Chapter 19: Dreamcatcher

To be honest, Lu Qingjiu hadn't heard of this kind of talk before he came here, but looking at Yin Xun's calm expression, it was clear that he was used to this kind of thing.

"Isn't there an easier way out?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"At least I don't know." Yin Xun said, "but you could ask Bai Yuehu, who seems to know a lot about these things too."

Lu Qingjiu looks at Yin Xun for a moment and nods thoughtfully.

Lu Qingjiu told Bai Yuehu about this during dinner, which consisted of tomato meatball soup made from Lu Qingjiu's fried meatballs. The fried meatballs were crispy on the outside and covered in gravy, so you could bite into them with the delicious soup and the sweet and sour taste of the tomatoes, which was very appetising.

"The pad," Bai Yuehu said, "should be the soul's instability." He responded casually, saying something not unlike Yin Xun.

"Is that so." Lu Qingjiu said, "So is there any way to fix it?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Yes."

Lu Qingjiu's eyes lit up: "What's the idea?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Go to the mountains and pick spider webs, then make a net out of the webs you pick and swing it back and forth over the man's head from twelve to one every night."

Lu Qingjiu listened carefully and said, "That's all there is to it."

Bai Yuehu propped his chin up and said lazily, "If the spirit comes back it's saved, if not."

Lu Qingjiu said, "What will happen?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Just prepare for the aftermath."

Lu Qingjiu almost choked as he said, "Okay, I'll ask someone to try it."

Unlike Lu Qingjiu, who often eats together, Yin Xun is still not very close to Bai Yuehu, or at least rarely approaches him to talk. But when you think about it, Bai Yuehu's aloof demeanour means that no one would ever intentionally seek him out for a chat.

After dinner, Lu Qingjiu told Zhu Miaomiao about the incident, and Zhu Miaomiao said that he would tell the child's parents right away, and that although he didn't know if it would help, he could at least treat a dead horse as a living one. He also said that he had already taken some time off work and was going to bring Zhang Chuyang here in a couple of days to have his hair done.

Lu Qingjiu said yes.

When he finished his phone call, he went out into the yard and saw Yin Xun teasing the chicks. The chicks have shed their yellow feathers and have grown feathers of various colours, and although they are still small, they are all very energetic and chirping.

As Yin Xun holds one in his hand, the others surround him and chatter with their mouths in an attempt to get Yin Xun to put their companion down.

Lu Qingjiu said, "What's wrong?"

Yin Xun said, "Sake, do you think Bai Yuehu's method will work?"

"I don't know." Lu Qingjiu said, "Maybe it will be useful." After all, Bai Yuehu was a fox spirit and it was normal to know things that humans didn't know.

"Have you visited your grandmother's grave since you came back?" Yin Xun asked suddenly.

"Yes." Lu Qingjiu went to the mountains soon after his return and cleaned up his grandmother's grave thoroughly; unlike the cemeteries in the city, the graves on the mountains are unguarded and no one cares if weeds or flowers grow. If the descendants don't clean it up, in a year or two the grave will be buried by the weeds and you won't be able to find the location.

"Do you know about dreamcatchers?" says Yin Xun.

"Dreamcatcher," said Lu Qingjiu, "what is that?"

"Legend has it that it's one of those things that can filter the dreams out." Yin Xun says, "filtering out the bad dreams and leaving the good ones behind."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Yin Xun and wondered why he had suddenly mentioned this thing.

Yin Xun said, "Bai Yuehu's comment about making a web out of a spider's web must have had a similar effect to this."

Lu Qingjiu said, "You mean, leave the good souls behind and get rid of the bad ones."

"Yeah." Yin Xun said, "It just occurred to me that we actually have a saying here."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Yes."

Yin Xun said, "The net is used to move back and forth in front of the grave of the deceased, as if to gain access to the deceased

The most profound part of the memory."

Lu Qingjiu was silent for a moment: "Why are you suddenly talking about this?"

Yin Xun looked down at the chicken in his hand and grinned, the white tiger's teeth showing on his lips, looking playful and cute, not unlike his usual self.

Lu Qingjiu oh'd and averted his gaze.

A few days later Zhu Miaomiao called Lu Qingjiu to tell him that the method Bai Yuehu had described had been effective and that the child's symptoms had subsided and his heel had fallen off, and that the child's parents were very grateful to them and had given them a large red envelope to bring to Lu Qingjiu when she came over. When she comes over, she will bring it to Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu wanted to resist, but then thought it would be fine to take it, as it was Bai Yuehu's idea anyway, so he could use the money to buy more meat for Bai Yuehu.

Although Lu Qingjiu believes in science, there are things that cannot be explained by science, and Bai Yuehu is a case in point.

As soon as spring was over, the weather got warmer and Lu Qingjiu found the time to drive the minivan to town to buy a rocking chair for Bai Yuehu. After driving the van a few times, Lu Qingjiu had barely got to grips with its operation. However, Yin Xun didn't like the van very much, as soon as he got in, he said he had an itchy bum, and Lu Qingjiu said how it could be.

"I don't know." Yin Xun also complained, "I'm not allergic to your car too, am I?"

Lu Qingjiu is speechless.

But apart from the itchy bum, there was no downside, it was a mountain road and the car wasn't going anywhere fast anyway. After Lu Qingjiu brought the rocking chair home, Bai Yuehu was so happy with it that he sat on it and never got off.

Lu Qingjiu was puzzled by the stare at first and thought he was hungry, asking if he wanted something to eat.

Bai Yuehu opened his mouth and whispered, "Shake it for me."

Lu Qingjiu :""

Finally shocked by Bai Yuehu's laziness, he could only walk over to the chair and shake it twice. After this, Lu Qingjiu learnt what Bai Yuehu's eyes meant, and at first he needed Bai Yuehu to look at him twice, but later he developed into a person who would shake Bai Yuehu twice whenever he passed by the front yard without Bai Yuehu having to say anything.

When the weather started to heat up, Lu Qingjiu put up grape vines in the backyard and planted a small patch of watermelon in the ground, all for the family to eat so there wasn't too much work to do.

Although Zhu Miaomiao said she would bring her people as soon as possible, she couldn't get away from work and it was more than half a month before she told Lu Qingjiu that she had booked a ticket and was ready to bring them over.

Lu Qingjiu asked for their arrival time and was ready to pick up the two men in his minivan.

"Zhang Chuyang said he would pay 100,000 yuan if it was really useful." Zhu Miaomiao said, "I'll give him your card number already and ask him to call you directly."

"So much," Lu Qingjiu said, a little surprised.

"It's not bad, you don't know the pain of baldness anymore, if you could always have dark and lush hair, not to mention 100,000, I think someone would be willing to do it for 200,000." Zhu Miaomiao said. Their situation is the worst, their hair condition is not suitable for hair transplant, basically equal to hopeless, either wear a hat or a wig, this winter is fine, once in the summer

"That's too much." Lu Qingjiu still thinks it's a bit expensive.

"If you think it's too much, you can pay homage to the lady in the well. Zhu Miaomiao said, "You don't have to spend money on food, drink and food, how much can you earn from this kind of field and this is Zhang Chuyang's own proposal.

Lu Qingjiu said, "All right."

"Also, when the time comes, you have to be a bit mysterious." Zhu Miaomiao whispered, "Wait until the results come out on Zhang Chuyang, it's sure to be good publicity"

Lu Qingjiu thought about it for a moment and said yes.

He hadn't come back to Shuifu Village to make money, but one can't live on dew, and at least with money he could try to make sure that Bai Yuehu ate his fill of meat every meal, so that he didn't have to suffer to eat vegetables with himself. But since Bai Yuehu has been living with them, the cost of food for the family has skyrocketed, with meat and vegetables being served every day, and Lu Qingjiu is planning to go and buy a lamb in the next couple of days to have some mutton.

Zhu Miaomiao was coming over the next day, but Lu Qingjiu was in no hurry to sleep, having gone up the mountain after Yin Xun had left to collect what he needed.

When he came back, he saw that the house was lit up, and Bai Yuehu was sitting in the house eating fruit instead of sleeping.

"Still awake," Lu Qingjiu asks, hiding the black plastic bag he is holding behind him.

"You can't go at night." Bai Yuehu spoke suddenly.

Lu Qingjiu was stunned.

"Going at night might attract something bad." Bai Yuehu said, "You can go at midday."

Lu Qingjiu, knowing that he had guessed what he wanted, gave a gentle smile and said, "Well, thank you for the reminder."

Bai Yuehu nods, gets up and leaves.

Lu Qingjiu lowered his eyes and looked at the black plastic bag he was holding. Inside the bag was a white, filmy mass that, on closer inspection, could be seen to be a bag of spider webs.