Lu Qingjiu's birthday fell in March, the height of spring, when everything was reviving and the world was brimming with life. Lu Qingjiu loved the busy days of spring, the warm sunshine, the melting waters of the streams, and the fragrance of the wild grasses. When Grandma was still alive, she would always make Lu Qingjiu a bowl of her special chicken noodle soup on her birthday. Their family wasn't well off, and they couldn't afford a cake, but for Lu Qingjiu, this bowl of noodles was enough to satisfy him. The chicken noodle soup usually came with three golden fried soft-boiled eggs, which Lu Qingjiu could devour in two bites.
Later, Lu Qingjiu left Shuifu Village and didn't get to taste his grandmother's cooking for a long time. He remembered that his parents wanted to take his grandmother away, but his grandmother refused to agree and was determined to stay in this remote village, as if she was waiting for something.
On the morning of the 30th, Lu Qingjiu woke up from bed. The first thing he did after opening his eyes was to take the wooden box on the bedside.
There was still a text lock hanging on the wooden box. The words on the lock would change every day. Lu Qingjiu checked the lock as usual today, but after seeing the text lock clearly, he was stunned.
He unexpectedly found three very familiar characters in the text lock—Lu, Qing, and Jiu—his name. Lu Qingjiu immediately remembered what Monk Xuanyu had told him: his grandmother had left him a gift before she passed away. That gift must have been the wooden box in front of him.
Lu Qingjiu's hands trembled slightly as he slowly twisted the lock, bringing the three words "Lu Qingjiu" to the same horizontal line. The moment the three words were aligned, the wooden box made a crisp sound, and the tightly locked lock opened.
Lu Qingjiu held his breath nervously. He slowly removed the text lock, opened the wooden box, and saw what was inside.
It was a thick notebook that looked quite old.
Lu Qingjiu reached out to take out his notebook, but saw a black object fall out of it. He was stunned for a moment, then picked it up. After handling it, he found that it was actually a black scale, somewhat similar to the one he got last night. However, this scale was covered with scratches, as if the owner of the scale had been seriously injured.
Lu Qingjiu was a bit confused. His previous suspicions had been confirmed. It seemed his grandmother did indeed know about non-humans, and not only did she know, she even interacted with them. As for this black scale, was it from the White Moon Fox? Or from one of his own kind? But what kind of people were the White Moon Foxes? Were they dragons? There were so many different kinds of dragons, and there were quite a few in the Classic of Mountains and Seas alone...
Lu Qingjiu hesitantly put the scales into his pocket and opened the notebook in his hand.
Because the notebook had been left for too long, the paper had turned an old yellow, but the beautiful handwriting on it was still very clear. It was exactly the handwriting of Grandma Lu Qingjiu.
I opened the first page of the notebook and saw a few words written on it: There is water in Shuifu Village.
Lu Qingjiu frowned, a puzzled look on his face. Indeed, he had also found village names strange. After all, most of the time, village names were based on local characteristics. The simplest example was that if there were many people with the surname Li, the village would be called Lijia Village. But why was Shuifu Village called Shuifu when it only had a small stream with no fish?
After flipping through a few more pages, Lu Qingjiu finally confirmed that the notebook before him seemed to be his grandmother's diary. It was just a rather chaotic record, with no specific dates, and she would just write a few notes when she remembered. However, judging from the general description inside, this notebook had been recorded since her grandmother was young and kept with her until her death.
"I quite like this place. The tenant is quite interesting and good-looking, haha. I think he's much prettier than me," the grandmother wrote. "But he eats a bit too much. I feel like I can't afford to feed him."
Lu Qingjiu's expression froze, he had a bad feeling.
Soon, as he turned more and more pages, his terrible premonition came true. The contents of the notebook told Lu Qingjiu that his grandmother seemed to be going through the same thing as him. She also met a beautiful tenant. That tenant had a big appetite, but her temperament was very different from Bai Yuehu's. She was gentle and considerate, "warm like the spring sun."
"I really love spring." The young girl at that time quickly fell in love. "Just like him, the lunch he made today was so delicious. I asked him if he could make it for me all the time, and he smiled and nodded."
Seeing such warm words, Lu Qingjiu felt uncomfortable. Because in his memory, he had never seen his grandfather. And the name of grandfather was also a taboo in the family. When he was a child, he once asked his grandmother about it, but his grandmother told him not to ask again.
"You don't have a grandpa." Grandma said, "Good boy, don't ask anymore."
From then on, Lu Qingjiu never asked again.
Lu Qingjiu continued to read and found that most of the diary at the back had been torn off. It was obvious that when the back part was torn off, grandma was very excited, because she almost tore the diary in half.
"I understand." Grandma wrote at the end, "I am willing to make this choice because at least I have him. He is enough for me. So they want me back because of this. I am the only one left in the Lu family. This is my responsibility."
Lu Qingjiu didn't understand what this responsibility meant, but his mood became heavier. He felt that something had happened to his grandma.
After that, many pages of the diary were blank, as if grandma had lost interest in recording. Then, some words appeared that made Lu Qingjiu particularly uneasy.
"He has changed. How could this happen?"
"How this happened, I don't understand."
"They sent a new tenant, but I couldn't accept it."
"Why, why...why, why, I don't want to give up, I don't want to give up."
"I am pregnant."
"it's all over."
Lu Qingjiu clutched the notebook tightly. Getting pregnant before marriage was a serious crime in the past, but fortunately, because the Lu family held a high status in Shuifu Village, she wasn't kicked out. She was just barred from formal events and occasionally faced the villagers' cold stares. After Lu Qingjiu's mother was born, her grandmother sent her out of Shuifu Village to live and grow up outside. But later, her mother and father were busy with work and unable to care for the young Lu Qingjiu, so he was sent back to live with his grandmother, a kindly old woman, where he spent his childhood.
What exactly happened between Grandma and her beloved tenant? What did she mean by "changed"? Lu Qingjiu felt as if he were standing in front of a black abyss. If he took a step forward, he would fall into it. His reason told him to stop, but curiosity drove him forward.
Lu Qingjiu turned the notebook to the last few pages and saw a message left by his grandma.
"Qingjiu, I should be gone by the time you see this notebook. I want to apologize to you. Your parents' death was not an accident. Someone murdered them. The murderer has already received the punishment he deserved, and it was not his own will. Please don't blame him. Shuifu Village has many secrets. I don't know how much you know, but if possible, I don't want you to know too much."
Lu Qingjiu looked at the words, but felt his body getting colder and colder.
"Our Lu family has a special bloodline, born to be the protector of Shuifu Village. However, the Lu family bloodline is thin, and we don't know when it will be cut off. I am very happy that you have left Shuifu Village, and I hope you will not come back and let this all end. But I am still worried that something unexpected will happen after I leave, and you will be confused when you return here, so I left you this notebook. I really hope you will not open it and don't read it."
But obviously, grandma's wish did not come true. Driven by fate, Lu Qingjiu came back to this remote village.
Lu Qingjiu choked up in his throat and continued reading.
"But if you saw it, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing. You have your own path to take, and Grandma can't make decisions for you. Shuifu is a very special place, connecting the two worlds. The Lu family has guarded it for thousands of years, but we're not guarding a village, we're guarding people. Qingjiu, have you also met a new tenant? It's him you have to guard. As long as he's alive, Shuifu Village can continue to survive. If he dies or something unexpected happens, there will be serious consequences. You must never get emotionally attached to a tenant. It's absolutely wrong, and every member of the Lu family will pay a heavy price for it."
Lu Qingjiu wondered what his grandmother must have felt when she wrote these words. Was she thinking of the man she once deeply loved? But this was clearly a contradiction. How could one not feel emotions towards someone when one used all one's strength to protect them? Are humans without emotions still human? And why were they, who were so weak, protecting the powerful tenant? He simply couldn't understand.
Grandma obviously couldn't give a perfect answer. She left a sentence, "Sake, grandma loves you. If you encounter bad things, take a look at the things in the box more often." Then the notes came to an abrupt end.
The last paragraph was written very sloppily, and it can be seen that the person who wrote it was in a very bad state. This should be grandma's last words.
Lu Qingjiu's fingers stroked the paper, feeling the rough texture. He almost understood what Grandma meant, but there were still some things he didn't understand. But at this point, none of that mattered. He clutched the notebook tightly to his chest and stood up to find Bai Yuehu.
Bai Yuehu was still sleeping. He was lying on the bed with his cheek buried in the soft quilt. His long black hair was spread out on the white sheets like silk. His face was as beautiful as a painting.
Human beings are superficial animals, and what they like is always the exquisite appearance.
Lu Qingjiu sat down next to Bai Yuehu. His movements were very gentle, but Bai Yuehu still opened his eyes, but with some sleepiness in his eyes, and without any defense, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "I have something I want to ask you."
Bai Yuehu's eyes moved to the box Lu Qingjiu was holding: "Did you open it?"
Lu Qingjiu said: “Yeah.”
Bai Yuehu said, "Ask."
Lu Qingjiu hesitated slightly: "Do you know what happened to my grandma?"
Bai Yuehu said, "I know a little."
Lu Qingjiu immediately became nervous: "Which ones?"
"She's your grandmother," Bai Yuehu said. "She was a member of the Lu family who once protected Shuifu Village."
Lu Qingjiu: "What else?"
Bai Yuehu said, "Her lover caused a great disaster and was imprisoned." His tone was light, but his words made Lu Qingjiu tremble slightly.
"You... do you know what kind of trouble her former lover got into?" Lu Qingjiu continued to ask.
"I don't know." Bai Yuehu said, "These things are confidential. Qingjiu, what's wrong?"
Lu Qingjiu smiled bitterly: “He ate my parents.”
Bai Yuehu frowned slightly: "Impossible."
Lu Qingjiu: "Why not?"
White Moon Fox: "If he wanted to eat, he would eat your grandma first. Why would he eat your parents?"
Lu Qingjiu: "What do you mean? Why do you say that?" He didn't understand Bai Yuehu's logic at all.
Bai Yuehu sat up straight and slowly approached Lu Qingjiu. His eyes seemed to be burning with flames, causing Lu Qingjiu to instinctively want to step back, but Bai Yuehu grabbed his arm and said slowly, "What are you afraid of?"
Lu Qingjiu's throat moved slightly: "I just... don't understand what you mean."
Bai Yuehu said, "In our clan, unless we are facing an enemy, we eat what we like. Your grandmother was right beside him at the time. If he had eaten, he would have eaten your grandmother first."
Lu Qingjiu: “…but the fact is that he ate my parents.”
White Moon Fox: "Maybe he didn't do it voluntarily."
Lu Qingjiu: "Will you still be forced?"
White Moon Fox said, "We won't be forced, but we will be polluted." He said, "Outside the Water Palace, everything is a foreign land."
Lu Qingjiu tried to break free from Bai Yuehu's grasp, but felt Bai Yuehu's grip as hard as iron, firmly gripping his arm. He could barely move. He finally gave up, lowered his head, and sat down beside Bai Yuehu, hugging the black wooden box tightly. "Do you know why I'm going back to Shuifu Village?"
Bai Yuehu observed Lu Qingjiu's expression and came up with the answer: "Because of your parents?"
"Yes." Lu Qingjiu said, "Someone told me that my parents didn't die in an accident." He looked at Bai Yuehu, "He was right."
Bai Yuehu: "Who told you?"
Lu Qingjiu said: "Old tree."
Bai Yuehu frowned.
Lu Qingjiu said, "He said my parents weren't destined to die, and that their death in Shuifu Village was man-made, not a natural disaster."
Bai Yuehu asked, "Do you believe it?"
"I didn't believe it when I came here, but I do now," Lu Qingjiu said. "He's right. My parents didn't die in the mudslide, they were eaten."
No wonder even Yin Xun, the mountain god, didn’t find his parents’ bodies, but only their relics. He should have known that this was not an accident at all, they were eaten by something.
Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu, his eyes moist. He thought of the despair in his grandmother's notebook and the scene when he was dealing with his parents' funeral. He asked, "Will you eat me?"
Bai Yuehu opened his mouth slightly. He knew that the best answer at this time was to deny it, but his soul was telling him of his desire for Lu Qingjiu. This desire made him hesitate, so much so that he could only watch the light in Lu Qingjiu's eyes dim.
"Can't you answer?" Lu Qingjiu said.
Bai Yuehu felt his heart tighten. This feeling was so strange. His heart was clearly not injured, but why did it hurt a little? He said, "I don't know."
Lu Qingjiu smiled bitterly.
Bai Yuehu said, "But I will try my best to restrain myself." He grabbed Lu Qingjiu's hand, sniffed his fingers carefully, and slid his lips across the skin on the back of his hand, feeling the warmth of a human. He said, "It's hard for me to explain that feeling to you. It's like... a big piece of delicious cake is walking back and forth in front of you. You like that piece of cake very much and want to swallow it, but you know that if you eat it, it will be gone, so you have to continue to endure it."
Lu Qingjiu was a little depressed at first, but was amused by Bai Yuehu's metaphor: "But I'm not a cake."
White Moon Fox: "Yes, you are more tempting than cake."
Lu Qingjiu said, “Are you praising the quality of my meat?”
White Moon Fox: "Forget it?"
Lu Qingjiu burst into laughter, and he laughed until tears came out of his eyes: "Where is that inhuman who ate my parents now? Does he know that grandma is gone?"
"I took you to see it." Bai Yuehu said, "Remember our horror story club? The dragon you saw was the one that ate your parents. Of course, that's what they said, and I don't believe it. But for some reason, the dragon didn't defend itself." It seemed that he was certain that the dragon didn't eat Lu Qingjiu's parents, but this statement was very different from what grandma said, and Lu Qingjiu didn't know who was telling the truth.
"I feel a little sad." Lu Qingjiu said, "I didn't expect the birthday gift would be this." It would be such a heavy truth.
Bai Yuehu: "It's not uncomfortable." He raised his hand and gently stroked the back of Lu Qingjiu's neck, as if comforting him with the same method that Lu Qingjiu used to comfort the little fox.
Lu Qingjiu felt a little itchy when he touched her, and she wanted to avoid him, but was held tightly by the White Moon Fox.
"Will you leave?" Bai Yuehu asked, "Will you leave here?"
Perhaps Bai Yuehu himself did not realize that his tone was a little nervous when he asked this question.
Lu Qingjiu thought for a while: "No way."
Bai Yuehu breathed a sigh of relief.
"It seems like if I leave here, I have nowhere else to go." Lu Qingjiu said this with a bitter heart. He had lost all his relatives long ago and had no place to stay anywhere else. Shuifu Village was not just his hometown, but more like a warm home.
Here is Yin Xun who is waiting for his return, the White Moon Fox guarding this place, the cute little pig, and the furry fox.
For Lu Qingjiu, this place is warm.
"Don't go." Bai Yuehu reached out and hugged Lu Qingjiu. He gently rubbed his head against Lu Qingjiu's cheek, like a big, spoiled cat. "Stay here."
Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu's movements, but felt that the fox spirit in front of him was probably too emotional and couldn't help but make the movements that its prototype often made. So, what kind of dragon was the prototype of Bai Yuehu? He wanted to ask, but he felt that Bai Yuehu cared about this matter very much, so he swallowed the words back.
"No." Lu Qingjiu said, "Let go, I'm going to make breakfast."
Bai Yuehu asked, "You really aren't leaving?"
Lu Qingjiu said helplessly: “I really won’t leave. If I lie to you, you will eat me, okay?”
Bai Yuehu said, "That's fine." He was serious.
Lu Qingjiu said, "Let me digest these things first." Fortunately, he had long accepted the matter of non-human beings and was mentally prepared. If he knew all this as soon as he arrived, he would probably be scared away the next day.
"Yeah." Bai Yuehu nodded in agreement.
Lu Qingjiu carried the box back to the bedroom, closed it carefully, and then put it on the bedside again. He touched the box carefully, thinking about the last words his grandmother left him: if he encountered bad things, he should look at the things in the box again... It seems that his grandmother wanted to comfort Lu Qingjiu with her own experience.
But Lu Qingjiu only felt sad. It was hard for him to imagine the despair his grandmother felt when she learned that her lover had devoured their child.
After sitting in the room for a while, Lu Qingjiu adjusted his mood and got up to go out to cook.
Although he knew about the sad stories that happened here before, life still had to go on. Besides, today was his birthday, and he didn't want to infect others with his bad mood.
When he walked out of the kitchen, Lu Qingjiu heard some chattering sounds coming from inside. He listened carefully and found that Zhu Miaomiao was arguing with Yin Xun, and Jiang Buhuan was trying to persuade them.
"Wow, is this even edible?" Yin Xun said, "Didn't I tell you to put two fewer eggs? Look, this cake can't even hold its shape."
Zhu Miaomiao: "Oh, mom, if I had known your cooking skills were so good, I would have ordered one. Hurry up, it's so late, the sake is about to be served!"
Yin Xun: "Don't rush me, don't rush me——"
Jiang Buhuan said, "Put it here and be careful."
Lu Qingjiu glanced inside the door and saw three people with flour all over their bodies and faces carefully carrying a cake. However, the shape of the cake looked very strange. If he had to describe it... it looked like a piece of melted poop.
Lu Qingjiu: “…” How on earth did they make the cake look like this?
The three of them didn't notice Lu Qingjiu peeking at the door. After much difficulty, they moved the cake into the box and planned to spread cream on it. Lu Qingjiu thought about it and simply left the kitchen to the three of them and turned back to his room.
About twenty minutes later, Zhu Miaomiao, looking excited, knocked on Lu Qingjiu's door and asked him to get up. Lu Qingjiu pretended to have just woken up, yawned, and said, "Sorry, I got up late today."
"It's okay, it's okay." Zhu Miaomiao said, "Come over quickly, we've prepared breakfast!"
Lu Qingjiu said: "You also made breakfast? Who made it? Could it be Yin Xun? "
Zhu Miaomiao had no idea how terrible Yin Xun's cooking skills were, and was a little confused: "What's wrong with Yin Xun making breakfast? I think he cooks quite well."
Lu Qingjiu: “…Forget it, it’s nothing.” He didn’t tell Zhu Miaomiao that the most terrifying thing about Yin Xun’s cooking was that the food looked and tasted similar and tasted pretty good, but you would definitely have diarrhea after eating it, as if he used some strange ingredients.
Since everyone was busy for a long time to celebrate his birthday, Lu Qingjiu didn't spoil the fun. After all, eating the food made by Yin Xun would only make him have diarrhea for a whole day... right?
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