"Animal? How can this be an animal?" Yin Xun tilted his head and looked at the puddle.
Bai Yuehu ignored him and looked away lazily.
Lu Qingjiu said, "I don't know... Let's go and forget about this." He intuitively felt that the animal Bai Yuehu was talking about must be different from the animals they understood. If he continued to ask, who knew what earth-shattering words Bai Yuehu would say.
So the three of them avoided the small puddle and went down the mountain carrying a basket of mushrooms.
Under normal circumstances, mushrooms are best dried before eating, which makes them safer to eat. However, Bai Yuehu is here, and he said that the mushrooms are not poisonous, so it should be okay.
Lu Qingjiu washed the mushrooms he had picked with clean water, and then asked Yin Xun to bring over the chicken he had bought to stew with the mushrooms. The chicken wasn't a chick, of course, but a young rooster that hadn't grown up yet. The meat was tender and the bones were crispy, and it was very fragrant after being stewed with the mushrooms.
Yin Xun picked up the knife, quickly slaughtered the chicken, and squatted on the ground to pluck the chicken.
Lu Qingjiu was just about to take some bran from the house to feed the pigs in the pigpen when his cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was his colleague's number. After hesitating for a moment, he answered it.
"Hello, Zhu Miaomiao, is there anything wrong?" Lu Qingjiu asked.
"Qingjiu, what are we going to do if you never come back?" The sad cry of Zhu Miaomiao, a colleague of Lu Qingjiu, came from inside. "We all miss you so much."
Lu Qingjiu: "Working overtime, right?"
Zhu Miaomiao: "I'm almost dying from overpay. The worst thing is that I can't recruit anyone. The ones I do recruit leave within a month, saying they won't accept any higher salary and will die suddenly."
Lu Qingjiu said, "I definitely can't go back." He tilted his head, talking on the phone while digging out the bran for the piglets from the bag and putting it into the bucket.
"Ah!" Zhu Miaomiao screamed.
Lu Qingjiu asked, "Is there anything else?"
"Where did you go? I saw that you had given up the house you rented..." Zhu Miaomiao asked.
"I told you, I went back to my hometown to farm." Lu Qingjiu replied, "I just went up the mountain this afternoon to pick a bunch of mushrooms."
"Where is your hometown? I asked my boss for a few days off and want to go out and have some fun." Zhu Miaomiao said.
"Ask for leave? You can still ask for leave?" Lu Qingjiu was shocked.
"What? He wouldn't let me take leave, so I resigned. Didn't he agree in the end?" Zhu Miaomiao said, "Stop talking. I want to pick mushrooms too..."
Lu Qingjiu told her his hometown address and told her to call him when she got to the county town so he could pick her up. He was worried it would be unsafe for her to come alone in a taxi. Zhu Miaomiao agreed and said she would buy the next train ticket right away.
Lu Qingjiu hung up the phone and went to the pigpen with the feed. After raising them at home for half a month, the little white pig had grown a lot, but Xiaohua and Xiaohei were still the same, with their fuzzy, chipmunk-like fur and no sign of growth. Lu Qingjiu watched them happily eating the feed with their heads down and knocked on the door: "Why are you eating so much but not gaining weight?"
Xiaohua looked up at Lu Qingjiu, her eyes full of contempt, as if she was despising Lu Qingjiu for underestimating their intelligence. How could this pig have such a good ending after growing meat...
Lu Qingjiu, who was despised by a pig, said: "..."
"Alas, I thought I'd release you back to the forest when you grow up a bit." Lu Qingjiu said helplessly, "Can you please be more motivated?"
"Hmph, hmph." Xiaohua hmphed twice and put down what she was chewing, looking like a rogue who would just stay here and not gain weight.
Lu Qingjiu was speechless, even wanting to pull the little black kid out of the pigpen and give him a beating. But in the end, he held back and told himself not to bother with a pig.
The little chicks we just bought are much cuter than these two pigs. They chirp and run around in the yard every day, pecking at stones and insects on the ground, making the whole yard a lot more lively.
Lu Qingjiu cut the chicken that Yin Xun had killed into pieces, cleaned it, and stir-fried it in a pot. Then he added water and soy sauce, put in the mushrooms that he had just picked today, and stewed it in a casserole for several hours.
Chicken and mushrooms are a perfect match. Mushrooms are delicious to begin with, and the addition of tender chicken makes them even more fragrant. Even before I taste them, my mouth is already watering.
Bai Yuehu came back from watering the fields and told Lu Qingjiu that the tomatoes at home had already borne fruit and would be ready to eat in two days.
Lu Qingjiu was shocked. It had only been over a month, how could it have borne fruit? He asked, "Is it really borne fruit? Will others suspect anything?"
"No." Bai Yuehu said, "I explained."
Lu Qingjiu asked: "How do you explain it?"
Bai Yuehu said, "I said I used fertilizer pesticides."
Lu Qingjiu: "...They didn't say anything else?"
Bai Yuehu shook his head and yawned: "No, he just told me that if the fattening agent is used on the vegetables, the taste will be bland and not delicious." Most people in their village grow and sell their own crops, so naturally they don't add pesticides or anything like that, after all, they are going to eat it themselves.
"Oh." Lu Qingjiu didn't know what to say, so he could only say, "Thank you for your hard work. Then you should eat more tonight."
Bai Yuehu nodded, looking quite satisfied with Lu Qingjiu's words.
The chicken had been stewed for two hours and was completely tender, with the mushrooms completely soaking up the chicken's broth. Lu Qingjiu also stir-fried some shredded pork with green peppers and a vegetable, and dinner was ready.
The three of them were very satisfied with the meal. The White Moon Fox didn't even spit out the bones when eating the chicken. After a few crunching sounds, its white teeth chewed the bones into pieces and swallowed them all.
Yin Xun muttered quietly to himself, "You have such good teeth!" Bai Yuehu glared at him with a very unfriendly look, like a beast protecting its food.
Lu Qingjiu even suspected that if Yin Xun ate a little more, Bai Yuehu would have objections...
After the three of them finished their meal, Yin Xun returned to his home, and Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu sat in the yard to rest. Lu Qingjiu took out the fried melon seeds and braised beef as snacks.
"A friend of mine is coming to visit in a couple of days," Lu Qingjiu said. "She's a girl, and she'll probably be staying here for a few days."
Bai Yuehu hummed, looked up at the sky, and said, "Tell her not to run up the mountain."
"Why?" Lu Qingjiu was a little surprised.
"Don't go to the mountains recently." White Moon Fox said, "There are many animals in the spring."
Lu Qingjiu immediately remembered the puddle they encountered that morning that the White Moon Fox called an animal. He asked, "What kind of animal is that?"
"I didn't remember," White Moon Fox said, "because it tasted so bad."
Lu Qingjiu: “…” It seems that things that are not delicious enough don’t even deserve a name in Baiyuehu’s place.
"It can remember what people look like," said the White Moon Fox, "as long as you look at it." According to the White Moon Fox, water is like a mirror. When a person sticks his head out to look into a puddle, it has already remembered your appearance. And if you happen to be a person when you look at it, it will pull you in, drown you, and eat your soul.
Lu Qingjiu asked, "What will happen if it remembers me?"
Bai Yuehu: "I will come to find you."
Lu Qingjiu was shocked: "...Then Yin Xun is in danger!"
White Moon Fox said, "It's okay. This thing usually doesn't come down the mountain, moves very slowly, and only appears in spring. It's useless." He casually defined it as a thing, picked up a piece of beef and put it in his mouth, narrowing his eyes in satisfaction, and said, "Delicious."
Lu Qingjiu was relieved.
The two of them had almost finished their beef when it was getting dark. Lu Qingjiu drove the chicks into the chicken coop and then went back to the house to sleep.
The next morning, it began to rain before daybreak. The rain wasn't heavy, but the gentle rustling of the water on the ground made one even more drowsy. As the saying goes, one sleeps through the spring without even realizing the dawn. Lu Qingjiu lay in bed for a while. When he got up, Bai Yuehu was also up, standing in the yard, not knowing what he was doing. It must be said that Bai Yuehu was a truly beautiful sight. The raindrops fell on the tips of his hair, coating it with a faint, shimmering silver. Hazy in the rain, he looked as if he was about to ascend to heaven.
Lu Qingjiu quietly took a photo with his mobile phone, but Bai Yuehu seemed to have noticed something and turned to look at Lu Qingjiu.
"Good morning." Lu Qingjiu put the phone in his pocket and greeted Bai Yuehu calmly.
"Okay." White Moon Fox said, "I'll feed the chickens."
"Oh, thank you for your hard work." Lu Qingjiu said, "What would you like to eat in the morning?"
"Let's eat noodles." Bai Yuehu said, "I want to eat eggs."
Lu Qingjiu nodded, picked up his apron, tied it on, and turned to walk towards the kitchen when he heard a knock on the door. He thought it was Yin Xun, so he said come in. Unexpectedly, when the door was pushed open, Zhu Miaomiao's face, wet with rain, was revealed.
"Zhu Miaomiao?!" Lu Qingjiu was stunned. "Why didn't you tell me in advance?"
Zhu Miaomiao said, "What are you talking about? I can find it myself." She entered the courtyard and saw Bai Yuehu standing next to her with a blank expression. She widened her eyes and said, "Lu Qingjiu, you are really good. I was wondering why you were in such a hurry to go back to your hometown? You actually secretly kept a mistress in your golden house!"
Lu Qingjiu: "I'm not, I didn't!"
He thought Bai Yuehu would be angry, but he turned around and left without changing his expression, leaving the two of them with a very meaningful back view.
Zhu Miaomiao looked at Lu Qingjiu and said, "Tsk tsk tsk, you scumbag! You didn't even give me a name. Look, I'm angry."
Lu Qingjiu: “…” You are really not afraid of death.
The author has something to say: Zhu Miaomiao: Who are you to him?
Bai Yuehu: I am his vixen.
Zhu Miaomiao: Are you in a relationship?
Lu Qingjiu: No, we are just ordinary friends.
Zhu Miaomiao looked disgusted: I didn’t realize you were such a scumbag.
Lu Qingjiu: ...I'm not, I didn't!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com