translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

No matter what it was, whenever anything became smaller, it would become cuter. After being shrunk, the originally terrifying Rain Master's Concubine who sat on Pang Ziqi's shoulder with a face full of unhappiness actually looked a little cute… Of course, it was just a little.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu enter the room, Pang Ziqi stopped arguing and greeted them.

"How are you feeling now?" Lu Qingjiu casually took a seat and asked him.

"Me? I'm feeling great now," Pang Ziqi said, "If not for the fact that there's been no news from the higher-ups, I might even suspect that her corpse has already been disposed of." He was also a person with a sixth sense, even though he couldn't see the Rain Master's Concubine, he could still feel a little something. Since last night, he felt like this body had become a lot lighter, as if that weight that had been constantly been pressing down on him had lifted.

At the time, Pang Ziqi thought it was a misconception. It was only until the next morning did he finally confirm that this feeling was indeed true.

Lu Qingjiu "oh"-ed. He didn't bring up what had happened to the corpse, simply telling Pang Ziqi that he couldn't see the Rain Master's Concubine next to him anymore.

"You can't see it? Really?" Pang Ziqi said, "They're currently preparing to go back down into the tomb."

"Tell them not to go," Lu Qingjiu said, "I don't feel the curse anymore." Even though the Rain Master's Concubine's body had already been eaten by Bai Yuehu, he was a little afraid that if that group of people went back into the tomb, they might trigger another thing and cause a new disaster.

Pang Ziqi asked, doubtful, "You really can't see her?"

"Can't see her," Lu Qingjiu replied frankly.

Pang Ziqi said, "Alright then, I'll send them the news. If I'm really fine now, then there's no need for them to go anymore."

Lu Qingjiu nodded.

The two of them sat in the hospital ward for a while before deciding to get up and leave. Before leaving, Lu Qingjiu found a random excuse to reach out and pat Pang Ziqi on the shoulder, grabbing the chibi Rain Master's Wife that had been sitting on Pang Ziqi's shoulder and glaring with an unhappy expression in pa.s.sing, then left with Yin Xun as if nothing had happened. Yin Xun naturally saw Lu Qingjiu's actions. When he saw Lu Qingjiu grab the Rain Master's Concubine, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, just barely managing to hold in his shout. As soon as they left the ward, he asked, horrified, "Qingjiu, what did you bring that out for?"

Lu Qingjiu opened his fist. A tiny Rain Master's Concubine appeared on his palm, spitting out a ma.s.s of words Lu Qingjiu couldn't understand. From her expression, she should be swearing at him. In response to this, Lu Qingjiu was completely calm. He said, "Leaving this thing by Pang Ziqi's side isn't safe. Who knows if she'll get bigger. It's best if we bring her back to Bai Yuehu."

Yin Xun asked, "Bring her back to Bai Yuehu for him to eat?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Not necessarily to eat, maybe he'll have some other way of dealing with her."

Yin Xun thought for a moment. He felt like what Lu Qingjiu said made sense. So, he daringly reach out his finger and poked the Rain Master's Concubine in Lu Qingjiu's hand. With this poke, the Rain Master's Concubine was knocked off her feet, falling back onto Lu Qingjiu's palm. She stared at Yin Xun disbelievingly. Within moments, her pupiless eyes filled with tears. Unexpectedly, she burst into sobs.

Lu Qingjiu, "…" He silently gave Yin Xun a look.

Yin Xun, "…f.u.c.k, it wasn't on purpose. Why did she start crying, I really didn't use any strength."

Lu QIngjiu said, "You made her cry, you deal with it." Saying this, he handed the Rain Master's Wife over to Yin Xun.

Yin Xun clumsily received the Rain Master's Concubine. With a face full of helplessness, he said, "f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, I really didn't mean to, what do I do?"

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment. He dug out the pickup truck's favourite fruit candy from his pocket, pulled out an apple flavoured one and placed it by the side of the Rain Master's Concubine's mouth. In the beginning, the Rain Master's Concubine was unwilling to eat, then a corner of the soft candy was shoved into her mouth. Only then did she stop sobbing. She reached out and grabbed the candy and began to chew as she sniffled.

Yin Xun kept his hands stiff. With a trembling voice, he said, "If, if I used strength, would I be able to accidentally squeeze her to death?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "You won't, she's not that delicate. You can just put her in your jacket pocket."

Yin Xun still felt a little uneasy. He was afraid that if he placed her in his pocket, he might accidentally squish her to death. At this moment, Yin Xun had actually forgotten that just a few days ago, he had been hoping that the Rain Master's Concubine would die a little sooner… Humans were truly changeable creatures.

After visiting Pang Ziqi, Lu Qingjiu bought a large electric oven in the city along with a lot of tinfoil and molds. He also bought the ingredients necessary for making mooncakes, planning on making mooncakes the day after he got back.

When shopping together with Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu always felt as if he was bringing along a child, just that this child was especially obedient. Whenever he wanted to eat something, he would never dare to say it and would just stare at it pitifully. Upon noticing his gaze, Lu Qingjiu would take the item down and place it in his shopping cart. When he saw this, Yin Xun would then become a little happy, showing that white tiger tooth peeking out from between his lips. He really was like an easily appeased little kid.

Yin Xun had lived in Shuifu village since he was small. When he was young he couldn't leave, and after he grew up he was still limited by poverty. Before Lu Qingjiu came back, he practically never went to the city, much less buy things in the city.

Lu Qingjiu's current financial status was very good. He had only spent a small amount of the tens of thousands of yuan Zhang Chuyang had given him, and Zhu Miaomiao had recently told him she had a new idea to help Lu Qingjiu generate income. As for the details of how to do it, she would come over and tell Lu Qingjiu about it during the holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After buying a big bag of snacks and all kinds of ingredients, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went back to the pickup truck, entirely satisfied.

After getting onto the truck, Yin Xun checked his jacket pocket and saw that the Rain Master's Concubine had already fallen asleep inside. She had only eaten half of the soft fruit candy, but even though she hadn't finished it, she still hugged it tightly to herself, looking as if she was afraid of someone taking it away from her.

Yin Xun said, "She's really cute."

Lu Qingjiu asked, "Cute?"

Yin Xun said, "Cute."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Imagine for a moment what she'll look like when she returns to a normal human size."

Yin Xun, "…" He shuddered and silently closed his jacket pocket. He was better off not thinking about it, the moment he thought of how she had looked with her chin placed on Pang Ziqi's shoulder, he would break out into full body gooseb.u.mps.

After returning home, the first thing Lu Qingjiu did was to take the chibi Rain Master's Concubine over to show to Bai Yuehu. Who knew that the moment the Rain Master's Concubine saw Bai Yuehu, she would break into sobs, yet not daring to cry out, so frightened her entire body was trembling.

Bai Yuehu, probably thinking about how she tasted, frowned upon seeing her.

"How did she become so small?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Will the curse continue to spread?"

"With her corpse gone, she no longer has any power," Bai Yuehu said, "She probably won't affect human beings."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then is it necessary to eat her?"

Bai Yuehu was silent for a moment. "Probably not." It looked like he really didn't want to taste what the Rain Master's Concubine tasted like again. He paused for a moment, then added, "If you don't like her, I can still eat her."

Seeing Bai Yuehu's troubled appearance, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but let out a laugh. He said, "It's okay, there's no need to force yourself. She looks really cute like this, so since there's no danger then we can just keep her in the house and raise her. She can keep Miss Female Ghost in the inner courtyard company."

Bai Yuehu nodded, agreeing to what Lu QIngjiu had said.

The tiny Rain Master's Concubine received a warm welcome from the animals in the house. Especially the little fox, it seemed to really like her. When it saw her, it started licking her enthusiastically. Originally, she wanted to avoid it, but with those short legs, she simply couldn't get away from the little fox. In the end, she could only resign herself to being pressed down under the little fox's paw and being licked, ending up bursting into wronged tears from the licking.

Even though Lu Qingjiu found this incredibly funny, he still stopped the little fox in the end, telling it to not bully the Rain Master's Concubine. The little fox chirped and stared at Lu Qingjiu innocently with that pair of beautiful blue eyes, as if it was telling Lu Qingjiu that it just liked her.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then don't lick her too much. If you lick her too much and make her cry, then she won't like you."

The little fox nodded, agreeing.

Then, Lu Qingjiu wiped the saliva off of the Rain Master's Concubine and placed her on the little fox's neck. The Rain Master's Concubine also liked fluffy, soft things. She hid in the little fox's beautiful neck ruff, disappearing from sight.

After helping the Rain Master's Concubine settle in, Lu Qingjiu went to the courtyard with a sieve and plucked a few of the osmanthus flowers that had bloomed, planning on making osmanthus cake.

After Lu Qingjiu beat the osmanthus together, he carefully filtered out the pulp. Then, he mixed the osmanthus with lotus root powder, added in flour and let it rise. After steaming it in a steamer basket for thirty minutes, he could take it out of the steamer. The freshly steamed osmanthus cakes were still piping hot, letting out a strong fragrance of osmanthus.

Lu Qingjiu left the osmanthus cakes to cool and steeped a pot of tea, planning to have it for afternoon tea.

Autumn, when the wind was strong and the temperature was cool, was the most leisurely season. When the three of them sat in the courtyard and ate osmanthus cakes, Lu Qingjiu said that they should find an afternoon with good weather to go up the mountain to enjoy the wind and have a picnic.

"We could also fly kites," Yin Xun, osmanthus cake in his mouth, said in a m.u.f.fled voice, "It's been a long time since I've last flown a kite."

"Isn't flying kites something you do in spring?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"You can also do it in autumn ah," Yin Xun said, "The wind in autumn is also very strong."

Lu Qingjiu shrugged, going along with Yin Xun.

No matter what it was, whenever anything became smaller, it would become cuter. After being shrunk, the originally terrifying Rain Master's Concubine who sat on Pang Ziqi's shoulder with a face full of unhappiness actually looked a little cute… Of course, it was just a little.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu enter the room, Pang Ziqi stopped arguing and greeted them.

"How are you feeling now?" Lu Qingjiu casually took a seat and asked him.

"Me? I'm feeling great now," Pang Ziqi said, "If not for the fact that there's been no news from the higher-ups, I might even suspect that her corpse has already been disposed of." He was also a person with a sixth sense, even though he couldn't see the Rain Master's Concubine, he could still feel a little something. Since last night, he felt like this body had become a lot lighter, as if that weight that had been constantly been pressing down on him had lifted.

At the time, Pang Ziqi thought it was a misconception. It was only until the next morning did he finally confirm that this feeling was indeed true.

Lu Qingjiu "oh"-ed. He didn't bring up what had happened to the corpse, simply telling Pang Ziqi that he couldn't see the Rain Master's Concubine next to him anymore.

"You can't see it? Really?" Pang Ziqi said, "They're currently preparing to go back down into the tomb."

"Tell them not to go," Lu Qingjiu said, "I don't feel the curse anymore." Even though the Rain Master's Concubine's body had already been eaten by Bai Yuehu, he was a little afraid that if that group of people went back into the tomb, they might trigger another thing and cause a new disaster.

Pang Ziqi asked, doubtful, "You really can't see her?"

"Can't see her," Lu Qingjiu replied frankly.

Pang Ziqi said, "Alright then, I'll send them the news. If I'm really fine now, then there's no need for them to go anymore."

Lu Qingjiu nodded.

The two of them sat in the hospital ward for a while before deciding to get up and leave. Before leaving, Lu Qingjiu found a random excuse to reach out and pat Pang Ziqi on the shoulder, grabbing the chibi Rain Master's Wife that had been sitting on Pang Ziqi's shoulder and glaring with an unhappy expression in pa.s.sing, then left with Yin Xun as if nothing had happened. Yin Xun naturally saw Lu Qingjiu's actions. When he saw Lu Qingjiu grab the Rain Master's Concubine, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, just barely managing to hold in his shout. As soon as they left the ward, he asked, horrified, "Qingjiu, what did you bring that out for?"

Lu Qingjiu opened his fist. A tiny Rain Master's Concubine appeared on his palm, spitting out a ma.s.s of words Lu Qingjiu couldn't understand. From her expression, she should be swearing at him. In response to this, Lu Qingjiu was completely calm. He said, "Leaving this thing by Pang Ziqi's side isn't safe. Who knows if she'll get bigger. It's best if we bring her back to Bai Yuehu."

Yin Xun asked, "Bring her back to Bai Yuehu for him to eat?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "Not necessarily to eat, maybe he'll have some other way of dealing with her."

Yin Xun thought for a moment. He felt like what Lu Qingjiu said made sense. So, he daringly reach out his finger and poked the Rain Master's Concubine in Lu Qingjiu's hand. With this poke, the Rain Master's Concubine was knocked off her feet, falling back onto Lu Qingjiu's palm. She stared at Yin Xun disbelievingly. Within moments, her pupiless eyes filled with tears. Unexpectedly, she burst into sobs.

Lu Qingjiu, "…" He silently gave Yin Xun a look.

Yin Xun, "…f.u.c.k, it wasn't on purpose. Why did she start crying, I really didn't use any strength."

Lu QIngjiu said, "You made her cry, you deal with it." Saying this, he handed the Rain Master's Wife over to Yin Xun.

Yin Xun clumsily received the Rain Master's Concubine. With a face full of helplessness, he said, "f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, I really didn't mean to, what do I do?"

Lu Qingjiu thought for a moment. He dug out the pickup truck's favourite fruit candy from his pocket, pulled out an apple flavoured one and placed it by the side of the Rain Master's Concubine's mouth. In the beginning, the Rain Master's Concubine was unwilling to eat, then a corner of the soft candy was shoved into her mouth. Only then did she stop sobbing. She reached out and grabbed the candy and began to chew as she sniffled.

Yin Xun kept his hands stiff. With a trembling voice, he said, "If, if I used strength, would I be able to accidentally squeeze her to death?"

Lu Qingjiu said, "You won't, she's not that delicate. You can just put her in your jacket pocket."

Yin Xun still felt a little uneasy. He was afraid that if he placed her in his pocket, he might accidentally squish her to death. At this moment, Yin Xun had actually forgotten that just a few days ago, he had been hoping that the Rain Master's Concubine would die a little sooner… Humans were truly changeable creatures.

After visiting Pang Ziqi, Lu Qingjiu bought a large electric oven in the city along with a lot of tinfoil and molds. He also bought the ingredients necessary for making mooncakes, planning on making mooncakes the day after he got back.

When shopping together with Yin Xun, Lu Qingjiu always felt as if he was bringing along a child, just that this child was especially obedient. Whenever he wanted to eat something, he would never dare to say it and would just stare at it pitifully. Upon noticing his gaze, Lu Qingjiu would take the item down and place it in his shopping cart. When he saw this, Yin Xun would then become a little happy, showing that white tiger tooth peeking out from between his lips. He really was like an easily appeased little kid.

Yin Xun had lived in Shuifu village since he was small. When he was young he couldn't leave, and after he grew up he was still limited by poverty. Before Lu Qingjiu came back, he practically never went to the city, much less buy things in the city.

Lu Qingjiu's current financial status was very good. He had only spent a small amount of the tens of thousands of yuan Zhang Chuyang had given him, and Zhu Miaomiao had recently told him she had a new idea to help Lu Qingjiu generate income. As for the details of how to do it, she would come over and tell Lu Qingjiu about it during the holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After buying a big bag of snacks and all kinds of ingredients, Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun went back to the pickup truck, entirely satisfied.

After getting onto the truck, Yin Xun checked his jacket pocket and saw that the Rain Master's Concubine had already fallen asleep inside. She had only eaten half of the soft fruit candy, but even though she hadn't finished it, she still hugged it tightly to herself, looking as if she was afraid of someone taking it away from her.

Yin Xun said, "She's really cute."

Lu Qingjiu asked, "Cute?"

Yin Xun said, "Cute."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Imagine for a moment what she'll look like when she returns to a normal human size."

Yin Xun, "…" He shuddered and silently closed his jacket pocket. He was better off not thinking about it, the moment he thought of how she had looked with her chin placed on Pang Ziqi's shoulder, he would break out into full body gooseb.u.mps.

After returning home, the first thing Lu Qingjiu did was to take the chibi Rain Master's Concubine over to show to Bai Yuehu. Who knew that the moment the Rain Master's Concubine saw Bai Yuehu, she would break into sobs, yet not daring to cry out, so frightened her entire body was trembling.

Bai Yuehu, probably thinking about how she tasted, frowned upon seeing her.

"How did she become so small?" Lu Qingjiu asked, "Will the curse continue to spread?"

"With her corpse gone, she no longer has any power," Bai Yuehu said, "She probably won't affect human beings."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then is it necessary to eat her?"

Bai Yuehu was silent for a moment. "Probably not." It looked like he really didn't want to taste what the Rain Master's Concubine tasted like again. He paused for a moment, then added, "If you don't like her, I can still eat her."

Seeing Bai Yuehu's troubled appearance, Lu Qingjiu couldn't help but let out a laugh. He said, "It's okay, there's no need to force yourself. She looks really cute like this, so since there's no danger then we can just keep her in the house and raise her. She can keep Miss Female Ghost in the inner courtyard company."

Bai Yuehu nodded, agreeing to what Lu QIngjiu had said.

The tiny Rain Master's Concubine received a warm welcome from the animals in the house. Especially the little fox, it seemed to really like her. When it saw her, it started licking her enthusiastically. Originally, she wanted to avoid it, but with those short legs, she simply couldn't get away from the little fox. In the end, she could only resign herself to being pressed down under the little fox's paw and being licked, ending up bursting into wronged tears from the licking.

Even though Lu Qingjiu found this incredibly funny, he still stopped the little fox in the end, telling it to not bully the Rain Master's Concubine. The little fox chirped and stared at Lu Qingjiu innocently with that pair of beautiful blue eyes, as if it was telling Lu Qingjiu that it just liked her.

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then don't lick her too much. If you lick her too much and make her cry, then she won't like you."

The little fox nodded, agreeing.

Then, Lu Qingjiu wiped the saliva off of the Rain Master's Concubine and placed her on the little fox's neck. The Rain Master's Concubine also liked fluffy, soft things. She hid in the little fox's beautiful neck ruff, disappearing from sight.

After helping the Rain Master's Concubine settle in, Lu Qingjiu went to the courtyard with a sieve and plucked a few of the osmanthus flowers that had bloomed, planning on making osmanthus cake.

After Lu Qingjiu beat the osmanthus together, he carefully filtered out the pulp. Then, he mixed the osmanthus with lotus root powder, added in flour and let it rise. After steaming it in a steamer basket for thirty minutes, he could take it out of the steamer. The freshly steamed osmanthus cakes were still piping hot, letting out a strong fragrance of osmanthus.

Lu Qingjiu left the osmanthus cakes to cool and steeped a pot of tea, planning to have it for afternoon tea.

Autumn, when the wind was strong and the temperature was cool, was the most leisurely season. When the three of them sat in the courtyard and ate osmanthus cakes, Lu Qingjiu said that they should find an afternoon with good weather to go up the mountain to enjoy the wind and have a picnic.

"We could also fly kites," Yin Xun, osmanthus cake in his mouth, said in a m.u.f.fled voice, "It's been a long time since I've last flown a kite."

"Isn't flying kites something you do in spring?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"You can also do it in autumn ah," Yin Xun said, "The wind in autumn is also very strong."

Lu Qingjiu shrugged, going along with Yin Xun.