CH 59.1

translator: baumkuchen

When the artist said those words, the atmosphere in the room fell to freezing point. But the director still wasn’t willing to give up. He said, unyielding, “Didn’t you just dream about a cemetery? What if this village doesn’t even have a celebrity? This is just us scaring ourselves! Come, two of you come with me, let’s go to the end of the village with me!”

Under the pressure of the director’s stern gaze, even though everyone there was rather reluctant, two staff members took a step forward.

“No one is allowed to leave before we come back!” The director said, “If anyone leaves, I’ll pursue the charge of breach of contract!”

Jiang Buhuan was about to say something, but saw that the director was already turning to leave.

“This village is too strange.” Wu Ya stood next to Jiang Buhuan and whispered, “Why in the world did they choose to have the program filmed here?”

Jiang Buhuan said, “I don’t know……” To tell the truth, the director should originally have been a very reliable person, but he didn’t know why, after entering this village, the person’s attitude had become very strange, just like…… he’d become a different person.

The director walked along the winding village path and soon reached the end of the village, the place the artist had described.

However, the closer they got to that place, the more uneasy their mood became, because the surroundings were exactly as the artist had described them. They even saw the mill placed at the village entrance.

“Director Yan, are we really going to keep going?” One of the people who had come with the director was already a little scared now. In a trembling voice, he said, “I feel like there’s something really wrong about this village.”

The director didn’t speak, continuing to move forward with a dark expression on his face. After leaving the village, there was only one small path outside, so there was no need to fear getting lost. However, the surrounding environment was becoming more and more desolate, and the strong sense of unfamiliarity was becoming worse and worse.

Finally, after passing a sparse grove, a desolate cemetery entered their field of view. The graves were densely distributed on the small hillside. Before some graves were even left offerings and incense sticks, exactly as the artist had described it.

The two who had come with the director froze in place, not daring to move forward any longer. However, when the director saw this, he wasn’t scared, rather, he burst into swears, saying that that group of artists were all cowards, getting scared and running after just one night from a dream.

The two people behind him met gazes. In each other’s eyes, they both saw fear. The director’s state seemed incredibly off. The director was actually very good-tempered, and usually wouldn’t scold people. Comparing him to the person spewing out swears nonstop before them, inexplicably made their hairs stand on end.

The slightly more timid one couldn’t take it any longer. He spoke up, “Director Yan, let’s go back.”

Director Yan gave him a cold stare. “Go back?”

That person said in a trembling voice, “Yeah, isn’t this a cemetery? That means that Xiao Hong was telling the truth…… There really is something wrong with this village.”

Director Yan let out a strange smile. “Where do you want to go back to?”

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Even though they found Director Yan’s response a little strange, the two didn’t think too much about it, just wanting to leave this strange village as soon as possible. The strange occurrences happening in this village one after another had made them feel extremely uncomfortable. Even though they hadn’t really encountered anything as of yet, they didn’t want to stay here any longer.

The three left the cemetery and hurried back to the Liu home.

When Lu Qingjiu came out of his house, he just so happened to see the three of them hurrying off, lacking any of the calm from yesterday.

“What happened to them?” Lu Qingjiu asked, curious, “They didn’t really run into anything strange yesterday night, did they?”

Bai Yuehu was standing next to Lu Qingjiu, in his hands still grasped a hoe. He hmph-ed, clearly still very much against that group of people. That is to say, that group of utterly ignorant humans who dared to touch his crops. If they had been a group of non-humans, they might even have appeared on last night’s dinner plates.

Seeing Bai Yuehu’s expression, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but laugh. “I already met with them yesterday, they probably won’t touch your crops again.”

Bai Yuehu said, “As if they’d dare!”

Today, Lu Qingjiu was specially accompanying Bai Yuehu to the fields, afraid that that group of people wouldn’t listen to his warnings and touch Bai Yuehu’s crops again. If that time came, when the fox spirit flared up, he wouldn’t be able to stop him if he tried. If Bai Yuehu really were to run off and eat that group of people, it would probably result in a lot of trouble for them.

The crops Bai Yuehu planted all grew at an extremely impressive rate. The field next to theirs was still filled with green sprouts, while his family’s tomatoes had already fruited.

When Bai Yuehu arrived at the field, he wasn’t in a hurry to go over to his crops, rather, first sweeping his gaze over his field. In the beginning, Lu Qingjiu thought he was looking for something, but after taking a closer look, he realised Bai Yuehu was quietly counting out loud—— He was actually counting the number of tomatoes in his field!

Dumbfounded, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but laugh. He had even been wondering about how he’d noticed those people picking his vegetables so easily yesterday, since they hadn’t picked that many. He hadn’t thought that Bai Yuehu would actually remember how many of each vegetable there was growing in his field

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but want to tease him. “How many tomatoes are there?”

Bai Yuehu, “Are you asking about the ones that have ripened or all those that have budded?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Ripened.”

Bai Yuehu said, “Two hundred and forty two.” After saying this, he immediately added unhappily, “Yesterday, there were two hundred and fifty four.” In the end, that group had picked twelve of them, hmph.

Seeing Bai Yuehu’s expression, Lu Qingjiu finally couldn’t hold back any more, and began to laugh. He really felt like this petty Bai Yuehu was extremely cute, so cute that it made him want to touch Bai Yuehu’s fluffy white ears.

Bai Yuehu was bewildered by Lu Qingjiu’s laughter. He frowned slightly. “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m laughing at how cute you are,” Lu Qingjiu said.

“Cute? How am I cute?” Bai Yuehu didn’t understand how Lu Qingjiu felt.

“This is my first time seeing someone actually remember the number of crops they’re growing,” Lu Qingjiu said, smiling, “It’s really very cute.”

Bai Yuehu said, “All of my kind have to remember.” He said this as if this went without saying. “Otherwise, how will you know if they’re stolen?”

Lu Qingjiu, “Hahahahaha.”

However, today, that group hadn’t touched any more of Bai Yuehu’s vegetables. Lu Qingjiu let out a sigh of relief. Actually, he hadn’t known if the program crew would listen to his advice. If they had really angered the Bai Yuehu who was extremely protective of his food, he would have had to think of a way to disperse Bai Yuehu’s anger.

“Is there anything you need me to do?” It had been a long time since Lu Qingjiu had last been to his family’s field. Usually, it was only Bai Yuehu who serviced the crops. He rolled up his sleeves, planning on helping Bai Yuehu out a little, but saw Bai Yuehu wave a hand at him, saying, “You should go back.”

“Ah?” Lu Qingjiu was stunned for a moment.

“Go make lunch,” Bai Yuehu said, “There’s nothing you need to do here at the fields.” As he said this, he raised his hoe in a natural movement, ready to start working.

It had to be said, there was something very disconcerting about seeing Bai Yuehu, with that outrageously gorgeous face of his, carrying a hoe. But this kind of disconcert didn’t make one feel discomfited, rather, it made Lu Qingjiu’s smile involuntarily become even brighter.

When he returned to the courtyard, Yin Xun stared at Lu Qingjiu suspiciously and asked why he had such a benevolent smile on his face, it made him look just like an aged father whose son had gotten into university.

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu looked at Yin Xun. “Do you think you could get into university?”

Yin Xun, “……I don’t think that’s possible.”

Lu Qingjiu, “Ai, if you were able to get into university, then maybe my smile would have been brighter.”

Yin Xun, “……” He felt like there was something not quite right about that.

Lu Qingjiu had originally thought that it would take a few days for the program crew to decide to leave. He hadn’t expected them to be this efficient, by that afternoon, he heard the sound of a car starting up. Looking out the door, he actually saw that they’d already packed up their stuff and were ready to leave.

That celebrity who they’d seen before was standing by the side, wearing sunglasses and talking to someone on the phone with an ugly expression on his face. He seemed to notice Lu Qingjiu, his expression stiffening slightly before he directly hung up the phone and started walking over towards Lu Qingjiu.

He walked over to Lu Qingjiu’s door and pulled off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of extremely tired eyes. “Hello.”

“Hello.” Lu Qingjiu felt like since they could actually listen to advice, they could still be saved, so his attitude was a little better than before.

“We’re going to leave right away,” Jiang Buhuan said, “We’re very sorry for disturbing you before.”

“It’s nothing,” Lu Qingjiu said, “In the future, you guys should prepare a bit before trying to film such programs, at least notify the villagers beforehand.”

“En,” Jiang Buhuan said, “This time is indeed irregular…… However, can I ask why you actually pay attention to us?” Practically everyone in this village actively avoided them upon spotting them. Even if they went right up to them and asked a question, all they would receive in return was cold and wary stares. Only Lu Qingjiu had lended them some rice, and even kindly came up to them to give them a warning, but they had very rudely picked vegetables from his field in return. Thinking about it like this, Jiang Buhuan felt like his actions had been a little too much.

“Oh, that might be because I came back here from the city,” Lu Qingjiu said, “This village is really distrusting of strangers. If you want to film a program, you’d be better off going somewhere else.”

“Yeah, why did they choose a place like this?” Jiang Buhuan turned and glanced at the director, then muttered, “It really is very strange, and furthermore, we all had nightmares yesterday night.”

“Nightmares?” Lu Qingjiu asked, “What did you dream of?”

Just as Jiang Buhuan was about to reply, his manager walked over and told him that his team was about to leave. Seeing this, Jiang Buhuan could only show a regretful expression on his face, and say, “If it’s possible, let’s swap WeChat numbers, I’ll tell you more about it on WeChat.”

Lu Qingjiu readily agreed. He was very curious about what Jiang Buhuan had dreamt of.

With the equipment loaded, the group of cars slowly made their way out of Shuifu village. Lu Qingjiu saw Jiang Buhuan send a message, describing his dream from last night.

As Lu Qingjiu read Jiang Buhuan’s description of his dream, he thought of his own dream. In the dream he’d caught using the dreamcatcher, he too had heard a loud sound of water, as well as the howl of a beast. Could there be a connection between those two dreams…… Lu Qingjiu thought with a frown.

But even if he thought that, he clearly couldn’t think of the answer. Checking the time, Lu Qingjiu found that it was almost 12 o’ clock, he hadn’t even finished making lunch. He couldn’t let his family’s Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu go hungry.