Chapter 5: Bathing & Eating
It took a lot of effort to shave Dog’s head. While the inch of hair left after cutting his hair with the kitchen knife wasn’t ugly, it did look strange and required some adapting to. Qu Qing couldn’t help but laugh. Cat, standing next to him, was surprised at how changed Dog looked.
Dog touched the top of his head with some unease. The cold and chilly feeling of his head felt uncomfortable.
Qu Qing cleaned the hair off the kitchen knife and said, “Well, although it’s a bit strange, it’s to get rid of all the lice, so bear with it. The new hair will grow again in a few months. Next, it’s Cat’s turn.” Qu Qing looked over to little Cat.
Dog nodded, got up, and pulled Cat onto the stool. He thought that Cat would be afraid and so did not expect Cat to look up at Qu Qing very boldly.
With Cat’s face now in the sunshine, Qu Qing realised that his face was dirty and a lot of hair covered his forehead. Qu Qing bent down and reached out to lift his hair. Cat subconsciously flinched in fear, but he didn’t run away—although the main reason was because Dog was next to him, pressing down on Cat’s shoulders.
Qu Qing had previously seen young children crying as their hair was cut. He didn’t want to face such a situation, so he acquiesced to Dog’s move.
He took the opportunity to see Cat’s full face clearly, but strangely, Cat only had his right eye opened while his left eye was tightly closed. Qu Qing had a strange feeling in his heart: was this child born with only one eye?
Despite his confusion, his hands didn’t stop moving, picking up Cat’s messy hair—ignoring the lice between the strands as much as possible—and neatly shaving his hair down to an inch.
Seeing his results, Qu Qing nodded in satisfaction. Then, he began to repair his own hair. Because there was no mirror, he had to do it by feeling.
The already shaved big one and small one watched his movements in amazement, their eyes not even blinking.
Once Qu Qing was finally done with his own hair, he looked at the sun in the west and guessed that it was around three or four o’clock. It was time to continue cleaning. Seeing all the hair on the ground, Qu Qing felt that it was a pity that he had lost it; if there was a use for it, that would be good. He turned and asked Dog, “Can we sell the hair for money?”
Dog nodded. “My family often collects hair that has fallen off. Every once in a while, a peddler would come. You can sell the hair to him by the catty, or use it to exchange for some small things.”
“That’s good.” This was good news. Qu Qing squatted down to collect all the long hair. There was a lot of it. He took them into the kitchen and placed them in the wooden basin. Just now, the water had started boiling. He spooned water into the wooden basin to get rid of the lice.
Then he took a handkerchief and wettened it to wipe down the wooden bed. When he turned his head and saw Dog looking at him with eager eyes at the door, he remembered that he was not alone now, so he asked Dog to find a broom to sweep the yard first.
Because of the fine weather, the wooden bed dried quickly after wiping down. Qu Qing went out. Dog was sweeping the floor seriously and Cat was following him. When Dog saw him coming out, he didn’t stop, but his eyes followed Qu Qing.
Qu Qing went over to look at the straw that had been placed in the yard to dry and felt that it was almost done. He picked up a handful of straw and went straight to the bedroom. Seeing this, Dog put down his broom and took the initiative to help.
As Qu Qing was sorting the straw on the bed, Dog came in with another pile of straw. Qu Qing saw him but said nothing. He took Dog’s straw and spread that on the bed too, carefully arranging it to avoid being poked by it. Quietly, Dog took the initiative to bring in the rest of the straw.
With an assistant, Qu Qing simply concentrated on laying down the straw and tidying it up. Since he couldn’t afford to buy a mattress at this stage, could he use this straw to weave a mattress? However, he didn’t know how. At the same time, even if he wanted to try, he didn’t have enough tools. Regardless, he did not want to always sleep on a pile of straw, so he had to find a way to improve the situation. The current straw bed must be uncomfortable to sleep on.
As he absently mindedly accepted some more straw, he felt that something was wrong. Turning his head, he saw that it was Cat who had given him the straw. He smoothly reached out and patted Cat’s head before returning to his work.
When Cat saw his hand reaching out, he subconsciously tightly closed his eyes. Remembering how Dog told him not to make this man unhappy, Cat didn’t dare to move and stood in place. He thought that he would be beaten, but didn’t expect the warm hand touching his head lightly.
Cat stared up at Qu Qing’s broad back in a daze. Something bloomed in his heart as the world became very bright. He couldn’t help but open his other eye. The azure pupil was like a Tianshan lake, blue like the sky. In this beautiful pool of water, was the reflection of a person.
“Cat!”As soon as Dog came in and saw that Cat had opened his other eye, he immediately cried out, thinking of all the terrible consequences of being seen.
Cat was startled. Realising what he had done wrong, he immediately turned around and ran out. When Qu Qing looked over, he only saw Cat’s back. But Cat was in such a hurry that he fell over the threshold of the door.
After making sure that Cat got up again, Qu Qing asked Dog, “What’s the matter?”
Dog smiled pleasantly. “Nothing, I just……just……” He couldn’t make up a reason, but also didn’t dare to tell Qu Qing the real reason.
Seeing his hesitation, Qu Qing didn’t continue asking. He let him continue to clean the yard.
After all the straw was laid down on the bed, Qu Qing bent down to sort out the things lying on the floor. After a rough rearrangement, he went out to see that the sun had almost set. The bedding he had washed should be almost dry, so he went out to get it.
When he came back, he was satisfied with the clean clothes and bedding. As he was putting on the quilt cover, he suddenly remembered that the water in the kitchen was still hot. He glanced at the dirty man and child outside.
He went into the kitchen to see the boiling pot of water. There was only a small fire left underneath it, and the hair in the wooden basin had been neatly organised.
He picked up the air, wrung out the water, tied it together with a few straws, and placed it to dry on the pear tree outside. After telling Dog not to follow him, he went out and filled the wooden bucket with more cold water. Upon returning, he very seriously asked the two of them to go into the kitchen to take a bath.
“From head to tea, every corner must be washed clean. Do you understand? This is soap, use this to wash. The water is there. In addition…” Qu Qing went into the bedroom and found two pieces of his own clothes. Because Cat was too small, he took a short shirt. “These are your change of clothes. After washing, wear these, understand?”
These were the sternest words Qu Qing had said today. Dog thought to himself, this man should be very clean. Seeing his own grey body, he didn’t say that he had already washed yesterday. He honestly took the clothes and obediently took Cat to take a bath.
Qu Qing’s face softened in satisfaction. Now that the yard was cleaned, it looked much more comfortable. The house was almost cleaned, even the dust and stains on the cupboard had been wiped. The whole broken thatched cottage had a new look.
He arranged the quilts, and folded his clothes one by one, placing them neatly in a wooden box. He went to the yard and looked at the trees full of pear blossoms, thinking about what he had learned today.
He had basically searched every corner of the house. He was sure that the original owner was really poor: there were nothing like coins in the property. As for what he now owned, there was the lease for three mu of land and the broken thatched cottage and its broken benches and tables. For food, there were several bags of seeds in the other room, a third-full rice jar with rice worms. In the kitchen there was the large pot, a wooden basin, a few sets of chopsticks and dishes. And as for farming tools, there was only a sickle, a rusty hoe, and a bamboo back basket.
Most of the things were scattered. Only when he saw those farming tools did he deeply realise that he would have to live here for the next ten years. If there was no accident, he would have to rely on his own hands to become a real farmer and cultivate the land under the sky.
Even people who have never farmed know that it was not easy to survive by farming. Moreover, as a person from an industrial society, he had almost no contact with agriculture. Yet not, he had to farm to support himself. It was really all too magical.
Originally, Qu Qing found it all very difficult to accept. But when he thought about the huge sum of money he received, with the average monthly salary of 25,000, he thought——I can do it!
Just think of farming as a job.
In that case, he’d start working tomorrow.
With his mind more settled, he began to plan for tonight’s dinner. However, the kitchen was still being used, so he went for a walk to the mountain out back to get a preliminary understanding of the environment.
When he returned, he saw that the two had finished bathing and were hanging up washed clothes to dry on the branches of the pear tree.
Qu Qing saw that they were both indeed clean, so he nodded in satisfaction. He fetched water, washed the rice, and set it to cook. As there wasn’t much else, he had to take some of the potatoes and handed them to Dog to peel and cut.
He prepared the stove.*
[*TN: yes, for some reason after the rice should be cooking on the stove…]
When the rice was cooked, he stir-fried the shredded potato. Fortunately, although there weren’t many things in the house, there were some firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. However, the quantities were not optimistic, so he had to find a way to supplement them.
As he was cooking, Dog was swallowing, and Cat standing outside also stared with one wide eye, his stomach growling.
The loaded dish emitted a strong aroma. Qu Qing handed it to Cat and asked him to take it to the table in the room. Then he turned around and took out some rice for two large bowls and one small bowl. The rice was a little burnt—after all, this was not an electric rice cooker.
Dog came in and saw the three bowls of white rice. When Qu Qing handed them to him, he couldn’t believe it. Was this for him and Cat? No, perhaps it was Qu Qing’s strange habit of eating with three bowls? After all, even at his own family’s home, rice was precious and he wouldn’t get any.
One dish, three bowls of rice. Qu Qing took three sets of chopsticks to the table and sat down. The two other people stood at the front of the table, looking at dishes, their saliva almost flowing to the ground. Qu Qing picked up his own bowl and said to them, “Come and sit down.”
Dog was in a daze. Cat reached out and poked Dog, swallowing heavily.
“Waiting for me to feed you?” Qu Qing asked.
The two hurriedly came over and sat down. But they just looked at the delicious food in front of them, still not daring to move.
Feeling a bit helpless, he handed them their chopsticks.
TL notes:
Word count in English: 2k
The original writing style is a little long and stuffy in my honest opinion…I had to break up some paragraphs and reword some things for a bit better flow.
Today’s recommendation is a very chill xianxia~
Wen Zhihao is tired of life. When he dies…meh. That’s life.
But when he gets transmigrated into the body of a young cultivator of the prestigious Golden Sun Sect, full of possibilities…no thanks! He has no effort/energy to work hard on cultivation! He just wants to be a salted fish!
…it turns out sleeping = meditation and absently watching beautiful scenery = meditation.
And meditation = cultivation…
This is not the Dao of Indifference. This is the Dao of the Salted Fish!! With calm emotions, Wen Zhihao accidentally cultivates strongly!
…but he’s still a salted fish, bah. Don’t make him fight!
Haze MTL 
It’s quite sad to see both was afraid to eat. Though it’s still funny seeing how they act against mc.
Thanks for the chapter!
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