Chapter 21: The Gods and Goddesses

With Lu Qingjiu's perfunctory words, Yin Xun, who is always big-hearted, soon put aside the minivan that was bathing in the rain and focused on the meal Lu Qingjiu was cooking.

"What are we having for dinner tonight?" Yin Xun looks into the pot with her head in her hands.

"It's hot, isn't it?" Lu Qingjiu said. Lu Qingjiu said, "I made cold noodles and steamed some steamed buns and cooked a pot of green bean congee." The noodles for the steamed buns had been made yesterday, so they were ready to be steamed and eaten fresh.

Yin Xun said, "Can I have one first?"

"Go ahead and eat." Lu Qingjiu forked a steamed bun out of the steamer with chopsticks, saying, "You can send them two too, to pamper their stomachs first, it will be ready soon, be careful of the heat."

Yin Xun happily said "yes" and grabbed the buns and went out. The steamed buns were made by Lu Qingjiu himself, and because it was the first time he had made them, they didn't look very good, some were big and some were small, but although they didn't look good, they didn't taste bad at all.

The cold noodles are also ready, with fresh bean sprouts and crunchy cucumber shreds that Lu Qingjiu has mixed together to make a spicy, sour and refreshing dish. Lu Qingjiu served the congee in bowls and beckoned them to come and eat.

Zhu Miaomiao and Yin Xun helped to bring the food to the table and the five of them sat down to eat.

Zhang Chuyang didn't seem too interested in dinner, but after taking a bite, a look of amazement passed through his eyes as he said, "Sake, you actually cook so well"

Lu Qingjiu smiled, "You're very kind, Mr. Zhang, I just made some at random."

Because Bai Yuehu likes meat, Lu Qingjiu made Bai Yuehu a special dish of white meat with garlic paste, which Bai Yuehu cut himself.

Yin Xun ate five steamed buns in one go, and although they weren't big, they were quite filling, Lu Qingjiu, always one to stop, stopped eating when he was about an eighth full.

Zhang Chuyang and Zhu Miaomiao had almost finished eating, so the table watched Bai Yuehu eat half a steamed bun at a time, without any intention of getting full. Zhu Miaomiao's eyes grew wide as he whispered, "I wish I was like Mr. Bai." He could eat as much as he wanted, but he didn't get fat.

Bai Yuehu ignores her, finishes everything on the table and looks up at Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Are you full? There are still a lot of steamed buns in the pot, if you're not full I'll bring you some more."

Bai Yuehu said, "Almost there."

Yin Xun said, "Then put the rest of the buns in the fridge."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Well, put it in there, so you can fry it up in the morning and use it for cherry sauce."

"Okay." Yin Xun followed behind Bai Yuehu and went to clean up the kitchen together. It was usually Lu Qingjiu who cooked, Yin Xun did the chores and Bai Yuehu washed the dishes, so the three of them were well distributed.

Lu Qingjiu had a plan in mind and went to the kitchen to find the tea leaves he had bought in town and made Zhang Chuyang a cup of tea in hot water.

"Mr. Zhang." Lu Qingjiu put the tea in front of Zhang Chuyang.

When Zhang Chuyang saw the seriousness of the atmosphere, he also curbed his smile and sat upright in front of the table.

"I understand what you are asking for here, but this is a matter that requires some rituals, and I would like to ask you to cooperate." Lu Qingjiu's tone was extraordinarily serious, "You must cooperate with me when carrying out the ceremony, if something goes wrong in it, there may be some bad repercussions."

Zhang Chuyang said, "I know, I just want to ask, is there really no after-effects to this"

"No." Lu Qingjiu was able to give such a frank answer because he had asked Bai Yuehu to confirm it before.

"That's fine." Zhang Chuyang rubbed his head and sighed, "Whatever ritual you want to go through, you name it, I'll do it."

Lu Qingjiu nodded and told Zhang Chuyang about the ritual. The ritual was the same as the one the goddess had performed at the time, so Lu Qingjiu simply carried it all over. He didn't want to make it so complicated, but when he thought about it, the 100,000 yuan was not a small amount of money, and it would be too easy for people to worship and have their hair grow back. So Lu Qingjiu decided to make it a bit more complicated in order to make Zhang Chuyang's 100,000 yuan worthwhile.

Zhang Chuyang did not believe in ghosts and gods, but when he saw how serious Lu Qingjiu looked, he was inexplicably nervous.

"Well, that's about how the ceremony will go, so get some rest today, bathe and dress before you go to bed, and in the morning we'll start the ceremony." Lu Qingjiu said, "Don't go out at night, it's not safe here."

Zhang Chuyang nods and goes back into the house to rest.

Only after he had left did Zhu Miaomiao pat Lu Qingjiu's shoulder with a smirk, laughing, "Qingjiu, I didn't see that you were still wilting and wicked."

Lu Qingjiu stretched his hands innocently, "I just did it to make him feel that the money wasn't thrown away for nothing."

Zhu Miaomiao said, "Well that's good." Well at least it gives a reason to grow your hair.

After washing the dishes, Yin Xun decided to go back on his own, but Lu Qingjiu thought better of it and decided to give him a lift. Yin Xun wanted to refuse, but when he saw Lu Qingjiu's determination, he agreed.

So the two of them walked into the rain with umbrellas in hand, and against the heavy rain that continued to fall, Lu Qingjiu took Yin Xun to his home.

Yin Xun's home is actually not far from his house, just a five or six minute walk away. When he was a child, Yin Xun was left alone in Shuifu Village after his parents went out to work, and he lived with his grandparents. Lu Qingjiu left the village afterwards, but he has always been in contact with Yin Xun, who was the one who informed him of the accident at the old house.

"Yin Xun, haven't you ever thought about going out", Lu Qingjiu asked Yin Xun when he arrived home.

Yin Xun said, "Go out to where?" The sound of the rain made Yin Xun's voice a little muffled, but Lu Qingjiu heard his reply clearly.

"Your mum and dad," Lu Qingjiu said, "they"

"Don't go to them." Yin Xun said, "They're all divorced and have their own families, so why should I go when I might as well keep my grandmother's favourite yard at home." He walked into the house and waved his hand at Lu Qingjiu, gesturing for him to go back.

Without another word, Lu Qingjiu turned and walked away.

Everyone has a destiny, and some of these destinies are given by God, while others are chosen by themselves. Lu Qingjiu vaguely remembers that Yin Xun's parents wanted to take him out of the village, just as Lu Qingjiu's parents had done, but in the end Yin Xun refused his parents and insisted on staying in the remote mountain village until he became an adult.

The rain had picked up and the roads were getting muddy, and even though he was being very careful, Lu Qingjiu's trouser legs were still splattered with mud. Before entering the house, he went back to the parking area and saw that the van, which had been dirty, was now in a new condition and that it had seen Lu Qingjiu and flashed its lights on.

Lu Qingjiu smiled at the sight of him and reached out to stroke his head, "Good boy, don't stand up on the wheel, people will see you."

The minivan blared twice, signalling that it knew.

Lu Qingjiu now went into the house, put the wet umbrella against the wall, took a bath and went to bed.

The next day, Lu Qingjiu was awakened from his sleep by a 4am alarm clock and looked out of the window with a yawn to see that the rain had stopped overnight.

Lu Qingjiu got dressed and instead of making breakfast as usual, he took a bowl of rice into the backyard and put three sticks of incense on top of it. Although he had put in incense, he had no intention of worshipping after all he was not short of hair.

Zhang Chuyang also woke up on time, sitting slightly nervously in the room, his eyes darting out from time to time.

Lu Qingjiu noticed that he seemed a bit off and asked, "What's wrong? Did you not sleep well last night?"

Zhang Chuyang said, "Well, I had a nightmare."

Lu Qingjiu said: "What did you dream about?"

Zhang Chuyang hesitates for a moment: "I dreamt that a girl came knocking on my door, but when I opened the door I found no one there, and when I closed the door and went back to bed, I always felt as if there was something more under my covers"

Lu Qingjiu said, "That's probably because you think too much."

"Maybe." Zhang Chuyang looked hesitant, the dream was so real, so real that he couldn't tell the difference between reality and dream.

Lu Qingjiu looked at the time and said, "Let's go, it's almost time."

Zhang Chuyang nodded and followed Lu Qingjiu to the backyard.

It is not yet dawn and it is dark all around. The backyard is lit, but the area of illumination is very small. In the darkness, the three incense sticks Lu Qingjiu had lit earlier emitted a faint red light and the air had a distinctive scent of incense and candles, Lu Qingjiu walked in front with a rooster in his hand.

Zhang Chuyang looked at Lu Qingjiu for a moment and wondered why he was inexplicably alarmed.

Lu Qingjiu's face had lost its usual gentle expression and was more indifferent and cold, standing next to Zhang Chuyang but making him feel far away from him.

Lu Qingjiu walked up to the mouth of the well and cut off the rooster's head with a single stroke of his knife, so swiftly that the rooster was killed before he could even scream.

As soon as the chicken's head fell off, bright red blood gushed out. Lu Qingjiu was prepared for this and poured the blood into a large prepared bowl.

He then casually dropped the chicken, picked it up and handed it to Zhang Chuyang for him to take a sip.

Zhang Chuyang's hands were shaking when he took it, but with the atmosphere in front of him, he didn't dare to ask why, but dutifully took a sip from the bowl.

The fresh chicken blood is hard to drink, with a heavy fishy flavour that Zhang Chuyang forces himself to swallow.

Lu Qingjiu saw him drink before he nodded and said in a tone of little emotion, "Just pay your respects to the mouth of the well."

Zhang Chuyang hurriedly saluted to the well.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay, you go back."

Zhang Chuyang breathed a sigh of relief and raised his eyes to look at Lu Qingjiu, a glance that made his heart skip a beat. Not daring to look any further, Zhang Chuyang turned around and walked away, stumbling a few steps as he did so, almost falling to the ground.

Lu Qingjiu stood behind him, watching him almost

The back of what could be described as a wretched flight revealed a puzzled expression as he reached up to wipe his face before noticing that his face appeared to be stained with blood from the chicken he had just killed.

The first time I saw him, I thought he was going to kill a chicken and scare the owner. Lu Qingjiu quickly called out, "Hey, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhang, don't be afraid, I don't usually kill chickens like this."

Zhu Miaomiao was woken up by a noise outside the house, and got up with a yawn and a confused face to see Lu Qingjiu carrying a dead chicken and explaining something to Zhang Chuyang, who looked very subtle, saying that he was afraid, but there seemed to be something more in his fear.

Lu Qingjiu saw Zhu Miaomiao coming and hurriedly said, " Miao Miao, please talk to Mr. Zhang, I usually rarely kill chickens, right?"

"What's wrong with killing the chicken," Zhu Miaomiao asked, puzzled by Lu Qingjiu's words, "you've done the ritual."

"Done." Lu Qingjiu sounded helpless.

"Miao Miao, when will my hair grow back?" Zhang Chuyang turns his attention to Zhu Miaomiao and stops looking at Lu Qingjiu beside him.

"Zhu Miaomiao still didn't understand what had happened to Zhang Chuyang and Lu Qingjiu, why the atmosphere was so strange, she scratched her head, "Mr. Zhang, is something wrong? "

"It's fine." Zhang Chuyang said with certainty.

Lu Qingjiu opened his mouth and tried to explain, but it was clear that Zhang Chuyang would not listen to anything.

After seeing Lu Qingjiu leave, Zhang Chuyang breathed a sigh of relief and Zhu Miaomiao asked, "Mr. Zhang, what's going on?"

"Didn't you say the Bai Yuehu you saw yesterday was the one who was powerful?" Zhang Chuyang was distraught, "But I see that Lu Qingjiu is clearly more powerful than that Bai Yuehu."

Zhu Miaomiao said, "How?"

Zhu Miaomiao looked slightly strange after hearing this, she really couldn't connect the demonic person in Zhang Chuyang's description with Lu Qingjiu. However, looking at Zhang Chuyang's look of certainty, she couldn't say anything to persuade him, but just said a few words in response.

Lu Qingjiu didn't understand why Zhang Chuyang was suddenly afraid of him. Looking at Zhang Chuyang's ghostly eyes, he didn't know what to say in order to make Zhang Chuyang regain his original attitude.

The business is over and we will not have too many encounters in the future. Lu Qingjiu thought about this, boiled a pot of water and de-feathered the rooster he had killed, so we'll have chicken for lunch today!

According to Zhu Miaomiao's example, after worshipping the well on the first day, the hair would not grow out until the next day, and they would have to go back after the hair grew out, and would not stay here for a long time. After Zhu Miaomiao had finished comforting Zhang Chuyang in the house, he ran into the front yard and patted Lu Qingjiu on the shoulder, saying, "Ah, wine, Mr. Zhang was scared this time."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Hey, I can't be blamed for this, I just killed a chicken in front of him."

"No." Zhu Miaomiao said, "I asked carefully and I think it has something to do with the dream he had last night as well."

Lu Qingjiu listened, but his hand kept moving, and with a single stroke he opened the rooster's belly and skilfully pulled out its innards.

Zhu Miaomiao looked at the side of Lu Qingjiu's face and the cleanliness of his hands and swallowed silently: "He bought a ticket for tomorrow and said he would leave tomorrow morning, whether his hair grew out or not."

Lu Qingjiu said, "It really scared him."

"Scared." Zhu Miaomiao nodded.

"Okay." Lu Qingjiu sighed, "I didn't expect him to be so timid."

Zhu Miaomiao tilted his head: "I don't understand it either, obviously he was quite tough when he came here and said he would do anything for his hair." It's only after watching a chicken kill that it instantly doesn't work.

Lu Qingjiu gave another slash, cutting the chicken in half, and instead of mentioning Zhang Chuyang, he said, "Can we have chicken pot for lunch?"

"Fine, fine." Zhu Miaomiao nodded happily.

Bai Yuehu is back in the yard after his usual early start on the vegetable patch, it hasn't rained today but the ground is still wet and the chickens are getting their feathers dirty running around on the ground. Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei escape from their pens to bask in the sun or get some food when the weather is good, but today they didn't like the freshly rained ground so much, which apparently made their clean little hooves dirty.

The chicken casserole at lunchtime was quite tasty, with potatoes, onions and green peppers as a side dish, and the chicken was cooked soft and flavourful, and the rich soup poured over the rice was another good dish.

The five of them ate the poor rooster cleanly. Bai Yuehu has an amazing feature in eating chicken, that is, he does not spit out the bones, no matter what the part is, he shoves it all into his mouth and then chews it all up with his beautiful white and neat teeth, and swallows it easily.

Lu Qingjiu knew Bai Yuehu's identity and Yin Xun was used to it, so the two of them thought nothing of it, but Zhang Chuyang, who had been frightened in the early hours of this morning, was a bit uncomfortable hearing Bai Yuehu chewing bones and asked Zhu Miaomiao in a low voice, "Can you chew this bone too? "

Zhu Miaomiao paused slightly, pulled a chicken leg bone out of his mouth and said, "Mr. Zhang, we are normal people."

Zhang Chuyang :""

Lu Qingjiu was beside himself and wanted to laugh inexplicably.

Bai Yuehu obviously heard the conversation between Zhang Chuyang and Zhu Miaomiao, but had no intention of changing his mind at all, as he grabbed a chicken neck with his chopsticks and gulped it down in a few bites, causing Zhang Chuyang to shiver as he watched.

Zhang Chuyang spent the rest of the day in fear and trepidation, and Lu Qingjiu completely gave up trying to make him feel better about himself.

The next morning, as he lay in bed, Lu Qingjiu heard a familiar cry, not a scream, but a cry of surprise and hope.

"I'm growing my hair, I'm growing my hair," Zhu Miaomiao once shouted in the early morning before dawn, only this time it was Zhang Chuyang who was shouting.

When Lu Qingjiu came out of the house, he saw Zhang Chuyang happily circling the courtyard, but when he saw him, his excited eyes froze for a moment, like a pot of ice water poured over a freshly red-hot iron.

" Mr. Lu." Zhang Chuyang's smile froze on his face and was replaced by an indescribable caution, "You're awake."

Lu Qingjiu had a hard time describing Zhang Chuyang's expression, if he had to, it was that Zhang Chuyang was looking at him with the eyes of a non-human, and at that moment Zhang Chuyang was in awe and a touch of fear of this non-human.

"Hmm." Lu Qingjiu said, "Mr. Zhang."

"Don't call me Mr. Zhang, just call me Chuyang." Zhang Chuyang interrupted Lu Qingjiu and said, "You don't have to be so polite."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Zhang Chuyang, who had removed the cap from his head, revealing a head of shiny black hair, which, apart from being slightly longer, was no different from any other hair, and if there was an anomaly, it might be that Zhang Chuyang's original world view, which rejected superstition, had been devastated at If anything, Zhang Chuyang's world view, which had rejected superstition, was devastated at this time.

It's only been one night and the hair is really growing.

Lu Qingjiu found it difficult to communicate with Zhang Chuyang because of the reverential look in his eyes, so he coughed twice and found an excuse to go to the kitchen and make breakfast.

Lu Qingjiu is not the only one in the house who has been woken up by Zhang Chuyang's shouting, Zhu Miaomiao and Bai Yuehu are also getting up one by one.

When he said it was a magical experience, it was really just a dream about the well in his backyard and a woman with an invisible face in the well. What was originally a horrible dream became as beautiful as a fairy tale even with the longing hair.

"But did you see her face? You said she was beautiful" Zhu Miaomiao looked at Zhang Chuyang with a wry look.

"I didn't see it." Zhang Chuyang said, "But I saw the back of her head, and there was a lot of hair on the back of her head."

Zhu Miaomiao She was silent for a moment and whispered, "Then how do you know you're looking at the back of her head and not her face, in case she's like that on both sides"

Zhang Chuyang's smile falters: "No way."

Zhu Miaomiao shrugs.

Zhang Chuyang soon smiled again and said gently, "It's okay, even if I meet a ghost, Mr. Lu will still protect me."

Zhu Miaomiao: ""So what kind of strange image did you conjure up for Lu Qingjiu, a master ghost hunter hiding in a small mountain village?

Author's Note: Zhang Chuyang watches Lu Qingjiu shuddering: The Great Master

Lu Qingjiu: I'm not, I'm not, I'm obviously the most normal one aggrieved baba