Chapter 9: A Visit from a Friend

"Animals how can this be an animal" Yin Xun held her head up to look at the puddle.

Bai Yuehu ignored him and lazily averted his eyes.

Lu Qingjiu said, "I don't know, let's go and leave this thing alone." He had a hunch that the animal Bai Yuehu was talking about was not quite the same as the animal they understood, and if he continued to ask questions, who knew what Bai Yuehu would say that would be so shocking.

So the three of them bypassed the small puddle and went down the hill with a basket of mushrooms.

Under normal circumstances, it is best to dry mushrooms before eating them, as this is safer, but with Bai Yuehu around, he says they are not poisonous, so it should be fine.

Lu Qingjiu washed the mushrooms in water and asked Yin Xun to bring the chickens he had bought especially for the mushroom stew. The chickens are not chicks, of course, but young roosters, with tender meat and crispy bones, which make the stew with the mushrooms very fragrant.

Yin Xun took his knife and quickly slaughtered the chicken, squatting on the ground to de-feather it.

Lu Qingjiu was about to get some chaff from the house to feed the pigs in the pens when his mobile phone rang, he picked it up and saw that it was his colleague's number and answered it after a moment's hesitation.

"Hey, Zhu Miaomiao, what's up?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"Qingjiu, what are we going to do if you don't come back?" Inside, Lu Qingjiu's colleague Zhu Miaomiao cried out sadly, "We all miss you so much."

Lu Qingjiu: "Working overtime, right?"

Zhu Miaomiao: "The increase is dying, the most miserable is not able to recruit people, recruiting people to do less than a month to leave, said the salary is no longer high, will die suddenly."

Lu Qingjiu said, "I'm definitely not going back." He cocked his head, pinning his phone as he spoke, scooping the chaff the piglets would eat out of the bag and into the bucket.

"Ahh," Zhu Miaomiao screamed.

Lu Qingjiu said: "Is there anything else?"

"Where the hell have you been? I see you've checked out of the house you rented" Zhu Miaomiao asked.

"I told you, I've gone back home to farm." Lu Qingjiu replied, "I just went up to the mountains this afternoon and picked a bunch of mushrooms."

"Where is your hometown? I've taken a few days off from the boss and want to come out and have some fun." Zhu Miaomiao said.

"You can still get time off for leave" Lu Qingjiu was shocked.

"What's the matter? I resigned if he wouldn't let me take leave, but I agreed in the end." Zhu Miaomiao said, "Stop it, I want to pick mushrooms too."

Lu Qingjiu gave the address of his hometown and told her to call him when she arrived in the county so that he could pick her up, otherwise he was afraid that it would be unsafe for her to come alone in a taxi. Zhu Miaomiao promised to do so and said he would go and buy the nearest train ticket right away.

Lu Qingjiu hung up the phone and went to the pig pen with the feed. After half a month of raising them at home, the little white pigs had grown, but Xiao Hua Xiao Hei still looked the same, with that chipmunk-like fluffy hair that hadn't grown at all. Lu Qingjiu looked at them with their heads down, happily eating their feed, and knocked on the door: "Why are you eating but not growing meat?"

Xiao Hua looked up at Lu Qingjiu, and the look in his eyes was full of contempt, as if he was despising Lu Qingjiu for underestimating their intelligence. This pig has grown flesh and it will not end well!

Lu Qingjiu, despised by a pig :""

"I was thinking of releasing you back into the forest when you're older." Lu Qingjiu said helplessly, "Can't you just behave?"

"Grrrrrrrr." Xiao Hua Hua grunted twice and put down what he was chewing in his mouth, with the roguish look of I'm just not going to grow meat and I'm going to stay here.

Lu Qingjiu was speechless and even felt like pulling the Xiao Hei cub out of the pig pen and beating it up. In the end he held back and told himself not to bother with a pig.

The chicks we just bought are much cuter than these two pigs, chattering and running around the yard every day, pecking at rocks and bugs on the ground, making the whole yard a lot more lively.

Lu Qingjiu cut Yin Xun's slaughtered chicken into pieces, cleaned it and stir-fried it in a wok, then added water and soy sauce, then put in the mushrooms we just picked today and simmered them in a casserole for a few hours.

The chicken and mushrooms were a perfect match. The mushrooms were already delicious and the addition of the tender chicken was so aromatic that even before you tasted it, your mouth was already full of flavour.

Bai Yuehu comes back from watering the fields and tells Lu Qingjiu that the tomatoes have already borne fruit and will be ready to eat in two days.

Lu Qingjiu was shocked, it's only been a month or so, how did it come to fruition, he said, "Really? Will people suspect anything?"

"No." Bai Yuehu said, "I explained."

Lu Qingjiu said, "How do you explain that?"

Bai Yuehu said, "I said I used fertilising pesticides."

Lu Qingjiu: "They didn't say anything else"

Bai Yuehu shook his head and yawned, "No, he just told me that fertiliser used on the vegetables would taste bland and unpalatable." Most people in their village grow their own land, so naturally they don't add pesticides or anything like that, after all, it's for their own consumption.

"Oh." Lu Qingjiu didn't know what to say either, so he could only say, "It's been hard work, so you eat more tonight."

Bai Yuehu nods, looking quite pleased with Lu Qingjiu's remark.

The chicken had been simmering for two hours and was completely tender, with the mushrooms inside having absorbed all the broth from the chicken. Lu Qingjiu also stir-fried a shredded pork with green peppers and a vegetable and dinner was done.

The three ate with great satisfaction, Bai Yuehu ate the chicken without even spitting out the bones, crunching a few times before his white teeth chewed the bones to pieces and swallowed them all.

Yin Xun muttered something about having good teeth, and Bai Yuehu gave him a sidelong glare, a look that was very unkind, like a beast of prey.

Lu Qingjiu even suspected that if Yin Xun had eaten more, Bai Yuehu would have had a problem with it

After the three of them had finished eating, Yin Xun went back to his house, while Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu sat in the courtyard and relaxed, Lu Qingjiu taking out the fried melon seeds and marinated beef as a snack.

"I have a friend coming to play in a couple of days." Lu Qingjiu said, "It's a girl, and she's probably going to stay here for a few days."

Bai Yuehu Hmmm, he looked up at the sky and said, "Tell her not to run for the hills."

"Why?" Lu Qingjiu wondered a little.

"Don't even go to the mountains these days." Bai Yuehu says, "In spring, there are many animals."

Lu Qingjiu immediately remembered the puddle they had encountered that morning that Bai Yuehu had called an animal, and he said, "What kind of animal is that?"

"I didn't remember." Bai Yuehu says, "because it tasted so bad."

Lu Qingjiu: ""It seems that what is not good enough to eat does not even come with a name here in Bai Yuehu.

"It can remember what people look like." Bai Yuehu says, "if you look at it." According to Bai Yuehu, water is like a mirror, and when a person stretches out their head to look into a puddle, it has already remembered what you look like, and if you happen to be a person when you look at it, it will pull you in, drown you and eat your soul.

Lu Qingjiu said, "What happens when it remembers you?"

Bai Yuehu: "Will come to you."

Lu Qingjiu was shocked: "Isn't Yin Xun in danger then?"

Bai Yuehu said, "It doesn't matter, this thing doesn't usually come down the mountain and moves very slowly, and it only appears in spring, it's a waste." He defined the thing lightly, casually pinching up a slice of beef and putting it in his mouth, his eyes narrowing in satisfaction as he said, "Delicious."

Lu Qingjiu is now relieved.

Lu Qingjiu drove the chicks into the chicken pen before turning back to the house to sleep.

The next morning it started to rain before dawn, not much, but it rustled on the ground, making people even more drowsy. Lu Qingjiu had lain in bed for a while, as the saying goes, "You can't sleep in spring without realising it. When he got up, Bai Yuehu was also up, standing in the courtyard, not knowing what he was doing. It must be said that Bai Yuehu was a sight to behold, with the rain falling on his hair, as if it were gilded with a faint silvery colour.

Lu Qingjiu was quietly taking a picture with his mobile phone when Bai Yuehu noticed something and turned his head to look at Lu Qingjiu.

"Good morning." Lu Qingjiu put his phone in his pocket and calmly greeted Bai Yuehu.

"Good." Bai Yuehu said, "I'll feed the chickens."

"Oh oh, good work." Lu Qingjiu said, "What would you like to eat in the morning?"

"Let's eat the noodles." Bai Yuehu said, "I want to eat eggs."

Lu Qingjiu nodded and was just picking up his apron and tying it on as he turned towards the kitchen when he heard a knock at the door, thinking it was Yin Xun, and said to come in.

" Zhu Miaomiao " Lu Qingjiu was stunned, "Why didn't you give me a heads up?"

Zhu Miaomiao said, "What are you talking about? I can find it myself." When she entered the courtyard, the first thing she saw was Bai Yuehu, who was standing next to her with no expression, and said with rounded eyes, "Lu Qingjiu, you're good.

Lu Qingjiu: "I'm not, I'm not"

He expected Bai Yuehu to be angry, but he turned around and walked away without changing his face, leaving the two men with a rather thoughtful back.

Zhu Miaomiao looked at Lu Qingjiu: "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.

Lu Qingjiu: ""You are really not afraid of death.

Author's Comment: Zhu Miaomiao: Who are you to him?

Bai Yuehu: I am his vixen.

Zhu Miaomiao: You are in love

Lu Qingjiu: No, we are just normal friends.

Zhu Miaomiao 嫌弃脸：I didn't realize you were actually a scumbag.

Lu Qingjiu: I'm not, I'm not