Fantasy Farm

Chapter 104 - Dream Eater

Edited by Zaki

Because of Zhu Miaomiao’s dislike, the minivan honked its horn twice in protest. Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu hurriedly comforted it by saying that it was very cute and it was because Zhu Miaomiao was ignorant and didn’t know any better. When they reached home, he would give delicious jelly candies to it. Only after some pacification did the minivan calm down.

Knowing the truth about the minivan, Zhu Miaomiao was really restless sitting on it. Finally once they reached the parking garage of Wu Xiao’s house, she scrambled and almost crawled out of the minivan. She was a courageous person, but she was most afraid of these soft-bodied reptiles. The thought of a giant slug under her, made her whole person feel bad.

Wu Xiao was very calm, and asked Lu Qingjiu whether the car consumed fuel. Lu Qingjiu said that not only did it not consume fuel, but it could also drive automatically, and could even transform into a sports car. It could be said to be a must-have product for home travel. Wu Xiao was quite envious. After all, a good car was every man’s dream, and he didn’t care which animal it turned into a car from.

Zhu Miaomiao stood far away from the minivan, not even daring to look at it again.

Lu Qingjiu and Wu Xiao got out of the van while chatting, and walked towards the elevator in the garage. Wu Xiao lived in a very good environment, a large flat of more than 200 square meters. It was only him in the house except for the cleaning aunt, so he could be described as a standard golden bachelor.

When the elevator reached the twelfth floor, there was a soft ding-dong sound, everyone got out of the elevator, and Wu Xiao took out the key and opened the door carefully.

This was the first time Lu Qingjiu came to Wu Xiao’s house. The lights in the house came on and he noticed the pile of knick-knacks on the sofa at first sight. Obviously, the real situation was more serious than what Wu Xiao said. The things he brought back from the market were not limited to the things he said. On the contrary, the things on the sofa at this time were probably related to the market.

Seeing Lu Qingjiu’s questioning eyes, Wu Xiao felt a little embarrassed, coughed dryly and explained: “There were just too many weird and interesting things, so I couldn’t hold back.”

Zhu Miaomiao groaned strangely: “How much did you buy?” She walked to the edge of the sofa, picked up a doll-shaped toy, squeezed it lightly, “What is this?”

Wu Xiao said, “Music box.”

Zhu Miaomiao: “Music Box?”

Wu Xiao nodded, took the doll from Zhu Miaomiao, twisted the spring behind the doll, and put the doll on the ground. The next moment, the cute doll danced on the ground, its body was like a human – soft and nimble, singing beautiful songs, it didn’t look like a doll made of cloth at all, but like a shrunken ballet dancer.

This should be a very cute toy, but Zhu Miaomiao felt a little creepy when she thought of where Wu Xiao brought it back from. She tremblingly asked, “This shouldn’t be a human being changed into a doll, right?”

Wu Xiao: “Probably not, I checked the inside, it is indeed cotton.”

Zhu Miaomiao was still a little scared.

Lu Qingjiu sat on the sofa, as soon as he sat on it, he felt as if he had fallen into a soft cloud, all his physical fatigue was relieved, and even a little bit of lethargic drowsiness emerged.

“Qingjiu?” Zhu Miaomiao was a little puzzled seeing Lu Qingjiu’s expression, “What’s wrong with you?”

After being called by Zhu Miaomiao, Lu Qingjiu came to a sudden start and replied: “It’s so comfortable on this cushion.”

Wu Xiao said: “Yes, yes, this cushion is very useful. It perfectly solved the problem of my lumbar disc herniation. I’m still thinking about buying a cushion for my cervical spine next time.”

Lu Qingjiu: “This can also cure lumbar disc herniation?”

Wu Xiao: “Indeed.” Nowadays, office workers sat in front of the computer every day, and the lumbar spine and cervical spine were the hardest hit areas. He bought two of these cushions, and one of them was placed in the company. After sitting on it, the lumbar discomfort has been perfectly relieved, no longer hurt.

“I’ll give you this.” Wu Xiao was very generous, “It’s really comfortable to sit on.”

Lu Qingjiu hurriedly declined, saying that he didn’t need it at all. Since returning to the countryside, his lumbar and cervical spine problems had been well relieved, and he didn’t feel any discomfort at present. While Lu Qingjiu was talking to Wu Xiao, Bai Yuehu had already walked to the table and picked up the eye-catching red apple on the table. This apple looked very attractive from the outside, it was the size of a fist, and there was no flaw on the ruddy skin. When he smelled it, he could smell the rich fragrance of apples.

Lu Qingjiu watched from the side, and before he could speak, he saw Bai Yuehu bite down. The next moment, two rows of neat tooth marks were left on the apple, and a little juice overflowed from the yellow flesh, which showed that the apple was very juicy.

Zhu Miaomiao swallowed her saliva, and asked in a low voice, “Is it sweet?”

Bai Yuehu glanced at her, didn’t speak, and handed the apple in his hand to Lu Qingjiu’s mouth. Lu Qingjiu also took a bite, and immediately showed surprise. The taste of this apple was very good, sweet and sour with a strong aroma, the flesh was crunchy, and the inside was full of juice. After eating, the whole mouth was filled with the sweet taste of apples.

“It’s delicious.” Lu Qingjiu said.

Zhu Miaomiao swallowed even harder, but she was not brave enough to fight with Bai Yuehu, so she could only watch helplessly.

“It’s delicious.” The things Wu Xiao bought were praised by Lu Qingjiu, and he was in a wonderful mood, “If you only leave the apple core after eating the flesh, it will grow back in one night.”

“It can also be like this.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Wouldn’t it be possible to buy a few more and eat them for a lifetime?”

Wu Xiao said: “Oh, I just bought one like this. When I went there for the second time, the kid who sold the apples had disappeared.”

Then the group discussed fiercely as Wu Xiao introduced many objects with magical effects. Lu Qingjiu listened with great interest and soon it was almost midnight when Wu Xiao yawned tiredly. Lu Qingjiu snapped back to realization as he found that their discussion had veered off the original topic of helping to solve Wu Xiao’s problem and instead was more like a sale of magical items from the market.

“Okay, okay, let’s not talk about this for now.” Lu Qingjiu sat on the extremely soft cushion, enjoying the feeling of his lumbar spine being massaged, “Yuehu, quickly help Wu Xiao to see what’s going on with the voices in his ears.”

Wu Xiao had generously given his apple to Bai Yuehu just now, and Bai Yuehu was nibbling it with relish at the moment, and after hearing Lu Qingjiu’s words, he raised his eyes to look at Wu Xiao.

Wu Xiao was a little nervous when Bai Yuehu gazed at him.

“What are your sleeping habits?” Bai Yuehu asked.

Wu Xiao said: “What do you mean by habits?”

Bai Yuehu said: “It’s something that you will definitely take with you when you sleep, regardless of the location and time.” He paused for a moment when he said this, “You shouldn’t have heard these voices when you take a nap at the company.”

Being reminded by Bai Yuehu, Wu Xiao seemed to have remembered something: “Yes, I did not hear these voices when I was taking a nap.”

“Then what do you usually bring to bed?” Zhu Miaomiao asked.

Wu Xiao thought for a while: “My sleep quality is quite poor, if I have to say what I would take with me, it would be an eye mask and earplugs.”

Bai Yuehu said: “Show me.”

Wu Xiao nodded, went into the bedroom and took his eye mask and earplugs.

“But I bought it online, not at the market.” Wu Xiao was a little worried, “Is there any problem?”

Bai Yuehu took a look at the eye mask, put it down casually, and then picked up the earplugs. The earplugs were the most common noise-canceling earplugs. They were placed in a small plastic box and looked just like ordinary earplugs.

Bai Yuehu frowned, it seemed to indicate that there seemed to be something different about the earplugs. He opened the small plastic box and took the earplugs out.

The little earplugs were held in Bai Yuehu’s hands, he turned to Wu Xiao and said, “Go get a bowl of water.”

Wu Xiao hummed in agreement, and rushed to the kitchen to get a bowl of water, and put it in front of Bai Yuehu. Bai Yuehu pinched the earplugs and gently put them into the water.

Seeing this, Wu Xiao immediately became nervous: “Is there something in my earplugs?”

Bai Yuehu hummed.

After the earplugs entered the water, they didn’t sink because of their light weight, but just floated on the surface of the water. Everyone’s eyes fell on the earplugs that were put into the water, and the atmosphere became tense. After about two or three minutes, some strange changes began to appear on the earplugs. Some small black spots gradually appeared on the light green surface. Zhu Miaomiao leaned over to take a closer look, and said in horror: “These are not insects, are they? ”

Bai Yuehu said: “They are insects..”

These bugs were smaller than sesame seeds, and they looked like small fleas. They were forced to crawl out of the earplugs by the water, and soon they densely attached themselves to the outside of the earplugs.

Wu Xiao was creeped out by what he saw, and when he thought that he had once put such earplugs into his own ears, he couldn’t help but reach out and cover his ears, and said in a trembling voice, “These were the things chattering in my ears?!”

Bai Yuehu said: “That’s right.”

Wu Xiao was almost faint with fear: “Then maybe there are these things in my ears as well?”

Bai Yuehu said:  “No, they can’t survive in a human body.” His gaze went to the bedroom, “There should be another source for these little bugs, did you bring something back from outside and put it in the bedroom.”

Wu Xiao said: “There are quite a lot of things brought back.”

Bai Yuehu stepped into the bedroom, and after looking around in the bedroom, he quickly found a pillow with green bamboo patterns on Wu Xiao’s bed.

Wu Xiao followed Bai Yuehu’s line of sight, and quickly explained that he had indeed bought this pillow from the market. For a while, his sleep quality was poor, but after using this pillow, it immediately improved. There were no strange sounds at that time, so Wu Xiao was quite relieved. Besides, even when he slept in another room, the voices were still there, so he didn’t suspect it was the pillow.

Bai Yuehu picked up the pillow, tore off the outer fabric to reveal the cotton inside, then reached in with his hand, and pulled out big lumps of cotton.

After the cotton fell on the ground, the other three people quickly noticed that there seemed to be something else hidden in the cotton. Lu Qingjiu bent down, and found a milky white fine particle inside the cotton and asked: “What’s this?”

Bai Yuehu said calmly: “Eggs.”

The expressions of the three all changed, Lu Qingjiu hurriedly threw the bug eggs in his hand to the ground.

“It’s okay, the eggs wouldn’t hatch under normal circumstances.” Bai Yuehu explained.

Wu Xiao was so frightened that his consciousness became blurry. He didn’t dare to imagine how many bugs had hatched out from inside his pillow while he was sleeping, crawling down his ear canal and into his ears, making strange noises in his ears every night.

Zhu Miaomiao, a girl who was afraid of insects, was no better than Wu Xiao, and her voice was distorted: “Then, under what circumstances do these bugs hatch?”

Bai Yuehu calmly grabbed an egg, observed it carefully, and said, “They seem to feed on dreams.”

They were similar to the dream catcher, but the dream catcher caught nightmares, these bugs didn’t distinguish between good dreams and nightmares, they ate them all up, without dreams, the quality of sleep would indeed improve. And as they ate more and more dreams, they would begin to hatch. But because these bugs could not live in human ear canals, Old Tree couldn’t find any abnormalities on Wu Xiao’s body, which caused Wu Xiao to endure the noise pollution for more than a month.

Compared to Wu Xiao and Zhu Miaomiao, who seemed to be about to collapse, Lu Qingjiu was the calmest one, and he was still in the mood to ask Bai Yuehu what these bugs were trying to do by crawling into Wu Xiao’s ears, and why they made the sounds.

Bai Yuehu thought for a moment, then looked at Wu Xiao: “Do you want to know?”

Wu Xiao said in a trembling voice, “Let’s hear it.” The situation was already bad enough, he didn’t believe there was anything he couldn’t accept.

Bai Yuehu said: “They mate in your ear canal.”

Wu Xiao: “……”

Bai Yuehu’s tone was very calm, but what he said made Wu Xiao almost faint: “Sound is a way for males to attract females. Although the temperature in the ear canal is not suitable for their long-term survival, it is the best place for laying eggs and hatching. And as long as the mating was successful, dense eggs would hatch in your ear canal.”

“Brother, big brother, please don’t say anymore.” Wu Xiao realized for the first time that he was also very afraid of insects. When he thought of the scene Bai Yuehu described, his whole scalp went numb, and his hands were covered in goosebumps, “I really can’t listen anymore.”

Zhu Miaomiao had already plugged her ears.

“How can I clean up these things?” Wu Xiao was about to go crazy, “I feel itchy inside my head now.”

He had heard about cockroaches accidentally crawling into the ear canals before, and thought it was a joke at the time, but now that it had happened to him, Wu Xiao really wanted to rush to the toilet and put his head in the basin to clean it up.

Bai Yuehu said: “It’s okay, they probably haven’t successfully laid eggs yet, your ears are still clean.”

Wu Xiao said: “Brother, but you didn’t look at my ears.”

Bai Yuehu glanced at him: “I don’t really want to see it.”

Wu Xiao: “…..”

Lu Qingjiu coughed dryly beside him, suppressing the smile on his lips.

Then Bai Yuehu simply told Wu Xiao the way to clean up these bugs, which was actually quite simple, just set it on fire, but Bai Yuehu was very interested in the person who sold Wu Xiao this pillow, so he carefully asked. How would Wu Xiao still dare to hide it at this moment? So he told everything about buying that pillow.

The pillow was bought at the market, and the price was not cheap. The person who sold his pillow was a beautiful woman. The woman could tell at a glance that his sleep quality was not good, and strongly recommended this kind of pillow to him. At that time, Wu Xiao was dubious and bought the pillow home, but he didn’t expect the effect to be very good, but after that he never saw a trace of the woman again. This was a normal thing for a market with a lot of people. Wu Xiao didn’t think much about it, so he put it behind him.

“What does that woman look like?” Bai Yuehu asked.

“Very pretty.” Wu Xiao said, “But she didn’t have any special features. If I have to say, she had a very beautiful zither on her back.”

Bai Yuehu’s expression was slightly grave, and he asked, “When will the market start?”

Wu Xiao said: “The 25th of every month, probably next Tuesday.”

Bai Yuehu said: “When the time comes, take us there.”

Wu Xiao didn’t expect Bai Yuehu to be interested in the market. He didn’t dare to ask any more questions. He nodded and quickly agreed, and enthusiastically gave the apple to Bai Yuehu, requesting Bai Yuehu to help him look if there were any other things from the market in the house that should not be used, so that he could throw them out.

Bai Yuehu said: “These things cannot be bought and sold to human beings casually. You’d better not go to the market again, accidents are easy to happen.”

Wu Xiao agreed obediently.

Lu Qingjiu said: “Then there must be nothing in Wu Xiao’s ear canal.”

Bai Yuehu shook his head, indicating that there was no such thing, but before Wu Xiao could feel relieved, continued by saying, it doesn’t matter if there was a little bit, anyway, those insects couldn’t survive in his body after hatching. If he heard the sound again, as long as the bedding was changed again, there would be no problem.

Wu Xiao almost cried when he heard that, he didn’t want his ear canal to become a hatchery.

After making an appointment with Wu Xiao, the three of them left. Lu Qingjiu originally wanted to take Zhu Miaomiao home, but Zhu Miaomiao insisted on taking a taxi.

“No, I can’t take the slug car anymore, I will die.” Zhu Miaomiao cried, pointing at the goosebumps on her arms.

The minivan was right next to her. After hearing her words, it honked the horns twice, and the two round headlights dimmed.

Zhu Miaomiao asked, “What’s wrong with it?”

Lu Qingjiu said: “It’s hurt by your words.”

Zhu Miaomiao: “….”

“Think about it, how many times it has brought you home from the train station, and delivered so many things to you. It has worked so hard and never complained of suffering or tiredness.” Lu Qingjiu was heartbroken for his family’s minivan, “Even if you dislike it so much, it still wants to send you back home safely.” The sentimental Zhu Miaomiao’s eyes glistened with tears at Lu Qingjiu’s words, and she actually felt like she was really a heartless scum.

Lu Qingjiu patted the minivan’s headlights and continued, “If it had eyes, it would already be shedding tears of sorrow at this time, but it’s okay, I think it will also understand that you don’t like mollusks, come on, let me call a cab for you.”

“No need.” Zhu Miaomiao finally couldn’t bear the extremely sad atmosphere, and cried while hugging the rearview mirror of the minivan , “I’m sorry dear minivan, you’re still a good slug ah. Why am I so shallow, I actually disliked you because of such a little bit of a problem!”

Lu Qingjiu showed a faint smile beside him, Bai Yuehu glanced at Lu Qingjiu, he hadn’t noticed that Lu Qingjiu was actually black bellied before.

“Do you still need a taxi?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“Don’t want it.” Zhu Miaomiao wiped her tears clean and climbed into the passenger side of the minivan on her own initiative, “I don’t mind the minivan anymore.”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Okay, let’s go home.”

Beep, beep, the minivan honked cheerfully again, and the three of them drove forward all the way, taking Zhu Miaomiao home. After Zhu Miaomiao arrived home, she also took her favourite jelly candies to the minivan and started feeding them, which greatly increased the relationship between one person and one car. Lu Qingjiu watched from the side with a kind expression, like an old man who sees his children quarrelling and making up.

After seeing off Zhu Miaomiao, Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu also planned to go back to the hotel.

“Why must Zhu Miaomiao like the minivan?” Bai Yuehu asked.

“Because” Lu Qingjiu held the steering wheel, “because it can save a lot of taxi fare”

Bai Yuehu: “…”

Lu Qingjiu said: “From Wu Xiao’s house to Zhu Miaomiao’s house, it costs at least 20 yuan.” He began to count up the bill seriously, “And if she’s afraid of the minivan then she’ll have to take a taxi to our house later on, that’s expensive, it’ll cost a few hundred yuan.” After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Bai Yuehu, “With that you can already buy dozens of bunches of candied haws.”

Bai Yuehu fell silent in an instant, no longer entangled in this matter, and even felt that Lu Qingjiu had made an extremely correct decision.

The minivan beeped twice, also agreeing with Lu Qingjiu’s words.

“We have to go to the market next Tuesday, so we have to call Yin Xun.” Lu Qingjiu said, “and let him know that we have to postpone our return for two days.”

Bai Yuehu hummed.

Yin Xun, who was at home, soon received a call from Lu Qingjiu. After learning that the time for Lu Qingjiu’s return was delayed, he wept sadly, saying that he had almost eaten the meatballs, and if Lu Qingjiu didn’t come back, he’d have to eat instant noodles. Lu Qingjiu quickly consoled him by saying that there were still a lot of dumplings, buns and other frozen food in the refrigerator, so Yin Xun could hold on and make do for two more days, and that there was still some unfinished business on their side, and when they came back, they would bring Yin Xun some gifts as compensation.

Although Yin Xun was very sad, he could only accept it. Lu Qingjiu said, “When we go to the market on Tuesday, let’s also buy something back. I think the things there are quite interesting.”

Bai Yuehu nodded in agreement.

After spending a few more days in the city, Lu Qingjiu took Bai Yuehu to eat at all the famous restaurants around, and Bai Yuehu tasted all the delicious foods. It added life experience to Bai Yuehu, so that he would not be too easily abducted by others by the lure of good food.

On Tuesday, Lu Qingjiu got up early, and Bai Yuehu drove the van to pick up Wu Xiao and Zhu Miaomiao.

Originally, he didn’t plan to bring Zhu Miaomiao with him, but Zhu Miaomiao insisted on going to see the world, so he had no choice but to take her with him.

Everyone got into the car, and under Wu Xiao’s guidance, they quickly left the urban area and arrived at the desolate suburbs. If Wu Xiao was not very familiar with the route, no one would have thought that such a remote place would actually have such a crowded market.