No matter what it is, it will become cute after it becomes smaller. The originally scary Yu Shiqi, after being reduced in size and sitting on Pang Ziqi's shoulders with an unhappy face, actually looks a little cute... of course, only a little bit.
Seeing Lu Qingjiu enter the house, Pang Ziqi stopped arguing and greeted them.
"How do you feel now?" Lu Qingjiu found a place to sit down and asked him.
"Me? I feel fine now," Pang Ziqi said. "If there hadn't been any movement from above, I'd have suspected her body had been disposed of." He was also a man of intuition. Although he couldn't see Master Yu, he could sense something. Since last night, he had felt a significant sense of relief, as if the weight that had been clinging to him had eased.
At that time, Pang Ziqi thought it was his illusion, until this morning he was sure that this feeling was indeed real.
Lu Qingjiu said "oh" and did not mention the corpse. She just told Pang Ziqi frankly that Yu Shiqi was no longer by his side.
"Can't see it anymore, right?" Pang Ziqi said, "They're just about to go back into the tomb."
"Let them not go." Lu Qingjiu said, "I can't feel the curse anymore." Although Yu Shiqi's body had been eaten by the White Moon Fox, he was really a little afraid that the group of people would enter the tomb and touch other things and cause new troubles.
Pang Ziqi asked suspiciously, "You really can't see her?"
"I can't see it." Lu Qingjiu answered calmly.
Pang Ziqi said, "Okay then. I'll send them a message. If I'm really okay, tell them not to go."
Lu Qingjiu nodded.
The two of them sat in the ward for a while before getting up to say goodbye. However, before leaving, Lu Qingjiu found an excuse, reached out and patted Pang Ziqi on the shoulder, and then pinched the little version of Yu Shiqi who was sitting on his shoulder with a glaring and unhappy look on her face. Then, he and Yin Xun left as if nothing had happened. Lu Qingjiu's actions were naturally seen by Yin Xun. When he saw Lu Qingjiu pinching Yu Shiqi, his eyes almost fell out. He barely managed to hold back a cry. After the two of them left the ward, he asked in horror: "Qingjiu, why did you bring this thing out?"
Lu Qingjiu opened his palm, and a tiny concubine appeared in his palm. The concubine said a bunch of words that Lu Qingjiu couldn't understand, but judging by her expression, she must be cursing. Lu Qingjiu was very calm about this. He said, "It's not safe to leave this thing with Pang Ziqi. Who knows if she will grow up. It's better to take it back to Bai Yuehu."
Yin Xun said, "Take it back and feed it to the White Moon Fox?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "You don't have to eat it, maybe there are other ways to deal with it."
Yin Xun thought about it and felt that what Lu Qingjiu said seemed to make some sense, so he boldly stretched out his fingertips and poked Yu Shiqi who was standing in the palm of Lu Qingjiu's hand. Yu Shiqi fell into Lu Qingjiu's hand after being poked by Yin Xun. She looked at Yin Xun with disbelief, and her eyes without pupils were instantly filled with tears, and she actually started sobbing.
Lu Qingjiu: “…” He glanced at Yin Xun silently.
Yin Xun: "...Fuck, I didn't mean to do that, why is she still crying? I really didn't use enough force."
Lu Qingjiu said, "You made her cry, come here." As he said that, he handed Yu Shiqi to Yin Xun.
Yin Xun took it in a panic, looking bewildered: "Fuck, fuck, I really didn't mean to do that, what should I do?"
Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, then took out Xiaofan's favorite jelly candy from his pocket, took an apple-flavored one and put it to Yu Shiqi's mouth. Yu Shiqi was reluctant to eat it at first, but she stopped sobbing until a small corner of the candy was stuffed into her mouth. She reached out and hugged the candy, sniffing and chewing it.
Yin Xun's hands remained stiff, and he trembled as he said, "If I use too much force, will I accidentally crush her to death?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "No, she is not that delicate, you can put it in your shirt pocket."
Yin Xun still felt something was wrong. He was afraid that if he put Yu Shiqi into his pocket, he would accidentally squeeze her to death. At this time, Yin Xun forgot that just a few days ago, they were still hoping that Yu Shiqi would die sooner... People are really fickle creatures.
After visiting Pang Ziqi, Lu Qingjiu went to the city to buy a large electric oven, and also bought a lot of tin foil and molds, as well as the materials needed to make mooncakes. He planned to start making mooncakes the next day after returning.
When shopping in the supermarket with Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu always felt like he was taking care of a child. However, Yin Xun was a very well-behaved child. He didn't dare to say what he wanted to eat, but just looked at it eagerly. When Lu Qingjiu noticed his gaze, he would take the things down and put them in the shopping cart. When Yin Xun saw this, he would feel happy and show the white canine teeth on his lips. He was really an easy-to-coax child.
Yin Xun has lived in the village since he was a child and could not leave since he was young. Although he grew up, his imagination was still limited by poverty. Before Lu Qingjiu came, he hardly came to the city, let alone buy things in the city.
Lu Qingjiu is in a very good financial situation now. He has only spent a small part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars Zhang Chuyang gave him before. In addition, Zhu Miaomiao recently told him that she had some new ideas to help Lu Qingjiu generate income. She would come and discuss the specifics with Lu Qingjiu during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
After buying a large bag of snacks and various ingredients, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun returned to the van contentedly.
After getting in the car, Yin Xun looked at his shirt pocket and saw that Yu Shiqi had fallen asleep in it. She had only eaten half of the jelly candy, but even though she hadn't finished it, she still held it tightly, as if she was afraid that someone would snatch it away.
Yin Xun said, "She's so cute."
Lu Qingjiu asked, “Is it cute?”
Yin Xun said, "It's cute."
Lu Qingjiu said: "Imagine what she would look like when she returns to normal size."
Yin Xun: "..." He shuddered and silently closed his shirt pocket. He decided not to think about it. The thought of her resting her chin on Pang Ziqi's shoulder gave him goose bumps.
After returning home, the first thing Lu Qingjiu did was to show Bai Yuehu the small version of Yu Shiqi. But as soon as Yu Shiqi saw Bai Yuehu, she started to cry with her shoulders shrugged, not daring to cry out loud, as if she was trembling with fear.
Bai Yuehu probably remembered the smell of Yu Shiqi's concubine, and frowned when he saw her.
"Why has she become so small?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Will she continue to spread the curse?"
"Without her body, she has lost her power." White Moon Fox said, "It should no longer affect humans."
Lu Qingjiu said: "Is it necessary to eat her?"
Bai Yuehu was silent for a moment: "No." It seemed that he really didn't want to taste Yu Shiqi's concubine anymore. He paused for a moment and added, "If you don't like it, I can eat it too."
Seeing Bai Yuehu's embarrassment, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but laugh. He said, "Okay, don't force it. She looks pretty cute. Since she's not harmful, just keep her at home. She can be a companion to the ghost girl in the backyard."
Bai Yuehu nodded, agreeing with Lu Qingjiu's statement.
The little Yu Shiqi was warmly welcomed by the animals in the house, especially the little fox, who seemed to like her very much. When he saw her, he started to lick her. Yu Shiqi was licked all over. She wanted to avoid it, but her short legs could not run faster than the little fox. In the end, she could only be pressed under the fox's paws and licked. She cried in grievance.
Although Lu Qingjiu thought it was quite funny, he still stopped the little fox and told it not to bully Yu Shiqi. The little fox chirped and stared at Lu Qingjiu innocently with its beautiful blue eyes, as if telling Lu Qingjiu that it just liked her.
Lu Qingjiu said: "Don't lick her head too much. If you lick her head too much and make her cry, she won't like you anymore."
The little fox nodded, agreeing.
Then Lu Qingjiu wiped the saliva off Yu Shiqi's body and put her on the little fox's neck. Yu Shiqi also liked furry and warm things, so she hid in the little fox's beautiful scarf and disappeared.
After settling Yu Shiqi at home, Lu Qingjiu took a sieve to the yard and picked some luxuriant osmanthus flowers, intending to make osmanthus cake.
Lu Qingjiu beat the osmanthus flowers and filtered the residue carefully. Then he mixed the osmanthus flowers with lotus root powder and added flour to ferment. After that, he steamed it in a steamer for 30 minutes. The freshly steamed osmanthus cake was still steaming, exuding the rich fragrance of osmanthus.
Lu Qingjiu dried the osmanthus cake and brewed a pot of tea, intending to have it as afternoon tea.
The cool and refreshing autumn is the most leisurely season. When the three of them were sitting in the yard eating osmanthus cake, Lu Qingjiu suggested that they find a good afternoon to go to the mountains to collect folk songs and have a picnic.
"You can also fly a kite." Yin Xun said vaguely with a sweet-scented osmanthus cake in his mouth, "I haven't flown a kite in a long time."
"Isn't flying kites something we do in spring?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"Autumn is also fine," Yin Xun said. "The wind is very strong in autumn too."
Lu Qingjiu shrugged and let Yin Xun go.
The freshly made osmanthus cake tasted delicious and had a soft and glutinous texture. Because the osmanthus flowers were fresh, the fragrance was very rich. Just by putting it aside, you could smell the faint fragrance. Although the tea was ordinary, it was enough to cleanse the sweet taste in the mouth and add a bit of freshness.
Lu Qingjiu told Yin Xun not to eat too much as he still had dinner in the evening.
Yin Xun said yes but his hands kept moving until he burped and realized that he seemed to have eaten too much.
Autumn is the season for healthy stews. Tonight, Lu Qingjiu prepared kelp-braised pig's feet. The pig's feet were from local pork, and the kelp was purchased today. They serve pig's feet differently here than elsewhere, usually with a spicy sauce. After the plump pig's feet are stewed until tender, they're coated in the spicy and sour seasoning, completely eliminating their greasy texture and making them a perfect match for rice. The pig's foot soup was also exceptionally delicious, and Lu Qingjiu only felt satisfied after drinking several bowls.
Yin Xun, who had eaten too much in the afternoon, finally suffered the consequences. He wanted to eat more, but his stomach could no longer hold any more. In the end, he could only watch Bai Yuehu finish the whole pot of soup by himself, with no place to cry.
Lu Qingjiu could only comfort him by saying that he would stew it in a few days and told him not to be too sad.
At around nine o'clock in the evening, Lu Qingjiu received a call from Zhu Miaomiao, saying that she was coming early for the Mid-Autumn Festival and asked Lu Qingjiu if there was anything she wanted to bring.
Lu Qingjiu didn't bother to be polite with her and asked her to send some more crabs and to buy him some jelly candies that were not available here. Zhu Miaomiao agreed immediately and said with confidence that it was no problem.
Mid-Autumn Festival should be a time for family reunions, but unfortunately Lu Qingjiu is now alone in this world. Fortunately, in this small courtyard, Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun are with him.
On the day Zhu Miaomiao was due to arrive, Lu Qingjiu began making mooncakes. It was his first time making them, so he wasn't very skilled. Fortunately, the process wasn't too difficult, though the filling was a bit finicky. He wrapped the salted egg yolks he'd bought in the lotus seed paste, figuring he'd pickle some duck eggs himself this year.
Yin Xun was helping Lu Qingjiu by pressing the finished mooncakes into the mold and then taking them out.
Lu Qingjiu also made some fresh meat mooncakes. Fresh meat mooncakes are different from sweet ones. They are usually made with crispy crust and taste best when they are freshly baked.
Just when he was about to put the mooncakes into the oven, Zhu Miaomiao called and said that she would arrive at the station in more than half an hour.
Lu Qingjiu handed the task of monitoring the temperature of the mooncakes to Yin Xun, asking him to keep an eye on it, and then he drove his pickup truck to the town to pick up Zhu Miaomiao.
Zhu Miaomiao came from the city, carrying a lot of bags. Lu Qingjiu asked her why she brought so much luggage. She patted her suitcase and said with a smile, "It's not luggage at all, it's all food. I bought it all for you because I was afraid you couldn't buy some things in town."
Lu Qingjiu laughed when he heard this and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
"What's so hard about it?" Zhu Miaomiao said, "I have to thank you. Did you say anything to Wu Xiao after you went back last time? His temper has suddenly improved a lot, making us wonder if he has become a different person..."
Lu Qingjiu felt a little guilty when he mentioned Wu Xiao, but since that incident, Wu Xiao hadn't contacted him much, so it seemed like he was getting along well with the old tree. Lu Qingjiu didn't know what kind of impact marrying into the tree tribe would have, but at the moment, it seemed to be a positive one.
When they got home, the mooncakes were fresh from the oven, still steaming. Zhu Miaomiao was a little hungry after such a long train ride, so she grabbed a mooncake with lotus seed paste and egg yolk and started eating, praising Lu Qingjiu's craftsmanship as she ate. Since they made their own mooncakes, they naturally used a lot of ingredients. Lu Qingjiu stuffed two egg yolks into each mooncake, which was thinly wrapped in lotus seed paste. The yolks were very soft when bitten, and the salty and sweet taste filled the mouth when the egg yolks opened.
"Delicious!" Zhu Miaomiao praised.
Lu Qingjiu smiled and said, "If it tastes good, eat more." He gave the mooncakes to Bai Yuehu who was sitting in the yard, and kept some to give to his good neighbors in the village.
The mooncakes with fresh meat taste very good too, a bit like pies, but the crust is crispier than pies, which is very suitable for carnivores like white moon foxes.
While eating mooncakes, Zhu Miaomiao talked to Lu Qingjiu about the purpose of her return this time.
"Jiu'er, have you ever thought of other ways to make money?" Zhu Miaomiao said vaguely, "I don't think your land is profitable, and you have two mouths to feed at home..."
Lu Qingjiu: "..." He felt like laughing when he heard what Zhu Miaomiao said, so he pretended to be sad and said, "Yeah, little brat, you're eating me out of money."
Zhu Miaomiao: "Yes, yes, that handsome guy is really good at eating. I've never seen leftovers in your house."
When she said this, she looked at Lu Qingjiu, and they both couldn't help laughing.
"Okay, I was just kidding." Zhu Miaomiao said, "What do you think of my previous proposal?"
Lu Qingjiu said: “Well, that’s a good idea, but I don’t know if the well water will work.”
Zhu Miaomiao said, "Just try it and you'll know. There are so many people in our company waiting."
Lu Qingjiu said: "Then let's give it a try."
Zhu Miaomiao had mentioned this on the phone before, asking Lu Qingjiu to develop the well in his backyard to contribute to the hair loss cause. If the well water was effective, Zhu Miaomiao would help Lu Qingjiu open an online store to sell the hair growth water.
Lu Qingjiu certainly didn't forget to ask Bai Yuehu if the well water would have any side effects. Bai Yuehu said there wouldn't be any. What made people grow hair in that well was a woman's obsession. Obsession wasn't harmful to the human body and could even be beneficial to some extent. Of course, the premise was that the well water really did have an effect on hair growth.
Ever since Lu Qingjiu resigned and returned home, Zhu Miaomiao had been worried about her friend's life in the village. Unlike Lu Qingjiu, she had grown up in the city and had never seen a remote village where it took two hours to get to the supermarket. So she always imagined Lu Qingjiu's difficult life in the countryside, like carrying water from afar to irrigate the fields, or weeding vegetables under the scorching sun. Little did she know that the heavy work at home was basically done by the handsome guy with a big appetite. The heaviest work Lu Qingjiu had was clearing the weeds in the yard and making pig food for the two pigs.
"By the way, Qingjiu, do you have any extra agricultural products? You can sell them online." Zhu Miaomiao was still thinking of ideas for Lu Qingjiu during dinner. "Didn't we have a lot of grapes at home that we couldn't finish eating?"
Lu Qingjiu said, "They've all been taken away." Chao Qianyu kept an eye on his family's land every day. As long as there were leftover vegetables, he would call and make an appointment a month before they were ripe.
"Took it away?" Zhu Miaomiao asked in surprise, "Who took it away?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "A man who runs a restaurant."
Zhu Miaomiao asked, "What's the price they offered?"
Lu Qingjiu said, "It's okay, about the same as the market price. I also thought about buying it online, but Shuifu Village is too remote, and transportation is difficult. The shelf life of vegetables and fruits is quite short, and it's hard to guarantee the quality if shipped there."
This made sense. Zhu Miaomiao touched her chin and said, "Then you can consider developing other side businesses. For example... these mooncakes are delicious." She felt that Lu Qingjiu's cooking skills would definitely be very popular.
Lu Qingjiu smiled and said, "Let's talk about it later." After all, these things are made at home. Making food requires procedures such as licenses and quarantine. If you really want to make it, it is more troublesome than you imagined.
The two chatted for a while and finally decided that Zhu Miaomiao should first test whether the well water could produce hair after leaving Shuifu Village. If so, they could consider the Taobao store.
Mid-Autumn Festival is just two days away, and Lu Qingjiu plans to cook a big meal for everyone on that day. Because Zhu Miaomiao is coming over, Lu Qingjiu wants her to try the manta ray as well, so he asks Bai Yuehu if he can catch two more fish so they can cook them on that day.
Bai Yuehu agreed immediately, and the next day she brought Lu Qingjiu a fresh manta ray and a lamb that had been skinned and had its excess parts removed.
Of course, although Bai Yuehu said it was a lamb, Lu Qingjiu always felt that something was wrong with it. The lamb did not have any fishy smell that meat should have. Instead, it had a light fragrance and the meat was of very good quality. Lu Qingjiu cut a piece of meat from it and saw that the texture of the meat was in a beautiful snowflake shape, which looked very tempting.
Part of the meat and sake was used to make soup, and part was used to stir-fry meat. The stir-fried meat tasted great, with alternating fat and lean meat, neither greasy nor dry, making people unable to put their chopsticks down.
Another important reason why Zhu Miaomiao likes to go to Shuifu Village so much is that the food here is so good. No matter what she eats here, it tastes better than outside. She likes to eat fish. When she tasted the pickled fish made by Lu Qingjiu with manta ray, she felt that it tasted so good that she almost swallowed her tongue into her stomach.
"Wow, it's so delicious." Zhu Miaomiao never stopped eating. Even though her stomach was so full, she still forced herself to drink some soup.
Lu Qingjiu said, "Don't eat too much. Be careful of your stomach."
Zhu Miaomiao shook her head and said, "I've never eaten such delicious fish in my life. What kind of fish is this?"
Lu Qingjiu lied, "It's just an ordinary grass carp."
"I must come here to live when I retire." Zhu Miaomiao vowed, "I must—"
Lu Qingjiu laughed: "You can't receive express delivery here." Express delivery has to be picked up at the sales outlets in town, and transportation is very inconvenient.
Zhu Miaomiao shook her head and said, "It's worth it to not receive express delivery if I can eat fish like this every day." She was so full that she wanted to stand up and walk for a while, but she felt that her stomach couldn't support the movement. So after trying, she sat down helplessly.
"Hey? What's that?" Zhu Miaomiao, who was sitting and resting, suddenly turned her gaze and noticed a small white ball of fluff hiding at the door. "Qingjiu, do you have a dog?"
Lu Qingjiu said, "No, it's a fox." The little fox was timid and a little shy. It had hidden in the bedroom when Zhu Miaomiao arrived. Now, probably hungry, it bravely and cautiously peeked at Zhu Miaomiao, as if to assess whether the girl was safe. Seeing its adorable appearance, Lu Qingjiu waved at it, and it slowly walked over to Lu Qingjiu and licked the palm of Lu Qingjiu's hand with its tongue.
"Fox?" Zhu Miaomiao looked at the suspicious appearance of the fox in front of her, very confused. "Then why is this little fox's fur cut like a poodle?"
Hearing Zhu Miaomiao's question, Lu Qingjiu, who had done something wrong, looked away guiltily, coughed stiffly and threw the blame away: "Oh, Yin Xun cut it. It's my first time, so I don't have much experience."
Zhu Miaomiao seemed to be thinking: "Oh, so that's it. If you hadn't told me, I would have thought it was you who did it."
Lu Qingjiu laughed dryly: "Hahahaha, how could that be."
Yin Xun, who was washing dishes in the kitchen, suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason. He rubbed his nose and muttered, "Who is saying bad things about me..."
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