On the first day of July, Lu Cijiu received his salary from the Monster Management Bureau, along with the cost of raising the cubs—a total of 3,000 yuan. Adding the 3,000 yuan Wang Yue'e's family had given him yesterday, and the remaining 300 yuan in savings, the Shanhai Shelter's total savings amounted to 6,340 yuan.
Growing up, Lu Cijiu had never been a big fan of money. There are two types of people who don't care about money: those with so much money that it's just a number to them; more or less doesn't matter. The other type is someone like Lu Cijiu, a poor person who can't save money.
This is also Grandpa Lu’s down-to-earth charging concept.
Having lived in the countryside since childhood, Grandpa Lu would only charge a dozen yuan as a token of his gratitude for helping people to look at the feng shui of graves or to scare children. If he did a bigger job and earned three to five hundred yuan, he would donate half of it.
The fees are fair and they are honest to everyone, yet I am often scolded as a liar.
When doing this business, Lu Cijiu never had more than 3,000 yuan in his hands. At most, 1,800 yuan was earned, and half of it was spent. The grandfather and grandson often lived in poverty, so it would be better for them to find a practical job.
I didn't expect that after passing the civil service exam, I would still have to work in this field.
Maybe this is my fate.
The road turned a forty-five-degree angle, and I gazed at the sky with worry. One, two, three, four stood in a line. Little One was the king of show, the first to raise his head and follow Jiujiu to look up at the sky. Little Four followed suit, a little one holding a biscuit in his hand, gnawing at it with his tiny teeth. As he looked up at the sky, biscuit crumbs fell all over his face.
Xiao Si caught the crumbs in one hand, stubbornly refusing to bow his head, licking his lips with his tongue, and eating a biscuit as if he was in a war with difficulty and panic.
Waiter: ...
Jiujiu seems a little silly. What's so beautiful about the sky?
At the foot of the mountain, Wu Da wondered if he could find the shelter today. Yesterday, it was clearly such a large place, but he didn't see it. If he hadn't been there last night, Wu Da would have said this place was weird and strange. Now it was the residence of a master, and there must be some feng shui and eight trigrams formation.
When I reached the intersection, I looked up and saw two gates open, and my feet were quickly walking uphill.
In the weed-covered yard, the master and his four children looked up at the sky.
What's interesting about this day? Wu Da didn't dare interrupt and looked up as well.
Lu Cijiu noticed that a guest had arrived, so he withdrew his gaze and stretched his neck, and then he saw one, two, three, and four all looking up at the sky again.
???
The waiter didn't have time to look back and happened to meet Jiujiu's eyes. He pretended to be calm and blushed, thinking: I was just taking a look, I'm not stupid.
Lu Cijiu didn't know what the waiter was thinking, "Someone's here, call Uncle Wu."
"Wu Susu."
"Uncle Wu."
The children called for help.
Wu Dalu put down the things and said, "Thank you, Mr. Lu. The things are not valuable. You must accept them."
Lu Cijiu didn't want to collect the money, having already cleared the bills last night. But when he looked at what Wu Da had brought—fruits, vegetables, rice, flour, oil, and clothes for the children—he realized the latter was indeed practical. He had forgotten to buy them yesterday.
"Here are my daughter's clothes, all cleaned, please don't mind, sir."
"I don't mind." Lu Cijiu also wore hand-me-downs when he was little, so as long as they were clean, he didn't think collecting old clothes would hurt his self-esteem. When Wu Da finished delivering the things and was about to leave, Lu Cijiu casually said, "Drive safely and don't argue."
Wu Da thought it was just a casual remark from Mr. Lu, but he never expected that when he was picking someone up that afternoon, a car kept cutting in front of him. The car drifted past the side of his car, scratching the paint. Wu Da was about to chase after it to argue, but then he remembered what Mr. Lu said, "Never mind, it's just a small scratch on the paint."
Soon, the road was jammed. The car with the familiar license plate was the one that had just scraped past his car, and there was blood on the ground. Wu Dayi asked others and learned that the driver, who had been driving under the influence and cut off traffic, had gotten into an argument with another car owner and pulled a machete from his car. The victim wasn't in danger of death, but his arm was covered in blood...
Wu Da was so frightened that he broke out in a sweat at that time. Fortunately, Mr. Lu was really amazing.
…
There is no need to be idle at the Shanhai Shelter, as there is plenty of work to do.
After changing the children into new clothes, Sasa particularly liked a pink T-shirt with a doll's head printed on it. She touched it lovingly with her little hands. Her smiling eyes became crescents, and there was a shallow dimple on her cheek.
It was the first time for the four kids to know that clothes could be so beautiful.
You have to be much more careful when walking.
It was the same look he had when he wore new clothes during Chinese New Year as a child. Lu Cijiu thought about the past. The waiter was both arrogant and reserved, unlike the others who would directly ask, "Jiujiu, do my clothes look good?" / "Jiujiu, your clothes are beautiful."
The waiter would walk up to you seriously, and from time to time he would appear in front of your face, as if to say, "I'm giving you a look, come and praise me," or "I don't want you to praise me, but it's okay if you insist."
Lu Bijiu: ...
Why does he have so much inner drama at such a young age?
"Baby, your new clothes look great."
Xiao Er's face looked quite calm, as if he didn't care about the compliment. But in fact, his little feet couldn't contain themselves and ran out to call Xiao Yi, "Jiujiu also praised my good looks!!"
Lu Cijiu: ...laughing to death x2.
Children are truly a source of daily joy.
For lunch, we had rice and some simple home-cooked side dishes, including scrambled eggs with tomatoes, smashed cucumbers, and stewed winter melon with sausages. The children especially liked the latter, probably because it had a bit of a "meat" flavor. Sasa liked the rice soaked in the soup, which was soft and flavorful, and she ate it with a spoon.
After dinner, Lu Cijiu went to the town to buy things, including light bulbs for the bedroom, sickles, heads, vegetable seeds, clearing the weeds in front and behind the yard, and planting vegetables in the backyard to be self-sufficient - it just so happened that Yan Junbo was coming tomorrow, so he could use the labor force.
Xiaoyi came over secretly and said, "Jiujiu, Xiaoer has a headache and he won't let me tell you."
"When did the pain start? I'll go check it out."
Xiaoyi was very afraid and said, "Jiujiu, don't tell anyone what I said. Xiaoer will be angry."
"You care about him, don't be afraid." Lu Cijiu rubbed Xiaoyi's head to comfort him, and then caught Xiaoer banging his forehead against the cabinet in the house. Sasa and Xiaosi stood there at a loss, they were used to it.
Judging from the situation, the waiter must have been having a headache for some time.
"Waiter."
Lu Cijiu called out to him, and the waiter's face turned pale. He glared at Xiaoyi and said, "You said that!"
"Jiujiu won't abandon us or chase us away, Xiaoer, don't be angry." Xiaoyi burst into tears and choked up, saying, "Jiujiu, we are not sick, please don't kill us."
If you get sick, you will be slaughtered.
Lu Cijiuqi's face looked unhappy.
The atmosphere was a bit serious. Lu Cijiu didn't want to scare the children, so he sat down by the bed, holding Xiaoer in his arms. He beckoned the three of them over and said, "If you're sick, go see a doctor and you'll get better. I won't abandon anyone."
The waiter's forehead was red, especially on both sides, and a little swollen.
"When did it happen?" Lu Cijiu asked.
Xiao Er shook his head and said he didn't remember. Xiao Yi cried beside him and said, "When the weather was hot and the moon was round, Xiao Er felt pain the first time, but it didn't hurt anymore..."
It should have been half a month ago, the first time I felt pain, the pain would go away after a while, and there was no regular pattern. Today should be the fourth time.
"Does it still hurt now?" Lu Cijiu asked.
The waiter shook his head. In fact, he was still a little depressed, as if there was something in the centimeter.
Lu Cijiu knew at a glance that the waiter was not telling the truth, so he called a car and took the child directly to the hospital.
Xiao Er lay in Jiujiu's arms. The pain on the top of his head was gone and his whole body felt as if he was sleeping on a cotton quilt, soft. Jiujiu smelled so good, he liked Jiujiu very much.
"Xiaoyi, hold Sasa and Xiaosi's hands tightly and don't get separated." Lu Cijiu had no choice but to take care of four people by himself.
Fortunately, there were not many people in the hospital at noon.
Register for a check-up and the results are out.
Aside from malnutrition, there were no major issues. The doctor prescribed a cooling ointment to apply when the pain arose, and said the child wasn't getting enough nutrition and asked to make more bone soup and eat more meat. I should come back for a checkup later.
Xiao Er really doesn’t feel any pain now.
Lu Cijiu bought big bones and pork belly.
Back at the stove, while the meat was stewing, Lu Cijiu applied ointment to the waiter. “Does it still hurt?”
"It doesn't hurt—"
"If you tell the truth next time, I'll kiss you." Lu Cijiu pinched the waiter's face and said, "You kid, don't try this on your dad."
The waiter's face flushed red, and he said stubbornly: "I don't want you to kiss me, I don't feel any pain anymore. I will tell you when I feel pain."
"So good." Lu Cijiu kissed Goose's cheek.
Er Ezi is so cute.
In the evening, they drank bone soup, and the four of them gnawed the bones clean. After the waiter finished eating, the other three held the bones in their hands, as if they were handing bones to their big brother.
Lu Bijiu: ...
"No, I don't want to eat your saliva."
Xiaoyi whispered, "Before, we ate half of the worms and you ate them too."
So what's the big deal about the saliva? They can destroy each other so quickly.
Lu Cijiu: ...Baby, why are you so arrogant?
"Okay, drink the soup, we'll have meat tomorrow, wash up and go to bed, dad will tell you a bedtime story today." Lu Cijiu tried to save Er Ezi's face, otherwise the waiter would be so angry that he would become a puffer fish.
Bedtime stories are also an old tradition of the Lu family.
Lu Cijiu had three advantages since childhood: good looks, courage, and intelligence (here he was just good at learning metaphysics).
At that time, Lu Cijiu would sit on the warm kang and ask Grandpa Lu to tell him stories. The stories he told were ghost stories that really happened in the early years. Lu Cijiu listened with great interest and never wet the bed.
"...If you're scared, just tell them not to wet the bed. If you do, you'll be spanked." Lu Cijiu covered the four of them with quilts, and he slept on the edge.
The waiter naturally said, "I'm not afraid. I'm the bravest."
The other three echoed in baby voices.
The light bulb in the bedroom was broken, and it really felt like a bedtime story.
Lu Cijiu told a story about a weasel stealing a chicken, and he embellished it a little, making the weasel seem so cute it could be a pet. Of course, the four of them weren't afraid. After he finished, Xiaoyi said greedily, "The chicken must be delicious."
Xiaoyi’s ability to distill the key points is amazing.
The weasel lost its life trying to steal the chicken. The chicken is more important than its life, which shows how delicious it is.
"I'll buy you a chicken tomorrow. You'll know if it tastes good when you try it." Lu Cijiu sent a WeChat message to Yan Junbo: I'll bring a chicken tomorrow.
Yan Junbo: ???
The children are all asleep.
The moonlight shines into the small courtyard.
In the middle of the night, Lu Cijiu heard rustling sounds beside him. His arm touched a soft and warm body, and the waiter's voice sounded a little strange: "Chirp, I feel so uncomfortable, my head hurts..."
Lu Cijiu woke up immediately. The waiter sat beside him and said weakly, touching his forehead with his hand, "It hurts so much."
"Let me see, don't touch."
Lu Cijiu took out the ointment from the drawer, and the waiter obediently put down his hand that was touching his forehead. In the moonlight, Lu Cijiu saw something breaking out and growing on both sides of the waiter's forehead.
There are two fleshy and pink horns.
In the dark night sky, an eagle with golden feathers and blue eyes looks somewhere.
The breath of a dragon.
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