After Ju Mang left, he came back soon with a handful of black seeds in his hand. He handed the seeds to Bai Yuehu and said that these were the seeds of those eyeballs.
Bai Yuehu gestured for Lu Qingjiu to accept the seeds, then returned the black umbrella to Ju Mang. Ju Mang finally got his black umbrella back, stroking it gently and soothingly for a long time. The umbrella seemed to have a life of its own, rubbing its surface against Ju Mang's cheek, like a couple separated by disaster and finally reunited.
Lu Qingjiu accepted the seeds. They looked no different from ordinary seeds, except they were slightly heavier and had a hard shell. He carefully placed the seeds in his cloth bag and heard Bai Yuehu ask, "How was the Spring Festival?"
"That's it." Ju Mang said, "There's nothing to do this year."
"Nothing to do?" Bai Yuehu seemed a little confused about this.
Ju Mang said, "Yes, nothing." His tone was a little nonchalant, but the next sentence he said attracted all of Lu Qingjiu's attention.
Ju Mang said: "They are all busy looking for dragons."
Dragon? The black dragon that escaped? Lu Qingjiu pricked up his ears. Although his eyes were fixed on the seeds, he listened carefully to the conversation between Ju Mang and Bai Yuehu.
"Why haven't you found it yet?" asked Bai Yuehu.
"I don't know either." Ju Mang put away his umbrella. "It's because I couldn't find it that I asked my lovely umbrella brother to come to Shuifu Village to take a look. Who knew that you would catch it and eat it for so long?" He complained.
Bai Yuehu sneered: "Don't you know whose territory Shuifu Village is? Who told you that you need to come here to take a look?"
Ju Mang seemed to be in the wrong about this matter, and did not refute after hearing what Bai Yuehu said.
"Keep looking." White Moon Fox said, "If you can't find it, you will all be held responsible."
Ju Mang snorted, turned around and prepared to leave. But before leaving the yard, he said one last word to Bai Yuehu. He said, "You should be careful recently. Zhu Rong may come over. After all, no one can rest easy until the dragon is found."
Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but Lu Qingjiu noticed that when he heard the name Zhu Rong, his eyes became obviously gloomy and his whole face was cold.
After Ju Mang left, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but ask about Zhu Rong.
Zhurong is the god of fire in mythology and also the god in charge of summer. It can be said that he is a god that is widely circulated among the people. Lu Qingjiu did not expect that he would hear his name again and even have the opportunity to meet him. In addition to being curious, he was also a little excited.
However, Bai Yuehu seemed to have a bad impression of Zhu Rong. After hearing Ju Mang say that Zhu Rong was also coming to Shuifu Village, his face looked unhappy.
"Why did Zhu Rong come to Shuifu Village?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Is he also here to look for dragons?"
Bai Yuehu nodded.
Lu Qingjiu asked: "Why are you unhappy?"
Bai Yuehu said, "He is the executioner."
Lu Qingjiu was stunned at first when he heard this, but then he understood what Bai Yuehu meant by the executioner. Before the black dragon was imprisoned, its horns were cut off, its eyes were gouged out, and its tongue was cut off. While Lu Qingjiu felt it was cruel, he also wondered who could punish the dragon so cruelly. He thought the executioner was a member of Bai Yuehu's clan, but he didn't expect it to be the legendary Fire God Zhurong.
"That dragon...was he the one who locked it up?" For some reason, Lu Qingjiu remembered the gentle look the dragon had given him when they last met, and his heart tightened slightly.
"Yeah," White Moon Fox said. "They all said he did something wrong, and he didn't defend himself." He sighed softly, "So he was punished." If the dragon had wanted to escape, he could have. However, no one understood why he admitted all his crimes and voluntarily stayed, accepting such a cruel punishment. The two places dragons hate to be touched the most are their horns and their scales. But the black dragon had his horns severed, a part many dragons would rather die than lose; it's a source of pride for them.
Bai Yuehu didn't understand, and as a result, he didn't have a good impression of the executioner. Now when he heard Ju Mang say that Zhu Rong was coming, he was naturally in a bad mood.
Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment and continued to ask: "Then he came to Shuifu Village to find the dragon?"
Bai Yuehu said, "About that."
Lu Qingjiu was silent. He wanted to say something to comfort the depressed White Moon Fox, but he felt that words were unnecessary. After all, although he was not a dragon, he felt uncomfortable when he saw the miserable appearance of the Black Dragon, not to mention the White Moon Fox, who was of the same clan as the Black Dragon.
Not knowing how to comfort Bai Yuehu with words, Lu Qingjiu prepared a big meal in the evening to soothe Bai Yuehu's heart.
He asked Bai Yuehu to kill a chicken, stuffed the chicken's belly with various ingredients, and put it in the oven to roast. The roasted chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the meat was tender and juicy, and even the bones were crispy. The chickens raised by their family are really delicious. Not only are they strong in combat, but they are also very delicious. The rich aroma emitted when they are rotating in the oven is mouth-watering. Lu Qingjiu also plans to find time to go to the town to buy some rabbits and raise them. They have the habit of eating rabbit meat here. Rabbit meat is white meat, without any fat, and has fewer bones than chicken. If it is cooked well, the meat will be very tender. Rabbit liver tastes much better than ordinary liver, with a dense and delicate taste, and without the iron smell of liver at all.
After dinner, Bai Yuehu felt a little better and said that the seeds given by Ju Mang could be planted.
"Where should we plant it? Let's plant it in the backyard." Lu Qingjiu said, "If these seeds grow eyeballs and people see them, our family will be regarded as monsters by other villagers."
"Okay." Bai Yuehu thought about it and seemed to think that what Lu Qingjiu said made sense. "Let's plant it next to the well."
Lu Qingjiu nodded.
Thanks to the hot sales of the hair tonic, the halo of light above the backyard well grew increasingly brighter, even blazing brightly in the dark. They didn't even need to turn on the streetlights, which, Yin Xun said, had saved their family a significant amount of electricity. According to Bai Yuehu, the female ghost in the well might soon be able to manifest her true form and become a deity. As a mountain deity, Yin Xun felt a complex mix of emotions. He felt he wasn't as powerful as the female ghost in the backyard. Although they were both deities, she earned a million dollars a year, while he had to count his money even for a steamed dumpling.
Lu Qingjiu patted his shoulder to comfort him, saying that the well in their backyard was the one that had contributed the most to this family...
Lu Qingjiu planted the black seeds in the pit, filled them with a thin layer of soil, and poured some water on them. Although Bai Yuehu said that there was nothing to worry about after planting them, Lu Qingjiu was still a little worried about whether they would germinate well.
"It's no problem. We have Dang Kang at home," Bai Yuehu said. "Let them come to the backyard and play more often, and run around on the dirt. If they can't do that, I'm here for them."
Bai Yuehu couldn't shake off the title of a skilled farmer. The fruit trees they planted in March had already grown taller than themselves. Lu Qingjiu even suspected that they would bear fruit this autumn, without having to wait for several years like other farmers.
The White Moon Fox is a little helper in agriculture and a good partner in farming.
According to Bai Yuehu, when these seeds are planted, the fruits that grow out will be shaped like eyeballs and taste fruity. It sounds delicious. Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun, who have eaten the eyeballs, are looking forward to it.
Ju Mang walked for a few days and didn't see the Zhu Rong he mentioned, so Lu Qingjiu forgot about it.
He was a man of action. After he said he wanted to buy rabbits, he went to the town the next day and bought a few cute little white rabbits, planning to raise them next to the chicken coop.
The little rabbit was not shy and soon became friends with the fighting chickens, expanding its range of activities to the entire yard.
Lu Qingjiu originally wanted to raise some ducks and geese, but their house was too far from the stream and there was no running water. He couldn't let the ducks swim in the well in the backyard, so the plan was temporarily delayed, thinking that he would come back to it when he had the chance.
The weather gradually began to get warmer, and before we knew it, the trees had completely shed their winter bleakness and become lush and verdant.
Spring is a great time to go mushroom picking in the mountains. As a village dependent on the mountains, Shuifu villagers naturally appreciate this income-boosting activity. However, this year's lack of rain has impacted mushroom production. Fortunately, at the end of April, it finally rained for several days in a row.
Yin Xun called Lu Qingjiu and said that there were a lot of mushrooms growing on the mountain. Did they want to go pick some together to eat?
Wild mushrooms are delicious and are great whether stir-fried over high heat or stewed in soup. However, there is a more troublesome problem: it is not easy for ordinary people to tell which mushrooms are poisonous. Every year, many people go to the hospital because of eating mushrooms.
Lu Qingjiu had been away from Shuifu Village for quite a while and had no idea how to identify mushrooms, but luckily they had Yin Xun, who assured them that there was no mushroom on the mountain that he didn't recognize.
Lu Qingjiu took a bamboo basket and went up the mountain with Yin Xun to pick mushrooms.
White Moon Fox, having nothing better to do, followed behind with a basket slung over his shoulder. After the rain, the sun finally cleared up, and wild mushrooms were everywhere under the damp leaves. Sometimes, just lift the leaves and you'd see a whole bunch.
Yin Xun knew the mountains very well, and almost every place he went to was covered with wild mushrooms. Lu Qingjiu recognized some of the ones he picked, such as the chicken mushroom, but some of them seemed very unfamiliar to him, and he had never even seen them before.
"Is this really edible?" Seeing Yin Xun put a red mushroom into the basket, Lu Qingjiu looked suspicious.
"Yes." Yin Xun said, "This is delicious."
"Are you really okay?" Lu Qingjiu said, "I'm a real human being. I'll die if I eat poisonous mushrooms."
Yin Xun: "It's okay. If something really happens, we still have the White Moon Fox."
Bai Yuehu raised his eyes and glanced at Yin Xun with an unfriendly look.
Yin Xun quickly shrank his neck.
Pick the mushrooms, clean them, and use them to stew chicken in the evening if they are edible. If they are not edible, they need to be dried in the sun. Dried mushrooms can reduce their toxicity and are safer to eat.
Seeing that the chicken soup was almost done, Lu Qingjiu added fresh mushrooms into it, then covered the pot and prepared to go to the yard to pick some chopped green onions. However, as soon as he entered the yard, he saw a stranger standing in the middle of the yard, staring at Bai Yuehu.
The man was tall, with long red hair and a small fiery red tattoo between his eyebrows. Normally, red hair would make people feel a little frivolous, but on this man, there was no sense of frivolity at all. Instead, he seemed very serious and people didn't dare to make any jokes in front of him.
The man heard Lu Qingjiu's footsteps and looked over here. His pupils were also red, but the moment he saw Lu Qingjiu, they turned back to normal black.
This person's physical features were too obvious. Even though Lu Qingjiu had never seen him, he could guess his identity. He should be the Zhurong mentioned by Ju Mang.
"Lu Qingjiu?" Zhu Rong called out Lu Qingjiu's name in a low voice.
"Mr. Zhu... Mr. Zhu?" Lu Qingjiu originally wanted to call him Zhu Rong, but when the words came to his lips, he felt that it was not appropriate to call him by his name, so he changed the address abruptly.
"Just call me Zhurong," Zhurong said. "How have you been lately?"
"Not bad." Lu Qingjiu was a little bit confused by his familiar way of greeting. It was the first time they met, but Zhu Rong's attitude was as if they were good friends who had known each other for a long time.
Zhu Rong also noticed Lu Qingjiu's embarrassment, and he pulled the corners of his mouth, revealing a stiff smile. He said, "Don't be too restrained. Your grandma and I are old acquaintances." It was obvious that he wanted to appear more friendly in front of Lu Qingjiu, but he had a tough look, and his smile made him even more creepy.
"Old acquaintance?" Lu Qingjiu asked in surprise, "You know my grandma?"
"Yeah." Zhu Rong said, "She's a good cook."
Good cooking skills? Then he must have eaten the food cooked by his grandmother. But why did he never see these old people when he was young? Or was it that they deliberately avoided his presence? Lu Qingjiu had some guesses in his mind, but since they were old acquaintances of his grandmother, they were also his elders. He said, "Then... would you like to stay for dinner?" He wanted to know how much Zhu Rong knew about his grandmother.
"No." Unexpectedly, Zhu Rong rejected Lu Qingjiu's proposal. He glanced at Bai Yuehu and said, "I have other things to deal with."
Bai Yuehu didn't say much, but his eyes were cold.
"Oh, okay then." Lu Qingjiu felt that Bai Yuehu and Zhu Rong seemed to be at odds, so she didn't force it.
Zhu Rong nodded and said, "If you have ever seen the prisoner dragon, remember to tell me. As long as he is outside, you will be in danger."
"Me? Why does he want to eat me?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
Zhu Rong's expression was a little strange when he heard this: "Didn't Bai Yuehu tell you?"
Lu Qingjiu: “Hmm?”
Zhu Rong said: "The dragon race only eats two kinds of people, one is the enemy, the other is the loved one."
Lu Qingjiu was stunned: "I am his enemy?"
Zhu Rong frowned and looked at Lu Qingjiu with a strange look, but did not answer Lu Qingjiu's words. He waved his hand to indicate that he was leaving.
Looking at his reaction, Lu Qingjiu had an incredible guess in his mind. He had had this guess before, but he always felt that it was too absurd and kept it hidden in his heart. However, Zhu Rong's reaction completely confirmed this absurd idea. He slowly turned his head and looked at Bai Yuehu.
Bai Yuehu saw Lu Qingjiu's solemn expression, he sighed, pinched the corner of his eye, and sighed: "I knew he was here for no good reason... Ask."
Lu Qingjiu: "He is my grandpa?"
Bai Yuehu pursed her lips and remained silent for a long time before she slowly uttered a word under Lu Qingjiu's gaze: "Yes."
"He's my grandpa? That dragon is my grandpa?" Even though he got the answer so easily, Lu Qingjiu wasn't happy at all. He remembered the imprisoned dragon's sad yet gentle expression, and how miserable it looked when it was imprisoned at the bottom of the pit. "Why, why did he eat my parents? Is it because he loves them?"
Bai Yuehu: "I don't know, but I think this is a misunderstanding." As a member of the dragon clan, he was well aware of the habits of his race. If Lu Qingjiu's grandfather could not control himself, the first person he would eat would be Lu Qingjiu's grandmother instead of his own children. After all, he had left his grandmother when she was pregnant and had never seen his own children.
Lu Qingjiu was shocked by this truth. He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but for a moment he didn't know what to ask. In the end, he could only force out a sentence: "So I am a descendant of a dragon? Do I also have dragon blood?"
Bai Yuehu: "Have you ever thought about why you can see things that others can't see and hear words that others can't hear?"
Lu Qingjiu: "I thought I was the protagonist of the novel."
Bai Yuehu laughed dumbly: "Maybe you are the same now."
Lu Qingjiu: “…” Hey, that makes sense, but to be honest, he has never seriously thought about why he has special abilities. He thought it was a coincidence. Now that he thinks about it, there are not so many coincidences in the world.
Every accident is caused by countless necessities.
Lu Qingjiu: "I have a lot of questions I want to ask. No, I have to go back and make a list."
Bai Yuehu originally thought that Lu Qingjiu would react violently after knowing the truth, but he didn't expect Lu Qingjiu to actually say this. He even really planned to go back to the list. He opened his mouth and said, "Wait..."
Lu Qingjiu: “Hmm?”
White Moon Fox: "If you knew the truth, you wouldn't be scared away, right?"
Lu Qingjiu was puzzled: "Run? Where are you running to?"
White Moon Fox: "Isn't there a dragon that wants to eat you?"
Lu Qingjiu: "Yes, it's still my grandpa."
Bai Yuehu: "Don't you have anything to say?"
Lu Qingjiu thought about it, then his face darkened and he suddenly slapped his thigh: "Not good!"
Bai Yuehu also became nervous: "What's wrong?"
Lu Qingjiu: "I forgot there was a chicken stewing in the pot!!!"
White Moon Fox: "..."
Before he could say anything, he saw Lu Qingjiu rush into the kitchen like a gust of wind, and then a miserable cry came from the kitchen: "Damn it—it's stewed dry!!"
Bai Yuehu: "..." When he thought about the delicious pot of chicken soup being gone, he actually began to hate Zhu Rong.
Because of the explosive news brought by Zhu Rong, the dinner of the three of them changed from delicious and moist chicken soup to dry chicken nuggets with dehydrated mushrooms.
Yin Xun went back in the afternoon. Not knowing what had happened, she shed tears in front of her bowl while eating dinner and said, "Lu Qingjiu, do you have any humanity? You drank the soup without telling me and didn't even leave me a sip."
Lu Qingjiu was overwhelmed by seeing him like this: "I said the chicken soup was accidentally boiled dry."
Yin Xun: "I don't believe it, I don't believe it, can you forget Bai Yuehu? Can you forget it?"
Bai Yuehu gritted his teeth as he listened, nearly breaking his chopsticks. He would have certainly remembered it normally, but in that situation, could he have reminded Lu that the clear wine chicken soup was running out? If he had, it wouldn't have been as simple as just losing a pot of chicken soup.
Lu Qingjiu: "Okay, okay, stop crying. I'll make you some hot water to eat, okay?"
Yin Xun: "Wow, do you have any humanity? Not only is the chicken soup gone, but you also want me to drink plain water."
Lu Qingjiu: "What should we do then?"
Yin Xun: "Let's stew another pot tomorrow. I'll watch over it."
Lu Qingjiu: "...Okay."
The three of them finished dinner in a gloomy mood, then went about their own business. Bai Yuehu left the room, nowhere to be found. Yin Xun, rubbing his stomach, returned home. Lu Qingjiu sat in his bedroom, pulled out a piece of paper, and began to list the questions he wanted to ask. Admittedly, there were so many questions he wanted to ask that even a single sheet of paper wasn't enough. Looking at the questions on the paper, Lu Qingjiu sighed again. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the wooden box next to the pillow, the diary on top of it, and the black scales covering the diary.
At this point, he finally understood what Grandma had meant when she said, "Don't develop feelings for the tenants." She had actually developed feelings for the dragon and even conceived a child. However, the story ended in tragedy: the corrupted dragons devoured their child and cruelly imprisoned him. Grandma, in her grief, passed away.
Lu Qingjiu took out the dragon scale and, after examining it carefully, discovered that it had been touched numerous times, smoothing out any uneven spots. He then took out the black scale that had fallen from the White Moon Fox. The contrast between the two scales was stark: one shiny as new, the other dull and lifeless. His dragon was truly the most beautiful. Thinking of this, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but smile. He then unconsciously picked up the scale and gently kissed it. However, after he finished this action, he realized something was amiss with his behavior, and the smile froze.
Ah... Why would he want to kiss the scales of the White Moon Fox? Is it because these scales are too beautiful? Lu Qingjiu didn't dare to think about it any further. He hurriedly put the scales back into the cloth bag he had specially prepared and put the scarred dragon scale back into the diary.
I wonder what grandma was thinking when she touched this dragon scale all these years? Was she harboring deep love, or was she hiding unspeakable hatred? Lu Qingjiu couldn't figure it out, so he could only guess.
However, his guess was destined to remain unanswered because the person involved was no longer around.
Slowly putting everything back in place and looking at the countless questions on the note, Lu Qingjiu sighed, crumpled the note into a ball, and threw it into the trash can next to him.
He realized that asking the White Moon Fox would not give him the correct answer. If he wanted to know what happened back then, he would probably have to find the imprisoned dragon, his grandfather.
But thinking about Zhu Rong's purpose of coming, Lu Qingjiu also knew that it would not be so easy to see his grandfather now.
The author has something to say:
Modify the previous setting. Grandma didn't tell Lu Qingjiu that grandpa was a dragon. It was all his own guess~
Lu Qingjiu: Yuehu, you have something on your mind.
White Moon Fox: I...
Lu Qingjiu: Go ahead, I’m willing to listen to anything.
White Moon Fox: I...
Lu Qingjiu: What?
Bai Yuehu: If we don’t go to the kitchen, the chicken soup will dry up.
Lu Qingjiu: ???
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