translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

In Lu Qingjiu's imagination, Bai Yuehu should be a fox spirit with divine poise and sage-like features, disdaining from the consumption of mortal foods and disdaining from partic.i.p.ating in worldly disputes.

It was only after living with Bai Yuehu for some time did Lu Qingjiu realise that the main reason behind Bai Yuehu not wanting to partic.i.p.ate in most things was laziness. And now, there was yet another reason… Poverty.

Because he was too lazy to go earn the money humans used, Bai Yuehu had nothing on him. Because he had nothing on him, he couldn't even afford to buy xiaolongbao to eat. He could only resentfully eat stuff like big geckos, wenyao, living a miserable existence where he couldn't even have warm meals.

Should… should he say that Bai Yuehu was pitiful? After Lu Qingjiu thought it over, his mood immediately became complex. Wenyao, this kind of thing that only existed in myths, a delicacy that an ordinary person could never hope to eat in their lifetime, became something disgusting in Bai Yuehu's eyes. Right, no matter how good something tasted, after eating it for a hundred, a thousand years, it would probably become boring and bland.

Looking at Bai Yuehu, who had already given himself short hair, sitting down in the rocking chair and beginning to rock once more, Lu Qingjiu thought of a joke Zhu Miaomiao always said — I originally could have had a really happy life, it's all the fault of my lack of money.

At that thought, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh. Hearing his laughter, Bai Yuehu turned and looked at Lu Qingjiu "What are you laughing about?"

Lu Qingjiu hid his smile. "Nothing, I just wanted to ask what you wanted to eat tonight?"

Bai Yuehu said, "Anything's fine."

Lu Qingjiu thought about how they met. He said, "Do you want to eat xiaolongbao? If you want to, then I'll go to town and buy some for you."

When it came to delicious food, Bai Yuehu had always been very easygoing, so he said, "Anything's fine."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Alright, I'll make a pot of porridge first, you can help me watch the flames. Yin Xun, why don't you come with me."

Yin Xun who had remained very quiet since coming back nodded in agreement.

They walked out of the house and went to the pickup truck, but after Yin Xun got on he seemed a little restless. Lu Qingjiu asked, "What's wrong?"

Yin Xun pointed at the seat below his b.u.t.t and said, "This is a slug, which part of it are we sitting on?"

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He could only give Yin Xun a few words of comfort, saying that it wasn't like slugs had limbs, wasn't it all the same no matter which part of its body it was? But Lu Qingjiu had noticed that ever since he saw Bai Yuehu on the mountain, Yin Xun had been in a strange mood. Lu Qingjiu asked him what was wrong, but he wasn't willing to say, only randomly making up a few excuses. So Lu Qingjiu had no choice but to go along with him.

Yin Xun, this guy, had strong nerves. He reckoned that he'd be fine in a couple of days.

The dumping shop in town was open from morning to past 8pm. It only sold xiaolongbao and nothing else. They tasted especially good, to the point that there were people who specifically came to the city just to eat their xiaolongbao.

But Lu Qingjiu had only eaten them once, it was that meal which he had invited Bai Yuehu to eat.

"Why did you suddenly think of buying him dumplings?" Yin Xun twisted around in the pickup truck.

"Isn't it because you weren't comfortable at home?" Lu Qingjiu grasped the steering wheel, looking ahead. "And when I asked you what was wrong you weren't willing to say."

Yin Xun scratched his head, a little apologetic. "Actually it's not that I don't want to tell you, but I just can't express that feeling. It was like… it was my body's most instinctive reaction." When he saw the Bai Yuehu who was clad in black robes, a kind of inexplicable fear had sprung up from the depths of his heart. That fear had been very sudden, and even he couldn't find its source, much less explain it to Lu Qingjiu.

Lu Qingjiu didn't insist on him elaborating further, shrugging his shoulders and simply changing the topic away from what made Yin Xun feel uncomfortable.

After they drove to town, they went straight to the dumpling shop. When the owner heard Lu Qingjiu say that he wanted two hundred dumplings, he smiled so widely that his eyes curved, and told Lu Qingjiu to come back in an hour to pick up his order.

Lu Qingjiu paid, then went with Yin Xun to a nearby teahouse. They ordered two cups of tea and sat down to rest and chat.

"Ai, actually, the richest person in this house is you," Yin Xun said to Lu Qingjiu, "To tell the truth, Bai Yuehu and I are about the same, we're both incredibly poor…"

Lu Qingjiu asked, "You're also poor?? Aren't you a mountain G.o.d??"

Yin Xun said, "Don't say anymore, before you came I didn't even have a warm meal."

Lu Qingjiu, "…" What kind of days were the two of you living?

As they talked, a man came up to them from the side of the road. After walking up to them, he sat down opposite Lu Qingjiu without any hesitation.

This person looked very young, probably only in his twenties. He looked very handsome, but his cold and arrogant aura made people feel uncomfortable.

Upon seeing him, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun stopped talking. They exchanged a look, each seeing surprise in the other's eyes. Clearly, neither of them knew him.

"What's your name?" The young man looked at Yin Xun. His tone was somewhat stiff and the look in his eyes was very unfriendly.

Yin Xun was startled by his aggressive question. "Who are you? I don't think I know you?"

"I'm a police officer." The young man drew out his identification from his pocket and waved it in front of the two.

His ID indeed showed that the young man was a police officer named Pang Ziqi. It was just that him inexplicably running up to them with such a poor att.i.tude like this made it very hard for Lu Qingjiu to be friendly towards him. His tone cooled, "Officer Pang, I don't think we've done anything? I don't understand why you, Officer Pang, have such an att.i.tude?"

Pang Ziqi glanced at Lu Qingjiu. He ignored his words, reached out a hand and tapped the table before Yin Xun. "I'm asking you, what's your name?"

"Me?" Having been targeted by a police officer for some inexplicable reason, Yin Xun was a little unhappy. He said, "My name is Yin Xun. May I ask what business you have with me?"

"Where do you live?" Pang Ziqi then asked.

Yin Xun was angered by his impolite questioning. He slammed his hand on the table. "What does your tone mean? Are you questioning a criminal?"

Pang Ziqi, however, laughed at Yin Xun's anger. He said, "Since you haven't done anything, why do you need to fear telling me where you live?"

Yin Xun, "Even if you're a police officer, don't you need a reason to interrogate people? You suddenly coming up and asking questions like this, aren't you being a little too impolite?"

Pang Ziqi said, "I'm only polite to humans."

These words of his sounded like he was insulting him, but thinking about it carefully, it seemed to have some other meaning. Lu Qingjiu's and Yin Xun's expressions froze for a moment. Then Yin Xun glared and responded angrily, "Officer Pang, what are you trying to say? Are you trying to insult me as not being human?"

Just as Pang Ziqi was about to reply, a pair of hands pressed down on his shoulders from behind. Following that, a helpless voice rang out, it was Lu Qingjiu's old acquaintance, Officer Hu Shu, "Sorry, sorry, we've disturbed you two."

Hu Shu was in casual clothes. He stood behind Pang Ziqi, a bitter smile on his face. "This is my new colleague from the police station…"

"He said I wasn't human." Yin Xun suppressed his unease to the bottom of his heart and purposely acted angry.

"Ai, sorry, sorry, the kid's new," Hu Shu said, "Don't trouble yourself with him."

Hearing this, Pang Ziqi unhappily wrested out of Hu Shu's grip, standing up and saying, "Who are you calling a kid?"

Hu Shu said, "You, of course."

Pang Ziqi replied, "Aren't you not much older than I am?"

Hu Shu shrugged, "One year older is still older."

Pang Ziqi seemed to be a little unhappy. He pointed at Lu Qingjiu. "You know him?"

"Yes." Hu Shu nodded. "The case from before was dealt with with his help."

Upon hearing this, Pang Ziqi looked Lu Qingjiu up and down, consideration in his gaze. He said, "You live with him?" He was naturally talking about Yin Xun.

"We're from the same village," Lu Qingjiu replied.

"If you also know about those kinds of things, then you should also know that there's an ominous air about you, right?" Pang Ziqi's words were shocking.

"Ominous? Why do you say that?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"It's the air of a savage beast." When Pang Ziqi said the word "beast", he shot Yin Xun a look. "Wild beasts are wild beasts, even if they disguise themselves as humans, once they are agitated, they'll show their ferocity. When that time comes, it'll be too late to regret."

Lu Qingjiu said, "You have a lot of experience, huh."

Pang Ziqi sneered. "Experience is built on the lives of our predecessors." He still wanted to say more, but saw Lu Qingjiu motion for him to stop.

Lu Qingjiu's tone was mild, but anyone could hear the steeliness in his words. "Officer Pang, thank you for your advice, but I'm very clear on my own matters. I don't need anyone else to help me make my decisions."

Pang Ziqi stared at Lu Qingjiu for a moment. He said coldly, "I hope so." 

Lu Qingjiu didn't want to speak any further with him. He called Yin Xun to him and left. Pang Ziqi didn't try to stop them, but that unfriendly gaze remained unwavering. It was unknown what he was thinking.

Yin Xun was very unhappy hearing what Pang Ziqi had said, muttering that Pang Ziqi, this person, really didn't know how to speak, what wild beast or whatever, he was just a pitiful, weak, and poor mountain G.o.d…

Lu Qingjiu said helplessly, "Have you not considered that the savage beast Pang Ziqi was talking about might not be you?"

Yin Xun responded, "That… Wait, you're saying that he was talking about Bai Yuehu?"

Lu Qingjiu, "There's a high chance." Bai Yuehu was much more suited to being described as a "wild beast" than Yin Xun.

Yin Xun sighed. "Regardless, I really hate this kind of person."

Lu Qingjiu remained silent. The two of them walked over to the entrance to the dumpling shop from the teahouse and asked the owner to pack up their dumplings, casually throwing a few looks over at the teahouse while they were at it.

After they left, Pang Ziqi and Hu Shu had sat down where they originally sat, the two of them seemingly locked in a fierce debate. Even though they were somewhat far away, Lu Qingjiu could still see Hu Shu agitatedly slam on the table while Pang Ziqi met him t.i.t for tat.

Lu Qingjiu watched for a while, but felt like there was something not quite right.

Yin Xun was, after all, non-human, and was more sensitive than he was. He wondered out loud, "Yi, that's strange. Who is that person beside Pang Ziqi?"