Chapter 97: A chance encounter

If June is just a prelude to the heat, then once July arrives, the temperature is going to be 37 or 38.

When Lu Qingjiu got up, he saw Bai Yuehu, who had always liked to sleep with him, lying next to him, half rolled up in his sleeping t-shirt, revealing his white belly. Bai Yuehu's belly was not soft to the touch, nor did it have much fat, and it felt very ordinary, not as good as Lu Qingjiu's own.

When he heard Lu Qingjiu get up, Bai Yuehu yawned and got up from the bed, kissing Lu Qingjiu's chin in a natural way, and then they went to wash up separately.

It was too early in the day for the animals in the yard to become active and Bai Yuehu took advantage of the fact that the sun was not yet up.

They went out to the fields, tidied up the vegetables and watered them well. Lu Qingjiu made a hearty breakfast, and as the weather warmed up, the food became more refreshing. He cut the stalks of lettuce into fine julienne strips and then plunged them in hot water, adding chilli and sesame oil and other ingredients, and served them cold. The dough that was fermented last night was ready for use today, and the filling was prepared last night, a pork and cabbage filling with some diced lotus root added for texture.

The filling was then wrapped in the fermented flour and cooked in an electric baking pan, and the hot biscuits were ready. Lu Qingjiu also made a large pot of green bean congee and boiled five salted duck eggs. He had planned to make some tea eggs, but it was too late, so he thought he would make them at lunchtime.

Bai Yuehu has finished serving the vegetables in the field and has returned to the yard with a basket of vegetables, which have not grown as well as last year because of the low rainfall this year, but they don't look too bad either. The aubergines and tomatoes were both ripe, and needless to say, the tomatoes were just as delicious as last year's. They were so juicy that they could be eaten as fruit, and the aubergines were so big that Lu Qingjiu had asked Bai Yuehu to pick them, and he planned to make aubergine boxes with the leftover pie filling.

When Yin Xun arrives, breakfast is just about ready and the group sits down at the table and begins to feast.

The pie and the congee were both filling, and the salted duck egg was oily, which was a relief from the heat and grease. The pie was very tasty and the diced lotus root was the key to it. The cold shredded lettuce was spicy and crunchy, which was particularly appetising. Lu Qingjiu had two pancakes and two bowls of congee and was stuffed to the gills by the end of the meal, while Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu were also full of food.

After breakfast, Yin Xun said that the hawthorn was ripe in the west of the village and they could go and pick some.

"Didn't Auntie Liu's family grow that hawthorn?" Lu Qingjiu remembered.

"Yes." Yin Xun said, "But isn't Aunt Liu dead?"

Lu Qingjiu: "But you're dead too."

Yin Xun: ""That seems right too.

Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu and said, "What is the situation of the people in the village?"

Bai Yuehu took a sip of tea to moisten his mouth, "They don't know they're dead, or they go about their lives like normal people."

Lu Qingjiu said: "They are alive in the eyes of outsiders."

Bai Yuehu said, "Well."

Lu Qingjiu thought about it and thought it was right, because at least in the eyes of Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi, Shuifu Village was a village of living people, and sometimes the villagers of Shuifu Village would exchange goods with the outside world, and the outside world did not find anything unusual about Shuifu Village. There is nothing unusual about Shuifu Village.

Xiao Hua, who was lying next to her, asked, "So, will Li Xiaoyu go to junior high school?"

Bai Yuehu looked at Xiao Hua: "That depends on whether he can pass the exam."

No sooner had he spoken than Lu Qingjiu saw Xiao Hua's eyes light up with fire and he said, "I know, I will try to get Li Xiaoyu to university, although he is dead, he had a dream"

Lu Qingjiu: ""Okay.

Yin Xun, not at all concerned about the future and education of the villagers, winked and asked, "Let's still go hawthorn picking, then."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Go", "We are almost out of hawthorn at home, it's a sweet and sour treat for the summer, and it's great to have fresh ones. But we can't just go and pick them, we have to do it another way.

So after lunch, Lu Qingjiu went to find Yin Xun's neighbour, Aunt Liu, and discussed with her about buying the hawthorn at market price.

Auntie Liu was going to push back, saying that she was giving it to Lu Qingjiu to eat, but when she heard that he wanted quite a large amount, she finally agreed.

With Auntie Liu's permission, Lu Qingjiu and his family went off to pick hawthorn.

The hawthorn tree was quite nice, with bunches of red, brightly coloured fruits hanging from its luxuriant branches. Unlike the sun-dried hawthorn, the fresh hawthorn tasted particularly sour and Lu Qingjiu's face scrunched up when he tasted one. Lu Qingjiu tasted one and his whole face turned into a frown. He slipped one into Bai Yuehu's mouth, but Bai Yuehu's face did not change.

"Isn't it sour?" Lu Qingjiu asks.

"It's okay." Bai Yuehu replied.

Lu Qingjiu didn't think much of it and went on to pick the fruit, while Bai Yuehu silently dropped his hand holding the trunk of the tree, leaving a few visible fingerprints on the originally clean trunk. The dragon was not afraid of acid, neither sour oranges nor sour hawthorn could defeat him.

Yin Xun scurries around the tree like a monkey, picking a full basket and bringing it down to Lu Qingjiu, who hands over an empty basket.

Lu Qingjiu intends to pickle most of these hawthorns for drinking, and the rest can be used to make hawthorn cakes and iced sugar gourds.

Lu Qingjiu thought about it and planned to buy some other fruits to make it together.

After picking several baskets full of hawthorn and paying Auntie Liu for the hawthorn, the three of them went home happily, and when they got home Lu Qingjiu told them to wash the hawthorn out first and then remove the cores inside. It was a big job, but it was still early and there was no hurry.

Lu Qingjiu fed Cow a little chocolate and then milked half a bucket of milk to make some popsicles to beat the heat. He boiled the milk and added sugar and honey to it, then poured the milk into a popsicle mould and put it in the freezer.

It was so hot that even Lu Qingjiu was sweating after all this, so he went to wash his face and planned to make dinner.

For lunch, we had braised beef and for dinner Lu Qingjiu decided to keep things simple, so he fried a couple of eggplant boxes, made white meat with garlic and cold chicken, and stir-fried a bitter gourd, and served a main course of hung noodles in a tomato soup with fresh lettuce leaves and a lotus egg, which was very refreshing.

Lu Qingjiu said he had to go to the city tomorrow and asked if there was anything they should bring with them.

"What are you doing in the city in this heat." Yin Xun chews on the tender chicken meat.

"Go and buy some fruit." Lu Qingjiu said, "I'll make you ice-cold gourds, have you ever eaten them?"

"No." Yin Xun gives the heartbreaking answer.

Bai Yuehu shakes his head and after a moment's pause adds, "But I've seen others eat it."

Lu Qingjiu wanted to cover his face when he heard that, thinking that you might as well not have added anything, which sounded even more heartbreaking.

In the evening after dinner, Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun did the dishes while Lu Qingjiu put the hawthorn peeled in the afternoon into a pot and boiled it with sugar to make a sweet and sour hawthorn sauce. The hawthorn paste is perfect for summer, or it's delicious when put in water and frozen in the freezer as a popsicle.

After all that, it was getting late, so Lu Qingjiu took a shower and then hid in the air-conditioned room. Because of Zhu Rong's advice, Lu Qingjiu didn't dare to turn on the air conditioning all day, and even drank beer at room temperature when he had a kebab. For people with a hot body, not being able to eat ice in summer is the worst kind of torture, but Lu Qingjiu's body is cold, so it doesn't affect him too much.

Lu Qingjiu, tired from a long day in the cold air, falls asleep on Bai Yuehu's arm. He has completely adapted to the slow pace of country life and has no desire to return to the city, where there are still people who need him, except that his grandfather, for some reason, has reiterated his desire to leave.

The next day, Lu Qingjiu went to the market as planned, intending to buy some fruits that the family did not grow to make sugar gourds. The original gourds were made from hawthorn, but in recent years the standard of living has improved and there are many different kinds of fruits, such as strawberries, grapes and kiwis, all of which are delicious. Lu Qingjiu's favourite is the strawberry one, which is a bit sour, but with a crunchy sugar coating, it's sweet and sour and perfect for entertaining children.

Today Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun did not come along, Lu Qingjiu had given them the task of weeding the courtyard, which was becoming more and more overgrown with the heat, especially near the ancient well, which was on the verge of becoming overgrown.

Lu Qingjiu bought strawberries, grapes and other fruits from the supermarket, and brought a box of mangoes and various snacks for Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun to refresh their childhood memories. While he was shopping, he felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere around him, but when he looked around, he could not find anything wrong.

Lu Qingjiu felt a little wary and quickly left the supermarket to get out of the way, but when he got to a distance of perhaps three or four metres from the lorry, he noticed a strangely dressed woman standing next to the lorry. It was a hot summer day, but she was wearing a thick down coat, her long hair was coiled on top of her head with silver jewellery and she was wearing exaggerated earrings on her ears.

If a normal person wore this down jacket, they would have passed out from heatstroke within half an hour, but she didn't even drop a drop of sweat and had a strange smile on the corner of her mouth.

Lu Qingjiu's footsteps stopped and instead of heading in the direction of the van, he immediately turned around, intending to leave the sparsely populated car park, but who knew that just as he turned around, there was the sound of hurried footsteps behind him.

"Wait." The woman spoke up and called out, "Don't go."

Lu Qingjiu didn't listen to her and instead of stopping, he ran away, but before he could take two steps, a strong force came from behind him and pushed him. Lu Qingjiu's belongings fell to the ground and he held onto the wall before he fell.

He turned his head and saw the woman standing not far from him and she said, "Don't you go"

Lu Qingjiu knew he was no match for her and could only stagger back a few steps as he said, "What do you want?"

The woman said, "How does the underworld go?"

Lu Qingjiu: ""He knew it.

When the woman saw that Lu Qingjiu did not answer, she became impatient and asked again in a deep voice: "I asked you how to go to the underworld."

Lu Qingjiu gritted his teeth and said, "I don't know."

The woman said, "Don't you know that you are not of the underworld?"

Lu Qingjiu was talking to her while looking around. There was no one in the garage just now, but now there was a ding from the lift, which seemed to be someone coming down. He pointed out the escape route.

The woman sniffed but her face sank and she said, "You lied to me."

Lu Qingjiu: "Ah" just got busted

The woman said, "That's where I came down from."

Lu Qingjiu looked embarrassed, but just then, a human figure came around the corner, seemingly also from the supermarket, and drove.

Lu Qingjiu was unlucky enough to miss the lift door by one step and it closed in front of him. Lu Qingjiu heard the sound of footsteps behind him and broke into a cold sweat, and just as he was about to run for the stairs, a pair of hands squeezed his shoulders.

Lu Qingjiu turned back stiffly and saw the man behind him, who seemed to have come down from the lift with some surprise on his face, and he said, "Brother, what's wrong"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Run!"

"Before the man could finish his sentence, a hand came straight through his chest and pressed against Lu Qingjiu's arm.

Lu Qingjiu looked dumbfounded as he tried to run, but he was gripped by two hands and could not move. Only he soon noticed that the man in front of him was obviously not human either, for he neither bled nor collapsed after having a hand passed through his chest, and did not react to anything except a frown.

"What are you doing," the man in front of him turned his head, grumbling disgruntledly towards the woman behind him, "I thought I told you to stay in the car."

The woman grunted, "How long have you been there."

The man said, "I'm just buying something." He lifted the plastic bag in his hand and nudged at the dumbfounded Lu Qingjiu, "Why are you scaring people?"

The woman said, "I just wanted to ask for directions."

The man said, "How do you ask?"

The woman said, "I asked how to go to the underworld."

The man had a pained look on his face, he took a few deep breaths before he could barely control his emotions, then his tone was full of helplessness, "Okay can you take your hand back from my chest first?"

The woman grunted again, "I take it back you don't want to let anyone get away."

The man said, "Even if you let it get away you don't want to scare the ordinary people."

The woman then let go, and after she withdrew her hand, Lu Qingjiu looked through the man's torn t-shirt and saw a large, empty hole. The man actually had no part of his chest, the whole piece of his chest cavity was a big empty hole.

Lu Qingjiu's eyes rounded and she blurted out, "You don't have breasts."

The man said, "Yeah, she didn't either."

The woman said angrily, "Who says I don't have breasts, I'm not a wind-proof clan."

The man said, "I didn't see that you had breasts anyway."

It was only then that the woman realised she had been molested and was furiously cross-eyed. I have to say that, on closer inspection, she was still quite pretty and if she hadn't been dressed so strangely, I'm afraid it wouldn't have been difficult to ask for directions.

When Lu Qingjiu heard the name Fangfeng, he immediately remembered something and said, "You are from the Guanshu Kingdom", a race of people in the Shanhaijing, whose most distinctive feature is a large hole in their chest.

The man was stunned, not expecting Lu Qingjiu to recognise his identity, and while surprised, he was also a little surprised: "You're there for the meeting too"

Lu Qingjiu: "Ha" what meeting

The man frowned at Lu Qingjiu: "You are human."

Lu Qingjiu was about to say that of course he was human when the woman behind the man took over, "Of course he isn't."

The man said, "You're not."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Brother, can you let go first I think my shoulder is going to break from your grip."

He expected the man to refuse, but instead he let go of Lu Qingjiu with a polite apology and did not look like he meant any harm. Lu Qingjiu rubbed his shoulder, which had been painfully scratched, and took a closer look at the man and the woman. The man was dressed like a human, and if it wasn't for the big empty hole in his chest, no one would have thought he wasn't human.

"I'm just passing through and I don't know where you are going." Lu Qingjiu said, "Now can I go?"

The man said, "Oh so that's it, you're not there for the meeting then"

Land

Sake shook his head, indicating that he did not know what the man was talking about with the meeting. The man sniffed and pondered for another moment and said, "Then do you know how to get to the underworld"

When Lu Qingjiu heard him mention the underworld again, he immediately became wary: "What underworld? I am a human being, I can only live on earth, I can't go to the underworld for sure."

The man was silent for a moment and said helplessly, "It's not that netherworld, it's whether there's any place called Jian Yin around here."

He also explained how to spell the word Yin Jian.

Lu Qingjiu immediately understood: "You are talking about Yin Jian building, it's near here, what are you doing there?

"Oh, we're going there for a bit." The man said, "My name is Wang Rumeng, you can just call her girl."

The woman frowned at her words, as if she wanted to say something, but stopped when she saw Wang Rumeng's expression.

Lu Qingjiu kept his eyes open, not daring to say his name, and said, "Where are you going, let me tell you." He was about to describe in detail, but Wang Rumeng took Lu Qingjiu by the shoulders again and said, "Excuse me, brother, could you please take us there?

Lu Qingjiu is deliberately difficult to read.

Wang Rumeng said, "Look, my clothes are torn and people will be shocked if they see me, and she can't see anyone in this state, so I'll ask you to help me." Although his words were gentle, his tone was non-negotiable, and his grip on Lu Qingjiu's hand had no intention of relaxing, so it seemed that he had no intention of letting Lu Qingjiu go.

The woman saw this, but came with, "He has the scent of a dragon on him."

Wang Rumeng's expression changed slightly at the words, "He is a dragon."

The woman shook her head, "Have you ever seen a dragon so weak in battle? He is not supposed to be a dragon, but has lived with one for a long time."

Now Wang Rumeng looked at Lu Qingjiu even more strangely, and Lu Qingjiu could not escape from his grasp, so he could only say, "Have you finished watching?"

"Finished watching." Wang Rumeng said, "You know dragons."

Lu Qingjiu says: "What does it matter if you know each other?"

Wang Rumeng smiled: "If you know me, be nice to you, after all, I don't want to mess with them"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay, I know, can you let go of me now."

Wang Rumeng shook his head, "No, if we let you go we won't be able to find our way, brother, help a man to the end, take us there first."

Lu Qingjiu knew he would not relent, so he agreed. The three of them walked towards Lu Qingjiu's van, but before they could take two steps, there was a strong smell of burning, as if something was burning. Before Lu Qingjiu could ask any questions about the smell, Wang Rumeng, who was standing next to him, paled and said, "No," before rushing to the side and starting to search for the black pocket he was carrying. He had been carrying it since he got off the lift and it looked like it was full of stuff, a huge bag. Lu Qingjiu soon found the source of the fire and watched in amazement as black smoke began to billow from the girl standing to his left and red flames began to run wild. You've never seen a man on fire before."

Lu Qingjiu: ""I'm sorry, he really hasn't seen it.

The girl's hair and skin remained unscathed by the flames, but her down jacket began to carbonise at a rapid rate, emitting a pungent, burning smell and black smoke. He then grabbed Lu by the shoulders and twisted him to the side: "Don't look, don't look, she's all burnt up."

Lu Qingjiu thinks he should take Bai Yuehu with him when he goes out in the future, the world is really too dangerous and before he can say a few words to a random person, he will be burnt.

Lu Qingjiu and Wang Rumeng turned around and saw the girl standing on the wreckage like a phoenix in nirvana.

Lu Qingjiu suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen the Phoenix at Shao Hao's house, so was the person in front of him

What the author has to say: Lu Qingjiu rolls up his sleeves: Who cheated my poor fox with a lollipop?

Bai Yuehu rolls up his sleeves: who has used force to suppress my weak wine