translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

After talking with Old Tree for so long, Lu Qingjiu was in a very good mood. He drove the pickup truck back to Zhu Miaomiao's house. During this period of time, Zhu Miaomiao had sent him many texts, asking him about what was going on. She was scared that Lu Qingjiu and Wu Xiao would get into a fight. After all, from the looks of their builds, if they really got into a fight, Lu Qingjiu probably wouldn't come out as the winner.

Lu Qingjiu, afraid of her worrying, returned her phone call, telling her that he and Wu Xiao had already talked it out and they had no intention of fighting at all.

But Zhu Miaomiao's heart still wasn't at ease. She turned on the lights for him, waiting for Lu Qingjiu to come back.

When Lu Qingjiu arrived home, he saw Zhu Miaomiao frozen on the sofa. Upon hearing him enter, she said, dazed, "Qingjiu, you're back?"

Lu QIngjiu asked, "Why haven't you gone to bed?"

Zhu Miaomiao said, "I was worried about you getting beaten up."

Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but laugh, "I already said he wouldn't beat me up…"

Zhu Miaomiao said, "What do you mean he wouldn't? Don't you know how much he hates you? Yun-ge and I even suspected that if you were to run into him while walking alone on the road, he might put a sack over your head, take you into a secluded corner and beat you up."

Lu Qingjiu couldn't hold back his laughter. He said, "It's alright, he and I have resolved the misunderstanding between us." Thinking of how Wu Xiao had thought that he'd been spreading gossip about his problems with his chrysanthemum, it was natural that he hated him to the point of making his teeth itch.

Seeing that Lu Qingjiu really was alright, Zhu Miaomiao didn't spend any more time on this topic. She asked, "So you're already going to go back tomorrow?"

"En," Lu Qingjiu said, "I'll be going back tomorrow."

"You don't want to play around for a few more days?" Zhu Miaomiao said, "President Zhang didn't know you were back here until today. He even said he wanted to invite you to a meal."

Lu Qingjiu said, "No, I have things going on at home, I can't stay away for too long."

"Alright," Zhu Miaomiao said, "I have to go to work tomorrow, so I won't see you off."

Lu Qingjiu nodded.

He'd cleaned up his parents' graves, met some old friends, now, it was time for him to go home. Lu Qingjiu hadn't had any contact with Yin Xun for these two days, so he didn't know how it was at home. Early the next morning, he started the pickup truck and went back on the road with a trunk full of special local products.

It was still more than ten hours journey. By the time Lu Qingjiu, who left at 6 am, reached home, it was already almost 10 pm. He parked the pickup truck by the entrance to his home. Lu Qingjiu got out of the car carrying various sized  bags, opened the door, entered the courtyard and was given a shock by the two people lying in the courtyard.

Bai Yuehu was at least lying on his rocking chair, which was fine. Yin Xun had found a mat and was lying next to Bai Yuehu. In the darkness of the night, Lu Qingjiu couldn't see clearly and almost thought he was a corpse. When said corpse heard the sound of the door opening, he jumped up and rushed straight over to Lu Qingjiu, his mouth shouting, "Qingjiu, you're finally back! If you'd taken any longer, I would've died here!!"

Lu Qingjiu asked, "What happened?"

Yin Xun sobbed, "Bai Yuehu simply isn't human! The night you left, he sneakily finished everything off."

Lu Qingjiu, "…Wasn't there still the instant noodles?"

Yin Xun said, "He ate the instant noodles along with everything else!!!"

Lu Qingjiu, "…"

Next to him, Bai Yuehu, hearing Yin Xun's impa.s.sioned accusation, let out a chilly sentence, "Didn't I leave you?"

Yin Xun burst into fake sad tears.

Lu Qingjiu's head hurt from the two's clamour. He said, "Okay, okay, I brought back a lot of food for you two. Take them to stave off your hunger first while I go to the kitchen to make you guys some noodles."

Yin Xun burst into happy cheers.

Lu Qingjiu put his things away and went into the kitchen wearing his ap.r.o.n. Upon entering the kitchen, he was shocked by its sorry state. Everything he'd made in the kitchen had been eaten clean, even including a bottle of chili sauce. The fridge was empty, without even a single strand of hair.

The little fox that had originally been sleeping had also been roused awake by the noise. Chirping, it ran up to Lu Qingjiu's feet and rubbed its soft, furry head against his ankles. Lu Qingjiu bent down and patted its head, "Be good, I'll make you some minced meat in a bit."

Lu Qingjiu made two simple bowls of egg noodle soup, then pa.s.sed them to Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu. The two people scarfed it all down, not even leaving any soup behind.

After finis.h.i.+ng his noodles, Yin Xun dragged his mat home with him, satisfied. Bai Yuehu also got up from his chair. According to Yin Xun, after he'd finished eating everything Lu Qingjiu left for them, he stuck himself to the rocking chair, unable to be pulled off no matter how one pulled — of course, Yin Xun wouldn't have dared to really try to pull him off.

"Have you eaten your fill?" Lu Qingjiu wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"En," Bai Yuehu answered, "It's late, let's sleep."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Okay."

Bai Yuehu said, "You've worked hard."

Lu Qingjiu laughed and said, "What work did I do?"

The two men's gazes met. Both of them understood the look in each other's eyes. Lu Qingjiu smiled, making the corner of his eyes curl, "Goodnight."

Bai Yuehu said tenderly, "Goodnight."

He slept all the way till the next day. The chirping little fox replaced the alarm clock, calling Lu Qingjiu out of bed. Lu Qingjiu knew that they hadn't had a good meal in a good few days, Lu Qingjiu got up early, and made them sliced dough with pickled vegetables, intending to compensate them.

The dough was kneaded and sliced into pieces by him. They were placed into the soup that was made with pickled vegetables as the base. In the pickled vegetable soup, there was also the fresh slippery meat he'd personally made. The meat was coated in a layer of sweet potato starch, making it both smooth and tender. Paired with the appetizing, delicious and refres.h.i.+ng pickled vegetables, it was especially appetizing. Because the sliced dough was kneaded by him, they were very tender. Especially on this hot summer day, eating a bowl of it felt incredibly good.

After making the sliced dough, Lu Qingjiu made some minced meat for the little fox. The three people and one fox sat down in the house and began eating breakfast. Bai Yuehu was the first to finish. After he finished his meal, he went off to the fields. The hotter the weather, the harder it was to work on the crops. If one wasn't careful, the crops would dry out and die in the heat.

Lu Qingjiu called Chao Qianyu to tell him to come over and take away their surplus grapes. The grapes were all ripe and if any more time pa.s.sed, they would start falling off the vines. The three of them wouldn't be able to finish them all and just watching them rot like that was a little wasteful.

Knowing that they'd gone hungry for several days, Lu Qingjiu made a big meal full of meat for lunch. He fried up some twice-cooked pork, red braised beef, chicken salad, and shuizhu. In short, if it was a meat dish, it was there.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu were incredibly satisfied with their food. Yin Xun said that he'd made back all the blood he'd lost from hunger over the past few days.

Bai Yuehu didn't say anything, but from his expression, it could be seen that he was satisfied.

During the time when they usually had their afternoon nap, Lu Qingjiu told Bai Yuehu about Old Tree and asked him if he had any way of letting Wu Xiao hear Old Tree speak.

After hearing what he had to say, Bai Yuehu thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, there is."

"Really?" Lu Qingjiu was pleasantly surprised.

"En," Bai Yuehu said, "Just get that tree to feed that person some of its essence."

Lu Qingjiu, "…What?" He thought he heard wrongly.

"Its short form is tree essence." Seeing Lu Qingjiu's blank expression, he very patiently explained it in detail, "It's a kind of white liquid hidden in the core of the tree. If he consumes this liquid, Wu Xiao will be able to hear the tree kind speak."

Lu Qingjiu, "…"Upon hearing Bai Yuehu's explanation, Lu Qingjiu felt guilty for his perverted thoughts. "But Old Tree can't move, what then?"

Bai Yuehu said, "You should get Wu Xiao to go to Old Tree and tell him this, then just bite on the tree trunk."

Even though Wu Xiao couldn't hear Old Tree speak, Old Tree could still hear Wu Xiao speak. If Old Tree wanted to let Wu Xiao hear his voice, then he would secrete some of his essence. Wu Xiao would then become someone recognised by the tree kind, and would be able to converse with the tree kind from then on.

Lu Qingjiu hadn't thought it'd be so simple. It was just that he didn't know why Old Tree hadn't brought it up himself. Could it be that he was too embarra.s.sed to? He didn't think too much about it. After gaining his answer, he called Wu Xiao to tell him about this method.

Upon hearing about this, Wu Xiao decided to go to the park to find Old Tree after work. There was a slight hint of eagerness in his tone.

Lu Qingjiu originally thought that this would be the end of the matter, but at noon the next day, he received a call from Wu Xiao. Wu Xiao's voice was slightly hoa.r.s.e, his tone was simply as if he was crying tears of blood. He roared into the phone, "Lu Qingjiu, you're too much!"

Lu Qingjiu responded, confused, "Ah?"

Wu Xiao replied, "You… I fired you, but I apologized and was willing to give you compensation, and you set me up like this?"

Lu Qingjiu asked, "How did I set you up?" His face was full of confusion. Then, thinking about the method he'd told Wu Xiao to try, he asked, "What exactly happened? It's not serious, is it??"

Probably because his voice was too innocent, there was a thread of doubt in Wu Xiao's tone, "You really don't know? Then where did you get that method from?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "…My village's shaman told me." When he said shaman, he shot a look at Bai Yuehu, who was happily glued to his rocking chair on his own.

"Shaman??" Wu Xiao asked, "The shaman didn't say anything else?"

Lu Qingjiu asked, "Anything else? What anything else? The shaman just said that as long as you do this, you'd be able to hear tree kind speak. They didn't say anything else. What exactly happened?" He felt like something really extraordinary had happened over there, or else Wu Xiao wouldn't use such a tone to talk to him.

But after hearing Lu Qingjiu's explanation, Wu Xiao fell silent.

Lu Qingjiu prompted him quite a few times, before hearing a faint sigh from the other end. After that, Wu Xiao forced out two words from gritted teeth, "It's nothing."

Lu Qingjiu, "…" President Wu, that doesn't sound like 'nothing'.

Wu Xiao started to speak, then stopped, "I… Nevermind."

Lu Qingjiu, "…Then, can you hear the trees speak now?"

After asking this, he heard the sound of grinding teeth come from the other end of the call. He said, "Yes, I can hear them now."

Lu Qingjiu, "Oh…" Since you can hear them now, why are you so angry? Could it be that there some unantic.i.p.ated accident happened? Lu Qingjiu really wanted to ask this, but in the end, he wisely held back since Wu Xiao was in a really bad mood right now. After letting out a few curses in a low voice, he hung up the phone.

After the call was hung up, Lu Qingjiu looked at the screen of his cell phone, thought for a moment, then walked over to the still-sleeping Bai Yuehu.

"Yuehu," Lu Qingjiu called him.

Bai Yuehu opened his eyes and looked at Lu Qingjiu.

"That method of making people able to hear tree kind speak, it doesn't have any repercussions, does it?" Li Qingjiu blinked and asked a question that should have been asked yesterday.

Bai Yuehu said slowly, "Repercussions?"

Lu Qingjiu nodded.

"I guess it does," Bai Yuehu's tone was light as he spoke, "If the tree kind were to agree, the two would become partners."

Lu Qingjiu, "…"

Bai Yuehu saw Lu Qingjiu was so shocked that his jaw was about to drop. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Qingjiu finally understood the reason behind the pain in Wu Xiao's voice. Immediately, he didn't quite know whether to laugh or to cry, "Why didn't you tell me at that time…"

Bai Yuehu replied very calmly, "Because this can't be considered a repercussion."

That was true, it was marriage, how could that be considered a repercussion — Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but applaud his family's fox spirit's logic. Should he call Wu Xiao back to congratulate President Wu on his new hundred-year-old bride???

The author has something to say:

Bai Yuehu: How do you know if you should congratulate him on his new hundred-year-old bride, and not his new groom…

Lu Qingjiu: ……President Wu, I'm sorry.

Wu Xiao cried bitterly: I f.u.c.king have haemorrhoids ah ah ah ah

baum: HAHAHAHA also is it just me, or do you guys think Bai Yuehu has separation anxiety?

anyways, the t.i.tle of this chapter is kind of a pun. Part 1's t.i.tle is 樹精, which can mean tree spirit, but can also mean tree essence (and yep the essence in this chap is meant to sound like exactly what you think it sounds like heh heh) and given the second part of the t.i.tle, it can mean exchange in terms of exchange conversation, so an exchange with a tree spirit, or it can mean swap, aka an exchange of… essence ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

sliced dough in pickled vegetable soup:

slippery meat:

since you guys have seen twice-cooked pork, red braised beef and shuizhuroupian before, I'll just show the chicken salad: