CH 37

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

Faced with Bai Yuehu’s covetous and hungry gaze, Xiao Hua, who had originally already passed out, struggled awake in Lu Qingjiu’s arms and forced out, “I feel… I can still be saved…” 

Lu Qingjiu, “…”

Seeing that Lu Qingjiu didn’t have any intention of giving up on this little black pig, Bai Yuehu quietly clicked his tongue in disappointment and said, “He’s not much different from ordinary pigs, he’ll be fine after drinking a bit of water.”

Lu Qingjiu carry Xiao Hua back into the house when he heard this. Yin Xun brought out ice water from the fridge and prepared a wet towel for Xiao Hua, at last saving Xiao Hua’s life. Seeing his personal ice bag survive his time in Bai Yuehu’s hands, Yin Xun almost cried tears of joy. He hugged Xiao Hua, saying that he would definitely treat him well from then on.

Xiao Hua almost passed out again from his embrace. He said, “You need to fucking treat me a little better… Stop hugging me…”

Yin Xun, “Qingjiu, Xiao Hua said he likes me!”

Xiao Hua, “…” He had never seen such a shameless man in his life.

Lu Qingjiu let them argue. He turned and went to the kitchen to cook, the little fox eagerly following along behind him like a little doggy.

When Lu Qingjiu cooked, he would occasionally toss a few pieces of meat to the little fox to stave off its hunger. Sometimes, he would even let the little fox help with throwing away rubbish. The little fox was actually very smart in acting in a supporting role. 

Since Yin Xun said earlier that he wanted to eat cold noodles, Lu Qingjiu made some using pea starch. The cold noodles he made were the colour of white rice, Q-dan, soft and smooth. After cutting them into strips, he sprinkled on some specially made sauce. They tasted very spicy and was incredibly appetising. Lu Qingjiu then steamed a few baskets of buns he made himself. The buns had pork and bean vermicelli stuffing. They came out incredibly successful, tasting utterly delicious. With one bite, a rush of meat juices would fill one’s mouth. Because the pork used was pork from the farmers, they had all been fed on grains, the quality of the pork made it incredibly fragrant. Lu Qingjiu used all the leftover fat from the pork to make leaf lard and placed it in a jar. This type of oil felt very good in one’s mouth. No matter if he used it to make noodles or stir fry, things cooked with it would taste much better than if they were cooked with ordinary oil.

Lu Qingjiu called the others over to come eat once he finished cooking.

The three people sat at the table and the atmosphere was very lively. Off to the side, the little fox, Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua had their own little table with minced meat and Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua’s specialised food placed on it. For a while, only the sound of chewing could be heard in the house.

As they ate, a roar of thunder sounded outside the window. Lu Qingjiu glanced outside and saw heavy storm clouds in the sky and the wind howled. From the looks of it, it was going to rain heavily soon. 

“Aiya, I didn’t close the windows at home,” Yin Xun said, “The weather really changes in the blink of an eye.” Worries spouted from his mouth, but he was still unwilling to put down the bun in his hands.

“Aren’t you a mountain god?” Lu Qingjiu said, “Don’t you have any special abilities?”

Yin Xun, “…What abilities?”

Lu Qingjiu, “From thousands of li away… closing windows?” 

Yin Xun gave him a look. “Who said a mountain god should be able to close windows from thousands of li away, how could we do something so difficult…”

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Yin Xun bawled.

Summer storms were completely incomparable to winter rains. Even though they only lasted for a short time, their potential for destruction was shocking. If one didn’t close their windows, they could expect everything in their house to be blown into an utter mess. There was never much rainfall in Shuifu village year round. It had rained several times this summer, but they all stopped very quickly, not causing any impact.

“It’s raining really hard.” Yin Xun stuffed the last mouthful of his bun into his mouth. “I reckon it’ll last a long time.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “How about you stay over at my house for the night?” 

Yin Xun said, “That works.”

Lu Qingjiu’s home had a lot of guest rooms, they just needed to be cleaned up a little first.

Lu Qingjiu was more or less done eating, so he got a cleaning rag and a mop and cleaned a room up for Yin Xun, even preparing him a clean set of pajamas.

As he was cleaning, he heard the pattering of rain falling onto the ground. Bean-sized drops of rain fell from the clouds, bouncing off the blistering hot ground and falling back down. As dirt mixed together with the rainwater, the special scent of rain started filling the air, the scent making people feel a little more at ease. 

It only took a few minutes for the few drops of rainwater to turn into a crashing curtain of rain covering the entire world. The heavy rain washed away the soil in the courtyard, forming small puddles on the ground.

Lu Qingjiu moved Bai Yuehu’s rocking chair to the doorway. He originally thought that Bai Yuehu would sit on it and eat melon seeds while watching the rain like they were doing, but Bai Yuehu stood up and looked outside, his expression somewhat severe.

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Lu Qingjiu saw that he was acting strange and asked, “Yuehu, what’s wrong?”

Bai Yuehu said, “Come out with me.” 

Lu Qingjiu, “…Outside? To where?” He was a little surprised. The rain was so heavy, umbrellas would definitely be of no use, going out meant that he was going to get soaked.

Bai Yuehu said, “To the place we went to before.”

Lu Qingjiu asked doubtfully, “Why do you want to go there at this time?”

Bai Yuehu replied with an unfathomable line, “This rain won’t be able to stop anytime soon.” After he said this, he went off to the storage room and got an umbrella. He raised his chin slightly at Lu Qingjiu, motioning him to follow. 

Lu Qingjiu took the umbrella, then looked at Yin Xun and said, “Then what about you, Yin Xun?”

“Me?” Yin Xun scratched his chin. “I’ll also… go with you.”

Bai Yuehu didn’t say anything. The three of them walked into the rain with their umbrellas. The rain was truly too heavy, one could almost say that it was pouring. The force coming down on their umbrellas quickly made their hands go a little numb.

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t see a thing. He could only keep heading forwards along with Bai Yuehu. They seemed to be climbing up the mountain and the road became winding. Lu Qingjiu didn’t know what place Bai Yuehu was bringing him to, but from the path, they seemed to be going up the mountain… 

After walking for about ten or so minutes, the rain gradually became lighter. Lu Qingjiu started being able to see his surroundings clearly. Sure enough, they were on the mountain. But this mountain wasn’t Shuifu village’s mountain, it was the place Bai Yuehu had brought him to to go fishing before.

Currently, it was still evening on the mountain. The rays of the sunset tinted everything red; the sea of clouds were rolling; there were neither storm clouds nor rain in the sky. Lu Qingjiu really liked this place. After putting his umbrella away, there was a small smile on his face.

“You two wait here, I have something to do.” Bai Yuehu tossed his umbrella to the side, “Wait for me to come back.”

Before Lu Qingjiu could say anything, he saw him turn and disappear right before his eyes. 

Lu Qingjiu turned and met Yin Xun’s eyes.

Yin Xun scratched the back of his head. “Since there’s nothing to do, let’s go up the mountains and look around?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Do you know what Bai Yuehu’s doing?”

Yin Xun said, “I don’t know.” He spoke very calmly and didn’t seem like he was lying. 

However, Lu Qingjiu didn’t quite believe him. He looked at Yin Xun, but he didn’t say anything in the end. He nodded and went up towards the mountain peak with Yin Xun.

The last time he came here, he had been holding hands with Bai Yuehu and led straight upwards the entire time, so Lu Qingjiu hadn’t had time to look at the scenery by the road. This time, since they weren’t going anywhere in particular, Lu Qingjiu looked around as he walked.

The flora and fauna here were all species Lu Qingjiu had never seen before. Some of them looked ordinary, but some looked very strange. A certain plant drew Lu Qingjiu’s eye. It only had a single bare stalk with a little white flower on top. Of course, that wasn’t the main point, the main point was that in the little white flower was a furry little creature about the size of a fingernail curled atop it, sleeping. At first glance, this creature looked a little like a cat, but upon closer inspection, he noticed that it was a little different from a cat. Its ears hung down from both sides of its head like a rabbit. The soft fur covering its body was white. In short, it looked like it would be very nice to pet.

Yin Xun, seeing Lu Qingjiu stop, also moved over. He asked, “What’s that?” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “I also don’t know.” By now, he had already read the Classic of Mountains and Seas many times over and could confirm that there wasn’t such a creature recorded in it.

Yin Xun said, “Can we touch it?”

Lu Qingjiu looked it over for a while, before shaking his head. “We’d better not.” He felt like it would be better if they didn’t touch anything here.

But before waiting for Lu Qingjiu to finish speaking, Yin Xun directly reached his hand over, wanting to stroke that creature’s extremely soft looking fur. But who knew that just as he reached over, the originally unmoving flower petals would suddenly split open, turning into a giant, teeth-filled mouth to bite down on Yin Xun’s hand. 

Yin Xun didn’t feel it for a moment before letting out a screech. Half of his hand had been bitten off.

Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu’s heart was about to jump out of his mouth. He exclaimed, “Yin Xun! Are you okay?!”

Yin Xun sobbed, “Do I seem okay?” His hand was gone.

Lu QIngjiu, “…But you’re not bleeding.” His palm was clean, without even a trace of blood. He looked at the edge, and found that it was transparent, like Yin Xun’s body didn’t contain any blood, it was entirely made up of water. 

Yin Xun said, “Right, I bleed water.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” 

Yin Xun said, “Nevermind, nevermind, don’t touch it anymore. I’ll be fine in a while, let’s just keep heading up.”

Lu Qingjiu nodded, helpless. 

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

The two then continued up the mountain. They didn’t dare to go touch any of the flowers or grass by the side of the road again. Anyways, Lu Qingjiu found that he and Yin Xun were basically the species at the very bottom of the food chain here… 

Soon, Lu Qingjiu saw the stone tablet he saw the last time he was here. On the stone tablet was written the two words “Shuifu Village” in large, blood red letters. The stone table was very tall, who knew what kind of person had erected it here.

“Is this place Bai Yuehu’s soul?” Lu Qingjiu asked Yin Xun.

“Oh… How do I put this,” Yin Xun said, “This place is probably influenced by Bai Yuehu, but it’s not his soul.”

Lu Qingjiu was confused upon hearing this. In short, he truly knew too little about Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu’s world. Following the trail, they walked up to the platform Bai Yuehu had brought Lu Qingjiu to before. This platform hadn’t changed much since the last time he had been here. Below was still the rolling sea of clouds and within it were still the wenyao fish swimming along back and forth. 

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun were a little tired from the hike so they sat down by the side of the platform to rest for a while. As they rested, Lu Qingjiu spotted another trail by the side of the platform, seemingly headed towards an even deeper part of the mountain.

Lu Qingjiu said, “Say, why do you think Bai Yuehu brought us here?”

Yin Xun was currently engrossed in fighting with a weed from the side of the path. He wanted to pluck out the weed but the weed didn’t move at all even when he used all of his strength. Hearing Lu Qingjiu’s question, he replied without even turning his head, “I don’t know, maybe he wants to do something he doesn’t want us to know about.”

Lu Qingjiu, “Such as?” 

Yin Xun, “…Sneakily eating Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua?”

Lu Qingjiu’s expression twisted for a moment. To tell the truth, he was truly a little afraid that after he went back, Bai Yuehu would tell him Xiao Hei, Xiao Hua and the little fox had all gone missing.

“You can stay here, I want to go up to the peak and look around.” Lu Qingjiu was done resting. He stood up and brushed off his butt.

Yin Xun finally gave up on fighting with that poor little weed. He said, “Hey, wait for me, let’s go together.” 

The path became narrower past the platform and there was no longer lush vegetation by the sides like before, all of it turning into short ferns.

The path beyond was hidden in dense fog. Fortunately, there was only one path here so they wouldn’t need to fear getting lost.

Lu Qingjiu continued to climb up the mountain.  But Yin Xun, who followed behind him, felt a little uneasy. He asked, “Qingjiu, ah, do we still need to go up?”

“What’s wrong?” Lu Qingjiu asked. 

“I’m… just feeling a little uncomfortable,” Yin Xun said, “The fog here is too thick.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “It should be fine.”

Yin Xun breathed in through his nose and went silent.

Lu Qingjiu continued heading onwards. He usually wasn’t such a curious person, but for some reason, he especially wanted to go up and take a look today to see what exactly was at the end of the fog. 

Yin Xun, seeing that Lu Qingjiu’s attitude was firm, didn’t continue to advise him. He just hugged his shoulders and quietly followed behind Lu Qingjiu.

After walking for about ten or so minutes, the fog lessened.

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A towering mountain appeared before Lu Qingjiu’s eyes. This mountain rose into the clouds, its peak unable to be seen. The mountain was black and there wasn’t a single trace of vegetation on it. The mountain was also covered in the smooth, black rocks, as if the surface of a mirror, making it impossible for one to imagine how to climb it. 

Halfway up the mountain, there was a ring of dense clouds and mist. When Lu Qingjiu’s gaze landed on the clouds, he was lost in thought for a moment, until Yin Xun asked softly, “What are you looking at?”

“There seems to be something in the clouds,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Can you see it?”

“No.” Yin Xun stared for a while, before shaking his head. “There’s nothing there.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Maybe I saw wrongly…” 

Yin Xun remained silent.

The weather over here was different from what it was like over at the platform. The sky was dark with the occasional flash of lighting and roar of thunder. That tall, towering mountain, was separated from the land around it by the sea of clouds like a lonely island.

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Yin Xun sat on the ground and stared at the bottomless sea of clouds. His hand itched to do something so he found a rock and casually threw it into the sea. But who knew that when the rock entered the sea of clouds, they heard a splash, deep and far into the sea — deep in the sea of clouds, there was actually water.

“There’s water below?” Yin Xun said, “There’s actually water.” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “Is it strange that there’s water?”

Yin Xun said, “It’s not ah.” He smiled, showing his cute tiger tooth. “How would there being water in Shuifu village be strange?”

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu glanced at Yin Xun.

Having been sent here by Bai Yuehu for some inexplicable reason, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t understand what Bai Yuehu was thinking. He could guess what that heavy rain outside might mean, but for the time being, he couldn’t understand why. 

There was another deep roar of thunder. This time, Lu Qingjiu finally got a good look at what was circling the faraway black mountain. It was actually a long dragon.

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Even though he didn’t see it too clearly, Lu Qingjiu could already confirm that he hadn’t imagined it. The dragon circled around the black mountain, its head brushing past its tail. Its body was extremely long. As it roamed through the clouds, it looked as elegant as a picture scroll. But in the next moment, it vanished into the thick clouds again. Lu Qingjiu was practically stunned silly.

This time, Yin Xun also saw it. His reaction was about the same as Lu Qingjiu’s, but there was a bit of shock within his awe.

“How could there be a dragon here?” Yin Xun said, “Shouldn’t dragons have already gone extinct?” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “Extinct? But there are even mountain gods, why would dragons have gone extinct?”

Yin Xun said, “After I became a mountain god, I also inherited a portion of their memories.” He answered, “The dragon race was different from other races, they had a reason behind their existence, usually to protect something. Since we entered modern society, faith has become more and more sparse. It’s said that the last dragon died out more than a thousand years ago…”

Lu Qingjiu, “What does modern society have to do with this?”

Yin Xun became aggrieved. “How could it not? Say, nowadays if you were to find ten yuan by the side of the road, would you think that it’s because you’re lucky, or would you thank the gods for their protection?” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “…” Thinking about it like that, it really did seem true.

Yin Xun said, “Without faith, gods naturally cannot continue to exist, so these kinds of things also became fewer and fewer in number.”

The matter of gods and ghosts, had always been that with faith, they existed, and without, they didn’t.

Lu Qingjiu nodded, acknowledging Yin Xun’s statement. 

Lu Qingjiu had only gotten a single look at the dragon and didn’t see its figure again. This world didn’t have day and night and the sun and moon didn’t change positions.

Without realising it, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun had already been here for more than eight hours. Just as Lu Qingjiu was wondering when they would get to go home, a familiar figure appeared from the fog behind him.

Bai Yuehu was back.

His appearance had changed drastically since their separation. His originally short hair had become waist-length. He was wearing a long, black robe, on it embroidered a giant dragon in flight with gold thread. Red jewels formed its eyes. Its appearance was full of life, as if it would fly out of the robe at any moment. The bottom of the robe was a little damaged, looking as if it had been burned by something. Seeing them look over, Bai Yuehu didn’t say anything, simply raising his arm and lightly beckoning them over. 

Yin Xun stood in place, unmoving, but Lu Qingjiu smiled calmly and walked forward. “Yuehu, back so soon?”

“En,” Bai Yuehu said, “Let’s go back home.”

Only after he came closer, did Lu Qingjiu realised that there were three very obvious wounds on the side of Bai Yuehu’s face. These wounds looked like they had been gouged out by something, especially attention-grabbing on Bai Yuehu’s fair face. The wounds were incredibly deep. Even though they had stopped bleeding, they were a mess of blood and broken flesh. It looked like they were likely to leave scars.

“You’re hurt.” Seeing the wounds, Lu Qingjiu gasped. 

Bai Yuehu turned his head slightly, raising a hand and touching it to his cheek. Seeing the fresh blood on the back of his hand, he raised his eyebrows, as if he hadn’t actually noticed the wounds on his face. He said, “It’s just a small wound, it’s not of any importance.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Did you go and get in a fight with somebody?”

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Bai Yuehu, “En.” His gaze fell on the blood staining the back of his hand.

Lu Qingjiu miraculously understood what he meant. He couldn’t help but laugh, then got out a clean handkerchief from his pocket, took Bai Yuehu’s hand, and carefully wiped off the bloodstains for him. 

Only then did Bai Yuehu let out a satisfied expression. His gaze also softened a little.

“Then did you win?” Lu Qingjiu asked another question.

Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu. “Win?”

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, then changed his phrasing. “Did it taste good?” 

Hearing this, Bai Yuehu let out a disgusted expression. “Absolutely terrible, tasted like stagnant water. Disgusting.”

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but laugh. He noticed that Bai Yuehu was wet, and even covered in a thick scent of blood. At first, he thought Bai Yuehu had accidentally got soaked by the rain, but after walking a little closer to Bai Yuehu, he noticed that what was dripping off of Bai Yuehu’s robe wasn’t water, but blood.

Bai Yuehu’s black robe was soaked through with blood. From his words and current state, this blood clearly came from another creature.

The three men began heading down the mountain. Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu made idle conversation on the way down. He asked what had happened to his hair, Bai Yuehu lifted up his hair, then said it’d be fine if he cut it after getting off the mountain, it was a bit of a side effect. 

Lu Qingjiu jokingly said that he actually looked really good with long hair.

“It’s troublesome,” Bai Yuehu expressed in response to that, “When I eat, I have to tie it up.”

Lu Qingjiu burst into loud laughter.

Just, for some unknown reason, after Yin Xun saw Bai Yuehu’s appearance, his face hadn’t looked so good. The usually talkative him didn’t speak a single word on the way down, as quiet as a frightened quail. Lu Qingjiu gave Yin Xun a meaningful glance, but didn’t ask him what was wrong. 

They followed the trail off of Shuifu village’s mountain. The rain had already stopped. White puffs of clouds hung in the sky. The fresh air after a spell of rain made people feel especially refreshed.

Lu Qingjiu initially thought that Bai Yuehu would directly shift back to his original appearance, but unexpectedly, he walked into the house with this appearance, took a bath, and changed into his usual clothes, more like something an ordinary person would wear. Then, Lu Qingjiu saw him take a pair of scissors, walk into the courtyard and mangle his head of beautiful black hair with a few neat snips of his scissors.

Lu Qingjiu, “…You cut your own hair?”

Bai Yuehu said, “Yep.” 

Lu Qingjiu, “Aren’t you scared of messing it up?”

Bai Yuehu said, “If that happens I can just grow it again.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…Why not use magic to change it?”

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Bai Yuehu, “Because it’s troublesome.” 

Lu Qingjiu swallowed his saliva. “Then… why not go to a hairdresser?”

Upon hearing this question, Bai Yuehu’s movements paused. Then, from his mouth came out two words: “No money.”

Lu Qingjiu’s mind went dizzy. It was as if he could see the first time he saw Bai Yuehu, standing outside the xiaolongbao shop, seriously staring at him — at the time, he had really wanted to ask why Bai Yuehu had needed to bum off his dumplings, and now, he finally understood the reason which made his heart ache.

His family’s fox spirit, was a poor fox, the kind that was poor to the point that he couldn’t even afford to eat xiaolongbao…