Chapter 81: Goodbye Shao Hao

The day after he returned home, Lu Qingjiu spent the afternoon making a huge ice cream cake.

The bottom mould is for the cake, but the cream on top is all ice cream. The cake is topped with fresh fruit and the ice cream is orange flavoured, which is not as sticky as the cream and tastes fresh and delicate, a perfect match for the soft cake. At the bottom of the cake is a layer of Lu Qingjiu's homemade puff pastry, which is not overly sweetened but still crisp and crunchy, which is a perfect antidote to the sweetness of sweets.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu are always up for a sweet treat, and the whole cake was gone in less than half an hour.

As soon as May arrived, the cherries were ripe, and last year's cherry jam had been completely consumed over the winter. Yin Xun was so pleased with the way our sour cherries had turned out, that this year, before Lu Qingjiu could say anything, he went and picked all the cherries he had grown at home, washed them, removed the pits and let Lu Qingjiu make a delicious cherry sauce.

Lu Qingjiu took a long time to make the cherry sauce, and then started preparing dinner. It was hot and everyone wanted something refreshing, so after asking, he simply made a big pot of green bean congee, a big bowl of cold noodles with shredded chicken and white meat with garlic, and took out the duck eggs that had been pickled at home, washed them and cooked several of them in the pot.

After cooking, Lu Qingjiu peeled one off and poked his chopsticks into the egg white to see the yellow fat spilling out. Lu Qingjiu didn't put too much salt in the marinade, so the egg whites didn't taste unpleasant, but rather the delicious taste of the yolk took over the whole mouth.

Yin Xun gulped as he watched, muttering that he hadn't eaten salted duck eggs for a long time. When his grandparents were still alive, he used to make them all the time, but since his grandparents are gone and he doesn't know how to make them himself, he has almost forgotten the taste of salted duck eggs.

Lu Qingjiu handed him one in passing.

In the evening when it was time to eat, Lu Qingjiu moved the table out into the courtyard and ate his dinner while watching the stars. In addition to the previously mentioned dishes, he ended the meal with a pile of small New Orleans flavoured chicken thighs cooked in the oven, but they were all bought from the supermarket and although the meat was not as good as at home, they were more than adequate as a snack.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu were both very happy with their food, they were both quite childlike and especially enjoyed the messy snacks, especially the grilled chicken legs, even Yin Xun was able to take one bite without spitting out the bones.

Lu Qingjiu's first thought was that something had happened again, so he stood up nervously and said, "What's wrong?"

Bai Yuehu said calmly, "It's the light from the backyard."

Lu Qingjiu was stunned and then remembered the incredibly bright circle of light above the well in his backyard. Since the opening of Lu Qingjiu's Tao Bao shop, the circle of light above the well in the backyard has been getting brighter and brighter every day, to the point where the backyard is bright at night without the need to turn on the lights. Lu Qingjiu also renews the well every now and then, as the family relies on it for their livelihood.

Looking at the light, it was obvious that something had happened in the backyard. Lu Qingjiu moved his feet slowly and went to the door of the backyard, supporting his head to look inside, and when he did, his jaw almost dropped.

Only a girl in a long white dress appeared in the brightest part of the backyard. The girl was sitting on the edge of the well, with her luxuriant black hair hanging down from behind her into the ancient well. And the ancient well was emitting a dazzling light, which was not blinding, but very soft and gave a feeling of warmth.

Yin Xun was dumbfounded, and after half a day he said, "This is a god."

Lu Qingjiu turned back silently and looked at Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu gazed at the girl for a moment and said, "It seems true."

Lu Qingjiu :""

Bai Yuehu said, "Becoming a god."

Although Bai Yuehu had said this before, Lu Qingjiu was still in a trance when he saw that the girl in the well had become a real god because of her strange belief in baldness, and he thought of the miserable Tai Feng, of the prideful insects rummaging through the bins in the park, and of the holy ghost lady in front of him. The importance of being in tune with the times.

If Tai Feng could make his followers grow their hair, he would not be worried about disappearing and would be worshipped by countless modern people who worry about their hairline.

The girl was plain looking, but the lush black hair behind her caught everyone's attention. She saw Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun standing next to her, gave a smile and waved at them, "Thank you for taking care of me, come over here."

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun were both attracted by her smile and could not help but walk towards her, but when they were about to approach her, Bai Yuehu, who was standing behind them, suddenly spoke out in a stern tone, "Don't go over there."

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun were shocked and both thought something had happened and intended to turn around, but it was too late.

"Ah" Yin Xun let out a miserable cry, "my eyes, I'm blind"

Lu Qingjiu's eyes were also suddenly dark, but he was calmer than Yin Xun and soon realised that it was not that he was blind, but that something was blocking his eyes. He reached out and gripped a large tuft of hair around his face, then tossed it to the side, and his eyes saw light again.

Lu Qingjiu realized what had just happened. It turned out that the female ghost's hand had just slapped their shoulders and their hair had started to grow like crazy, and now it was so long that it was dragging down to the ground.

Yin Xun, who hadn't understood what was happening, covered his face and rolled on the ground: "Ah, my eyes, I'm blind oooooooo"

Lu Qingjiu lifted his foot and gave him a smack on the ass: "Stop fucking shouting."

Yin Xun cried bitterly, " Lu Qingjiu, are you still human, I can't even see anymore, and you still do this to me, I don't want to live anymore."

Lu Qingjiu: "" He grimaced without speaking, bending down to lift Yin Xun's long bangs.

Yin Xun's eyes saw light again and he sat up blankly, wiping the thick curtain of hair from his head: "I'm not blind."

Lu Qingjiu gritted his teeth: "Can you be normal?"

Yin Xun gave a somewhat embarrassed smile and got up from the ground to pat the dust on his buttocks: "It's not because Bai Yuehu sounded so horrible that I thought something was wrong."

Lu Qingjiu turned his head to look at Bai Yuehu, but found that his fox spirit had a strange expression on his face. At first Lu Qingjiu thought Bai Yuehu was worried about them, but when he took a closer look, he realized that Bai Yuehu was actually holding back his laughter.

Lu Qingjiu: "What are you laughing at?"

Bai Yuehu is righteous and refuses to admit: "I'm not laughing."

Lu Qingjiu: "Why are you shaking if you're not laughing?"

Bai Yuehu: "I'm cold."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu's short sleeves with suspicion and thought to himself, "It's almost 30 degrees, where are you cold, are you cold in your heart?

After bestowing upon them a luxuriant and excessive black hair, the lady ghost faded away with a benevolent smile before their eyes. Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun, who were covered by their hair, were left staring at each other.

"So now what?" Yin Xun stroked the thick black hair on her head.

"What else can we do, cut it off." Lu Qingjiu was a bit helpless, although he felt that the ghost lady wanted to thank them, but this kind of thanks was a bit incompetent, especially for Lu Qingjiu, who was not short of hair

Bai Yuehu finally regained his usual languid expression and stopped shaking his shoulders. And when Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun, with downcast faces, went to the bathroom to grab their scissors to fix their hair first, they both saw themselves in the mirror. They stared at first, then looked at each other, before bursting into violent laughter.

"Hahahahahahaha." Yin Xun laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes, pointing at Lu Qingjiu's hair and saying, "Lu Qingjiu, you look like a mop."

Lu Qingjiu was having fun too: "How dare you talk about me, you look like a mop too."

The two laughed together, this female ghost sister's raw hair was too hardcore, both the front and the back of the head grew out thick black hair, almost covering their entire person all over, the person's body was all shrouded in hair, nothing could be seen.

After laughing, the two of them grabbed the clippers and cut their hair. Lu Qingjiu didn't dare to cut his hair too short, so he planned to go to the barber tomorrow to have it fixed again, after all, he didn't have Bai Yuehu's unbelievable facial features, so if he really gave himself a doggy haircut, he probably wouldn't be able to go out and meet people.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun decided to stay away from the well in the backyard as it was a pain to have long hair every day.

The appearance of the lady ghost was just a sign of things to come, and she appeared more and more frequently over the next few days, sometimes in the morning when Lu Qingjiu went to clean the backyard and saw her sitting by the well, staring.

Lu Qingjiu also learns from Bai Yuehu that the lady ghost has no flaws other than that she makes people grow their hair, so there is no need to worry about her dragging herself down the well with a grimace like in a horror movie.

Lu Qingjiu still talks to her occasionally, but she seems to have forgotten a lot about her life and can't recall much of it.

"Why the hell am I here?" The lady ghost chats with Lu Qingjiu, "Do you know my name?"

Lu Qingjiu knew her name because Hu Shu had told him about it when he was working on the case, but he hesitated a little and didn't say the name of the lady ghost, somehow he had a hunch that it wouldn't be good to make her remember the tragic death she had died in life.

Luckily, the lady ghost was very spontaneous and didn't dwell much on the matter, as she quickly turned her attention to other things in the backyard, such as the vines hanging on the shelves, the beehive in the corner, and the eyebright planted next to the beehive.

The eyeballs from Ju Mang had already borne fruit, and the sight of the eyeballs darting around in the ground with the breeze was a bit scary. Lu Qingjiu picked the eyeballs as soon as they were ripe to prevent others from seeing the scene, and shared them with Bai Yuehu Yin Xun.

Similar to the eyebright they had before, most of the flavours were fruity, with a variety of fruits, Lu Qingjiu's favourite being grape, while Yin Xun preferred lychee and Bai Yuehu preferred orange.

Lu Qingjiu chatted with Bai Yuehu over some fruit and asked him about the relationship between Ju Mang and Zhu Rong. Bai Yuehu said that although they were both gods in charge of the four seasons, Zhu Rong was actually Ju Mang's superior, and that Zhu Rong had been there when Pan Gu opened the heavens and earth, while many other gods were actually born later.

Then they talked about Ying Long and the Candle Dragon. Lu Qingjiu learned that Ying Long was actually an adult dragon over five hundred years old, while Candle Dragon was more of a branch of the dragon family than a dragon, and that they were originally in charge of the affairs of the underworld, but later rebelled against the ambitions of the other dragons.

When Lu Qingjiu listens to Bai Yuehu, he feels that these mythical creatures are far away from him, but when he looks at Bai Yuehu, he feels that he is not that far away.

As the weather has warmed up, all sorts of creatures are becoming more active and recently Shao Hao has been calling home to invite Lu Qingjiu and the others to dinner.

Lu Qingjiu at first wondered why Shao Hao was so kind, but it was Bai Yuehu who gave the answer, saying, "Shao Hao's house is plagued by beasts, isn't it?"

Lu Qingjiu said in surprise, "A plague of beasts"

Bai Yuehu said, "There are many birds in his house, and there are many beasts that like to eat them, so when the weather is warm, his house is prone to accidents."

Lu Qingjiu said, "So what's the point of asking us to go to dinner?" He remembered Shao Hao paying Bai Yuehu 500 yuan to be a cheap labourer and said warily, "You're not going to be asked to be a cheap labourer again, are you?"

Bai Yuehu: "Depends on what kind of creature it is, the last time that phoenix quail was hard to eat."

Lu Qingjiu: "It's good to have a taste"

Bai Yuehu: "The Ju Ru that comes out in the summer is quite good, the meat is very tender and the bones have an unusual aroma, have you ever had it?"

Lu Qingjiu shook his head, "No."

Bai Yuehu thought about it and made a decision, "Then we'll go over there some time and catch some for dinner."

Lu Qingjiu agreed.

Shao Hao was very happy to learn that they were willing to come over and actively asked when they were coming and offered to treat them to a big meal if they were willing to come over soon.

Lu Qingjiu was not sure why Shao Hao was so enthusiastic, but he agreed to meet him and went to Shao Hao's bird garden.

Although it was not the first time I had seen Shao Hao's aviary, Lu Qingjiu was still surprised to see the birds and plants in the garden. Unlike the spring garden, the summer aviary is more colourful and the birds are more active, but perhaps because there are so many predatory animals, the birds are wary of strangers and will not relax until they see Shao Hao behind them.

The last time Shao Hao gnawed on his finger, he was scared out of his wits, and this time, out of love for life, he consciously tried to stay away from Shao Hao. But Shao Hao seemed not to feel Yin Xun's resistance and reached out like a good friend to put his arm around Yin Xun's shoulders, making Yin Xun feel uncomfortable. Shao Hao is half a head taller than Yin Xun, so it's not surprising that he is in this position, and Lu Qingjiu is so focused on the bird garden that he doesn't notice the difference between them.

" Ju Ru is just up ahead, I'm not going over there." Shao Hao said, " Come out when you've finished eating, I've prepared a great meal for you." His smile was supposed to be gentle, but the black pattern on his chin inexplicably added a touch of mischief to his aura.

"I'll come over too," Lu Qingjiu asked.

"All right." Shao Hao said, "It's up to you if you want to go over there, but he'd better wait here, after all, as much as those beasts like people, they also like meat lingzhi more." He smiled at Yin Xun, revealing a row of white and perfectly straight teeth, which sent a chill down Yin Xun's back and made him swallow nervously. Yin Xun had wanted to go with Lu Qingjiu Bai Yuehu, but Shao Hao was pinching the back of his neck like a chicken, and he struggled for a long time to get free. The two of them were left alone.

"What are you doing?" Yin Xun stammered, "Bai Yuehu will be really angry if you eat me. And didn't we taste it last time?" he muttered.

Shao Hao gritted his teeth: "How dare you"

Yin Xun: "Why are you afraid to say it?"

Shao Hao grabbed Yin Xun's cheek and pulled it hard, causing Yin Xun to grin: "What did you put in your fingers last time?"

Yin Xun cried: "I didn't put anything in, I just... I just..."

Shao Hao: "You're on what"

Yin Xun: "I just buckled my feet."

Shao Hao's expression twisted for a moment, "Ha."

Yin Xun was frightened by his appearance and turned to run away, but Shao Hao picked him up like a bird and brought him back.

Shao Hao said, "I ate your finger and had diarrhoea for a few days."

Yin Xun: "Oh"

Shao Hao: "What the hell are you doing?"

Yin Xun explained, "Brother, it's really not my fault, it's because my body has detoxification and skin care functions.

Shao Hao: "It seems to be true"

Yin Xun was about to smile when he heard Shao Hao's next line, "Bullshit, I don't have pimples on my face."

Yin Xun: "Woo woo woo woo."

Shao Hao: "Never have nightmares either."

Yin Xun hangs in Shao Hao's hand, feeling like a piece of bacon that has been dried out.

Shao Hao grabbed Yin Xun and turned around, Yin Xun was crying and felt that his life was in danger, he didn't want to bother Lu Qingjiu with this, but he was in a critical situation, he couldn't care less.

Shao Hao grabbed Yin Xun's mobile phone with one hand, the other with a smiling expression: "Who are you going to call?"

Yin Xun shuddered, "I'll I'll just give Sake a peace offering."

Shao Hao said, "There is no need to report, you are safe and sound."

Yin Xun :""

While Yin Xun is being carried away by Shao Hao, Lu Qingjiu is still unaware of his friend's crisis when he and Bai Yuehu see what Shao Hao calls a Ju Ru animal in the aviary. The animal looked a bit like a mouse, but much larger and with a hard layer of hair. If it was just one, it wouldn't be very deadly, but Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu had just reached the top of the hill when they drew a breath of cold air. The woods at the top of the hill were so thick with these animals that, when you looked up, you had the illusion that the forest had turned black. Many of the birds had been killed, eaten down to their messy feathers. Shao Hao seems to have managed to keep the animals at bay, but the way they are stirring, they look like they could come down the hill at any moment and threaten the rest of the birds. No wonder Shao Hao kept urging Bai Yuehu to come over.

"Can't Shao Hao handle these animals?" Lu Qingjiu always felt that Shao Hao was not as harmless as he appeared to be.

"Yes." Bai Yuehu said, "But although these animals can be killed, the carcasses are a nuisance, so it would be better to ask us to eat them." Neither he nor Jiu Feng ate dead things, and if Shao Hao had killed them all, they would not have been the least bit interested.

Lu Qingjiu: "You don't eat the carcasses of animals"

Bai Yuehu said, "Well."

Lu Qingjiu wondered, "But don't I usually cook with corpses?"

Bai Yuehu :""

Lu Qingjiu: "Why do you look like that?"

Bai Yuehu: "Wait for me here, I'll be right back." He ended the conversation so rigidly that Lu Qingjiu burst into tears, but then again, if anything, it was Bai Yuehu who wouldn't eat an uncooked corpse.

As the dark mist spreads, covering the trees and the peaks, Lu Qingjiu, standing at the foot of the mountain, he hears the harsh cries of animals, which seem to be coming from Ju Ru, which Bai Yuehu would have been feeding on at the top of the mountain, clearing the Shao Hao bird park of vermin.

After a few minutes, Bai Yuehu reappeared at Lu Qingjiu's side, this time with two tied-up Ju Ru in his hands, and said, "Mumble, I saved them for you to take home and eat later."

Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu and suddenly raised his hand and pressed his thumb against the corner of Bai Yuehu's mouth.

Bai Yuehu, slightly stunned: "Hmm."

Lu Qingjiu's thumb wiped the red marks off the corners of Bai Yuehu's mouth with a slight wipe, and he laughed, "There's a bit of blood on my mouth."

Bai Yuehu said, "You are not afraid."

Lu Qingjiu laughed, "It's not like you're eating a human being, so what am I afraid of you for?"

But when Bai Yuehu heard Lu Qingjiu's words, his eyes sank and he suddenly leaned into Lu Qingjiu's ear and whispered, "How do you know that I don't eat people?"

The skin on the side of Lu Qingjiu's neck was covered in goose bumps from Bai Yuehu's exhalation, and he was about to retort when he realised that there was something wrong with Bai Yuehu's eyes, a look that looked like he wanted to eat him alive, with his bones intact. But it seemed to be Lu Qingjiu's illusion, for the next moment Bai Yuehu returned to his usual cold expression and said, "Come on, Shao Hao should be waiting for us outside."

Lu Qingjiu opened his mouth, not knowing for a moment what he should say.

Author's Comment: Lu Qingjiu: You really don't eat human flesh, do you?

Bai Yuehu: I don't want to eat anyone else's now, but I still want to try yours.

Lu Qingjiu.