Fantasy Farm

The next day, Zhu Miaomiao was coming, so Lu Qingjiu took the pickup truck to the station to pick her up. 

Knowing that it was hard for them to buy a lot of things here, Zhu Miaomiao had specially bought bags and bags of snacks for Lu Qingjiu, and had even brought along two crates of fresh cherries and mangoes while she was at it. These were both things Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu hadn’t tried before, Lu Qingjiu could already imagine the happy looks on their faces when they saw the fruits.

“Aiyo, I brought so much stuff,” In the truck, Zhu Miaomiao chatted with Lu Qingjiu, “Carrying it all was so damn tiring. Oh, but QIngjiu, the honey you sent me was too delicious, send me more if you have any extra next time.”

“Alright, no problem,” Lu Qingjiu replied. The little bees at home produced honey at a very high speed. He could just collect a few more jars over the next few days for Zhu Miaomiao to bring back with her.

“Oh right, we have a guest at home.” As they were about to reach home, Lu Qingjiu thought of something and gave Zhu Miaomiao a head’s up. 

“Oh.” Zhu Miaomiao completely didn’t realise what this guest meant, even thinking that it was a relative who had come to visit. If they were there, they were there, it’s not like she’d know them.

After parking the truck, Lu Qingjiu picked up the stuff and went into the house with Zhu Miaomiao. The moment she stepped into the courtyard, Zhu Miaomiao was stunned stiff by the person who appeared before her. She even thought that she was hallucinating. She reached out and roughly rubbed her eyes every times before confirming that this was real. “What the fuck, what the fuck, why do I see Jiang Buhuan? Am I dreaming??”

Not only was she seeing Jiang Buhuan, she was even seeing him holding a pan and helping Yin Xun clean up the chicken poop in the courtyard…… 

“You’re not dreaming,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Didn’t I just tell you, we have a guest at home?”

Zhu Miaomiao shrieked, “But you didn’t say that that guest was Jiang Buhuan!!”

Lu Qingjiu, “Is it too late to tell you now?”

Before he could finish speaking, Zhu Miaomiao rushed over excitedly, and began to circle her idol. “Jiang Buhuan, Jiang Buhuan, it’s a live Jiang Buhuan!!”

Jiang Buhuan had an awkward expression on his face from Zhu Miaomiao’s antics. To tell the truth, after coming to this village, he’d almost forgotten that he was a celebrity, not only did he not feel welcomed, he was even scared of being disdained and driven out of the house. It could be said that he was walking on thin ice. In order to prove that he was of value, he’d even forced himself to thoroughly clean the courtyard despite his broken arm. Zhu Miaomiao’s excited shrieking at this moment actually made him feel strangely slightly out of his element……  

“Are you real??” Zhu Miaomiao got right up in his face.

Jiang Buhuan, “I’m real……”

Zhu Miaomiao continued to shriek, “Oh my god, he’s really real, he can even speak!!!”

Jiang Buhuan, “……” 

Seeing the two’s interactions, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but laugh. He said, “Jiang Buhuan, you don’t need to keep sweeping, isn’t your arm still injured?”

Jiang Buhuan hurriedly said, “It’s a small wound, a small wound.”

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Yin Xun nodded his head like it was a pestle.

The mangoes Zhu Miaomiao had brought were all top-quality green mangoes, directly transported over by air from the tropics. They were very fleshy, and were the perfect amount of sweet and juicy. These kinds of tropical fruit weren’t too possible for him to grow himself, so he could only buy them from outside, and what was worse was that their town was very small, with no supermarkets that stocked expensive imports, and the quality of fruits bought from online stores were hard to guarantee.

Over where he was, Yin Xun had already buried his face in a mango, eating with gusto. Over where she was, Zhu Miaomiao was still enthusiastically squealing over her idol. Jiang Buhuan was thrown into a mess by her actions, almost dropping the chicken poop onto his feet.

When Bai Yuehu came back, he was met with a rowdy courtyard. Lu Qingjiu had originally been worried that he’d be upset, but clearly, the cherries and mangoes that Zhu Miaomiao had brought attracted the majority of the two foodies’ attention. So it became the harmonious scene Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun sitting by the side eating fruit, Jiang Buhuan struggling to clean up the chicken poop, and Zhu Miaomiao wanting nothing more than to become the chicken poop. 

Lu Qingjiu had the satisfied look of an old father watching his children interact harmoniously on his face.

Since Zhu Miaomiao had come over, there would be a big feast at home as usual. Lu Qingjiu had long since prepared the fresh ingredients, even buying a lot of seafood, planning on making a sumptuous lunch.

Scalded prawns, stewed beef, kung pao chicken, spicy white cabbage with stir-fried pork belly, mushroom and chicken stew, cold jellyfish salad, and a big bowl of vermilion red braised meat, the entire table was filled to bursting.

Red braised meat was Lu Qingjiu’s speciality. The meat, having been stir-fried, had lost most of its fat, becoming soft and chewy. It had then been placed into crystal sugar, soy sauce and all kinds of spices and stewed for half an hour, completely soaking in the flavour. When one bit into it, it almost melted in their mouth. Adding on the rich layers of meat belly, the meat was enough to tide them over many bowls of white rice. 

Zhu Miaomiao happily sat next to Jiang Buhuan, still chatting with her idol.

Probably because he had eaten Zhu Miaomiao’s fruits, Bai Yuehu gave Jiang Buhuan a bit of face, not stopping him from eating. This was Jiang Buhuan’s first time getting to properly taste Lu Qingjiu’s cooking. After taking a bite of the red braised meat, an amazed expression appeared on his face. He praised, “You cooked this really well.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “It’s all due to the meat.” The meat had been brought back by Bai Yuehu. He didn’t know what it was, but it tasted a lot better than pork, lacking the strange taste pork usually had.

“How could that be?” Jiang Buhuan thought that Lu Qingjiu was just being humble. The longer he stayed here, the more he was realising how unfathomable the people here were. 

Bai Yuehu went without saying, his looks alone were extraordinary. Jiang Buhuan had entered the entertainment industry when he was twelve years old, and his entire family was in this industry, but even having seen so many big stars, he had never seen a man with looks as exquisite as Bai Yuehu’s. It could be imagined how popular Bai Yuehu would be if he too entered the entertainment industry.

As Zhu Miaomiao ate Lu Qingjiu’s cooking, a blissful expression also appeared on her face. She said, “Oh, right, Jiang Buhuan, why are you staying here?”

Jiang Buhuan, “……I’m on leave.” It’s not like he could say that he was scared of dying.

Zhu Miaomiao, “You know Bai Yuehu?” 

Jiang Buhuan let out a dry cough. “I don’t. Didn’t I have a program here before, it was all incidental……” He replied very vaguely

Even though Zhu Miaomiao found it a little strange, she didn’t dig deeper. After all, what star didn’t have their quirks.

After lunch, Jiang Buhuan volunteered himself to go wash the dishes, but was stopped by Zhu Miaomiao, saying that she would do it, after all one of Jiang Buhuan’s arms was in a cast hanging by his neck, how could he wash dishes like this.

“Go and rest.” Lu Qingjiu knew that he was still worried about being chased out. “Nothing will happen at least during these few days.” 

Jiang Buhuan let out a bitter laugh,

Lu Qingjiu said, “I’ll be going to town again, just now, the seed shop owner said that they had a few more new saplings arrive. This time, there are mangosteen saplings, they imported them specially for me.”

Basically no one here grew mangosteens, nor were they in the habit of eating them, but Lu Qingjiu really liked this kind of fruit. Even though it had very little flesh, it was sweet, sour and delicious and had a fresh flavour.

“I’ll go with you.” Yin Xun raised his hand. 

“Okay,” Lu Qingjiu said, “I’ll be getting some equipment on the way, tonight we can have barbecue in the courtyard.” It was very fun to have barbecue when there were a lot of people, and the spring weather was too good, warm during the day and not too cold at night. Occasionally, a slight wind would blow past, bringing with it the faint fragrance of flowers.

If this was before, Lu Qingjiu wouldn’t have quite dared to leave Bai Yuehu and Jiang Buhuan alone in the house together, but now there was a friendly Zhu Miaomiao, the atmosphere probably wouldn’t be too awkward.

After Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun bought the saplings, they then went to rent some barbeque equipment nearby. After thinking about it, he simply bought the set of iron racks from the owner, thinking that there was space for them at home anyways, so they might as well leave them at home, and when they wanted to eat barbecue in the future, they wouldn’t need to make the trip to town any longer.

The entire way there and back, Yin Xun thought about what he wanted to eat tonight, his eyes curved with joy. 

After taking the things into the courtyard, Lu Qingjiu then began to prepare for that night’s barbecue. The meat needed to be sliced and marinated, and all the condiments, scallions, garlic and the like needed to be prepared in advance. However, there were a lot of people in the house, so a lot of things got done quickly, and Lu Qingjiu didn’t actually have to expend much effort.

Everyone chatted as they worked, even eating the snacks Zhu Miaomiao had brought as they did so, like they were on a spring outing. Spring was a season that soothed one’s heart. Lu Qingjiu even picked some freshly-bloomed peach blossoms nearby the village, thinking of making some peach blossom wine.

After a busy afternoon, the things that needed to be prepared were about done. Lu Qingjiu heated up the charcoal, and began to barbecue.

The meat they’d prepared the most of were beef skewers. The beef was thinly sliced, skewered on a bamboo skewer and seasoned, then placed atop the fire and quickly barbecued over a big fire. After that, he sprinkled on chili powder and scallions. The entire courtyard was filled with the tempting charcoal scent of cooked meat. 

Skewering a hundred beef skewers, after Lu Qingjiu cooked one, he’d hand it off to the rest. While he was at it, he barbecued eggplant with minced garlic paste, silken tofu and other such foods that took a longer time to cook on the side.

As they ate barbecue, they drank a little wine. The atmosphere in the courtyard was particularly pleasant.

Jiang Buhuan was injured and couldn’t drink wine, so he cracked open a bottle of coke and drank it with Zhu Miaomiao. He seemed to be in a rather good mood as well, with more of a smile on his face and lacking some of that melancholy.

Lu Qingjiu fed the fox kit, Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei while he was at it. Jiang Buhuan couldn’t tell it was a fox, thinking that the fox was just a poodle Lu Qingjiu owned……  

Lu Qingjiu had a small appetite, so he was about full after eating a barbecued ear of corn. Zhu Miaomiao was a little drunk, tugging at Jiang Buhuan, wanting to hear his stories and not taking no for an answer. Out of helplessness, Jiang Buhuan could only start chatting with her about gossip in the entertainment circle, what Celebrity A is secretly in love with Celebrity B, what Celebrity C and Celebrity D were divorced, etcetera…… 

Yin Xun was also full, patting his round stomach as he sat off to the side digesting. Bai Yuehu was still eating. Lu Qingjiu strongly suspected that even if he finished all the food here, he still wouldn’t be able to fill that massive stomach of his. Sigh, I don’t know when I’ll be able to let Bai Yuehu eat his fill, Lu Qingjiu thought a little regretfully.

At about ten pm, the barbecue party ended. Lu Qingjiu had been busy for the entire day, and was a little tired. He handed the task of packing everything up to Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu while he himself went to take a shower, preparing to have an early rest.

The moon was a crescent moon, but it was very bright. In the sky dotted with stars, he could still see white clouds drifting past. This was scenery that was rare in the city, but now he had a panoramic view just sitting but his window. 

Lu Qingjiu yawned, walked over to the bed and laid down. Within a few minutes, he sank into a deep sleep.

He originally thought he would sleep all the way till the next day as he had before, but at midnight, Lu Qingjiu was unexpectedly shocked awake. He felt a kind of bloodcurdling terror. After opening his eyes, he didn’t even dare to turn on the light. He tried his best to control his breathing, not daring to make too much noise. This was a kind of sixth sense. He buried his head in his quilt, hearing the sound of his heart thudding wildly in his chest.

“Huff huff…… huff huff……” There seemed to be some kind of thing walking past his window, making a deep gasping sound, but listening closer, it then seemed to just be his misconception, that breathing was thinking more than the wind.

Lu Qingjiu’s body was trembling uncontrollably. He wanted to know what had happened, if there was anything outside his window. Eventually, Lu Qingjiu, trying to suppress his fear, slowly, slowly stuck his head out of his quilt, looking over to the window, but found that outside his window was darkness. He was unable to see anything, no moon, no stars, no clouds, only an endless night. 

When Lu Qingjiu saw that patch of darkness, he even suspected that there was a problem with his eyes for a second, but he quickly realised why the scene outside his window was black—— There was something blocking his window, covering the moon and the stars.

Then, Lu Qingjiu saw the most terrifying scene he’d ever seen in his life. He saw the patch of darkness outside his window flash slightly. In that moment, Lu Qingjiu finally realised, blocking his window, was a giant, black eye. The pupil of that eye was enough to completely cover the entire window, and the eye’s owner, was currently peering into the room, clearly already having noticed the Lu Qingjiu making noise on the bed.

Lu Qingjiu held his breath. He didn’t know what was in front of him, but clearly, no matter what it was, before that thing, he was like an ant.

“Ah——” A shrill scream sounded. It was Jiang Buhuan’s voice. That scream made the monster outside his window slowly turn its gaze away, its interest clearly having been piqued. It blinked, then began to move slowly, moving that giant eye away, returning the moon and the stars to Lu Qingjiu. 

As Lu Qingjiu watched it leave, disappearing from the view of his window, he didn’t dare to think about where the monster had gone, and why Bai Yuehu wasn’t reacting. Could it be that Bai Yuehu hadn’t been able to beat that monster? Then had Bai Yuehu gotten hurt? Or worse? Lu Qingjiu’s heart was thrown into chaos in an instant. He grit his teeth, forcibly pressed down the natural fear stemming from his very bones, and got up from the bed. He carefully pushed open the door and, with stumbling footsteps, made his way to where Bai Yuehu was staying.