Fantasy Farm

Chapter 22.1

translator: baumkuchen editor: ellabells

It seemed it was impossible to change Zhang Chuyang’s mind. Up until he left, his gaze towards Lu Qingjiu still held some subtle traces of fear. Lu Qingjiu had also given up on defending himself, just going along with it.

After breakfast, Lu Qingjiu drove Zhang Chuyang and Zhu Miaomiao back to town in the pickup truck and the three of them said their reluctant goodbyes —— to be exact, it was Zhang Chuyang and Zhu Miaomiao saying their reluctant goodbyes to Lu Qingjiu.

“Mister Lu, if any other people have this kind of problem, can I still come find you?” Zhang Chuyang’s head of long hair was tied back in a low ponytail, making him look exactly like a wandering artist. He currently had Lu Qingjiu’s hands squeezed in a deathgrip, absolutely unwilling to let go, “Can I, Mister Lu?”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu’s hands had been squeezed till they were red. He replied helplessly, “You can.”

Only then did Zhang Chuyang reluctantly release his grip.

Zhu Miaomiao, off to the side, also gave Lu Qingjiu a few words of advice, wanting Lu Qingjiu to come back to the company. Lu Qingjiu knew that she meant well, and was simply worried about him, so he just listened with a smile, but had no intention whatsoever of changing his mind.

Seeing this, Zhu Miaomiao also recognised that she couldn’t persuade Lu Qingjiu anymore, and just sighed in the end, saying, “Alright, you’re welcome back anytime.”

“Thank you.” Lu Qingjiu was really grateful for how much Zhu Miaomiao had taken care of him for the past few years in the company.

After watching the two of them get onto the train, Lu Qingjiu turned and left the train station.

After exiting the train station, he wasn’t in any rush to go back home. He first went to town and bought a few daily necessities and food. Given how he had a voracious eater, Bai Yuehu, at home, meat was something they absolutely couldn’t go without. For convenience’s sake, every time he went to town, Lu Qingjiu would always buy a few tens of jins of meat to freeze.

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Having bought his stuff, he received a text message notification: 200,000 yuan has been added to your bank account. After Lu Qingjiu counted it twice, confirming he hadn’t read wrong, he called Zhu Miaomiao to ask how this had happened. Had Zhang Chuyang made a mistake?

“No, I couldn’t stop him, he insisted on paying you 200,000 yuan,” Zhu Miaomiao’s tone was utterly helpless, she also had no idea how Zhang Chuyang’s attitude towards Lu Qingjiu had changed this much after just one night.

Lu Qingjiu said, “Pass him the phone.”

The result was, right after Zhu Miaomiao placed the phone in Zhang Chuyang’s hands, his voice burst out from the receiver, “Mister Lu, this is what you deserve!”

Lu Qingjiu, “Wait……”

Zhang Chuyang spoke quickly, “I’ve never before seen something so miraculous. After just a night, I actually really grew a full head of thick hair! Oh my god, it’s simply too unbelievable! This bit of money can only express less than one-thousandth of my gratitude!! Please, you must accept this money!” After saying this, he immediately hung up, leaving Lu Qingjiu to gape, speechless.

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Indeed, to an able-bodied man who was barely in his thirties but already had to face the threat of balding, someone who could help him grow a head of such beautiful, jet-black hair was simply his parent from his next life. In addition, given the mystical atmosphere of that night, in Zhang Chuyang’s mind, Lu Qingjiu had already become a superior existence he couldn’t afford to offend.

Meanwhile “superior being” Lu Qingjiu had completely given up on resolving this misunderstanding with Zhang Chuyang. He dumped the few dozen jins of pork onto his pickup truck, got in, and drove home to prepare his meal.

For the last few days, it was constantly raining, so the mountain roads were particularly slippery. But the pickup truck wasn’t at all affected, still driving at the same speed as usual. Other than being a little slower, it was as stable as ever, not needing Lu Qingjiu to worry at all.

After reaching home, Lu Qingjiu parked the truck as usual, and patted its headlights and hood as he gave it a few words of praise in passing.

As Lu Qingjiu entered the courtyard carrying the meat, there was surprisingly no trace of Bai Yuehu, who would usually be out here lazing around, or Yin Xun.

“Bai Yuehu? Yin Xun? Where have the two of them gone?” Lu Qingjiu circled the entire courtyard but didn’t see either of them. Since the two weren’t around, they definitely had gone off to do something. Lu Qingjiu didn’t bother to continue to search for them, simply heading to the kitchen to start making food.

The spare ribs he’d bought today were both fresh and high-quality, so Lu Qingjiu planning on having them for lunch. He would make sweet and sour pork ribs, as well as some dry pork rib hotpot, and a pot of winter melon pork rib soup. Bai Yuehu wasn’t at all picky about his food, able to eat just about anything. His only preference was that he preferred eating meat to vegetables.

Lu Qingjiu chopped the spare ribs into chunks and washed them of blood. Just as he was preparing the ingredients for the dry pork rib hotpot, he saw Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu return. The two of them were dragging a large sack that left a long, wet trail along the ground, seeming to contain something filled with moisture. The sack would even twist from time to time, clearly containing something alive.

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Lu Qingjiu was originally holding a spatula in his hands, preparing to cook. But upon seeing this sack, he immediately stopped and stared. His mind was filled with thousands of bloody murder scenes straight from horror movies and he whispered, “Yin Xun, what’s in the sack?”

“Fish.” Yin Xun’s answer made Lu Qingjiu let out a sigh of relief. Upon noticing Lu Qingjiu’s reaction, Yin Xun immediately burst out into loud laughter, “What did you think it was, that we picked up the corpse of an unlucky tourist who drowned?”

Lu Qingjiu, “……” That wasn’t impossible.

Yin Xun reached out a hand and opened the sack, showing him its contents. Inside was indeed a huge black fish. However, this fish looked a little strange. On its body were pale markings and it had red lips. On a whole, it looked like a carp, but on closer inspection, it had some slight differences. There were two wounds on the fish’s back, still oozing bright red blood. But the fish didn’t seem to become weaker due to the wounds, instead seeming incredibly lively, bouncing nonstop in the bag.

“What kind of fish is this?” Upon seeing what the fish looked like, Lu Qingjiu was stunned, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.” It could be a carp, but some of the characteristics didn’t seem to quite match up. Could it be a variant of the ornamental carp?

“Carp.” Bai Yuehu, who stood behind Yin Xun, answered.

It really was a carp? But there indeed were many different types of ornamental carp, so Lu Qingjiu just replied, “Then…We’ll eat this tomorrow?”

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“Tonight,” Bai Yuehu said, “The fish is wounded, it won’t live long.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “That works too… Then help me slaughter the fish, I’ll prepare the pork ribs first. As for the fish… I’ll make fish with pickled vegetables?”

Bai Yuehu nodded, satisfied.

The fish was big, so its meat shouldn’t be very tender, and might even be a bit fishy, so it was especially suited to be made into fish with pickled vegetables. As Lu Qingjiu worked on the pork ribs, Bai Yuehu killed the fish off to the side, and also easily cut the fish into slices in accordance to Lu Qingjiu’s instructions.

Bai Yuehu’s cutting skills were extremely good. After cleanly removing its innards, he sliced it open from the belly and meticulously sliced up the fish according to the pattern of its flesh. As Lu Qingjiu watched from over on the side, he found that the fish meat was much more tender than he imagined. It seemed like other than its spine, it didn’t have any other bones.

The moment Lu Qingjiu saw the structure of this fish, he knew Bai Yuehu must have lied. This fish absolutely wasn’t a carp. Carps were incredibly bony. At this moment, Yin Xun just so happened to be heading to the fields. He didn’t bother beating around the bush, outright asking, “This isn’t a carp, right? What kind of fish is it?”

Bai Yuehu blinked at Lu Qingjiu, and spat out two words, “Wen-yao.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Haven’t heard of it.

“It’s not poisonous, it tastes good,” Bai Yuehu said, “It goes well with pickled vegetables.” As he spoke, he checked Lu Qingjiu’s expression, as if very worried that Lu Qingjiu would reject this fish that he’s never heard of.

Lu Qingjiu inwardly thought, fine, fine, who cares about if he’s heard of it or not, as long as it can be eaten. It’s fine. Moreover, the quality of this fish’s meat indeed looked really good. If he knew earlier, he wouldn’t have needed to use it to make fish with pickled vegetables, he would’ve just steamed it…

In silence, the two of them reached a consensus. Bai Yuehu happily sliced up the fish, then watched as Lu Qingjiu boiled a big pot of fish with pickled vegetables.

The pickled vegetables were pickled by Lu Qingjiu himself. It hadn’t been too long so they weren’t really sour enough, so he added a little more. The fish meat was tossed around in the sea of pickled vegetables and a rich fragrance filled the kitchen.

As Lu Qingjiu was cooking in the kitchen, Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu stood outside, prepared to help bring out the dishes and start the meal any time.

“It’s done.” After pouring the pot of fish into a specially bought stainless steel basin, Lu Qingjiu announced the start of the meal like a kindergarten caretaker, “You guys can eat now.”

Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun entered the kitchen to carry out the dishes while Lu Qingjiu took off his apron on the side. After catching his breath and having a drink of water, he sat down in front of the table.

Because of the sudden appearance of this fish, Lu Qingjiu only made the dry pork rib hotpot. The rest of the pork ribs were placed in the fridge to be eaten later that night. Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun hadn’t made a move, waiting for Lu Qingjiu to be the first to move his chopsticks. This could be considered one of their home’s unspoken rules; since Lu Qingjiu was the one who worked the hardest cooking every time, the two of them needed to wait until he started to eat before they began eating. Because of this, Lu Qingjiu had tried to tell them they could eat first several times. But since they never listened, he eventually gave up.

Lu Qingjiu picked up a slice of fish with his chopsticks and placed it into his mouth. His eyes shone with amazement. He said, “This fish is really delicious.” The fish was incomparably tender, bringing with it a mild, strangely sweet aftertaste. After having been cooked amongst the pickled vegetables, it further harmonised with the sour taste of pickled vegetables, becoming incredibly appetising.

“Wu wu wu,” Yin Xun nodded heavily, his chopsticks not pausing for even a moment.

The best thing about the fish was that it didn’t have any bones whatsoever, allowing people to gorge themselves with peace of mind. No matter which piece of the fish it was, they were all incredibly fatty, so much so that they couldn’t taste even a hint of a fishiness. Even Lu Qingjiu, someone who wasn’t very interested in seafood, couldn’t put down his chopsticks.

The fish received a warm welcome from everyone, but Bai Yuehu also didn’t let off the dry pork rib hotpot. Clearly, he welcomed all kinds of meat.

While cooking, Lu Qingjiu had originally been worried that preparing two fish would’ve been too much. But from Yin Xun’s and Bai Yuehu’s attitudes, it wasn’t too much at all. At some point, the bottom of the basin, which was originally meant for washing faces, and had been filled to the brim with fish, could now be seen. At last, Yin Xun was the first to fall, rubbing his round stomach and saying he was about to give birth, and asking Lu Qingjiu to take responsibility.

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Lu Qingjiu said, “Your belly was made big by a fish, what do I have to do with it?”

Yin Xun, “…”

Bai Yuehu’s fighting power had always been on a different level to Yin Xun’s. While Yin Xun’s stomach had swelled up, he was still fighting. After the fish disappeared into his mouth, it was as if it had been sucked into a bottomless pit. He didn’t seem even close to full. Lu Qingjiu looked at his abdomen and felt like it hadn’t changed at all.

Eventually, it became Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun sitting on the sidelines, watching Bai Yuehu swallow the fish, pickled vegetables, and even the soup down in one breath. The dry pork rib hotpot next to it had only a bit of onions and other such seasonings left. After he finished eating, he took the initiative to stand up, prepared to wash the dishes.

Lu Qingjiu asked, “Yuehu, are you full?”

Bai Yuehu said, “Pretty much.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Come to think of it, it seemed like after Bai Yuehu ate, he had never before said he was full. Even if Lu Qingjiu asked him, he would only say: Pretty much.