Fantasy Farm

Chapter 111 - The Power of Choice

Edited by Zaki

While thinking about Xuan Yu’s words, Lu Qingjiu reached out his hand to Xuan Yu who was still lying in the snow. Xuan Yu smiled slightly, holding Lu Qingjiu’s hand as he pulled him up from the ground. After he got up, he gently patted off the snowflakes stuck to his body, and said warmly: “Benefactor Lu, it’s cold outside, we’d better go inside and talk slowly.”

It was indeed quite cold outside. Lu Qingjiu agreed to Xuan Yu’s suggestion and returned to the house. Yin Xun, who was furious a while ago, now seemed like a deflated balloon. His whole body was languid, as he looked at Lu Qingjiu dejectedly, trying to persuade Lu Qingjiu not to listen to Xuan Yu. But obviously, he himself knew that this kind of persuasion was useless, so when the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back abruptly, and just remained silent in sadness. Lu Qingjiu could only pat his arm to comfort him.

Back in the warm room again, Yin Xun was afraid that Lu Qingjiu would be cold, so he hurried to the kitchen to pour hot tea. Feeling stingy, he insisted on not pouring hot water for Xuan Yu, and even picked out ice cubes from the refrigerator and threw them in Xuan Yu’s glass, wishing it would freeze the monk, who had stopped them from leaving, to death.

Xuan Yu didn’t mind at all. He picked up the glass of water and drank it in one gulp. He also smiled gently at Yin Xun and said thank you.

Xuan Yu: “Benefactor Lu, whether you leave or stay, the power of choice is in your hands.”

Lu Qingjiu: “If I leave, will Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun die?”

“We will not die.” Yin Xun said angrily, “We are all non-human beings, even if we are injured, we will recover.”

Lu Qingjiu ignored Yin Xun and continued to look at Xuan Yu.

But Xuan Yu nodded, and said: “When the two realms merge, the first place to suffer is the junction. The Shuifu Village will no longer exist, let alone the Yinglong who guards the human realm with his real body.”

Yin Xun was about to refute, but was held back by Lu Qingjiu. At this moment, he seemed to understand the meaning of Ao Run’s attack on him. Ao Run injected cold air into his body and forced him to leave Shuifu Village. As long as he left Shuifu Village, the cold air in his body would not cause trouble and the result of sacrifice would be avoided. But apart from that, Ao Run seemed to want to merge the two worlds.

Xuan Yu continued: “The four Gods are dead, without the four Gods’ obstruction, it is only a matter of time before the two worlds merge, and Benefactor Lu is the only one who has the ability to stop it.”

Lu Qingjiu had heard these words before, but when he listened again at this time, he found redundant information. He looked up at Xuan Yu suspiciously, and said, “Young Master, you know where the God of Winter is and also know his recent situation.”

Xuan Yu hummed softly.

“But hasn’t the God of Winter disappeared for a long time? His name is Xuan Ming.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Your name is Xuan Yu. What’s the relationship between you two?”

Xuan Yu sighed: “Benefactor Lu…”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Just tell me, I can bear it.” Whether it was Ao Run or Bai Yuehu, they refused to give him a chance to choose when faced with certain things, because they believed that it was better not knowing some things. It was no better than being kept in the dark, but in fact Lu Qingjiu had always been a person with his own ideas. He knew what he wanted and did not need or be willing to let others make decisions for him.

“The God of Winter has indeed disappeared for many years.” Xuan Yu said, “The last time he met the other three Gods was a hundred years ago.”

Unlike other Gods, the Winter God was not loved by humans.

He brought death, hunger and cold. Amidst the white snow, people were looking forward to the cold winter passing quickly and the arrival of spring which was full of life. The other Gods emerged from human belief and expectation, but the Winter God emerged from fear and awe.

“But the Winter God didn’t mind that.” Xuan Yu said, “He didn’t resent it.”

Lu Qingjiu knew that something must have happened to the God of Winter, so he asked, “What happened then?”

Xuan Yu lowered his eyes and said in a slightly lower voice: “This was until the God of Winter was corrupted.”

Lu Qingjiu showed a look of astonishment: “The Winter God was corrupted?”

Xuan Yu nodded.

“Wait a minute, how can a God become corrupted?” Lu Qingjiu said in disbelief, “But even if he was corrupted, didn’t you say the problem was not serious?”

Xuan Yu: “It should not have been serious, because the Gods of the four Seasons can be reborn. Once they are reborn, the corruption would be lifted. However, before his rebirth, the Winter God had an accident.”

Lu Qingjiu became nervous: “What happened?”

Xuan Yu: “The Winter God was divided.”

Lu Qingjiu: “Ah” He immediately thought of his Grandfather who was split into red and black.

“His soul split into two parts, one part inherited the corruption, and the other part was pure and innocent. The part that inherited the corruption was killed by the innocent part, and after that it took decades to reconstruct his body.” Xuan Yu continued , “No one knows about this.” He explained that the four Gods originally could feel each other. If the God of Winter died, the other three Gods could feel it, but the problem was that the God of Winter was split into two. Partly, so when one of them died, the other three Gods did not react, thinking that the Winter God was still alive. However, this was not the worst thing. The worst thing was that after the corrupted half of the Winter God was reborn, the corruption did not disappear. Not only did it not disappear, but it also lost its previous memories, was full of evil thoughts towards the Human World, and even colluded with the Zhulongs and wanted to directly integrate the Human World and the Other World.

When Xuan Yu said this, there was a hint of helplessness in his tone, obviously not understanding why something that should have been simple became so complicated because of a small accident.

Lu Qingjiu fell silent after hearing this, and then looked at Xuan Yu with strange eyes: “Is that you?”

Xuan Yu and Lu Qingjiu looked at each other.

“You are the other half of the Winter God.” Lu Qingjiu originally thought that the names Xuan Yu and Xuan Ming were just coincidences, but now that he carefully thought about it, there were not so many coincidences in the world, and every time Xuan Yu appeared, there would be heavy snowfall. The first time was last Winter, and the second time was during the snowfall in June this year.

Xuan Yu: “That’s right.” He admitted it very easily.

“No way you are the God of Winter.” Yin Xun, who was sitting next to him, couldn’t sit still. He stood up and said, “How can you be the Winter God? I have seen the Winter God. He is so powerful. What’s wrong with you?”

Xuan Yu looked helpless and said that when the soul was split, he basically had no power. If it wasn’t for the corrupted half of the Winter God voluntarily going to his death he wouldn’t have been able to kill him, only now after that other half was reborn it had no memory of what it was like before, and it wasn’t at all going to let him kill him all over again, and it even wanted to fuse him together.

Lu Qingjiu and Yin Xun were stunned for a moment, never expecting such a situation.

“Then why didn’t you tell the others earlier?” Lu Qingjiu asked, “If you had spoken of this earlier, there should be a chance of rescue.”

Xuan Yu: “My strength is too weak and I can only appear in the coldest time. I thought he was just throwing a tantrum before. It wasn’t until this year that I discovered that he was serious.” He sighed again.

Lu Qingjiu was still about to speak, but he heard a violent wind blowing in the yard. This wind was very different from the usual wind. It was as shrill as a howl. It even picked up the snowflakes on the ground and threw them into the sky, covering them all. Without the sunshine, the whole world was plunged into darkness.

“He’s here.” Xuan Yu stood up.

Lu Qingjiu knew that he was talking about the corrupted part of Winter God, so he hurriedly said: “Don’t go out, Bai Yuehu will be back soon.”

Xuan Yu shook his head: “He won’t come back so soon.”

Lu Qingjiu: “What do you know?”

Xuan Yu: “Do you still remember the snow in June?”

Of course Lu Qingjiu remembered, he even remembered the vision between heaven and earth at that time, and those Zhulongs who fought with Bai Yuehu.

Xuan Yu said, “That was the plot they laid. Zhu Rong’s death is just the beginning.” He clasped his hands together and saluted Lu Qingjiu, “Benefactor Lu, I have to offend you.”

Before Lu Qingjiu could react, Xuan Yu reached out his finger and tapped Lu Qingjiu’s forehead. Then, Lu Qingjiu felt a chill on his forehead, and all the coldness in his body seemed to gather at the top of his head. In Yin Xun’s stunned gaze, several dancing ice butterflies appeared in front of Lu Qingjiu’s eyes. These ice butterflies flew out of Lu Qingjiu’s skin, and at the same time took away the cold feeling in his body.

“You don’t have to worry whether Benefactor Lu is going or staying.” Xuan Yu said softly.

Before Lu Qingjiu could be happy, he saw Xuan Yu was about to push the door open. He wanted to stop Xuan Yu, but Xuan Yu had already made up his mind. He said that there was no power in his body, and that being fused might be able to play a role in stopping the other half instead, so Lu Qingjiu didn’t need to worry!

Lu Qingjiu: “But after the fusion, you will no longer be there.”

Xuan Yu smiled: “I have done and said everything that needs to be said and done. He and I are one and the same.”

He refused Lu Qingjiu’s obstruction, pushed the door open, and walked out slowly from the yard.

Across the howling wind and snow, Lu Qingjiu could vaguely see a short figure standing outside the house. After identifying it with difficulty, he realized that he had seen this child before. He never expected that the child would turn out to be the legendary God of Winter. Xuan Yu had already walked to the child’s side, bent down, and held the child’s cold hand.

“You are finally willing to come back.” The child rubbed his cheek against the back of Xuan Yu’s hand with some nostalgia, his voice still childish, “I have been waiting for you for a long time.”

Xuan Yu hummed softly and said, “I’ve kept you waiting for a long time.”

The child: “Let’s go.”

Xuan Yu bent down and picked up the child skillfully. The child hugged Xuan Yu’s neck tightly, as if he was afraid that he would suddenly leave again. The two figures gradually disappeared into the snow curtain, and the originally cold wind also calmed down.

Lu Qingjiu stood by the window in a daze.

Yin Xun poked Lu Qingjiu and muttered, “Jiu‘er, shall we go?”

Lu Qingjiu: “Don’t go, let’s wait for Bai Yuehu to come back.”

Yin Xun hesitated, wanting to speak, but finally said nothing.

After Xuan Yu and the child left, the snow stopped, and the warm sunshine shone through the clouds on the snow. The air was cold, but it no longer caused Lu Qingjiu any pain. Xuan Yu took away the chill in his body., allowing him to return to his normal state.

Bai Yuehu came back at dusk. At that time, Lu Qingjiu was already lying on the Kang bed and about to fall asleep. He entered the room very lightly, but Lu Qingjiu immediately opened his eyes and saw him.

“Ao Yue.” Lu Qingjiu called his real name.

Bai Yuehu’s expression was slightly stunned, as if he didn’t expect Lu Qingjiu to actually know his real name. The black robe he was wearing at this time was covered with dark red blood, and because the temperature was too low, the blood had all solidified, exuding… a faint smell of blood. He walked to Lu Qingjiu’s side, lowered his head and stared at his lover. His long black hair fell on Lu Qingjiu’s cheeks, causing a slight itch. He said, “How did you know?”

“I guessed it.” Lu Qingjiu blinked, reached out to hold a strand of Bai Yuehu’s hair, “You’re back.”

“En, I’m back.” Bai Yuehu placed a gentle kiss on Lu Qingjiu’s lips, and then picked Lu Qingjiu up from the bed, “We’ll leave right away.”

“No.” Lu Qingjiu said, “I’m not leaving, I’m not cold anymore, I want to stay here with you.”

The movements of Bai Yuehu’s hands stopped, and his originally gentle expression also faded. He looked at Lu Qingjiu and refused, “No.”

“Xuan Yu is the God of Winter.” Lu Qingjiu said, “He helped me get rid of the cold in my body, so I don’t have to leave.”

“You have to go.” Bai Yuehu reached out and touched Lu Qingjiu’s face. After feeling that Lu Qingjiu’s cheeks were no longer as cold as before, but had the soft warmth that a human skin should have, he breathed a sigh of relief. But even so, he didn’t mean to drop the matter, “This place will become very dangerous.”

Lu Qingjiu: “I know, so I want to stay with you here.” Xuan Yu once said that he was the only one who could stop all this, and someone has already told him the answer. Although he was still confused now, he thought he would figure it out eventually.

Bai Yuehu forcefully rejected Lu Qingjiu, insisting that he had to leave. Of course, what he said sounded particularly ruthless. Saying that Lu Qingjiu’s body was too weak and if he and the Zhulongs fought, he would also have to divert his energy to protecting Lu Qingjiu. Lu Qingjiu was not annoyed when he heard this. He just held Bai Yuehu’s shoulders, turned his head forcefully, and told him to look into his eyes and say what he just said again.

Bai Yuehu said angrily: “Lu Qingjiu”

Lu Qingjiu said, “If you say it again, I’ll leave.”

Bai Yuehu took a deep breath, seemed to have done some mental preparation, and planned to repeat what he just said, but he noticed the aggrieved look in Lu Qingjiu’s eyes, so when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them down.

“Look, you can’t even tell me.” Lu Qingjiu laughed, put his arms around Bai Yuehu’s neck, and said, “I don’t care, I won’t leave anyway, aren’t you Dragons the stingiest people? If you die and I live on, there will still be a long time to come. Are you not afraid that I will find another girl to get married and have children, and maybe even have seven or eight children at once?”

Bai Yuehu grabbed Lu Qingjiu’s wrist and gritted his teeth: “How dare you!”

Lu Qingjiu: “There is nothing I dare not do. I will dare to do everything when you are gone.”

It was okay not to mention this, but when Bai Yuehu thought about it, he became angrier and angrier. When he thought about the scene where he was gone and Lu Qingjiu was with others, he almost wanted to swallow the person in front of him directly and not let him go anywhere. Lu Qingjiu looked at Bai Yuehu’s faintly turning red pupils, and knew not to irritate his stingy Dragon too much, so he quickly gave a comforting kiss. He didn’t speak until the breath of Bai Yuehu’s kiss became uneven. And then said: “Look, you are already so angry just because I talked about it, Yuehu, I know you’re worried about what would happen, but I’m not afraid, wherever you go I want to stay with you.” Even if it’s hell.

Bai Yuehu hugged Lu Qingjiu tightly, wishing to embed him in his body, and said: “You will die.”

Lu Qingjiu buried his head in Bai Yuehu’s long hair, smelling the breath of wind and snow in his hair, and said, “If I disappear, you can’t go behind my back and find someone else.”

Bai Yuehu couldn’t bear it anymore and bit Lu Qingjiu’s ear. He bit quite fiercely, and Lu Qingjiu hissed. When Bai Yuehu stopped, Lu Qingjiu’s ears were already bleeding. Bai Yuehu felt quite distressed when he saw the blood beads, and carefully licked them clean.

Lu Qingjiu was dumbfounded by Bai Yuehu’s childish performance, he patted Bai Yuehu’s shoulder, and said, “Okay, do not make a fuss, let’s live a good life, as for what will happen in the future, we will talk about it again.”

Bai Yuehu’s expression was a little sullen, and he seemed to be still struggling.

Lu Qingjiu said some more words, the main idea was to let Bai Yuehu imagine that he would still live without him, and that he could live on like this, it would be better to go with Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu’s mood gradually calmed down.

Lu Qingjiu no longer had the chill in his body and felt that he had regained his youthful vitality. He rushed to the guest room to pull up Yin Xun who was also taking a nap, and said that they would have a big dinner tonight.

Yin Xun was confused by Lu Qingjiu and said: “What kind of feast?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “It depends on what you want to eat.”

Yin Xun was stunned for a few seconds before he recovered from his dazed state and said, “No, why are you talking about dinner? Where is Bai Yuehu? Is he back?”

Lu Qingjiu pointed to his ear that had been bitten quite a bit, and said, “He’s back, not only did he come back, but also bit me, almost biting off my ear.”

Yin Xun: “…..”

Lu Qingjiu: “And a little shy.”

Yin Xun’s expression twisted for a moment. He didn’t know whether to hate them for giving him dog food at this time, or to be happy that Bai Yuehu was fine. He said, “Bai Yuehu didn’t say anything when he came back?”

Lu Qingjiu: “Say what?”

“Of course tell you to leave this place.” Yin Xun said anxiously, “Didn’t Xuan Yu say that something will happen soon? You will have problems staying here, shouldn’t he send you away immediately? Why are you still here wasting time?”

Lu Qingjiu patted his shoulder and signalled him to calm down. Then he slowly explained the consensus reached between him and Bai Yuehu, in a word, he had already decided to stay here, and Bai Yuehu chose to support his idea.

Yin Xun was dumbfounded, he originally thought that the first thing Bai Yuehu would do when he came back was to take Lu Qingjiu away. Xuan Yu could fool Lu Qingjiu, could he still fool Bai Yuehu? But listening to Lu Qingjiu’s words and expressions, obviously he wasn’t lying. Did he really convince Bai Yuehu to let him stay here?

“Is Bai Yuehu crazy? How could he allow you to stay?” Yin Xun said in disbelief, “Didn’t he know you would die? He was also brainwashed by Xuan Yu?”

“Yin Xun.” Lu Qingjiu stopped him. He knew what Yin Xun was thinking. As Yin Xun’s only friend, Yin Xun would naturally want him to live. But in human life, there were things better than being alive. For the most important thing, Xuan Yu didn’t force him to stay. He just told Lu Qingjiu all the options and let him make his own choice, “Everyone will die.”

Yin Xun still refused to accept it.

Lu Qingjiu: “Calm down, everyone will die. Let me ask you a question. If between the two of us, only one can survive, and I gave that opportunity to you, would you be happy?”

After Yin Xun thought for a moment, and feeling despair, he replied that he wouldn’t.

“I won’t be happy either.” Lu Qingjiu said, “If I leave and survive, but spend the rest of my life missing Bai Yuehu and you… I don’t want to live the rest of my life like that.”

Yin Xun calmed down and stopped trying to persuade Lu Qingjiu, but he was still very depressed.

When Lu Qingjiu saw this, he didn’t continue to persuade him any more, he turned around and went to the kitchen alone.

Today was an important day, and Lu Qingjiu decided to cook a sumptuous dinner.

He took out a large amount of ingredients from the refrigerator, and then started to carefully prepare them with his head down. After the shrimps had thawed, he cleaned them and put them into a frying pan. Cut the potatoes, onions and carrots into strips, blanched them and stir-fry them with special seasonings. Finally, after he added the shrimps and simmered for a while, the delicious dry-pot shrimps were ready. The room was soon filled with the rich aroma of food. At some point, both Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu appeared in the kitchen and began to help Lu Qingjiu.

“These shrimps taste better when they are fresh, but they have been frozen for a long time now.” Lu Qingjiu muttered, “I will definitely buy more fresh seafood when spring comes next year.”

“I want to eat squid flowers.” Yin Xun said sullenly next to him.

“It’s too late to say it now, I’ll make it for you tomorrow. Lu Qingjiu picked up the shrimps and looked at the chicken soup still simmering in the pot. “Hu‘er, do you want to eat something?”

Bai Yuehu shook his head, indicating that anything was fine.

Lu Qingjiu took some pork from the refrigerator and planned to make twice-cooked pork.

Yin Xun stood nearby and suddenly started sobbing, crying very sadly. Lu Qingjiu looked helpless, put down what he was holding and turned around to ask him what he was crying about.

Yin Xun choked and said, “I just remembered that in the days before you came, I had no meat to eat. When I finally bought meat, I could only boil it in plain water. Lu Qingjiu, I am so scared.”

Lu Qingjiu: “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

Although Bai Yuehu didn’t speak, he gently held Lu Qingjiu’s hand beside him. The two of them intertwined their fingers, and the uneasiness in Bai Yuehu’s expression subsided slightly.

“I won’t let you and Yuehu be wronged again.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Look at how miserable life is in this village. There was not even a trash can. At least Hu‘er can still dig through the trash can.”

Bai Yuehu: “I didn’t”

Lu Qingjiu: “Really not?”

Bai Yuehu: “Occasionally.”

Lu Qingjiu: “Occasionally?”

Bai Yuehu gave up talking, silently let go and turned around to do things, ignoring Lu Qingjiu who was teasing him. Lu Qingjiu was so amused by Bai Yuehu’s appearance that his heart softened. He leaned over and kissed his stingy fake vixen gently, finally coaxing him back to a good mood.

The corners of Yin Xun’s mouth, too, reluctantly revealed a hint of a smile.