CH 55.2

translator: baumkuchen

Lu Qingjiu had never found a guest so welcome before. This guest was the epitome of a timely rain, he could perfectly resolve Lu Qingjiu’s doubts. That’s right, it was the little fox’s father, Su Yan, the big fox spirit who was enchanting and charming but spoke the manly Shandong dialect.

Apparently, Su Yan had come to pick up the little fox for the New Year. There were still more than ten days before the end of the year, but he said  that he wanted to bring his son back home in advance.

Just that when he saw that his own son’s fur had been cut like that of a poodle and that he was dressed in an unfitting cropped cotton jacket and playing with two pigs, his expression twisted for a moment. Although it quickly returned to normal, Lu Qingjiu still managed to notice.

Just as Lu Qingjiu was about to apologise, he heard Su Yan say, “It’s alright, you’ve taken a lot more care of him compared to when we leave him with his grandma.”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” How miserable a life was Su Xi living before this.

Su Yan suddenly said, “Do you know why his name is Su Xi?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…Why?”

Su Yan said, “When his mother was pregnant with him, she was watching a certain cartoon.”

Lu Qingjiu understood. He said, “Could it be that he even has a friend called Su Peiqi?”

Su Yan nodded.

Lu Qingjiu almost choked on his saliva. He thought, you foxes really aren’t particular, just picking names carelessly like that. It was really hard for him to imagine what other people’s faces would look like when a peerless beauty introduced themself as Peiqi.

Little Su Xi clearly wasn’t very happy to go back. Upon seeing his dad, he lay down on the ground and stuck out his butt at him. He had learned this posture from Xiao Hua. Apparently, Dangkang used this posture to express rejection and dislike. Of course, Su Yan wasn’t a Dangkang, so seeing Su Xi do this, he got angry, picking the little fox kit up by his scruff and raging, “Who the hell did you learn that from? What are you sticking your butt out at me for? Don’t believe laozi’ll give you a kick in the ass?”

Xiao Hua, seeing his little bro being bullied, bit Su Yan’s foot and said angrily, “Put down the little fox you stinky thing, or I’ll bite you to death!”

Su Yan, “…” He was actually being bitten by a pig.

Lu Qingjiu hurriedly put this fight to an end and explained the identities of both sides. After learning that Su Yan was the little fox’s father, Xiao Hua stopped being angry, but he still expressed that family shouldn’t use curse words or violence when educating their child.

Su Yan decided to give up on quarrelling with Xiao Hua. He remained silent as he stood to the side with a gloomy expression on his face.

Lu Qingjiu hurriedly said, “Let’s go into the house, it’s cold outside.”

Su Yan smiled slightly and said, “Alright.” He was truly afraid if he stayed outside any longer, he would start fighting with a pig.

After the two entered the house, Lu Qingjiu said, “Why don’t you take off your hat? It’s covered in snow, after the snow melts it’ll get wet.” When Su Yan had come here, he had been wearing a thick fluffy hat. When other people wore this kind of hat, it would probably look rather tacky, but on him, it became fashionable. This was probably the power of a beautiful face.

Hearing this, Su Yan hesitated slightly. When he saw Lu Qingjiu didn’t have any evil intent in his gaze, he reached up and plucked the hat off of his head.

When Lu Qingjiu saw Su Yan’s head, he was stunned. Su Yan’s head was shiny and bald, his beautiful black hair from before having completely disappeared. His round head looked like a peeled, white boiled egg. Even though he was still very good looking, the problem was…

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Lu Qingjiu, “Oh…” He thought of something. Not daring to continue discussing this topic, he hurriedly changed the focus of the conversation, “Mister Su, I have something I want to ask you about.”

“What is it?” Su Yan said.

“Do foxes’ tails fall off?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“Tails?” Su Yan said, “They do fall off, but only in very special circumstances. What’s wrong? Did a fox lose their tails in front of you?”

Lu Qingjiu of course couldn’t tell him about Bai Yuehu’s tails falling off. He could only say something vague about how he had a friend who’d come across something like this. He carefully asked Su Yan about under what circumstances a fox’s tails would fall off.

“When a fox is about to die, their tails will fall off,” Su Yan said.

The moment Lu Qingjiu heard this, he was stunned. “What?”

Su Yan replied, “What’s wrong?"

“Only when a fox is about to die will their tails fall off?” Lu Qingjiu asked, panicked, “What happens after they fall off? Will the tails still be warm?”

“They’ll still be warm. The tails can be preserved by another method, they can be considered as another kind of bones,” Su Yan said, “You didn’t really see that happen, did you? Foxes’ tails contain their soul and primordial spirit, so they usually won’t display them in front of other people, unless they really trust you, and see you as a close friend… Lu Qingjiu?”

Lu Qingjiu wasn’t feeling very well. He thought back to how Bai Yuehu’s face had looked that night, and trembled. If Su Yan wasn’t lying, then Bai Yuehu really was in trouble. Actually, he had always doubted whether Bai Yuehu really was a fox, but those nine fluffy tails had been irrefutable evidence. Now, those tails had suddenly fallen off…

Lu Qingjiu let out a bitter laugh.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu’s expression become worse and worse, Su Yan hurriedly comforted him, “Being born, growing old, getting sick, and dying is the natural state of this world, there’s no need to be too concerned, a foxes’ tails falling off shows that that fox is dying of old age, their passing won’t be too painful…”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Thank you, I understand.”

Su Yan said, “Then I’ll be going first. I wish Mister Lu a Happy New Year in advance.”

“A Happy New Year to you too,” Lu Qingjiu replied.

Just as Su Yan finished speaking and stood up, Yin Xun, who had gone out for some matters, returned. He loudly pushed open the door and entered. After coming into the house, he saw Su Yan. As he pulled off his cloak to shake off the snow that had accumulated on it, he said, “Oh, an infrequent visitor. Mister Su, you’re already leaving?”

Su Yan didn’t speak. His eye were glued to Yin Xun’s cloak.

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Sure enough, he had guessed right.

Yin Xun had no idea of what had happened, so when he saw Su Yan staring at the beautiful, snow-white fur cloak, he just thought that Su Yan was someone who knew what’s what and introduced happily, “Is Mister Su looking at this cloak? My friend bought it in a shopping mall in the city. Usually, it’d be really expensive, but they gave it a discount during the sales promotion period, so it was about three thousand.”

This was what Lu Qingjiu had just casually told Yin Xun. He hadn’t thought that Yin Xun would be this obedient, actually remembering every word.

Su Yan, “How much?”

Yin Xun, “Three thousand!”

Standing behind Su Yan, Lu Qingjiu could even hear the sound of Su Yan grinding his teeth. Looking at Su Yan’s shiny, bald head, he felt incredibly awkward. He silently shifted his gaze, pretending to be looking at the scenery.

“Fine, three thousand.” Su Yan clearly had a lot of things he wanted to say, but in the end, he only choked this one lone sentence out of his mouth. Following that, he turned and left, not looking back.

Yin Xun didn’t at all understand what had happened. Frightened by Su Yan’s expression, he said in a small voice, “Why was Mister Su’s expression so ferocious? Did he think I was showing off my wealth? I’ve just never worn clothes worth three thousand yuan before, so after finally meeting someone who knows what’s what, I just told him everything out of happiness…”

Lu Qingjiu didn’t speak. He simply gave his good friend a heavy pat on the shoulder and let out a long sigh.

Being told that Su Yan’s coat of snow white fur was only worth three thousand yuan, him not cursing on the spot in anger already made Lu Qingjiu feel like he was an incredibly cultured person.

Su Yan had brought the little fox spirit away with him. In the end, he had still said that after the new year was over, he would send him back. Lu Qingjiu didn’t know why he was so persistent about leaving his son here, and from his conversation with Bai Yuehu from before, he seemed to even have paid some price for it…

After Su Yan left, the house became quiet.

Thinking back to what he had said just now, about the reason behind fox spirits’ tails falling off, he started feeling uneasy once more. Next to him, Yin Xun was eating roasted sweet potato strips. Seeing Lu Qingjiu’s expression wasn’t right, he asked, “Jiu-er, what’s wrong, why do you look like there’s something weighing on you?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “I have something I want to talk to Bai Yuehu about.”

Yin Xun stopped mid-bite of his sweet potato strips. His eyes widened. “You’re… planning on telling him?” Could it be that Lu Qingjiu had realised his own feelings and was planning on confessing to Bai Yuehu? But Bai Yuehu’s race didn’t treat their lovers very well, their favourite thing to do, was to put all their most loved things in their stomachs…

Lu Qingjiu said, “Yes, I’m going to ask.” He felt that no matter what the truth was, he at least needed to know whether Bai Yuehu really was in a bad physical condition. Before something happened, he could at least have some mental preparation, so he didn’t need to be hit as hard as he had been with the death of his family.

“But, you…” Yin Xun wanted to advise Lu Qingjiu against it, but he didn’t know how to say it. He said, “Have you really thought it through? There might be death?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “It’s because there might be a death, that I have to ask.” So it turned out that Yin Xun also knew about this. He’d just pretended to be confused because he wasn’t willing to make him sad. Could it be that Bai Yuehu really was going to…

Yin Xun was shaken by Lu Qingjiu’s determination. As a mountain god, he’d actually seen a lot of births and deaths, whether it was of other animals or human beings. At this moment, however, he was touched by Lu Qingjiu’s temperament of being unmoved even in the face of death. He said, “Alright, go. No matter how it ends, I’ll do my best to help you. But I have to be there when you say it!” At least before Bai Yuehu swallowed Lu Qingjiu, he could help buy him some time!

Lu Qingjiu said, “Alright.”

After the two of them reached a consensus, their expressions were both particularly heavy. Lu Qingjiu was thinking about what was wrong with Bai Yuehu’s body, while Yin Xun was thinking about how being able to become good friends with Lu Qingjiu was truly one of his life’s fortunes, but everyone had their own path to walk, he couldn’t make Lu Qingjiu’s choices for him.

The wind outside was a little strong, but Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun hadn’t closed the door. They were both staring past the vast curtain of snow, looking into the distance.

When Bai Yuehu came back, he brought with him a fresh Conglong. The Conglong had been skinned, and because of the cold, its blood had already frozen on its body. When Bai Yuehu walked into the courtyard, he was a little shocked to find that the door to the house hadn’t been closed. He walked over, closing the door behind him, and asked, “What happened?”

Lu Qingjiu opened and closed his mouth. He said, “Su Yan took Su Xi back with him.”

“Oh.” Bai Yuehu nodded, not very interested in this matter. He said, “Let’s have charcoal roasted ribs tonight. They’re really delicious.”

Lu Qingjiu finally gathered up his courage and decided to find out the truth from Bai Yuehu. He asked, “Do you like eating my food?”

Hearing this, next to him, Yin Xun nervously gripped his pants. He knew, the most important question was coming, this was the preparation of Lu Qingjiu revealing his feelings!

Bai Yuehu, seeing the heavy expressions on both people’s faces, was stunned for a moment. He nodded. “En?”

Lu Qingjiu took a deep breath. Next to him, Yin Xun gathered his strength and got ready just in case Bai Yuehu suddenly made things difficult. Then, he heard his good friend who had always been very reliable say both solemnly and seriously, “Then why didn’t you tell me that you’re about to die.”

Bai Yuehu, “Huh?”

Yin Xun, “Huh????”

Lu Qingjiu said, “I asked Su Yan about it just now, he said that when fox spirits’ tails fall off, it’s a sign that they’re about to die— Fuck, Yin Xun, can you stop squeezing my hand? You’re going to squeeze it off!”

Yin Xun was deathly alarmed. “Weren’t you going to confess to Bai Yuehu???”

Lu Qingjiu, “What what what? What are you talking about??”

Yin Xun, “…” Fuck, it turns out that the one who’s going to die wasn’t Lu Qingjiu, it’s him!! If fucking Bai Yuehu was really going to let out his anger, he definitely wouldn’t be willing to eat Lu Qingjiu! If he was going to eat anyone, it’d be him!

Yin Xun shrieked, “Lu Qingjiu you pit-digger!”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” What was Yin Xun, this rabbit brat, going crazy over now? Just now he’d even said he was going to be the solid shield at his back, why was it that now he collapsed at the first blow and immediately defected to the enemy’s side?!