A Single Flower Of The Village - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Xie Bi’an called to say that the shuttle bus had broken down halfway and was currently being repaired. He had already applied to the Ten Kings of Hell to postpone sending tonight’s souls until tomorrow night.

This wasn’t difficult. As long as the King of Hell nodded in agreement, there was no problem on her side either. Freeing up time allowed her to do other things. Taking advantage of the beautiful moonlight, she strolled out to look for Ruan Jingluo. Not replying to messages for so long—this trend of development was not very promising.

Going empty-handed didn’t seem quite right. At this time of night, Ruan Jingluo should be pulling the night shift, and who knows if she had eaten. She rode the Stupid Donkey to the Ghost Village to pack a bowl of mutton rice noodles.

There was a stall owner in the village who used to run a mutton rice noodle shop when he was alive, an old local brand. Unfortunately, he died too early. Now the noodle shop was taken over and managed by his descendants, whose skills were inferior to his. There was merely a brand name left, and business was getting worse year by year. It made the deceased stall owner so angry that he entered their dreams at midnight, roaring loudly to demand that his descendants must use local Ma goats and black mountain goat meat.

Tethering the Stupid Donkey in a secluded spot near the village entrance, Lu Shouqiu headed straight for the mutton rice noodle stall.

A long queue had already formed in front of the stall. Seeing her standing at the back tipping her toes to peer over, the stall owner waved her forward to make hers separately.

Behind the long table was a huge soup pot. The tumbling, rich soup was brewed from fresh mutton and sheep bones. Large chunks of cooked mutton were piled on bamboo baskets, alongside sheep entrails and sheep testicles, all steaming hot. Grabbing a handful of rice noodles into a bamboo strainer, plunging it into the soup pot to scald for a few seconds, it was immediately poured into a bowl. Then thin slices of mutton were cut from the basket, and sheep entrails or sheep blood could also be freely combined.

The soul of mutton rice noodles lay in the sheep oil and red chili oil. The noodles had to be on the thinner side to catch the soup. The soup with sheep oil had a rich flavor, paired with fragrant and spicy chili oil. No wonder so many living customers lined up every night. It was already hard to eat such delicious mutton rice noodles outside, and the pickled vegetables paired by the stall owner were also crisp and refreshing enough.

Lu Shouqiu asked the stall owner to pack them separately. The stall owner thought she was rushing back to ferry souls and wanted to say she had been quite busy recently, not even able to eat a meal properly, when he heard Lu Shouqiu, who had already taken the mutton rice noodles, say cheerfully: “I’m going to see a friend.”

“Ah?” The stall owner opened his mouth wide in surprise, “When did you make a friend? From where?”

“Outside the farm.” Lu Shouqiu had already hopped and bounced far away while humming a ballad.

It wasn’t easy to mix in the company after offending people. These double-faced things had no other skills except gathering together to make dirty jokes about her. Ruan Jingluo didn’t want to stay with the idiots, choosing to hit a flashlight to patrol outside.

No one was willing to be in a group with her, she knew it. It was that grandson who sexually harassed her who had people isolate her. That grandson was her superior, and it was estimated that it wouldn’t take long before the other party would find various reasons to force her to resign.

Reality was just like this. She wasn’t the one in the wrong, yet she had to bear the consequences. She didn’t expect that the matter could pass just because she paid the money, allowing her to work here peacefully. She had already started looking at recruitment for other companies, planning to leave immediately once she found the next place. Working as a security guard was the same anywhere, anyway it was the same as taking a beating.

She stood in the plaza below the building, raising her head to look at a few office areas that were still lit up, thinking that urban white-collars weren’t all that glamorous either, still working overtime in the middle of the night, just like her, all miserable working stiffs.

“Ruan Jingluo!”

The voice that suddenly exploded from behind almost scared Ruan Jingluo to death, the flashlight hitting the ground with a guang-dang.

“Are you sick, running out in the middle of the night to scare people!” Turning around to see clearly who came, Ruan Jingluo bent down to pick up the flashlight, which was of good quality and hadn’t broken from the fall. Her tone was very bad, her Husky eyes rolling exaggeratedly.

Lu Shouqiu ran over carrying the packaging box, her smile radiant, warm as fire, “I came to send you a very authentic and delicious old-brand mutton rice noodle. Seeing you standing here spacing out from far away, hehe, did I scare you? Sorry, sorry… I’ll use the mutton rice noodles to apologize to you, don’t be angry anymore. Next time I’ll definitely greet you properly and not scare you.”

She wasn’t wearing Miao ornaments tonight, but an ordinary outfit—slim-fitting, slightly flared dark jeans, an avocado-colored short-sleeved T-shirt, with her long hair draped down. The snowflake furry ball earrings on her ears, which should have matched the scenery in winter, weren’t abrupt either, instead adding a few hints of playfulness.

Ruan Jingluo originally didn’t want to pay attention to her, but couldn’t withstand her ability to pester people. As the saying goes, one doesn’t strike a smiling face, so she only hesitated for a brief moment before being dragged by her to sit down by the flowerbed nearby.

Lu Shouqiu opened the packaging box inside the bag. The mutton rice noodles were as hot as if they had just come out of the pot. The rich soup floating with chili oil poured into the noodles, and the fragrance immediately dispersed rapidly at a tenfold level. Ruan Jingluo couldn’t help swallowing her saliva. She hadn’t eaten mutton rice noodles for a long time.

What Lu Shouqiu packed over included not only mutton, but also sheep entrails and sheep blood. Everything was neatly prepared before being pushed over to Ruan Jingluo. This level of thoughtfulness moved herself to tears.

It was indeed very fragrant, looking appetizing, but Ruan Jingluo was not in a hurry to eat. In fact, she didn’t intend to touch it, it was too strange, “You ran out here in the middle of the night just to send me a bowl of mutton rice noodles? Your brain must be broken.”

The hot pot meal in the morning had a justifiable reason—coincidence.

What did this count as now? If she was greedy enough to eat this bowl of noodles, when she opened her eyes again, who knows if she might have already been sold to Northern Myanmar.

Knowing she couldn’t possibly eat obediently, Lu Shouqiu once again lamented that this kid’s guardedness was truly heavy, why didn’t she know how to think on the bright side of things.

“I originally wanted to invite you to go eat together, but you didn’t reply to WeChat. No choice, I could only find my way here,” she pushed that bowl of mutton rice noodles toward Ruan Jingluo a bit more, “Eat quickly, it’s going to get cold. Aiya, it’s not poisoned, rest assured, under the bright sun and clear sky, am I the kind of person who would poison someone?”

Ruan Jingluo lifted her eyelids to look at the sky, yeah, very good, a dark moon and high wind make a night for murder.

“Ha, ha…” Lu Shouqiu laughed awkwardly, having gone overboard with nonsense and not knowing how to wrap it up.

Ruan Jingluo didn’t want to talk about her either. Working this broken shift was tiring her to death, where would she find the energy to bicker with a psycho, “Eat it yourself, and go home quickly after eating. In the middle of the night, a female being outside is not safe.”

In this society where after a female walks on the road and gets accosted by a strange man and chooses to call the police, there will still be people jumping out to blame the female for wearing too little, Lu Shouqiu’s face falling into others’ eyes was at a level that could bring disaster to countries and peoples. If something happened, no one would sympathize with her, only drawing jealousy and gloating over malice.

Ruan Jingluo knew her own thoughts were extreme, but there was no choice. Her environment, the things she had experienced and seen, gave her lessons exactly like this.

She turned her head to look at the temporary parking lot, not finding any cars that didn’t belong to the office area outside the building, not knowing where or how Lu Shouqiu came over. At this hour, the subway and buses had already stopped running.

Realizing she really didn’t intend to eat, Lu Shouqiu felt a bit lost. Brought it from so far away, did she fail to even become a licking dog?

On second thought, Ruan Jingluo told her to go home, and even said a person being outside alone wasn’t safe, hoho! Only meeting formally for the second time and she cared about her so much, Ruan Jingluo had more human touch than she imagined, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted.

“It’s fine, my combat power value is very high, taking on a hundred alone is no problem.” To show she was really strong, she even bounced down from the flowerbed and gestured a few punches and kicks.

Although the moves were a mess and her long hair blurred all over her face, looking more like a psycho, the comedic effect was achieved. Ruan Jingluo couldn’t hold back, the corner of her mouth twitching as she laughed out loud. From where did this living treasure come, both neurotic and funny.

“Alright, you tone it down a bit.” She was afraid those few idiot colleagues inside would see if they came out to patrol.

Lu Shouqiu sat back obediently, personally holding the mutton rice noodles in front of Ruan Jingluo, with quite a few small expressions on her face, making Ruan Jingluo no longer have the heart to refuse, and the mutton rice noodles were really fragrant!

“I’m eating it very reluctantly, don’t flatter yourself.”

Bullshit, saying one thing but meaning another, clearly so greedy that she really wanted to eat, just afraid of being sold to Northern Myanmar to harvest kidneys and not daring to eat blindly. Now she couldn’t care about so much anymore, harvest then harvest, life and death are fated, wealth and honor lie in heaven.

It was truly a super large bowl, packed with ingredients. The mutton was soft and tender without much gamy flavor, the sheep blood was smooth, and the sheep entrails dipped in chili oil were also very delicious. The rice noodles were the kind as thin as instant noodles, smooth upon entry, and the soup base was also very rich.

She held the bowl eating until her head sweated, thinking she didn’t know where Lu Shouqiu bought such delicious mutton rice noodles, how much this bowl must cost. When she got her salary she would treat the other party, if there was still an opportunity to meet.

“How is it, how is it, delicious right?” Lu Shouqiu asked impatiently.

Ruan Jingluo couldn’t raise her head from eating, sparing time to raise a thumb, “Mhm, mhm!”

She hadn’t eaten many good things. As far as this taste was concerned, it could be called number one in her book.

Lu Shouqiu propped up her chin to ponder, en… what if I switch to using a food strategy? The Ghost Village has so many delicious things, and the Immortal Market has them too, not repeating everyday would be enough for Ruan Jingluo to eat for a long time, she should be tempted right?

She rubbed her hands secretly, and tested again by asking: “If, I’m saying if, there is such a job, pretty much the same as what you’re doing now, but the environment and atmosphere are both better than this current one, and it includes board and lodging, the food ingredients are all top-tier, and the housing isn’t bad, it’s just that there is no salary, would you consider it?”

Brought up once in the morning, and here it came again, truly someone from Northern Myanmar coming to trick people, Ruan Jingluo drank a large gulp of soup before saying: “Who doesn’t work to earn money? With no money, eat the northwest wind in the future?”

“It wouldn’t go as far as eating the northwest wind, the retirement benefits are actually quite good…”

“Heh, whose boss is so good at drawing big cakes.”

Lu Shouqiu didn’t dare say it was herself, “Really not considering it at all? Even having such delicious mutton rice noodles every day is not considered? Free, all for no money, board included.”

Ruan Jingluo glanced at her, “Where exactly do you want to trick me into going, just speak straight.”

Lu Shouqiu straightened her spine and patted her chest vigorously, “Me! Me! Me!”

Excited to the point of not being able to speak properly.

“?”

“I have a farm, needing a gatekeeper, see?” Agree, must agree, the retirement benefits are truly very good.

Ruan Jingluo automatically ignored the other party’s eager and expectant gaze, cold: “Not interested.”

If she believed Lu Shouqiu’s ghost words, she would be the stupidest dog in this world.

“How can you not be interested? You definitely didn’t watch the videos I sent you today,” Lu Shouqiu was heartbroken, “Such beautiful scenery, who wouldn’t be tempted, you just didn’t watch!”

Ruan Jingluo’s expression had a moment of unnaturalness. She indeed hadn’t watched. The place she lived had no wireless internet, and with so many videos, it used up too much data. After going to work, she couldn’t remember to watch.

Truly can’t be counted on at all, Lu Shouqiu quite objectingly brought out her phone, opening the videos one by one for Ruan Jingluo to watch, which filmed exactly today’s sunset glow, green grass, cattle and sheep, countryside dirt roads, the lit-up Ghost Village, and the drum tower. The extra picture was the calico cat, too fat, the lens couldn’t even fit it.

It was indeed very beautiful, but Ruan Jingluo’s first reaction was: “From where did you get these internet pictures and videos?”

Truly such a spoiler of scenery, fortunately my emotions are stable and I can cope, Lu Shouqiu thought this way, and went online to search information about the farm. So many living people had been there, it was impossible to have no splash at all, it had spread all over the internet, booming hot, it was just that Ruan Jingluo’s information was blocked and she didn’t know.

“There really is such a place.” Seeing the videos filmed by netizens, Ruan Jingluo issued such a sigh.

“I definitely can’t lie to you, how about it, consider it.” She had a face of sincerity.

The reason she chose to be frank was that before coming here, she learned that Ruan Jingluo had offended the company superior due to the sexual harassment incident. The other party was targeting her right now, and the subsequent work would definitely not be smooth. Ruan Jingluo was already looking at other companies’ recruitment online. Anyway, since she had to change jobs, coming to the farm was just the same.

“Why look for me?” Putting aside the salary issue, as far as the whole matter was concerned, it was very bizarre.

This definitely couldn’t be said, Lu Shouqiu said innocently: “Fate caused us to meet.”

All nonsense, not a single true word in her mouth, Ruan Jingluo chuckled sarcastically twice.

The solidly packed bowl of mutton rice noodles was full after eating only half. It was a pity to throw it away like this. She picked out the unfinished rice noodles, leaving the meat and soup, tied the bag mouth, placed it back into the plastic bowl, and covered it. After getting off work she could still take it back to heat it up for another meal.

In fact, she didn’t want to save food this much either, mainly because her wallet didn’t allow her to waste lavishly. This bowl of mutton rice noodles that didn’t cost her money was really delicious. On the market, a jin of mutton was also thirty-something, quite expensive.

Lu Shouqiu didn’t ask her why she still kept the leftovers, but propped her hands on her cheeks looking at this high building in front, sighing with melancholy. It seemed she was truly not interested in guarding the main gate at the farm.

Alas, could it be that a salary has to be given? But so many before weren’t given, should an exception be made for Ruan Jingluo? But changing the regulations would be very troublesome, she was most afraid of trouble. And once given a salary, Ruan Jingluo wouldn’t have that much resentment, which was the good medicine to prolong her life. How could she do without it? She didn’t want to come to the office building to squat and guard to consume others’ resentment again. The sun outside the farm was too vicious, she didn’t like it. The living entering the farm every day were also laughing happily, with very little resentment, not enough for the stall owners of the Ghost Village to consume, how could there be any share for her? These ghost stall owners were all very shrewd.

Ruan Jingluo threw the trash into the trash can, turning back to see her still there sighing and groaning, “You’re still not going home?”

“Not going, too far, I have no strength.” Lu Shouqiu was very mournful.

The corner of Ruan Jingluo’s mouth twitched twice, “Then how did you come over.”

“By flying.” True word, didn’t lie.

Ruan Jingluo believed her only if there were ghosts, “How much were the mutton rice noodles?”

“What for? Want to transfer money to me?”

“Put it on tab first.” She didn’t even have a hundred yuan right now, not knowing if she could last until next month’s salary, really wanting to curse.

Lu Shouqiu knew she was penniless right now, waving her hand: “Said it’s my treat, talking about money hurts feelings.”

“…Are you going home or not? I have to go back to be on duty.”

“You go ahead, I’ll stay by myself.”

Ruan Jingluo opened her mouth to speak but stopped, finally saying nothing, carrying the unfinished meat into the big building. The property security uniform, which belonged to that ugly-to-explosion factory assembly line style, didn’t look rustic on her at all—waist was waist, legs were legs, beautiful to pieces.

Lu Shouqiu pursed her lips toward that extremely beautiful back view, what’s the use of being good-looking, still unwilling to come to the farm to guard the main gate.

Alas~

Really need to change people?

There were indeed other candidates, but she still felt Ruan Jingluo matched her eye affinity better, not wanting to change too much. Wait a bit more. Who knows, in a few days, Ruan Jingluo might come begging at her door herself. If reduced to the point of drifting on the streets and still not begging her for shelter, she would have backbone, respecting the other party as a talent.

Ruan Jingluo didn’t know how long these pieces of trash in the monitoring room had been peeping. As soon as she entered they started a commotion, even hitting upon the idea of that remaining bag of mutton. The fragrance was very obvious in the room, and they knew what was in the bag was good stuff.

Seeing that Ruan Jingluo had no intention of bringing it out to share, the person sitting directly opposite the door snorted, speaking in a weird tone, “Didn’t see that you were quite close to that psycho, sending you food in the middle of the night. If it were a male, would you have married long ago.”

The other few people followed with a burst of loud laughter. Everyone in the office building knew that woman who squatted at the main entrance every Monday, wasting such a good-looking face, being someone with a sick brain.

Ruan Jingluo ignored them entirely. This trash liked to privately fantasize about those white-collar girls in the office building, saying when they saw someone dress a bit prettier that she ascended through sleeping around, or else came to seduce men, and usually they would also peep through the monitors.

Before, a dismissed security guard copied a portion of the elevator monitoring footage—a pair of male and female kissing passionately, posting it online and saying the female was a mistress seducing a married man, still messing around in the office at midnight.

This matter caused a huge stir at that time. The other party called the police, and the security guard was detained for 15 days even before being formally dismissed, and faced compensating money.

However, this couldn’t strike an alarm bell for this current gang of trash either. They just felt the former colleague was unlucky, not feeling there was a fault, instead feeling the party calling the police was making a mountain out of a molehill, having a guilty conscience.

“Hey! Talking to you, didn’t hear? What are you pretending for, btch.” Seeing Ruan Jingluo ignore him, that person was very enraged.

Ruan Jingluo grew up beautiful, and several bosses in the office building had an interest in her, wanting to keep her, but were all refused by her. These few people in the monitoring room were sour while wanting to eat swan meat.

The one directly opposite the door had once confessed to Ruan Jingluo, exchanging for a round of cold ridicule, so he bore a grudge against Ruan Jingluo. That day, it was he who broke the camera in the stairwell, so no evidence of Ruan Jingluo being sexually harassed was filmed. He wanted to wait until the superior succeeded, and then go over himself to pick up a loophole. Who knew Ruan Jingluo was so reckless with her life, swinging a fire extinguisher and smashing it down.

At her seat, Ruan Jingluo kept her head lowered the whole time, revealing a section of snow-white neck.

Her line of sight stayed on that riot baton on the table, looking for a long time, so long that her eyes got sore, particularly wanting to wield it to bash that idiot’s head open.

Her mind kept looping Lu Shouqiu’s phrase “come to my farm to guard the main gate,” and she couldn’t help using her phone to search information about the farm. It was the same as what Lu Shouqiu showed her, the address was very remote, in the southeastern direction of Yunqian, with a very large pasture, a night market, a market, and an ancient drum tower. The scenery as far as the eye could reach was very beautiful, a good place suitable for retirement.

Should she go? She stared at the pictures of the farm, thinking blankly. But Lu Shouqiu said it only included board and lodging, with no salary.

A strange person saying strange words, could it be believed? What if it was a scammer? If she was sold to Northern Myanmar, she definitely wouldn’t live past three days. Even if she died, she didn’t want to in this manner.

Think a bit more, the situation hadn’t gotten bad to this extent yet. She was already looking for other jobs, and as soon as there was a reply, she would resign, then she could stay far away from these pieces of trash.

Lu Shouqiu went out high-spirited, but came back with her head slumped.

She scooped up Calico, who was just preparing to slip out to find a lover cat, and rolled into the blanket, covering her head to sleep. During this period, an immortal citizen came over to knock on the door, but for half a day didn’t see it open, quietly silent, and the hexagonal bells hanging over the door head didn’t ring.

“What’s going on, is Master Shouqiu not at home today?” The immortal citizen who made a special trip to deliver vegetables ran into other immortal citizens who also came to deliver things, asking a question. Today wasn’t Monday either, how could she not be at home.

“Don’t know, heard gossip from the Ghost Village side saying Master Shouqiu bought mutton rice noodles last night to go outside the farm to see a friend, shouldn’t be back so quickly right.”

“Ah?” The vegetable-delivering immortal citizen was surprised, “Master Shouqiu made friends with a living person?”

The ghosts and immortal citizens on the farm all knew Master Shouqiu didn’t like dealing with the living, heard it was due to historical legacy reasons.

Night fell, and the lamps of the drum tower lit up on time. The owls that hid under the eaves acting as sculptures during the day circled above Lu Shouqiu’s head, hooting, adding oil and vinegar to convey what several immortal citizens said at the door today, which was very absurd.

“You are missing, you were kidnapped by a living person and sold to Northern Myanmar to harvest your kidneys.”

“You don’t understand the traffic rules of the human world, running a red light and getting hit by a car into smashed pieces.”

“The farm is going to change owners, and powerhouses of various circles are competing for the post.”

“You are finished, you are dead, you are homeless.”

“You…”

Those with long bird beaks were all noisy. Lu Shouqiu snapped her fingers, and the world became thoroughly quiet.

Tonight’s work was busy, because yesterday’s souls weren’t sent. When Xie Bi’an arrived, Lu Shouqiu had also just finished eating, telling him to wait while she went upstairs to change clothes.

“Changed to a new car again?” After changing clothes, she first circled around the car for a turn.

His partner had matters and asked for leave, so Xie Bi’an did two portions of work alone, exhausted to death. Being driven like a yellow ox, whether in the human world or the underworld, made one want to stab voodoo dolls of the boss very much.

Mentioning the car made Xie Bi’an even more angry, “Don’t even mention it, the previous one only ran for a few days before breaking down five or six times, almost causing an accident last night, I was about to be scared to death.”

“How so?”

“The soul that was supposed to be sent off last night was an unnatural death, not wanting to go, took great difficulty to bring onto the car, struggling fiercely, almost letting the party run away when the car broke down.”

Souls could at most linger in the human world for seven days. The seventh day was also commonly known as the soul-returning night, where they could return to their home during life to take a final look, after which if they wanted to look they had to wait until the Ghost Gate opened wide on the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month.

If the lingering time exceeded the time limit, souls with strong resentment might turn into fierce ghosts hiding in some place, but whether turning into fierce ghosts or wandering in the human world, they would eventually be caught back by patrolling on-duty ghost constables for judgment, locked up in the eighteen layers of hell until the end of time.

Once a soul got onto the shuttle bus, if it got off before reaching the place, it also counted as exceeding the time limit, and ghost constables would likewise come to catch it, and it was a catch within seconds.

No choice, there were many ghost constables on active duty in the underworld, and those dispatched to the human world numbered nine hundred million if not a billion, a huge quantity, with two or three within a hundred meters, all scrambling for performance indicators, wishing to pounce alive when seeing a fleeing soul.

Tonight’s Milky Way was exceptionally dazzling, the drum sounds and the sacrificial notes of the Lusheng weaving together, echoing in the nooks and crannies of the farm for most of the night before ceasing.

Working overtime until dawn, Lu Shouqiu went upstairs and fell asleep upon hitting the pillow, and it was similarly busy for the next several days, leaving her no time to go see Ruan Jingluo. The phone used for contact was also unknown to have been taken and hidden by that troublemaker at home. Waiting until she found the dead phone from the incense burner of the long-abandoned offering table, charging it up and turning it on, several WeChat messages popped up.

Ruan Jingluo was looking for her, asking if what she said before still counted, whether coming to guard the main gate included board and lodging. Probably because she didn’t wait for her reply, the messages stopped abruptly two days ago.

“Counts! I’m coming over to pick you up right now!”

The result failed to send, because Ruan Jingluo had blocked her.

Uh-oh, terrible~

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