When Lu Qingjiu left Shuifu Village, she had made a promise to Yin Xun that she would return, to see him again. They would search for thorny wild fruits in the spring, play in the stream in the summer, build thick grain piles in the autumn, and play the arcade games they both longed for in their favorite arcade.
However, Lu Qingjiu, who later moved to the city, never returned to Shuifu Village. Although he still remembered his childhood playmate, the distance made their promise difficult to fulfill. Years later, as they grew older, Lu Qingjiu would occasionally return to Shuifu Village to visit his grandmother. However, the long absence inevitably created a rift between him and Yin Xun, and they naturally didn't follow through on their childhood promise of spending an hour or two driving for the precious game coins just to play a few minutes of the game.
Lu Qingjiu forgot about the incident, and Yin Xun never mentioned it again. Their childhood memories were covered by a layer of sand formed by time, and became increasingly blurred.
Later, Shuifu Village became a place of sorrow for Lu Qingjiu. His parents had returned home for a visit, but tragically perished in a landslide. Their bodies were never found. Lu Qingjiu hurried back, looking alarmingly haggard.
"Qingjiu, you're back." Yin Xun said to him.
"I'm back." Lu Qingjiu said.
Yin Xun asked again: "Then are you still leaving?"
"Let's go. I want to place their graves where they usually live." Lu Qingjiu thought so. He said, "I still have to finish college..."
This meant that he would not stay in Shuifu Village. Yin Xun did not comment after hearing this. He just reached out and gave this old friend a firm hug. He said, "It's okay, don't worry. As long as you are in Shuifu Village, I will help you."
Yin Xun did what he said.
Lu Qingjiu, whose parents passed away suddenly, was in a very bad mental state, so Yin Xun helped him take on the search and rescue work. It was raining heavily at that time, and Yin Xun wore a raincoat to provide information to the search and rescue team, describing the conditions in various parts of the mountain and any possibility of survival.
Although he failed to find the bodies of Lu Qingjiu's parents in the end, he did find the travel bags that Lu Qingjiu's parents were carrying with them.
Lu Qingjiu used the travel bag to build a cenotaph for his parents.
Not long after this incident, Lu Qingjiu's grandmother also passed away, and Lu Qingjiu left Shuifu Village and never returned for many years. In this village, he lost all his beloved relatives.
It was not until many years later that Lu Qingjiu decided to move back here for some reason, and his fate with Yin Xun was tied together again.
After thinking everything through, Lu Qingjiu drove a pickup truck to the town.
He searched the entire village, including the top of the mountain, but found no trace of Yin Xun, so he had a new idea. He went to the game hall in town where he and Yin Xun used to like to go.
It was only when we arrived at the location where the arcade once stood that we discovered it had become something else: the arcade had been demolished and turned into a clothing store. This was understandable, given the abundance of electronic gadgets these days, so it was normal for an arcade to fail. Furthermore, at the time, the arcade didn't even have a proper license.
Back then, game halls were places only for bad kids. A curtain hung at the entrance. Standing outside, one could hear the clacking of buttons and twisting of joysticks, accompanied by childish shouts and sighs. One coin equaled one life, and if you died, you had to start over. Lu Qingjiu's gaming skills weren't as good as Yin Xun's, and he was always beaten to the point of fleeing in fear, dying quickly.
So Yin Xun would give him a few more coins every time so that he could play for a while longer.
Lu Qingjiu reached into his jacket pocket, stroking the rough surface of the coin, and sighed heavily. He took out his phone and called Yin Xun again, but found that the call was unavailable on the other end. He thought Yin Xun must have turned off his phone.
Unable to find Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu returned home in a depressed mood.
He was thinking about this while cooking in the kitchen. He wondered if he had brought up the subject with Yin Xun from the beginning and told him that he didn't care whether he was a human or not, then Yin Xun wouldn't have run away. Although he had noticed Yin Xun's abnormality a long time ago, he had always thought that since Yin Xun didn't want to say, then he wouldn't ask. Now it seems that this idea seems to have some problems... What if he had insisted on knowing the answer... But would this be fair to Yin Xun who didn't want to tell the answer?
As Lu Qingjiu was thinking, he was a little distracted, and the knife he used to cut vegetables hit his finger. The bright red blood from his finger immediately gushed out and soaked the cutting board.
"Hiss." Lu Qingjiu withdrew his hand in pain. He had used too much force on the knife and almost cut off half of the nail. He turned and left the house, wanting to find a Band-Aid to deal with it simply.
Bai Yuehu, who was sitting in the yard, smelled the smell of blood from afar. When he stood up and walked over, he saw Lu Qingjiu frowning and trying to bandage his injured finger.
Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but went over and held Lu Qingjiu's hand, saying, "Don't rush to bandage it, clean the wound first."
Lu Qingjiu said indifferently: "It's okay, they are just minor injuries."
Bai Yuehu said, "Wait a moment, I'll get you some ointment."
Lu Qingjiu nodded.
When Bai Yuehu returned with the ointment, she saw Lu Qingjiu staring blankly at the door with his hand beside him. The wound was still bleeding. Bai Yuehu picked it up and took a closer look, only to find that the knife had cut very deep, exposing the bone. Hands also have blood vessels and nerves. Such a deep cut could even cause disability if not properly treated. Fortunately, the ointment has special medicinal properties, and it should heal in two days.
"What were you thinking about when you used the knife?" Bai Yuehu asked while helping Lu Qingjiu clean the wound, "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt," Lu Qingjiu said. "I'm just wondering where Yin Xun lives these days since he hasn't been home. Is he still human? Does he need to eat? Is he hungry?"
Bai Yuehu raised his eyes and glanced at Lu Qingjiu.
Lu Qingjiu sighed: "Alas...I shouldn't have let him go at that time."
Bai Yuehu said, "Don't make dinner."
Lu Qingjiu glanced at his finger. After being bandaged by Bai Yuehu, the wound was no longer visible and the bleeding had stopped. He didn't feel much pain. After moving it for a while, he planned to continue cooking.
Bai Yuehu wanted to say something, but saw Lu Qingjiu stubbornly entered the kitchen again. He stood at the door for a while with a gloomy face, turned around and went out. This time he did not lie back in the rocking chair, but directly pushed open the door and left the yard.
Lu Qingjiu managed to finish cooking dinner, but after that he found that Bai Yuehu was nowhere to be seen. After waiting for a while, he decided to eat first.
Although he said he would eat first, Lu Qingjiu actually didn't have much of an appetite. Not only because the weather was hot, but also because he had something on his mind. Lu Qingjiu took two bites and put down the chopsticks in his hand. He slowly walked to the yard and sat on the rocking chair that belonged to Bai Yuehu.
Rocking, rocking, rocking, rocking to Grandma's Bridge, Grandma said you are a good baby... As Lu Qingjiu rocked, some memories of his childhood came back. He lived in Shuifu Village until he was nine years old and knew every flower, tree, and blade of grass in the village. But after being away for a long time, these memories began to fade.
The weather was very hot and Lu Qingjiu couldn't eat anything. He was thinking about something, so he left the yard and walked along the path in the village.
Over the past few decades, Shuifu Village has not changed much. It still has those low and dilapidated old houses. Crops are planted in every place that can be grown on the roadside, and sometimes you can see a few farm dogs playing on the roadside.
Unconsciously, Lu Qingjiu walked to the end of the village, where there was a heavy millstone with some grains on top.
Lu Qingjiu stopped beside the millstone.
He remembered this millstone very clearly. Yin Xun had brought him here when he first returned to the village. When they were children, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun both liked to climb on the millstone to play, but if their grandma found out, they would be pulled down and spanked.
Grandma said that this millstone is used for cooking and you can't climb on it.
But children all have a rebellious mentality. The more grandma forbade him, the more Lu Qingjiu wanted to climb up. He and Yin Xun were both as tall as bean sprouts, so it would take some effort for them to climb up.
Lu Qingjiu curled his eyes, as if he saw the two little kids trying every possible way to climb onto the millstone. First, Yin Xun squatted down and let Lu Qingjiu step on his shoulders, and then Lu Qingjiu pulled Yin Xun up. The two little monkeys successfully climbed onto the millstone. Sometimes they would be discovered by passing adults, pulled down, and brought to their parents for scolding.
As Lu Qingjiu thought about it, he laughed. He reached out and touched the hole on the millstone, but felt that the size of the hole was a little familiar.
Lu Qingjiu suddenly thought of something. He took out the game coin from his shirt pocket and gently placed it on the hole of the millstone.
With a click, the game coin perfectly fit the size of the hole and fell into the millstone. The next moment, Lu Qingjiu heard a rumbling thunder. He looked up at the sky and found that the originally sunny sky was covered by thick dark clouds.
It wasn't raining, but the wind was frighteningly strong. Lu Qingjiu was blinded by the wind and had to cover his eyes with his hands and blink hard, trying to use tears to wash out the sand and dirt in his eye sockets.
However, when Lu Qingjiu opened his eyes again, a smiling face appeared in front of him. The face had curved eyes and a cute little canine tooth was revealed next to the grinning lips.
“Yin Xun!!!” Lu Qingjiu called out his name. He rushed towards the man in front of him and grabbed Yin Xun’s sleeve. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been looking for you for a long time!”
Yin Xun said, "Ah... I just went out for something." He scratched his head and made an embarrassed expression.
"What's the matter?" Lu Qingjiu didn't believe his words at all. He grabbed Yin Xun's wrist and pulled him towards home. "I know you're not human anymore. You don't have to worry about me minding this. Let me tell you, Bai Yuehu isn't human either. I'm the only normal person in our family..."
Yin Xun's expression changed unpredictably when he heard this.
Lu Qingjiu was afraid that Yin Xun would not believe him, so he explained: "The White Moon Fox is a fox spirit. I have seen its tail. It is white and big, and feels very good."
Yin Xun's face twisted: "What did you say?"
"I said he was a vixen...what's wrong?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"It's okay." Yin Xun said, "I... I'm just asking casually."
Lu Qingjiu said, "Where have you been? Forget it, I won't ask you. If you want to say it, just say it. If you don't want to say it, forget it. You haven't eaten for the past two days. You must be hungry. I made dinner... Come with me quickly to eat something." He kept muttering to himself, just like a nagging mother who finally found her runaway child.
Yin Xun didn't say much along the way. It wasn't until they reached the gate that he whispered, "You really don't care?"
"What do you care about?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"If you care about me, I'm not a human being." Yin Xun said.
"Why should I care about this? You're not going to hurt me." Lu Qingjiu said calmly, "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you about the small truck at home."
"What is that?" Yin Xun was surprised.
"It's a slug." Lu Qingjiu told Yin Xun the cruel truth, "I remember you seem to be a little allergic to slugs..."
When Yin Xun heard the word "slug," his face twisted. He said, "Slug? Slug? Is that the slug I know?"
Lu Qingjiu: "Yes, that's it."
Yin Xun: "Fuck, that thing can be used as a car. I was always complaining about my butt being itchy..." He thought of the slug and shuddered. Then he said in a tearful voice, "I never want to ride in your truck again."
Seeing Yin Xun's disdain for his cute little truck, Lu Qingjiu was furious: "Are you crazy? If you don't take the truck, are you going to walk to town? They've been dead for so many years, can't you be a little more mature?"
Yin Xun: “…” He couldn’t refute it.
The two returned home noisily. Bai Yuehu hadn't come back yet, so Lu Qingjiu was afraid that Yin Xun was hungry, so she invited him to eat first.
Yin Xun had indeed been hungry for several days. The food he made was inedible and would give people diarrhea. But fortunately, he didn't need to eat, otherwise he wouldn't know how he would have survived these years.
Lu Qingjiu looked at Yin Xun eating with a fatherly look, which made Yin Xun's hair stand on end. He called out weakly, "Qingjiu..."
Lu Qingjiu said: “Silly child, eat more, you have suffered over the years.”
Yin Xun: “…”
"Here, this chicken leg." Lu Qingjiu said, "What are you looking at? Eat it."
Yin Xun swallowed hard, already regretting his disappearance for a few days. He hadn't figured out how to explain this to Lu Qingjiu, and was afraid she wouldn't accept him, so he decided to hide for a few days to see how things would go. But before he'd even finished two days, Bai Yuehu found him with a sullen face and told him to get back home, or else she'd kill him and eat him.
As for Bai Yuehu, Yin Xun didn't dare to challenge his patience at all, so he quickly rolled back.
This chicken leg was usually the exclusive food of the White Moon Fox, and now it landed in his bowl. Yin Xun wondered if this was the saying that surviving a disaster will bring good fortune in the future...
However, as soon as he picked up the chicken leg with his chopsticks, he felt a cold gaze cast at him. Yin Xun couldn't bear it, his hand shook, and the chicken leg fell back into the bowl.
"Yuehu, you're back." Lu Qingjiu smiled at his roommate who had appeared at the door at some point, "Come quickly, I found Yin Xun."
Bai Yuehu didn't say anything. He walked to the opposite side of Yin Xun and sat down. His eyes fell on the big chicken leg in Yin Xun's bowl.
The chicken legs were braised, greasy and fat, making people very hungry, very hungry... Bai Yuehu barely controlled his strength to avoid breaking the chopsticks in his hand. He glanced at Lu Qingjiu who was smiling happily, then at Yin Xun who had a look of fear in his eyes, and squeezed out two words from his mouth: "Eat it."
Yin Xun: “…” Is this a chicken leg or his last meal in this life?
"Eat." Lu Qingjiu urged gently from the side.
So, under the different gazes of the two, Yin Xun could only take a bite of the chicken leg with tears in his eyes. After taking this bite, the White Moon Fox almost made a hole in his body. Yin Xun felt that he was not biting the chicken leg, but his own leg...
"Yuehu, there's another one here, you can eat it too." Fortunately, Lu Qingjiu's interruption distracted Bai Yuehu. He said, "Eat quickly, you two must be hungry."
Bai Yuehu then withdrew his gaze from Yin Xun and started to gnaw on his chicken leg.
This was the most nervous meal Yin Xun had eaten since Lu Qingjiu came back. Even his clothes were wet after eating. Lu Qingjiu was surprised and said that even the dead could sweat.
"I'm not officially a dead person," Yin Xun explained to Lu Qingjiu after putting down his chopsticks, "I'm not registered with the underworld."
"Then what kind of dead person are you?" Lu Qingjiu said.
Yin Xun said, "It's a long story... When Pangu created the world..."
Lu Qingjiu: “…”
Bai Yuehu said coldly: "Speak human language."
Yin Xun immediately grasped the point: "I'm sorry, I drowned when I was ten years old."
Lu Qingjiu: “…”
White Moon Fox: "..."
"Forget it, if you don't want to talk, don't force it." At this moment, Lu Qingjiu had already developed a fatherly love as majestic as a mountain for his childhood playmate who had suffered such a tragic fate. "I know you're feeling miserable, I understand. Let me introduce them to you again. This is Bai Yue Fox, a vixen, not a human. Those are Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei, said to be divine beasts named Dang Kang. This is Su Xi, also a vixen..."
Yin Xun: “…”
Lu Qingjiu said: "So relax, you are actually quite ordinary here as a dead person, it doesn't matter."
Yes, the one who is different in this room is actually the owner, Lu Qingjiu...
Yin Xun thought of this and shed tears of emotion. He hugged Lu Qingjiu. Lu Qingjiu touched Yin Xun's head and said in a trembling voice, "Xun'er, you have suffered. Dad... No, I will treat you well in the future."
Bai Yuehu was so disgusted by these two people that he even put down his chopsticks.
Yin Xun, who was being held in Lu Qingjiu's arms and protected as if he were his son, suddenly felt a surge of anger and said, "Um... I want to ask, Mr. Bai... is he really a fox?"
Lu Qingjiu let go and looked at Bai Yuehu: "What else?"
Bai Yuehu looked at Yin Xun coldly and said, "Yes, what else?"
As soon as he finished speaking, nine beautiful white tails appeared behind him, leaving Yin Xun stunned.
Lu Qingjiu shamelessly moved behind Bai Yuehu and touched its tail twice: "See, I told you, Yuehu is a vixen. This tail feels really good." After he said that, he saw that Bai Yuehu's eyes softened a little, and he also curled his eyes.
Yin Xun stood by and watched. When the tail of the White Moon Fox emerged from behind, his eyes widened and his fingers moved. Of course, he was not as brave as Lu Qingjiu to reach out and stroke the White Moon Fox's tail... Although whether this tail really belonged to the White Moon Fox was still debatable.
Lu Qingjiu was happily stroking the fox's fur, and the White Moon Fox also narrowed its eyes. For a moment, the scene was very harmonious. Only Yin Xun took a step towards the door without saying a word.
After stroking the tail and confirming the identity of his own vixen, Lu Qingjiu turned his attention to Yin Xun again. He said softly, "You haven't had a good rest these days, have you? It's getting late. Go home early and remember to come over for breakfast tomorrow."
Yin Xun pursed his lips. He was obviously hesitant. Finally, he seemed to muster up the courage and said, "Do you want to hear about me?"
Lu Qingjiu nodded. He naturally thought about it, but if Yin Xun didn't say it, he wouldn't force it. Everyone has a past that they don't want to recall, and there's no need for him to dig up other people's healed wounds just to satisfy his curiosity.
"If I tell you, don't despise me." Yin Xun's voice was low and sounded a little depressed. "Okay?"
Lu Qingjiu said, "I won't dislike you." He paused for a moment, afraid that Yin Xun would think too much, and gave an example, "Look at my small truck. I know it's a slug, but I like it too."
When he heard the word "slug", Yin Xun shuddered involuntarily: "...Can we not mention it?" He was really afraid of these mollusks. Even after death, his fear of this kind of animal did not decrease at all.
Lu Qingjiu spread his hands and made an innocent expression.
"You guys chat." Bai Yuehu said lightly, "I just happened to be out for a while." After he said that, he stood up and left, leaving the room to Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun.
"Let's go to the yard." Lu Qingjiu said, "The wine I brewed is almost done. If you want, you can drink some."
"No." Yin Xun laughed when he heard that. Lu Qingjiu was as gentle as he remembered, which eased his nervous mood. In the end, no matter whether Lu Qingjiu accepted him who was already dead, he did not regret having been friends with Lu Qingjiu.
The two walked into the courtyard and sat on the ground in the moonlight. Yin Xun was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke. He said, "Do you remember what I said before, that Shuifu Village is in the mountains and that a child once drowned there?"
"I remember." Lu Qingjiu was deeply impressed by what Yin Xun said, because they encountered the same thing after going up the mountain with Zhu Miaomiao.
"That child is not someone else." Yin Xun slowly said the shocking fact, "That child is me."
Lu Qingjiu's expression froze on his face, and he said, "But... aren't you still in front of me?" And everyone in the village knows your existence.
Yin Xun's expression became strange. He whispered, "Yes, the reason I can still communicate with humans and live in the secular world is because something unexpected happened after this incident."
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