translator: baumkuchen

Just like that, amidst all this ruckus, the end of the year drew nearer.

This was the first New Year Lu Qingjiu would be experiencing since coming back. Naturally, he wanted to have a good celebration. Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun both fully approved of this, with Bai Yuehu saying that he could bring back a lot of fresh ingredients, and Yin Xun expressing that he could help Lu Qingjiu out in the kitchen.

Before the New Year arrived, Lu Qingjiu received a phone call from Su Yan. In the call, Su Yan asked what the woman in Su Xi's fur was.

Lu Qingjiu had to think for a few seconds before he remembered that there was a tiny Rain Master's Concubine in Su Xi's scruff… In truth, if Su Yan hadn't asked, he would already have completely forgotten about this.

"Su Xi's mom even thought that Su Xi had fleas," Su Yan said, "In the end, when giving him a bath, she picked up a little person from his body."

Lu Qingjiu said, "Sorry, sorry, I'll ask Bai Yuehu to come pick her up tomorrow." Thinking about it carefully, they had even flattened the Rain Master's Concubine's grave, so still treating her so roughly really wasn't right.

"There's no need to trouble Bai Yuehu," Su Yan said, however, "I'll send her back along with Su Xi after the New Year."

Lu Qingjiu, "Oh… alright."

"Happy New Year to you in advance, Mister Lu," Su Yan said.

"Thank you. Happy New Year to you, too." Lu Qingjiu laughed.

Because they already had the Autumn Festival in autumn, as well as the harsh conditions they had to face in winter, Shuifu village didn't have much of a celebratory atmosphere in spring. However, this couldn't stop Lu Qingjiu's enthusiasm for the New Year. He had already prepared the things he would need for the New Year long ago, before they had entered winter, even having bought a few fire-red lanterns and paper-cut style stickers. He happily decorated the house, filling it with a New Year's air.

Bai Yuehu went out for a bit, and brought back with him a lot of fresh vegetables and meat. Most were precious, fantastic beasts he'd caught on the mountain, while some of the vegetables he'd simply bought straight from the city.

It was just a pity that the television at home had no signal, so they had to miss the most representative Chinese New Year special on CCTV. However, having the entire family gather together, and eat a steaming hot reunion dinner was enough.

Lu Qingjiu planned out the menu for the reunion dinner, setting up a table filled with good dishes. He'd prepared fish, stewed chicken, fried a lot of vegetables, and even made a big bowl of round glutinous rice b.a.l.l.s with sesame stuffing. They of course needed to eat dumplings as well, but Lu Qingjiu didn't make too much, only making a bowl for each person for the significance.

On New Year's Eve, the weather was pretty good, at least, it wasn't snowing. Lu Qingjiu set off a string of firecrackers in the courtyard. The sound of crackling was especially lively. This was a village custom, no matter how poor one was, they had to set off a string of firecrackers on New Year's Eve to symbolise chasing away the unhappiness of the previous year, and welcoming a new, beautiful year.

The red firecracker paper sc.r.a.ps fell onto the white snow, like withered red plum flowers, looking especially beautiful.

"Do you want to set off some fireworks?" Lu Qingjiu asked.

"You bought some?" Yin Xun was a little curious. Since his grandparents had died, he already hadn't had a lively New Year in a very long time. This was an extremely important festival for the Chinese, but to him it was incomparably common, exactly like any other day.

"Yes," Lu Qingjiu smiled and said, "I asked Bai Yuehu to buy it while he was in the city." This place was rather remote, fireworks hadn't been banned yet, so he just got Bai Yuehu to buy some while he was already there. He wanted to have this New Year be a little more lively.

"Let's set them off after dinner," Yin Xun said, "Otherwise, the food will get cold."

"Alright," Lu Qingjiu said, "Let's go, Yuehu, let's go and eat."

The three people and two pigs returned to the house, and began to enjoy the delicious reunion dinner. There were more than a dozen dishes arranged on the table, more than enough for the three of them to have their fill and get drunk. Lu Qingjiu had even brought out the grape wine they'd made at home, pouring out a cup for each person.

The room was warm and cosy. Accompanying the sound of laughter and conversation, was the sound of the clock, just like that, the new year had arrived.

Yin Xun was as happy as a little kid, running around in the snow with a smile filling his face. Bai Yuehu stood behind him, the beautiful lights reflected in his eyes. Lu Qingjiu called out in a loud voice, "Happy New Year, everyone!" As he said this, he pulled out four fully-stuffed red packets, giving one each to Yin Xun, Bai Yuehu, Xiao Hua and Xiao Hei.

"You're even giving me a red packet, is this appropriate?" Even as Yin Xun's mouth said that he didn't want it, his body was still very honest. He stuffed the red packet in his pocket, revealing the cute tiger tooth at the corner of his mouth with his smile. "Thanks, dad."

Lu Qingjiu, "Ai, good boy." After saying this, he turned his gaze to Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu, gave Lu Qingjiu a look as he squeezed his red packet. Miraculously, Lu Qingjiu understood the meaning in his gaze. He couldn't help but laugh. "Just take it, you don't have to call me daddy."

Only then did Bai Yuehu silently put away the red packet.

Who would have thought that the richest person in this house would actually be Lu Qingjiu, this normal person?

After the New Year, in another ten or so days, these tough winter days would be coming to an end. The snow would melt, and everything would spring back to life. New things were always full of hope, making it so that one couldn't help looking forward to the coming new year.

Lu Qingjiu still had a lot of plans. This next year, he was planning on raising up a nest of bees to provide honey for their family's consumption, as well as planting all kinds of fruit trees in the courtyard. After another few years, come autumn, the fruit trees would be filled with bright red and yellow fruits, which would definitely look extremely beautiful.

As the night gradually got darker, Yin Xun bid goodbye to Lu Qingjiu and went back home. After staying up for the New Year, Lu Qingjiu was also a little tired, so he told Bai Yuehu that they'd pack up the table tomorrow, so they should just heat up the Kang and go to sleep.

The warm quilt held a pleasant heat. As Lu Qingjiu kneaded Bai Yuehu's ears, he chatted with him under the quilt, "It doesn't itch with me touching it?"

"It doesn't," Bai Yuehu said, "There's no feeling in them."

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Your tails will grow out again in spring, right?"

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Only then was Lu Qingjiu put at ease. With half his face tucked underneath the quilt, only revealing a pair of sleepy eyes, looking as if he was soon about to fall asleep, he said, "Then that's good… The tails disappearing… really gave me a shock…"

Bai Yuehu lay next to Lu Qingjiu. If he just looked down a little, he could see Lu Qingjiu's face.

Lu Qingjiu was someone who could make others feel comfortable. Warm, yet not hot, he made people want to get closer to him, and after they got closer, they wouldn't be burned.

This was Bai Yuehu's first time meeting such a human.

Even after a very long time, he still hadn't managed to integrate into the human world. It wasn't that he couldn't, it was that he wouldn't.

You could expend all kinds of effort yet still not please people, Bai Yuehu was too lazy to bother.

A lot of G.o.ds and demons thought the same way as him. A lot of things humans wanted, they had no way of understanding. His only interest was human food, but sometimes there were many other things mixed up in the food, making one lose their appet.i.te.

But Lu Qingjiu's food was very pure. He had never once made any request towards Bai Yuehu, much less try to get recompense for all the things he'd done for him. The few humans Bai Yuehu had met before all had their att.i.tudes change after finding out he wasn't human. Some became much more intimate, just that in this intimacy was the intent to curry favour. Some became cold, turning fearful and avoidant.

Only Lu Qingjiu still treated him like an ordinary tenant.

The person beside him had already fallen asleep, but still wasn't willing to let go of his fluffy ears. Bai Yuehu felt a little helpless, but in the end, he still refrained from pulling Lu Qingjiu's hands off of him, just letting him do as he wished.

It was the start of a new year, it needed to have some novel atmosphere.

Lu Qingjiu woke up early in the morning, and cooked four round tangyuan for them. These tangyuan weren't much like the tangyuan they usually ate, with each being about half the size of a fist, and with black sesame paste stuffed inside. When taking a bite, it was both sweet and chewy.

These four tangyuan were a tradition Lu Qingjiu's grandmother had told him about when he was small. It meant that this year's four seasons would be round and full, rolling by without any complications.

After eating the tangyuan, Lu Qingjiu also made them each a bowl of dumplings. In the dumplings were pork, cabbage and pork pickles. The taste of the cabbage was a little lighter, but even more delicious, while the pork pickles were extremely appetising. Even Lu Qingjiu could eat more than twenty dumplings at once.

After their meal, Lu Qingjiu planning on going to sweep the graves. Today was the first day of the New Year, time to provide offerings to one's ancestors. Even though Lu Qingjiu wasn't very particular about this, he still wanted to clean up his family's graves.

Originally, Yin Xun also wanted to come along, but Lu Qingjiu refused, saying that he wanted to go alone. As Yin Xun looked at Lu Qingjiu, he started to speak, then stopped. Seeing Lu Qingjiu's att.i.tude was firm, he could only agree.

Fortunately, today's weather wasn't bad, with no snow. Even though it would be hard to walk on the mountain roads, the cemetery was close to the village, so he didn't need to worry about it being too troublesome.

Lu Qingjiu picked up his bag, which contained the paper money and incense he'd prepared for his grandma, and just like that, set off.

Walking along the village path, he soon left Shuifu village. The entire way there, Lu Qingjiu didn't see a single person in the village. But now that he thought about it, since it had entered winter, the entire Shuifu village was as if it had gone into hibernation. No one went outside. However, thinking about it, this was also normal. In the winter, there was nothing much one needed to do, so they might as well stay in their own courtyards and move around.

Because of the snow, the cemetery was practically already completely covered by snow. Lu Qingjiu could only rely on his memory to look for his grandma's grave. Fortunately, his luck wasn't too bad, and he was quickly able to find the location of his grandma's grave. He first brushed off all the now that had acc.u.mulated on top of it, then lit a stick of incense by the foot of the gravestone, and burned some paper money.

"Grandma, what exactly did you give me?" As Lu Qingjiu burned paper money, he spoke to the gravestone, "A monk by the name of Xuan Yu came to the house, he said he knew you, did he use to be your friend?"

The image of his grandmother on the stone gravestone naturally wouldn't speak. The once-more youthful her in the black and white photograph still had a warm smile in her eyes, just like Lu Qingjiu.

The author has something to say:

Lu Qingjiu: A Bai Yuehu without any fluff isn't worth being mentioned…

Bai Yuehu: … 

Yin Xun: What the f.u.c.k Bai Yuehu don't f.u.c.king shave my head!