CH 8

…I want both

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells, sora harukawa

That’s right, the originally almost bald head of Witch He had suddenly sprouted a head of long, thick locks; beautifully shiny, just like the hair you’d see in shampoo commercials on TV.

“Other than growing hair, have you suffered any after-effects?” After all, this was his well, so if something bad happened to Witch He, Lu Qingjiu was obliged to ask. Even though no matter how you looked at it, this was the result of Witch He’s lack of skill…

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“No,” Witch He replied, “If there were any other after-effects, how would I have been able to drag my old bones all the way here?”

“Then did you notice anything weird after you went back?” Lu Qingjiu could only continue to throw out questions.

“Anything weird?” Witch He thought for a moment, before saying in a small voice, “After I got back, I made some chicken soup. The chicken soup seemed to have tasted a little different from usual.”

Lu Qingjiu: “…”

Yin Xun: “…”

The two of them fell into a stunned silence, both thinking of how back then, Witch He had solemnly told them that chickens that had been used as sacrifices could not be eaten.

“You really ate the chicken?” Yin Xun asked a little bitterly, “What was the difference between that chicken and the usual ones?”

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Witch He: “Well… it seemed especially fragrant.”

Yin Xun: “…Are you showing off?”

Seeing Yin Xun’s face full of grievance, Lu Qingjiu quickly changed the topic, asking Witch He if she felt uncomfortable anywhere. Witch He expressed that she hadn’t so far, but she still needed a few more days of observation. Lu Qingjiu let her know to come find him if anything else happened. In order to console her heart that had been harmed by this head of black hair, he could only send her half a kilo of pork for her to eat for lunch.

Witch He left contented, but Yin Xun was incredibly depressed, feeling like he’d both given away a bride and lost an army.

Lu Qingjiu didn’t bother with him and just quietly entered the house. He woke up the still-sleeping Bai Yuehu, and told him about what had happened with the witch.

Bai Yuehu gave a small yawn, his beautiful phoenix eyes inching open, and lazily said: “It’s nothing, it won’t kill her.”

“It really won’t kill her?” Lu Qingjiu asked, “Didn’t you say that the well still has some remnants of will or something? Are those remnants harmful to humans?”

Bai Yuehu flipped over. He propped up his chin with a fist to stare at Lu Qingjiu: “Is long hair considered harmful?”

Oe Hlcuple: “Rbqf.”

“Ktfc la’r tjgwifrr,” gfqilfv Djl Tefte.

Oe Hlcuple “bt”-fv, jcv ifa bea j rlut bo gfilfo. Djl Tefte kjr wemt wbgf gfiljyif atjc Qlamt Lf. Vlcmf tf rjlv atfgf kbeivc’a yf jcs qgbyifwr, atfc atfgf rtbeivc’a yf jcs qgbyifwr. Dfrlvfr, ugbklcu j tfjv bo ibcu tjlg mbeivc’a yf mbcrlvfgfv j cfujalnf joafg-foofma. Ktlcxlcu bo rbwf bo tlr mbiifjuefr, lo atfs xcfk atja joafg pera j yla bo kbgrtlq atfs’v yf jyif ab ugbk j oeii tfjv bo ibcu, atlmx, yijmx tjlg, tf’r jogjlv atja atfs’v lwwfvljafis gert bnfg tfgf, mgslcu jcv rmgfjwlcu.

After a brief period of shock and fear, Witch He found that the hair didn’t come with any side effects and gradually relaxed. She was a little embarrassed by how she’d had to find Lu Qingjiu to ask about it. After all, she’d been paid to come solve a problem, but ended up causing even more problems instead of solving it. If this leaked out, it would completely ruin her reputation.

After that, Lu Qingjiu didn’t see Witch He for a time until he went to town to stock up on supplies with Yin Xun and saw Witch He holding hands and walking down the street together with an old man, looking sweet and happy. When he returned to the village to ask around, he found out that Witch He no longer worked as a witch.

“Aiyo, you haven’t heard? She went to some place for hair transplants and got a full head of black hair, it’s so eye catching. Then, she met this widowed old man from the neighbouring village. After getting married, she stopped doing exorcisms…” the gossipy auntie jabbered, “I really don’t know where she got her hair done, it looks so good.”

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Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu immediately looked to the side, guilty.

About a month after the exorcism, Lu Qingjiu finally found out what exactly had happened with the well through the local news.

A year ago, a girl and her boyfriend came out here for a holiday. Due to an argument that occured, the boyfriend ended up murdering her and dumped her corpse into Lu Qingjiu’s well. Afterwards, the boyfriend disappeared. Because the two lived very far from here, despite the police’s suspicions that the boyfriend might have been the murderer, they couldn’t look into it due to the lack of a corpse. Then, half a year later, the man suddenly resigned from his job and returned here once again. Nobody knew why he came back here. His colleagues only knew that he acted strangely for a period of time. His hair was constantly falling out, and after just a month, he’d become completely bald. At the time, they’d even thought that the man had gotten some kind of severe illness.

After returning here, the man wasn’t ever able to leave again. Officially, he was said to have been overcome by guilt and committed suicide by jumping into the well. But the police and LU Qingjiu both knew full well that the true fact of the matter hadn’t been that simple. However, since the murderer was also dead, and the corpses had all been found, the case was now considered closed.

Only, during festivals, Lu Qingjiu would place a bowl of rice on the mouth of the well with a few sticks of incense stuck into it as a memorial to the female ghost who was particularly attached to her hair.

Spring came around and the temperature was slowly rising. There had been quite a bit of rain the past few days, so Yin Xun kicked up a fuss, wanting to go to the mountain to pick mushrooms.

Lu Qingjiu said: “Are you still aiming for my chicks?”

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Yin Xun put up his last stand: “I bought my own chicks!”

“But I don’t know how to recognise edible mushrooms,” Lu Qingjiu mused, “What if we accidentally pick a poisonous one…”

Yin Xun cocked a grin, his tiger tooth shining brightly in the light of the sun. He patted his chest, and vowed: “No problem, I can recognise them!”

“You really can tell them apart?” Lu Qingjiu stared at him doubtfully.

“I really can,” Yin Xun replied, “Aiya, just pick the ones I recognize as edible. If I don’t know them then we can just not pick them.”

That worked. Lu Qingjiu agreed to Yin Xun’s suggestion. Before heading up the mountain, Lu Qingjiu gave Bai Yuehu a heads up, and told him that there wouldn’t be any lunch today so he could go get beef noodles in the village.

Bai Yuehu replied: “You’re going up the mountain?”

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“En,” Lu Qingjiu replied, “Yin Xun really wants to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms. Didn’t it just rain this morning? I was thinking of picking some mushrooms to make chicken stew, they would definitely taste good together.”

Originally, Bai Yuehu didn’t seem to approve of Lu Qingjiu going up the mountain, but the moment he heard the two words “chicken stew”, Lu Qingjiu clearly saw his eyes brighten. He replied: “I’ll go up with you two then.”

That’s right, didn’t all foxes love eating chicken? How’d he forget that? Thinking of this, Lu Qingjiu didn’t have any other qualms, immediately agreeing: “Alright, if you want.”

Thus, the three of them packed their stuff, brought along lunch and a basket each and set off towards the woods. Shuifu village was very remote, completely surrounded by dense forest. Once in a while, one would even be able to see the silhouettes of animals within. Because it had just rained that morning, the ground was very slippery and the air was filled with the damp scent of wet soil and trees. It smelt rather sweet, letting people feel the refreshingness of spring.

Leading out of the village was a little trail, winding its way through the thick forest. Lu Qingjiu carried along his basket and observing the ground as he walked. After a while, he notice that a bunch of freshly sprouted white mushrooms were in the grass next to the path.

“Mushrooms!” As someone who had never seen wild mushrooms before, Lu Qingjiu was incredibly excited.

“Those mushrooms are inedible.” Who knew that Yin Xun would just give them a quick glance, before taking back his gaze. He replied, “The caps of these mushrooms are a dark yellow, they’re poisonous.”

Lu Qingjiu: “Oh… Then what kind of mushrooms are edible?”

Yin Xun replied: “The more plain-looking the better. Aiya, mushrooms are more bountiful in summer and autumn. Last year, my neighbour managed to bring back a lot.”

“Did he eat all of them?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“Yeah, all of them,” Yin Xun said, “Right now the grass on his grave is already more than five meters tall.”

Lu Qingjiu: “…” You should stop talking.

As the three people walked further and further into the forest, they finally found a big patch of white mushrooms at the roots of a giant ancient tree. After a quick check, Yin Xun proclaimed them edible. Next to him, Bai Yuehu, who’d remained quiet the entire time, nodded his head in agreement.

Lu Qingjiu put down his basket, bent down and began to pick mushrooms seriously. Picking mushrooms required some technique, you couldn’t break them off at the stem or else the mushrooms would lose freshness faster. You needed to dig them out from the ground, keeping the roots intact. Also, you couldn’t pick them all, or else there would be none to pick next year.

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There were a lot of mushrooms, so before long, the baskets they’d brought along were filled to the brim. Yin Xun said: “Let’s go, time to go home.”

Lu Qingjiu nodded. He stood up, carrying his basket, and walked two steps forward before his foot sank into a deep puddle.

“F*ck,” Lu Qingjiu had been given a shock, “How is there a puddle here?”

“Water?” Yin Xun looked over, a doubtful look on his face, “That wasn’t there before, was it?”

“I didn’t notice it…” Lu Qingjiu replied, “It looks so strange.”

If it had been an ordinary pool of water formed in a dip in the ground, it wouldn’t been a big deal, but the problem was that the area Lu Qingjiu had stepped on was flat ground. The flat ground was littered with fallen leaves, yet this puddle had somehow simply appeared in a pile of leaves. The fallen leaves inside were completely soaked while the other fallen leaves around them were completely dry.

Lu Qingjiu casually picked up a pebble and threw it at the puddle. Seeing the pebble disappear among the leaves and into the puddle with a “plop”, his eyes grew wide. By the noise the pebble made when it fell into the water, it could be assumed that this puddle was actually very deep.

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“What is this, is it a hole?” Lu Qingjiu looked towards Bai Yuehu for answers.

“It’s not a hole.” Bai Yuehu’s voice was soft. “It’s a kind of animal.” He paused for a moment before solemnly adding, “It doesn’t taste very good.”

Lu Qingjiu: “…” Your priorities seem to be a little off.

The author has something to say:

Lu Qingjiu: Do you like chicken?

Bai Yuehu: It’s so-so.

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Lu Qingjiu: Yi? Don’t all foxes love eating chicken?

Bai Yuehu: ……I retract my earlier statement, actually I really like chicken.

Lu Qingjiu: Oh…