CH 83.2

Translated by Yuki

Edited by Xiao Wu

It was late at night, but it was not frightening anymore. Because it was summertime, the bushes were full of fireflies flickering like stars in the night sky. Lu Qingjiu reached out and caught one, letting it dance around in his palm, watching it’s backside glow intermittently.

Bai Yuehu, who was following behind Lu Qingjiu, watched his actions and asked, “Do you not have anything you wish to ask me?”

Lu Qingjiu turned around to take a look at him, then reached up and placed the firefly on Bai Yuehu’s straight nose bridge. Being teased like so, Bai Yuehu’s eyes unconsciously started following the firefly, “What are you doing?”

Lu Qingjiu admonished, “You can’t let it fall, this is my punishment for you.”

Bai Yuehu: “…”

Lu Qingjiu turned back around, “So you have known me for a while?”

Bai Yuehu vaguely grunted, ”I’ve seen you when you were young.”

Lu Qingjiu thought about it, then asked a less important question, “Why did you feel that I liked foxes?”

For the life of him, Lu Qingjiu could not figure out why Bai Yuehu absolutely wanted to keep this a secret. However upon being reminded by his grandfather, an absolutely outrageous thought sprouted in his mind. Perhaps he had met Bai Yuehu when he was young, and at that time had deeply harmed Bai Yuehu’s glass heart, causing Bai Yuehu to adamantly refuse to confess he was not a fox.

Bai Yuehu fell silent and when Lu Qingjiu looked back, he was greeted with Bai Yuehu’s sulky face. It was only due to the scared motionless firefly still on Bai Yuehu’s nose that turned his angry look a 180 degrees, instead making him look especially cute.

Bai Yuehu started, “When you were young and playing tag, I changed into a small dragon so that you could catch me.”

Lu Qingjiu had been pretending to be strict, but upon hearing Bai Yuehu’s aggrieved tone, he couldn’t resist revealing a smile.

“At the same time, there was a fox which you really wanted to catch. Whereas with me, you would cry whenever I touched you.”

Lu Qingjiu said guiltily, “…This… could be counted as kids just being kids right?”

Bai Yuehu continued, “Later when you were three, I secretly came to see you, intending to gift you a dragon-made cloth doll.”

Lu Qingjiu: …

Bai Yuehu acted like like an abandoned mistress, complaining about how her husband was simply the worst, “You just threw it away,”

Lu Qingjiu quietly muttered, “Could it be that I don’t like cloth dolls?”

Bai Yuehu coldly retorted, “Every night, you would hug that fox doll to sleep.”

Feeling embarrassed, Lu Qingjiu started coughing.

“Furthermore, you hugged it for quite a few years!”

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“I asked your grandmother why you didn’t like me,” Bai Yuehu continued airing his grievances, “and she said that you didn’t like bald reptile-like creatures, instead preferring fluffy creatures.”

Lu Qingjiu defended himself, “Actually I am not that superficial…”

Bai Yuehu mercilessly exposed Lu Qingjiu, “Are my tails nice to touch?”

Lu Qingjiu: “…”

“At any rate, I am a fox spirit. If anyone says I’m not, I’ll just eat them.”

Lu Qingjiu suddenly felt bad. Originally, he had the upper hand but now he was the one at fault, he felt the urge to shrink back into his shell like a turtle, to avoid Bai Yuehu’s intense interrogation.

Lu Qingjiu relented, “Fine, fine…” Stopping once more, he took the firefly off Bai Yuehu’s nose and placed it on his own, “It’s all my fault, I apologise.”

“Hmph.”

“But you shouldn’t hide so many things from me, “ Lu Qingjiu said, “Did my grandmother really die due to sickness?”

Bai Yuehu replied in a low tone, “En.”

“How about my mother…my mother.” Recalling his mother’s memorial tablet being one of the ones suppressed, he felt a bit lost, “My mother had been corrupted?”

Bai Yuehu: Yes.

“But hadn’t she left Shuifu village? Why would she have been corrupted?”

Bai Yuehu sighed, “That was an accident.”

Through his slow narration, Lu Qingjiu finally got the gist of what happened that year.

Summer that year, there was an accident in Shuifu village – the Zhulong had successfully opened a crack in the barrier between the two worlds, causing the otherworld aura to leak out. Lu Qingjiu’s parents had coincidentally visited Shuifu village, and his mother was unfortunate enough to be corrupted, after which, there had been no news.

Although he didn’t know what had happened at that time, Bai Yuehu’s guess was that due to Fang Yu being a blood descendant of the dragon race, she had been corrupted by the otherworld aura. And after being corrupted, she had run into Ao Run. Lu Qingjiu already knew everything that happened afterwards – Ao Run confessed to eating Fang Yu and her husband, and was subjected to the cruellest punishment known to the dragon race.

After fully listening to Bai Yuehu’s story, Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, “So, when you said earlier that my mother hadn’t been eaten by my grandfather, were you lying to me?”

Bai Yuehu shook his head, “No, I was only guessing based on the general nature of the dragon race. What happened went against common sense, moreover no one actually saw him eat your mother at that time, and so, the only evidence we had was his words.”

“But why would he tell such a lie?” Lu Qingjiu couldn’t imagine how much pain his grandmother must have felt, knowing her husband ate their daughter.

Lu Qingjiu continued his story, “Actually, he confessed straight to me, he told me that he ate my mother.”

Raising his head to look at Bai Yuehu, with a fragile expression on his face, Lu Qingjiu said, “He said so himself.”

Bai Yuehu didn’t say anything, just reached out to hold Lu Qingjiu’s hand. The warmth of Bai Yuehu’s hand holding his passed to Lu Qingjiu, calming him down.

Bai Yuehu: “He must have his own difficulties that he can’t speak about.”

Lu Qingjiu didn’t trust himself to say anything more, just lightly nodding his head.

“But even if he has some difficulties, luring you to the mountain in the middle of the night can’t be a good thing.”

Finishing the discussion about Lu Qingjiu’s parents, Bai Yuehu started getting angry, “What if something happened to you?”

“It’s alright, nothing happened right? Oh yes, what happened to Yin Xun’s candle?”

“It’s fine,” Bai Yuehu replied, “the candle’s flames aren’t that easy to be extinguished.”

The firefly on the tip of Lu Qingjiu’s nose, having left Bai Yuehu, had managed to regain its strength, flapping its wings to fly away. This time, Lu Qingjiu didn’t bother stopping it.

“I’m sleepy, let’s go back to bed, everything else can be left to be discussed tomorrow,” Lu Qingjiu muttered to himself, “Also we forgot to pick the loquats, I still want to make some loquat extract…”

Bai Yuehu offered, “Tomorrow, I’ll come along with you to pick them.”

Lu Qingjiu made a sound of agreement and didn’t decline Bai Yuehu’s offer.

The both of them held hands all the way back home. When Bai Yuehu was letting go of Lu Qingjiu’s hand, he looked a little reluctant. This expression made Lu Qingjiu remember Ao Run’s words – Do you feel anything special for him? Do you want him? Will you feel jealous?

Lu Qingjiu imagined Bai Yuehu holding hands with others, even though it was a little surprising, he had to admit that he would actually be jealous.

Bai Yuehu didn’t know why Lu Qingjiu was staring at him and assumed something was on his face. He doubtfully stretched out to touch his face asking, “Why are you looking at me?

“Hey, have you ever dated before?”

Bai Yuehu was slightly shocked, thinking he had heard wrongly, “What?”

“I’m asking whether you have ever dated someone before? I mean, after all you are an adult dragon right? How old are you?”

Bai Yuehu wanted to say he had never dated anyone before, but felt a little ashamed. After all, he was quite old, but stayed single all this while, never having had a lover. If it were his father, he would already have children which were at least a few hundred years old, and so Bai Yuehu replied, “That is not something I want to discuss!”

“So you haven’t?”

“…”

“Hmm?”

Bai Yuehu glumly grunted, if he had his fox ears, those ears would definitely be drooping sadly.

“Then… have you ever considered whom you wanted to date?” Lu Qingjiu asked curiously.

He had a faint inkling that Lu Qingjiu’s questioning was hiding a really important message, but as someone with no love experience before, he misunderstood the message. With a sudden serious attitude, Bai Yuehu expressed, “Do you want to date someone? Who is it? There is no lady in this village of the right age. Furthermore, since you have dragon blood, you will age differently from normal humans – so you shouldn’t simply hold up others.”

“…” Lu Qingjiu had not thought of this before, but since Bai Yuehu reminded him, this also helped him solve a worrisome problem.

Looking at the silent Lu Qingjiu, Bai Yuehu was a little unhappy. Once he thought of the possibility that Lu Qingjiu could be together with others, he felt a little unhappiness that his thing was being coveted by others, and so urged Lu Qingjiu, “Speak up.”

Lu Qingjiu smiled, “Yes, I would like to start dating.”

With a serious expression, Bai Yuehu stared at Lu Qingjiu, waiting for him to continue. He had even decided, deep in his heart, that no matter whose name Lu Qingjiu said, he would express strong discontent.

Lu Qingjiu continued, “But I’m not sure whether this person would be willing to.”

“They would dare to not be willing?”

Lu Qingjiu could be counted as a child that he watched grow up. Although for a period of time, Lu Qingjiu had left Shuifu village, the dragon race was famous for being protective. Even if he didn’t want Lu Qingjiu to start dating, that should be due to Lu Qingjiu being unwilling to, not due to others not wanting to date Lu Qingjiu.

Looking at Bai Yuehu being angry, Lu Qingjiu’s heart was filled with joy, and he even casually set a trap for his household’s fake fox spirit, “What if they are really not willing?”

Bai Yuehu opened his mouth, revealing tidy rows of white teeth, “I’ll eat them.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“Fine, in that case you need to keep your promise.”

Bai Yuehu shut his mouth, standing quietly waiting for Lu Qingjiu’s answer. Even though nothing could be seen on his face, but uncountable feelings tumbled around like waves within his heart. He hated that he couldn’t rush out this very moment to dig out the person Lu Qingjiu was about to name and eat them up.

“That person’s name is, Bai Yuehu.”

“Bai Yuehu? What a stupid name — wait what??” Bai Yuehu’s eyes were wide open with shock, as if he couldn’t believe what he just heard, “What did you just say?”

Lu Qingjiu repeated, “I said, I would like to start dating one Bai Yuehu.”

“……”

“Why, are you not willing?” Lu Qingjiu was also an adult, but had never given this matter much thought before his grandfather’s reminder, after which he immediately realised his inner feelings. Life was painfully short, and he was not someone who liked hesitating. Since he realised that he liked Bai Yuehu, it was only natural he would want to be together with this cute “fox spirit”.

Bai Yuehu had no more hesitations and immediately nodded his head without further delay.