CH 90.2

Translated by yuki

Edited by xiaowu

Lu Qingjiu asked, “Are there any other side effects?”

Zhu Rong shook his head.

After helping Lu Qingjiu get rid of the cold air, the flames emerged from within Lu Qingjiu’s body in the form of a butterfly. Looking more closely, he was surprised to realise that this butterfly was almost the same as those icy blue butterflies he had previously seen – the only difference being their colours…

Lu Qingjiu looked towards Bai Yuehu, who gave him a look, indicating that he shouldn’t say anything.

Zhu Rong stated, “Right, I’ve helped you remove the cold air. As long as you take care to keep warm and don’t go to extremely cold places, you’ll be fine. I’ll take my leave then.” As he had finished dealing with the matter Bai Yuehu had called him over for, he naturally got up to leave.

Bai Yuehu and Lu Qingjiu saw Zhu Rong off.

Once he was sure Zhu Rong had left, Lu Qingjiu turned to look at Bai Yuehu and asked, “Why did you not let me ask?”

Bai Yuehu answered, “If you said anything, he would definitely know that you had contact with your grandfather.”

Lu Qingjiu immediately understood. Zhu Rong was an executioner, his task was to pursue Ao Run. If Ao Run refused to come with him, he would not be lenient. The fact that he previously cut off the dragon claw was the best evidence.

“That’s true…” After learning the truth, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t stand for Ao Run to be hurt even further.

“But why are those butterflies I saw exactly the same as those on Ao Run’s body, is there some relationship between them?”

Bai Yuehu furrowed his brow, “I’m also thinking about this.” However, till now there hasn’t been a complete answer.

Lu Qingjiu revealed the same expression as Bai Yuehu.

Though for now, at least there was nothing wrong with Lu Qingjiu’s body anymore. According to Zhu Rong, as long as he doesn’t eat any ice cream this summer season and does not go anywhere super cold, there wouldn’t be any big problems.

However, many things were entangled in Lu Qingjiu’s mind, such as the owner of those icy butterflies, such as his grandfather whose hair could become red, why did he push that icy butterfly into his mind…

If his grandfather really wanted to kill off Lu Qingjiu, it would be as easy as waving his fingers. After all, Lu Qingjiu was only a quarter-dragon, in front of his grandfather he was almost the same as a normal human, there was no need to use such a complicated method.

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Controlling his feelings, Lu Qingjiu revealed his habitual warm smile and continued, “I am really fine, rather than worrying over me, why not you all think of what you would like to eat for lunch?”

“What do I want to eat?” Zhu Miaomiao didn’t refuse the change in topic, “Whatever you make I will eat, I don’t mind what it is…”

After thinking over it, Lu Qingjiu decided, “In that case, let’s get Bai Yuehu to slaughter that rabbit and make rabbit meat hotpot. Yin Xun, go pick some fresh vegetables from our fields, make sure to pick a little of everything.”

Yin Xun happily ran out with a basket in his hands.

While acting as an assistant to Lu Qingjiu in the kitchen, Zhu Miaomiao started chatting about the latest happenings in the company. She brought up President Wu, who had previously constantly knocked heads with Lu Qingjiu, had gotten a promotion offer, but unexpectedly he refused that order and chose to continue staying at their branch office. His temper had improved a lot, some of the office staff started joking around, wondering which staff member had caught President Wu’s eye, making him reluctant to part with their branch office.

Hearing the name President Wu surprised Lu Qingjiu, who immediately recalled his connection to Old Tree. It had been a year since Wu Xiao, due to a weird comedy of errors, had married Old Tree. At first, Lu Qingjiu was still a little worried for him, but since he hadn’t heard much from Wu Xiao, it looked like he got along quite well with Old Tree.

At any rate, it was almost August once again and Lu Qingjiu was planning to visit Old Tree at the same time he went to offer incense to his parents, since this was part of his promise to Old Tree.

Zhu Miaomiao didn’t know all these, and was still talking about Wu Xiao’s matters. Since he was not young anymore, everyone suspected that he was really in a relationship, but had never seen the person he was interested in. They only found that he would go to a park almost every day after work and linger there for quite some time.

Some of the staff even expressed that they had seen Wu Xiao muttering to himself. However, this rumour didn’t gain a lot of traction. After all, Wu Xiao’s image as a strict and serious person was still deeply engraved in people’s hearts.

“Speaking of this, could he be confused by some spirit?” Zhu Miaomiao mused while peeling some garlic, “Is there such a possibility?”

Lu Qingjiu grunted, “Un… it is possible.” Technically, Old Tree could also be considered a tree spirit.

“The one who could lure Wu Xiao must be a beautiful spirit, just like Bai Yuehu.”

Thinking of Bai Yuehu’s beautiful visage, and then recalling how he had been hated by the young child, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t resist revealing a smile.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu’s mood had improved, Zhu Miaomiao let out a sigh of relief. After all, she was a girl who was quite sensitive to others’ feelings. She knew that there was definitely something that had happened to cause Lu Qingjiu to have the reaction he had. However, since Lu Qingjiu wasn’t willing to talk about it, it must be  private, so she didn’t continue chasing it.

Yin Xun returned after picking fresh vegetables, followed closely by Bai Yuehu, who was holding an extremely beautiful large bird. The bird was fully covered in fiery red feathers, with a splash of green on its beak and brilliantly colourful feathers. The only flaw was that its neck had been wrung by Bai Yuehu, hanging limply to one side, clearly dead.

“What kind of bird is this?” Seeing the bird’s beautiful feathers, Zhu Miaomiao voiced, “This isn’t some animal protected by the country right?”

“It probably isn’t.”

Lu Qingjiu was very clear on this point since if Bai Yuehu was hunting, he must have hunted a non-human species. Although in this short time he hadn’t thought about what this bird could be, the one thing he could be sure of was that this bird would definitely taste not bad.

“Lingyao.” Bai Yuehu spit out 2 words, “It’s tasty.”

Lu Qingjiu only now thought of the bird’s identity. It was called Lingyao, a bird species in the Shan Hai Jing that was thoroughly red apart from the green colour on its beak. After eating this kind of bird, one could avoid having any nightmares, since it helped dispel evil and eliminate disaster. He lifted his eyes to look towards Bai Yuehu, their gazes met and they completely understood what each other was thinking.

It was clear that Bai Yuehu had been affected by Lu Qingjiu’s earlier nightmares, and so specially went to hunt for this creature. Lu Qingjiu’s heart skipped a beat, smiling as he ordered, “Then you should deal with the feathers. We can cook it with the rabbit later.”

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Zhu Miaomiao asked hurriedly, “Keep the feathers for me. They are so beautiful, just throwing them away would be such a pity. I’ll use them for some arts and crafts projects.”

Bai Yuehu grunted,  indicating that he had heard.

Unlike the human world, the otherworld was one where the strong would eat the weak. The strongest would set the rules, though these rules were just to restrict their strength and not to protect the weak. The dragon race which Bai Yuehu belonged to was the apex predator, they were at the top of the food chain and the gods that controlled everything.

Lu Qingjiu prepared the soup base, then cut the prepared rabbit meat into cubes. Zhu Miaomiao collected all the red feathers from the bird, planning to bring it back as gifts for her colleagues.

Yin Xun finished washing the vegetables before setting the table, then obediently waited for the food to be done.

Lu Qingjiu set up the induction cooker, then put on the pot of vibrantly red soup base to heat it up before adding in the rabbit meat and Lingyao meat. The white meat rolled around in the boiling red-coloured soup, making it look really appetising. A rich aroma filled the entire house, making Zhu Miaomiao and Yin Xun drool as they watched.

Lu Qingjiu finished preparing the seasonings and noted that the meat was almost done, so he called them to dig in.

No one stood on ceremony, immediately using their chopsticks to aim for the juiciest bits. Lu Qingjiu went for a piece of Lingyao meat first, and discovered that this meat was actually quite tasty. It tasted a little like chicken meat, but was a lot more plump than chicken meat. One could taste the soft fattiness when chewing, but it was actually not greasy and also didn’t have a lot of bones. After it had been cooked through in the soup base, it was delicious, fragrant and spicy.

“This is tasty,” Lu Qingjiu praised, “This bird meat tastes quite good, you all should try it too.”

Everyone else also had a taste of the bird meat and couldn’t stop praising it. Lu Qingjiu picked up a bowl to share some with Su Xi, Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua. Of course, he didn’t forget to share some with the Rain Master’s Concubine hiding within Su Xi’s fur.

The first pot of meat was quickly devoured. Lu Qingjiu started preparing a second pot, also adding in some vegetables such as enoki mushrooms, lettuce, vermicelli, pumpkin etc. While waiting for it to cook, the four of them stared at the pot. Lu Qingjiu was just staring blankly, while Yin Xun and Zhu Miaomiao were just itching to start eating, whereas Bai Yuehu looked like he was calm but was actually gearing up with the chopsticks in his hands ready to jump into battle at any moment.

“Is it ready?” Yin Xun couldn’t stand it anymore, turning around to ask Lu Qingjiu.

“Hmm… Let me see,“ Lu Qingjiu picked up a piece of bird meat, took a bite out of it, then nodded, “It’s done, dig in.”

With his approval, three pairs of chopsticks dipped into the pot. This was a bloody battle, only the winner could eat more meat!

Lu Qingjiu watched as the three stuffed themselves silly. The trio’s chopsticks flew in and out at incredible speeds. At first, Bai Yuehu was still pretending to be normal, but later he got tired of pretending and ate up all the meat without even bothering to spit out the bones. Zhu Miaomiao noticed Bai Yuehu was cheating and shrilly exclaimed, “Wtf, Bai Yuehu you can even eat meat without spitting out the bones? Isn’t this too much?”

Bai Yuehu mercilessly said, “If you could, you would also not spit them out.”

Zhu Miaomiao was struck speechless.

Just as she noticed that Bai Yuehu was cheating, Zhu Miaomiao also realised that there was something weird with Yin Xun. The meat was so hot, but Yin Xun would directly stuff it in his mouth, not even bothering to cool it down, as if he was not afraid of scalding himself.

Zhu Miaomiao panicked, “Yin Xun, aren’t you afraid of burning your mouth!”

Yin Xun retorted, “I’m not afraid of the heat.”

Zhu Miaomiao: … She had lost.

One of them didn’t need to spit out bones, one of them was not afraid of the heat – Zhu Miaomiao, being the only human among them, had already been fated to lose from the starting line.

Lu Qingjiu who had filled himself up on the vegetables that no one wanted looked pitifully at Zhu Miaomiao who had tears dripping down her face. He patted her head, saying that it was okay to leave some space in her stomach since he would make some desserts for her this afternoon. Like this, he barely consoled Zhu Miaomiao’s already broken heart.

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The author has something to say:

Lu Qingjiu: Eating too fast is not good, since you’ll burn your mouth.

Bai Yuehu: Fine, I’ll eat slowly

Lu Qingjiu: Fast…faster!

t/n: Hot pot is really fun to eat – highly recommend trying it – check out this wok of life article on how to make it at home!

e/n: Xiao Wu wants hot pot too… ;drool;