CH 92.2

Translated by yuki

Edited by xiaowu

“Yin Xun, Yin Xun!” After catching his breath, Lu Qingjiu hurried over to take a look at Yin Xun.

His first glance shocked half his soul away, seeing as Yin Xun had already been frozen into a solid state. That pair of black eyes, which was covered by a thin layer of frost, stared right through him. Lu Qingjiu stroked Yin Xun’s cheek, confirming that he was indeed frozen stiff.

If he was a normal person, Lu Qingjiu would probably already start thinking of his burial spot. Fortunately, knowing that Yin Xun was someone who had already died once and therefore should not be that fragile, Lu Qingjiu prepared to drag Yin Xun inside his home to try to thaw him out.

With a huge amount of effort, Lu Qingjiu brought Yin Xun into the room with a roaring coal fire and removed his down jacket before letting Yin Xun lie in a position near the coal stove.

Xiao Hua was shocked by the human Lu Qingjiu brought in. Seeing that it was Yin Xun and that he was frozen into such a state, he exclaimed in dismay, “Yin Xun! What happened to him?”

Lu Qingjiu answered with a face full of worry, “I saw him collapsed when I went outside, I’m unsure how long he has been frozen for.”

“Can he still be saved after being frozen to such a degree?”

Lu Qingjiu poked at Yin Xun’s head which was harder than rock. “I’m not sure, let’s just try thawing him out. If that’s not possible, let’s wait till Bai Yuehu returns.”

Xiao Hua watched worriedly.

Nonetheless, it was lucky he had found Yin Xun and didn’t let him continue freezing outside. At least he could still try saving Yin Xun. Lu Qingjiu had just gone out for a short while, but his whole body was icy cold. Afraid of catching a cold, he changed into a dry outfit and burrowed back under the nest of blankets.

“Are we leaving Yin Xun there?” Xiao Hua glanced towards Yin Xun who remained as still as a statue.

“Just leave him there for now,” Lu Qingjiu who had half his head buried under the covers said with a muffled voice, “The porch is too cold, I fucking thought that I myself would die outside.”

Xiao Hua patted Lu Qingjiu’s head with her hooves to comfort him.

As his body warmed up, Lu Qingjiu started getting sleepy. He had originally wanted to watch over Yin Xun, but thawing Yin Xun would take quite some time. As he waited and waited, he fuzzily fell asleep just like that.

The next morning, Lu Qingjiu woke up from his dreams and fuzzily saw Yin Xun was still lying in the same position by the coal stove. His mind jumpstarted and he immediately woke up, “Xiao Hua, did you turn Yin Xun over in the night?”

Xiao Hua, who had been shaken awake by Lu Qingjiu, shook his head blearily.

Lu Qingjiu hurriedly tumbled out of bed to flip Yin Xun over, noting that half of Yin Xun’s body was already back to normal, but the other half was still frozen solid. Lu Qingjiu called out to Yin Xun, but there was no reaction, Lu Qingjiu started feeling a little worried, “Will this thawing process really help?”

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Lu Qingjiu: “…Where did you read this story?”

“At a story-telling session.”

Lu Qingjiu was at a loss for words. Yin Xun, it seems the odds are against you.

But in the end, they were still best friends, Lu Qingjiu was unwilling to give up on treatment. He decided to munch on a baked sweet potato before continuing to try thawing Yin Xun.

The sweet potato had been baked till it was warm and toasty. Holding it in one hand, he took a bite and almost burned his tongue. The insides were soft and tender, truly a dish that could warm your heart just with a bite, even managing to reduce Lu Qingjiu’s sadness over his friend being turned into an ice sculpture.

“This is really tasty!” Xiao Hua exclaimed, “Now I really want to drink some warming mutton soup.”

“I also want some,” Lu Qingjiu sniffled, feeling that he had caught a little cold. The temperature outside the porch was really too low. If not for his speed, he feared that he would also be frozen alongside Yin Xun.

“Oh well, Yin Xun looks like he won’t get well that soon. Let me help him eat up his sweet potato,” Xiao Hua expertly used his hooves to peel the sweet potato. After all, his sister was still asleep, the fox cub didn’t like veggies, Yin Xun was still frozen, so all the sweet potatoes belonged to him and Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu followed suit, “Sure, I’ll also help eat one on his behalf.”

The two of them happily peeled sweet potatoes, completely missing a crystalline tear falling from the corner of statue-Yin Xun’s eye. Of course, even if they spotted that tear, they would just assume it’s a drop of water from the thawing process…

After lunch, as he feared, Lu Qingjiu realised he had indeed caught a cold. At first, it was just his throat that was a little itchy, then he started sneezing and his nose started to run. Once he realised these symptoms, he immediately swallowed a larger dose of medicine.

After thawing for a full day, there was only one third of Yin Xun’s body that was still frozen. Xiao Hua and Lu Qingjiu had already shed any pretense of watching over Yin Xun. Instead, the two of them rounded up Xiao Hei and the fox cub to make a pot of mutton, planning to make some mutton soup.

SInce he had already caught a cold, Lu Qingjiu instructed Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei to do the tasks that would involve water. Though these two piglets only had hooves, they were really agile at handling kitchen chores, pretty much at the same level as Yin Xun.

Lu Qingjiu let out a sigh of regret that he hadn’t discovered the pigs’ unique talents earlier. Xiao Hua puffed up his chest, trash talking Yin Xun in front of his body, “My brain is not made of water.”

Lu Qingjiu tactfully reminded Xiao Hua, “You shouldn’t say such things, Yin Xun is still here.”

“But he’s not yet thawed.”

“What if there’s a chance the non-thawed Yin Xun could also listen to his surroundings?”

Xiao Hua replied, “In that case, let’s stuff his ears up?”

Lu Qingjiu: …

Yin Xun, you really shouldn’t offend Xiao Hua.

Jokes aside, the reason Lu Qingjiu and Xiao Hua was that relaxed was due to them already discovering that for the parts of Yin Xun’s body that had already thawed, they had regained the feel of a normal human skin, which was completely different from someone who had frozen to death.

Yin Xun’s skin was very elastic and pinching it a few times would lead to bruises, which was definitely not a reaction that a dead person could have. Lu Qingjiu even pinched quite a few times to confirm he hadn’t seen something wrong.

Xiao Hua considered, “Maybe you shouldn’t have pinched his face?”

Lu Qingjiu retorted, “In that case, where were you thinking of pinching?”

“Of course it would be somewhere there was plenty of flesh…”

As he said that, he looked towards Yin Xun’s bottom.

Lu Qingjiu was once again at a loss for words.

Xiao Hua faintly reminisced, “Just like the way he pinched me.”

Lu Qingjiu made the decision to not butt in between Xiao Hua and Yin Xun’s love-hate relationship, allowing them to freely express themselves.

The three young animals and Lu Qingjiu happily drank the warming mutton soup, which made Lu Qingjiu’s cold recover a lot. The cooking method was a little rougher than usual, after all the two piglets were not familiar with cooking. However, to them who had only eaten dry foods in the past few days, it was actually not that bad, especially since the quality of the mutton was actually really good. They quickly demolished the meat, leaving behind a large pot of soup.

Just as they were planning to also demolish the soup, Lu Qingjiu heard faint crying noises coming from the bed. He listened carefully to confirm it was not just his imagination before rushing to the bedside for a look. Yin Xun had fully thawed at some point in time, and was crying as if he had been wronged.

Lu Qingjiu quickly carried him on to the bed, reassuring him, “Yin Xun, don’t cry anymore. You’re fine now.”

Yin Xun’s face was full of tears, but the words coming out of his mouth wouldn’t move anyone to tears.

“Lu Qingjiu, you dog, not even leaving me one slice of mutton.”

“…”

“I don’t have a friend like you.”

Lu Qingjiu eyed Yin Xun’s face which was full of bruises as if he had been pummeled black and blue by others. He silently turned around to prepare a bowl of warming mutton soup before bringing it to Yin Xun.

Yin Xun was really hungry, although he held a grudge for not being able to eat any mutton. Luckily, there was still soup leftover for him, which comforted his heartache a little. He gulped down three to four bowls of soup before slowing down and reaching out to get rid of the snow on his eye lashes, saying in a low voice, “I thought I would actually die.”

Lu Qingjiu queried, “Why were you outside my door? Didn’t I ask you to not leave your house?”

Yin Xun shook his head with traces of exhaustion on his face and started his explanation of what had happened.

It seemed like after it had started snowing, the candle lights in the memorial hall had become darker, no matter how much he tried adding new ones. In the end, they were all extinguished. The dead souls which had been suppressed rushed out like a school of fish, Yin Xun was unable to block them. Seeing those dead souls heading in the direction of Lu Qingjiu’s house and worrying that they would hurt Lu Qingjiu, Yin Xun had started running over.

However the temperature outside their respective porch areas was really too low. Although his destination of Lu Qingjiu’s house was right in front of his eyes, Yin Xun froze into a block of ice a few steps short of Lu Qingjiu’s house.

Luckily, the dead souls didn’t enter Lu Qingjiu’s house and headed straight towards the mountains.

After hearing Yin Xun’s story, Lu Qingjiu’s heart was full of complications. He patted Yin Xun’s still slightly wet head muttering, “Sorry.”

Yin Xun followed up, a little moved, “No, it was my choice.”

Lu Qingjiu replied a little sheepishly, “No, I meant that I should have left you two heaps of mutton.”

Out of sight, out of mind – Lu Qingjiu should have just not mentioned it anymore, reminding him of the issue made Yin Xun angry again, to the point he almost broke the bowl in his hands. In the end, it was Lu Qingjiu’s promise that he would make another pot of mutton soup which just managed to calm him down.

However, this calm was not to last for long. When he went to change his clothes in the toilet, Yin Xun realised the bruises all over his face.

“Shit, Lu Qingjiu are you even human? Can’t you use a lighter touch!!”

Yin Xun’s angry growls could be heard from within the toilet, “I fucking look like I just got totally beaten up.”

Lu Qingjiu, knowing he was in the wrong, acted as if he couldn’t hear. His eyes looked down towards his nose, which looked down to his heart, closed his eyes and pretended to take a nap.

Author’s notes:

Lu Qingjiu: If only this happened during summer…

Yin Xun: I wouldn’t be frozen into an ice lolly?

Lu Qingjiu: Then I can use Yin Xun to make iced canned peaches…

Yin Xun: ?????