Fantasy Farm

Chapter 96 - All the best ya

Edited by Zaki

When Chen Xuyang woke up again, he was back in his bed. He opened his eyes and even thought that he had an absurd dream. But when he sat up from the bed and saw his messy living room, he realized that it was not a dream and everything had really happened.

The floor and walls of his house were dripping with blood, and there were also gnawed remnants of flesh. The strong pungent smell of blood in the air made the place look like a scene from hell and seeing the bloody scene, Chen Xuyang almost fainted again. After a lot of effort, he calmed his mind and with the last of his self-control, he took out his mobile phone, and tremblingly called the police.

When Hu Shu received the call from Chen Xuyang, he was a little surprised. Chen Xuyang had just said the jar was all right and there was no issue but how come within half an hour he called again and said there was a problem?

“I do not know ah.” Chen Xuyang wanted to cry, “Help, comrade policeman, my house looks like a murder scene now.”

Hu Shu felt very helpless, and while comforting Chen Xuyang, he commanded: “Then you come out of your house first, and wait downstairs, we will come right away.”

Chen Xuyang nodded hurriedly in agreement.

To leave the bedroom, one needed to pass through the living room. The original short distance was like a huge endless chasm right now. Chen Xuyang built up his courage for a long time and after repeatedly confirming that the thing he saw before he passed out was not in the living room, he cautiously stepped forward and wanted to leave home.

But who knew that when he walked to the center of the living room, he found that the minced meat and bones in his living room seemed to be arranged in a pattern. Chen Xuyang’s first reaction when he saw this pattern was some kind of magic circle summoned by the evil god, so he hurriedly scrambled out of the house and closed the door with his trembling hands.

It was already very hot in June, but Chen Xuyang still felt chills all over his body. He waited downstairs for a long time before Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi arrived. When he saw them, he looked like he had seen his lifesaver and cried out: “Police comrades, you are finally here.”

Hu Shu asked, “What’s the matter?”

Chen Xuyang hurriedly described the situation at his home. He said that there was blood everywhere on the floor and the walls, and the center of the living room also had some pattern made with pieces of meat and bones. Looking at the scene, it was definitely made by something that had a messed up mind and was evil. And it looked like it wanted to kill him. He was so descriptive that it made the people listening to his narration feel chilled to the bones.

Fortunately, Pang Ziqi was calm and said, “Let’s go up and have a look first.”

So the three people took the elevator and went back up to the house. Although Chen Xuyang was afraid and unwilling to go back, he would need to go home sooner or later.

He opened the door with his key, and Hu Shu also saw the situation in the room. Similar to what Chen Xuyang described, the room was a complete bloody mess. Things had not been touched but there were traces of blood everywhere. He then turned his head and saw the evil pattern that Chen Xuyang had described earlier.

“Let’s go in and have a look.”  In order to prevent accidents, Pang Ziqi pulled out his sidearm.

Hu Shu nodded and his expression also became very serious.

The two of them stepped into the house carefully, one after the other, and first checked the rooms to make sure there was no one else in the house. As Chen Xuyang said, the jar was still in the storage room.  Hu Zhu took the jar out and put it on the living room table for Pang Ziqi to keep an eye on it, to avoid any accidents.

“What the hell is going on with this jar?” Chen Xuyang trembled, “Officer Hu, didn’t you say it was a good jar.”

Hu Shu looked at Chen Xuyang thoughtfully: “Yes, you are still alive, aren’t you?”

Chen Xuyang: “…..”

Hu Shu said: “If this was an evil jar, I think it would have been your neighbor who would have called the police, not you.”

Chen Xuyang had nothing to say to that.

Pang Ziqi then turned his gaze to the evil god pattern in the living room and carefully observed it. But the more he looked, the more strange his expression became. Hu Shu couldn’t help asking, “Pang Ziqi, what do you see?”

Pang Ziqi looked at Chen Xuyang and asked, “Your birthday is in June?”

Chen Xuyang said nervously, “Yes, does it have something to do with the eight characters of birth?”

Pang Ziqi said: “It was your 26th birthday.”

Chen Xuyang nodded hurriedly: “Officer Pang, what do you ask this for? Is there something special about my birthday, have I been chosen as a sacrifice?”

Pang Ziqi: “Watch fewer horror movies.”

Chen Xuyang: “What’s the matter?”

Pang Ziqi pointed to the so-called evil god pattern and motioned Chen Xuyang to see it himself. Chen Xuyang was terribly afraid at first, but driven by Pang Ziqi’s fierce gaze, he looked at the evil god’s pattern tremblingly, but after looking at it for about ten seconds, Chen Xuyang’s expression became the same as Pang Ziqi’s: “This, this, this, this how?”

Hu Shu gave a long sigh and patted Chen Xuyang’s shoulder: “I told you that your family’s jar is a good jar”

The so-called evil god pattern was not an evil spell at all, but a few words made of meat and bone that said, Chen Xuyang, Happy 26th Birthday.

Although the characters were very roughly pieced together and the illustration was very bloody, it was really these words, and it seemed that the jar had quite a bit of difficulty in putting the wish together. Hu Shu shed a touch of tears when he saw them: “Look, they are celebrating your birthday.”

Looking at the font, Chen Xuyang felt a throbbing pain in his chest, and again he didn’t know what to say.

Pang Ziqi walked to the middle of the pattern and picked up several pieces of meat and bones. After a simple examination, it was determined that they were not human bones, but birds or other animals, because these bones were very thin and were not part of the human skeleton.

“So it’s all right.” Hu Shu comforted Chen Xuyang, “I guess the jar worked hard for a long time to put up this birthday wish.”

Chen Xuyang: “….” His consciousness was a little fuzzy.

Hu Zu said: “Otherwise let’s do it this way, you stick around for two more days to see, if it really does not work, I’ll call someone to come over to help and get rid of the jar.”

Chen Xuyang whispered, “How to deal with it?”

Hu Shu said, “Smash it, what else can we do?”

When Chen Xuyang heard that the jar was going to be smashed, his expression became complicated again. He could do it himself, but the problem was he didn’t want to harm the jar. After all, if wanted to smash it, he would have smashed it long ago.

Slowly the matter had been dragged till today. And it seemed that this thing really didn’t mean any harm to him. Just smashing it this way seemed very heartless.

“Okay, let me see again.” Chen Xuyang could only say so.

Pang Ziqi said, “This thing is humane. You can try to communicate with him, and check if it can be taught.”

Chen Xuyang: “Okay.”

After the police inspection was over, Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi left, leaving Chen Xuyang alone at home to clean the mess, looking at the jar with a complicated expression. Fortunately, this was his own house and he was living alone. Otherwise, the landlord or any roommate would have been scared with all the bloody handprints and would have moved out directly.

After cleaning, Chen Xuyang touched the smooth surface of the jar and decided to have a good talk with the jar, although he didn’t know if the jar could understand.

Lu Qingjiu didn’t know what happened at Hu Shu’s side. After eating mutton skewers that day, he couldn’t forget the taste of this stall. He also tried to mix the seasonings by himself, but he still felt that the spices were a little off. So he wanted to try the stall again. When Lu Qingjiu suggested the idea, Bai Yuehu and Yin Xun were both in favour. But before they decided the day to visit again, Hu Shu called Lu Qingjiu again, saying that someone wanted to invite them for dinner.

“Someone invited us to dinner?” Lu Qingjiu was curious, “Who is it?”

Hu Shu vaguely said that he would know when he came.

Lu Qingjiu thought about it for a moment and immediately understood:  “Is there something you can’t solve again?”

Hu Shu said: “You guessed it.”

Lu Qingjiu hit the nail on the head: “That day’s jar issue has not been solved yet?”

Hu Shu sighed, saying that it wasn’t that there was no solution, but that the solution was a little subtle, which caused the reporter to call the police frequently. Once or twice was still okay, but the number of calls were too frequent and their police force was thin on resources.

“Why is the person calling the police so often?” Lu Qingjiu didn’t understand.

Hu Shu was particularly helpless: “Although there has been no death, every time the door is opened, the reporter would see meat pieces and half chewed bones on the floor. Any normal person would feel scared.”

Lu Qingjiu was surprised and asked, “Why didn’t he throw the jar away?” Even if the jar was an heirloom, it was reasonable to think that after having done such a big incident, it would be thrown away. But instead the jar was still kept at home, how big was this person’s heart?

Hu Shu grimaced: “That’s where the problem lies.”

Lu Qingjiu: “What do you mean?”

Hu Shu said, “Those broken bones and meat are all spelled in Chinese characters with messages like: Why are you working hard today, pay attention to rest, and remember to go to bed early?”

Lu Qingjiu was drinking water, but when he heard this, he almost spat it out, choking on the water. He took a bit of time to recover, coughing he asked: “I didn’t hear it wrong, right? It was using broken meat and bones to spell these words?”

Hu Shu said helplessly, “You heard me right. The most exciting thing was that, one day when the reporter came home, he saw a big heart printed on his ceiling using bloody fingerprints.”

Lu Qingjiu covered his face, wanted to laugh, and felt that he was laughing at other people’s misfortunes, but to be honest, it was really funny.

“Then we realized we couldn’t communicate with the jar.” Hu Zhu said,  “Although the jar can feel our emotions, since it’s just emotions, it’s unable to understand the literal meaning.” His tone was a little helpless. “So I want to ask Brother Lu if you can help us communicate with the jar, and ask it to stop expressing concern for the owner in such a stimulating way.”

Lu Qingjiu laughed and said, “I’ll ask, but I can’t guarantee it.”

“En, if it’s okay, let’s make an appointment tomorrow night.” Hu Shu said, “What do you want to eat?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Just the mutton skewers from that day. It was delicious. The two of us are still talking about it these days.”

Hu Shu agreed.

After that, Lu Qingjiu told Bai Yuehu about it and Bai Yuehu readily agreed. After all it was no effort on his part to communicate with the jar and he could eat the mutton skewers as well.

These mutton skewers had several special ingredients and it was also the boss’s secret recipe. Lu Qingjiu couldn’t replicate the taste and felt that his own recipe was still missing something. So he wanted to eat a few more and see if he could guess the recipe.

Another hot night, Lu Qingjiu drove the small truck with Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu to the barbecue stall.

Lu Qingjiu parked the car, then saw Hu Zu talking to a sad young man. He went to the side and Hu Shu quickly introduced the identities to everyone present.

Lu Qingjiu came to know the name of the reporter was Chen Xuyang.

Honestly, Lu Qingjiu’s group of three were quite conspicuous. The three were not bad looking, and their personal styles were quite different. Although Bai Yuehu was handsome and good-looking, his face was expressionless. He gave an uncommunicative and not easy to get along vibe. Yin Xun was still a young man, grinning and giggling, revealing his cute tiger tooth. Lu Qingjiu looked handsome and gentle. Almost anyone who wanted to start a conversation, would start with him involuntarily. The only thing the three of them had in common was that the first action after sitting down was to show a yearning expression towards the grill of mutton skewers. It seemed that they were really hungry.

Chen Xuyang hurriedly explained that the mutton skewers he had ordered had been placed on the grill, and it was estimated that it would be served shortly.

Lu Qingjiu then looked back and said, “I already know about you. Have you brought that jar?”

“Yes, yes,” Chen Xuyang replied.

As he said, he got up and went to the bicycle next to him to get a package, and inside the package were the two jars that Lu Qingjiu had seen before.

“I didn’t know which one it was hiding in, so I brought them both.” Chen Xuyang explained.

Lu Qingjiu said, “What do you want to convey to it?”

Chen Xuyang said: “I just want it to stop sending me those things.”

Lu Qingjiu said: “For example?”

Chen Xuyang: “For example, the message – Take an early rest made of shredded meat.” What early rest?! How could he sleep well with the smeared meat messages in his house? He had to spend an hour cleaning every day. Every day, he had to throw several bags of shredded meat, which made his neighbours look at him strangely. This was not the most tragic thing. The most tragic thing was that one time when the delivery boy came to his door, he saw the bloody handprints on the wall and floor of his house when he delivered the food through the crack of the door. At that time, he watched the delivery boy turn pale, turn and run, running like a rabbit chased by a dog. Although he chased the boy, he couldn’t catch up.

Then two hours later, he received a call from Hu Shu, asking him to pay a little attention to the impact. It would be bad if it really scared people.

Lu Qingjiu nodded and handed the jar to Bai Yuehu.

Bai Yuehu reached out to take it, tapped the jar with his fingers, and made a series of weird sounds, as if speaking a special language. Lu Qingjiu definitely had never heard of this language, but what was amazing was that he actually understood the meaning of Bai Yuehu’s words, and he didn’t know if it was because of the quarter dragon blood in his body.

Bai Yuehu relayed Chen Xuyang’s request to the jar, and the jar also responded after listening. The voice of this response was very low, and Lu Qingjiu could only hear it vaguely. Finally, he simply put his ear on the jar to hear it clearly.

Several other people were waiting nervously next to each other, but looking at their expressions, it seemed that none of them heard the sound coming from the jar.

Lu Qingjiu listened for a while, his expression became more and more strange, he glanced at Chen Xuyang, and then at the jar.

Chen Xuyang felt numb with Lu Qingjiu’s eyes, and almost blurted out, “Doctor, can I still be saved?”

Bai Yuehu was much calmer. He repeated Chen Xuyang’s request to the jar, and made a series of regulations on the behavior of the jar, and asked it to ensure that it would never express its concern in this manner again.

Lu Qingjiu almost understood what was going on. He straightened up and asked Chen Xuyang: “You sold your old house last month?”

Chen Xuyang was bewildered at the sudden question: “Why did you suddenly ask me this question?” He then reacted, looked at the jar, and then looked at Lu Qingjiu, “It told you.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Yes.”

Chen Xuyang sighed and looked a little sad. He explained that his father had been sick and had been borrowing money for treatment. His family had sold almost all the things that should be sold at home, leaving the old house and the apartment he now lived in. However, even after selling the apartment, he could not pay off the debt, so he had to sell the old house.

Lu Qingjiu said, “It has no ill will towards you, just worried about you.”

Chen Xuyang nodded to show that he understood.

“Your salary is low, and you eat instant noodles every night.” Lu Qingjiu succinctly quoted the words of the jar. “It is afraid that you eat too much instant noodles without nutrition, and wants to give you extra meals.”

Chen Xuyang: “…..”

“The meat is bird meat and tastes very good.” Lu Qingjiu said with a smile in his voice. “It can be used to eat.” The habits of this jar were somewhat similar to those of cats. Afraid that the owner would starve to death, it brought back small things home and put them in front of the owner, trying to feed the clumsy big cat that didn’t know how to hunt.

“Ah, I know, but I can’t eat this.” Chen Xuyang hurriedly said, “Let it not give it to me.”

“En,” Lu Qingjiu nodded, “I told it all, and it probably won’t bring those things back in the future.”

While Chen Xuyang breathed a sigh of relief, he also felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart. Although the way this jar cared about people was not right, he could still feel its kindness.

“Also,” Lu Qingjiu said, “It asked if you needed any other help.”

“Help?” Chen Xuyang was intrigued. He asked, “Can it realize my three wishes or something?”

Lu Qingjiu: “If all three of your wishes are to eat meat.”

Chen Xuyang: “….” Forget it.

“But is there any way to make me understand what it’s saying?” Chen Xuyang asked, “Otherwise we can’t communicate.”

After Bai Yuehu had served as a translator, he was eating his mutton skewers quietly beside him. When he heard Chen Xuyang’s question, he said, “Yes, but it’s troublesome.”

Chen Xuyang was still full of interest: “How to do it?”

Bai Yuehu said, “You can make it as family God and offer sacrifices.”

The family God was a kind of Chinese folk God, which was said to protect the family members. After offering sacrifices to the family God, the family God would become a part of the whole family. Every festival or ancestor worship, the family God would need to receive offerings. Bai Yuehu said that the Jar might have an indication of becoming a family God, but later Chen Xuyang’s people did not continue to give offerings, so its divinity gradually faded and degenerated into a monster.

Chen Xuyang listened very carefully. It was the first time that he came into contact with these things. After hearing Bai Yuehu’s description, he immediately remembered that his parents had mentioned about the jar, and said that his ancestors did give offerings to the jar, but later, times changed, and things like offering sacrifices had been banned. The jar was also put in the storage room as a cultural relic. Later, their family fell into disrepute, and they didn’t have the heart to sell the jar.

The jar had been quiet and peaceful before, and it was only after Chen Xuyang sold the old house that it started to act up.

Now through the communication between Lu Qingjiu and Bai Yuehu, Chen Xuyang learned that the jar had been in a deep slumber and was awakened later because the old house of the Chen family changed hands. After waking up, it was shocked to find that Chen Xuyang was the only child left in the Chen family, and the place where he lived and the food he ate were extremely cheap. It was immediately distressed and wanted to express its concern.

It was just that Chen Xuyang couldn’t accept this way of caring.

“Is it really human?” Chen Xuyang remembered the monster with long hair that went past the shoulders. To tell the truth, he hasn’t seen the monster clearly yet, only the green eyes and thin and dense teeth.

“Real body” Lu Qingjiu said, “It didn’t say that.”

Chen Xuyang said: “Okay, I get it.”

The matter was settled and both sides reached a consensus. The jar promised not to bring back strange things to Chen Xuyang, while Chen Xuyang promised not to throw it away, and work hard to redeem the old house as soon as possible. Of course, in order to communicate with the jar as soon as possible, Chen Xuyang decided to continue giving offerings to it after returning. After all, Bai Yuehu said that if the jar was offered with enough incense candles, he could communicate with the jar.

After the issue of the jar was resolved, everyone ate the mutton skewers happily. Hu Shu and Pang Ziqi both heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that they finally didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

After everyone had enough to eat and drink, they dispersed. Lu Qingjiu returned home with the round-bellied Yin Xun and Bai Yuehu. After parking the car, the three took a walk in the village to aid digestion before going to bed. It was dark, and villagers could be seen walking everywhere. However, after knowing that there were no living people in the village, Lu Qingjiu’s mood was a little complicated. Even though he claimed he was not afraid, he still felt a chill on his back.

Bai Yuehu’s wound was slowly healing, but the speed was very slow. It seemed that the wound was not light. There was no news about Ao Run recently. It seemed that the snow took everything away.

The day was calm but not dull. Lu Qingjiu stroked Bai Yuehu’s chin, and they hugged each other and fell asleep.

The next day after eating the barbecue, Chen Xuyang came back home and did not see any bloody scene of meat pieces strewn on the floor. Instead he saw a bowl of steaming instant noodles on the table.

On the post-it note left on the table last night, there were three beautiful and vigorous strokes of Chinese characters written: Go to bed early.

Chen Xuyang looked at the note and couldn’t help laughing. He got up, carried the jar from the sofa in the living room, put it next to the instant noodles, and said with a smile, “Come, eat instant noodles with me.”

The jar shook gently, although he did not know what it meant, but Chen Xuyang reached out his hand, like scratching a puppy’s chin, he scratched the jar.

The jar turned happily on the table two times and almost fell to the ground.

“Everything will be alright.” Chen Xuyang picked up his chopsticks and took a piece of noodles with chopsticks. “All the best, Chen Xuyang”

The jar was shouting and cheering silently nearby.

———–

The author has something to say: Bai Yuehu compared a character with his own tail.

Lu Qingjiu said: Don’t stop

Bai Yuehu: You said so.

Lu Qingjiu: …..

Ela ~ Hello Lovely Readers, Sorry for the long wait. I was rushing about to finish ADBPA and had to put this novel in back burner. Hope you will enjoy the continuation – I will try to keep the TL as similar as the older one but we are different people and our interpretations will be a bit different. Thank you for understanding.

Currently all chaps are 6k characters and release will be sporadic.