Ch91.2 - Snowed in

Translated by yuki

Edited by xiaowu  

Although Yin Xun didn’t know what would happen, he still obediently listened to Lu Qingjiu.

Tonight, Lu Qingjiu had many thoughts in his heart, he tossed and turned but couldn’t fall asleep. His brain was filled with all sorts of messy thoughts. Thus, it was almost dawn before he reluctantly fell asleep. After a short nap, he was woken up by some weird noises outside his window.

Shashasha, shashasha…

These sounds were not foreign, but they definitely shouldn’t have appeared at this time of the year. Lu Qingjiu was pulled from his hazy dreamstate by these sounds. He sat up in his bed to open his windows and was shocked by the scene outside. It hadn’t even been a night, but the originally verdant green surroundings had been totally covered by a layer of white snow. The entire world was a vast expanse of white which reflected the sunlight, prickling the sight of those who laid eyes on it. 

Lu Qingjiu paused for a few seconds to confirm he was not still dreaming. Xuan Yu’s prophecy from yesterday had really come true.

Snow was flying in June; a bitter cold had suddenly arrived.

Lu Qingjiu checked his mobile phone and inadvertently noticed that there wasn’t even one bar of signal. Breathing out white mist, he put on thick winter wear and started a pot of coal burning in his room. He also carried the fox kit and the two piglets, who had been shivering due to the cold, into his bedroom.

The chickens and rabbits in their yard were also freezing, and Lu Qingjiu couldn’t bear leaving them to freeze to death. So, he found a storage room and lit a coal fire in there before leading them into the house. He closed the windows and spread out thick blankets on the ground, without knowing whether it would be of any use.

Overnight, the temperature had dropped from more than 30°C to below zero°C. Logically, all plants should have frozen to death. Miraculously, all the vegetables planted in Lu Qingjiu’s yard were still fine. Apart from being covered by snow, there were no signs of wilting.

Lu Qingjiu wrapped himself up into a ball, then staggered over to clean up the room with the Kang, and then started a fire within the Kang. After tidying up that room, he brought the young creatures and burrowed within the blankets, slowly eating some pieces of mantou as breakfast.

“It’s so cold, why is it suddenly snowing?” Lu Qingjiu’s nose tip reddened from this cold. He hugged the warm Xiao Hua, unwilling to let go. At this moment he finally understood why Yin Xun would always hug Xiao Hua as a hand warmer in winter.This was because the piglet’s body temperature was slightly higher than a human’s, its skin was also soft and smooth, making it comfortable to hug.

Xiao Hua whiningly laid within Lu Qingjiu’s embrace, eating pieces of mantou that Lu Qingjiu was feeding her without any protest, “No idea, it’s also my first time.” 

Lu Qingjiu asked, “How long has it been since you came to the human world?”

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.

Wljb Lej gfqilfv, “P tjv pera jgglnfv ktfc P kjr mjeuta ys sbe uesr…”

“Jjeuta?”

“Yt, P wfjca yflcu ybeuta.” Milmxlcu jc fsf bnfg ab tlr rlrafg ktb kjr riffqlcu klat tfg yeaa eqkjgvr, Wljb Lfl teoofv, “Gbc’a kbggs, atf vgjubc gjmf lr gfjiis ragbcu, Djl Tefte klii yf olcf.” 

Lu Qingjiu looked at the ceiling thinking out loud, “After the snow stops, let’s clean this room’s ceiling…” It was pitch black, with no sign of the limestone underneath.

Outside the snow was coming down heavily, causing loud noises every time a pile of snow fell to the ground. In the morning, the snow was only up to one’s ankles, but after a whole morning of snowfall, it now came up to one’s calf with absolutely no signs of stopping. The sky was completely dark with absolutely no hint of light, as if the sky was about to collapse.

Lu Qingjiu was a little worried that if the snow continued to fall, it would put huge pressure on the roof. After all, the old house hadn’t been renovated in a long while and this sudden heavy bout of snow fall could cause the roof to cave in. He could even hear the wooden beams creaking under the weight of all this snow.

Lu Qingjiu thought to himself that if it continued to snow, he would have to use a ladder to sweep some snow off the roof, otherwise they would be in even more danger if the room collapsed. Adding to the list of things Lu Qingjiu was worried about – not only Bai Yuehu but also Yin Xun – though fortunately, he had gotten Yin Xun to take quite a bit of food and coal home with him. 

Following Bai Yuehu’s instructions, Lu Qingjiu obediently stayed at home. With the warm Kang under him, snow fell in heavy flurries outside, dyeing the whole world a dazzling white, lulling one into a trance.

Around 6 in the evening, the skies had turned dark. Lu Qingjiu used the coal stove to stew half a pot of chicken soup. After drinking most of it, he distributed the meat to the household’s 3 cubs. The hot soup helped warm up his body. He added more coal into the Kang and opened a small gap in the window, then huddled back into his nest of blankets.

How was Bai Yuehu doing, had he not been frozen, was he still eating well? If he had fought with other creatures, was he hurt? The warmth slowly stole away Lu Qingjiu’s consciousness as he fell asleep.

The next day, the snow still hadn’t stopped falling, continuously falling like cotton puffs overnight. 

When Lu Qingjiu walked outside, the snow had already piled up as high as his hip, to the point that it was even a challenge just to push open his front door. To avoid being trapped to death in his house, Lu Qingjiu had no choice except to pick up a broom and sweep the snow away from his front door. He also checked the roof, and noted that this couldn’t go on, he had to also get rid of the snow on his rooftop, otherwise the house would be in danger that afternoon if it continued snowing.

Although doing this in such heavy snow was quite dangerous, Lu Qingjiu still moved the ladder out of storage and slowly climbed up the roof, sweeping the snow off the roof.

After sweeping for a while, Lu Qingjiu noticed that there was something unsettling about the sky. There seemed to be some faint cracks within the thick layers of clouds, from which light was peeking through. At first glance, it was as if the sky had been fractured into numerous pieces. This swiftly reminded Lu Qingjiu of the scenes in his dream: those icy blue butterflies and the shadowy figure standing among them.

Lu Qingjiu stood there looking upwards, to the point that small piles of snow started gathering on his shoulders. Fortunately, even though there were faint cracks in the cloud layers, these cracks didn’t show any signs of expanding. Lu Qingjiu breathed out a puff of misty breath, then put his head down and continued sweeping the snow off the roof. 

After he was done, Lu Qingjiu’s entire body was chilled to the bone. He hurried back into the house and served himself a bowl of ginger soup he had prepared beforehand. The hot ginger soup entered from his mouth and flowed through his digestive system, warming his chilled stomach. His rising body temperature also warmed his extremities, making him feel like he was alive once again.

He rubbed his icy cold nose muttering, “It’s really cold outside.”

“Yes it is.” Xiao Hua took the initiative to come over, pressing her belly against Lu Qingjiu’s nearly frozen red hands. The cold shocked her a little, but she didn’t move away, “When will the snow stop?”

“Perhaps in a few days,” Lu Qingjiu answered. 

If what Xuan Yu said was true, the snowfall would continue for another 7 to 8 days. Ah, winter was really hard to endure, especially when Bai Yuehu was not around.

Lu Qingjiu sniffled, then sneezed loudly.

Xiao Hua asked anxiously, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, maybe just got chilled when I went outside,” he rubbed his hands, feeling his body regain warmth, “I’ll go drink some wine to chase away the cold.” 

“You have to be careful, don’t catch a cold,” Xiao Hua reminded while using her soft pig nose to nuzzle against Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu felt this situation was kind of funny. Looks like Xiao Hua, Xiao Hei and Su Xi had played together for a long time, and thus learned a little of each other’s mannerisms. Xiao Hua was originally a piglet, but learned from the fox cub who used his head to nuzzle others. Whereas Su Xi’s way of digging was also no worse than Xiao Hua’s…

Patting his head, Lu Qingjiu went to the storage room and grabbed a bottle of Baijiu. The worst thing was that the Baijiu was also frozen, though luckily it hadn’t shattered due to the cold, otherwise he probably couldn’t drink that anymore. Heating up the Bajiu and drinking a few cups, Lu Qingjiu’s face started getting a red flush and he felt a lot more comfortable.

The television had stopped working when it had started snowing yesterday. Lu Qingjiu was also afraid that his phone’s battery would run out too quickly so he had set it to battery saver mode and didn’t dare to use it for games. Since it was a little boring sitting by himself, he took out some books and lit a candle to leisurely read by the candlelight. 

The bedding was warm, and one could smell traces of alcohol on his breath. Lu Qingjiu’s body was heating up, in this trance state, he could almost feel like Bai Yuehu was walking by his side, bending down like usual to drop a light kiss on his forehead.

“Yuehu…” Lu Qingjiu hazily called out Bai Yuehu’s name. He reached out his hand, wanting to hold on to the person beside him, but his hand only touched cold air, which immediately brought him back to reality that there was actually no one beside him at all, and especially not Bai Yuehu.

Lu Qingjiu woke up and checked the time, realising it was just a little past 2pm in the afternoon. Without diversions, time passed exceptionally slowly. Lu Qingjiu felt a little helpless. He thought of sleeping for longer, but discovered that he couldn’t sleep any longer, so he could only sit up to read, and also research some recipes.

After this snowstorm stopped, Lu Qingjiu decided to try a few recipes he had always refused to make on the grounds they were too complicated, to properly celebrate everything. 

As the snowfall was too heavy, the borders between day and night had blurred. If it wasn’t for the time on his mobile phone, Lu Qingjiu wouldn’t be able to tell what time it was right now.

Soon it was 6pm, which meant it was time for dinner. Lu Qingjiu felt that he couldn’t just simply cook anything. After all, there were no other diversions, if one couldn’t even have fun eating, was there any point in living?

The pipes had long since been frozen, with no other options, Lu Qingjiu’s only choice was to get some snow using a pail and filter it a few times before boiling it to make do.

He used some flour and some frozen pork to make some pasties, which he baked over the coal fire. The delicious aroma of cooking filled the whole house, those 3 young creatures obediently sat to his side, with their eyes fixed on those pasties. 

Lu Qingjiu flipped the pasties, scattered some white sesame seeds and left them to cook for a little longer before taking them off the flames, at which point the pasties started giving off an even more attractive smell.

“Here, everyone, take one,” Lu Qingjiu instructed, “If it’s not enough, I can make more.”

The young creatures took their respective pasties and quietly sat to one side to eat them. Lu Qingjiu also took a bite, feeling the warm meat juices flow down his tongue into his mouth cavity. The outer layer of the pasties were crunchy, but the insides were soft after having soaked in the meat juices. Although there weren’t any fresh scallions, the aromatic sesame seeds were almost as good. Lu Qingjiu had outdone himself, gobbling up 3 pasties in quick succession, making him burp. After finishing the pasties, he buried a few sweet potatoes into the coal fire, waiting for them to cook.

“How long will it take for the snow to stop?” This question that had been asked countless times, was asked once again. Lu Qingjiu reached down to pat Xiao Hei’s head, “Don’t worry, it’ll be soon.” 

“Yes, don’t worry,” he consoled his sister.

“But I’m scared,” Xiao Hei muttered softly. “I keep feeling that something is about to come…”

This was probably what was considered the animals’ instincts. Lu Qingjiu worriedly raised his head, watching the seemingly endless snowfall outside his window.

Author’s note: 

Lu Qingjiu: What is coming…

Bai Yuehu: The thing I’m most afraid of.

Lu Qingjiu: What!?

Bai Yuehu: Poverty. 

Lu Qingjiu: ???