Chapter 54: Nine Tails

Although it is still snowing heavily outside, Xuan Yu seems intent on leaving. Lu Qingjiu knows that he is not really here to ask for a meal, but rather to remind Lu Qingjiu of something.

Lu Qingjiu wanted to lend Xuan Yu an umbrella, but Xuan Yu shook his head with a smile and took a flowered umbrella out of his bag that didn't fit his style. The umbrella looked a little old, with a large red peony embroidered on its surface, the embroidery was exquisite, but the bright style was a far cry from Xuan Yu's cool demeanour.

He was about to ask a question when he heard Xuan Yu say in a gentle voice, "Many years ago, on a snowy day like this, I came here to ask for a meal and your elders lent me a place to stay for the night.

When he said that, Lu Qingjiu immediately remembered that his grandmother had the same red umbrella, which she had brought as a dowry when she was young, and the embroidery on it was all done by her own hands. Lu Qingjiu had seen it when he was young, but had forgotten about it later.

Xuan Yu may look young, but his true age has long since surpassed Lu Qingjiu's imagination.

"You know my grandma," Lu Qingjiu said.

Xuan Yu said, "It's just a passing acquaintance." He opened his umbrella and stepped out into the snow and wind, his cold voice muffled by the whistling wind, and he said, "Mr. Lu and your elders, they are quite similar."

Lu Qingjiu wanted to call him and ask him more about his grandmother, but he kept walking and had already reached the courtyard door, and before pushing the door, he slowly turned back and said one last thing.

He said, "Mr. Lu, I remember that your elders had prepared a great gift for your birthday before they died, and I wonder if you could see it.

Lu Qingjiu was puzzled by this and said, "What's a birthday gift?"

Xuan Yu, however, shook his head and pushed the door open without elaborating.

Lu Qingjiu rushed after him, but when he went out, he saw nothing but snow and an empty village, long since Xuan Yu's body had disappeared.

Lu Qingjiu was frustrated, he had a vague feeling that the young monk Xuan Yu and his grandmother had some connection.

When Lu Qingjiu arrived home after his grandmother's sudden illness, it was too late for him to even say a word to her. Lu Qingjiu's funeral took place in a state of confusion after the death of his family.

But from the beginning to the end, Lu Qingjiu had never seen the gift Xuan Yu was talking about. Lu Qingjiu turned to go home, somewhat disappointed, and as he reached the door, he tripped over the threshold, which reminded him of something, and dashed into his bedroom, where he saw the black wooden box with the written lock on the bedside table.

Lu Qingjiu stroked the smooth surface of the box and had a suspicion that if what Xuan Yu said was true and it was really a birthday present from his grandmother, then he should try to open the box on his birthday.

Perhaps the contents of the box could give him some important answers.

After sending Xuan Yu away, Lu Qingjiu took Yin Xun and the little ones into the living room and frowned at them. Xuan Yu said it would take three days for them to recover, so they would remain in their scarecrow forms for the next few days.

Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered this and was worried. He thought for a moment and decided to go to Yin Xun's house to see if he could renew his candles.

It was still snowing heavily outside, and the wind was whipping through the snowflakes. Lu Qingjiu grabbed his umbrella and headed for Yin Xun's house. The wind was so strong that it was hard to walk in it, and Lu Qingjiu had to keep his body very low to avoid being blown backwards. The wind swept large flakes of snow into Lu Qingjiu's neck, and he shivered with the cold.

Since his return, Lu Qingjiu has hardly been inside Yin Xun's house, at most he has been in his yard and living room, and it is almost always Yin Xun who goes to Lu Qingjiu's house. Yin Xun's courtyard is unlocked, the door wide open, and the yard is empty, with no sign of human life. Lu Qingjiu took the key he found on Yin Xun's body and opened the door to the living room with great difficulty, then closed it behind him and had a chance to catch his breath.

The living room was sparsely furnished, just a table and a few chairs, with no sign of incense. Lu Qingjiu decided to check out the bedroom. He stood up and patted the snowflakes off his legs, turned on his torch and then followed the corridor near the guest room in the direction of the bedroom.

Rural dwellings were built by the families themselves, usually with a large number of rooms, showing a mouth shape enclosing a courtyard. On the left side are all the master bedrooms, where the owner sleeps.

Lu Qingjiu took a few steps to his left and caught a strong scent of incense and candles. He sniffed and found his target, a bedroom with incense and candles, through the window opening.

The bedroom was padlocked and Lu Qingjiu opened it with the key and entered the house gingerly.

After entering the room, Lu Qingjiu felt a bit of a chill down his back as he took a look at the interior of the house. In the most conspicuous place, a tablet with the word Yin Xun written on it catches Lu Qingjiu's eye.

In front of the tablet was an incense candle, which was about to burn out, and the red wax oil had accumulated in layers like teardrops at the bottom of the candle. Lu Qingjiu searched the room, but he could not find a replacement candle in the whole room. The candle had already burned to the bottom and at the current rate of burning, it would probably go out in another half hour or so.

Lu Qingjiu searched all the other rooms but could not find the candles, so he had no choice but to call Bai Yuehu again to ask him about the candles.

"You're at Yin Xun's house now," Bai Yuehu asked when he received the call and found out about Lu Qingjiu's situation.

"Yes." Lu Qingjiu said, "He was turned into a scarecrow, so I wondered if his scented candle would go out, but I came and saw that it was going out, but I couldn't find a replacement."

Bai Yuehu thought for a moment, "Wait, I'll be right back."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay, I'll wait for you, so hurry up."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Qingjiu sat at the door and waited for Bai Yuehu. Yin Xun, who had been living in the house for years, had no sense of humour and the house was dusty except for the sleeping area, which had been unoccupied for a long time.

As the incense and candles burned out and the flames grew fainter, Lu Qingjiu, who was sitting at the door waiting, suddenly heard a very strange sound, which he thought at first was an illusion, but soon the sound grew louder.

Lu Qingjiu turned back, the torch in his hand shone towards the source of the sound, and when he saw clearly what was making the sound, his whole body froze in place. The trembling was faint at first, but as the flames of the incense and candles grew dimmer and dimmer, the trembling began to become violent as if something was pressing underneath the tablets, and at that moment the thing was about to push them over and crawl out from inside.

Lu Qingjiu didn't know what was underneath the tablet, but he understood that it was definitely not something good, and if the incense and candles were extinguished like that

Just in the nick of time, Bai Yuehu finally appeared at the door. When he appeared, he did not speak to Lu Qingjiu, but ran straight to the joss stick and took a sharp blade from his pocket and slashed his wrist.

Red blood gushed out from the wrist and just tilted over the incense candle that was about to be extinguished.

Lu Qingjiu watched in horror as he was afraid that Bai Yuehu's blood would be poured over the candle and it would go out. But apparently Bai Yuehu knew exactly what he was doing, and as soon as the blood came into contact with the candle, it emitted a nuisance sound, and then the candle, which was about to burn out, rose to the ground, fusing with the blood and turning into a brand new red candle.

The plaques that had previously rattled were once again silenced and the place regained its original silence.

"Lu Qingjiu saw the joss stick being renewed and rushed forward, grabbing Bai Yuehu's wrist.

Bai Yuehu said, "It's okay."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Does it hurt?"

Bai Yuehu looked at Lu Qingjiu without saying anything, he could have let the wound recover straight away, but in the face of Lu Qingjiu's worried gaze, he actually felt some subtle pleasure, so he nodded in obedience to his heart and said frankly, "It hurts."

Lu Qingjiu looked at the hideous wound on Bai Yuehu's pretty wrist and said anxiously, "Such a big cut, how much blood must be left?

Bai Yuehu said, "I can't kill it."

"Why?" Lu Qingjiu wondered.

"It's all turned to straw." Bai Yuehu says.

Lu Qingjiu: ""He had completely forgotten about it. The chickens had been living in the chicken pen, and he was so focused on Yin Xun and the others that he naturally didn't notice that his chickens had also turned into scarecrows, except that the scarecrows had taken on the shape of chickens and could not be eaten for the time being.

Bai Yuehu said, "Come on, the joss sticks are renewed, let's go back."

Lu Qingjiu said, "The incense and candles are renewed with blood, so do we have to come back tomorrow and Yin Xun?"

Bai Yuehu shook his head, "The mountain gods have their own way of renewing the incense and candles, without incense offerings, I can only renew them with blood.

Lu Qingjiu was relieved to hear that Bai Yuehu's words had answered two of his more worrying questions, and since neither Yin Xun nor Bai Yuehu needed to shed blood, it would be best.

Bai Yuehu was wearing a thick white cloak, which seemed to be the fur of an animal, snowy white and soft, and very warm. Before they left the house, Bai Yuehu naturally took off the cloak and put it on Lu Qingjiu's shoulders.

Lu Qingjiu froze for a moment and looked up at Bai Yuehu and was about to speak when he heard Bai Yuehu say, "You're afraid of the cold, so wear it."

"Lu Qingjiu rubbed it with his hands, the fur was soft and firm in his hands, not a stray hair in sight, and it had a faintly pale sheen of the finest fur.

"I don't know." Bai Yuehu said, "People lost to me."

Lu Qingjiu said: "Lose"

Bai Yuehu said, "Yes, we took a gamble."

Lu Qingjiu didn't ask any further questions when he heard this, but thought to himself that gambling was really bad for health, even if he lost money, he had lost his skin.

Wearing a thick cloak, Lu Qingjiu walked into the snow with his umbrella and Bai Yuehu, not knowing if it was Lu Qingjiu's psychological effect, but he felt that on the way back, the wind and snow were much lighter and his body was not cold.

When we arrived home, Lu Qingjiu took all the scarecrows out and hung them out in the living room. Fortunately, there are hardly any visitors this winter, otherwise, if you entered the house and saw the scarecrows on the floor, you would have a heart attack if you were afraid.

Xuan Yu said they would be back to normal in three days, so for three days Bai Yuehu and Lu Qingjiu were the only ones left in the house.

Bai Yuehu and Lu Qingjiu are both quiet people, so it was quite a comfortable life for them. Lu Qingjiu found the opportunity to ask Bai Yuehu about Xuan Yu, but Bai Yuehu only gave a brief introduction of Xuan Yu. He said that he was a monk who should have become a god long ago, but for some reason he stayed in the mortal world, and that he was one of the few human beings who were powerful.

"Then what is he doing here with me?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"Probably to see old people." Bai Yuehu replies.

Lu Qingjiu was talking about his grandmother, but he didn't know what kind of story she had with him.

It's the people who are not.

On the morning of the third day, Yin Xun, who had turned into a scarecrow, finally returned to his human form, along with Xiao Hua Xiao Hei, the little fox, and the concubine of Master Yu, who was hiding in the little fox's furry scarf. To be honest, Lu Qingjiu had forgotten about her because of her frequent absence.

Yin Xun was in tears, and Lu Qingjiu looked disgusted.

"O Wine, you are a good man." Yin Xun said, "That monk was so outrageous, he actually tried to burn us, oooh oooh oooh oooh, I'm just an innocent little mountain god"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just an innocent little piggy too." Xiao Hua howled along next to Yin Xun.

The little fox also twittered and looked sad and tearful.

Lu Qingjiu was a bit helpless and could not be persuaded, so he could only let them continue to howl. He realised that they were sentient even after turning into scarecrows, that they could hear people outside and see images, so you can imagine how devastated they would be if Lu Qingjiu really chose to burn them all.

After a while, Lu Qingjiu's head ached from the howling: "Stop crying, will you? I'll make you something nice to eat."

Yin Xun: "You don't love me at all, you don't care if I'm doing well"

Lu Qingjiu: "I should never have given birth to you back then."

Yin Xun wanted to continue crying, but when Bai Yuehu came in from outside the house, she glared at him and quieted down, saying, "I'll stop crying and you can make me something delicious."

Lu Qingjiu: "Ugh"

It was so cold that, in Yin Xun's words, one should not go out into the wilderness to pee, otherwise one part would become disposable afterwards.

Lu Qingjiu doesn't really want to make a particularly troublesome meal if it's not to comfort Yin Xun, as the cold weather makes people less inclined to move.

Because of the power outage, their fridge had long since been moved inside the snow, and when you think about it that shouldn't be considered a fridge as a hot box, as the temperature in the freezer is a little warmer than outside.

Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu to bring back a fresh Cong Long in the evening, the meat of which was so good that it could be cooked in any way. Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu to cut up the Cong Long, leaving the ribs out, the bones underneath for stew, the meat for stir-fry and the ribs for charcoal grilling.

Cong Long bones are finer than sheep bones and have no stink, so you don't have to worry about handling them badly. The meat is carefully marinated in a marinade for a few hours before being grilled slowly over a charcoal fire.

The rich aroma of cooked meat soon began to permeate the room, the thin layer of fat on the very edges of the ribs sizzling and crackling as the fat dripped into the burning fire pit.

Lu Qingjiu gave Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun the meat that had been roasted first to satisfy their cravings, and also gave the other three little ones a taste.

"It's delicious, you should eat some too." Yin Xun took a bite, and with a black stain on the side of her mouth, she hurriedly turned to Lu Qingjiu and said, "Take advantage of it while it's hot."

Lu Qingjiu smiled, "You guys eat first, I'll have a piece later."

As soon as he said this, Bai Yuehu, who was sitting next to him, naturally handed the untouched lamb chop to Lu Qingjiu's mouth.

Lu Qingjiu was stunned for a moment, then looked down, smiled and took a bite. The outside of the cutlet was a little crispy, but the meat inside was very fine and juicy, and after a long marinade, the inside of the cutlet was flavoured, salty and light, with the fragrance of spices.

The Lu Qingjiu is a great tasting treat, and it would have been perfect if there had been a fresh lemon to squeeze the juice on top.

Yin Xun swallowed heavily as he watched Bai Yuehu and Lu Qingjiu's interaction, but he didn't dare to say anything, instead lowering his head and continuing to munch on the chops in silence.

Bai Yuehu didn't think there was anything wrong with his behaviour and naturally ate the chops with Lu Qingjiu's teeth marks on them. The bone broth in the pot was almost ready, very tasty and refreshing when you were tired of eating chops. It was also very warming afterwards. The sweet potatoes were also a good staple, as they were soft and sticky, and Lu Qingjiu loved them.

Lu Qingjiu ate as he grilled, and before he knew it, he was a little full, and Yin Xun, like him, had a round stomach.

Lu Qingjiu: "What"

Yin Xun, who had naturally spent the day at Lu Qingjiu's house dawdling over food, got up and slapped his head, exclaiming in horror, "Shit, shit I fucking forgot to go home to renew the incense".

Lu Qingjiu didn't even have time to call out to him before he saw him scurry off like a scared rabbit, never to return.

Lu Qingjiu: "How did he run so fast."

Bai Yuehu said, "It's kind of the only good thing he has going for him."

Lu Qingjiu: "" Yin Xun's memory is so good that by the time he remembers, the table in his house will probably be burnt through.

Yin Xun called Lu Qingjiu after he found out that his family's incense had been renewed. Lu Qingjiu was soaking his feet, and while doing so, he was naturally rubbing Bai Yuehu's big furry tail with his hand. I have to say that humans have an unspeakable love affair with furry things.

When he heard the phone ring, Lu Qingjiu lazily picked it up, deliberately holding it away from his ear.

As expected, the next moment, Yin Xun's terrified cry came over the phone: " Lu Qingjiu, how is my family's incense being renewed? It can't be you, can't it be you?"

"It's not me." Lu Qingjiu said, "It's Bai Yuehu."

Hearing Lu Qingjiu's reply, Yin Xun heaved a sigh of relief: "It's okay, it's okay, I was scared to death."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Is everything all right on your side?"

Yin Xun said, "It's nothing serious."

Lu Qingjiu said, "What if the incense is cut off?"

Yin Xun said, "Ah that's a big deal."

Lu Qingjiu said, "If it's a serious matter, why do you have to guard it, I don't think you're a very powerful person." To be honest, after all this time, he hadn't felt any God-related qualities in Yin Xun, who in his eyes was just a somewhat unreliable hairdresser.

Yin Xun: "It's easy to lose me as a friend when you talk like that."

Lu Qingjiu: "It's okay, I can capture you as my pet when the time comes."

Yin Xun: "" Lu Qingjiu, please be a human being.

Lu Qingjiu could even guess the aggrieved look on Yin Xun's face when he wanted to retort but couldn't find a way to say it. He laughed and said, "Okay, I'm not going to joke with you anymore, I'm going to bed, good night."

"Good night." Yin Xun hung up the phone.

Lu Qingjiu, who had hung up the phone, yawned lazily and habitually dragged his big fluffy tail to his side, only he vaguely felt as he did so that something seemed wrong, and when he looked down, his whole body was dumbfounded.

Lu Qingjiu looked up stiffly and saw Bai Yuehu sitting by the window getting high on melon seeds, not noticing what was happening, and he spoke out with difficulty, " Bai Yuehu ah"

Bai Yuehu turns back: "Hmmm"

Lu Qingjiu said, "That, is what I wanted to ask."

Bai Yuehu :""

Lu Qingjiu chose his words carefully and said with great difficulty, "What would happen if the fox spirit's tail accidentally fell off"

Bai Yuehu's face was frozen for a moment, apparently understanding the meaning of Lu Qingjiu's question, and he slowly looked down to see that the nine large fluffy tails had been separated from his body and were now softly held in Lu Qingjiu's arms by a terrified Lu Qingjiu.

Bai Yuehu: ""Something is wrong.

Lu Qingjiu: " Bai Yuehu "

Bai Yuehu: Tsk, quality issues.