Chapter 7: Paying your respects

"The man's body has not been identified yet, and the time of death was six months later than the woman's." The policeman said, "But actually six months in the water that body should have decomposed almost, but this man's body is still well preserved, which is one of the incredible things."

Lu Qingjiu frowned and said, "Officer, may I take the liberty of asking what your name is?"

The policeman said, "My name is Hu Shu, you can call me Officer Hu."

"Officer Hu, actually I don't know what's going on here, I just had a nightmare." Lu Qingjiu said, "Six months ago I was still working properly in the city, and the neighbours can also testify that I haven't come back, so I can't say what's going on."

Hu Shu said, "I know, we've looked into it." After the body was found, they went back to investigate Lu Qingjiu's background in detail and established that he had not been back to his home for a long time, basically ruling him out as the perpetrator.

Then, since Lu Qingjiu had nothing to do with this, the case was headed even further in a psychic direction. Officer Hu sighed again with a bitter face.

Lu Qingjiu could only pat him on the shoulder as a gesture of comfort.

There were still no clues and the police investigated the Lu Qingjiu backyard for a few days before withdrawing from the scene, but of course, this time the well was thoroughly checked to make sure that there would be no more bodies or anything like that in the water.

"You'd better hire someone to do the puja here." The whole village heard about what had happened to Lu Family and felt it was inauspicious. Uncle Li, a neighbour, said, "It's so unlucky that a stranger died in the backyard of this house."

"It's okay." Lu Qingjiu said, "I don't believe in that."

"Hey, you kid." Then Uncle Li said, "I know you don't believe in it, but the rest of the village does, and if you don't invite someone to do the ceremony, everyone else will be afraid to go to your house."

Lu Qingjiu was slightly stunned, not having thought about it, and after a moment's hesitation he nodded, "I'll go back and think about it then."

"Yes." Uncle Li said, "That Goddess He at the east end of the village is quite spiritual, she came to invoke the spirit of my son when he got a nightmare last time."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Good."

When he got home, he hesitantly found Bai Yuehu and asked him very politely if he was afraid of a goddess or something like that. Bai Yuehu was sitting in a chair, dozing, when he heard his words, he raised his eyes and said, "A goddess, what kind of"

"Just the one at the entrance to the village." Lu Qingjiu repeated what his next-door neighbour had said, "If you're afraid of this, we won't invite it." He was about to say yes to Uncle Li, but then he thought about the fact that he was still hiding a lazy vixen, so he had to change his mind immediately and say that he would go back and think about it.

"Please." Bai Yuehu closed his eyes again, yawned, and said, "No one can touch me here, but"

"But what?" Lu Qingjiu asks.

"That well behind your house still has wishing power." Bai Yuehu said, "The average person approaching it might be affected a little."

"Wishful thinking," Lu Qingjiu said, "that's what it is."

"An obsession left behind before a person dies." Bai Yuehu said, "If the hatred is particularly strong, it will form a spell power, but if it is just an obsession, it is a wish power, as for the effect, I don't know, but it won't kill you anyway."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Oh then I'll ask the divine lady to come and see if it will go away."

Bai Yuehu opens his mouth at this, as if he wants to say something, but finally goes quiet again and continues to look as if he is about to fall asleep at any moment.

Lu Qingjiu went to the village the next day and asked the He godmother, who looked seventy or eighty years old, with a head of hair that was about to fall out, and wearing patched and mended clothes, to be a bit mysterious. After listening to Lu Qingjiu's request, she said a series of words that were incomprehensible, and then made an OK gesture to Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu thought to himself that this goddess was quite foreign, and that she was still OK, and said, "Then I'll be grateful to you, when are you free to come over?"

Goddess He frowned, reached out and grabbed Lu Qingjiu's shoulder and put her hand in front of Lu Qingjiu's face.

Lu Qingjiu looked at her inexplicably until her dry lips moved and she spat out two words, "Three hundred."

Lu Qingjiu :""

After a long silence, Lu Qingjiu said nothing, took out three hundred yuan from his pocket and handed it tremblingly to the goddess.

The godmother took the money and finally withdrew the ok's finger and said, "Go over tomorrow and prepare a large rooster, alive."

Lu Qingjiu: "Good."

When Lu Qingjiu returned from the Goddess He's house, he asked his neighbour, Uncle Li, to buy a large rooster from his family. Lu Qingjiu said that the Goddess He would come tomorrow and Uncle Li was relieved, saying that this Goddess He was quite divine and that the well should be fine after the puja. Lu Qingjiu thought to himself that even if it was okay, he wouldn't dare to use it, because the water in it had soaked a dead person.

When Yin Xun heard that Lu Qingjiu's family was going to have a puja, he came before dawn the next day. Lu Qingjiu was still standing in the front yard brushing his teeth at the laundry chute and was shocked to see his eyes glowing: "Why are you so excited?"

Yin Xun said, "Gee, it's been a long time since I've seen the Goddess perform a puja, I miss it a bit."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Yin Xun with an odd look in his eyes at his words, "You have a strong taste in thinking about who the goddess is."

Yin Xun: "What are you talking about, friend."

Lu Qingjiu didn't say anything and patted his best friend's shoulder.

It was just after seven o'clock, just after dawn, when the goddess arrived, carrying a cloth bag that looked like it contained a lot of things. Bai Yuehu was still sleeping, and Lu Qingjiu didn't mind him, as it didn't matter whether he got up or not.

The goddess mumbled something under her breath, went to the well and began to place some things, while Lu Qingjiu watched. Some of the items were paper bowls, others were paper Yuanbao, most of which Lu Qingjiu knew, but had no idea what they were for.

The goddess naturally did not give Lu Qingjiu an explanation, she took the long sword in her hand, chanting in a divine manner, danced around the mouth of the well, then grabbed the rooster on the ground and with a swing of the long sword, she actually cut off the rooster's head directly.

Next to her, Yin Xun hissed at the sight and whispered, "How fierce."

Lu Qingjiu didn't say anything, he was wondering if the rooster could still be eaten after the puja and thought it would be good to make a chicken pot.

After the goddess chopped off the chicken's head, the blood fell to the ground. She then served the blood in a bowl, took another sip from that bowl and sprayed it in the direction of the well's mouth.

Lu Qingjiu saw such a scene and thought to himself that the 300 yuan was not easy to earn.

When Lu Qingjiu politely asked if the chicken was still edible, she glared at Lu Qingjiu and said, "This is a used chicken, how can you eat it? The well can be used, but you can't use the water in it."

Lu Qingjiu nodded and thanked the goddess, seeing her walk away with the chicken carcass.

Yin Xun took a fond look at the chicken and said, "What a big chicken, what a pity to lose it."

"Yeah." Lu Qingjiu sighed, "What a shame."

The two of them cleaned up the wellhead and then got busy again. The yard was much livelier with the addition of a flock of chattering chickens, who were bold and not afraid of strangers, and their reaction to seeing a stranger enter was to go up and chatter with their little yellow beaks. The first time Li Xiaoyu saw them, he was chattered at several times, but the chickens were not very powerful, only that Yin Xun kept exclaiming that the newborn chickens were not afraid of mushrooms.

"This is my family's chicken boy." Bai Yuehu, who had not been very vocal from the side, took a stand at this point, saying, "I will do to you what you do to them."

Yin Xun :""

Lu Qingjiu: "Hahahahahahaha."

Then he saw Yin Xun grab a chicken and kiss it on the butt, then look at Bai Yuehu provocatively.

Bai Yuehu :""

Lu Qingjiu was laughing beside him with tears in his eyes, especially at Bai Yuehu's ugly expression, which made him laugh uncontrollably.

In the end, Yin Xun gave up on the idea of hitting the chickens and looked at them, saying that they would wait until they were older before thinking about it.

Just when Lu Qingjiu thought it was all over, something happened to Goddess He that no one expected.

It was a cloudy morning and Lu Qingjiu was sitting outside the window with Yin Xun, washing the pork belly they had bought yesterday for today's stew, when the door was slammed.

"Who is it." Yin Xun asked.

"It's me." Goddess He's voice came through.

Lu Qingjiu said, "What brings you here?" He stood up, went to the door and opened it, but froze the moment he opened it and saw Goddess He.

Goddess He, however, as if guessing Lu Qingjiu's reaction, trembled so much that her voice was hoarse as she said, "I was cursed by the well in your house."

Lu Qingjiu: "Is this a curse?"

Goddess He stroked her long, lush hair: "Sort of."

Lu Qingjiu: ""He should rename his well the King's Anti-Defection Well in future.