Carrying the four little piglets, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun took Uncle Chen's pickup truck back to Shuifu Village.
After arriving home, Lu Qingjiu first put the piglets into the pigpen, which he had cleaned in advance and covered the floor with clean straw. According to Yin Xun, pigs actually like cleanliness, and they grow meat more easily when they live in a comfortable place.
Lu Qingjiu picked up the piglets and put them in the pigpen, adding clean pig grass and water to the trough. The two little white pigs twitched their chubby little butts and happily began to eat, but the two little black pigs hesitated and stood at the door of the pigpen without moving.
"What's wrong?" Lu Qingjiu asked puzzledly when he saw that they refused to move, "Is there something about this pigpen that doesn't suit your taste?"
Hearing Lu Qingjiu's question, the big black piglet actually nodded, stretched out its small pig's trotters and pointed at the two little white pigs who were eating happily.
Lu Qingjiu: "Don't you want to live with them?"
The black piglet grunted.
Lu Qingjiu looked at the piglet suspiciously: "Are you really a pig? Are you a transformed human?"
The black piglet looked at Lu Qingjiu innocently, as if it didn't understand what Lu Qingjiu was saying. Lu Qingjiu seriously suspected that it was deliberately pretending to be innocent. However, this black piglet couldn't be a human. After all, if a human found someone willing to communicate with them, they would definitely show it immediately, and they wouldn't pretend to be stupid like this.
Lu Qingjiu thought about it, then took a piece of wood from the side and separated the two black piglets from the white piglets in the middle. In this way, the two little piglets tiptoed carefully into the pigpen, looked around, and then lay down on the clean straw to rest.
Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu ignored them and went back to the house.
Yin Xun was busy in the kitchen, putting everything Lu Qingjiu bought in order. Lu Qingjiu came in and asked him what he wanted to eat in the evening.
"Anything is fine." Yin Xun said casually, "Shall I go pick some vegetables from the fields and we have hot pot?"
"Okay." Lu Qingjiu said, "I'll make some soup first... By the way, where can I get the pig grass? Or can I just feed them with feed?"
"As for pig grass, you can ask the children in the village to help you pick it," Yin Xun said. "It's 50 cents a basket. They can earn some pocket money so you don't have to go to the mountains. Just feed them what you want. Add some vitamins and other things that the pigs need. If the pigs eat too much, the meat won't be as tasty, but they'll be less likely to get sick."
Lu Qingjiu nodded when he heard this, indicating that he understood.
"I'm going to pick vegetables. You can make the soup first." Yin Xun went to his own field.
Lu Qingjiu put the bones he had bought from the market into the pot, lit the fire and started to cook, and then cut up some of the meat he had bought. The old house had a refrigerator, but it hadn't been used for a long time, so the cooling effect was not very good. Lu Qingjiu stuffed the remaining ingredients into the refrigerator, picked up the vegetables and went to the yard to wash them, but heard a loud splash, which sounded like the sound of a heavy object falling into the water.
The sound came from the backyard. Lu Qingjiu was stunned when he heard it, then he thought of something, put down the food in his hand and hurried to the backyard.
The backyard had not been cleaned up yet. It was surrounded by withered trees and messy weeds. There were white spider webs hanging on the walls. The black well in front of him looked particularly abrupt among them.
Lu Qingjiu had just clearly heard the sound of something falling into the water. He was afraid that a child from the village had accidentally fallen into the well, so he quickly walked to the edge of the well and looked inside.
The well mouth was pitch black and the end was invisible. Lu Qingjiu shouted a few times, but did not hear any cry for help from inside.
"Is there anyone there? Did someone fall in?" Lu Qingjiu continued to shout, "If there is someone, just shout—"
The well was quiet, with only deathly silence.
Lu Qingjiu called out a few more times, but there was still no response. He was just wondering what else had fallen in, when he heard Yin Xun's voice beside him: "Jiu'er? Jiu'er? Where are you?"
"I'm in the backyard." Lu Qingjiu responded.
"What are you doing in the backyard?" Yin Xun asked, "I came back from picking some vegetables. This cucumber is so sweet..."
Lu Qingjiu glanced at the well mouth: "I just heard the sound of something falling in, so I came to take a look."
"Oh, is there anything there?" Yin Xun stood at the door of the backyard, holding a half-eaten cucumber in his hand, looking at Lu Qingjiu from a distance.
"No." Lu Qingjiu said.
"Then forget it," Yin Xun said. "Maybe a kid threw a rock outside the wall and it accidentally rolled into the well."
Lu Qingjiu thought about it and decided that as long as the person who fell into the well wasn't a human, he didn't care anymore. He left the backyard and walked to Yin Xun's side, and together they walked towards the front yard. Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu, took another bite of the cucumber, and chewed it with a crunch. He mumbled, "What's that on your back?"
"On my back?" Lu Qingjiu turned his head to look behind him. "What is that?"
Yin Xun stretched out his hand and took out a black object from Lu Qingjiu's back: "This..."
Lu Qingjiu saw clearly what was in Yin Xun's hand. It was actually a ball of black hair that had stuck to his back at some point.
"Is this hair? Holy shit!" Yin Xun saw clearly that what he was holding was actually hair and quickly threw it aside. "What the hell? It's so disgusting."
Lu Qingjiu: “…” He looked at the well in his backyard in silence, and a bad feeling arose in his heart.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's okay." Yin Xun said, "It's a remote place in the countryside, so there are always some strange things..."
Lu Qingjiu was surprised: "Strange things? For example?"
Yin Xun was silent for a moment, then whispered to Lu Qingjiu, "Last summer, the youngest child of the Liu family was drowned."
"Drowned?" Lu Qingjiu said, "In the creek in the village? Isn't that creek very shallow?" There are not many rivers in their place. As far as he knows, the only water near the village is a creek that is not higher than the knees. The water in that creek is not fast and there are no aquatic plants. Even if you fall in it, it is easy to stand up.
"No," Yin Xun said, "If it happened there, it wouldn't be particularly strange. He drowned in... the woods."
Lu Qingjiu didn’t understand for a moment, and repeated doubtfully: “In the woods?”
"Yes." Yin Xun whispered, "It was in the woods. There was no water around. The Liu family called the police right away, and after the autopsy, the police said he drowned."
Lu Qingjiu said: "...So what happened in the end?"
"What else can we do in the end?" Yin Xun said, "Let's just leave it at that. Actually, this kind of strange thing happens in other villages too, but not often. Maybe one or two every few years."
Lu Qingjiu was speechless. He had actually encountered this kind of thing before when he was working in the city, but he didn't expect that such strange things would still happen in a new place.
"So if you encounter it next time, just pretend you didn't see it." Yin Xun said, "Out of sight, out of mind."
Lu Qingjiu thought, this is how out of sight, out of mind works...
Yin Xun handed Lu Qingjiu a cucumber, and the two of them squatted in the front yard and continued to wash the vegetables.
The cucumber tasted really good, crisp and sweet, without any bitterness, and very juicy, almost like fruit. After eating the cucumber, Lu Qingjiu felt a little better and asked, "Have you encountered anything strange?"
Yin Xun grinned, revealing his cute canine fang again: "Maybe I've encountered it before, I didn't notice it."
Lu Qingjiu thought it was good to be thick-skinned.
Yin Xun picked a lot of vegetables, and after washing them, Lu Qingjiu added the stewed bone soup base that he brought from the city. After it was cooked, it was brought to the yard. The two of them opened a few bottles of beer and happily began to eat hot pot and drink beer.
The taste of the hot pot is simple, but fortunately the ingredients are fresh, so the taste is not bad. The rich aroma of the bone soup filled the entire garden. Yin Xun drank a few glasses, and two blushes appeared on his cheeks, and he looked a little drunk.
Lu Qingjiu also felt drunk. He hadn't been drunk for a long time. He usually worked overtime and his mind was blurred. He had no time to stop and have a drink with his friends.
Home is still a comfortable place, and I don’t have to think about punching in for work tomorrow. Just as he was thinking this, Lu Qingjiu saw Yin Xun, who was sitting in front of him, suddenly stretched out his hand, pointed behind him, and said vaguely: "It's... so dark."
"What?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Didn't you turn on the light?"
Yin Xun tilted his head, his expression very confused: "But it's still very dark."
Lu Qingjiu thought Yin Xun was completely drunk, until he turned his head and looked behind him. He finally understood the meaning of Yin Xun's words. He saw a black figure standing not far from them. The figure was like a black hole that absorbed all the light. Lu Qingjiu rubbed his eyes hard, and only then did he see clearly that the black figure was actually a ball of human hair.
"Do you know what I'm most afraid of?" A woman's soft voice sounded in my ears.
Perhaps the alcohol paralyzed his nerves, Lu Qingjiu was not too afraid. He looked at the ball of hair and heard the woman ask again.
"Do you know what I'm most afraid of?" Black hair, closer to them.
Lu Qingjiu's lips moved slightly: "You are most afraid of..."
"What?"
"I'm most...most afraid of being bald?" Drunk Lu Qingjiu said this seriously, thinking his logic was perfect and there was nothing wrong with it. Otherwise, why would the female ghost have so much hair... He said this and touched his hair, sighing a little sadly, "Fortunately, I resigned early, otherwise I wouldn't be able to escape..."
The black shadow trembled twice, not knowing whether it was shocked by Lu Qingjiu's answer. After all, this was the first time she heard such an answer in so many years. The man in front of her was so pure and unpretentious, completely different from other coquettish and slutty women.
The black shadow in front of him seemed to want to speak, but suddenly a thick black fog appeared around the yard. The female ghost sensed something and disappeared from Lu Qingjiu's sight the next moment, leaving only a dark water stain on the ground.
Lu Qingjiu felt that he was really drunk, otherwise how could that thing disappear like that? Yin Xun opposite him opened another bottle and filled his glass.
"Drink..." Yin Xun said with a big tongue, "Keep drinking..."
Lu Qingjiu picked up the cup and drank it in one gulp, saying, “Drink!”
He couldn't quite remember what happened after that. The next thing he remembered was the next morning. He and Yin Xun had been lying in the yard all night. When he got up, his back and waist ached, and he felt like he was falling apart. Especially his head, which was aching so much from the hangover that it felt like it was about to explode. Lu Qingjiu got up from the ground in a daze and nudged Yin Xun, who was sleeping beside him with his eyes crooked and his mouth tilted.
"Ouch... Ouch..." Yin Xun screamed as soon as he opened his eyes, "My whole body hurts. Jiu'er, did you beat me up last night when I was drunk?"
Lu Qingjiu: "...I'm in pain too, okay?"
Yin Xun said, "I can't take it anymore. My whole body hurts, especially my butt." He rubbed his butt and looked at Lu Qingjiu suspiciously, "You really didn't do anything to me?"
Lu Qingjiu: "The mirror is in the room, go look at your face and sober up."
Yin Xun: "I'm so good-looking."
Lu Qingjiu: "You look so good, you're about to swell up like a pig's head."
Yin Xun looked puzzled, staggered into the house and found the mirror hanging in the toilet. Then Lu Qingjiu heard a scream from him: "Lu Qingjiu—you must have beaten me while I was sleeping last night!"
Lu Qingjiu: “I don’t have any!”
Yin Xun: "Then why am I swollen but you are not?"
Lu Qingjiu: "Maybe it's because I'm good-looking."
Yin Xun: “…” You are really shameless.
Jokes aside, the sudden swelling on their faces meant they had to go see a doctor, so the two of them supported each other and limped to the village clinic. The villagers who knew them laughed at how miserable they looked, and joked that maybe they had been caught stealing corn in the middle of the night and got beaten up.
Yin Xun said with a sad face: "Aunt, please stop joking with me."
After arriving at the clinic, the doctor examined Yin Xun and said that he was allergic to something and was not beaten by anyone. Only then was Lu Qingjiu cleared of suspicion.
"What are you allergic to?" Yin Xun didn't understand. "Isn't what I eat the same as usual?"
Lu Qingjiu thought for a while and said uncertainly: "Could it be that you are allergic to the hot pot ingredients I brought?"
Yin Xun was stunned: "...No way! There are people who are allergic to hot pot base?!"
"It's possible." Lu Qingjiu analyzed it carefully. "There are a lot of spices in the hot pot ingredients. I might be allergic to them... Of course, it's just a possibility. You're the first person I've seen who is allergic to hot pot ingredients."
Yin Xun shed tears of sadness.
Seeing that Yin Xun's symptoms were not particularly serious, the doctor prescribed some medicine for him to take at home, and said that he would be fine in two days if he stayed away from allergens.
Then the two disabled people supported each other and returned home.
After Lu Qingjiu returned home, he lay in bed for a long time before he felt better. When he got up to clean up the things in the front yard, he glanced at the backyard and seemed to vaguely remember something, but he couldn't figure it out for a while. In the end, he really couldn't remember it, so he didn't bother to think about it anymore. Anyway, it wasn't a big deal.
After cleaning up the house and having a quick bite to eat, Lu Qingjiu soaked the seeds in warm water, planning to plant some in the afternoon. Yin Xun had told him that soaking the seeds in warm water would make them germinate more easily. After soaking the seeds, he went to his neighbor's house and saw the neighbor's children sitting in the yard weaving straw ropes. The neighbor had seen Lu Qingjiu as a child and had a good relationship with his grandmother. The next day after Lu Qingjiu arrived, he sent him a basket of sweet potatoes, and Lu Qingjiu sincerely thanked him.
"What's the matter, Xiao Lu?" asked neighbor Uncle Li.
"I want to ask if Xiaoyu is okay?" Lu Qingjiu said, "I need some pig grass at home."
Xiaoyu is the name of the neighbor's child, whose full name is Li Xiaoyu. He nodded quickly when he heard this, threw away the hemp rope in his hand, and said, "I'm fine. How many frames do you want?"
"A few frames are fine." Lu Qingjiu thought Li Xiaoyu should be in elementary school at this age. "Is the place where we pick pig grass dangerous? Is it safe for a child to go there?"
"It's okay." Uncle Li smiled when he heard about this and said nonchalantly, "They've been having fun there since they were little. Why don't you thank me, Brother Lu?"
"Thank you, Brother Lu." Li Xiaoyu stood up happily. It was obvious that the child was very happy to get this pocket money, and his family had no objection.
"Don't you go to school?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"Just half a day." Uncle Li said indifferently, "I'll be back home farming anyway, so what's the point of going to school? Not everyone can become a university student like you."
Lu Qingjiu gave Li Xiaoyu two dollars and saw him happily go out with a bamboo basket and sickle on his back.
Looking at his back, Lu Qingjiu hesitated to speak, but said nothing. After all, this was someone else's family affair, and it was not appropriate for him to interfere.
Afterwards, Lu Qingjiu took the seeds soaked in warm water and planted them in the field. He didn't plant too many this time. Most of the seeds he planted were seeds of vegetables that he usually eats, such as cucumbers and tomatoes. Of course, he didn't forget to plant some vegetables, and he also buried some potato tubers in the field.
Since it was his first time trying it, Lu Qingjiu wasn't very particular about the quality of the wine, so he planted it casually. According to Yin Xun, if he didn't care about the yield and didn't sell it, it would be fine, so there was no need to spend too much time and effort to tend to it.
Lu Qingjiu had cultivated less than half an acre of land when it was almost dark. He sweated a lot and his clothes were almost soaked. He sighed that only by farming by himself could one understand what it meant to sweat and every grain of rice was the result of hard work.
Seeing that it was getting late, Lu Qingjiu went home, took a shower, changed his clothes, and then steamed the buns he bought yesterday in the steamer to eat for dinner.
Just when the steamed buns were almost done, there was a knock on the front door. Lu Qingjiu went to open the door and saw that it was Li Xiaoyu who had gone to the back mountain to collect pig grass. He was holding a large basket of pig grass tied with ropes and smiling. "Brother Lu, I've cut the grass for you. I have nothing to do anyway, so I'll help you feed the pigs."
Lu Qingjiu was about to refuse when he saw the child running all the way to the pigpen and couldn't stop him.
Helplessly, Lu Qingjiu had to turn around and go back to the house. He made a few freshly steamed buns for the child, thought for a while, and took out a bar of chocolate from his suitcase.
Lu Qingjiu took the things and went to the pigpen. Before he even got there, he heard Li Xiaoyu yelling, "Brother Lu, your pig is so cute!"
Lu Qingjiu walked over and saw that the little black piglet who was praised by Li Xiaoyu was now proudly puffing out his chest with an expression that said, "Little kid, you have good taste."
Lu Qingjiu: “…” Why did he see the expression on the pig’s face.
"Can I give it a name?" Li Xiaoyu turned to look at Lu Qingjiu.
Lu Qingjiu: "..." He thought of Yin Xun's tragedy, but facing Li Xiaoyu's eager eyes, he could only think that if something happened, he must make the braised pork more delicious, "Okay."
"Just call you Xiaohua." Li Xiaoyu said, pointing at the big pig.
Lu Qingjiu: "..." Is this fate's decision? He said tactfully, "Why call it Xiaohua? Isn't it better to call it another name?"
Li Xiaoyu said, "But its back is patterned." The pig's back was covered with a layer of soft fur, and the pattern was like a squirrel's, alternating between black and brown.
Lu Qingjiu: “…” He couldn’t refute it.
Li Xiaoyu said, "Your name is Xiao Hei." He gave the smaller one a name, "You are the cutest pigs I have ever seen!"
Lu Qingjiu thought, it might be the most delicious...
Li Xiaoyu watched Xiaohua and Xiaohei eat their fill, their little bellies swelling up, and then he said goodbye to Lu Qingjiu with satisfaction. He asked embarrassedly if he could go with them to pick grass for the pigs next time. Lu Qingjiu nodded in agreement and gave Li Xiaoyu the buns and chocolates in his hand.
Watching the child skipping away, Lu Qingjiu glanced at Xiaohua who was licking Xiaohei's fur and said, "Xiaohei, Xiaohua, you must grow up well."
Xiao Hua: "..." Who are you calling? Who the hell is Xiao Hua?! As an excellent male, how could he possibly accept such a name!
Xiao Hei: "..." What what what? What is her brother talking about? Hmm... Pig grass is really delicious, smack, smack, smack, smack.
Xiaohua: You keep eating! If you get fat, I’ll kill you and eat your meat first!
Xiao Hei felt very aggrieved: Brother, you are so fierce... and you were obviously eating happily just now.
Xiaohua: Shut up! Don't talk!
Lu Qingjiu, standing next to the pigpen, naturally couldn't understand the conversation between the two little black pigs. He could only hear their grunting, which he took as a sign that they were happy with their meal. As he turned back to the old house, he thought that he should buy some chickens to raise when he had time, so that the yard would be more lively...
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