Fantasy Farm

translator: baumkuchen

Bai Yuehu was still sleeping. He lay on his bed, his cheek buried in the soft quilt, his dark hair spread like silk across the white sheets. His face was as beautiful as a painting.

Humans were all skin-deep beings. What they liked had always been beautiful bodies.

Lu Qingjiu sat down next to Bai Yuehu. His movements were very light, but Bai Yuehu still opened his eyes. It was just that there was still sleepiness in those eyes, and neither were there any defenses in them whatsoever. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “I have something I’d like to ask you about.” 

Bai Yuehu’s gaze shifted to the box Lu Qingjiu was holding. “You opened it?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “En.”

Bai Yuehu said, “Ask.”

Lu Qingjiu hesitated slightly. “Do you know what happened to my grandmother?”

Bai Yuehu said, “I know a little.”

Lu Qingjiu instantly tensed up. “What do you know?”

“She was your grandmother,” Bai Yuehu said, “and the Lu family member who used to guard Shuifu village.”

Lu Qingjiu, “What else?” 

Bai Yuehu said, “Her lover caused a huge disaster, and was locked away.” His tone was light, but the words he spoke made Lu Qingjiu tremble slightly.

“Do…… do you know what her past lover did?” Lu Qingjiu continued to ask.

“I don’t know,” Bai Yuehu said, “This was all kept secret, Qingjiu, what’s wrong?”

Lu Qingjiu let out a bitter smile. “He ate my parents.” 

Bai Yuehu’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “That’s not possible.”

Lu Qingjiu, “Why is it impossible?”

Bai Yuehu, “If he was going to eat someone, he would eat your grandmother first, why would he make a move against your parents?”

Lu Qingjiu, “What do you mean? Why do you say that?” He couldn’t understand Bai Yuehu’s logic at all. 

Bai Yuehu sat up straight, and slowly moved closer to Lu Qingjiu. It was as if there were embers burning in his eyes, making Lu Qingjiu instinctively want to retreat, but his arm was grabbed by Bai Yuehu. He said slowly, “What are you afraid of?”

Lu Qingjiu’s throat bobbed. “I just…… don’t understand what you mean.”

Djl Tefte rjlv, “Yeg gjmf, ecifrr kf’gf ojmlcu jc fcfws, bcis fja atf atlcur kf ibnf. Ca atja alwf, klat sbeg ugjcvwbatfg ys tlr rlvf, lo tf kjr ublcu ab fja rbwfbcf, tf kbeiv fja sbeg ugjcvwbatfg olgra.”

Oe Hlcuple, “……Dea atf ojma bo atf wjaafg lr atja tf jaf ws qjgfcar.” 

Bai Yuehu, “Perhaps he didn’t do it of his own free will.”

Lu Qingjiu, “You guys can still be forced?”

Bai Yuehu said, “We can’t be forced, but we can be corrupted.” He said, “Beyond Shuifu, there’s nothing but boundaries to different worlds.”

Lu Qingjiu wanted to struggle out of Bai Yuehu’s grip, but Bai Yuehu’s hand was like iron, firmly locking his arm in place, practically not moving an inch. In the end, he gave up, sitting next to Bai Yuehu with his head lowered, tightly gripping the black wooden box to himself. “Do you know why I returned to Shuifu village?” 

Bai Yuehu observed Lu Qingjiu’s expression, gleaning his answer from there. “Because of your parents?”

“Yes,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Someone told me that my parents didn’t die in an accident.” He looked at Bai Yuehu. “He was right.”

Bai Yuehu, “Who told you this?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Old Tree.” 

Bai Yuehu frowned.

Lu Qingjiu said, “He said that my parents’ lives shouldn’t have ended, that their death in Shuifu village was caused by someone, not a natural disaster.”

Bai Yuehu replied, “You believed him?”

“I didn’t when I came here, but now I do,” Lu Qingjiu said, “He was exactly right. My parents didn’t die because of the mudslide, they were eaten.” 

No wonder at that time, even Yin Xun, a mountain god, hadn’t been able to find his parents’ bodies, only their possessions. He should’ve known then—— This wasn’t an accident, they were eaten by something.

Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu, a teary gleam in his eyes. He thought of the despair in his grandmother’s diary, and the scene of when he had to arrange his parents’ funeral. He asked, “Are you going to eat me?”

Bai Yuehu opened his mouth slightly. He knew that the best answer at this time, would be to deny it, but his soul was speaking to him about the desire he felt towards Lu Qingjiu. This desire made him hesitate slightly, to the point that he could only watch as the light in Lu Qingjiu’s eyes dimmed slightly.

“You can’t answer?” Lu Qingjiu said. 

Bai Yuehu felt his heart tighten. This feeling was so strange, his heart was clearly fine, so why was it aching slightly? He said, “I don’t know.”

Lu Qingjiu let out a bitter laugh.

Bai Yuehu said, “But I’ll do my best to control myself.” He grabbed Lu Qingjiu’s hand and carefully smelled his fingers. His lips slid across the skin on the back of his hand as he felt the warmth of a human. He said, “It’s really hard for me to describe this kind of feeling to you, it’s like…… There’s a delicious piece of cake walking around in front of you. You really like that cake, and want to swallow it down, but at the same time, you know that once you eat it, it’ll be gone, so you continue to bear it.”

Lu Qingjiu was originally a little down, but was made to laugh by Bai Yuehu’s metaphor. “But I’m not a cake.” 

Bai Yuehu, “Yes, you’re even more tempting than cake.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Are you praising the quality of my flesh?”

Bai Yuehu, “I guess it counts as that?”

Lu Qingjiu broke out into loud laughter. As he laughed, tears fell from his eyes. “That supernatural being who ate my parents, where is he now, does he know that my grandmother died?” 

“I’ve taken you to see him before,” Bai Yuehu said, “Do you still remember our horror story competition? That dragon you saw, was the one that ate your parents. Of course, that’s what they all say, but I don’t believe it. It’s just that for some reason, he didn’t try to argue a case for himself.” It seemed like he was absolutely certain that that dragon hadn’t eaten Lu Qingjiu’s parents, but what he said was completely different from what Lu Qingjiu’s grandmother said, and Lu Qingjiu didn’t know who was telling the truth.

“I’m a little upset,” Lu Qingjiu said, “I never thought that this would be my birthday present.” That it would be such a heavy truth.

Bai Yuehu, “Don’t be upset.” He raised his hand and lightly stroked the back of Lu Qingjiu’s neck, like he was using the method Lu Qingjiu used to comfort the little fox to comfort him.

His touch tickled slightly, making Lu Qingjiu want to duck away, but he was grabbed tight by Bai Yuehu. 

“Are you going to go?” Bai Yuehu asked, “Are you going to leave this place?”

Perhaps Bai Yuehu himself didn’t realise this, but when he asked this question, his tone was a little nervous.

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment. “I won’t.”

Bai Yuehu let out a soft sigh of relief. 

“It seems that even if I leave this place, I don’t have anywhere else to go anymore.” As he said this, Lu Qingjiu’s heart was bitter. He’d lost all his relatives early on, there was nowhere for him to stay anywhere else. To him, Shuifu village wasn’t just his hometown, but also a warm home.

This place had Yin Xun, who’d waited for his return, had Bai Yuehu, who guarded this place, had the cute little pigs, as well as the fluffy fox.

To Lu Qingjiu, this place was warm.

“Don’t leave.” Bai Yuehu reached out and pulled Lu Qingjiu into a hug. He gently rubbed his head against Lu Qingjiu’s cheek, like a coquettish cat. “Stay here.” 

As Lu Qingjiu watched Bai Yuehu’s movements, he felt that the fox spirit before him was too agitated, so he couldn’t help but perform the actions that his original form often did. So, which type of dragon was Bai Yuehu’s original form? He originally wanted to ask, but then felt that Bai Yuehu felt very strongly about this matter, and swallowed the question that had formed in his throat back down.

“I’m not going to leave,” Lu Qingjiu said, “Let go, I’m going to go make breakfast.”

Bai Yuehu asked, “You’re really not going to leave?”

Lu Qingjiu said helplessly, “I’m really not going to leave, if I’m lying to you, you can eat me, alright?” 

Bai Yuehu said, “Alright.” He was serious.

Lu Qingjiu said, “Let me digest this matter a little first.” Fortunately, he had long since accepted that the supernatural existed, and had some mental preparation. If he’d found out about this when he’d first come here, he might have been scared away the very next day.

“En.” Bai Yuehu nodded in agreement.

Lu Qingjiu carried the box back to his bedroom, carefully closing it before placing it back by the head of his bed. He stroked the box carefully, thinking about the last words his grandmother had left for him. If he ran into something bad, he should take another look at the things in the box…… Thinking about it, his grandmother probably wanted to use her experience to comfort Lu Qingjiu. 

But Lu Qingjiu only felt sad. It was hard for him to imagine the despair his grandmother must have felt when she found out that her lover had eaten their children.

Only after sitting in his room for quite a while was Lu Qingjiu about to get his emotions back under control. He got up and went out to cook.

Even though he now knew what sad story had occurred here in the past, life still went on. Besides, today was his birthday, he didn’t want to let his bad mood spread to others.

When he reached the kitchen, however, Lu Qingjiu heard rowdy voices coming from inside. Listening closer, he found that Zhu Miaomiao and Yin Xun were arguing, while Jiang Buhuan tried to talk them down off to the side. 

“Wa, is what you’ve made even edible!?” Yin Xun said, “Didn’t I tell you to put in less eggs? Look, this cake can’t even keep its shape anymore.”

Zhu Miaomiao, “Aiyama, if I’d known earlier that your cooking skills were like this, I would have ordered one. Hurry up, hurry up, it’s so late already, Qingjiu should be getting up by now!”

Yin Xun, “Don’t hurry me, don’t hurry me——”

Jiang Buhuan said, “Put it here, be careful.” 

Lu Qingjiu peeked in through the door and saw that the three people, all covered head to toe in flour, were currently carefully moving a cake. It was just that no matter how you looked at it, that cake’s shape was very weird. If he had to describe it…… it was like a lump of melted baba.

Lu Qingjiu, “……” How in the world had they made the cake turn out like this.

The three didn’t notice Lu Qingjiu peeking in on them by the door, busy using up all their energy moving the cake into a box, planning on covering it in cream. Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, then simply left the kitchen to the three of them, turning around and returning to his own room.

About another twenty minutes later, an excited looking Zhu Miaomiao knocked on Lu Qingjiu’s door, calling for him to get up. Lu Qingjiu pretended that he’d just woken up, yawning as he said, “Sorry, I got up late today.” 

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “Quickly come over, we made breakfast!”

Lu Qingjiu said, “You guys even made breakfast? Who made it? It wasn’t Yin Xun, was it??”

Zhu Miaomiao didn’t know how terrifying Yin Xun’s cooking was, and was thus a little confused. “What’s wrong with Yin Xun making breakfast? From what I saw it looked pretty good.”

Lu Qingjiu, “……Nevermind, it’s fine.” He didn’t tell Zhu Miaomiao, the most terrifying part of Yin Xun’s cooking was clearly that its appearance looked about right, and the taste was even pretty good, but after eating it, you would definitely have diarrhea, as if he’d put in some strange ingredients. 

Since in order to celebrate his birthday, everyone had worked hard for a long time, Lu Qingjiu didn’t want to spoil the mood. Besides, eating Yin Xun’s food would just give you diarrhea for a day…… right?