chuyang’s original view of the world, wherein he had refused to believe in superstition, had taken a devastating blow.

In the span of a mere night, he really had grown hair.

Faced with those incomparably reverent gaze of Zhang Chuyang’s, Lu Qingjiu felt like they had some difficulty communicating, and eventually, just coughed drily and found an excuse to slip away to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. 

Lu Qingjiu hadn’t been the only one in the house awakened by Zhang Chuyang’s shouts, Zhu Miaomiao and Bai Yuehua also got up one after another. Bai Yuehu didn’t say a word before going out to farm, while a yawning Zhu Miaomiao was forced to sit next to Zhang Chuyang and listen to him describe last night’s miraculous experience.

While he called it a miraculous experience, he’d actually just dreamt of that well in the inner courtyard, as well as seen a woman he couldn’t see the face of in the well… An originally horrifying dream had become as beautiful as a fairytale in the face of the hair he’d so longed for.

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“But did you see her face? How can you just say she’s beautiful without even seeing her?” Zhu Miaomiao gave Zhang Chuyang a strange look.

“I didn’t see her face,” Zhang Chuyang said, “But I saw the back of her head. There was a lot of hair on the back of her head.” 

Zhu Miaomiao was silent for a moment, before saying in a small voice, “Then how do you know what you saw was the back of her head, and not her face? What if both sides are like that…”

Zhang Chuyang’s smile froze, “It… wouldn’t be like that, right?”

Zhu Miaomiao shrugged.

Zhang Chuyang quickly regained his smile, and said gently, “It’s nothing, even if I did meet a ghost, Mister Lu would protect me.” 

Zhu Miaomiao, “…” So what kind of strange image of Lu Qingjiu have you come up with in that head of yours?? A great ghost-hunting master hidden away in a small mountain village?!