Chapter 34: The Meadow Crow

When we got home, Lu Qingjiu made Bai Yuehu a roast chicken with a layer of honey on the outside, the skin became extraordinarily golden after roasting.

Bai Yuehu, as usual, ate the chicken without spitting out the bones and finished the whole thing before returning to his rocking chair and sitting down again. Lu Qingjiu took the grapes he had frozen in the fridge and handed them to Li Xiaoyu in a bowl.

The grapes are chilled and the pulp and juice inside become a smoothie, which is very tart and sweet.

Li Xiaoyu and Xiao Hua both enjoyed themselves, one piggybacking on the table and continuing to work on practice problems that Lu Qingjiu couldn't even read.

After the incident with the water salary, Bai Yuehu didn't talk much for a few days and returned to the lazy state he was in when he first arrived.

Lu Qingjiu was afraid that he would be in a bad mood, so he tried to make Bai Yuehu something delicious to make him happy. In summer, everyone likes to eat cold dishes, so the spicy oil is used up very quickly and the family's stock is running low.

They make their own special chillies here, dried and cut into powder.

The powder is then mixed with sesame seeds and various spices and boiled in hot oil to create a hot and spicy oil chilli. It is not the spiciness but the aroma that makes it a great addition to cold dishes.

Lu Qingjiu went to the field with a basket on his back.

It was hot, and although the sun had gone down, the heat steaming up from the ground was still scorching the ankles of Lu Qingjiu when he went to the field and saw the peppers Bai Yuehu had planted.

The chillies grown by his fox spirit are different from those grown by others, and they are all so big and full that Lu Qingjiu feels a hot pain when he picks one and licks it on his mouth. The taste of the chillies is not a taste but a painful sensation in the mouth, which stimulates the secretion of pleasant substances in the brain.

Lu Qingjiu had picked almost two or three catties of chillies when it was already dark. The nights in the mountains are different from those in the city, because there is no light pollution and as long as the weather is still clear, you can see the mesmerising sky full of stars. There is no moon tonight, but the stars are bright, and if you look closely you can even find a white galaxy covered with stars in the night sky.

The night breeze, unlike daytime, takes on a slightly cooler feel, blowing on one's skin in a way that is inexplicably pleasant.

Lu Qingjiu put the peppers he had picked in the field into the bamboo basket he was carrying, packed them up and started to walk home.

Lu Qingjiu looked down and saw a hundred-dollar bill lying at his feet, which stood out in the black mud.

"Lu Qingjiu bent down and picked up the money, as no one in the village was rich, and a hundred yuan was not a small sum. But then again, since Tai Feng had given him the sack, his luck had improved in a way that was obvious to the eye.

But in the end, Lu Qingjiu didn't cash in his prize, as he didn't feel that he could rely on his luck to make the money.

Lu Qingjiu was thinking about finding the owner of the coin tomorrow when he stepped on something that was hard and pinched his feet. Lu Qingjiu took it into his hand and decided that it was not the common currency of the country, but rather looked like a game coin left over from some place. He wanted to take a closer look at the design on the coin, but it was too dark and he didn't have his mobile phone with him, so he had to stop.

When he got home, Lu Qingjiu slipped the coin into his pocket, but his hand shook inexplicably as he was slipping it in, and the coin fell to the ground, where it rolled over in the grass.

Lu Qingjiu, reflexively trying to catch up to the coin, also rushed into the grass, only he regretted it as soon as he entered, he was wearing shorts and a lot of the grass in this bush seemed to have spikes, which pricked his calves with a hot pain.

"Ah," Lu Qingjiu bent down and saw the bright red blood flowing from his calf, and with a hiss on his lips he tried to turn around and go back, but when he returned his gaze to the road he had just come from, he was shocked to find that the original road had disappeared and he had arrived in a completely unfamiliar wasteland.

Lu Qingjiu froze in place, not knowing what to do for a moment. The only thing on the plain was a thicket of weeds, all with small thorns on them, reaching about Lu Qingjiu's waist height.

Lu Qingjiu could barely take two steps before he felt several bloody wounds on his calves. He had to stop momentarily and look around.

It was not long before Lu Qingjiu found something rather special in this wilderness, a dead tree standing in the very centre of it. It looked not too far from Lu Qingjiu, so out of place in the vast expanse of grass, and there seemed to be birds like crows perched on its trunk.

Lu Qingjiu trudged forward, looking at his blood-covered leg, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and laughed to himself, "A mermaid with legs is probably what it feels like"

Luckily, the closer you get to the tree, the thinner the weeds become, and by the time Lu Qingjiu reaches the tree, there is only brown ground left.

The crows on the tree trunk seem to be frightened by the approaching Lu Qingjiu, waving their wings and flying off into the distance.

But soon, his attention was drawn to one thing.

It was a stone tablet standing behind a dead tree, which Lu Qingjiu had not noticed before because of the angle, and it was not until he had gone behind the dead tree that he saw the abruptness of the stone tablet.

But when Lu Qingjiu got a good look at the monument, he felt that it was more like a tombstone than a monument.

A party forgotten in this world, a solitary tombstone.

It was too dark for Lu Qingjiu to see the inscriptions clearly, so he thought about it, moved closer and touched his hand to the tombstone, then began to rub it delicately.

The tombstone is rough and cold, with a small number of inscriptions, perhaps six, and Lu Qingjiu counts them briefly the first time before beginning to identify them in detail the second.

The first is 愛, in the traditional form, and the second character is 子, which is well recognized.

However, when Lu Qingjiu touched the third character, his face froze and his hand began to tremble a little. It took Lu Qingjiu three or four touches, one across, one down and one up, before he was sure that the character was indeed the one he had in mind.

Lu Qingjiu's movements stopped for a moment, and he leaned back against the tombstone for a few moments to catch his breath before gathering the courage to touch the fourth character.

The mountain that lies down, the inch that stands up, that is a seek.

Lu Qingjiu's body exploded with goose bumps, and he opened his mouth for a moment, not knowing what to say. After he repeatedly confirmed it, he finally figured out what the six words on the tombstone really were.

Tomb of the beloved son of Yin Xun.

Tomb of the beloved son of Yin Xun.

Like an electric shock, Lu Qingjiu's hand bounced off the tombstone and he stared at it as if it were an evil spirit.

How could there be Yin Xun's tombstone here, a prank, but how could there be such a prank in the world? The smile of his best friend appeared before Lu Qingjiu's eyes, as if he could see the bright smile of Yin Xun and the playful tiger's teeth on his lips.

"Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu." A smiling Yin Xun waved at him, "Welcome back to Shuifu Village."

Lu Qingjiu sits on the floor with a bitter smile.

The crow that had left came back, cawing and stopping at the tombstone in front of it, cocking its head and looking at Lu Qingjiu. In the darkness of the night, the black eyes were glowing with stars.

Lu Qingjiu, slowing down from the shock the tombstone had given him, tried to approach it again when he faintly heard someone calling his name.

"Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu." The call was so faint that at first Lu Qingjiu thought it was an illusion, but soon the call grew louder and Lu Qingjiu followed it and finally found the source of the sound, which came from the black crow.

The crow, some distance away from Lu Qingjiu, was now hovering in the upper air, and a human voice came out of its mouth: " Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu ".

Lu Qingjiu tentatively walked in the direction of where the crows were and found the barren grass beneath his feet beginning to fade to the sides.

Like Moses dividing the sea.

This was probably the right path, and although he didn't know who was guiding him, it was clear that the person guiding him was not malicious

The crow was still calling his name, and Lu Qingjiu followed the call all the way to the front. He did not know how long he had been going forward until a crisp sound of a coin hitting the ground in his ears sent a shiver down his spine and jolted him back into his original world.

There was no grass, no dead trees, no gravestones, but instead, the familiar ground and the faint starlight overhead. The silver coin was spinning at Lu Qingjiu's feet and he bent down to pick it up, this time safely in his jacket pocket and not rolling into the grass as he had done before.

Lu Qingjiu, who had found the coin, walked in the direction of home and, to be honest, if the wound on his calf had not still existed, he would have thought he was having an absurd dream.

When Lu Qingjiu walked into the courtyard, Bai Yuehu, who had been taking a nap with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and looked in his direction: "You're injured."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Well, I accidentally cut myself on a grass thorn when I was going down to the ground."

Bai Yuehu's eyes fell on Lu Qingjiu's calf and he said, "The grass thorns in the ground."

Lu Qingjiu nods his head.

Bai Yuehu said, "Come here, I'll put medicine on you."

Lu Qingjiu wanted to refuse, but seeing Bai Yuehu's determination, he agreed. He found a random chair and sat down, Bai Yuehu half-crouched next to him, first washing the blood stains on his feet with water and then applying the special ointment Bai Yuehu had given Lu Qingjiu before. The wounds were only superficial, not too serious, and the ointment was so cool and refreshing that it felt like they would soon recover.

"I found a coin." Lu Qingjiu looked down at Bai Yuehu, who was treating his wounds with a serious face, and took the coin out of his own jacket pocket, "See what's so special about it."

Bai Yuehu took one look and shook his head, "Nothing special."

"There's no curse or anything." Lu Qingjiu got a little weird.

"No." Bai Yuehu said, "There is no power on it, it is just an object in the mundane world."

Lu Qingjiu said "Oh, he washed the coin with water and saw the design on it clearly, only it struck him as strange that he seemed to have seen such a coin somewhere, but he couldn't quite remember for a while.

"I was pulled to a strange place by this coin." Lu Qingjiu spoke with a slight hesitation, "I saw a wasteland and a tombstone"

Bai Yuehu looks up at Lu Qingjiu when he hears the word "tombstone".

Just when Lu Qingjiu thought he would say something, he said, "If there's anything you want to know, you'd better ask him in person."

Lu Qingjiu froze at the words, "He you know what I saw."

Bai Yuehu nods.

Lu Qingjiu said, "So what is this about Yin Xun? Is he a human being?"

Bai Yuehu shook his head, "That's a question that is better answered by the man himself."

Lu Qingjiu pursed his lips. In fact, after he returned here, he had a vague feeling that something was wrong with Yin Xun, but since Yin Xun had no intention of harming him, he did not look into it. But even though he had noticed something strange about Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu had never thought that his friend, whom he had played with since childhood, was not even human anymore.

Bai Yuehu obviously knows who Yin Xun is, but he doesn't intend to tell Lu Qingjiu, leaving it up to Lu Qingjiu to ask Yin Xun himself.

Lu Qingjiu fiddled with the coins in his pocket, thinking that if that was the case, he would ask Yin Xun about it tomorrow.

Lu Qingjiu didn't sleep much during the night because he had something on his mind, so he got up before five o'clock the next day to make breakfast. He thought that since he was going to have a showdown with Yin Xun today, he should make a hearty breakfast.

So Lu Qingjiu made a pot of chicken soup and wanted to make some delicious noodles with shredded chicken in chicken soup.

But what Lu Qingjiu didn't expect was for Yin Xun to be nowhere to be seen as the sun rose overhead.

Lu Qingjiu sat in the room and got tired of waiting, so he took out his mobile phone and called Yin Xun, but there was no answer on the other end.

" Bai Yuehu, you eat first, I will go to Yin Xun's house to look for him." Lu Qingjiu said to Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu nods and picks up his chopsticks.

Lu Qingjiu went straight to Yin Xun's house and when he arrived, he knocked on the door for a while but no one answered. Lu Qingjiu thought about it and went to find Yin Xun's neighbour, Aunt Liu, who often gave Yin Xun things to eat.

"Auntie Liu, have you seen Yin Xun?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

Aunt Liu was drying the blanket when she heard Lu Qingjiu's question and said, "I haven't seen him, he didn't seem to come back last night."

Lu Qingjiu said, "What time does he usually come back?"

Aunt Liu said, "Ten o'clock, his house door is not good, every time I come home I can hear him close the door, what's wrong? Yin Family, did something happen to the youngest?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "No, I'm just looking for him for something, Auntie Liu, when you see him, tell him to come to me and say that I don't blame him."

Aunt Liu was a little puzzled by the words, but did not ask more and nodded in response.

Lu Qingjiu could not find Yin Xun and had to return home.

Bai Yuehu seemed to have expected him to make the trip and was not surprised that Yin Xun had disappeared.

"Did something happen to him?" Lu Qingjiu had no answer to his phone calls, the family was not there and Lu Qingjiu could only go home, squatting in front of the house and complaining to Bai Yuehu, "Why did he run so fast, wasn't it me who should have run? No."

Bai Yuehu said, "Maybe a little bit scared."

"Ah" Lu Qingjiu whipped his head around, "What did you say?"

"I said." Bai Yuehu repeated softly, "He's probably really afraid he'll be eaten if you catch him."

Lu Qingjiu: "Eaten by whom"

Bai Yuehu gestures to himself.

Lu Qingjiu was stunned: "You eat? Is he worried that I'll cook him and bring him to your table?"

Bai Yuehu did not say anything, but his expression already gave Lu Qingjiu the answer.

Yes, Yin Xun was Lu Qingjiu's friend before, and now that his identity as a non-human has been revealed, Lu Qingjiu is very angry at being deceived, right?

However, Lu Qingjiu, who had smoothed out his logic, was already angry and wanted to hit someone.

"Am I the kind of person who would kill my friends for meat," Lu Qingjiu said angrily, "He doesn't know me at all."

"Yeah." Bai Yuehu said, "Obviously I am."

Lu Qingjiu :""

The expression on Lu Qingjiu's face was so grim that Bai Yuehu spoke up again, a little cautiously: "Yin Xun's meat should be good."

"No. Don't even think about it without permission." Lu Qingjiu refused mercilessly.

Bai Yuehu sighs, full of regret, but he doesn't seem to be averse to eating Yin Xun, as long as Lu Qingjiu gives the word, he can open his mouth and devour it with his bones.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Do you know where Yin Xun is now?"

"I don't know." Bai Yuehu is less interested in what can't be eaten, to

He was actually quite happy that Yin Xun had stopped appearing, after all, there was one less extra mouth in the house, so he didn't care at all about finding Yin Xun.

"But the coin you picked up yesterday should have another use." Bai Yuehu said, "You can think carefully about where you've seen this coin before."

Lu Qingjiu frowned as he cupped the coin and returned to the room, placing it on the table for closer inspection.

No matter how you look at it, it is an ordinary coin, not a coin issued in circulation in China, but there is nothing special about it either. A bull on the front and a crown on the back, Lu Qingjiu looks at it for a moment and something familiar does emerge from within.

Where had he seen this coin, when and in what context? What did this coin mean to Yin Xun?

Lu Qingjiu could not think of an answer.

By now it was noon and time to cook again, so Lu Qingjiu had something on his mind and made something casual to eat with Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu stared at the food on the table and thought about it. They usually had four dishes and one soup, but today Yin Xun was not here, so they had a bowl of fried rice with some pickles. Although the fried rice tasted good, Bai Yuehu was already having second thoughts

Lu Qingjiu ate without knowing what to eat. He was still thinking about Yin Xun, who must be real, otherwise the people in the village would not have known him. But it was clear that something strange had happened to him, to the extent that he might no longer belong to the human category, but was moving towards the non-human side.

"Brother Lu." Next door, Li Xiaoyu, who was already on summer vacation, came over to play with Xiao Hua after lunch as usual, calling out Lu Qingjiu from afar at the door.

"Come in." Lu Qingjiu now looked back and said, "Have you eaten?"

"Eat up." Li Xiaoyu smiled and looked happy, "I came to tell Xiao Hua that I won't be studying this afternoon."

"It's about going somewhere for fun," Lu Qingjiu asked.

"Well." Li Xiaoyu said, "Me and Xiaolong and the others are going to take Uncle Chen's car to town."

Xiao Long was Li Xiaoyu's playmate and there were three or four other children of Li Xiaoyu's age in the village. They would occasionally meet up and go to town to play, they didn't have much money but they still managed to have a good time, playing video games, eating cool popsicles and shopping at the town's only supermarket.

Lu Qingjiu's gaze passes through Li Xiaoyu, as if he sees Yin Xun and himself in the past, the same way he and Yin Xun came together, talking about their many dreams and making many promises.

Lu Qingjiu put down his chopsticks, lowered his head and saw the coin looming in his jacket pocket. The next moment, accompanied by Li Xiaoyu's puzzled "Brother Lu", Lu Qingjiu finally remembered what the coin really was.

It was not an ordinary coin, but a game coin, one of the coins he and Yin Xun had managed to save up to buy. As children they had little money, and the pocket money they saved up for two or three games a month was the best thing for Lu Qingjiu as a child.

When Lu Qingjiu was about to leave Shuifu Village, Yin Xun, who was still a teenager, cried and tried to hand Lu Qingjiu the coins he had saved up so hard, but by then Lu Qingjiu was already on the train, and could only sit in the carriage and watch through the thick glass as his childhood friend ran along with the moving train. and finally faded out of sight.

From then on they parted ways and when they saw each other again, it was many years later.

Yin Xun is no longer the lean young man Lu Qingjiu remembers, but the smile on his face is still the same, and the tiger teeth on his lips are as playful and cute as they were in the old days.

"I," Lu Qingjiu said, his voice slightly hoarse as he squeezed the coin, "remembered."

Come to think of it, the coin represents something.

What the author has to say: Bai Yuehu: Look what I found, a wild Yin Xun with five times the protein of chicken with the head removed.

Yin Xun: Wine help ahhhhhhhhhhh

Lu Qingjiu: Bai Yuehu, calm down!