Fantasy Farm

translator: baumkuchen

Lu Qingjiu, “…” He was stunned stiff. He hadn’t thought that he would suddenly hear Bai Yuehu say that he was full under this kind of circumstance. 

Lu Qingjiu, “You’re really full?”

Bai Yuehu, “En.” His tone was this level of determined, but it made Lu Qingjiu start to become suspicious. Bai Yuehu hadn’t eaten much at all that night, truly far less than how much he ate usually. Could he have snuck some extra food… No… It seemed like, it was for some other reason…

When Lu Qingjiu realised why Bai Yuehu had rejected the canned oranges, he finally couldn’t help but laugh, “The canned oranges aren’t sour, they’re very sweet.”

Bai Yuehu didn’t speak. He just looked at him. 

Made to feel a little guilty by look in Bai Yuehu’s eyes, Lu Qingjiu let out an awkward, dry cough. “Cough, I was just joking with you.”

Bai Yuehu’s expression was inscrutable. He said indifferently, “Very funny.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Ge, I’m sorry, I won’t dare to do it ever again.

In the end, Lu Qingjiu went to the kitchen and poured out a bowl of canned oranges for Bai Yuehu after all. These oranges had been boiled in sugar water, so the acidity in them had been thoroughly diluted. They had perfectly combined with the sugar, sour, sweet, and delicious, making a very good after-dinner dessert. After trying one, and confirming that this was no longer that kind of sour to the point of making one’s teeth fall out orange from that afternoon, only then did Bai Yuehu slowly finish an entire bowl. 

Once he was done eating, Lu Qingjiu finally returned to his bedroom to rest.

The weather was too cold now. Bathing in a bathroom without a bath master had become a torture. Lu Qingjiu had produced a layer of sweat over his entire body while picking oranges today, so even though he was afraid of the cold, he still grit his teeth and took a shower. After showering, he hurriedly put on his clothes and rushed into his bed, but even after curling up under the covers for a long time, he didn’t get any warmer. Especially his two feet, they were so cold that they were quickly about to go numb.

Lu Qingjiu added a few more pieces of charcoal into his charcoal basin, making the fire burn a little hotter, but still felt like this was like pouring a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood. He was still incredibly cold. 

Were the winters in Shuifu village in his memories this cold? Lu Qingjiu wrapped himself into a ball on the bed and closed his eyes. However, in his mind, the only memories involving Shuifu village’s winters left were of the piping hot stew his grandma made, and the moonlight that fell into the courtyard and illuminated the snow.

Lu Qingjiu didn’t sleep very well. He only slept for around three to four hours. The extinguishing of the charcoal fire woke him up. He really couldn’t sleep, so he put on his clothes and went to the kitchen to make breakfast, thinking that moving around would make him feel a little better.

At some unknown time, Bai Yuehu appeared behind Lu Qingjiu. By the time Lu Qingjiu saw him, he seemed to have already been standing in the doorway for a very long time.

“Can’t sleep?” Bai Yuehu asked him. 

“En.” Lu Qingjiu nodded.

“Had a nightmare?” Bai Yuehu then asked.

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“I’d better clean up the kang.” Li Qingjiu was a little tired. With a yawn, “Or else I really don’t know how I’m going to get through this winter.”

The kang was in his grandmother’s room. Lu Qingjiu had kept his grandma’s room in its original state, which could be considered his way of memorialising her.

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Just that now, it had barely entered winter, but he was already finding it unbearably cold. By the time it reached December, if he didn’t start using the kang, he was truly afraid that he would really freeze to death. 

Bai Yuehu said, “I’ll do it, which room is it?”

Lu Qingjiu wanted to refuse, but heard Bai Yuehu say, “You’ll need to touch cold water.

Upon hearing the two words “cold water”, Lu Qingjiu subconsciously shivered. Even though there was a water heater in the house, because the weather was truly too cold, it was hard to get the water temperature to rise, so even if he used it, it wouldn’t have much of an effect. So now, Lu Qingjiu should really avoid contact with cold water if he could…

“Alright, I’ll have to trouble you then.” Lu Qingjiu didn’t try to hold out any longer. “It’s the room around the southeast corner.” 

Bai Yuehu nodded. He went to grab a towel and a broom, then went off to clean the room.

On this end, in the kitchen, Lu Qingjiu made tangyuan and eggs in glutinous rice wine. Both the tangyuan and the glutinous rice wine were both homemade. Lu Qingjiu cooked a big pot, cracked in five poached eggs, and added two spoonfuls of brown sugar. Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu could have two eggs each, just one was enough for him.

The snow outside was a little heavier now. When Yin Xun came over, he hadn’t brought a umbrella, so a thin layer of snow had collected on his head and his shoulders. After entering and seeing Bai Yuehu cleaning up the house, he asked, “Why are you suddenly cleaning up the room now?”

Lu Qingjiu explained his being too cold and wanting to use the heated kang. Hearing this, Yin Xun said, “Then have you prepared enough charcoal? The mountain’s probably going to be blocked up by next month, you can’t lack charcoal.” 

Lu Qingjiu said, “It doesn’t seem like there’s quite enough, let’s go to town again and by some more.”

Yin Xun said, “Alright.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Yuehu, come over, it’s time for breakfast.”

A big pot of tangyuan was split amongst three people. The tangyuan were made of glutinous rice, and were soft, chewy and sweet, very filling. Lu Qingjiu was about full after one small bowl. Looking at the weather outside, he was a little worried. Now that it was cold, he didn’t have any desire to go out, wanting nothing more than to just curl up beside the furnace every day. But if he wanted to heat up the kang, there definitely wasn’t enough charcoal at home, he needed to go to town to buy more. 

Probably because Lu Qingjiu’s expression was looking too troubled, Yin Xun rubbed his nose. “How about I go, you can just stay at home.”

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Lu Qingjiu asked, “You can drive?”

“No,” Yin Xun said, “But even if I can’t, there shouldn’t be a problem, after all, the pickup truck can drive itself… Won’t it be fine just letting it drive on its own?”

These words were rather reasonable, but Lu Qingjiu was still a little uneasy. Just as he thought that he’d better make the trip with Yin Xun after all, the Bai Yuehu who had been sitting off to the side spoke up. He said, “I’ll go with Yin Xun.” He probably knew what Lu Qingjiu had been worried about, so he added, “I have a driver’s license.” 

Lu Qingjiu was shocked. “Really? You have a driver’s license?”

Bai Yuehu “en”ed.

Lu Qingjiu asked curiously, “When did you learn how to drive? You wouldn’t also have an identity care and a registered residence, would you?”

Bai Yuehu said, “Of course I have those, or else I would be an unregistered resident.” He said it so calmly, that for a time, it actually made Lu Qingjiu feel like this made sense. 

So, in the end, Lu Qingjiu didn’t continue worrying himself about it, letting Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun go off to town to buy charcoal with a big wave of his hand. Just that before leaving, Yin Xun started to say something to Lu Qingjiu, then stopped. Lu Qingjiu thought that he was scared of being alone with Bai Yuehu, and was about to comfort him, but then, he heard Yin Xun say in a small voice, “That… Jiu-er, can you give me the… money to buy the charcoal?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Sorry, he’d forgotten the fact that he alone held the right to control this family’s financials, and his family’s mountain god and fox spirit were poor to the point that they couldn’t even afford xiaolongbao to eat…

Lu Qingjiu pulled out his credit card, placed it in Yin Xun’s hands, and casually told him his PIN number.

Yin Xun grasped the card tightly in his hand and told Lu Qingjiu that he would protect this card with his life. Even if he were to lose his life, he would send this card back safely. 

Lu Qingjiu, “…But aren’t you already dead? Where did this life come from?”

Yin Xun, “…” He was actually unable to respond.

Yin Xun, with the credit card, and Bai Yuehu got onto the pickup truck. Lu Qingjiu watched them disappear off into the other end of the village. This was Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu’s first time going to town together. As he watched them leave, Lu Qingjiu had a slight complicated feeling of a mother sending her sons off, away from home.

On one hand, he was happy that his sons had finally grown up, but on the other, he was worried that his sons would run into some problem that they wouldn’t be able to deal with. Suddenly thinking of something, Lu Qingjiu hurriedly called Yin Xun, and told him to buy Bai Yuehu a phone and a SIM card while they were buying charcoal. He’d kept forgetting about this, so this time, they could simply do it along with buying charcoal. Furthermore, Bai Yuehu would be there, so he could choose a phone he liked. 

After sending the two off, he then returned to the house. First, he added a little more charcoal into the charcoal basin, then placed chopped up sweet potato strips next to the charcoal basin, planning on roasting them slowly.

After drying, the sweet potato strips would become very tough, and could be chewed on for a long time. It was a snack that was good for passing the time. In winter, there were fewer things to do. Most of the time, everyone would be at home watching television and surfing the internet. Lu Qingjiu casually sorted out his Taobao shop while he was at it. This month’s goods had already been sent out. Next, he was going to go on break for at least two months and open again in spring.

The moment the announcement came out, a miserable howl sounded on the internet. The effects of the “Little Village”’s hair growth water were obvious to all, and it had practically no bad reviews. There were even many people showing their before using the hair growth water and after using the hair growth water photos. However, even though the hair growth water had a very good effect, the output was too small, with only one hundred bottles per month, and after it was sold out, the shop owner wouldn’t restock. Originally, everyone had been full of vigour to try and snatch next month’s hair growth water, but who knew that the shop owner wouldn’t be making any more…

“Boss, please, I’m begging you, I was hoping to be able to have hair for when I went back to go for a marriage matchmaking session for the New Year.” 

“Boss, please sell a little more, all I have to live for is your shop’s hair growth water.”

“Boss, Boss…”

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Lu Qingjiu casually opened up a lot of chats. Seeing that they were all full of these kinds of comments, for a moment, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but still didn’t continue to open the shop. After all, next month, he wouldn’t even be able to leave the village, how would he be able to send out his stock.

After simply hardening his heart and closing the chatting app, Lu Qingjiu didn’t continue to look at it. 

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu had gone to town, and Lu Qingjiu was too lazy to cook, so he took out some cup noodles and made do with that. After eating this simple meal, he then went to place some thick bedding on his grandma’s bed, and heated up the kang.

After the kang had heated up, Lu Qingjiu impatiently lay down on it. Feeling the warmth of the quit, he let out a long, comfortable sigh.

The little fox kit had also come along, and nestled down beside his head. Lu Qingjiu stroked its little head and said, “Come, let’s take a nap together. By the time we wake up, they’ll be back.”

The little fox licked Lu Qingjiu’s finger, and curled up into a ball. 

Bundled up in the warm quilt, Lu Qingjiu fell into a deep sleep. He hadn’t had a good rest yesterday night, so this time, he practically fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. He slept until he vaguely heard Yin Xun’s voice calling his name, “Qingjiu, Qingjiu, where are you? We’re back.”

Lu Qingjiu blearily opened his eyes, and replied, “I’m here.”

With a creak, someone seemed to open the door and come in. A pair of ice-cold hands touched his forehead. Lu Qingjiu vaguely saw Bai Yuehu’s face. He said in a muffled voice, “Yuehu… I’m so hot.”