Chapter 62: Black scales

When Lu Qingjiu reached Bai Yuehu's room, he didn't dare to knock on the door for fear of alerting the monster outside, so he gently pushed the door open and saw the scene inside through the crack. The room was empty, the bed was empty, and Bai Yuehu was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Qingjiu was a little nervous, he looked out the door, the creature was still standing in their yard, but because of its size, it seemed that only its head was tucked in, the rest of it must still be outside the yard. The monster seemed to have moved its eyes to Jiang Buhuan's window, and Jiang Buhuan's screams were like those of a chicken whose neck had been crushed, so miserable that he seemed to see the black eyes and screamed, "Help, help, there's a monster outside the window, someone help me."

With that, he pushed open the door and ran out of the house in a panic, just in time to see Lu Qingjiu standing in the corridor, and for a moment they stared at each other, before Jiang Buhuan said in a trembling voice: "Lu, Mr. Lu."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Good evening."

Jiang Buhuan: "There's a monster out there"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Oh, I saw that."

Jiang Buhuan was shocked by Lu Qingjiu's calm reaction to the thing outside, which had completely overturned his outlook, and even made him wonder if he was having another nightmare: "Aren't you scared?"

Lu Qingjiu: "I'm afraid." I was worried that something might happen to my son.

Jiang Buhuan: "You call this fear"

Lu Qingjiu nodded, and he said, "Come here first."

Jiang Buhuan was trying to get up from the ground when he heard a loud noise from outside, as if a building had collapsed, followed by a series of low growls.

Because the window was too small, Lu Qingjiu could not see the creature clearly, but he had a vague feeling that it looked somewhat like the legendary dragon, but with some subtle differences from it. This made Lu Qingjiu think of the black dragon trapped in the abyss, but he wondered if there was any connection between the two.

While Lu Qingjiu was wondering, a black fog rose up around the beast and wrapped its body in it. Lu Qingjiu saw this and hurriedly went out to check, only to find that there was already a black mist in the sky. The two clouds of black fog merged together, and with bites, roars and beast-like roars, the black fog filled the sky and eventually covered the entire Shuifu Village. Jiang Buhuan was already dumbfounded, he was not as bold as Lu Qingjiu, and it took him a while to build up his courage to go to the door and say, "It's raining."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Hmm."

At some point, a light rain fell from the sky, drops of rain hitting the ground with a rustling sound; it was already so dark outside that he couldn't see anything except these loud noises, Lu Qingjiu could not see anything. Soon, however, he realised that the liquid falling was not rain but blood. Lu Qingjiu slowly stretched out his hand and caught some of the liquid in his palm. He withdrew his hand and put it to the tip of his nose, where he detected a strong smell of blood.

Jiang Buhuan also noticed something was wrong and said with a shudder, "What's with the big smell of blood?"

Lu Qingjiu did not say anything and looked up at the sky.

The black mist was where the rain of blood had fallen, and the blood seemed to have fallen from the trembling beast in the black mist. Along with the rain of blood, there was something hard, and Lu Qingjiu bent down to pick it up and found that the hard object was actually a scale. The scale was the size of a palm, hard and sharp, and as Lu Qingjiu held it a little tighter, the edge of the scale cut his palm. Realising what was happening, he cast a worried glance into the black mist.

Jiang Buhuan was already tired of being scared, and he sat dumbly on the ground, staring at the sky with a dull expression. The rain of blood became heavier and heavier, and finally became a pouring rain, the smell of blood was thick and choking, and the small courtyard, which was originally familiar, had become incomparably strange, as if it had entered an inter-dimensional space.

"What is that," said Jiang Buhuan, "am I really not dreaming?"

Lu Qingjiu did not answer, all his attention was inside the black mist, the scales accumulating on the ground and the blood pooling on the ground, the horrible sounds of clashing and tearing and gnawing in his ears, all of it so terrifying.

It was an amazingly long night.

Fear consumed most of Jiang Buhuan's strength and he sat down on the floor, leaning against the door frame, and fell asleep. Lu Qingjiu kept his head tilted back until the back of his neck was stiff, when the sky finally broke into light. The thin light broke through the thick black fog, breaking the darkness like a knot, the rain subsided, the shouts became weaker, the black fog that had covered the sky began to fade, and Lu Qingjiu finally saw the dark blue clouds and the bright moon that was already disappearing.

It was getting light, Lu Qingjiu thought. He looked towards his courtyard and saw the whole small courtyard, a near mess, all covered in blood and the ground covered in black scaly remains, as if it were a shura hell. But miraculously, with all this commotion, only he and Jiang Buhuan seemed to be able to hear it, and it was as if there was no other living thing in the whole Shuifu Village except for the two of them.

Lu Qingjiu looked down and saw the scales in his hand, which were in fact beautiful, with a jewel-like sheen and sharp edges like blades that could easily cut through fragile human skin; clearly, the owner of the scales was no slouch either.

When Lu Qingjiu looked up again, the black mist in the sky finally dissipated, revealing the sky and the sunrise about to rise on the horizon. The blood on the ground began to disappear and the scaly remains faded away, as if everything was returning towards normalcy.

Last night's deadly fight was nothing more than an absurd dream.

Lu Qingjiu stood up, he heard the sound of human footsteps at the entrance to the courtyard, and then saw a familiar figure Bai Yuehu returning.

He was dressed in a black robe, draped with long hair, his eyes slightly downcast and his face frighteningly white. Above the black robe, embroidered in gold silk, was a five-clawed tenglong, which came alive as if it were about to pounce right out of his clothes.

" Bai Yuehu ." Lu Qingjiu called his name.

Bai Yuehu looked up and said, "Sake."

"You're hurt," Lu Qingjiu said nervously, noticing the blood dripping from beneath Bai Yuehu's robe as he quickly stepped forward, sensing something.

"It's a small injury, it's not a problem." Bai Yuehu said.

"Let me see." Lu Qingjiu, however, insisted.

Bai Yuehu frowned slightly, seemingly embarrassed, but in response to Lu Qingjiu's firmness, he slowly untied his robe, revealing his solid chest. A blood-red scratch ran across Bai Yuehu's abdomen, so deep that bone was visible, and blood was slowly dripping down.

Lu Qingjiu became nervous at the sight of such a hideous wound: "It's so serious, let's go to the hospital."

Bai Yuehu said, "It's okay, it will be fine in a few days."

Lu Qingjiu said, "It's called nothing."

Bai Yuehu said, "Well, our race is very good at healing itself, and besides, human hospitals are of little use to us."

Lu Qingjiu said, "So what do you need? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Bai Yuehu thinks for a moment, "I need food."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay, I'll make you something to eat right away." He looked worriedly at the wound, but his heart still couldn't let go, and whispered, "Do you need to clean the wound?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Yes."

Lu Qingjiu hurried to the house to find hot water and gauze, as well as some medical supplies for disinfection. The wound had been scratched by some fierce beast and there was even a piece of broken nail found inside.

"How is that thing, will it come back?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

Bai Yuehu's eyes were half-closed, his black hair spread out behind him, lending him a lazy allure: "Maybe, but he's more injured than I am, and it's not that easy to come back."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Rest while I make you something to eat."

Bai Yuehu said, "Well wait a minute."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Yes."

"What do you have in your pocket?" Bai Yuehu asked suddenly.

"A black scale." Lu Qingjiu took out what he had in his pocket, all the scales in the courtyard had disappeared, only this one in his hand remained, he quite liked this scale, after taking it out and rubbing it in his hand a few times he felt the smooth texture, "What's wrong"

Bai Yuehu looked a little uncomfortable: "What are you keeping this for?"

"Oh, I think it's quite nice." Lu Qingjiu said, "Is there a problem? If not I'll throw it away."

Bai Yuehu said, "It's not impossible."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu inexplicably.

Bai Yuehu said, "Forget it, you can keep it." He seemed to want to say something, but in the end he didn't. A suspicious blush rose to his cheeks as he watched Lu Qingjiu rubbing the scales together, but Lu Qingjiu didn't notice because he was focused on the wound on Bai Yuehu's chest.

"I'll keep it, then." Lu Qingjiu smiled, "I'll go and make something to eat."

Bai Yuehu nodded and let Lu Qingjiu go.

It was already dawn when Jiang Buhuan woke up from his dream in a daze and saw Lu Qingjiu feeding Bai Yuehu noodles in the courtyard. At first he thought he was mistaken, but after rubbing his eyes, he realised he was not hallucinating.

The events of the past few days had been so absurd, so absurd that he felt he was blurring the line between reality and dream.

Jiang Buhuan stood up from the floor, feeling pain all over his body, and slowly walked over to Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu and whispered, "Good morning, good morning."

Lu Qingjiu didn't even look back: "Good morning, there's breakfast in the kitchen, go and get it yourself."

"Did I have a dream last night?" Jiang Buhuan said, confused. He remembered that it was raining blood from the sky and the whole yard had become a mess, but when he opened his eyes in the morning, everything was fine around here.

"It's not a dream, it's real." Lu Qingjiu said.

Jiang Buhuan saw Bai Yuehu's appearance. Overnight, Bai Yuehu had grown a head of dark, shiny hair, but his face was much uglier than yesterday, "Is Mr. Bai injured?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "You go and eat." He did not answer Jiang Buhuan's question.

Jiang Buhuan nods sagely and turns to go.

After he had left, Lu Qingjiu was a little puzzled: "The thing that hurt you came after Jiang Buhuan."

Bai Yuehu: "Yes and no."

Lu Qingjiu: "What does it mean?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Jiang Buhuan was in a special position and he just wanted Jiang Buhuan to die in Shuifu Village."

"Special status" Lu Qingjiu was a little surprised, "he's not human either"

Bai Yuehu said, "It's a human being."

Lu Qingjiu frowned, not understanding Bai Yuehu's meaning, but Bai Yuehu was no longer going to explain, and closed his eyes a little tiredly. Lu Qingjiu saw the tired look on his face and didn't bother him any further, seeing that the bowl of noodles was almost finished before he gingerly left Bai Yuehu's side, leaving him to rest on his own.

Zhu Miaomiao had a refreshing sleep, but when he got up, he saw Lu Qingjiu and Jiang Buhuan both looking sleep-deprived, and was surprised: "Why do you both look like you haven't slept?

Lu Qingjiu: "Hey, it's really about catching ghosts."

Zhu Miaomiao: "Forget it, I won't ask, and you don't say anything." She didn't believe in this, but since the well in the backyard had cured her baldness, she had to believe it.

Lu Qingjiu yawned and told Zhu Miaomiao to leave Bai Yuehu alone and let him rest in the courtyard. Although Zhu Miaomiao was strange, he listened to Lu Qingjiu and stayed at home.

Yin Xun arrived a short while later, looking just as sleep deprived as Lu Qingjiu Jiang Buhuan, who had obviously seen what had happened last night and hadn't been able to sleep at all.

"Is Bai Yuehu all right?" Yin Xun asked Lu Qingjiu in a whisper.

"A little wounded." Lu Qingjiu said, "He said he was fine."

"Oh." Yin Xun said, "It scared the hell out of me last night, I thought something big was going to happen."

"Do you know what that thing is?" Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment and fished the black scales out of his pocket, "I picked it up last night."

Yin Xun's expression twisted at the sight of the scales: "You picked them up."

Lu Qingjiu: "Yeah."

Yin Xun: " Does Bai Yuehu know?"

Lu Qingjiu: "I know, he agreed to let me keep it."

Yin Xun :""

Lu Qingjiu: "What's wrong, why do you look so strange?"

Yin Xun held his tongue for a long time, and then said, "Nothing."

Lu Qingjiu said suspiciously, "It's really fine, why do you look like that?"

"Oh, I just don't think it's a good idea to hold the scales." Yin Xun muttered in a small voice, "Who knows what the side effects are."

Lu Qingjiu was fine with it: "

There are side effects Bai Yuehu will talk to me about and it should be fine."

Do you know what this scale means? This scale can only be owned by their mate. Qingjiu, in Bai Yuehu's eyes, he was at best a talking reserve, with no human rights at all.

Since Bai Yuehu was resting in the courtyard, Lu Qingjiu told the men to stay at home and not to go out to disturb Bai Yuehu's sleep.

Zhu Miaomiao saw that everyone looked like they hadn't slept and was curious about what had happened last night, but no matter how much he asked, no one was willing to tell him, so he had no choice but to give up and strongly suspected that the group had done something unspeakable behind his back.

"Yin Xun, who had been frightened all night, wanted to sleep like Zhu Miaomiao, who had no idea what was going on.

"Who says grown men can't do anything." Zhu Miaomiao slapped the table, "Men are not safe nowadays, especially cute boys like Jiang Buhuan, they must learn to protect themselves when they go out."

Jiang Buhuan: ""He always thought that staying away from Zhu Miaomiao was protecting himself.

Lu Qingjiu said, "You guys play, I'm going to cook."

"How can you play with three people?" Yin Xun said, "Or I'll come and help you too."

Zhu Miaomiao rolls up his sleeves: "Why can't three people play, come on, let's fight the landlord"

Yin Xun was pulled over by Zhu Miaomiao with a confused look on his face.

Lu Qingjiu went to the kitchen to cook, although he had fed Bai Yuehu in the morning, he would be hungry by noon according to Bai Yuehu's frighteningly large appetite, and Bai Yuehu was still injured.

Lu Qingjiu was a bit worried when he thought of the wound on Bai Yuehu's chest, and wondered how long it would take for Bai Yuehu to heal, whether it would leave a scar on his body, and whether he would be bald when he returned to his original form. The story is that the fox spirit is not a fox.

To feed Bai Yuehu, Lu Qingjiu emptied the fridge of almost all the stock in the house and cooked a table full of meat, stir-fried, stewed and fried, leaving the three of them dumbfounded.

Yin Xun said, "Is it New Year's Day at our house?"

Lu Qingjiu wiped the sweat off his forehead and ignored him, "I'll go and get Bai Yuehu to eat." He was the only one who dared to wake up Bai Yuehu, who was still sleeping.

Bai Yuehu was still asleep and did not even notice when someone came up to him, Lu Qingjiu reached out and gently patted his shoulder and called out, "Bai Yuehu."

Bai Yuehu opened his eyes and saw Lu Qingjiu next to him.

"It's lunchtime." Lu Qingjiu called out, "I've made lots of your favourite dishes."

Bai Yuehu said, "First, find me a pair of scissors."

Lu Qingjiu laughed: "Why are you in such a hurry to cut"

Bai Yuehu said, "It's not convenient to eat."

Lu Qingjiu was dumbfounded, Bai Yuehu's reason for not liking long hair was really neat and tidy, and it was true that long hair was not very convenient for eating, plus Bai Yuehu could not comb it, so it would easily fall in front of him when eating and affect his speed.

Lu Qingjiu said, "It's alright, I'll ask Zhu Miaomiao for a headband first, and then cut it after dinner."

Bai Yuehu nodded after hearing this and did not dwell on the matter.

Zhu Miaomiao looked straight at Bai Yuehu's long hair and couldn't stop complimenting him on how beautiful it was. Lu Qingjiu found a headband and slowly tied Bai Yuehu's black hair at the back of his head, his hair was so dark and smooth that it looked like fine satin in his hands.

All Bai Yuehu's attention was on the food, not caring what Lu Qingjiu was doing to his hair.

Yin Xun, sitting next to Lu Qingjiu, watched the two of them interacting, his eyes were about to glare out, daring to touch Bai Yuehu's hair like that, he was afraid Bai Yuehu would turn his head and bite Lu Qingjiu, but then again, Bai Yuehu had agreed to Lu Qingjiu touching his scales, so combing his hair didn't seem to matter.

With this in mind, Yin Xun is at peace.

Lu Qingjiu fixed Bai Yuehu's hair before starting to eat, but meat is always very filling, and since there were no vegetarian dishes at the table to cater for Bai Yuehu, the four of them were soon full, and finally just watched Bai Yuehu continue to stuff his mouth with food.

The food went into Bai Yuehu's stomach, but it seemed to go into an abyss that could never be filled.

After eating for almost an hour or so, Bai Yuehu finished all the food on the table, and only when he had finished did he look as satisfied as a big cat at the end of a hunt, with laziness and satisfaction in the corners of his eyes.

"Are you feeling okay?" Lu Qingjiu didn't even dare to ask if he was full.

"That's better." Bai Yuehu says, "I'm going to take a nap." He yawned lazily and headed back to the rocking chair in the centre of the courtyard.

The sun is shining in spring, the vines are sprouting, new green leaves are coming out of the branches, and every now and then a bird lands on the vine and chirps. Bai Yuehu sleeps on a chair with her eyes closed, beautiful as a painting.

They didn't dare to disturb him and moved around cautiously. Yin Xun suggested that they could go to the mountains and pick some wild fruits while the weather was good, but Lu Qingjiu let them go, saying that he would keep watch over Bai Yuehu in the courtyard.

So the three of them went out with the bamboo basket and the little fox, leaving Lu Qingjiu sitting in the courtyard with Bai Yuehu.

Lu Qingjiu went to the house and found a book, sitting next to Bai Yuehu and reading it quietly.

When he woke up, it was already sunset. He opened his eyes in a daze, but noticed that Bai Yuehu had woken up at some point and was staring at him with a look of uncertainty. Lu Qingjiu froze, but when he looked again, Bai Yuehu's dark eyes had returned to their usual calmness.

"Waking up from a nap," Lu Qingjiu greeted him, somewhat uncomfortably.

Bai Yuehu nods.

"Is the chest wound better?" Lu Qingjiu was still worried about that.

Bai Yuehu was silent for a moment as he reached up and unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his chest, only to see that the top of his chest had been restored to smoothness and only eight sharp abs could be seen, the hideous wounds of the morning had disappeared.

"That's nice." Lu Qingjiu was a little surprised.

"Okay." Bai Yuehu said frankly, "You can touch it if you don't believe me."

Lu Qingjiu said, "No, no, no."

Bai Yuehu frowned: "Then why do you like to touch my tail so much?"

Lu Qingjiu: "Is it the same"

Bai Yuehu: "It's all part of my body, where's the difference?"

Lu Qingjiu: ""He couldn't refute it, so he had no choice but to reach out and touch it again, and afterwards he had to compliment his fox spirit: "You've recovered really well."

Bai Yuehu now looks satisfied.

Author's Note: Bai Yuehu threatens with the tail: Do you like the tail or me?

Lu Qingjiu: Of course it's you!

Bai Yuehu: Then what are you staring at the tail for?

Lu Qingjiu: This is not afraid that it will fall off again

Bai Yuehu.