Fantasy Farm

Chapter 106 - Significance of Autumn

Edited by Zaki

As the days passed by, life returned to its usual calmness. This should have been a good thing, but because of the Zhulong who had sneaked into the human world, there seemed to be turbulent waves hidden in this calmness, which made people feel worried while enjoying it.

The Zhulong no longer committed crimes and everything returned to calm. The Zhulong, who had restrained his desire and hid himself in the human world, could hardly be found even by the Phoenix. In desperation, everyone could only pin their hopes on Shaohao family’s Phoenix who was in Nirvana, after all, he was the one who found the Zhulong more than ten years ago.

Summer was gradually receding, the autumn wind picked up, and it was the harvest season of the year again.

This year their family planted a lot of rice, the field now was bright yellow, giving the sign that it was finally time to harvest. After the rice was collected, several processes were required, first threshing, and then husking. After husking, the new rice was as clean as new, exuding a faint rice fragrance. Unlike old rice that has been stored for several years, this kind of fresh rice was delicious no matter how you made it. They grew a rice variety with a high viscosity, which was just right for making rice cakes. Lu Qingjiu ground the rice into powder, added water and stirred it well, then heated it to make the rice flour soft and sticky, he then added eggs and milk, and finally used a mold to set the shape of the rice cake, one by one, the rice cake emitting a rich milky fragrance came out of the oven. Soft and bouncy, savouring the aroma of rice that filled his nose, Lu Qingjiu took out the rice cakes to cool, and conveniently decorated some patterns with green vegetable juice on the rice cakes.

The colored rice cakes looked more attractive. He shared a piece with Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu, saying that he also wanted to make some rice noodles.

Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu fully agreed with Lu Qingjiu’s proposal, saying that Lu Qingjiu could do whatever he wanted.

Last year, Lu Qingjiu also made a lot of rice noodles, but it was almost enough to eat in winter, and after that, the food at home was bought in the town. Although the taste was good, it was different from the ones he made himself.

Rice noodles were the best for breakfast. Adding a chicken soup base, a handful of chopped green onions, and a few green vegetables was enough to tempt anyone. Lu Qingjiu liked this kind of food very much, because the taste was not greasy, and it was very appetizing.

The tough winter was coming again and Lu Qingjiu still had to prepare for the winter. Last year, he bought supplies for the winter for the first time. After all, there were some things that he didn’t consider. This year, Lu Qingjiu planned to buy a generator for his home, and buy enough engine oil. He had to make sure that at least there would be no power outage at home. In this way, life would be much better after the heavy snow closed the mountains.

The weather had started to become cool recently, and there were fewer animal activities. Snakes and frogs were preparing to hibernate. Bai Yuehu said that the Zhulong would not be found this year.

Zhulongs actually liked the hot summer so they were more active in summer. Once autumn comes, they start to become lazy. What’s more, this Zhulong had already found a residence in the human world, which was even more troublesome. .

“Then what should we do?” Lu Qingjiu said, “Should we just let it stay in the human world?”

“After all, it’s a Zhulong, it always reveals itself.” Bai Yuehu said. “He can’t hold back for long.” The biggest difference between Zhulong and ordinary non-humans was that it was difficult for them to control their desires, whether it was love or dislike, and even if this desire could be endured for a while, in the end it would explode, and this explosion would be devastating, making it impossible for them to survive in the human realm at all, like normal non-humans.

Thinking of the Zhulong, Lu Qingjiu still felt a little worried, but he didn’t say it out, he just changed his tone to comfort Bai Yuehu, saying that he would definitely catch the Zhulong soon.

In September, when it was time to eat fresh chestnuts, they went to pick from the wild chestnut tree in the forest they had picked from last year as usual. This time Yin Xun wisely found a hat and gloves to avoid screaming like last year. After the fresh chestnuts were picked, Lu Qingjiu asked Bai Yuehu to kill a chicken and used it to make stewed chicken with chestnuts. The taste of the chicken and the chestnuts blended together perfectly. The chestnuts were soft and sweet, and the chicken was tender and juicy. Just the smell made people salivate.

In autumn, the weather became cooler, and there was more rain than in summer. With the rain, there were mushrooms sprouting all over the mountain. These wild mushrooms were delicious, whether they were stewed with chicken, stir-fried, or stored in the sun. Originally, eating wild mushrooms was risky, but because they had Yin Xun in their family, they didn’t have any worries about it.

Picking an afternoon after the rain, Lu Qingjiu, with a small bamboo basket on his back, went up the mountain with Yin Xun to pick mushrooms.

Bai Yuehu didn’t go with them, he was called to the city by Zhu Rong, it seemed that something important had happened on their side.

“The little girl who picked mushrooms carried a big bamboo basket and walked through the woods and hills with bare feet in the morning.” Yin Xun sang happily while picking mushrooms.

Lu Qingjiu followed behind and said, “How old are you, can’t you be more mature?”

Yin Xun replied: “Although I have grown up, I will always have the same heart as a child.”

Lu Qingjiu: “I think you look like a child all over.”

Yin Xun: “Are you praising me for being cute?”

Lu Qingjiu: “I’m calling you short.”

Yin Xun: “….” Lu Qingjiu, you have gone bad.

In the sky after the rain, a small half of the sun filtered out through the clouds. Different from the scorching sun in summer, the sun at this time was warm and gentle, giving off a warm feeling when it shined on people. Lu Qingjiu put all his attention on the path in front of him.

The path Yin Xun had taken him on was one that was not usually traveled, the road surface was filled with weeds and clumps of fallen leaves. On such a path, however, mushrooms were the most abundant, and as long as you swept away the fallen leaves on the ground with the stick in your hand, you could see the lovely mushrooms growing on the moist soil. There were all kinds of strange and colorful mushrooms. If Lu Qingjiu came here by himself, he would definitely not dare to pick them up and eat them. There were many cases of death from mushroom poisoning in the news.

It was different with Yin Xun being present. He could distinguish almost all mushrooms and determine whether they were edible. As for the few that they couldn’t distinguish, they just didn’t pick them and didn’t have to worry too much.

Lu Qingjiu put the confirmed edible mushrooms into his back basket, and praised: “Yin Xun, you are really amazing.”

Yin Xun replied: “Thank you! Thank you!”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Did you know that there is another kind of animal in the world that can search for precious mushrooms just like you, and the name of that kind of mushroom is called the matsutake mushroom?”

Yin Xun said, “What animal?”

Lu Qingjiu: “Pig.”

Yin Xun looked at him angrily, he realized that Lu Qingjiu was really wilful and bad, usually he didn’t see it, but when he was lively occasionally, he revealed himself.

Lu Qingjiu pretended not to see Yin Xun’s angry gaze, and continued to walk slowly behind.

The autumn wind blew the green leaves into a beautiful golden color, and as the wind drifted down on the ground, it made a beautiful blanket. Yin Xun, who was walking in front, let out a surprise cry: “Jiu‘er, come here, come here! There are a lot of mushrooms.”

Lu Qingjiu hummed, and hurried forward.

There were indeed a lot of mushrooms growing in an open space, but the number of these mushrooms was a bit strange. Yin Xun didn’t think much about it, and had already bent down to pick them excitedly.

Lu Qingjiu said, “Why are there so many mushrooms here?”

“Maybe there are dead trees underneath.” Yin Xun turned to look at Lu Qingjiu, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Lu Qingjiu also felt that he was a little too sensitive, so he also squatted down, but he didn’t rush to pick it up, but observed the surrounding situation.

Yin Xun said: “These mushrooms are really fat, and they are all non-toxic. This kind of mushroom tastes very good, and can be used with stew chicken.” He was halfway through speaking, and suddenly his expression froze for a moment, and his voice stopped.

“Yin Xun?” Lu Qingjiu asked in doubt.

Yin Xun stiffly raised his head to look at Lu Qingjiu, grabbed his wrist, and shook his head stiffly.

“What?” Lu Qingjiu originally wanted to ask what’s wrong, but after seeing Yin Xun’s terrified eyes, he lowered his head as if feeling something. He swallowed, and asked, “There’s something wrong with the mushrooms?”

Yin Xun nodded slowly.

Lu Qingjiu lowered his eyes and looked at the place where Yin Xun had picked mushrooms from. There used to be dense mushrooms growing in that area, but now Yin Xun picked a lot of them,  revealing a sparse foundation, and on top of the foundation, a closed eye was hidden among the mushrooms. There was actually a person buried under the mushrooms.

Yin Xun was obviously frightened, his face turned pale, his lips trembled: “Jiu’er, let’s go back.”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Calm down, come here.”

The two stood aside, and Lu Qingjiu used the stick in his hand to sweep away the dense mushroom in front of him bit by bit. After the mushroom clusters were swept away, revealing what was underneath, it was actually really a person, his body was completely covered with dense mushrooms, and only the place where Yin Xun picked a lot just now was slightly sparse.

Lu Qingjiu slowly swept away the mushrooms on that person’s face, and his heart sank after seeing that person’s face clearly.

Noticing the unusual look on Lu Qingjiu’s face, Yin Xun asked Lu Qingjiu if he knew the victim.

“En.” Lu Qingjiu said, “I know.” This person was the Autumn God Ru Shou, whom they had seen in the market in summer, but at this time he was no longer breathing and had turned into a cold corpse. The flesh and blood gave birth to other plants, just like the generous autumn.

Lu Qingjiu’s head was a little dizzy, he didn’t understand why Ru Shou appeared here, he took out his mobile phone and was about to call Bai Yuehu, but Yin Xun beside him uttered a terrified cry, pulling Lu Qingjiu back again and again.

“What’s the matter?” Lu Qingjiu was taken aback by Yin Xun’s sudden shout.

“He, he, he opened his eyes!” Yin Xun was not very courageous in the first place, and almost fainted after being so frightened, “Is he going to get up from the ground?”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Calm down, I’ll go take a look.”

Yin Xun said: “But…”

Before Yin Xun could finish speaking, Lu Qingjiu had already cautiously walked to Ru Shou’s side, and saw that his eyes were indeed opened. However, those pair of originally beautiful black eyes had already lost their radiance, covered with a layer of white shade. Then, Lu Qingjiu noticed the mushrooms on Ru Shou’s body had some slight changes. They began to grow bigger and bigger, and became more and more colorful, and finally spread to Ru Shou’s whole body rapidly, covering all parts except his eyes.

There seemed to be something moving in those eyes. The next moment, Lu Qingjiu saw a few ice-blue worms crawling out of his eyes. After crawling out, these icy-blue worms started eating the surrounding mushrooms. Then, they began to spin silk and cocoon, wrapping themselves up.

Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu quickly backed away, telling Yin Xun not to come any closer.

Yin Xun asked Lu Qingjiu in a trembling voice what he saw, and Lu Qingjiu said, “Butterfly.”

As soon as he finished speaking, ice-blue butterflies flew up from Ru Shou’s body. They fluttered their beautiful wings and flew towards the sky then quickly turned into blue spots of light and disappeared from Lu Qingjiu’s view.

Lu Qingjiu didn’t wait any longer, took out his mobile phone and called Bai Yuehu.

The phone rang more than a dozen times before it was picked up. Bai Yuehu’s voice came from the other end of the phone, which unexpectedly calmed Lu Qingjiu’s heart. His words were straight to the point. The first sentence was: “Ru Shou is dead.”

“Where are you?” Bai Yuehu’s tone was instantly tense.

“Yin Xun and I are on the mountain.” Lu Qingjiu said, “After you left, we went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, and then found Ru Shou’s body.” He quickly described what happened to Ru Shou’s body, as well as the ice-blue butterflies.

Bai Yuehu asked Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun to go home immediately after listening, and he rushed back immediately.

Lu Qingjiu hummed in agreement, and hung up the phone, carrying the basket and wanting to leave, Yin Xun trembled and said, “So, just leave him here?”

Lu Qingjiu said: “I don’t know what’s going on with this corpse, let’s not touch it.” Although he had a quarter of the Dragon blood, his ability was the same as that of a human, and Yin Xun was just a weak Mountain God. So if the two of them really encountered something, I’m afraid that they would be powerless to fight back.

Yin Xun replied: “My mushrooms, do you want to take it back?”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Forget it, put your basket here.” It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bring it, but the mushrooms Yin Xun picked from the corpse just now were all mixed with the previous ones, so they wouldn’t dare to eat them even if they brought them back.

Yin Xun nodded in despair, and the two started walking home.

Along the way, Yin Xun whispered that he hadn’t seen such a scene at all when he had observed it with the vision of the Mountain God, nor had he sensed any unusual aura. It seemed that the non-human who killed Ru Shou had a powerful power to directly block Yin Xun’s sight.

Lu Qingjiu comforted Yin Xun for a long time before he managed to recover. It was no wonder that Yin Xun was so depressed. He was supposed to be a Mountain God who could see everything in the Shifu Village. In his perception at least here he was able to give Lu Qingjiu a preview of the danger ahead of time, but it seemed that he was unable to even do that now. Someone had silently placed a body in front of them, and he hadn’t even captured that person’s shadow.

Bai Yuehu came back quickly, and when he learned that Ru Shou’s body was on the mountain, he hurried to the forest.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun waited in the courtyard. This kind of waiting was exhausting, so Lu Qingjiu simply found something for them to do, saying that they should clean the mushrooms they picked today.

But after the two took out the mushrooms, they involuntarily stopped their movements, looked at each other and saw the same wry smile in each other’s eyes. That’s right, when they saw the mushrooms, they both thought of the corpse they found in the forest today, and it could be said that they had completely lost their appetite.

Fortunately, Bai Yuehu came back fairly quickly. Lu Qingjiu originally thought that he would bring back the corpse, but he was empty-handed and brought nothing.

“Where’s the corpse?” Lu Qingjiu asked carefully.

“Put it where it should go.” Bai Yuehu’s face was dark, “Why did you suddenly think of going to the mountain to pick mushrooms?”

Yin Xun replied: “I suggested it.”

Bai Yuehu glanced at Yin Xun and pursed his lips slightly.

“Didn’t I talk about it a few days ago, so after it rained yesterday, Yin Xun asked if I wanted to pick mushrooms.” Lu Qingjiu said, “I saw that you were not here, so I agreed.” This year’s rainfall was low, and if they didn’t go today, they didn’t know when they would have to wait until next time.

Bai Yuehu nodded and understood.

“Will Ru Shou be resurrected?” Yin Xun remembered the previous incident where the Spring God was killed and asked Bai Yuehu expectantly.

But this time, Bai Yuehu didn’t give a definite answer.

Lu Qingjiu had a bad feeling in his heart, as expected, Bai Yuehu sighed softly: “As long as Autumn is still there, he will be resurrected.”

Yin Xun relaxed after hearing this, and said with a smile, “That would be great.”

Bai Yuehu glanced at Yin Xun: “But the premise is that there will be autumn.”

Lu Qingjiu didn’t understand, the four seasons were what they should have in the human world. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, time didn’t stop, and the four seasons would continue to flow. But hearing Bai Yuehu’s words, could the four seasons also disappear?

Bai Yuehu continued: “There are four seasons to give birth to Gods, Gou Mang is Spring, Zhu Rong is Summer, Ru Shou is Autumn, Xuan Ming is Winter, these are the rules that only exist in the human world.” There was some helplessness in his tone, “But in the Other World, there are no four seasons.” There were three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, and every day had the same appearance, and there were no four seasons.

Without the four seasons, there was no need for the Gods who controlled the four seasons. Of course, the dead would not be resurrected.

Both Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun understood the meaning of Bai Yuehu’s words, and their eyes widened slightly, full of disbelief.

“Yuehu, you mean that if the Other World and the Human World merge, then the four seasons will dissipate, and the dead Four Seasons Gods will not be resurrected.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Is that so?”

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Now that the God of Spring and God of Autumn were dead, only the God of Summer, Zhu Rong, and the God of Winter, Xuan Ming, were left. Lu Qingjiu had seen Zhu Rong, but he had never heard about Xuan Ming, so he asked, wanting to know about Xuan Ming.

Unexpectedly, Bai Yuehu shook his head, saying that they hadn’t heard the news about Xuan Ming for a long time. In this world where spiritual power was weak and beliefs were gradually fading, the God of Four Seasons could be said to be a god with relatively abundant divine power. Responsible for maintaining the rules of non-human beings living in the human world. Xuan Ming was supposed to be the overlord of one party, but he had disappeared for a long time. No one had any news about him, and no one knew if he was alive or not.

“Is Zhu Rong going to be okay?” Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help worrying.

“For the time being.” Bai Yuehu said, “Zhu Rong is the executioner, powerful, and the one who is the least likely to die.” He said, “If he is gone, then this world is over.”

The Four Seasons God could control the wind and rain according to the prayers and sacrifices of the believers, making the human world windy and rainy, but the dead ones didn’t have this ability anymore. Frost, wind, rain and snow all change randomly according to the Heavenly Will, and floods and droughts were all predestined.

Fortunately, with the continuous development of human science and technology, the requirements for weather were not as harsh as in ancient times, but abnormal weather was still fatal to farmers. It was conceivable that a hailstorm or snowfall suddenly falling at peak of summer would cause the crops to fail.

In front of nature, the fragility of human beings was all too apparent.

Ru Shou’s death casted a shadow of melancholy on the whole family, and Lu Qingjiu was also depressed for a few days, but he quickly forced himself to pull himself together. He first dried the mushrooms brought down from the mountain, and then stewed chicken with the mushrooms. The rich aroma and taste diluted everyone’s shadow of mushrooms.

At the end of September, it was the annual Mid-Autumn Festival again. Lu Qingjiu felt that the atmosphere at home was not very good recently, so he got everyone to cook a big meal together during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and then make some mooncakes and crabs to enjoy the moon.

The crabs were sent over from Zhu Miaomiao’s side. They were all round and plump. The huge crab claws and plump crab paste were particularly appetizing. Lu Qingjiu made mooncakes of various flavors a few days in advance, and secretly wrapped copper coins in the mooncakes to get good luck.

On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, various sumptuous dishes were placed on the table. The most striking dish was the spicy crab in the middle, which was made of meat crab. The paste was not much, but the crab meat was fat and delicious, and it was cooked with spicy sauce, and there were stuffy soft sweet potato strips and onions in it. Both Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu ate quite a lot. At night, Lu Qingjiu saw that the weather was good, so he made tea and brought mooncakes to the yard. Everyone watched the moon and ate mooncakes together. The atmosphere was much better, but after eating the mooncakes, Lu Qingjiu didn’t even get one copper coin. He was a little confused, muttering whether he forgot to wrap it or had even lost a few mooncakes.

Yin Xun asked Lu Qingjiu what was wrong.

“No, did you eat any hard things?” Lu Qingjiu was confused, “I baked five copper coins in the mooncakes, why didn’t I get any of them?”

Both Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu’s expressions changed.

Lu Qingjiu had a horrified guess, and looked at the two contented people who had been eating mooncakes beside him in disbelief: “Hey, you two wouldn’t have eaten it right?”

Yin Xun said: “I didn’t eat.”

Bai Yuehu: “Me neither.”

Lu Qingjiu was very suspicious,trying to see something in the expressions of the two, but Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu both looked innocent, which made Lu Qingjiu wonder if he had misunderstood them.

“You really didn’t eat it?” Lu Qingjiu confirmed again.

“No.” Yin Xun said, “I can’t bite.”

Bai Yuehu also shook his head.

Lu Qingjiu could only give up and didn’t continue to dwell on this matter.

The moment Lu Qingjiu entered the room to get hot water and prepare to add tea, Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu looked at each other, and both saw guilt in each other’s eyes. Yin Xun whispered: “I ate two.” He thought It was rock candy, and he swallowed it whole.

Bai Yuehu stretched out three fingers, he was much crueler than Yin Xun, he didn’t notice the copper coins at all, he just felt that the stuffing was a little hard, and then crunched on it and swallowed it all.

After the two finished saying this, Lu Qingjiu happened to come back, and their expressions once again changed back to their previous calm and unperturbed appearance, pretending that nothing had happened.

It seemed that Lu Qingjiu’s luck was really not very good, he didn’t even get a single copper coin, as for the ones who got it, they had eaten it fully.

———-

The author has something to say:

Yin Xun: This piece is a bit big, but it will be fine if you swallow it.

Bai Yuehu: This piece is a bit hard, it will be fine if you chew it.

Lu Qingjiu: Meow meow!