translator: baumkuchen

The atmosphere inside the house seemed to freeze. Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu just stared at each other. Neither of them spoke.

Liu Qingjiu held the nine soft tails like he was holding a hot potato. After a long period of silence, Lu Qingjiu felt like he should say something, so in a trembling voice, he called out, "Yuehu?"

Bai Yuehu's gaze moved from Lu Qingjiu's face to those giant tails. His expression turned serious, as if he was mulling over something.

"Yuehu, are you alright?!" Seeing Bai Yuehu's dark, heavy expression, Lu Qingjiu started to panic slightly. "Are you hurt? How is the place where your tails connected to your body…" As he said this, he put down the tails and reached out a hand towards Bai Yuehu, wanting to check if Bai Yuehu's body was hurt.

Bai Yuehu avoided Lu Qingjiu's hand, saying, "En… They fell off."

Lu Qingjiu, "Fell off?" He was a little flabbergasted. He hadn't thought that Bai Yuehu would have such a blasé att.i.tude about this.

"Then now that they fell off, what do we do? Will they grow back?" Lu Qingjiu stared at the soft tails still lying in his arms. He kept feeling like he had caused a disaster, so he repeated his words, "Will they grow back? Will they?" He had heard that geckos could grow back their tails, could it be that fox spirits' tails could grow back too??

Bai Yuehu, "…" His expression was extremely complicated, so complicated that Lu Qingjiu couldn't tell what he was feeling.

"Oh," Bai Yuehu said, "Probably?"

Lu Qingjiu, "…" Bro, can you say this with a little more confidence.

"Go sleep, it's not a big deal." Finally, Bai Yuehu put an end to the matter, "If they fell off they fell off, and anyways it might even be better that they've fallen off, so now when I go out in the future they can accompany you at home."

Lu Qingjiu's head was dizzy, he didn't know what to say anymore. Bai Yuehu had just brushed it over, as if the big, fluffy tails in front of him were nothing important, and not a part of his body…

Lu Qingjiu said, "I… got it."

 Seeing how Lu Qingjiu looked like he'd suffered a huge blow, in a move that was rare for him, Bai Yuehu reached out his hand and tenderly stroked Lu Qingjiu's head. That action, and that expression, were both incredibly like what Lu Qingjiu looked like when he usually did the same to Yin Xun. To put a name to that emotion, it was probably like when a pet owner saw their cute, dumb little pet shocked out of its wits, so they reached out a hand to stroke their pet's head in comfort…

"Go sleep," Bai Yuehu said, "It's already so late."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then what about the tails…"

Bai Yuehu, "Put them somewhere in the house as decoration?"

Lu Qingjiu, "???"

Bai Yuehu obviously found that this way of handling the matter had shocked Lu Qingjiu a little too much, so he hurriedly added, "I was joking, I'll press them back in a few days."

Lu Qingjiu, "…" Okay.

Even though those big tails had left Bai Yuehu's body, they were still incredibly warm. When he hugged them to his chest, it was like he was hugging a self-warming doll. Of course, the quality of the tails were a lot better than an ordinary doll—— they were basically a high-grade doll now.

Lu Qingjiu, who was already used to sleeping with the tails in his arms, had a nightmare that night. He dreamed that he had strayed into a dense forest and gotten lost inside. The trees were very dense, and the thick canopy blocked out the sun. Lu Qingjiu walked and walked, but no matter how much he walked, he couldn't find his way out. The sky was about to go dark. After the sun set on the horizon, the forest changed, becoming terrifying.

The surrounding branches began to morph strangely, becoming both long and soft, like many twisted arms. Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu became a little panicked, and turned, wanting to run, but no matter where he ran, there were still branches all around him. Those branches surrounded Lu Qingjiu, finally wrapping around his body. Lu Qingjiu let out a scream, but found like those branches felt like… they were clearly just like big fluffy tails!

"Ah ah ah ah!!" Shocked awake by his nightmare, Lu Qingjiu let out a scream. With a face full of horror, he sat up from the bed, and saw there was nothing by his side. There was no Bai Yuehu, nor were there any tails.

Upon hearing him cry out, Yin Xun, who had been doing something outside poked his head into the room. "Lu Qingjiu, you're up?"

Lu Qingjiu, "…En."

"You had a nightmare?" Yin Xun was was.h.i.+ng the cabbages they were going to eat that afternoon.

"Yeah. Where's Bai Yuehu?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"In the courtyard feeding the chickens." Yin Xun said, "What's wrong? Want me to call him over?"

Lu Qingjiu shook his head, signalling that there was no need. He looked at Yin Xun's face. After a moment of hesitation, he said quietly, "Yin Xun, come in, I want to ask you something."

Yin Xun said, "Why are you acting so secretive?" Even though he said this, he still obediently walked into his room, even closing the door behind him.

"I just wanted to ask, that, what do a fox spirit's tails mean to them?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

Yin Xun was stunned. "Why do you suddenly ask this?" He thought of how before, Lu Qingjiu often hugged Bai Yuehu's tails to sleep. Thinking that he was worried, he said, "Their tails? They're an important part of their body, which they only let people who they trust touch."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Then… do fox spirit's tails fall off?"

Yin Xun thought that Lu Qingjiu had misspoken. He asked blankly, "Fall off? Fall off how?"

Seeing Yin Xun not understand, Lu Qingjiu knew that he definitely didn't know. He let out a sigh, shook his head and dropped the topic.

On his end, Yin Xun felt like starting from that morning, Lu Qingjiu had become strange. He would often sit off on the side alone in a daze. Him being in a daze was fine, but the problem was that while in his daze, Lu Qingjiu still clearly liked staring at Bai Yuehu. If it was just looking that would also be fine, but the place Lu Qingjiu would stare at… was actually Bai Yuehu's a.s.s!!

When Yin Xun first noticed this detail, Yin Xun thought that it was his misconception, but after repeated observation and careful study, he became sure that he hadn't misunderstood Lu Qingjiu. His childhood friend, seemed to have developed some feelings he shouldn't have towards Bai Yuehu—— Otherwise, how could he explain him staring at Bai Yuehu's a.s.s every day!

However, after thinking about it carefully, it didn't seem impossible for Lu Qingjiu to have developed feelings for Bai Yuehu. After all, Bai Yuehu was so beautiful,  they were a bunch of men living together, and the only women in the village were little girls and fifty to sixty year old aunties. He had been happy for a while from seeing Jiufeng, so it was no wonder that Lu Qingjiu would become interested in Bai Yuehu, and the main point was that Lu Qingjiu didn't know anything about Bai Yuehu's true ident.i.ty, he probably just thought that Bai Yuehu was a beautiful fox spirit.

Yin Xun had even seen Lu Qingjiu reading《Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio》a few days ago, if he recalled correctly, that pook had a lot of love stories between humans and fox spirits! Even though none of them seemed to have a happy ending…

"What are you looking at?" Just as Yin Xun was getting lost in his thoughts, a cold question sounded from beside him. He shot up, but found that it was Bai Yuehu staring at him with an unfriendly look on his face. Shocked, Yin Xun realised that he had followed Lu Qingjiu's gaze and had fallen into a daze staring at Bai Yuehu's a.s.s, and now, he had suffered Bai Yuehu's notice. Yin Xun hurriedly averted his gaze, and explained, terrified, "No, nothing."

Bai Yuehu glared at him coldly, then got up and left.

Yin Xun stared after Bai Yuehu as he left, feeling like there was something a little strange. Thinking about it carefully, he realised something even more terrifying.

With Bai Yuehu's sharp sixth sense, how could he not know that there was someone staring at his a.s.s? But currently, Lu Qingjiu had already been staring for so many days, but Bai Yuehu hadn't had a single reaction, but when he had looked for a while, Bai Yuehu gave him a warning while looking like he wanted to murder him… Could… could it be…

Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu in shock. Could it be, the two of them were already in a harmonious relations.h.i.+p??

Lu Qingjiu, "…What's with that dumb look on your face?"

Yin Xun, "Lu Qingjiu, are you looking to get into a relations.h.i.+p?"

Lu Qingjiu, "If I've never been in a relations.h.i.+p, how did I have you?"

Yin Xun, "…"

Lu Qingjiu let out a faint sigh. "Actually, there's something that's been bothering me for the past few days."

The moment Yin Xun heard this, he thought that Lu Qingjiu was looking for romantic advice. He said hurriedly, "Say it, say it."

Lu Qingjiu hesitantly said, "It's just that… Ai, nevermind, even if I told you you wouldn't know anything." Yin Xun hadn't heard about Bai Yuehu's tails falling off. From the looks of it, he didn't know anything, so even if he asked it would probably be for nothing. Lu Qingjiu left with a melancholic look on his face, leaving behind a Yin Xun who had almost scolded him. What was wrong with this f.u.c.king Lu Qingjiu, what did he mean by you wouldn't know anything, yeah, he indeed hadn't been in a relations.h.i.+p before, but even if he hadn't eaten pork before, it's not like he'd never seen a pig run! Wait… It seemed like he really hadn't seen a pig run before… Wuwuwu his life was too sad.

Yin Xun was also made depressed by Lu Qingjiu's words, so the atmosphere in the house became even heavier. When they ate, one would see Bai Yuehu eating expressionlessly, while Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun sighed beside him.

These kinds of days lasted until the blizzard ended. Just as Lu Qingjiu was planning on talking about it with Bai Yuehu, another guest came to the house.