Ch88.2 - Dragon Boat Festival

Translated by yuki

Edited by xiaowu  

Lu Qingjiu gave it a second’s thought before deciding to help Bai Yuehu fix his flimsy mask, “Fox spirit.”

“Oh oh oh, is he a fox spirit as described in the <<Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio>>, no wonder he’s so good looking.” Zhu Miaomiao had a sudden thought, “Then is Su Xi the same race too? Ah… Bai Yuehu’s true form must also be quite fluffy!”

“Hmm… I guess so?” At least his ears were still somewhat fluffy.

Zhu Miaomiao displayed a bright smile, as if she was a mom smiling because she managed to solve her bachelor son’s personal problems, “This is such good news, so good, as long as it’s not an eighty plus year old granny then it’s all good!” 

Lu Qingjiu laughed, “If it’s all good, what flavour milk do you want to drink? I’ll go get some for you.”

Zhu Miaomiao waved her hand to show that she was ok with any flavour. She wasn’t really that interested in milk, at the moment she wanted to gain a better understanding of Bai Yuehu. After all the last few times she was here, Bai Yuehu was quite cold towards her, which made it hard for her to have a chat with him. Since she now knew that he was dating Lu Qingjiu, Zhu Miaomiao wanted to understand him more.

Lu Qingjiu sighed without another word, standing up to get some milk for Zhu Miaomiao.

Since Zhu Miaomiao had arrived, it became more lively around their place. Lu Qingjiu prepared a full table of dishes and a few bottles of wine. Everyone ate while chatting in a harmonious atmosphere.

After dinner, Zhu Miaomiao made a beeline to the backyard to check out the Qinyuan who produced her beloved honey. After understanding the Qinyuans’ leisurely five day working week without any overtime, she expressed admiration for their living conditions, lamenting that she was exploited everyday by capitalism. Even these 3 days of vacation had to be exchanged with their honey.

As such, Lu Qingjiu could only watch with wide eyes as Zhu Miaomiao, who was worked to the bone like livestock, and those Qinyuan, who hated working, bond under a common cause, passionately exchanging contact details.

Yin Xun quietly asked, “Why have I not seen Zhu Miaomiao act so passionate towards me?”

Lu Qingjiu replied, “It’s because your detox method is not right.” 

“What?”

“If only your meals could detox without diarrhea, she would also treat you the same way.”

Yin Xun had no words to fight against this, having the feeling that he had seen through the dirty realities of this world.

After he finished washing the dishes, the centuries-old Bai Yuehu leisurely headed to his favourite seat in the yard, preparing to sunbathe while taking a nap. Lu Qingjiu leaned on him, asking about tonight’s menu. 

Watching the two’s warm scene, Zhu Miaomiao wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, exclaiming that Lu Qingjiu had finally grown up and learned how to scatter dog food.

Yin Xun asked blankly, “Dog food? Feeding to which dogs?”

Zhu Miaomiao took pity on him and answered, “You silly child, of course it’s single dogs like you!”

Yin Xun: …… 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

For dinner that night, Lu Qingjiu wrapped zongzi. Since it was the Dragon Boat Festival, one had to eat foods that matched the festival. After finishing their meal, Lu Qingjiu pulled out the stone mortar his family owned that had not been used in a long while. Then he put the steamed glutinous rice into the mortar, planning to make some Ciba.

For the Dragon Boat Festival around these parts, not only would they eat zongzi, but they also had a tradition of eating Ciba. Using a Chun, one would pound the glutinous rice in the stone mortar until it became soft before kneading them into small balls. These small balls of Ciba could then be eaten after they were steamed.

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However, when Lu Qingjiu was young, the price of glutinous rice was quite high. Since his grandmother’s health was not that good, he could only eat it during the Dragon Boat Festival. 

Lu Qingjiu pounded the glutinous rice until it started becoming a lump. Yin Xun had originally wanted to be the person flipping the glutinous rice, but was turned down by Lu Qingjiu since he was worried that he might accidentally pound Yin Xun’s hand.

Yin Xun was touched as he responded that he would be fine since he basically had no pain receptors anymore. Lu Qingjiu heartlessly explained, “That was not what I meant, I’m just worried that if bits of your hand mixed into the Ciba, we will get diarrhea as a result.”

Yin Xun: “…”

Lu Qingjiu, you have changed. 

Zhu Miaomiao was a lady, and their house full of men couldn’t let her do this hard work, so in the end, the task landed on Bai Yuehu’s shoulders. He flipped the glutinous rice while Lu Qingjiu did the pounding. At the start, Lu Qingjiu did the pounding carefully. However, it had been some time since he had last used this tool after all and so, inevitably hit Bai Yuehu’s hand with the Chun. At that moment, his heart almost stopped as he watched Bai Yuehu brows knit while saying in a small voice, “This is not good.”

Lu Qingjiu nervously asked, “Are you alright? Your hand’s alright, right? I should have been gentler…” He didn’t finish his words before realising that the Chun he was holding was missing a piece, while Bai Yuehu’s graceful hands were completely unscathed, without even any red impact marks.

“It’s broken, “ Bai Yuehu lifted his gaze innocently, saying carefully, “Will it still be ok?”

“…it’s fine, let’s continue.” 

Following that, Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu became more careful – worried that if they pounded Bai Yuehu’s hands a few more times, the Chun would break completely before the glutinous rice became Ciba.

By the time the glutinous rice had become Ciba, it had become completely dark. Yin Xun yawned as he bid them farewell.  Lu Qingjiu also went to wash up before heading to sleep together with Bai Yuehu.

The next morning, Lu Qingjiu woke up early, fried a few golden pieces of the Ciba they had pounded yesterday and prepared the soybean powder and brown sugar for dipping. He also steamed a number of sweet and savoury zongzi. Lu Qingjiu even asked Yin Xun to make some soy milk before setting the table for breakfast.

Zhu Miaomiao kept praising the Ciba, saying that it couldn’t compare to machine-made ones, since the handmade ones were more chewy and they had used good quality rice, so eating the Ciba filled your mouth with rice fragrance. Dipping them in brown sugar and fragrant soybean powder, Zhu Miaomiao couldn’t stop stuffing herself. 

On the other hand, Lu Qingjiu was eating a meat zongzi. This year, he had specially wrapped larger-sized zongzi. The meat pieces inside were as thick as fingers and the best part of it was the contrast between the fatty and lean meats. After heating it up, the fatty meats transformed into boiling liquid which soaked into the surrounding rice. Biting into it would fill your mouth with a burst of meat juices.

Unfortunately, glutinous rice was very filling. Two fist-sized zongzi was more than enough to make Lu Qingjiu completely full. Zhu Miaomiao ate quite a few Ciba, but insisted on forcing down a zongzi before flopping down in her chair, shaking her head and saying that she couldn’t eat one more bite, lest she choke herself to death.

Lu Qingjiu smiled, “You should slow down a little, don’t hurt your stomach.”

While eating zongzi, Yin Xun let up a chance to tease Bai Yuehu, saying that the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival were to eat zongzi and row dragon boats. Since they were missing the dragon boats, could they replace the dragon boat with a dragon… 

Bai Yuehu slowly put down his chopsticks, gently asking, “Would you like to try?”

“…Bro, I’m only joking.”

Meanwhile, Lu Qingjiu was laughing to the side.

After eating, everyone split up to do their respective chores. Lu Qingjiu was planning to tidy up the house, doing a spring clean. The Dragon Boat Festival was an ideal time to get rid of the Five poisons. According to folktales, the fifth month of the lunar calendar was the season that the Five poisons bred, and therefore at this time one had to clean all corners of one’s house, to prevent poisonous insects from multiplying in one’s house. From a scientific viewpoint, June was a rainy month and this humid weather made the perfect environment for their propagation. 

Lu Qingjiu was responsible for the yard, while Yin Xun was responsible for the interior of the house. As for Bai Yuehu, he brought Zhu Miaomiao to the fields to help with farming.

Lu Qingjiu held a broom, sweeping away the dust and cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. As he was hard at work, he heard knocks on the front door.

“Who is it?” Lu Qingjiu called out.

“Is Bai Yuehu around?” Zhu Rong’s voice was heard from outside. 

“Come in, he’s not here since he just went to the fields, “ Lu Qingjiu continued, “Did something happen?”

Just as he finished asking, Zhu Rong pushed open the door and entered. He was holding something in his hands with a grim expression on his face and a strong bloody stench emitting from his body. As he was wearing red clothes, no blood stains were visible. However Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help noticing the wet stains on the hem of his clothes.

“I have some matters to discuss with Bai Yuehu,” Zhu Rong said, “Is he in the fields?”

“Yes.” 

Lu Qingjiu observed the thing Zhu Rong was holding. At first, he thought it was a piece of wood. However upon further observation, his expression froze… that was actually a shrunken dragon claw. Zhu Rong held it like he was holding a bag of shopping. Red coloured blood was slowly dripping from the claw, falling to the black earth below.

“What… what is this?” Lu Qingjiu had a bad premonition in his heart.

Zhu Rong gave Lu Qingjiu a look, “Do you know Bai Yuehu’s true form?”

Lu Qingjiu nodded. 

“Then you should be able to tell what this is.” Zhu Rong coldly answered.

Lu Qingjiu exclaimed, “It’s really a dragon claw?! From that imprisoned dragon?”

Zhu Rong didn’t say anything, but sometimes, silence was also an answer. Lu Qingjiu recalled the last time he had seen his grandfather Ao Run, which was a few months ago. At that time, Ao Run seemed to have wanted to remind him of something, but had been interrupted by Bai Yuehu who had been rushing over. He couldn’t have imagined that the next time he would see his grandfather would be through Zhu Rong. Zhu Rong, who had broken off a claw of his grandfather.

Watching Lu Qingjiu’s expression, Zhu Rong could tell that Lu Qingjiu must know the truth. He plainly stated, “Although he is your grandfather, he is also the same person who abandoned your grandmother and ate your parents. Why do you need to develop feelings for him?” 

Lu Qingjiu frowned, but stayed silent.

“He could refute the claims, but he hadn’t, and so this was taken as an admission of guilt.” Zhu Rong sighed softly. “Let’s end this conversation, there’s no meaning in me saying anymore to you. “ He turned around to leave.

Lu Qingjiu stood behind him, his gaze never leaving that claw in Zhu Rong’s hand. He had seen Bai Yuehu’s dragon claws before – they were beautiful and clean sharp claws like knives, emitting a dense chilliness. However, the claw being held by Zhu Rong was full of scars, and even had cracks running through it, clearly having received heavy damages. The space between the claw tips were peppered with dust and pebbles, reminding Lu Qingjiu of Bai Yuehu’s scales that hadn’t been cleaned.

“Has… has he been caught?” Before Zhu Rong left, Bai Yuehu couldn’t resist asking this question. 

Zhu Rong’s footsteps paused, turning around he asked, “Are you hoping that he is caught?”

“I don’t know,” was Lu Qingjiu’s answer.

“No.”

There seemed to be burning flames within Zhu Rong’s red eyes, but his voice remained cold like the frosty winds, piercing through others’ hearts. 

“But I would rather he be caught sooner than later.”

Lu Qingjiu furrowed his brows.

“If he continues escaping, he will die,” Zhu Rong elaborated. “He is unwilling to return to captivity and unwilling to hurt anyone, so he just keeps getting hurt.”

Eyeing the claw in his hand that was still dripping blood, he self-mockingly laughed, “This time, it was just a claw, next time it could be a dragon’s head.” 

Lu Qingjiu remained quiet, unable to understand why although Zhu Rong’s words were so vitriolic, he could feel that under his chilly exterior, there was a sorrow that was hard to put into words – as if he was being forced to watch the collapse of miracles.

Author’s note:

Lu Qingjiu: The one I like isn’t an old woman

Zhu Miaomiao: That’s great news. 

Lu Qingjiu: it’s an old man…

Zhu Miaomiao and Bai Yuehu: …