Chapter 57: Outlander

Lu Qingjiu sits for a long time in front of the tomb, talking to his grandmother about many things. Among them were Yin Xun, who had become a mountain god, and Bai Yuehu, the tenant who had just accidentally lost his tail. Whenever he had seen his grandmother's tomb, his heart had been filled with sadness and regret, regret that he had not been able to return before she died, leaving her all alone.

Now that he was back at Shuifu Village, Lu Qingjiu's grief was much relieved by the fact that he was with her in a different way. He cleaned the snow off the tombstones and placed the offerings neatly in front of them before saying goodbye to his grandmother with a smile and getting up to leave.

When he arrived home, neither Bai Yuehu nor Yin Xun dared to bother him, and their cautiousness made Lu Qingjiu feel a bit funny.

"What would you like to eat tonight?" Lu Qingjiu said the most common question asked on a regular basis.

"I want to eat hot pot." Yin Xun raised her hand, "The extra spicy kind."

"I can do it all." Bai Yuehu said.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then let's have hotpot, it's springtime soon, so clean up the leftovers and eat them before they go to waste."

Lu Qingjiu uses bean paste and butter spices to simmer a fiery hot pot base in a chicken broth that is bright red in colour with dried chillies and peppercorns floating on top.

Some of the hotpot dishes are fresh meat brought back from Bai Yuehu, some are frozen in the fridge, and there are not many vegetables, except for dried gung choy and fungus, which can be dried and preserved in water.

Lu Qingjiu's favourite noodles and bean curd were not left out, making him a complete vegetarian compared to Yin Xun Bai Yuehu.

The pot is placed on a charcoal pot in the living room and Lu Qingjiu beckons them to come and eat.

Lu Qingjiu took a big bite of their speciality, the broad vermicelli, and swallowed it, wiping the sweat from his nose as he chewed. The noodles are made from sweet potatoes and are hard when raw, but when cooked they become soft, sticky and tasty, a favourite of Lu Qingjiu's. The fresh meat brought back by Bai Yuehu is also very tasty, sliced thinly and boiled in the red soup for ten seconds or so, making it spicy and tasty, as well as tasting the ingredients themselves.

A fiery aroma permeates the home as Lu Qingjiu eats until he finally removes his down jacket, a drop of sweat still on the tip of his chin.

"It's hot." Yin Xun took a sip of water, "Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow is the last snow, when it stops it's almost time for the temperature to rise."

Spring is finally on its way.

"I'm running out of sugar." Lu Qingjiu swallowed the meat and said, "We can think of something to plant in the spring."

"Anything." Yin Xun says, "I'm not picky."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Well, let's go to the town and have a look at it then, it snowed a lot last year, so this year's harvest is sure to be good." There is a reason why snow is good for the year, it kills most of the pests in the soil and the seeds will germinate better next year. Of course, the family didn't have to worry about this at all, after all, with Bai Yuehu, a master grower, Lu Qingjiu just had to choose the vegetables he wanted.

The temperature has warmed up and the snow is gradually melting. Pieces of snow are starting to fall from the roofs and treetops, and you can hear the movement of the snow when you sleep inside at night.

Yin Xun poked all the ice picks hanging from the eaves to prevent them from falling and hurting people when the snow melted. It is said that there was a case where a girl was walking under the eaves when the snow was melting and the ice pick fell right into her head, killing her.

Lu Qingjiu is a little happy that the hard season is finally over, and that he doesn't have to wrap himself up like a winter bear every day and can wear something lighter.

Around the end of January, Su Yan sent Su Xi back with an unhappy looking Yu Shi concubine, who had changed into a lovely puffy dress and was sitting in Su Xi's fur with a grim look on her face. Su Xi's simple Lu Qingjiu dress had been replaced by a delicate little cotton jacket, which was very well made by the person who made it.

"These are the clothes my wife made for them." Su Yan hands Lu Qingjiu a huge pocket.

Lu Qingjiu was stunned when he looked at the clothes in his pockets. He thought at first that they were Su Xi's household goods, but after looking at them he realised that they were actually a bag of small clothes, and from the size of the clothes it was clear that they were not for the little foxes, but for the Yu Shi concubines.

Su Yan coughed dryly and seemed a little embarrassed as he explained, " Su Xi's mother is quite fond of that little girl."

Lu Qingjiu: "Ah"

Su Yan said, "Isn't it true that fox spirits all look like foxes when they are young, and when they become adults, they turn into adults, so we don't see children in human form there." Not to mention this thumb-sized, cute little girl, whose identity was a bit scary, but that didn't stop his wife from being motherly.

Lu Qingjiu seemed to understand what exactly was the reason for the unhappy expression on the Yu Shi concubine's face as he cried and laughed, "Alright, I get it."

"My wife even made a wooden house for her, saying it would go next to Su Xi's nest." Su Yan says, "I'm sorry for the trouble."

"No, no." Lu Qingjiu saw the small wooden house Su Yan had mentioned, a two-storey wooden building, beautifully constructed and seemingly furnished with beds and dressing tables and such. It seemed that Su Xi's mother had completely taken Yu Shi's concubine for a lovely Barbie doll

Lu Qingjiu moved his things to Su Xi's den and folded the clothes one by one and put them in the cabin room. He looked at the little fox cub rolling around with Xiao Hua Xiao Hei and for a moment felt the illusion of being a mother. But the presence of Yin Xun helped Lu Qingjiu to erase this illusion and he realised that he was just a father.

"The road in town seems to be open." Yin Xun had come back to give Lu Qingjiu the news, "We can drive the minivan to the town and eat dumplings."

Lu Qingjiu said, "That's the way to go."

Yin Xun said, "Yes, the temperature seems to be rising quite quickly this year."

Lu Qingjiu said, "OK, then I'll get ready, let's go to town and buy some fresh vegetables, and have a small dumpling on the way, you go and get Bai Yuehu too."

"Okay." Yin Xun ran away happily after mentioning the Xiao Long Bao.

Lu Qingjiu changed his clothes and went to drive the minivan that was parked in front of the house. Lu Qingjiu was embarrassed that he hadn't driven his van for almost a winter. During the coldest period, the van disappeared and Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu about it, who said it had dug a hole for the winter. Now it has just warmed up and the van has reappeared in front of Lu Qingjiu's door.

Lu Qingjiu fed him the last of the remaining jelly candies and the little van ate them happily, barking twice.

The three of them got into the minivan and headed outside the village, and on the way out they met Uncle Chen, who even said hello when he saw Lu Qingjiu.

The winter is over and the whole village is beginning to recover, and villagers can be seen on both sides of the road preparing for spring ploughing. It has not been a long winter and it seems that no one has had a particularly hard time.

Lu Qingjiu drives the minivan up the mountain road.

There was still some unmelted snow on the mountain road, but it was passable. The minivan was not fast, but stable enough that Lu Qingjiu could drive well on its own even without holding the steering wheel, and it remembered the path of the mountain road and slowed down in advance where it should.

A few hours later, they arrived in town and Lu Qingjiu parked the car and took the family's two children to a dumpling shop.

Unlike Shuifu Village, the town was still quite busy and the shop owner was impressed by Bai Yuehu because of his good looks and his incredible appetite, and when he saw Lu Qingjiu coming, he greeted him with a smile: "It's been so long since you've been here, as always, let's start with ten cages".

"Hmm." Lu Qingjiu sat in the doorway, saw the noise outside and what seemed to be people with cameras and stuff, and asked, "What are these people doing"

"It looks like they're filming some kind of show." The owner reached out for Lu Qingjiu and the others to get the small dumplings, "It's just arrived in town today and it's a lot of commotion."

Lu Qingjiu looks on curiously, while Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun are less interested, preferring to keep their eyes on the steaming dumplings rather than on the people.

With one bite of a bun, Yin Xun stuffs his face like a frog, eating in an ungainly manner, but Bai Yuehu's face is obviously not too big either, but the bun goes into his mouth without being visible at all, and I wonder how big his mouth really is.

Lu Qingjiu looked for a moment and said, "These people don't look like they're from here."

They were all dressed in a fashionable way, at odds with the simple atmosphere of the town, and there were several vans parked around them, with people carrying cameras that seemed to be filming something. The man in the middle was a teenager with beautiful silver-grey hair. Although his back was to Lu Qingjiu and he could not see his face, his straight back showed that he was a little different from the norm.

Lu Qingjiu looked at him for a while and then withdrew his gaze, this person seemed to be a celebrity. However, he was not a star-follower, and usually rarely watched dramas, and most stars had names but not faces.

Lu Qingjiu saw that both Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun hadn't had enough, so he said, "Go on eating, I'll go and buy some seeds first."

"I've had enough." Yin Xun had already eaten two dozen and her stomach was bulging, "I'll join you."

"Then Bai Yuehu, you eat first." Lu Qingjiu said, "We'll come to you later when we've finished shopping."

Bai Yuehu nods.

Lu Qingjiu first went to the boss and paid a few hundred yuan, then went with Yin Xun to the place where the seeds were sold. This year, Lu Qingjiu has become financially well off and is planning to take back all the land he has rented out and plant it himself, but of course he has asked Bai Yuehu in advance, and Bai Yuehu says that there is no pressure on him to plant more land, so he can just let Lu Qingjiu do what he wants.

Lu Qingjiu has a lot of things he wants to grow and Bai Yuehu's produce is better than what you can buy in town, last year's tomatoes and cucumbers are a perfect example.

Lu Qingjiu bought a lot of seeds and seedlings and asked the owner if he had any saplings for fruit trees. The owner said he didn't have any at the moment, and that he would have to come back later to get the goods. Lu Qingjiu then left his phone number and asked the owner to call him when he got the goods.

After the shopping, Lu Qingjiu remembered something and took out his mobile phone to call Zhu Miaomiao to tell her that the snow had melted on his side.

Zhu Miaomiao said, "You were so worried about me, you just disappeared for two months and didn't even move during the New Year."

"I forget," Lu Qingjiu said, "the signal in the village is intermittent, sporadic, over

There happens to be no signal on those days of the year, don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Zhu Miaomiao said, "That's fine, I'll come and see you when I'm on holiday."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Hey, send me some more of those candies, I've run out of stock at home."

Zhu Miaomiao laughed and said angrily, "I think you will only call me when the candy is finished, is it that good?"

Lu Qingjiu honestly replied, "It's quite tasty." Everyone loved it, even the minivan had a great time eating it.

Zhu Miaomiao said "OK" and hung up the phone.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun took their purchases back to the shop selling dumplings, picked up Bai Yuehu and prepared to go home. Before they went home, Lu Qingjiu noticed that the group of people who had been making noise at the entrance seemed to be arguing with the town police, and Hu Shu was among them, who seemed to be arguing with someone about something, frowning and upset. Pang Ziqi stood by and almost made a move several times, but Hu Shu stopped him.

"What's this for?" Lu Qingjiu didn't understand.

"I don't know." Yin Xun shook his head to indicate that he didn't understand either.

Lu Qingjiu decided that it was none of his business, so he didn't want to get involved, so the three of them returned to the van with their harvest and went home.

Lu Qingjiu is in a good mood as spring is about to start and although there is a lot of work to be done around the house, Lu Qingjiu is in a good mood as he doesn't have to live with a charcoal pot every day and he is much more flexible now that he has taken off his heavy winter clothes.

Lu Qingjiu took advantage of the good weather to clean the whole house, including the well in the backyard. He cleaned up all the moss and stains on the well, and offered new offerings and incense and candles to the lady ghost.

At the end of winter, the electricity and internet cables were repaired and Lu Qingjiu's Tao Bao shop opened again. Although he had been mentally prepared for this, he was still surprised by the amount of messages he received when he opened his chat app. He didn't dare click on it to read it, but simply changed the shop's profile, stating that his shop was opening again in the middle of the year, this time making up for the first two months because it had been closed for two months, and selling 300 bottles at once.

After finishing the shop, Lu Qingjiu shut down his computer, he had too much to do and no time to rest.

The yard needs to be carefully cleaned up, the chicken coop has been partially damaged by the snow, and the bedding needs to be dragged out into the yard to be sterilised in the sun.

The whole village came alive, without the silence of winter, with chickens and dogs everywhere.

Lu Qingjiu was studying how to repair his chicken pen when he heard a loud noise from outside, as if a large group of people were talking.

"Do you remember the group we saw in the bun shop the other day," Yin Xun said, "they came running into our village."

"Ah," Lu Qingjiu stared, "what are they doing here?"

"I don't know." Yin Xun was also a bit baffled, "There were quite a few of them, 20 or 30 of them, and they were carrying cameras."

Lu Qingjiu went to the door and saw the group of people gathered in an old mansion not far from their house. All the people in the house had left Shuifu Village and no one had lived there for a long time.

Other villagers also watched the group from a distance, some wary and some curious, as Shuifu Village has very little contact with the outside world and it has been a long time since so many strangers have visited unexpectedly.

Lu Qingjiu looked at it for a while and suddenly felt that one of the faces looked familiar, but he couldn't remember, so he simply took a photo of it with his mobile phone and sent it to Zhu Miaomiao on WeChat, asking her if she recognised it. Zhu Miaomiao is a big fan of celebrities and knows a lot about the entertainment industry.

Soon after, Zhu Miaomiao messaged Lu Qingjiu back, saying that Lu Qingjiu had captured a celebrity and asking where Lu Qingjiu had taken the picture.

"It's in the village." Lu Qingjiu says, "A group of people came to Shuifu Village and made a lot of noise."

"He's gone to Shuifu Village," Zhu Miaomiao said in surprise, "I heard he's got a big variety show and he's actually filming in Shuifu Village."

"It seems like it." Lu Qingjiu said, "I saw the camera crew."

Zhu Miaomiao said with a fist pump: "Great, I'll find time to come over too, I want to watch it too hahaha." The locations of these variety shows are remote and kept secret, otherwise it would be easy for the show to be mobbed by fans and not go ahead.

Lu Qingjiu was not interested in the stars, but found the crowd a bit noisy and out of place in the quiet Shuifu Village. After a couple of glances, he went back to his work.

A few days later, Lu Qingjiu heard gossip about these people from Uncle Li next door. It seems that they had rented the use of the mansion for three months, specifically for filming the show. The village headman and the villagers were not very welcoming to the group and the village headman even went over to try to get them to leave, but in the end it failed. The crew said they had the right to stay there because they had paid for it and said they would not disturb the villagers' normal life

The village chief could only helplessly leave them to it.

Lu Qingjiu listened to Uncle Li's words, but he thought of Hu Shu who seemed to be arguing with this group of people when he saw them a few days before, and he didn't know what they were arguing about.

When Hu Shu received the call, he complained to Lu Qingjiu, saying that they had advised the group not to come to Shuifu Village, but the group did not listen to them at all, and that Shuifu Village was not suitable for outsiders and that more people might get into trouble. The group ignored Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi's advice and moved straight into Shuifu Village a few days later.

"Sake, please keep an eye on them, I have a bad feeling about this." Hu Shu said. Hu Shu said, "I have a feeling these people are going to get into serious trouble."

Lu Qingjiu said, "How can I keep track of so many people?"

"Alas, so be it, we'll just have to let them be." Hu Shu said, "It's so hard to persuade a ghost to die with good words."

Lu Qingjiu: "Why did they have to choose Shuifu Village to film?"

Hu Shu said, "I don't know who told them that Shuifu Village is a good environment, remote and not easily discovered by fans, so they just stayed there."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Oh, that's right." When he thought about it, it seemed that there was some truth in what these people were saying, "But if you want to live here, you can live here, Shuifu Village is quite safe and there's nothing dangerous about it."

Hu Shu: ""Not before, but not now, he didn't dare to say that out loud, he just mumbled it perfunctorily.

Lu Qingjiu didn't think much of it and hung up the phone after a few more words with Hu Shu.

Shuifu Village is not large, and it is only a twenty-minute walk from one end of the village to the other. Word of the group staying in the village soon spread, and villagers cast curious glances at the old mansion.

Lu Qingjiu also found out from Zhu Miaomiao that they were recording a village life show, which presumably meant that the guests would have to find their own food and cook for themselves, and the crew would not provide any food.

When Yin Xun found out about it, he thought that these people really had nothing better to do than to come to this little place to suffer.

Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but Lu Qingjiu was keenly aware that he didn't seem to be in a good mood, and lay back in his chair with his eyes closed.

Yin Xun said, "And why would anyone rent out the old house?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Who used to live there?"

"Don't you remember? It was the family called Liu." Yin Xun said. Yin Xun says, "One time I went to the city to play and the child was killed in a car accident, after that they left Shuifu Village and I don't know where they went." He is just the mountain god of Shuifu Village.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Have they come back?"

"No." Yin Xun said, "I never saw them again."

Lu Qingjiu thought it was a bit strange, if the Liu family had left the area, then who had rented their house to the programme if they hadn't left, then why had Yin Xun never seen them again or had they just moved to the top of the town?

Lu Qingjiu said, "All right, leave them alone, go and wash the rice and get ready to cook dinner."

"Okay." Yin Xun happily went off to wash the rice, never mind what the group was going to do, it was his main concern to have a delicious meal.

After Yin Xun had left, Lu Qingjiu was about to ask Bai Yuehu what he wanted to eat when he heard a knock on the door, he went to the door and opened it to see an unfamiliar face.

Lu Qingjiu: "Borrowing Rice"

The man said, "Yes, we want to cook, but there is no rice."

Lu Qingjiu saw the camera behind him and knew the group was doing a show, so he thought about it and asked Yin Xun to bring a small bag of rice out of the house in a plastic bag and handed it to him, "I suggest you don't go door to door like this, it's rather exclusive here and you won't be able to borrow anything like this."

The man took the bag of rice and thanked him with a smile, but obviously didn't take Lu Qingjiu's words to heart, after all, it was just a matter of opening the door and borrowing it.

Lu Qingjiu smoothly closed the door, then saw Bai Yuehu, who had closed his eyes, opened his eyes, and his eyes were gloomy. Lu Qingjiu suddenly realized that it was over, his fox spirit was not an ordinary food protector.

The author has something to say: Bai Yuehu: Someone ate my rice and got angry.

Lu Qingjiu: It's okay to fatten them up so you can eat them.

Bai Yuehu: Good.

Yin Xun: Lu Qingjiu, what's wrong with you, wake up!

I misremembered the quantity of hairspray as 10 bottles :3" Edit