Fantasy Farm

Translator: Yuki
Editor: Xiao Wu

Walking till the edge of the village, Yin Xun asked Lu Qingjiu if he wanted to wander around a bit more to the foot of the mountain, as recently there were a few wild loquat trees whose fruits had ripened and were ready to be picked, so they could be made into loquat extract. 

Lu Qingjiu said, “But we didn’t bring any baskets with us.”

“No worries, I brought some plastic bags,” Yin Xun replied as he took them out from his pocket.

While Yin Xun was still concealing his identity as a mountain god, they had to use a pole to hit the fruits out of the tree. After Yin Xun’s identity had been revealed, Yin Xun would be the one to climb up to hand-pick the fruits. This would ensure that the loquats wouldn’t be spoiled by fall damage, as well as ensure they harvested only the ripest fruits. The wild loquats were really distinct from those that were farmed. Although they were only as big as a pinky and had not much flesh, they were actually sweeter and had a more concentrated fruit flavour. Last year, their household had used loquats that Uncle Lee planted to make some loquat extract. Loquat extract was slightly more troublesome to make compared to cherry jam, as you needed to remove the pit from each loquat.

As it was still not too late and they had run out of fruits at home, Lu Qingjiu simply agreed. 

The two slowly plodded up the mountain path, chatting about what had gone on at Shaohao’s bird park. They had brought back some Juru that day, but since they had eaten seafood for dinner that night, the Juru were still tied up in the kitchen. Lu Qingjiu was planning to ask Bai Yuehu to slaughter and skin those Juru in preparation for tomorrow’s lunch. Since he was still unsure about Bai Yuehu’s tastes, Lu Qingjiu was still lost in thought on how to prepare them. Should he braise the meat in soy sauce or deep fry…?

As they were chatting, Yin Xun suddenly stopped. Some doubt showed in his expression, as if he had noticed something strange.

“Yin Xun, what’s up?” Lu Qingjiu asked, assuming that Yin Xun had spotted something.

Yin Xun’s expression froze momentarily before suddenly exclaiming, “Oh no!”

Saying so, he turned around and started running. Lu Qingjiu, who was standing behind him, took a few seconds to start chasing after Yin Xun.

“Yin Xun??” Trailing behind the madly dashing Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu’s face was filled with confusion and could only loudly call out, “What exactly is going on?

Running ahead of him at mach speed, Yin Xun’s voice was indistinct, “Something’s happened back home!!”

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu grew worried, assuming that Bai Yuehu had started fighting with some dragon, and hurriedly asked, “What’s happening??” 

Yin Xun didn’t answer him, using all his strength to rush home. Soon, Lu Qingjiu realised that Yin Xun had actually not been referring to Lu Qingjiu’s house, but instead had actually been talking about the place Yin Xun stayed in. Something had happened at that old place full of memorial tablets.

The route that would normally take over ten minutes to traverse, Yin Xun forcefully shortened it to about 5 minutes. Lu Qingjiu just barely kept up with Yin Xun, but upon reaching their destination, he was totally out of breath, a burning sensation in his lungs.

Yin Xun didn’t stop outside, rushing straight into his house.

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The memorial tablets that Yin Xun prayed to had mostly fallen to the ground, while the candle that had been lit was swaying precariously. Although there was no wind inside the house, the candle seemed to be on its last breath, its flame seemingly at risk of being extinguished at any moment.

Yin Xun rushed to the candle, cupping his hands around the embers. As Yin Xun neared the embers, the candle flame regained its strength and glowed brightly, lighting up the dark house.

“Yin Xun?”

In a low tone, Yin Xun answered, “Someone was here.” 

Lu Qingjiu frowned, observing the open window nearby. It seemed just before they reached, someone had been inside Yin Xun’s house and must have escaped through the window just as they rushed in.

“What did they want to do?” Lu Qingjiu asked, “Blow out your candle?”

Yin Xun replied, “This candle can’t be blown out by just anyone…” Saying so, he lowered his head to look at the feeble flame within his palms with a face full of worry.

The interior of Yin Xun’s house was a total mess. Seeing that Yin Xun was focused on protecting his flame, Lu Qingjiu bent down to pick up the memorial tablets that had fallen to the ground. As he started placing them on the shelves, he asked Yin Xun whether the tablets needed to be arranged in a specific order. Yin Xun shook his head, indicating that the order didn’t really matter. 

Lu Qingjiu busied himself picking up the memorial tablets and arranging them one by one. Noticing Yin Xun’s look of discomfort and worrying about further problems arising, Lu Qingjiu hastened his actions. Yet, as he glanced at the name on the next memorial tablet he picked up, Lu Qingjiu’s expression froze.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu’s frozen expression, Yin Xun asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Qingjiu picked up that memorial tablet, querying, “This… this tablet, were you the one to put it up?”

Yin Xun blankly nodded. 

The tablet was black, with only two characters “Fang Run” written in gold. They were two such simple chinese characters, but looking at them sent a cold chill down Lu Qingjiu’s spine. Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he hoarsely said, “DId you know, my mum had previously changed names.”

“What?” Yin Xun had an inkling of what Lu Qingjiu was about to say, and could tell why Lu Qingjiu had the expression he had.

With slight disbelief, he voiced out his suspicions, “Could it be… that auntie’s previous name was…”

“Yes, she used to be called Fang Run.” Lu Qingjiu continued, “Later, when she left my granny to study independently, she changed names to Fang Yu.” 

The hand holding the memorial tablet kept trembling, as if he was holding onto a piece of ice, “Why, why is there a memorial tablet with my mum’s name here?”

Yin Xun too panicked, quickly asserting, “I, I don’t know. I didn’t make these tablets, instead they just appear out of nowhere.”

“Where do they normally appear?”

Yin Xun clarified, “They appear from a shrine in the hills behind my house.” 

Worried that Lu Qingjiu wouldn’t believe him, he explained in a flustered manner, “It’s the shrine that’s providing me all these memorial tablets. Sometimes I will get a strange sensation which means that another tablet has appeared in the shrine. At that time, I will head to the shrine and move that memorial tablet to my house… I didn’t know at all that this was your mother’s memorial tablet.”

“I would like to go take a look.”

Yin Xun replied, “ Yeah sure, but not now. The candle’s flame is about to go out, I need to protect it.”

Watching Yin Xun carefully protect the small flame in his hands, Lu Qingjiu asked, “What would happen if that candle flame is extinguished?” 

“I don’t know. The being that changed me into a mountain god didn’t specify, but my instincts tell me that if the flame is extinguished, something dreadful will happen, so the flame must never be extinguished…”

Lu Qingjiu recalled the previous time something had happened to Yin Xun. At that time, the candle had been about to burn out and subsequently, the memorial tablets filling the room had begun to shake violently. An outrageous idea sprouted in his heart, but this was just an idea, after all they wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences if it didn’t work out.

Lu Qingjiu hugged that memorial tablet, his mind in a mess. He really couldn’t figure out why his mother’s memorial tablet would be here.

“When did you notice this particular memorial tablet?” 

Yin Xun answered in a small voice, “I’ve noticed it since a long time ago…probably around the time you left Shuifu village…”

“At that time, was my mother still alive?”

Yin Xun responded, “Yes, she was still alive. Actually the period between the memorial tablet appearing and your mother’s passing was a few years.”

Otherwise he would have realised it sooner, after all those with the surname Fang were rare. At that time, Yin Xun thought it was a little strange, but since he didn’t personally know anyone named Fang Run, he thought that this had just been a coincidence. Who knew that Lu Qingjiu’s mother had actually changed names previously… 

Lu Qingjiu understood why Yin Xun couldn’t leave, but since he was feeling impatient, he asked, “Can you describe the location of the shrine? Exactly where is it in the hills?”

“Are you going by yourself? Qingjiu… you’d better not go, that shrine is not really a special place,” Yin Xun continued in a low begging tone, “Or better yet we can go tomorrow, just wait one night.”

“Nothing will happen, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Qingjiu!” 

Groaning, Lu Qingjiu capitulated, “Fine, tell me the location, then I’ll ask Bai Yuehu to come along with me?”

Hearing this, Yin Xun released a sigh of relief and began describing the shrine’s location in detail. According to him, the location was extremely isolated, and was covered in weeds. Every time Yin Xun wanted to visit the shrine, he had to spend some time looking for it.

Lu Qingjiu listened attentively to Yin Xun’s descriptions before leaving. Watching him leave, Yin Xun’s heart was filled with unease. He felt that this incident was slightly fishy. They hadn’t even found the person who wanted to blow out his candle, but now even Lu Qingjiu’s mother had also been dragged into it.

Lu Qingjiu had close relationships with his parents, even though he hadn’t lived with them when he was younger. Perhaps it was due to this, that his parents felt like they owed him, therefore anything he asked for, they always gave in. Growing up under such pampering, he hadn’t gone astray, and instead became really hardworking, successfully entering the university he wanted. He had thought that entering university was going to be the starting point of his life, but unfortunately it had become an unforgettable turning point in his life. 

On a summer day, Lu Qingjiu’s parents were returning to Shuifu village to visit his grandmother. En route, they were caught up in a mudslide and thus left this mortal world, not even leaving behind a body to be found.

Never in his wildest dreams Lu Qingjiu would have expected to find his mother’s memorial tablet in Yin Xun’s house. Furthermore, according to what Yin Xun had said, the memorial tablet had already appeared while his mother was still alive.

How the shrine was related to the appearance of the memorial tablets, at this time Lu Qingjiu couldn’t wait any longer to get answers.

Unlike what he promised Yin Xun, he didn’t actually go looking for Bai Yuehu, but instead headed for the hills by himself. 

The sky had turned dark, though luckily there was still a low-hanging crescent moon. The moonlight was sufficiently bright that even if one didn’t have a flashlight, the paths could just about be seen.

Lu Qingjiu followed the small hill paths, heading towards the location mentioned by Yin Xun.

During Yin Xun’s explanation, he had mentioned that the shrine was actually not that far away from Shuifu village, but no villager had ever discovered it.

As night fell, the surroundings gradually became quieter, filled with only the chirping of insects which calmed one’s heart. Lu Qingjiu followed Yin Xun’s instructions and soon found the junction off the small path, as well as the dense yet withered patches of weeds near said path. Yin Xun had actually commented on how the weeds near the shrine were perpetually withered yellow regardless of the season and never sprouted any new weeds. Seeing as he had spotted the patch of weeds, Lu Qingjiu reasoned that he should be close to the shrine. 

As such, he started looking more closely within the patches of weeds.

As Yin Xun had mentioned just now, the shrine was almost fully covered by weeds, which compounded by the current darkness, made it really hard to find. Lu Qingjiu was looking around when he suddenly realised that something was wrong with the atmosphere. His expression briefly froze, before he slowly raised his head, discovering that there were quite a few dim shadows on a nearby hill path.

These shadows looked like humans standing with their backs facing him. Their bodies were a greyish colour, but neither the body nor the face could be seen clearly. Upon observing more closely, Lu Qingjiu felt that rather than calling them humans, it would be more accurate to call them mists in the shape of humans. It was just that these mists were gradually becoming denser, which in turn made their body outlines more distinct.

Actually this was not the most frightening part, as these shadows seemed to be slowly approaching Lu Qingjiu, like lions hunting sheep, swiftly and silently without any changes in expressions. 

Lu Qingjiu felt goosebumps growing up his arms, these creatures seemed to have occupied all the paths leading to his location, moving towards him in a semi-circle, so that Lu Qingjiu could only backtrack. However after taking a few steps backwards, he became conscious of the fact that the creatures seem to be forcing him into a certain direction… and that was towards the centre of that patch of weeds.