After returning home, Lu Qingjiu made a roast chicken for Bai Yuehu. The outside of the roast chicken was coated with a layer of honey. After roasting, the skin became particularly golden and attractive. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender in the mouth. There was thick gravy when you took a bite. The unique aroma of chicken lingered in the house, making people want to twitch their noses.
Bai Yuehu, as usual, ate the whole chicken without spitting out the bones, and then returned to his rocking chair. Just then, Li Xiaoyu came from next door to ask Xiaohua for help with an exercise, so Lu Qingjiu took out the grapes that had been frozen in the refrigerator, put them in a bowl, and handed them to Li Xiaoyu.
After the grapes are frozen, the flesh and juice inside become a smoothie, which is sour and sweet and very refreshing.
Li Xiaoyu and Xiaohua both liked it very much. One person and one pig lay on the table and continued to do exercises that Lu Qingjiu couldn't even understand.
After the Shuifeng incident, Bai Yuehu barely spoke for several days, completely returning to his lazy state when he first arrived. Apart from eating and farming, he had almost completely become one with the rocking chair.
Lu Qingjiu was worried he might be in a bad mood, so she tried to make Bai Yuehu some delicious treats to cheer him up. In the summer, everyone loves cold dishes, and chili oil goes through quickly. The family's stock was almost gone. As the sun set, Lu Qingjiu decided to go to the fields and pick some fresh chilies to make chili oil.
Their chili oil is a homemade dish. They dry the chilies, shred them into a powder, then add sesame seeds and various spices. Then, they blanch it in boiling oil, and the fiery chili oil is ready. The key to this chili oil is its fragrance, not its spiciness. It's a great addition to cold dishes.
Lu Qingjiu went to the field carrying a basket on his back.
The weather was very hot. Although the sun had set, the heat rising from the ground still burned his ankles. Lu Qingjiu went to the field and saw the peppers planted by Bai Yuehu.
The chili peppers grown by his fox spirit were indeed different from those grown by other farmers. Each one was large and plump. Lu Qingjiu picked one and licked it, feeling a burning pain. When a chili pepper enters your mouth, it doesn't actually feel taste but pain. This pain stimulates the brain to secrete substances that make people feel happy... The spicier the chili, the better the quality.
By the time Lu Qingjiu had picked about two or three pounds of chilies, it was already dark. The nights in the mountains were different from those in the city. Because there was no light pollution, as long as the weather was clear, one could see the enchanting starry sky. There was no moon tonight, but the stars were bright. If one looked closely, one could even spot a pure white Milky Way strewn across the night sky.
The wind at night is different from the wind during the day. It brings a little coolness and blows on people's skin, which makes people feel inexplicably comfortable.
Lu Qingjiu put the peppers he had picked in the field into the bamboo basket he was carrying. After packing them up, he started walking home.
He took two steps forward, but seemed to kick something with his feet. Lu Qingjiu looked down and saw a hundred-yuan bill lying at his feet, which was particularly eye-catching in the black mud.
"Whose money is this?" Lu Qingjiu bent down and picked it up. No one in the village was rich, so a hundred yuan was no small sum. If it had been lost by some auntie, she'd probably be heartbroken for a month. But then again, ever since Taifeng gave him the cloth bag, his luck had noticeably improved. Picking up money on the roadside was a regular occurrence. The most outrageous thing was that the day before yesterday, he'd bought a lottery ticket for fun, and it had won third prize.
But in the end, Lu Qingjiu did not go to claim the prize. He always felt that money earned by luck was not very reliable.
Lu Qingjiu was just thinking about finding the owner of the coin tomorrow when he stepped on something hard and a little painful. He dug it out with his hands and pulled out a coin with a strange pattern. It was the size of a thumb and had a dull yellow surface. Lu Qingjiu took it in his hand and confirmed that it was not the country's common currency. Instead, it looked a bit like a game coin left behind from somewhere. He wanted to take a closer look at the pattern on the coin, but it was too dark and he didn't have his phone with him, so he gave up.
After returning home, Lu Qingjiu casually stuffed the coin into his pocket, but his hand shook inexplicably when he was putting it in, and the coin fell to the ground and rolled into the grass next to him.
Lu Qingjiu instinctively wanted to catch up with the coin and rushed into the bushes, but he regretted it as soon as he entered the bushes. He was wearing shorts, and the grass in the bushes seemed to have a lot of thorns, which pricked his calves and caused them to burn with pain.
"Ah..." Bending down, Lu Qingjiu saw bright red blood flowing from his calf. He hissed and wanted to turn back, but when he looked back at the road he had just come from, he was shocked to find that the original road had disappeared - he came to a completely unfamiliar wasteland.
Lu Qingjiu froze in place, not knowing how to react. He looked around and saw no paths to walk on. There was only an endless wasteland. There were only overgrown weeds, all covered in thorns, reaching up to Lu Qingjiu's waist.
Lu Qingjiu could only manage two steps before he felt several bloody wounds on his calves. He had no choice but to stop and observe his surroundings.
Soon, Lu Qingjiu found something quite special in this wasteland—a dead tree standing in the very center of the wasteland. The dead tree didn't seem too far away from Lu Qingjiu, and it looked so out of place in the endless grass. There seemed to be birds like crows perched on the trunk, standing quietly.
Lu Qingjiu walked forward with difficulty. He looked at his bloody legs and couldn't help but smile bitterly. He said to himself, "This is probably what it feels like to be a mermaid with legs..."
Fortunately, the closer to the tree, the sparser the weeds around it became. By the time Lu Qingjiu arrived under the tree, only brown soil was left.
The crow on the tree trunk seemed to be frightened by Lu Qingjiu's approach, and flapped its wings and flew away. Under the night sky, the birdsong made the whole world seem even quieter. Lu Qingjiu even felt like he was abandoned by the world.
But soon, his attention was drawn to something.
It was a stone tablet standing behind a dead tree. Due to the angle, Lu Qingjiu had not noticed it before. It was not until he walked behind the dead tree that he saw this extremely abrupt stone tablet.
However, when Lu Qingjiu saw the appearance of the stone tablet clearly, he felt that it was more like a tombstone than a stone tablet.
A lonely tombstone forgotten in this world.
It was too dark, and Lu Qingjiu couldn't see the words clearly. He thought for a moment, moved closer, touched the tombstone with his hand, and began to stroke it carefully.
The tombstone was rough and cold, with only a few characters on it, about six. Lu Qingjiu counted them roughly the first time, and then began to carefully identify them the second time.
The first one is "爱", written in traditional Chinese characters, and the second character is "子", which is easy to recognize.
However, when Lu Qingjiu touched the third character, his expression froze and his hands began to tremble. Lu Qingjiu touched the character three or four times, one horizontal stroke, one left stroke, and one right stroke, before he was sure that this character was indeed the one he had in mind.
Lu Qingjiu paused for a moment, feeling somewhat exhausted, and leaned against the tombstone to take a few deep breaths before mustering up the courage to touch the fourth word.
The fallen mountain and the standing inch, that is a search.
The goose bumps on Lu Qingjiu's body exploded immediately. He opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. After repeated confirmation, he finally figured out what the six words on the tombstone meant.
Tomb of beloved son Yin Xun.
Tomb of my beloved son...Yin Xun...
As if he had been electrocuted, Lu Qingjiu's hand bounced off the tombstone. He stared at the tombstone as if he was staring at an evil ghost.
Why is there Yin Xun's tombstone here? Is it a prank? But how could such a prank exist in the world? Lu Qingjiu's friend's smile appeared in front of him. He seemed to be able to see Yin Xun's brilliant smile and the playful canine tooth on his lips.
"Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu." Yin Xun waved at him with a smile, "Welcome back to Shuifu Village."
Lu Qingjiu sat on the ground with a wry smile.
The crow that had left had returned, cawing as it stopped on the tombstone in front of it. It tilted its head and looked at Lu Qingjiu. In the pitch-black night, its black eyes were actually gleaming with stars.
Lu Qingjiu recovered from the shock the tombstone had given him. He wanted to approach the tombstone again, but he vaguely heard someone calling his name.
"Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu." The call was very weak. At first, Lu Qingjiu even thought it was an illusion. But soon, the calling voice became louder. Lu Qingjiu looked in the direction of the call and finally found the source of the sound - the sound actually came from the black crow.
The crow was a little far away from Lu Qingjiu. It was circling in the sky and made a human sound from its mouth: "Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu——"
Lu Qingjiu tentatively walked towards the direction of the crow and found that the weeds under his feet began to recede to both sides.
Like Moses parting the sea.
This is probably the right path. Although he doesn't know who is guiding him, it is clear that the person guiding him has no ill intentions.
The crow was still calling his name, and Lu Qingjiu walked forward following the call. He didn't know how long he had been walking until he heard the crisp sound of a coin falling to the ground. He shuddered all over and suddenly realized that he was back to his original world.
There were no weeds, no dead trees, and no tombstones. Instead, there was familiar land and the faint light of stars overhead. The silver coin was spinning at Lu Qingjiu's feet. Lu Qingjiu bent down and picked it up. This time, he put the coin safely into his jacket pocket, instead of rolling into the grass beside him like before.
Having found the coin, Lu Qingjiu walked towards home. To be honest, if the wound on his calf was not still there, he would probably think that he had had an absurd dream.
Lu Qingjiu walked into the yard. Bai Yuehu, who had originally closed his eyes to take a nap, suddenly opened his eyes and looked in his direction: "Are you injured?"
Lu Qingjiu said: “Well, I accidentally got scratched by a grass thorn when I went down to the ground.”
Bai Yuehu's gaze fell on Lu Qingjiu's calf. He asked, "Thorns in the ground?"
Lu Qingjiu nodded.
Bai Yuehu said, "Come here, I'll apply medicine on you."
Lu Qingjiu initially wanted to refuse, but seeing Bai Yuehu's resolute attitude, he had no choice but to agree. He found a random chair and sat down. Bai Yuehu half-knelt beside him, first washing the solidified blood from his feet with clean water, then applying the special ointment Bai Yuehu had given Lu Qingjiu. These wounds were only superficial, not too serious. After applying the ointment, they felt cool and refreshing, and he felt that they would heal quickly.
"I... I found a coin." Lu Qingjiu lowered his head and looked at Bai Yuehu, who was treating his wound with a serious face. He took out the coin from his shirt pocket and asked, "Do you see anything special?"
Bai Yuehu took a look and shook his head: "Nothing special."
"No curse or anything?" Lu Qingjiu was a little surprised.
"No." Bai Yuehu said, "There is no power on it. It is just an object in the secular world."
Lu Qingjiu said "oh" and washed the coin with clean water. He could see the pattern on it clearly. What made him feel strange was that he seemed to have seen such a coin somewhere before, but he couldn't remember it for a moment.
"I was pulled to a strange place by this coin." Lu Qingjiu said hesitantly, "I saw a wasteland and a tombstone..."
When Bai Yuehu heard the word tombstone, he raised his head and glanced at Lu Qingjiu.
Just when Lu Qingjiu thought he would say something, he said, "If you want to know anything, you should go and ask him in person."
Lu Qingjiu was stunned when he heard this: "Him?! Do you know what I saw?"
Bai Yuehu nodded.
Lu Qingjiu said: "Then what is going on? Is Yin Xun a human?"
Bai Yuehu shook his head: "It's more appropriate for him to answer this question himself."
Lu Qingjiu pursed his lips. Actually, he had vaguely sensed something was amiss with Yin Xun since he'd returned, but since Yin Xun hadn't intended to harm him, he hadn't delved into it. Even after noticing Yin Xun's strangeness, Lu Qingjiu hadn't considered that this childhood friend of his hadn't even been human anymore.
Bai Yuehu obviously knew Yin Xun's identity a long time ago, but he didn't intend to tell Lu Qingjiu just like that. Instead, he asked Lu Qingjiu to ask Yin Xun himself.
Lu Qingjiu touched the coins in his pocket and thought, since that's the case, he should go ask Yin Xun tomorrow.
Because he was preoccupied with something, Lu Qingjiu didn't sleep well that night. He got out of bed before five o'clock the next day to make breakfast. He thought that since he was going to have a showdown with Yin Xun today, he should make a hearty breakfast.
So Lu Qingjiu specially stewed a pot of chicken soup, wanting to make a few bowls of delicious chicken soup and shredded chicken noodles.
But what Lu Qingjiu didn't expect was that when the sun rose to the top of his head, Yin Xun was still nowhere to be seen.
Lu Qingjiu became impatient as he sat in the room waiting. He took out his cell phone and called Yin Xun, but no one answered the call.
"Yuehu, you eat first. I'll go to Yin Xun's house to look for him." Lu Qingjiu said to Bai Yuehu.
Bai Yuehu nodded and picked up the chopsticks.
After Lu Qingjiu left, he went straight to Yin Xun's house. After arriving at Yin Xun's house, he knocked on the door for a long time but no one answered. Lu Qingjiu thought about it and simply went to find Yin Xun's neighbor, Aunt Liu, who often gave Yin Xun things.
"Aunt Liu, have you seen Yin Xun?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
Aunt Liu was drying the quilts. When she heard Lu Qingjiu's question, she said, "I haven't seen him. It seems he didn't come back last night."
Lu Qingjiu asked, "What time does he usually come back?"
Aunt Liu said, "It's around ten o'clock. His door is not in good condition. Every time he comes home, I can hear him close the door. What's wrong, Lu Wazi? Is there something wrong with the youngest of the Yin family?"
Lu Qingjiu said: “No, I just have something to do with him. Aunt Liu, if you see him, tell him to come to me and say that I don’t blame him.”
Aunt Liu was a little confused when she heard this, but she didn't ask any more questions and nodded in agreement.
Lu Qingjiu didn't find Yin Xun, so he had to go home.
Bai Yuehu seemed to have expected that his trip would be in vain, and did not show much surprise at Yin Xun's disappearance.
"Did something happen to him?" Lu Qingjiu, who hadn't answered the phone and whose family was away, had no choice but to return home. He squatted at the door, eating melon seeds and complaining to Bai Yuehu, "Why did he run so fast? Wasn't it me who should have run...was he afraid that I would catch him and eat him?"
Bai Yuehu said: "Maybe he's a little scared."
"Ah?" Lu Qingjiu turned his head, "What did you say?"
"I said," Bai Yuehu repeated softly, "He might really be afraid that he would be eaten if he was caught by you."
Lu Qingjiu: "...Who ate it?"
Bai Yuehu pointed at himself.
Lu Qingjiu was stunned: "You eat it? Is he worried that I will cook it and send it to your table?"
Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but his expression had already given Lu Qingjiu the answer.
Yes, Yin Xun was Lu Qingjiu's friend before, but now his non-human identity has been exposed. Lu Qingjiu must be very angry because he was deceived. And Bai Yuehu, as Lu Qingjiu's backer, will definitely help Lu Qingjiu get rid of this anger - the logic is perfect, there is nothing wrong with it.
However, after sorting out the logic, Lu Qingjiu was already so angry that he almost wanted to hit someone.
"Am I the kind of person who would kill my friends and eat their flesh?" Lu Qingjiu said angrily, "He doesn't understand me at all!"
"Yes." Bai Yuehu said, "Obviously I am the one."
Lu Qingjiu: “…”
Perhaps because Lu Qingjiu's expression was too ferocious, Bai Yuehu said something again, his tone a little cautious: "Yin Xun's meat should be good..."
"No! Not allowed! Don't even think about it!" Lu Qingjiu refused mercilessly.
Bai Yuehu sighed, his face full of regret. It seemed that he had no aversion to eating Yin Xun at all. As long as Lu Qingjiu gave the order, he would open his big mouth contentedly and swallow him whole, including the skin and bones.
Lu Qingjiu said: "Do you know where Yin Xun is now?"
"I don't know." Bai Yuehu was not so interested in inedible things. If Yin Xun really didn't appear again, he would actually be quite happy. After all, there would be one less mouth to feed at home, so he didn't care at all about finding Yin Xun.
"But the coin you picked up yesterday should have other uses." Bai Yuehu said, "You can think carefully about where you have seen this coin before."
Lu Qingjiu frowned, holding the coin, he returned to the room and placed it on the table to observe it carefully.
No matter how you look at it, it's just an ordinary coin. Although it's not a domestically issued coin, it's nothing special either. There's a bull on the front and a crown on the back. Lu Qingjiu looked at it for a while, and a sense of familiarity did arise deep in his heart.
He had seen this coin before. Where, when and under what circumstances... What did this coin mean to Yin Xun?
Lu Qingjiu couldn't think of an answer.
It was already noon and time to cook. Lu Qingjiu had something on his mind, so he just made something and ate it with Bai Yuehu.
Bai Yuehu stared at the dishes on the table, lost in thought. Normally, they had four dishes and a soup, but today, with Yin Xun away, they settled for a bowl of fried rice with some pickles. While the fried rice tasted good, Bai Yuehu had already begun to have other thoughts...
Lu Qingjiu's food tasted bland. He was still thinking about Yin Xun. Yin Xun must have existed, otherwise the villagers wouldn't have known him. But it was clear that some strange changes had occurred in him, and he might even no longer be considered human, but rather moving closer to the non-human.
"Brother Lu." Li Xiaoyu from next door was on summer vacation. After lunch, he came to play with Xiaohua as usual and called Lu Qingjiu from a distance at the door.
"Come in." Lu Qingjiu finally came back to his senses and asked, "Have you eaten?"
"Let's eat." Li Xiaoyu smiled and looked very happy. "I came over to tell Xiaohua that we won't be studying this afternoon."
"Where are you planning to go?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"Yeah." Li Xiaoyu said, "Xiaolong and I are going to take Uncle Chen's car to the town to play."
Xiaolong was Li Xiaoyu's playmate. There were three or four other children of Li Xiaoyu's age in the village. They would occasionally make plans to go to town together. They didn't have much money, but they still had a lot of fun, playing video games, eating cool popsicles, and visiting the town's only supermarket...
Lu Qingjiu's gaze passed through Li Xiaoyu, as if he saw Yin Xun and himself in the past. He and Yin Xun had gone through the same thing together back then. The two of them had agreed to be companions, talked about many dreams, and made many promises.
Lu Qingjiu put down his chopsticks, lowered his head, and saw the coin faintly visible in his shirt pocket. The next moment, accompanied by Li Xiaoyu's puzzled "Brother Lu?", Lu Qingjiu finally remembered what the coin was.
This wasn't an ordinary coin, but a game coin, one of the ones he and Yin Xun had saved up for. When they were little, they didn't have much money. The monthly allowance they saved could only afford two or three games at most. For Lu Qingjiu, this was the best thing he had.
When Lu Qingjiu was about to leave Shuifu Village, the young Yin Xun cried and wanted to hand over the coins he had saved with great difficulty to Lu Qingjiu. However, Lu Qingjiu had already boarded the departing train. He could only sit in the carriage, looking through the thick glass, and watching his childhood toys running along with the moving train, and finally gradually disappearing at the end of his sight.
From then on, the two parted ways and it was many years before they met again.
Yin Xun was no longer the skinny boy in Lu Qingjiu's memory, but the smile on his face remained the same, and the canine teeth on his lips were as playful and cute as before.
"I..." Lu Qingjiu pinched the coin, his voice a little hoarse, and he said, "I remember it."
Now I remember what this coin represents.
The author has something to say: Bai Yuehu: Look what I found, a wild Yin Xun, without the head, has five times the protein of chicken.
Yin Xun: Jiuer, help me!
Lu Qingjiu: Bai Yuehu, calm down!!!
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