Lu Qingjiu was ill for about two or three days before he completely recovered. After he recovered, he breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the White Moon Fox would not mistake him for a sick animal and eat him.

The snow had been falling steadily for the past few days, almost without stopping. Soon, Lu Qingjiu learned from Yin Xun that the road to the town had been blocked by heavy snow. With transportation cut off, Shuifu Village had become virtually isolated, with only the next spring, when the snow melted, to connect with the rest of the world.

Lu Qingjiu had very vague memories of winter when he was a child. He only vaguely remembered that the winter in Shuifu Village was particularly difficult to endure compared to other seasons. Food became precious and scarce, and it was difficult to eat fresh vegetables.

Now, Lu Qingjiu had a clearer understanding of this difficult situation. After about five or six days of snowfall, the internet and electricity at home went out. Lu Qingjiu was watching TV at home when the house suddenly plunged into darkness. Yin Xun, however, remained calm, having clearly anticipated this: "The power is out."

Lu Qingjiu said, "It's broken? Didn't you say it would only be broken in December?"

"It's snowing heavily this year," Yin Xun said. "I guess the power grid somewhere has been downed by the snow, and there's no way to repair it. Let's get out the candles and make do..."

Yin Xun had previously told Lu Qingjiu that in the depths of winter, the village would generally be without electricity and internet, but the situation now was even worse than Yin Xun had predicted. It had only just snowed, and both the electricity and internet were already gone. Fortunately, Lu Qingjiu had prepared. He had taken out a few small battery-powered lamps and set them up in the living room. Although it was daytime, the snow had been falling, so it was brighter outside than inside.

Lu Qingjiu heated the charcoal brazier until it was red hot, then sat by the kang, warming himself and discussing lunch with Yin Xun. Bai Yuehu was still sitting in his rocking chair, squinting his eyes. Winter was a time of year when people didn't want to move. There wasn't much farm work to do, and there was no need to go out. It was enough to just stay home and think about what to eat.

"Let's have the bacon." Yin Xun began to think about his menu. "It's ready, but I haven't tasted it yet."

Lu Qingjiu nodded: "Okay then, let's make some fried bacon with peppers. Where's Yuehu?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Whatever." He eats everything.

Lu Qingjiu said: "You guys play first, I'll go cook."

Yin Xun said: "Let me go with you. Aren't you afraid of the cold? I'm not afraid either."

Lu Qingjiu didn't refuse, and they went to the kitchen together. Ever since the snow began, Lu Qingjiu had basically only been cooking. The rest of the housework was handled by Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu. Bai Yuehu was responsible for feeding the chickens and the three animals at home, while Yin Xun was responsible for helping Lu Qingjiu. Any steps that required touching cold water during cooking were all done by Yin Xun, so Lu Qingjiu rarely touched cold water.

Although Lu Qingjiu had previously thought it was okay to just dip in ice water, the problem was that after this experience with illness, he finally realized that if he fell ill again, the White Moon Fox would not be soft on him. Therefore, being afraid of the cold, he could only avoid contact with cold things as much as possible to prevent himself from getting sick, lest the illness not kill him, but the White Moon Fox would eat him to the bone.

The bacon was sliced ​​thinly and stir-fried with chili peppers. The heat caused the bacon to curl up, and the fat became transparent. This kind of meat was not greasy at all, but rather elastic, sticky, and chewy. The chili peppers were bought earlier and kept in the freezer. They were taken out and thawed when they were ready to eat. Although they were not as fresh as when they were bought, they were enough in the winter when supplies were scarce.

Lu Qingjiu even had Yin Xun fetch some stored cabbage from the cellar and cook a large pot of pork, cabbage, and vermicelli stew. Even before the dish came out of the pot, the aroma of the meat filled the room. Yin Xun stood nearby, his eyes almost drooping into the pot, his impatience almost comical. Lu Qingjiu finished cooking the meal and brought it to the room with the kang (kang-fired bed). To save on charcoal, the family stayed in the room with the kang, sitting on it to eat and chat.

The fried bacon was very fragrant, and pork stewed with vermicelli was also a very suitable dish for winter. People's appetites are always better in winter, and even Lu Qingjiu ate a lot more.

Yin Xun slurped his vermicelli noodles and ate his white rice with big mouthfuls, his eyes narrowed with happiness. Bai Yuehu sat next to him, crunching the pork into pieces. Lu Qingjiu was used to the sound, but now he had a new understanding of it... He felt that his bones were not as hard as the pig's...

After dinner, it was time for a beautiful lunch break. Yin Xun didn't dare to share a bed with Bai Yuehu, so he obediently went to the next room. Bai Yuehu then shook out his beautiful nine tails and naturally wrapped up Lu Qingjiu who was lying on the bed.

The tail was warm and soft, and Lu Qingjiu felt extremely comfortable wrapped in it. He hugged one and rubbed his cheek against it, and soon fell asleep in this pleasant temperature. He slept for most of the day and usually woke up around four or five in the afternoon.

After waking up and simply washing up, it was time for dinner.

This all-you-can-eat lifestyle isn't so bad, after all, winter only lasts a month or two, and spring arrives the next year, bringing another busy season. Of course, the only downside is that the power outages mean there's no entertainment at home. I can't watch TV, use the computer, and even my phone is about to shut down. It's basically back to a primitive life without electricity or internet.

So after dinner, Yin Xun, who was very bored, suggested that he wanted to have some fun.

Lu Qingjiu ate the fragrant fried sunflower seeds and said, "What fun is this?"

Yin Xun said: "Let's have a ghost story telling competition to see whose ghost story is the scariest!"

Lu Qingjiu paused eating melon seeds when he heard this: "You, a mountain god, are telling ghost stories?"

Yin Xun said, "Are you coming or not? Are you coming or not?"

Lu Qingjiu thought about it and felt that it was okay, so he asked Bai Yuehu who was sitting next to him: "Yuehu, do you want to come with us?"

Originally, Lu Qingjiu thought that Bai Yuehu would not be interested in this kind of activity, but who knew that he actually nodded in agreement, then got up from the chair and sat next to the two of them.

"Then you go first." Yin Xun said to Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay, I'll go first." He told a story that he encountered in the company.

When Lu Qingjiu was working in the company, he often worked overtime until eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening. Every time he went to the toilet, he found that one of the toilet doors was locked. He didn't take it seriously the first few times, until one day when he was using the toilet next to a locked toilet door, his cell phone accidentally fell to the ground. When Lu Qingjiu bent down to pick up the phone, he found that there was a pair of feet standing towards him in the locked toilet next to him. If it were an ordinary foot, it would be fine, but the problem was that the foot was wearing red high heels, and the skin of the foot was extremely pale, and even blue veins could be seen.

Lu Qingjiu went into the men's restroom. How could there be a pair of women's feet in the men's restroom? Lu Qingjiu felt something was wrong at the time. He was about to get up and leave when he heard a tapping sound. Then he saw through the cracks in the ground that the pair of high heels moved from the restroom on the right to his front.

"Knock, knock, knock." Someone knocked on his bathroom door.

Lu Qingjiu froze. Although he occasionally encountered strange things, such as talking old trees, this was his first encounter with something this filthy. He didn't dare to say a word, pretending not to hear anything as he sat on the toilet and held his breath.

The knocks on the door rang twice more, but Lu Qingjiu still didn't dare to move. Then he heard the sound of high heels walking away. He thought the thing had left when he heard the footsteps. He was about to push the door open, but then he thought of something and stopped opening the door and took a look through the gap. This glance almost frightened his heart. He saw a pair of upside-down eyes. The thing supported its head with its hands and stared at Lu Qingjiu upside down. Its body was stretched out. Although its head was still in front of Lu Qingjiu, its feet in red high heels had already walked to the bathroom door... No wonder he heard the sound of high heels moving away...

"And then what?" Yin Xun became nervous after hearing this.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then I stared at her in the bathroom for the whole night until she disappeared at dawn."

After hearing this, Yin Xun's eyes widened: "She didn't do anything to you?"

Lu Qingjiu said: "That's not the case."

Yin Xun sighed: "Now it's my turn."

It was said that when he first became a mountain god, he encountered a man who brought a corpse to the mountain to dispose of it. The corpse was a woman who had been chopped to pieces by the man. Her death was extremely tragic. The man was very panicked and just dug a hole in the earth and buried the body. Yin Xun saw all of this, but he was too young at the time. When he told his grandparents about it, the fearful old people nervously stopped him from calling the police and told him not to tell anyone about it.

Yin Xun listened to his grandparents, but he still used his mountain god abilities to observe secretly.

After burying the body, the man disappeared for a while, but reappeared on the top of the mountain. He took a shovel and searched everywhere for the burial place. He dug here and there until he finally found the burial place. When he dug the body out again, it was already highly decomposed and looked very disgusting and hideous. But the man ignored all this and took out something from his arms and put it on the forehead of the woman, then buried her again.

Yin Xun was very curious at the time, but because he was trapped in the mountains, he couldn't follow the man. He didn't know what had happened to the man that made him do this.

However, since this incident, the man has come to the mountain more and more frequently, and even climbed up the mountain in the middle of the night to dig up the body.

At first Yin Xun was very curious about why the man did this, but gradually, he discovered something strange about the man.

The man's neck grew longer and longer. At first, it barely looked straight, but later it could no longer be explained as straight. His neck began to thin, lengthen, and become soft, like a cold snake. Because of this change, the man dared not return to his home and was forced to live in the mountains. This time, Yin Xun finally understood what had happened to the man.

That night, Yin Xun, who could see everything on the mountain, saw a man lying in a makeshift tent, asleep, his neck twisted into a strange circle. As night fell, a strong wind blew through the tent, and Yin Xun saw a woman appear on top of the man. Her body was severely decomposed, clearly the same female corpse the man had buried on the mountaintop. The woman lay on the man's chest, reached out her hands, grabbed his head, and began to pull hard, stretching the man's neck longer and longer...

When Yin Xun said this, he heard Bai Yuehu's voice from the side: "Is it like this?"

Yin Xun turned his head and saw that the White Moon Fox's neck had become extremely long, exactly like the terrifying appearance of the man in his memory.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!” Yin Xun screamed in fear, staggering and trying to run out, almost falling over on the bed.

Lu Qingjiu couldn't help laughing and said, "Yuehu, don't scare him."

Bai Yuehu's neck finally returned to normal. He blinked, looking very innocent: "I was just joking. He's a mountain god, how could he be so timid?"

Yin Xun said angrily: "Who said that the mountain god can't be timid! I am who I am, a different firework!"

Lu Qingjiu: “…” Yes, you are a mountain god whose mind is full of water.

Yin Xun said, "Lu Qingjiu, please take care of your vixen. Is she really that scary? That man was a shadow in my childhood!"

Lu Qingjiu said: "Okay, okay, what's the final step?"

Yin Xundao: "In the end? In the end, the man's head was pulled off, and I was the one who called the police." Although this matter was still an unsolved case after being reported to the police, the female corpse was successfully found by the police in the end, and the family came to claim it. It can be regarded as a good deed, but the process was really a bit scary.

After Yin Xun and Lu Qingjiu finished their stories, they both turned their attention to Bai Yuehu. It seemed that Bai Yuehu had the most experience among them, so the horror story she told must be particularly terrifying. However, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun's stories did have some similarities: one stretched her own body, and the other stretched her boyfriend's neck. It seems that female ghosts like long and thin things...

Bai Yuehu said, "Horror story? I don't have any horror stories."

"How could there not be?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Have you ever encountered anything particularly scary?"

Bai Yuehu pondered for a moment: "It's really scary... Does not having enough to eat count?"

Lu Qingjiu said: "..."

Bai Yuehu said: "If it doesn't count, then it's gone."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Can you tell me about it?"

Bai Yuehu thought for a moment and said, "Why don't I just take you to see it?"

"See?" Yin Xun was dumbfounded. "Can we actually watch this live?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Of course, I have nothing to do anyway."

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun looked at each other and finally agreed to Bai Yuehu's proposal, promising to go with him to see the most terrifying thing in his heart. After receiving Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun's affirmative answer, a black mist rose around Bai Yuehu, enveloping Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun.

By the time the black fog dissipated, Lu Qingjiu had arrived in a completely unfamiliar place. It was also nighttime here, but it shouldn't be Shuifu Village, because there was no snow and no signs of snow accumulation. A bright moon hung in the sky, and the air was filled with an indescribable smell, like a combination of fishy smell and rotten meat.

Lu Qingjiu stood in front of a huge pit. The pit was very deep and very vast. Looking down, Lu Qingjiu saw a layer of black mud on the ground of the huge pit. This mud was probably the source of the rotten smell. On the mud, Lu Qingjiu also saw many bones. These bones looked very strange, like fish, but longer than fish. They were scattered on the mud.

"Where is this place?" Yin Xun was a little scared. He asked, "What's in the pit?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Keep watching."

As Bai Yuehu finished speaking, the mud in the pit began to gurgle, like boiling water. Lu Qingjiu looked into the pit and saw a huge head emerging from the mud. At first glance, the head looked a bit like a dragon, but the mud covering it obscured its appearance. However, the long fangs in the head's bloody mouth told everyone that it was not something to be trifled with.

A monster wrapped in mud crawled out from the bottom of the pit. Lu Qingjiu noticed that the monster had no eyes, or rather, its eyes had been blinded, leaving only two black holes.

It seemed to sense the presence of Bai Yuehu and Lu Qingjiu, and swung its tail heavily in that direction. The heavy tail fell, shaking the surrounding rocks, but the rocks in the deep pit remained as stable as Mount Tai, motionless. If Lu Qingjiu was not mistaken, this deep pit was a cage prepared for this monster.

Only when the monster's body completely emerged from the ground did Lu Qingjiu barely guess its identity. Its slender figure, coiled in the deep pit, was indeed a typical dragon from ancient legends. However, it was too shabby to be called a dragon, completely lacking the majestic grace of a divine dragon. Lu Qingjiu even saw numerous blood-red wounds on its body, the blood oozing from those wounds mixed with the mud, making anyone who saw it feel a little sick.

"Is this a dragon?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

Bai Yuehu asked, "Dragon?" He glanced at the monster and said, "Not really? He's no longer worthy of being a dragon."

Lu Qingjiu said: "Did he do something wrong and be locked up here?"

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Lu Qingjiu couldn't imagine what the dragon had done to deserve such imprisonment. To him, a mere human, the dragon was a sacred symbol, a totem of the Chinese nation, a symbol of faith, a creature that should be proud and beautiful. Although the monster before him looked utterly dejected, Lu Qingjiu could still sense from its subtle details the power and beauty it once possessed as a top predator.

"What did he do wrong?" Yin Xun asked weakly beside him, "And dragons...shouldn't they have been extinct long ago?"

Bai Yuehu said, "He did something irreversible." He said calmly, "Extinct? Who told you that dragons are extinct?"

Yin Xundao: "Inherited memories."

Bai Yuehu said: "Then you can update your memory."

Yin Xun looked helpless.

This is what Bai Yuehu finds most terrifying. Unlike Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun, his fear is due to the miserable appearance of his fellow tribesmen.

The monster in the mud pit opened its mouth and wanted to roar, but all it uttered was a hoarse roar. When Lu Qingjiu heard the sound, he realized that the dragon in the mud pit seemed to have had its vocal cords removed as well.

What on earth had it done wrong to deserve such torture? Seeing this scene, Lu Qingjiu felt a little cold.

"He can't die, but he can't live either," Bai Yuehu said. "Without food, he's starving, and can only eat his own body." He turned to look at Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun and said, "To me, this is the most terrifying thing."

As if in response to his words, the giant dragon in the deep pit, which had turned into a monster, let out a hoarse dry howl again. The sound was like crying blood, which made people shudder.

"Let's go." Yin Xun felt really uncomfortable watching this scene. In his inherited memories, a dragon shouldn't be in this miserable state. He looked at the monster, pity and sigh rising in his heart, "I don't want to watch it anymore."

Bai Yuehu said, "Then let's go back."

A black mist rose around the three of them again, and when it dissipated, they returned to the warm house. Silence spread among the three of them. Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu, his dark eyes unclear. Just when Lu Qingjiu thought he was about to say something profound, he heard Bai Yuehu say, "So I won today's horror story, right?"

Lu Qingjiu: “…”

Yin Xun: “…”

Bai Yuehu asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yin Xun said in a trembling voice: "Of course... you win." Their story was simply not on the same level as the horror that Bai Yuehu was experiencing firsthand.

Bai Yuehu said, "Oh, is there any reward?" As he mentioned the reward, his eyes fell on Lu Qingjiu, his eyes full of anticipation.

Lu Qingjiu: "..." In the past, he would have thought Bai Yuehu's expression was quite cute, but after taking a bite, he finally realized that Bai Yuehu's eyes were like looking at a delicious pork elbow. At this moment, he was politely asking the pork elbow if he could have another bite.

Delicious pork elbow Lu Qingjiu ruthlessly rejected Bai Yuehu's idea: "No."

Bai Yuehu sighed, extremely disappointed.

Yin Xun was still immersed in the scene just now and couldn't extricate himself. He didn't notice the undercurrent between Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu. He said, "It's getting late. I'll go back first. You guys should go to bed early."

Lu Qingjiu asked, "Are you okay?"

Yin Xun said, "It's okay." He scratched his head, "I just feel a little sorry for that dragon."

Lu Qingjiu said: "Yes, but this is their dragon clan's business..." They are just outsiders and it is not appropriate for them to say anything.

The White Moon Fox was indifferent to the tragic fate of its fellow creatures and was too lazy to even say a word of comfort.

Yin Xun left in a daze. Seeing his appearance, Lu Qingjiu became a little worried. He didn't know why Yin Xun cared so much about the dragon, but after seeing the scene, he was indeed touched.

"Then...what mistake did that dragon make?" After Yin Xun left, Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu this question again.

Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu and blinked: “Do you really want to know?”

Lu Qingjiu: “Yeah.”

Bai Yuehu said, "I'll tell you later."

Lu Qingjiu: “…” Why did he feel that Bai Yuehu’s expression looked a little… weird?

The author has something to say: Bai Yuehu: Yeah, I’m the first place in the competition.

Lu Qingjiu: …………