Ha, half-monster. The fire and rain outside stopped at the same time.
The rain lasted for a long time and by the time it had stopped, it was already completely dark outside.
Lin Mu glanced at the dog that was sleeping very sweetly on a pile of old blankets and pulled open the door to see what was the situation outside.
The clouds had disappeared, causing the sky that had been washed out looked to exceptionally clear, revealing the winding starry river in the middle of the night sky.
The Morning Dusk that had been burning for a long time all returned to ashes that landed within and outside the yard started to grow out again.
The Morning Dusk had been burning for a long time all returned to ashes, landing within and outside the yard, before growing out again. Smatterings of little white flowers bloomed in the night, reflecting out a cold white fluorescence light.
Lin Mu turned the yard light on and walked to the periphery of the yard, carefully probing around.
Ordinary flowers and plants had no signs of being burned, but in the areas where the Morning Dusk were densely packed together, there were a lot of black ashes which were fluttering and flying around as the wind blew.
These ashes probably belonged to the beings that Da Hei had mentioned — demons, ghosts, spirits, or monsters that had committed evil deeds.
The ashes left behind had seemed seemed a little heavy, and Lin Mu was a little afraid to think about how many had been burnt. He didn"t understand why so many ghost or monsters had suddenly appeared.
In the past twenty years of his life, he had obviously lived a very peaceful and comfortable life, without encountering any ghosts or monsters.
Looking at the ashes that floated lightly in front of his eyes, Lin Mu subconsciously felt that they looked a little familiar. After a closer look, he realised that they looked like the bag of seeds that Da Hei had given to him.
Lin Mu: “……”
This basically meant that he had walked all the way home with a bag of ashes and buried it in his yard.
Lin Mu gave a light hiss, looked at the pile of ashes outside his house, thought about it, and felt that it could not be wasted.
Seeing as it was still early, Lin Mu simply went back into the house to get a small brush and a handheld dustpan then returned to the periphery of his yard, lifted his sleeves and swept up the ashes.
Lin Mu had no intentions of keeping the ashes. He swept a whole circle around his yard, then carried the dustpan full of ashes and circled around his yard again, planting a crooked edge right outside his yard, drawing something that could barely be called a sun.
After drawing the sun and watching the newly planted small and white flowers sprout, Lin Mu returned to his house satisfied, then carefully picked up the dog that was sleeping sweetly, “let"s go! I"ll bring you to the doctor!”
Yan Xuanjing suddenly woke up, turned his hand over and placed a paw on Lin Mu"s face. After realising that this half-monster did not show any malice, he quickly retracted his outstretched claws, stood on the pads of his foot and struggled to get up.
Lin Mu, who had no idea that he had almost been disfigured, panicked and leaned his head backwards after being pressed on the face. He placed down the struggling dog and exclaimed softly after looking at its front paw.
The swelling on the front right paw had gone down, and the frightening red and purple colour that came along with the swelling had also faded.
The front left paw also wasn"t as b.l.o.o.d.y as before, and had scabbed over after he had carefully cleaned it. So the dog"s situation seemed much better.
Seeing this, Lin Mu was slightly relieved.
It was good that his movements didn"t cause another injury.
“But we still need to go to the hospital,” Lin Mu said.
No matter how good he had handled the wounds, it wouldn"t be as good as a vet. Furthermore, he still wanted to give the dog a complete set of tests, such as internal and external examinations, and to check whether it had parasites and so on. Although rural areas weren"t as particular about raising dogs, the dog that he had picked up didn"t seem to be some sort of wild and rural dog.
This was a half-grown Samoyed, with slightly pointed ears and round black eyes full of intelligence. Even if holes had been cut into the dog"s fur by Lin Mu, it could not prevent it from looking good.
These type of good-looking dog breeds were generally quite delicate, unlike the type of wolfdog that Da Hei was, able to wrestle and fight and also guard the house.
Lin Mu had seen news about these docile type of pet dogs, where ‘a thief entered the house, and the owner"s pet dog brought a pair of slippers to greet them". Basically, one should not expect dogs with these sort of nature to guard the house, and should just raise the dog as a child and maintain such a life.
Lin Mu approached again to check on the dog"s exposed wounds and reiterated, “we have to go to the hospital.”
Yan Xuanjing did not know much about the Central Plains, but ‘hospital", this word, he understood.
He raised a paw and pressed it on Lin Mu"s face again, indicating his refusal.
He was a magnificent nine-tailed fox. Such a great monster, there was no need for him to go to the hospital for such skin injuries.
While it was necessary for him to recuperate from invisible injuries that would take more than a couple of days to recover, going to a human hospital would be useless.
Lin Mu"s cheeks suddenly felt cold, he reached out and carefully grasped the dog"s paws, looked it in the eyes and blinked, then tentatively asked, “not going?”
Yan Xuanjing pulled away his paws from Lin Mu"s hand, and pressed it on his face again.
Lin Mu paused, and asked again, “going?”
The dog retracted it"s paws.
Lin Mu froze for a while, and felt that this was really strange.
He actually felt that this dog was communicating with him.
No, when he picked it up yesterday, the dog was already quite intelligent.
Lin Mu frowned and felt that his matter wasn"t that simple.
He looked at the dog for a long while and decided to follow the dog"s wishes first. They wouldn"t go to the hospital, and he would talk with Da Hei about the dog the next day.
“That"ll do.” Lin Mu stood up, looked at the time and saw that it was quite late, “today, let"s sleep first.”
Yan Xuanjing watched as Lin Mu shut the door, turned around and picked both the blanket and the fox up with a huff, and quickly went thumping up the stairs.
Lin Mu directly moved the dog to his room.
Lin Mu"s room wasn"t small, and there was more than enough room for a dog.
He looked at the dog that was check out its surroundings after being brought up, thought for a bit and explained, “I"m a light sleeper, if anything happens at night or if there"s any movement, I"ll wake up.”
No matter what, the dog was still an injured party and more care would be required.
In any case, this dog hadn"t been burnt by the Morning Dusk, so Lin Mu felt that this problem wasn"t that big.
He put the dog in place, took a bath, blew his hair dry and laid on the bed, before saying good night to the dog next to him.
After saying that, he froze a long while and looked at the pile of fluff lying on the blanket a long time, then suddenly laughed and turned off the light when the dog looked up.
Lin Mu felt that it was quite easy for him to be happy.
He was very happy to have somebody to say good night to before he slept.
After his mother left, there was n.o.body who would say goodnight to him every time before he went to bed. In the university dorms, his roommate rubbed his own arms and said for two grown men to say goodnight to each other felt a little gay, so Lin Mu shut up.
As a result, he had been alone for a long time now, and looking at a dog with pretty features and saying goodnight also made him physically and mentally happy.
Lin Mu laid on the bed, looked at the white dog that was still extremely white and obvious in the dark room, happily closed his eyes and fell asleep to the sound of insects and frogs.
Shortly after Lin Mu fell asleep, Yan Xuanjing, who was resting with closed eyes on the blanket raised his head abruptly,his dark eyes glowing green in the darkness.
Lin Mu"s bed was against the window, and at the same time, a plump little hand reached up onto the windowsill. There were red bits swaying in the dark night, and soon another little hand also reached up.
Next, a small head popped up onto the windowsill. It was a cute child with a little red fruit on his head, baby fat on his face, lovely and pale, with a beautiful flower branch in his mouth.
He was struggling to see what was going on in the room as he leaned over the windowsill.
With a raise of his head, the child met eyes with the nine-tailed fox in the house.
Yan Xuanjing silently and majestically looked at the little child that climbed onto the window, and let loose his excellently restrained spirit.
The little child suddenly became scared and the unsteady pair of short hands didn"t manage to properly grip onto the windowsill. He fell from the second floor to the rainshelter that Lin Mu had set up and landed on the ground, making a slightly m.u.f.fled sound.
This scent Yan Xuanjing recognised, it was the scent of a Ginseng Baby1.
There were Morning Dusk here, and it was a perfectly normal thing for well-informed little monsters to come running for asylum.
After all, these weak little monsters basically had no ability to commit any evil, and they were regarded by the fiercer monsters as a nourishing meal, so there was no harm in running to a protection circle made out of Morning Dusk.
Yan Xuanjing slowly took back his gaze from the windowsill and glanced at Lin Mu. This half-monster claimed he was a light sleeper, but while the Ginseng Baby climbed up and then fell down, he didn"t even change his breathing, and was still sleeping ever-so-sweetly.
Yan Xuanjing: “……”
Ha, half-monster.
He retracted his gaze and laid back down again.
Early next morning, Lin Mu woke up and washed up, stewed a pot of bone broth2 骨头汤. Bone Broth/Soup. The one in the picture is made from bones only, but there"s many variations with lotus root, wolf berries, etc. Recipe below. and steamed some buns and rice. He took the bone broth and rice up to the dog and carefully examined the dog"s exposed wounds.
The swelling on its front right leg was completely undetectable, and the scab on its left paw had long dried up and didn"t seem as miserable as before.
The speed and degree of recovery was surprisingly good.
“Seems like there was really no need to go to the hospital.” Lin Mu muttered and took back the hand he used to check on the wound, he hesitated, then said, “I have something to do today so I"ll be going out. I left a small door open for you, so if you want to leave, go out from the nearest door on the left on the first floor.”
After Lin Mu finished, he looked at the dog and puckered his lips and then added, “but I still hope you can stay.”
Yan Xuanjing"s two front paws were overlapped and his posture was dignified as he looked at Lin Mu who went to pack up his things after speaking. His ears shook slightly.
Lin Mu pa.s.sed by his mother"s studio and looked at the books on the table he hadn"t had the chance to read after taking them out, paused, then closed the door and turned to go downstairs.
The weather was good today. Lin Mu opened the door, pushed the small electric scooter and left the house.
He was still planning to go to the office today. Although it wasn"t his official starting day, Lin Mu felt that it was necessary to gain some favourable feelings.
For example, helping to repair things such as the door and windows, and for things that couldn"t be repaired such as the wall, plant some plants to cover up the defects.
At least it wouldn"t look as tattered.
After Lin Mu left, Yan Xuanjing slowly finished eating the bowl of bone broth and rice, stood up and flicked his left paw. After flicking off the dried blood on his left paw, he went down the stairs and walked out of the door that Lin Mu said.
As he pa.s.sed by the main entrance of the yard, he turned his head and saw the flower branch that had been inserted into the front wooden door, as well as the white and tender flowers on the flower branch.
This was the Ginseng Baby"s certification of loyalty3投名状 – A certification of loyalty (used in ancient times). Used to declare that an individual would be loyal to the death., and the nine-tailed fox who knew the rules that monsters chose to abide by was clear about it.
Unfortunately, Lin Mu left in a hurry and did not notice anything extra on his door.
Yan Xuanjing casually glanced at it, pretended he saw nothing and turned to leave.
He also had something on.
— About the pa.s.sage between the Central Plains and the Great Wilderness.
The Central Plains also had a monster responsible for guarding the pa.s.sage, and Yan Xuanjing got the address from his father before coming over.
A City Central Plains, Qingyao Road No.404, Qingyao Subdistrict Office.
This was the address for the monsters responsible for guarding the pa.s.sage in the Central Plains.
A person and a fox walked without turning back, and the window swept through the empty courtyard, brushing across a string of red ginseng seeds hidden under the vines of the fence, taking with it a grieving whimper.
The author has this to say:
Ginseng Baby: Buckle up and don"t slip down.
Translator"s note:
It can be used like any other stock, as a base for soups, noodles, etc. Apparently it"s very good for animals, because of the vitamins. Just watch the sodium.
A sleepy, sleepy couch potato that adores BL. Only second to sleeping.