Fantasy Farm

Editor: Xiao Wu

The next day, Lu Qingjiu spent a whole afternoon making a huge ice cream cake. 

The base was cake while the frosting was all ice cream. Furthermore he had added fresh fruits between the layers. The ice cream was orange flavoured, which added a fresh taste unlike the oily richness of buttercream frosting, making it the perfect match with the soft cake.

The bottommost layer of the cake was a piece of Lu Qingjiu’s homemade pastry. He had specially added minimal amounts of sugar so that the crispy pastry perfectly counterbalanced the richness of this dessert.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu could never say no to desserts, and thus, polished off the whole cake within half an hour.

As May arrived, the cherries ripened. The cherry jam they had made last year had been used up in winter. Yin Xun was especially pleased with the jam made from the sour cherries growing in his house. This year, without waiting for Lu Qingjiu to request, he took the initiative to pick all the cherries off his tree, washed and pitted them, ready for Lu Qingjiu to make them into cherry jam. 

Lu Qingjiu once again spent a long time cooking cherry jam, before he started preparing dinner. Since the weather was warm, everyone wanted to eat more refreshing dishes. After asking their preferences, he simply made a big pot of Mung bean soup, a big bowl of Cold noodles with chicken shreds as well as Sliced pork with garlic sauce. He also washed a few homemade duck eggs that he had been salting and added them to the pot.

As he was using special sea duck eggs, the size of these eggs were especially big. After they were fully cooked, Lu Qingjiu cut open one and poked it using a chopstick. An oily yellow fluid immediately flowed out from that hole. Using his mouth, Lu Qingjiu quickly caught the fluid that was flowing out and took a big bite out of the egg, enjoying the sandy texture of the egg yolk. When he had been fermenting the egg, he didn’t use too much salt and therefore the egg whites were not sickeningly salty. All he could taste in that one mouthful was just the deliciousness of the egg yolk.

Watching from the side, Yin Xun kept swallowing his saliva, muttering to himself that it had been such a long time since he had tasted salted duck eggs. When his grandparents were around, they had often made it. However since they were gone, he hadn’t learned how to make it himself, and thus had almost forgotten the taste of salted eggs.

Noticing this, Lu Qingjiu smoothly handed one over to Yin Xun.

When it was time for dinner, Lu Qingjiu moved the table to their front porch, so that they could watch the stars while they ate. Apart from the dishes mentioned earlier, at the last minute, he also used the oven to bake a bunch of New Orleans baked chicken drumsticks. However as these drumsticks were purchased from the supermarket, they couldn’t compare to the chickens they reared themselves, but were sufficient to be a snack.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu ate happily. Their tastes were relatively childish, liking all sorts of snacks, especially these baked drumsticks, even Yin Xun can eat them without leaving behind any bones.

As the three were eating happily, a blinding white light flashed in the sky. Lu Qingjiu’s first instinct was that something had happened, and so immediately stood up, saying, “What’s going on?!” 

Bai Yuehu calmly responded, “The backyard is emanating light.”

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Looking at the light, it was clear that something had happened in the backyard. Lu Qingjiu slowly made his way to the backyard entrance and carefully peeked out for a look. This look, almost shocked him into losing his lower jaw.

In the brightest corner of the backyard, a lady wearing a white long skirt had appeared. That lady sat on the side of the well, with her black luscious locks hanging behind her into the well. A dazzling light was emanating from within the old well. This light was not blinding, and instead felt gentle, giving one a feeling of warmth. 

Yin Xun stared dumbly, only coming up with a sentence of, “She… she has become a god?”

Lu Qingjiu quietly nodded, looking towards Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu turned his gaze to that lady, retorting with, “It looks like it.”

Lu Qingjiu: “…” 

Bai Yuehu: “Yep, she’s become a god.”

Although Bai Yuehu had mentioned this before, seeing the lady in the well become a real god due to the bald-headed people’s fervent beliefs shook Lu Qingjiu’s foundations to the core. He thought of the pitiful Tai Feng and the Jiaochong who had to rummage through rubbish bins in the park, then took another look at the lady ghost who was glowing with holy light, and was once again reminded, deep within his heart, the importance of keeping up with the ages.

If Tai Feng could also allow his believers to grow hair, not only would he not have to worry about him disappearing, but he may even be inundated with the masses of modern people worried about their hairlines coming constantly to offer their prayers.

Although the lady was nothing special to look at, her head of luscious black hair attracted everyone’s gazes. Seeing Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun who were standing to the side, she revealed a smile, and waved her hand at them, “As thanks for taking care of me all this while, please come over.” 

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun who were attracted by her smile, unconsciously headed in her direction. As they were about to reach her, Bai Yuehu who was standing behind them sternly voiced out, “Don’t go over to her!”

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun froze, thinking something had happened, and were about to turn around. However it was too late, the female ghost had already stretched her hand in front of them, and lightly patted them on their shoulders.

“Ah!” Yin Xun let out a pitiful cry, “My eyes, I’m blind!”

Suddenly, Lu Qingjiu could see nothing but darkness, but he was better at staying calm than Yin Xun, and quickly realised that it was not he couldn’t see, but actually there was something covering his eyes. Reaching out, he randomly pulled at the things covering his face, and came away with a bunch of hair. Pushing them aside, his eyes could once again see light. 

Lu Qingjiu finally understood what had happened. When the female ghost used her hand to pat their shoulders, their hair had started to grow like crazy until now it was long enough to drag on the floor.

Yin Xun, this dummy, still hadn’t figured out what was going on, covering his face while rolling on the floor crying, “Ah, my eyes, I’m blind now uuuuuu…”

Lu Qingjiu lifted a leg to kick him in the butt, “Stop freaking screaming like bloody murder!”

Yin Xun cried out in pain, “Lu Qingjiu, are you still human? I can’t even see anymore, but you still treat me this way? I don’t want to live anymore.” 

“…”

Without a word, Lu Qingjiu bent down to pull up Yin Xun’s long fringe.

Yin Xun’s eye once again saw the light. He sat up in a daze, holding up his head of hair which was as thick as blackout curtains, “I’m not blind?”

Lu Qingjiu gritted his teeth, “Can’t you be more normal?” 

Yin Xun revealed a slightly bashful smile, patting the dust of his bum as he stood up, “Isn’t this all due to Bai Yuehu’s tone being too scary, I was worried that something big had happened.”

Lu Qingjiu turned around to look at Bai Yuehu, but realised that his household’s fox spirit had a slightly strange expression. At first, Lu Qingjiu thought that Bai Yuehu was worried for them, but after a closer look, he found out that Bai Yuehu was actually trying to hold back his laughter.

Lu Qingjiu: “What are you laughing about?”

Bai Yuehu said righteously, unwilling to admit it, “I wasn’t laughing.” 

Lu Qingjiu: “If you aren’t laughing, then why are you shivering?”

Bai Yuehu : “I’m cold.”

Lu Qingjiu looked on with suspicion at Bai Yuehu who was wearing a short sleeved top, thinking in his heart that it was almost 30°C. How could you still be cold? Is it your heart that’s cold?

After the female ghost had bestowed upon them a full head of black hair, she then gradually dispersed with a benevolent smile, leaving behind a hairy pair of Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun. 

“What do we do now?” Yin Xun asked while touching his full dense head of black hair.

“What else can we do, just have to cut it,” Lu Qingjiu added helplessly. Although he felt that the female ghost just wanted to show her appreciation, this way of appreciation would make one feel powerless to accept it, especially for Lu Qingjiu who wasn’t lacking in hair.

At this moment, Bai Yuehu’s shoulders stopped trembling and he finally regained his normal lazy expression.

When Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun, wearing sad expressions, reached the bathroom where they had planned to deal with all the hair, they caught a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. At first, they were shocked, then looked at each other before bursting out into raucous laughter. 

“Hahahaha,” laughed Yin Xun until his tears came out, pointing at Lu Qingjiu’s hair while saying, “Lu Qingjiu, you look like a mop.”

Lu Qingjiu also followed suit, joining in the fun, “Can you really say this to me? Don’t you also look like a mop?”

Both of them convulsed with laughter, the female ghost was way too hardcore at growing hair. No matter the front or back of the head, dense black hair had grown, almost completely covering them up. In short, their bodies were covered up by the long hair, nothing else could be seen.

After they were done laughing, the two picked up the pair of scissors to cut their hair. Lu Qingjiu didn’t dare to cut his hair too short, planning to get someone from the hair salon in town to trim it. After all, he didn’t have Bai Yuehu’s heaven-defying beauty. If he really cut a dog eating shit hair style, then he probably wouldn’t even dare to leave the house.