CH 101

A few days later, Lu Qingjiu learnt that the fire caused by the candle dragon had not caused any casualties. Although the situation appeared to be critical, it seems that only a few humans were injured by the smoke because Zhu Rong returned in time, but not in a life-threatening way.

However, this was only the beginning, as the candle dragon hiding in the human realm began to cause chaos, either by setting fires or eating people, causing panic throughout the city, and there was no telling what he was up to.

This morning Lu Qingjiu watched the news, which said that three headless bodies had been found in a park last night, and that the culprits had not yet been found. The news urged people not to go out during this time, and even if they do, they should choose a place with lots of people and lights.

Lu Qingjiu read the news and immediately thought of Candle Dragon, and called Hu Shu to ask about the details of the case.

Hu Shu didn't expect Lu Qingjiu to be interested in the case, so he enthusiastically gave Lu Qingjiu a general description of the case. The three corpses were indeed headless, and their heads had been bitten off by some fierce beast, while their abdomens had been cut open and all the soft internal organs had been eaten away. However, because they were too gory, the police department kept this aspect of the case information for the time being and did not disclose it. Based on the condition of the corpse, the forensic scientist judged that the perpetrator could not have been one of the giant beasts that exist in the city.

"Brother Lu, do you have any ideas about the case?" Hu Shu asks Lu Qingjiu expectantly, who has been bored to death by these cases lately, even though they are mainly handled by the people above him, but they can't do anything about the murderer and can't even catch the tail of the killer.

"No." Lu Qingjiu didn't dare to reveal anything. Those in Zhu Rong who knew about the Candle Dragon would immediately think of this ferocious beast, and those who didn't would have nothing to do with the Candle Dragon even if they knew about it, and would probably take their own lives.

Hu Shu said, "Then if you have any clues, you must tell me to live, the murderer is so cruel that he will commit another crime in the near future."

Lu Qingjiu nodded his head and said yes.

Then in the evening, Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu talked about the candle dragons. Bai Yuehu said that the candle dragons could not repress their ferocity to do these things, after all, in the other world there are no human laws, they can kill whenever and wherever they want, and they can kill the creatures around them by instinct.

Lu Qingjiu thinks of his own grandfather: "Will the contaminated Ying Long do the same?"

Bai Yuehu nods, "But they are more picky." Usually only eat their favourites, and the ones they hate the most, and as for the other small fish and prawns, they almost always don't bother to put too much effort into them.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Oh, I understand.

Bai Yuehu said he might have to go out tomorrow and told Lu Qingjiu to be safe and not to leave the yard.

Bai Yuehu still looked a bit worried, but only after Lu Qingjiu promised that he would never leave did he reluctantly agree.

It seems that Bai Yuehu is also busy with the Candle Dragon. It is difficult to find the Candle Dragon after its scent is hidden, plus this is the human realm after all, and many methods cannot be used without risking harm to humans.

With one hand tied in a hundred different ways, it is no wonder that the Candle Dragon has not even been found yet.

The next day, after Bai Yuehu had left, Lu Qingjiu started making sauerkraut. The sauerkraut was best made in winter, but Lu Qingjiu's body couldn't take the cold, so he had to make it at a different time of year. He washed the cabbages, dragged out the jar of sauerkraut and a large quantity of salt, and planned to put them in neatly, one by one.

They quite like sauerkraut here, especially their own home-made sauerkraut. Compared to sauerkraut from outside, homemade sauerkraut will have a stronger sour taste and a crisper texture. What a wonderful taste of pickled fish, pickled vegetable vermicelli soup, or a bit of pickled vegetables when grilling meat. Especially in summer, this peculiar pickle comes in handy and is so crisp and sour that you have to shave two extra bowls of rice with it.

Yin Xun also came over to help, with a lollipop in her mouth, to help Lu Qingjiu wash the cabbages.

All the cabbages are home-grown and already sweet, so I thought they would be delicious as sauerkraut. Lu Qingjiu puts the cabbages on bamboo mats to dry in the sun. It is best not to get water on the cabbages, as this can damage the bacteria in the jar and cause mould.

Lu Qingjiu had left some of the pickles they had made last year, so he cleaned out the other jars after drying the cabbage.

He was fiddling with his head down when he heard a thud from the doorway, as if something had smashed into their doorway.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun's movements stopped at the same time, and they looked at each other, seeing the doubt in each other's eyes.

"Who's out there?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

No one answered, it was silent outside.

"Who is it?

"Who is it?" Yin Xun smoothly wiped the water from his hands on his own clothes and went to the door, looking out through the cat's eye, he didn't know what he saw and sucked a breath of cold air backwards from his mouth, "What, what is this."

"What's wrong," Lu Qingjiu asked.

Yin Xun said, "Come and see for yourself."

Lu Qingjiu walked over and also looked into the cat's eye of the doorway, which had been replaced by Bai Yuehu with a flimsy wooden door. Lu Qingjiu can barely see out of the cat's eye, even though it has a very narrow field of vision.

Outside, there is no one but a field of blooming flowers.

The flowers were colourful, blooming amidst the green grass, and there were even colourful butterflies fluttering amongst them, making it a beautiful sight. The flowers were like a heavy blanket that covered Lu Qingjiu's door, but as beautiful as this image was, it gave Lu Qingjiu a chilling feeling in his back, and he turned his head to look at Yin Xun and saw the same look of horror on his face.

"I don't know what it is." Lu Qingjiu said, "but it doesn't feel like anything good."

Yin Xun said, "Let's give Bai Yuehu a call."

Lu Qingjiu thought about it, but shook his head and sent a text message to Bai Yuehu instead. He was afraid that Bai Yuehu was in the middle of a fight and it would be a loss if he fell behind just to answer a phone call, and if it wasn't a critical moment, Bai Yuehu would have heard the text message ringing on his phone.

The flowers outside the door did not change, so Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went out into the courtyard and waited.

But soon there was a strange thumping sound outside the door and Yin Xun couldn't resist and went to the cat's eye to take a closer look again, after which he said in a trembling voice, "Oh wine, I notice how the flowers are getting more and more"

Lu Qingjiu: "It's become more"

Yin Xun nodded hastily.

Lu Qingjiu also went to check a few times and found that the flowers outside the door were indeed becoming more numerous, a change that was very disturbing, as if something terrible was happening under their noses.

"Right, can't you see the whole Shuifu Village?" Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered Yin Xun's ability, "Can you see it now?"

Yin Xun slapped his thigh and said, "Oops, I forgot all about it." Usually, I use this ability to see the mountains, but I forgot that the village could also be seen.

"Let's see." Yin Xun closes his eyes.

Lu Qingjiu sat waiting, but found that Yin Xun, who had closed his eyes, was looking more and more ugly, and finally his whole body trembled, and when he opened his eyes again, his whole face was covered with the smell of fear, and even his voice began to tremble: "Qingjiu"

"What's out there?" Lu Qingjiu asked busily.

Yin Xun said, "I"

Lu Qingjiu said, "What?"

Yin Xun said, "I we'd better wait for Bai Yuehu to return."

Lu Qingjiu was stunned, he wanted to ask Yin Xun what the flowers outside were, but Yin Xun pursed his lips and didn't want to say anything else, so Lu Qingjiu couldn't force him. He couldn't understand what Yin Xun had seen to make him look so resistant.

The silence in the courtyard was so dreadful that Lu Qingjiu could not stand it any longer. He stood up and asked Yin Xun if she wanted to eat something, but he shook his head in panic.

"I don't want to eat." Yin Xun mumbled, "I'm not hungry."

Lu Qingjiu wants to say something but doesn't.

Yin Xun said, "Wine I know you want to ask what's really out there, but I think that it's better not to know." His eyes let go a little, "I"

"Alright, I won't ask." Lu Qingjiu saw that he was a little irritated and hastily squeezed his shoulder as a sign of comfort, "Don't be afraid

."

A bitter smile appears on Yin Xun's face.

The best thing to do now is to wait for Bai Yuehu to come back, but the text message on his mobile phone is not returned, so it seems that the situation there is not particularly optimistic either, otherwise he would not check his mobile phone.

Lu Qingjiu thought about it and simply took a packet of melon seeds from the house and sat down in the courtyard to have a slow stroll.

The lush patch of flowers had covered as far as the eye could see outside their house, the beautiful blossoms dainty and surrounded by bees and butterflies as if in full spring.

He wondered what it was that Yin Xun had seen that had caused him to react so violently.

It was getting dark when Lu Qingjiu's mobile phone rang and he picked it up to see that it was Bai Yuehu calling.

When the call was answered, Lu Qingjiu heard Bai Yuehu's voice, his tone slightly urgent, asking Lu Qingjiu where he was now and whether he had gone out, as if he had only just seen the message Lu Qingjiu had sent him.

"I haven't gone out yet." Lu Qingjiu spat out a melon rind, "You don't have to worry about me, Yin Xun and I have been waiting for you inside the house."

"Okay, I'll be right back, you mustn't go out." Bai Yuehu reiterated again.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Well, we're all fine, don't be in too much of a hurry and make sure you're safe."

Bai Yuehu answered and hung up the phone.

"Bai Yuehu will be back soon." Lu Qingjiu coaxed Yin Xun, "Don't be afraid anymore."

Yin Xun's expression was complicated as he licked his lips and whispered, "Wine, do you really want to know what's going on out there?"

Lu Qingjiu naturally wanted to know, people are curious and no matter what the answer to a question is, there is always a desire to know. Lu Qingjiu couldn't bear to let Yin Xun tell him, but seeing the state he was in, Lu Qingjiu shook his head to show that he didn't want to know and that Bai Yuehu would be back later, so he should be able to find out what was going on outside.

Yin Xun dropped his head and was so depressed that Lu Qingjiu didn't know how to comfort him.

Lu Qingjiu rushed to the door and saw Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu stood amidst a field of flowers, yet his gloomy face was in stark contrast to the delicate flowers at his feet.

The door had just been opened and before Bai Yuehu could say anything, a round object flew from the sky into Lu Qingjiu's yard, smashing through the doorway. Lu Qingjiu was stunned for a moment and looked at the round object reflexively, but Bai Yuehu's reaction was to reach out and try to cover Lu Qingjiu's eyes, but before he could do so, Lu Qingjiu had already seen it clearly.

It was a human head, severed from the neck area, eyes peacefully closed, but still barely recognisable as having been seen somewhere before.

Lu Qingjiu quickly recalled from memory where he had met the owner of the head, Ju Mang.

This is Ju Mang, the god of spring, the god of spring in all her finery and pretty as a girl, who has died.

Everywhere his head went, a hundred flowers bloomed like a full-blown spring.

Lu Qingjiu froze in place: "That sound just now" Lu Qingjiu turned his head to look at Yin Xun.

Yin Xun, who was extremely depressed, answered Lu Qingjiu's question in a whisper: "There was a man who threw Ju Mang's head from a distance" and smashed it against the iron gate of their house.

Thud, thud, thud, so one after the other, as if a solicitous urging, the head bounced off the door and rolled towards the rest, blossoming into a field of flowers.

No wonder the sounds keep coming one after the other and the flowers on the ground keep getting busier and busier.

This is the blanket that the god of spring has laid out with death, and the bees and butterflies on it are the cries of the god of spring in pain.

"Who did it," Lu Qingjiu asked with difficulty, "was it the candle dragon?"

Neither Bai Yuehu nor Yin Xun spoke, both of them falling into an odd silence at the same time.

Lu Qingjiu, on the other hand, tasted the silence and an unbelievable thought came into his head, saying, "It's not the candle dragon that is"

"It's your grandfather." Bai Yuehu's answer confirmed Lu Qingjiu's suspicions, "Your grandfather after the contamination, to be precise."

Lu Qingjiu was dumbfounded, he finally understood at this point why Yin Xun wouldn't tell him what was really going on outside, because his grandfather was standing in the doorway, slamming this head against the black door of their house, one after another.

"Why would he do that?" Lu Qingjiu didn't understand.

"Killing is just instinct." Bai Yuehu says, "It doesn't need a reason."

Lu Qingjiu's eyes closed in pain.

Bai Yuehu said, "That's how it is in the Otherworld, without the restraints of the law, it's a chaotic and barbaric world."

Lu Qingjiu no longer knows what to say, the head rests on top of a luxuriant flower, giving birth to beautiful coloured butterflies, some of which wave their wings and rest on the tip of Ju Mang's nose, whose expression is not painful, even peaceful, a grotesque and gruesome scene, on the contrary, with a beauty that makes people feel afraid.

"The God of Spring is dead, what about Spring?" Lu Qingjiu said.

"He'll come back to life." Bai Yuehu went to Ju Mang's side and reached out to pick up his head, "It will just take some time." As long as there is spring, there is still a chance that he will rise again, and in many years, perhaps in one of the flowers that bloom from spring, a god in fancy clothes will appear, holding an umbrella that can give birth to all things, yawning lazily as if in a long sleep.

Lu Qingjiu was relieved to hear that Ju Mang could be revived, and looking at the head in Bai Yuehu's hand, he asked, "What about this head?"

Bai Yuehu took a look at it, "Send it to Zhu Rong."

Lu Qingjiu: "Oh," he heard Bai Yuehu say before he finished, "or sell it to Shao Hao for a bit of money, he loves gardening, doesn't he?" This head is very environmentally friendly as it produces a constant blanket of flowers.

Lu Qingjiu :""

Bai Yuehu said, "It seems a bit inhumane."

Lu Qingjiu: "How much can you sell it for?"

Bai Yuehu: "I think I sold it for 500 yuan last time."

Lu Qingjiu's expression twisted for a moment, not that he wouldn't have noticed the key word in Bai Yuehu's tone: "last time"

Bai Yuehu then realised that he had slipped up and explained, "It was an accident last time."

Lu Qingjiu: "You took the accident and sold it for $500"

Bai Yuehu looks at the head in his hands and is silent.

Lu Qingjiu: "And why is it only 500, isn't Ju Mang's head a bit too cheap?"

Bai Yuehu said, "How much will it cost?"

Lu Qingjiu: "At least, add another 500"

Bai Yuehu: "Okay."

After listening to their conversation, Yin Xun, who was in a state of shock and distress, fell into a dazed silence and, judging by his expression, seemed to have become even more unconscious. Yin Xun shook his head, saying he was fine, and asked what to do with all the flowers on the ground.

Lu Qingjiu didn't know what to do either, so he looked to Bai Yuehu, knowing he must have plenty of experience.

Bai Yuehu took a look and said, "Don't worry, without Ju Mang's head, the flowers will be gone the next day, and asked Lu Qingjiu to wait at home while he sent the head over to Zhu Rong, otherwise the flowers will keep on blooming in the yard. Lu Qingjiu said goodbye and saw Bai Yuehu leave again.

"Would you like something to eat?" Lu Qingjiu asked Yin Xun, who hadn't even eaten dinner because they had been waiting nervously in the house, and only now, after relaxing a little, did Lu Qingjiu feel hungry.

"Want to eat some meat." Yin Xun wilts like a cabbage that has lost its moisture, and despite Bai Yuehu's explanation of the situation, he is still too absorbed in the image he has just seen.

Lu Qingjiu probably understood his state of mind and said, "Then I'll make you fried chicken, okay?"

Yin Xun nodded in agreement.

They don't eat fried chicken very often, Lu Qingjiu only makes it once in a while.

We have leftover chicken thighs at home, so Lu Qingjiu takes them out, thaws them, marinates them and then wraps them in breadcrumbs and fries them at a low temperature. The chicken is usually fried twice, the first time at a low temperature to cook the chicken, and the second time at a high heat to make the outer layer of the chicken crispy and golden, forcing out the oil inside.

Lu Qingjiu fried it and made the dip, and the two of them chose a movie to watch in the living room while eating fried chicken.

The atmosphere finally eased as Yin Xun sipped a cold Coke and Lu Qingjiu sipped chocolate milk.

Bai Yuehu came back as soon as he could, and when he came back, he also lounged on the sofa and ate fried chicken. The three of them forgot about the bloodstained flowers in the courtyard for a while, and focused all their attention on the film in front of them.

Lu Qingjiu's choice was a gentle comedy, and after watching it, he felt his soul was cleansed. Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu clearly prefer the fried chicken in their hands, and they both gnaw on it so intently that in no time they have crumbs of bread crumbs all over their faces.

After finishing the fried chicken, it was almost twelve o'clock when Yin Xun got up to leave for home and Lu Qingjiu saw him off.

"Did you have any trouble today?" Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu, turning his head.

"Hmm." Bai Yuehu said, "That candle dragon is evolving."

"Evolution," Lu Qingjiu said, "what does that mean?"

Bai Yuehu says: "It means he can control himself better."

Lu Qingjiu: "But shouldn't that be a good thing?"

Bai Yuehu sighed, "Not in a good way." He then explained what evolution meant, it turned out that the Candle Dragon was born with a strong desire for destruction, this desire for destruction would make him easy to find, but if the Candle Dragon evolved, it would control the desire for destruction, this seemed good for the time being, but in time, they would not be able to find the Candle Dragon. If the Candle Dragon is left to live in the human realm, it will be a devastating disaster if it gets out of control. Now is the best time to find the Candle Dragon, but so far the search is not going very smoothly. The Shao Hao family, who were managing this area, have gone to Phoenix Nirvana, Xiao Mei is not very familiar with the area and the search is slow, and most importantly, the candle dragon seems to have found a place to stay

Lu Qingjiu was also a little worried, but he couldn't really help and said he could only comfort Bai Yuehu with food.

"Perhaps there is another way to comfort me." Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu and suddenly came up with a question.

Lu Qingjiu didn't understand what Bai Yuehu meant at first, until Bai Yuehu kissed him on the lips and he realised.

After the kiss, Bai Yuehu picks Lu Qingjiu up and heads for the bedroom. It was hot at the moment, and the cicadas were chirping all over the treetops, but they didn't bother anyone, perhaps because the person beside him soothed the most restless part of his heart.

Lu Qingjiu lay back on the soft bed and gently nibbled on Bai Yuehu's furry ear, a gentle smile on his face as he closed his eyes, only to be met by a vision of the lush flowers in the courtyard and Ju Mang with his eyes closed amidst them. The image was a fleeting one, and soon Lu Qingjiu's vision was filled with Bai Yuehu, whose burning eyes dispelled the bad memories, leaving Lu Qingjiu to focus all his attention on the black dragon concentrating in front of him.

The author has something to say: Bai Yuehu: wants to fill all your horizons.

Lu Qingjiu: Yes.

Bai Yuehu: and your body.

Lu Qingjiu.