CH 3

…has thin hair

translator: baumkuchen

Along with the four piglets, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun took Uncle Chen’s small truck back to Shuifu village.

After reaching home, Lu Qingjiu first brought the piglets into the pigsty, which had already been cleaned beforehand, and had a sheet of clean straw covering the ground. According to Yin Xun, pigs actually loved cleanliness, and only when their living space was comfortable, would they easily gain weight.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu hoisted up a few piglets, and placed them into the pigsty. He also placed clean ragweed and water into the food trough. Once the two little pink piglets entered, they instantly started happily wiggling their fat little butts as they ate, but the two little black piglets just hesitated at the entrance of the pigsty, not moving.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Qingjiu saw them unwilling to move, and asked, curious: “Is this pigsty unsatisfactory in some way?”

Hearing Lu Qingjiu’s words, the big black piglet actually nodded its head and stretched out its tiny hoof and pointed at the two little pink pigs who were happily engrossed in eating.

Lu Qingjiu: “You don’t want to live together with them?”

The black piglet snorted.

Lu Qingjiu looked suspiciously at the piglet: “Are you really a pig? You aren’t a human who’s been turned into a pig, are you?”

The black piglet looked at Lu Qingjiu with a face full of innocence, as if it didn’t understand what Lu Qingjiu was saying. Lu Qingjiu strongly suspected that it was purposely faking innocence. However, the black piglets probably shouldn’t actually be human, after all, if they were human, when they found someone who was actually willing to communicate with them, they would immediately let them know, and wouldn’t deliberately play dumb like this.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, before bringing out a block of wood out from the side. He then used it to separate the two black piglets and the pink piglets. Only then did the two little piglets hesitantly step into the pigsty. After a moment of consideration, they lay down onto the clean straw to rest.

Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu didn’t bother with them anymore, turning around and heading back towards the house.

Yin Xun was making himself busy in the kitchen, helping put away the things Lu Qingjiu had bought one by one. Lu Qingjiu walked in and asked what he wanted to eat for dinner.

“Anything’s fine,” Yin Xun said, incredibly nonchalant, “How about I go to the fields and harvest a few vegetables, so we can have a hotpot?”

“Sounds good,” Lu Qingjiu said, “I’ll prepare the soup first… Oh right, where do you get the ragweed from, or would just using feed work?”

“Ragweed huh, you could get the village kids to help pick it for you,” Yin Xun said, “Five cents for a basketful, they can earn some pocket money and you won’t need to go up the mountain. As for feed there’s more things you’ll need to consider, like adding whatever vitamins the pigs need and all that, and if pigs eat too much meat they won’t taste as good, but they won’t fall sick as easily.”

After hearing this, Lu Qingjiu nodded, showing he understood.

“I’ll go pick out some vegetables now, you should go prepare the soup first.” Yin Xun went off to his family’s fields.

Lu Qingjiu then placed the bones he’d bought from the market that day into the pot, and turned on the stove and started cooking. He also sliced up a bit of the meat that he’d bought. The old house had a fridge, just that it hadn’t been used for a long time, so its ability to keep things cool had deteriorated over time. Lu Qingjiu placed the remaining ingredients into the fridge. As he picked up the vegetables and brought them into to the courtyard to be washed, he unexpectedly heard a loud splash, as if something heavy had fallen into some water.

This sound had come from the inner courtyard. Upon hearing it, Lu Qingjiu was momentarily stunned, before he suddenly thought of something, and put down the vegetables and hurriedly rushed over to the inner courtyard.

The inner courtyard hadn’t been tidied up at all. All four corners were filled with withered trees and messy weeds, and the wall was even covered with white spiderwebs, making the dark well in front of it seem particularly out-of-place.

Lu Qingjiu had just clearly heard the sound of something falling into the water, he feared that a child from the village had accidentally fallen into the well, so he quickly hurried towards the mouth of the well, looking in with despair.

The inside of the well was incredibly dark, such that one was unable to see the bottom. Lu Qingjiu shouted out for a while, but he didn’t hear any cries for help from inside.

“Is anyone in there? Did anyone fall in?” Lu Qingjiu continued to yell, “If someone’s in there, please make some noise –”

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The inside of the well was completely quiet, remaining dead silent.

Lu Qingjiu continued to call out a few more times, but still didn’t receive any response. He began to think of the possibility that it hadn’t been a person who fell in, but some large object, before hearing Yin Xun’s calls: “Jiu-er? Jiu-er? You there?”

“I’m in the inner courtyard,” Lu Qingjiu yelled back.

“What are you doing back there?” Yin Xun said, “I’m back from harvesting the vegetables, this cucumber is really sweet…”

Lu Qingjiu glanced back towards the mouth of the well: “I heard the sound of something falling into the well just now, so I came over to check.”

“Oh, so was there something?” Yin Xun stood at the entrance to the inner courtyard, in his hands was a cucumber that had been bitten in half, staring at Lu Qingjiu from a distance.

“Nope,” Lu Qingjiu replied.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Then don’t bother,” Yin Xun said, “It could be that some family’s kid was throwing rocks outside, and one happened to accidentally fall into the well.”

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment, he felt that as long as it hadn’t been a person who’d fallen into the well, it was okay, and thus decided to stop caring about it. He left the inner courtyard and walked over to Yin Xun’s side, and together, they walked back towards the outer courtyard. Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu, and bit off another mouthful of cucumber, crunching loudly, and said, his voice slightly muffled: “Is there something on your back?”

“My back?” Lu Qingjiu turned his head and looked behind him, “What thing?”

Yin Xun stretched out his hand, and scooped up a dark something from Lu Qingjiu’s back: “This…”

Lu Qingjiu looked at the thing in Yin Xun’s hand, it was unexpectedly a wad of dark hair, he didn’t know at what point it had been stuck to his back.

“Pr atlr tjlg? Lbis rtla!” Qtfc Tlc Wec rjk ktja fzjmais kjr lc tlr bkc tjcv, tf tegglfvis atgfk la ab atf rlvf, “Qtja xlcv bo qgjcx lr atlr? Lbk tjafoei.”

Oe Hlcuple: “…” Lf rlifcais ibbxfv abkjgvr atf kfii lc tlr bkc lccfg mbegasjgv, j rcfjxlcu rerqlmlbc obgwlcu lc tlr tfjga.

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“Don’t be scared, nothing’s wrong,” Yin Xun said, “It’s a farming village, in a remote area, there’ll naturally be some weird things happening…”

Lu Qingjiu was spooked: “Weird things? Like what?”

Yin Xun was silent for a moment, before speaking to Lu Qingjiu in a small voice: “In summer last year, the little kid from the Liu family drowned to death.”

“Drowned?” Lu Qingjiu said, “In that little creek in the village? Isn’t that creek really shallow?” They’d been to that place many times, from what he understood, the only place with water near the village was a knee-deep little creek, that little creek didn’t have a strong current and also didn’t contain any water weeds, even if one fell inside they would be able to easily stand back up.

“No,” Yin Xun replied, “If it had been there it wouldn’t have been anything particularly strange, he was… he drowned to death in the forest.”

For a moment Lu Qingjiu didn’t understand, and doubtfully repeated: “In the forest?”

“Yes,” Yin Xin continued quietly, “It was in the forest, where there wasn’t any water. At the time, the Liu family reported it to the police, and in the end after some investigation, it was the police who reported that he’d drowned.”

Lu Qingjiu replied: “…Then what happened in the end.”

“How else could it have ended,” Yin Xun said, “It was just chalked up like that, actually these kinds of strange happenings do occur in other villages, but they’re quite few, only one or two cases over the past few years.”

Lu Qingjiu was speechless, before when working in the city he’d actually come across some cases like this, but he’d never thought that after he moved back here would still be these kinds of weird things happening.

“So after this if you come across anything like this, just pretend you didn’t see anything,” Yin Xun said, “If you didn’t see anything, then there’s nothing to worry about.”

Lu Qingjiu inwardly thought: ‘What use does burying your head in the sand have…’

Yin Xun passed a cucumber over to Lu Qingjiu, and the two then squatted down in the outer courtyard and began to wash the vegetables.

The cucumber actually tasted not bad, both crisp and sweet, with not even a hint of bitterness, and was also quite juicy, not unlike when eating a fruit. As Lu Qingjiu ate the cucumber, he started feeling a little better, and asked: “Then have you ever come across anything strange?”

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Yin Xun grinned, once again showing his cute tiger tooth: “Might have come across some, I’ve never paid close enough attention.”

Lu Qingjiu thought that ignorance truly was bliss.

Yin Xun had gathered quite a few vegetables. After they were finished washing, Lu Qingjiu then added the hotpot stock he’d bought in town to the simmering bone soup stock. After it had heated up, he carried it to the courtyard. The two people opened up a few cans of beer, and started happily sipping on beer as they ate hotpot.

The flavour of the hotpot was very simple, but fortunately, the ingredients were fresh, so the taste wasn’t bad. The rich scent of the bone soup spread throughout the entire courtyard. After a few drinks, Yin Xun’s cheeks started to redden, looking to be a little drunk.

Lu Qingjiu also started to feel a string rush of headiness, he hadn’t been drunk in a long long time, in his daily life he had been constantly working overtime, where could he have found the time to go out drinking with his buddies.

This old home of his really made one feel comfortable, and he also didn’t have to worry about clocking in for work tomorrow. As he thought this, he saw Yin Xun in front of him suddenly raise his hand, pointing at something behind him, slurring: “How… how dark.”

“What?” Lu Qingjiu replied, “Didn’t we turn on the lights?”

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Yin Xun cocked his head to the side, a thoroughly confused look on his face: “But it’s still really dark.”

Lu Qingjiu was under the assumption that Yin Xun just thoroughly drunk. Until he turned his head, and looked behind him, only then did he understand the meaning of Yin Xun’s words. Not far behind him, stood a black figure. The person was like a black hole, sucking in people’s gazes, impossible to look away from.

“Do you know what my greatest fear is?” A voice sounded by his ear, it was the quiet voice of a woman.

Maybe it was the alcohol steadying his nerves, but Lu Qingjiu surprisingly didn’t feel much fear. As he looked at that mass of hair, he heard the woman repeat her question once more.

“Do you know what my greatest fear is?” The head of black hair came closer to him.

Lu Qingjiu’s lips moved slightly: “Your greatest fear…”

“What?”

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“Is… is it the fear of balding?” The drunk Lu Qingjiu said this really seriously, and even felt like his answer was absolutely perfect and definitely completely correct, or else why would the female ghost have so much hair… As he said this, he even rubbed his own hair, with a slight melancholic sigh, “Thankfully I resigned early, or else I too wouldn’t be able to escape that fate…”

The black figure trembled slightly, whether it was because she was shaken by Lu Qingjiu’s answer no one knew for sure. Anyways after so many years, this was her first time hearing this kind of answer. The male in front of her eyes looked both pure and genuine, completely unlike those overly dressed-up cheap goods.

The black figure in front seemed as if she still had something to say, however, at that moment, a thick dark fog started materialising in the courtyard. The female ghost seemed to sense something, and in the next moment promptly disappeared from Lu Qingjiu’s sight, only leaving a patch of damp ground behind.

Lu Qingjiu felt like he’d definitely drank too much, or else that thing wouldn’t have just disappeared like that. Across from him, Yin Xun merrily opened yet another bottle of beer, and helped refill his cup.

“Drink…” Yin Xun slurred, “Let’s keep drinking…”

Lu Qingjiu grabbed the cup and chugged it down in one gulp, and said: “Drink!”

As for what happened after, he couldn’t quite remember it clearly. When he next came too, it was already the morning of the next day, he and Yin Xun had spent the entire night in the courtyard. After they got up, their backs were incredibly sore and painful, to the point where they felt like they were going to fall apart. Especially their heads, thanks to their hangover, they felt like their heads were about to explode. Lu Qingjiu absently got up from the ground, and gave Yin Xun, who was sleeping next to him with an incredibly ugly sleeping posture, a shove.

“Ai… aiya….” The moment Yin Xun opened his eyes, he started yelping in pain, “My entire body hurts so much, Jiu-er, last night did you take advantage of when I was drunk to beat me up?”

Lu Qingjiu: “…I’m also in pain, okay?”

Yin Xun said: “No way no way, my entire body hurts so badly, especially my butt.” He rubbed his own butt, giving Lu Qingjiu a suspicious look: “You really didn’t do anything to me last night, right?”

Lu Qingjiu: “There’s a mirror in the house, go look at yourself in the mirror and wake up a little.”

Yin Xun: “I’m extremely good-looking.”

Lu Qingjiu: “Good looking my ass, your face is so swollen, you look just like a pig.”

Yin Xun’s face was full of doubt. He staggered into the house to find the mirror that was hung up in the toilet. Shortly after, Lu Qingjiu heard him screech: “Lu Qingjiu, you f*cking definitely beat me up when I was sleeping last night!”

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Lu Qingjiu: “I didn’t!”

Yin Xun: “Then why is my face swollen while yours isn’t!”

Lu Qingjiu: “Maybe it’s because I’m so handsome.”

Yin Xun: “…” You really don’t want any face do you.

Jokes were just jokes, his face suddenly swelling up was still something to be concerned about, so eventually, the two leaned on each other as they shakily staggered over to the village clinic. Upon seeing the two’s haggard appearances, the serious villagers all cracked smiles, jokingly asking if they had tried to rob someone and gotten beaten up for it last night.

Yin Xun made a crying face, saying: “Auntie, please don’t make fun of us.”

When they reached the clinic, after the the doctor did a simple check up, he concluded that Yin Xun must have had an allergic reaction to something. He hadn’t been beaten up by someone, and Lu Qingjiu was finally washed clean of suspicion.

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“I had an allergic reaction to something?” Yin Xun didn’t understand, “Didn’t I eat the things I usually eat?”

After thinking for a while, Lu Qingjiu replied, uncertain: “Could it be that you were allergic to the hotpot stock I used?”

Yin Xun’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open: “No way! You can even be allergic to something like hotpot stock?!”

“There’s a possibility.” Lu Qingjiu contemplated for a moment, “That hotpot stock had quite a few spices, maybe you were allergic to one of them… Of course this is just a possibility, you’re still the first person ever I’ve met with an allergy to hotpot stock.”

Yin Xun cried a few tears of sadness.

The doctor, seeing that Yin Xun’s situation wasn’t that serious, prescribed some medicine for him to take, saying that as long as he didn’t come into contact with his allergy for two days had be fine.

After that, the two ‘invalids’ hobbled back home.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

After Lu Qingjiu got home, he to laid in bed for half a day before he finally felt a little better. When he got up to clean up the stuff in the outer courtyard, he glanced in the direction of the inner courtyard, seemingly having fleetingly thought of something, but was unable to figure it out for a while. In the end since nothing came to mind, he didn’t bother to think any more of it, anyways it probably wasn’t anything big.

After cleaning up the house, and quickly grabbing a bite to eat, Lu Qingjiu soaked the seeds in some warm water, thinking of first planting a few in the afternoon. Soaking the seeds in warm water would allow them to germinate quicker, at least according to Yin Xun. After preparing the seeds, he went to the neighbours’ house next door, and just so happened to bump into the neighbours’ kid sitting in the courtyard braiding hemp ropes. His neighbours had known Lu Qingjiu since he was a child, and they had been pretty close to his grandmother, so on the second day after Lu Qingjiu settled back in they had sent over a basket of sweet potatoes. In response, Lu Qingjiu had sincerely thanked them.

“Xiao Lu, what’s up?” His neighbour Uncle Li asked.

“Can I ask if Xiaoyu is busy?” Lu Qingjiu said, “I need a little more ragweed.”

Xiaoyu was the name of the neighbours’ kid, his full name was Li Xiaoyu. When he heard Lu Qingjiu’s words, he hurriedly nodded, tossing aside the hemp rope in his hands, and saying: “I don’t have anything going on, how many baskets do you want?”

“Just a few is fine.” Lu Qingjiu felt that at this age, Li Xiaoyu should already have started primary school. “Is the place where you go to pick ragweed dangerous, is it okay for a little kid to go there?”

“It’s fine.” When he heard his question, Uncle Li laughed, and said, indifferent, “He’s been familiar with that place since he was young. Hey, when are you going to thank your Brother Lu?”

“Thank you Brother Lu.” Li Xiaoyu excitedly got up, it was clear that this little kid was very happy to receive this pocket money, and his parents weren’t against it either.

“Do you not go to school?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“It’s just in the morning.” Uncle Li waved off his concerns. “Anyways in the future he’ll just become a farmer at home, what use does going to school have. It’s not like everyone can be like you and go to university.”

Lu Qingjiu gave Li Xiaoyu two dollars, and saw him go off in high spirits, bringing along a bamboo basket and a sickle.

Watching his back slowly disappear into the distance, Lu Qingjiu felt a little complicated after hearing Uncle Li’s words, but he didn’t say anything more on the topic. In the end, this was another family’s matters, and it wouldn’t be good to butt in.

Afterwards, Lu Qingjiu took the seeds which had been soaked in warm water and planted them in the fields. This time, his didn’t plant too many of them, most of what he planted were cucumbers, tomatoes, and the like, essentially the kinds of vegetables one normally ate a lot of in their daily life, as well as a few potato tubers.

Anyways this was his first time farming, so Lu Qingjiu didn’t think too much, and just casually planted what he wanted to. According to Yin Xun, since he didn’t really care about the yield and wasn’t planning on selling his crops, then there wasn’t a need to spend all that much effort on the crops.

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Before Lu Qingjiu had finished planting even half an acre of land, the sky had already pretty much turned black. He’d started sweating quite a bit, clothes just about soaked through. He sighed, only after personally farming could he understand how every grain of rice contained the farmer’s blood, sweat and tears.

Seeing that it was getting dark, he then returned home, showered and had a change of clothes, and then placed some of the buns he’d bought yesterday to into the steamer to be steamed a little for dinner.

Just when the buns were just about done steaming, someone knocked on his front door. When Lu Qingjiu went over to check who it was, he found that Li Xiaoyu had come back from picking ragweed on the mountain. In his hands was a large basket of ragweed tied together with rope, and his face was full of smiles: “Brother Lu, I helped cut the ragweed for you, anyways since I’m free, I’ll help you also feed the pigs, okay?”

Just as Lu Qingjiu was about to refuse, he saw the kid run off towards the pigsty, even if he wanted to stop him, he couldn’t.

Helpless, Lu Qingjiu could only turn around and return to the house. He packed up a few steamed buns for the kid, and after a some thought, he then got out a bar of chocolate from his suitcase.

Lu Qingjiu took the things and went to the pigsty, before he even reached he heard Li Xiaoyi call out excitedly: “Brother Lu, this pig of yours is so cute!”

Lu Qingjiu walked over to take a look, and saw the black piglet that had been praised by Li Xiaoyu proudly puffing out its chest, an expression reading ‘Kid, you really have taste’ plastered on its face.

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Lu Qingjiu: “…” Why could he see expressions on the face of a pig.

“Can I name it?” Li Xiaoyu turned his head and looked over at Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu: “…” He thought of Yin Xun’s tragedy, but when faced with Li Xiaoyu’s hope-filled eyes, he could only think that he definitely needed to make the braised pork taste good when the time came. “Okay.”

“Your name will be Xiao Hua, then,” Li Xiaoyu pointed at the bigger pig and spoke.

Lu Qingjiu: “…” Was this fate? He tried to subtly dissuade him, “Why call him Xiao Hua? Why not some other name?”

Li Xiaoyu said: “But he has flowers on his back.” On the pig’s back was a layer of soft fluff, with a pattern like that of a squirrel, with speckles of brown and black.

Lu Qingjiu: “…” He actually was completely unable to refute him.

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Li Xiaoyu said: “You’ll be called Xiao Hei.” He also gave the smaller one a name. “You two are the cutest pigs I’ve ever seen!”

Lu Qingjiu thought, they also might be the most delicious…

Li Xiaoyu watched Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei eat their fill, their tiny stomachs swelling up, before contentedly reporting to Lu Qingjiu. He also bashfully asked if he could let him visit the next time he picked ragweed. Lu Qingjiu nodded his head in agreement, and handed over the buns and chocolate in his hands to Li Xiaoyu.

Watching the small kid skip away, Lu Qingjiu glanced over at Xiao Hua who was grooming Xiao Hei, and said, “Xiao Hei, Xiao Hua, you guys need to grow up well.”

Xiao Hua: “…” Who are you calling? Who’s f*cking called Xiao Hua?! How could an excellent male specimen like him accept such a name!

Xiao Hei: “…” What what what? What was her brother talking about? En… ragweed tastes so good, munchmunchmunch.

Xiao Hua: You’re f*cking still eating, after you get fat you’ll be the first to get slaughtered!

Xiao Hei felt extremely wronged: Brother, you’re so fierce… Also just now you clearly were also eating very happily.

Xiao Hua: Shut up! Don’t say anything more!

Lu Qingjiu who was standing next to them was naturally unable to understand the two little black pigs’ conversation, he was only able to hear a series of grunting. He simply took it as them expressing their happiness after eating. As he turned back and returned to the old house, he thought that when he had time he should definitely buy a few small chickens to raise, so the courtyard would be a little more lively…

The author has something to say:

Hahahaha the piggies are so cute, how could anyone eat them~

It’s too bad there wasn’t much food porn this chapter, but at least pictures speak a thousand words?

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Here’s some hotpot~ I usually only get to eat hotpot during Chinese New Year, sigh

Otherwise it’s too troublesome to prepare _(:3」∠)_

And here’s some steamed buns (σ･ω･)σ

Like this, they kinda look similar to xiaolongbao, huh? But see, they’re made of completely different things:

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By the way, would you guys rather I translate 哥哥 as Brother, or -gege? I translated it as Brother since I used Auntie and Uncle, but it seems a little weird to me orz