#..like this in contrast with Zhou Ming last chapter...

[anon-apple]

Hot Soup and Soft Bread 19

Table of Contents and Synopsis <- Chapter 18 Read on WordPress

Chapter 19: Wild Onions Fried Rice I

When Liu Xiaoying woke up, she was met with an extremely white ceiling. She turned her eyes and saw only Qi Zhiqiu in the hospital room. It was already noon the next day. Qi Zhiqiu asked: “Do you feel ok?”

Xiaoying slowly gained consciousness. The first thing she asked after she was completely awake was: “Where’s Zhou Cunqu?”

Zhiqiu poured half a cup of hot water and placed it on the nightstand, replying: “I knew you were going to ask that. Someone came to pick him up last night.”

Around 11 am, Zhong Qiuyan’s phone rang. He saw the caller ID and said to Zhou Cunqu: “The old lady is probably awake. I got a call.”

He picked up and said in a deep voice:  “Liu Xiaoying, your grandson is in my hands. Prepare a 100 million ransom. Otherwise, I will eliminate the hostage.”

Xiaoying didn’t say anything. Qiuyan then said: “Ok, how about 50 million.”

Xiaoying weakly laughed and said: “Hand the phone to Zhou Cunqu. I’m going to tell him that in the eyes of Zhong Qiuyan, he’s only worth 50 million.”

Qiuyan yelled, “You’re driving a wedge between us. How hateful.”

Xiaoying sighed and asked: “How’s Zhou Cunqu doing?”

While eating something, Qiuyan replied in between pauses to chew: “Pretty good. Don’t worry, I brought him to my place.”

Last night, after Xiaoying passed out, it was chaotic outside the hotel. Qi Zhiqiu scolded Zhou Ming and clutched her phone to call the ambulance. Cunqu was leaning against Zhiqiu’s car. After a while, he suddenly asked Zhou Ming: “You guys must be incredibly disappointed in me right now, right?”

Zhou Ming paused and asked: “What do you think?”

Cunqu laughed and said: “That’s great. How great.”

When the ambulance arrived, Cunqu and Zhiqiu got on as well. Xiaoying received an exam at the hospital. Overall, there was no major issue. Moyamoya disease is quite an annoying and troublesome disease. The blood vessels on the inside of the skull are unhealthy and can cause problems when the patient excessively breathes or becomes excessively emotional. 

Later, when Qiuyan rushed over, Cunqu was leaning against the corridor outside, picking at the dead skin on his hands. Qiuyan, a bit short of breath, asked: “How’s Liu Xiaoying?”

Cunqu replied: “She’s fine.”

Qiuyan hugged Cunqu and stroked the back of his back, asking: “And are you also fine?”

Cunqu nodded against his shoulder. He knew that Zhou Ming wasn’t wrong. He selfishly relied on his grandma for two whole years. Cunqu asked Qiuyan with his eyes lowered: “Did you also know about grandma’s sickness?”

Qiuyan replied: "Ah. Well, I first met her because she fell down on the sidewalk. Back then, the hospital said the old lady had a rather rare blood vessel disease. And she could faint if it wasn't handled properly. After waking up, she stubbornly insisted that it was just her high blood sugar acting up."

Cunqu didn't say anything else. Zhiqiu exited the patient's room and told them to head back first and rest up. There was no use waiting around here. Qiuyan tugged Cunqu and said: "Little friend, the little ducks of Moon Lake Park have already gone to sleep. Let's also go back and rest?"

He led Cunqu into his car and drove back to the Qin Qin Homeland residential community. During the whole ride, he chatted with him as if it were any other day. When they got home, Cunqu said that the temperatures have dropped recently. The duvet they used yesterday was too thin, so he had set out a thicker duvet in the sun and planned to use it today.

When putting on the duvet covers, Qiuyan climbed into the covers and pushed this way and that. In the end, he still couldn't correctly figure out the four corners of the duvet. Cunqu punched the squirming body inside the covers and said: "The sky's going to be bright by the time you're done."

Qiuyan climbed back out and took a deep breath. Then, he scooped Cunqu and brought him inside as well. The two of them rolled around in the covers. The new covers smelled like the laundry detergent they used. Qiuyan helped Cunqu’s face and placed kisses here and there. He said: “Smells so good, smells so good.” Cunqu helplessly laughed and said: “Can we get the covers on first?”

A few stacks of books in the room were tottering dangerously. Suddenly, one fell over onto the stack next to it. The two people inside the bed covers stopped.

Cunqu didn't climb out to fix them. He started telling Qiuyan about a story he read in a nonfiction book last year. It was about a thirteen-year-old boy who was falsely accused and imprisoned. He was a mentally and physically disabled child but was put into an adult prison and sentenced to life without parole. The person who recorded this story, a lawyer, went to find this boy fourteen years later. The lawyer said he waited in the visitors' room. The boy, now twenty-seven years old, sat in a wheelchair and was shut inside a steel cage. The lawyer didn't understand why a prisoner without any physical threat had to be caged. But there he was, sitting with his back facing everyone. When the prison guards opened the door to bring him out, the wheelchair wheels got stuck inside the cage. The guards used all of their strength and tugged on the wheelchair, tugged on that prisoner, but it was of no use.

In the end, they discussed: "Why don't we push over the cage and see if we can get him out that way." 

The lawyer said the mentally disabled prisoner had his back facing them the whole time. But his shoulders started shaking; he had started crying.

Cunqu told Qiuyan that the first time he read this story, he also cried. He discovered that he resonated with that feeling of being treated like non-sentient goods. 

He said: “Today, my dad said he was disappointed in me. I suddenly felt relieved, like I let out a breath I’ve been holding this whole time.”

Qiuyan looked at him, and Cunqu’s eyes started tearing up. Raising his shoulders, he cried out loud. Through the tears streaming down his face, he said: “I was relieved. They were finally disappointed in me.”

--

The following morning, Cunqu woke up not long after Qiuyan. Qiuyan smiled and said: "Hehe. Ge, your eyes are so swollen that they can't even open." Cunqu shut his eyes again, clutched Qiuyan's pajamas, and burrowed himself into his embrace to continue sleeping.

Around eight, Qiuyan drove away with Cunqu. The latter asked: “Where are you going?”

Qiuyan replied: "I am going to kidnap you right now."

Cunqu looked at him with curiosity. The dancing girl charm twirled again and again. The car drove onto the highway and then exited. Qiuyan had driven all the way to the Zhong family village.

He drove into his family home. Qiu Xuemei was wearing her pajamas and chatting with some friends in front of the courtyard doors. She turned her head and saw Qiuyan get out of the car. Xuemei yelled: "Isn't that my long-lost son? Son, do you recognize mom?"

Qiuyan yelled back: “What mom, isn’t that my sister who’s as lovely as a flower?”

The two of them, one tall, one short, one chubby, one skinny, heartily hugged each other. Cunqu almost laughed out loud from where he sat in the passenger's seat. Qiuyan dragged him out of the car and introduced him: “Sister, this, this is my good friend.”

Xuemei happily led Cunqu around. She said: “Dudu has never brought home a friend from the city. Come in, come in. Did you eat? Probably not, right.” She then turned and yelled into the house: “Zhong Baocheng, where are you at? Dudu brought home a friend!” 

Qiuyan tried very hard to interrupt: “No but, can you not call me Dudu? Ah, Qiu Xuemei, do you hear me??”

Qiuyan’s family home, which was built by hand, was torn down and rebuilt again a few years back. The outside used a dirt-yellow colored ceramic tile, which was pretty disastrous in the eyes of Zhou Cunqu as an architect. They even glimmered with light. Qiuyan’s bedroom was even worse. A pale purple floral wallpaper, a Baroque-style large bed covered with plastic-made diamonds. Cunqu couldn’t help but laugh. Qiuyan asked him how it was. Cunqu nodded and replied: “Quite grand.”

Qiuyan yelped: “What do you mean, ‘grand’?”

Cunqu pinched his cheeks and asked: "Prince, you used to get up every day from this bed?"

Qiuyan suddenly hugged Cunqu from behind and brought him onto the bed. He kissed Cunqu's shoulder and said: "Yes, princess. These couple of days, you will rest up inside my imperial palace. Liu Xiaoying will have to stay in the hospital for monitoring for a few days anyway. You should relax, stay in the mountains, and get some fresh air."

Cunqu turned around and tapped Qiuyan's nose, asking: "Are you scared that I'll shut myself up in my room again…"

Qiuyan was about to reply, but Xuemei suddenly entered while carrying a quilt. He immediately shot up from the bed.

When Xiaoying called, Qiuyan and Cunqu were sitting around the dining table having a meal. The temperature was very comfortable, and they could see the family orchard from the window. Xuemei's chatterbox abilities exceeded even Qiuyan's. She said they should come to visit again around December; they could pick strawberries to eat. Neighbors often passed by the window and would pause to exchange a few greetings with Xuemei and them. When the neighbor started to ride away on his little motorcycle, Xuemei even got up and stuck her chubby body out the window, saying: "Don't forget, don't forget to bring some seeds."

On the dining room walls hung a calendar gifted when purchasing Chinese New Year's goods and professional studio photos of Xuemei. Qiuyan said while biting a shrimp: "This was when she got scammed. She spent a good few thousand to get these photos taken. Then they ended up with this type of style, and she cried as she hung them up everywhere in the house." 

Xuemei blushed and grumbled: “Why are you talking about this?” She abruptly raised her glass and said: “Come, in honor of finding my long-lost son, as well as my son’s good friend, let’s toast.”

The three Zhong family members instinctively stood up and prepared to toast. Cunqu was briefly taken aback. 

It was at this moment that Xiaoying called. When Cunqu picked up, the other three still stood there, waiting for him to toast with them. Xiaoying said from her end: "Grandma's doing fine; your little aunt isn't letting me leave the hospital. How are you?"

Cunqu raised his head and looked at the family of three holding their glasses, who held their positions and eagerly waited for him to join. Cunqu couldn’t help but smile as he said: “I’m doing pretty well, Grandma.”

After he hung up, he raised his cup of hot water and met their glasses in a toast.

-> Chapter 20

[translations-by-aiimee]

Dig a Grave to Dig Out a Ghost - Chapter 28

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 28 - Immortal

In some remote mountainous areas in the south, Miao women used clay pots and menstrual blood to raise hundreds of insects. They sealed them, placed them in a damp place and cast curses on them. Once the day was done, the poisonous insects will have killed each other and the last one was embodied with Gu poison*. The curse made with Gu poison could make someone's love interest fall helplessly in love with them for the rest of his life, and it could also plague one's enemy with nightmares, madness, and even death. The women who concocted Gu poison were typically loners, often muttering to no one, avoided by the general public.

*(T/N: 蛊 - Gu poison was believed to be the combination of all the venoms from the insects that died and would be used for black magic in southern regions of China)

In Nanyang Black Magic, they would use the body of a baby that died recently, boiled out the toyol*, poured it on a puppet doused in human blood and placed it in the home. The imprisoned baby ghost would protect the house but the curse-caster will be punished. They would also carve birthdates into wood, causing the other to die.

*(T/N: 尸油 - literally 'corpse oil.' I'll spare you the graphic details but basically taking a dead body's chin and boiling it until oil drains out of it)

This black magic flourished in the Ming Dynasty. The Eastern Depot eunuchs* were in turmoil. Everyone was reporting each other, no one would speak to each other, eyes darting between each other daily. These curses were developed as a branch of Daoism to oppose political rivals. A-Yan said that the Daoist practices used to drive out ghosts and save people were declining, but this black magic has stuck around. It was one of the biggest spots in Daoist history.

*(T/N: 东厂 - a secret police & spy agency run by eunuchs meant to suppress political opposition towards the emperor)

Saturday morning was a beautiful day. The sun was shining but not to the point of being unbearably hot. The distant mountains stood silently under the blue sky. A black Audi passed quickly through the country’s tree-lined roads, raising a cloud of grit and dust. A white goose with its head held high on the roadside was startled by the car, flapping its wings and stretching its neck to hide behind a fence.

The car stopped at a small farmhouse in the northwest corner of the village.

In the courtyard, a tall Shuzi tree stretched out dense branches, looking extraordinarily vibrant. In contrast, the entire courtyard was strangely decrepit. A well was covered by a millstone and the stone-paced path was full of weeds. The doors of the three mud-brick houses were closed, with straw curtains covering the doors and windows covered with dust.

Everything was very different from a month ago. Lin Yan remembered that the last time he came here, there were hens and rabbits. The old lady in blue embroidered clothing was kneeling on the futon with her eyes closed. The small courtyard was filled with the mysterious atmosphere of the countryside. The current yard would give people the impression that the homeowner hadn't been home for years when, in fact, a fresh grave in the back of the mountain had only been built a month ago. Rural people were convinced that the houses inhabited by the living were blessed by the gods and sheltered from the elements for decades. Once the owner of the house dies, the gods will follow, so the empty house often collapsed and was destroyed in less than six months.

"When Second Immortal Gu was in the village, she would help children that fell sick with fever, and the adults that were dealing with evil spirits. Young men would ask her when they'd get married and, for the right price, she'd tell them." The village chief said with a cigarette in his mouth.

The village leader knew Yin Zhou’s mother well. He heard that Yin Zhou wanted to bring someone to pay tribute to Second Immortal Gu and waited at the entrance of the village to welcome them. It took ten minutes to drive from the village leader's house to Second Immortal Gu’s house. The village head smoked four cigarettes in a row. Yin Zhou squeezed his eyes shut while Lin Yan and the little Daoist priest twisted their heads out of the window every 30 seconds to gasp for a breath of fresh air. The village chief was the only one of them chatting in the smoky car. Lin Yan saw how the complaints of three people and a ghost just flew over his head.

If a ghost could complain.

Lin Yan found a roll of incense from the little Daoist's bag and lit it. He put the incense burner at the door of the mud-brick house and offered his respects.

"Last time, we left just before Second Immortal Gu had her accident. I should have come to offer some incense sooner, it's just things with school got busy and I haven't been able to make it until now." Lin Yan brushed the straw curtain and the accumulated dust fell on his face. "Cough, cough. Does - Does anyone take care of this place?"

"Of course not. You big city kids wouldn't know. Doing this line of work is only good for putting food on the table. Immortal Gu came out here in her twenties. In less than ten years, her husband and two sons had died and she was the only one left. She couldn't even save herself." The village leader stuffed his yellow striped shirt into his pants. "Don't feel bad. No immortal in this village could escape that fate."

"Come on, let's go, you guys are here to see her grave. We don't put up any gravestones here. We just build a stone platform, but the villagers will remember who it's for. I'll take you up there."

The sun was growing hotter. Several of them used broken branches to smack the grass in case of snakes while they hiked up the rugged mountain trail. A rural cemetery wasn't as neat as an urban cemetery. Each family claimed a spot, with every newly deceased buried next to the rest of their family. The grave was a prominent mound of dirt with a large stone on top. Some of the graves were too old to even make out the mound, the ground studded with small light blue flowers. A date palm tree grew wildly, and they needed to watch their step when walking so they wouldn't disturb the resting dead.

Second Immortal Gu's grave was off on its own. The mound was freshly dug. Other than a crooked wreath lying on it, it was indistinguishable from the older graves that had been abandoned for years.

The scene made Lin Yan feel incredibly guilty. He burned a large stack of paper dollars in front of the grave, playing with his branch while saying silently in his mind: Auntie, if you're still here, please come back and tell us who harmed you. We'll avenge your death.

The village chief took the cigarettes Lin Yan had bought him and squatted off in the distance to smoke. Lin Yan winked at the little Daoist priest and said softly, "Let's start?"

A-Yan nodded and took out a crumpled photo from his pocket that he had found in a frame in Immortal Gu's house. The immortal in the photo was still very young, wearing a floral cotton jacket and staring vacantly ahead.

"Now isn't a good time. The s-sun is too high. The mountains are filled with Yang energy, and the ghosts may not be able to be reached." A-Yan said. He jumped up and grabbed a twig from the date tree above his head. He hung a spirit summoning flag on it and patted the dust off his shoulders. "Here's a picture, here are the bones. Um, Lin Yan, I'm going to borrow your birthdate for this."

Before Lin Yan had time to ask, the little Daoist priest handed him a dagger. Unlike his usual mahogany sword, this one was actually made of metal. The handle seemed to be a few years old, and the tip of the blade gleaming a bright white in the sunlight.

"H-Hold this for a minute. You might feel a little uncomfortable, but don't let it go." A-Yan instructed: "I-I'll read one sentence and you read the next."

Yin Zhou chuckled but he felt that it probably wasn't the time to laugh so he quickly turned his laughter into a string of coughs.

Surprisingly, A-Yan never stuttered whenever he talked about Taoism and charms, Lin Yan muttered.

Time passed by and it was almost noon. The date trees in the mountains couldn't block the hot sun. After standing there for a long time, most of them were covered in a layer of sweat. The village leader couldn't bear the heat and left to join some nearby people to drink some tea. Lin Yan stood in front of the grave with the dagger in his hand. He rubbed the sweat on his cheeks off with his shoulder, hoping that this time it would be over quickly.

The little Daoist started reciting. His voice didn't sound like proper speech, but the slow rate of speech wasn't too difficult to follow. Lin Yan held the hilt of the dagger and along with the chant. Not even halfway through the incantation, Lin Yan already began to feel that something was wrong. The temperature around him began to drop, and the hot sweat condensed on his back. He kept shivering like he was suffering from heatstroke. A chill came from the handle of the dagger. First, the temperature seeped into his palm, and then his whole arm, up to his shoulders, through the bones in his spine to the back of his head in a numb wave. It was as if he wasn't holding a dagger but a frozen fish that had been left in the bottom tray of the freezer for a year.

The spirit summoning flag above his head began to move.

"It's cold." Lin Yan took a breath and scanned the silent mountains around him. "Have you reached the soul?"

"I t-think I found her." The little Daoist hesitated. "Huh. . . that's weird. . ."

After reciting two more incantations, the bone-chilling cold air had spread to his calves. Lin Yan's teeth chattered and he shivered out: "A-. . . A-Yan, are you sure this is okay. . . it's too. . . cold. . ."

The chanting continued, the little Daoist priest shot him a sideways glance, his eyes cold. Lin Yan can only brace himself to keep follow the mantra incantations, a heavy cold sweat forming on his forehead.

"Hold on for a little longer. The soul is bound to something, I want to break it free." A-Yan gritted his teeth, and a piece of talisman paper was slapped against the blade. All of a sudden, the cold washed over him like a tsunami. Lin Yan's whole body felt like it was being stabbed by needles, veins popping on his forehead from the pain.

"A-Yan, what are you doing?!" Yin Zhou knew something wasn't right when he saw Lin Yan's lips turn blue. "If you can't do it now, someone's going to get hurt. Lin Yan, use the ghost that's following you!"

"Almost there. Don't let go!" The little Daoist was flushed a sickly pale colour and he rapidly chanted the mantra. The spirit summoning flag above his head was being whipped by the wind. There was a ripping sound and the whole piece of cloth was torn in half and fluttered down onto the old grave in the distance.

"I-It's okay. . . A-Yan, go faster. . ." Lin Yan was so cold that he could barely get his tongue to work. He tried to move the hand with the dagger to it but he found that his skin was stuck to the metal and he couldn't budge it. He was shivering from his arms all the way down to his legs. Lin Yan staggered back and stepped on the bag they'd brought, almost falling backwards.

A force of strength supported his back. Xiao Yu's voice sounded right when he needed him, but his low voice didn't let him retort: "Let go."

Xiao Yu's hand covered the back of Lin Yan's hand. Compared to the temperature of the dagger, his palm was actually warm. It was just right to block the cold air that kept pouring into Lin Yan's arm. A-Yan's expression changed in an instant and he shouted loudly: "Back off, beast!"

"I'll fucking finish this. . ." Lin Yan abruptly closed his eyes and pressed his palm to the blade. All at once, the bone-chilling cold air felt like ten thousand needles running through his palm up to his arm. At the same time, there was a cold that grew behind him. He quickly opened his eyes but Second Immortal Gu hadn't appeared. On the contrary, Xiao Yu snapped Lin Yan's wrist with completely overwhelming strength, forcing the sharp weapon out of his hand.

The moment the dagger was taken out of Lin Yan's hand, he felt like he was immediately torn out of an ice block and thrown into a fire. The ritual was broken, the hot sunlight licked his back, making his whole body numbly feel like it was going to dissolve. However, he couldn't care less about his body's reaction. What happened next made Lin Yan and Yin Zhou - who was freaking out off to the side - shocked. They saw Xiao Yu holding the dagger inching towards A-Yan, frigid eyes filled with killing intent. When the palm of his hand touched the hilt of the knife, it sounded like searing flesh. But he didn't care. He grabbed A-Yan's collar with one hand, and violently plunged the dagger toward his left eye with the other!

Lin Yan's mind kicked into action. He subconsciously rushed over to hold Xiao Yu's waist, using all his strength to drag him back. However, something was wrong with the little Daoist priest, too. His usual cowardice was gone and his eyes burned with rage. He rolled away and broke free, rapidly taking out a handful of cinnabar and tossing it towards Xiao Yu. His voice changed because of the trembling: "An evil beast is an evil beast. You can't stay!"

"What the fuck is going on!" Yin Zhou couldn't see Xiao Yu. He could only see the little Daoist tumbling on the ground alone trying to avoid a shimmering dagger. Lin Yan's nerves were fried. While dragging Xiao Yu back, he roared towards Yin Zhou: "How the hell should I know? You grab A-Yan!"

He had never seen Xiao Yu so angry. The midday sun was burning and blinding. The ghost's whole body was emitting a faint greenish-black aura. The knuckles of both hands snapped open, sharp claw-like nails grabbing the back of the Daoist priest's head. Lin Yan thought he was seeing things and closed his eyes, but the scene stayed the same. The place where the ghost stood glowed a greenish-black and the place where the human stood was a dancing orange fire, intertwining with each other, but the orangish-yellow flames were gradually dying out. . .

Later, he would learn that people have yang energy and ghosts have yin energy. When the energy was extremely concentrated, he could directly perceive the yin and yang without his eyes confusing it in his mind. This was the foundation of excellent Taoism. He had inadvertently opened a long-closed door to the mystical arts.

However, the current situation was extremely dangerous. Xiao Yu held A-Yan’s neck with one hand and the dagger cut inch by inch into the little Daoist priest's arm blocking it. The hand holding the knife was searing black from the contact with the blade of the evil spirit's. A Yan's face grew purple, his eyes bulging. Lin Yan didn't dare to hesitate for a moment and scrambled over to protect A-Yan from behind. There was a clanging sound and the dagger rolled to the ground.

The little Daoist broke free from the evil spirit's hands, clutching his bleeding wound and groaning intermittently: "Lin Yan. . . Immortal Gu. . . Immortal Gu's spirit is trapped. . . I couldn't get her. . ."

Lin Yan supported the little Daoist's shoulders. His eyes gleamed, and the soft deer-like eyes were different from those when he had when he cast the spell. "The curse. . . Be careful." A-Yan whispered. Lin Yan hadn't gotten the chance to ask what was going on before his thin body couldn't support his own weight. His eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Lin Yan and Yin Zhou looked at each other, shocked by the outcome, unable to utter a word.