Lu Qingjiu had a long dream.
In his dream, he heard the sound of a huge stream. Through the small window, Lu Qingjiu saw the yellow river rushing past. The river was so wide that as far as Lu Qingjiu could see, he saw a vast, boundless torrent.
It seemed as if the entire world, save for the room he was in, was flooded. Lu Qingjiu felt an indescribable panic, his heart pounding. He looked up and saw a giant eye amidst the dark clouds. The pupils of those eyes stood upright like a cat's, a brilliant blood-red.
The pair of eyes seemed to notice Lu Qingjiu's presence and looked in his direction. Lu Qingjiu covered his mouth and nose, trying to reduce the sound of his breathing which became rapid due to fear. He huddled in the corner, not daring to move.
All that remained in his ears was the sound of the wild, rushing water. Just when Lu Qingjiu thought the creature had left, he heard the roar of a wild beast. This roar shook the earth and the room where Lu Qingjiu was staying. Lu Qingjiu slowly raised his head and saw a huge beast in the sky, pouncing towards him...
Then Lu Qingjiu woke up from the horrible dream. He was covered in sweat and his chest was heaving violently. He needed to breathe in as much oxygen as possible to make his overly tense heart feel better.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo..." When Lu Qingjiu recovered, he realized everything had just been a dream. He picked up his phone and checked the time. It was past three in the morning, the darkest hour before dawn. He sat up, vaguely remembering that he seemed to have participated in the village's autumn festival the previous day, drunken after drinking too much, and that he had even seen the White Moon Fox. Lu Qingjiu lowered his head and saw that his clothes had been changed into clean pajamas. There was no trace of alcohol on him, so he must have been cleaned up.
It seemed that he was drunk and was taken home by Bai Yuehu. Lu Qingjiu touched his head and felt a slight headache due to the hangover.
After drinking the water and calming down, he went to the bathroom to take a shower and rinse his body which had become a little wet and sticky due to sweat.
After taking a shower, Lu Qingjiu returned to the bedroom and looked out into the yard. A bright moon hung in the sky, peaceful and quiet.
The white moonlight poured down, covering the entire yard with a layer of white gauze. Lu Qingjiu actually didn't dislike such a quiet night. It was bright enough and there were no insects chirping, which made his heart calm down.
The roar of the beast in the dream sounded familiar, and Lu Qingjiu quickly thought of the dream he had captured in front of his grandmother's grave with a dream catcher.
In that dream, he also heard the same beast roar.
But what exactly does this roar mean? What secrets are hidden in the wooden box left by his grandmother, and what about the death of his parents...
Lu Qingjiu withdrew his gaze and lay back on the bed. He liked this small village called Shuifu and hoped to find the answers he wanted here.
The next day was still a sunny morning.
Lu Qingjiu, hungover, slept in. When he woke up, he saw Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu chewing corn in the yard. Bai Yuehu heard footsteps and looked in his direction. There was something more incomprehensible in his eyes than usual. He asked lightly, "Are you up?"
Lu Qingjiu thought about how Bai Yuehu had brought him home last night and changed and washed his clothes for him. He felt a little embarrassed for some reason. He pretended to avoid Bai Yuehu's gaze and said, "Well, I drank too much yesterday and got up a little late today. Is this what you guys want to eat in the morning? I'll cook something else for you."
"It's okay, it's okay." Yin Xun waved his hand. "It's good to eat some corn occasionally. This corn is so sweet and sticky. You should try some too."
Lu Qingjiu walked over, picked up a corn and took a bite. It tasted really good, sweet and sticky, and a little sticky in the mouth.
"Let's go grind the beans after lunch." Lu Qingjiu said to Yin Xun while eating. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Bai Yuehu was no longer looking at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Make some tofu, and then make it into fermented bean curd."
Yin Xundao: "Okay, okay."
Fermented bean curd is a soy product made in almost every household. The production process is somewhat similar to stinky tofu, but the resulting tofu becomes thicker due to fermentation and absorbs the flavors of the ingredients. It's great for filling steamed buns or adding to porridge. Although Lu Qingjiu had seen his grandmother make it as a child, he'd almost forgotten the recipe, so he looked it up online and planned to give it a try this year.
Tofu is needed to make fermented bean curd, so Lu Qingjiu planned to make some tofu first. He and Yin Xun took the beans to the village head, beat the beans into soy milk, and then brought them back to make tofu.
As the weather gradually began to get colder, the trees in the village began to shed their leaves, and the forest was golden, which looked very beautiful.
In order to survive the winter, Lu Qingjiu had to prepare so many things. After the tofu was made, he had to smoke the meat he bought into bacon with wood so that it could be preserved better. Then, stewing beans with bacon would be a good dish.
Lu Qingjiu was busy, so he simply handed over the work of the Taobao store to Yin Xun, asking him to handle the shipping and after-sales.
Yin Xun agreed obediently, but because he had hardly used a computer and was not familiar with the keyboard, he sat in front of the computer and slowly typed his reply with two fingers.
"Am I going too slowly?" He was a little worried and turned to ask Lu Qingjiu who was sitting not far from him and pickling meat with his head down.
"It's okay if it's slow." Lu Qingjiu said indifferently, "Whether you want to buy it or not, just pour me some more soy sauce."
"Okay." Yin Xun came running over happily.
Meat can be divided into two types: braised meat and cured meat. Both require a period of curing beforehand. The cool autumn weather prevents meat from spoiling easily, and with good ventilation, the meat can be smoked in about a month. Fruitwood is best used for smoking meat, as it imparts a fruity aroma to the smoked meat. Although there are people smoking meat every year in Shuifu Village, only those with better financial resources can do it. After all, dozens of kilograms of meat is a considerable expense for an average family.
After helping Lu Qingjiu pour the soy sauce, Yin Xun ran back to continue typing on his keyboard. As he was typing, he suddenly frowned and said, "Jiu'er, someone said our hair tonic is not effective and wants to return it."
Lu Qingjiu paused: "What?"
Yin Xundao said, "He said it had no effect and he wanted to return it." He stepped back a little to let Lu Qingjiu see the screen.
"Oh, then let's refund it." Lu Qingjiu said indifferently. Anyway, he couldn't be sure whether every bottle of hair growth water would work. Since someone said it was useless, it didn't matter if he refunded it.
Yin Xun nodded when he heard this and gave the man the refund option.
At the time, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun thought the matter was over, but two days later, three or four people suddenly appeared in the store and asked for a refund. Lu Qingjiu didn't pay much attention at first, but when he looked at their addresses, he found that they all seemed to be from the same programming company and worked as programmers.
Lu Qingjiu felt a little confused, because he remembered that the first time he bought it at this address, it was very effective. Could it be that the effect of hair growth water varies from person to person?
Lu Qingjiu inquired about the specific situation, and the buyers gave very consistent answers, saying that they applied it on their heads, but it had no effect at all. Because Lu Qingjiu promised a refund, they came specifically for after-sales service.
Lu Qingjiu looked at the name of the item the man had purchased and suddenly remembered something. He searched for the name on the social software and unexpectedly found it.
But on social software, this person's behavior is completely different from what he said.
It highly praised the effect of the hair growth water and attached a photo of thick black hair. The owner of the photo happily said that he had never used a hair growth water with such good effect. It was just a little expensive, but other than that, there were no disadvantages.
Lu Qingjiu sneered at the photo. But he didn't say anything. Instead, he refunded the money to the man. However, he asked the group of people who wanted a refund to send back all the glass bottles and packaging boxes. They agreed immediately.
In the evening, Lu Qingjiu casually told Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun about this as gossip. In fact, he was not too angry, but just felt that this matter was a bit ironic.
"This is too much." Yin Xun became angry. "It's obviously effective, but you insist on saying it's ineffective. Isn't this destroying our store's reputation? And you insist on refunding it - this is too much."
Lu Qingjiu was very calm: "There's nothing we can do about it. After all, we can't see him. He said it didn't work, so can we still insist that he's lying?"
Yin Xun said, "No, I'm so angry." He had lived alone in Shuifu Village for a long time and had hardly any contact with people. Naturally, he had rarely been exposed to the ugly side of human nature.
"Don't be angry, don't be angry." Lu Qingjiu said, "If I had known you would react like this, I wouldn't have told you." Bai Yuehu's attitude was similar to his, with no expression and no words, and it seemed that she didn't care much.
"What if they all follow suit?" Yin Xun said, "Will we still be able to open our store?"
Lu Qingjiu said, "No, there are bad people and good people in the world. There are always people who think the effect is good and will promote us. Let's eat, it's almost cold."
Yin Xun angrily stuffed a mouthful of rice into his mouth.
After dinner, Lu Qingjiu went for a walk to digest the food. He thought that if he had time tomorrow, he'd go to town and buy two rabbits to pickle for some cured meat. Rabbit is quite popular here; it's tender and boneless, making it tastier than chicken when stir-fried. Of course, some people aren't crazy about rabbit. Lu Qingjiu once heard a female colleague say, "Rabbits are so cute, why should you eat them?" Zhu Miaomiao, who was enjoying her rabbit, then rudely retorted, "Cockroaches are cute too, why are you eating them?" Everyone at the table nearly spit out their food.
After walking around the village and returning home, Lu Qingjiu saw Yin Xun was still angry. This fool was obviously still unhappy about what Lu Qingjiu said in the evening. Lu Qingjiu glanced at him without saying a word, turned and went into the kitchen, found the malt sugar he had bought before, then lit the fire and boiled the pot, put the malt sugar into the pot and boiled it at low temperature, then found two chopsticks, put them into the pot and stirred out two golden sugar balls.
This kind of candy is called "stir-stir candy" here, and it is a great way to coax children. When Lu Qingjiu went to town occasionally when he was a child, his grandmother would buy it for him. The candy is cheap and delicious. It is soft when stirred on the stick, and you can pull out sugar threads when you bite it.
Lu Qingjiu took two pieces of candy to the yard and stuffed a bite into the mouths of Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun.
Yin Xun smiled foolishly while tasting the candy, but then he said angrily: "Lu Qingjiu, what do you mean by this? Are you treating me like a child?"
Lu Qingjiu said: “Is the candy delicious?”
Yin Xundao: "Delicious..."
Lu Qingjiu said, "Are you happier after eating the candy?"
Yin Xun smacked his lips, his mouth filled with the sweet aroma of malt sugar. This sweetness was not greasy, but rather had a refreshing fragrance. The sweet taste of the sugar melted in his mouth, which indeed reduced a lot of the anger in his heart. So he nodded honestly: "Happy."
"If you're happy, go to bed." Lu Qingjiu patted his furry head. "It's so late, don't forget to brush your teeth."
Yin Xun held the candy in his mouth and walked away slowly.
Lu Qingjiu looked at his back and heard Bai Yuehu, who had not responded, say, "It's so easy to fool."
Lu Qingjiu turned his head and looked at him, smiling: "Aren't you easy to fool?"
Bai Yuehu said nothing, and slowly licked the syrup hanging on his lips. His bright red tongue gently rolled over his pale lips, inexplicably bringing a hint of sexiness to the taste. However, the words he spoke were not so gentle. Bai Yuehu said, "You really don't care."
Lu Qingjiu understood everything immediately. He blinked and laughed, "What do you care about?"
Bai Yuehu looked half-smiled when he heard this. He did not answer Lu Qingjiu's question, but stood up, waved at Lu Qingjiu, and turned back to sleep. Looking at Bai Yuehu's back, Lu Qingjiu went to the utility room to get some things, and then went to the backyard.
The matter seemed to have passed just like that.
The next day, Lu Qingjiu was afraid that Yin Xun would be angry again, so she didn't let him handle the store's affairs, but opened the software herself. As soon as the software was opened, the people who claimed to have returned the goods yesterday frantically sent Lu Qingjiu hundreds of messages. Lu Qingjiu took a quick look and instantly understood what was going on.
Less than an hour after they sent the glass bottles and packaging, their hair began to fall out in clumps, their once thick black hair instantly returning to its previous Mediterranean appearance. They panicked and started messaging Lu Qingjiu, asking what was going on with their hair and why it had fallen out so quickly.
Lu Qingjiu responded innocently: "What do you mean it grew and fell off? Didn't you say it was ineffective?"
Those people were speechless when asked. That's right. Yesterday they shamelessly said that it was ineffective and forced Lu Qingjiu to refund them. But today they came to say that their hair fell out. Isn't this slapping themselves in the face?
Lu Qingjiu said, "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you are talking about. Didn't you say that the hair growth water was ineffective? I have already refunded you."
Seeing the situation was not good, several people finally admitted their mistake. Although they didn't know how Lu Qingjiu did it, they couldn't accept watching their thick and lush black hair return to its original state. The one with the thinner skin directly admitted his mistake to Lu Qingjiu and said, "Manager, I'm really sorry. I was bewitched. Your hair growth water is actually very effective, but we think that 5,000 yuan is a bit expensive..."
Lu Qingjiu said: "Oh, so you mean that all of you are trying to cheat for a refund?"
"Yes," the man admitted. "I'm really sorry. I'll transfer the money to you. Can you give me another bottle of hair tonic?"
Lu Qingjiu ruthlessly rejected the man's request. Although he had a good temper, he wasn't the type to smile and greet someone even if they bullied him. Facing the customer's regret and request to buy again, he simply said, "I'm sorry, I've already refunded you. If you want to buy again, please wait until next month."
The customer said, "But the hair growth water in your store is getting harder and harder to buy... We had a hard time getting it last time..."
Lu Qingjiu said, "Then I can only wish you good luck." As he wished this person good luck, he also blacklisted all of them. Since the money had been returned, he would just pretend that he had never done this business.
After dealing with these, Lu Qingjiu simply posted a notice in his store, saying that the store supports invalid refunds, but the store will not be responsible for after-sales service after the refund. If a refund is made, then if the hair falls out again after the refund, please do not come to the store owner again. Once it is discovered that the refund is malicious, the store owner will directly block the customer.
After hanging up the notice, Lu Qingjiu told Yin Xun, who was kneading dough for Lu Qingjiu in the kitchen, about this matter.
Yin Xun was overjoyed when he found out, grinning widely and revealing his adorable fangs. "Really? Then how did you manage to make all their hair fall out?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "Of course I can't do it."
Yin Xundao: "Then who can do it?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "Of course it's the one who makes their hair grow long."
Yin Xun: "The ghost lady in the backyard?"
Lu Qingjiu nodded.
After Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu left last night, he took incense and candles to feed the female ghost as usual. However, the light circle above the well was getting bigger and bigger, and the light it emitted could only be described as holy. According to Bai Yuehu, it was estimated that in a while, the female ghost would really become a god.
Lu Qingjiu usually didn't talk much when lighting incense and candles, but last night he told the ghost girl in detail what happened in the store. Lu Qingjiu didn't know if it would work, so he just gave it a try.
But obviously, the ghost girl, whose obsession was violated, was very angry, and made those people pay a heavy price the next day.
Lu Qingjiu could only say to those people that they deserved it.
However, after this incident, the Luqing Hotel shop "Xiaocun" became famous on the Internet. Everyone said that the hair growth water in this store is really easy to use. However, while it is easy to use, some people think that the effect is a bit too good. If you apply it on the first day, hair will grow out on the second day. It is simply a miracle in the medical field.
Of course, some people took the water to professional institutions for testing, but the test results showed that the water was just ordinary well water without any other ingredients. Although it is not harmful to the human body, the question is, how did it come from?
Netizens had different opinions, but still could not find a reasonable explanation. At this time, someone contacted Lu Qingjiu and expressed their desire to spend a large sum of money to buy his secret recipe for hair growth water.
Lu Qingjiu rejected them all, and finally changed her phone number to a unknown one. She didn't give it to anyone except Zhu Miaomiao and a few of her former close colleagues.
After finishing the Taobao store business, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went to the mountain to cut down some fruit trees. The wood they cut was all branches of orange trees, which were perfect for smoking meat.
Lu Qingjiu set up stones at the door, put the meat on them, and smoked it. There should be no open flame when smoking, and some orange peels, peanut shells and other things should be added to make the meat more fragrant.
Bai Yuehu had never seen this method before and stood by curiously: "Is it delicious?"
"It's delicious." Lu Qingjiu said, "Fried bacon and steamed bacon are both delicious, and the stewed soup is also delicious..."
Upon hearing this, Bai Yuehu's eyes were filled with anticipation.
"But I seem to have forgotten to make sausages." Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered this while smoking bacon, "I wonder if it's too late."
"We should still be in time," Yin Xun said. "The first snow hasn't fallen yet."
"It will be too late if it falls." Lu Qingjiu looked at the weather. Although it was still autumn, they could also feel the chill. For this reason, Lu Qingjiu specially prepared more straw and heaters for the little black and little flowers to use for the winter. The little fox originally had a coat of fur that could withstand the cold winter, but Lu Qingjiu made it into a little VIP that was not very warm. In desperation, Lu Qingjiu could only find two old clothes, modify them casually, and make a few small clothes for the little fox to keep warm.
"Then let's go buy sausage casings and meat tomorrow." Yin Xun really likes sausages, especially the sweet ones. Hearing that Lu Qingjiu wanted to make sausages, he quickly encouraged her, "There will definitely be enough time."
Seeing that he wanted to eat so much, Lu Qingjiu nodded in agreement.
While smoking the meat, Lu Qingjiu also threw a few sweet potatoes into the fire. The sweet potatoes were red-hearted sweet potatoes that Bai Yuehu had grown herself. They were sweet and soft, and very delicious. When steaming rice on weekdays, she would put two of them on top of the rice and steam them together, and the rice would have the sweet taste of sweet potatoes.
The roasted sweet potatoes were also delicious. After peeling off the skin, the steaming core was revealed. Yin Xun stuffed the potatoes into his mouth while saying they were hot, and in the end, his lips were covered in black.
The White Moon Fox was surprisingly elegant while eating this kind of food, with only a little black charcoal ash on the corners of its mouth.
Lu Qingjiu looked at the two people eating sweet potatoes and couldn't help but curl his eyes. He felt like he was back in his childhood. This feeling was very wonderful, as if time had gone backwards. When he turned around, he could see an old man standing at the door, smiling at him kindly.
"Lu Qingjiu, what are you laughing at?" Yin Xun asked him.
"Me? I'm not laughing at anything." Lu Qingjiu said, "What's wrong?"
"What are you laughing at?" Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu suspiciously, "Then why are you looking at me like a son?"
Lu Qingjiu said innocently: "Is there?"
Yin Xun: “Yes!”
Lu Qingjiu spread his hands: "Okay then, I'll just reluctantly acknowledge you as my son."
Yin Xun angrily said, "I treat you as a friend, but you want to be my dad?!"
Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but burst into laughter.
The author has something to say: Lu Qingjiu: Oh, I’m so sorry.
Bai Yuehu: The embarrassing days are still to come.
Lu Qingjiu: Huh?!
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