Harvesting Fantasies Chapter 4

Almost all the rooms in the old house that were needed for daily use had been tidied up, but there were still a few rooms left that Avery had not touched. Those rooms had fallen into disrepair over the years, and the roofs were a bit broken. Besides, he didn't use them normally, so he thought about finding someone to thoroughly renovate the entire house when he had some free time.

After Avery arrived here, he fell asleep almost immediately after he touched the bed. The insomnia that had troubled him in the past was no longer there.

The air in the countryside is good, especially in the morning. Avery got up at around seven o'clock. After a simple breakfast, he took out the beans that had been soaked last night from the water and carried a large bag of beans to the big millstone at the entrance of the village.

Today he and Hunter agreed to grind some beans and make tofu pudding. The beans were brought by Hunter from his house yesterday.

Most people in Shuifu Village knew the news that Avery had returned from the city. Along the way, the villagers greeted Avery warmly and were very cordial. It seemed that they liked this college student who had returned from outside very much. Avery also responded one by one. He would live here for a long time, and it would not be a bad thing to have a good relationship with the villagers.

When they arrived at the millstone, Hunter was already sitting next to it, eating some fried winter melon seeds. Seeing Avery coming, he stood up and greeted him: "Are you here?"

"Yeah." Avery said, "You're here so early?"

"My head was swollen yesterday and I didn't sleep well." Hunter said, "My face felt better this morning."

Avery looked at Hunter and was relieved to find that his face was indeed less swollen. He said, "You put the beans in and I'll grind the mill."

"Okay." Hunter didn't argue with Avery.

So the two of them divided the work and started grinding the beans quickly.

This millstone has been in the village for decades. When Avery was a child, he climbed on the millstone to play and was twisted down and spanked by his grandmother. He was very naughty when he was a child. He ran around the mountains and fields with a group of friends, almost running to every corner of the village. But now almost all the friends in the village have left, and only Hunter, a childhood friend, is still in the village.

The beans are grown by Hunter's family, and the quality is very good. The ground soy milk is white and fine, exuding a fragrance of beans. I will bring it back and boil it later, then add brine, and wait until the soy milk coagulates into lumps, and the tofu pudding is ready.

A pot of beans turned into milky white soy milk. Hunter also put the bean dregs into the bag. The bean dregs are a good thing to feed pigs and cannot be thrown away like that.

The two of them walked back to the old house, one in front and one behind, Hunter holding the bean dregs and Avery holding the soy milk.

"I'm going to feed the pigs." Hunter raised the things in his hand.

"Go ahead." Avery thought for a moment and said, "By the way, the neighbor's kids named the two little wild boars yesterday."

Hunter: "Milo? What did he name the pig?"

"The big one is called Xiaohua, and the small one is called Xiaohei." Avery replied.

"Why call me Xiaohua?!" Hunter said, "Do you have to bring up my sad story?"

"It was the kid who named it, so I can't argue with him." Avery explained to Hunter helplessly.

"Oh." Hunter didn't say anything after hearing this, but said with a vicissitudes of life: "Then the big one must be more delicious than the small one..."

Avery: "......"Please shut up.

While Hunter was feeding the pigs, Avery poured the soy milk into the pot, then lit the fire, boiled it over high heat, then simmered it over low heat, adding brine while cooking and pressing it with a spoon. Making tofu pudding is a technical job. If you press it too hard, the tofu pudding will be too hard, and if you press it too lightly, the tofu pudding will not take shape. Avery had done it at home before, so he was quite experienced. The pot of soy milk had begun to slowly turn into a solid state.

While making tofu pudding, Hunter's voice came from the yard: "Sake! Someone is looking for you!"

"Who is it?" Avery replied, "Who is looking for me?"

"You'll know when you come out and see." Hunter replied.

Avery suppressed his anger, turned around and went to the yard, and saw Hunter standing in the yard, but what caught his attention was the man next to Hunter.

"Hello...hello." Avery wanted to say hello to him, but he still had a spoon in his hand, so he could only wave the spoon awkwardly.

"Hello." The man spoke. His voice was soft but clear enough to hear.

"What do you want?" Being stared at by the man, Avery felt awkward. The man was very handsome, still the lazy look he had seen a few days ago, with unique phoenix eyes, a high nose bridge, and a classical beauty like ink painting.

"I said I would come to see you," the man said, "I am here."

Avery: "......"

He remembered that the man's name was Nathan, and he also remembered what the man said when they met in the market before, but he didn't expect that he would actually come to him.

"Why, have you forgotten?" Nathan stared into Avery's eyes.

"No, I haven't forgotten." Avery said, "Come... come, come, do you want to eat tofu pudding?"

Nathan asked: "What is tofu pudding?"

Avery said: "Delicious food...Do you have any luggage? Put it in the house first?"

Nathan nodded.

Avery led him to the guest room that had just been cleaned, and only felt relieved when he saw Nathan go in.

Hunter was stunned watching from the side. He reached out and pulled Avery, whispering: "Hey, you just invited people in like this?"

"He is a good man." Avery said.

"How do you know?" Hunter stared.

Avery said: "Because he is good-looking."

Hunter: "......"

Of course Avery was joking. In fact, he dared to call Nathan into the house because of the cloth bag that Nathan gave him. The gecko tail in the cloth bag confirmed some of Avery's guesses. Everything that happened that night was not a dream, but a real fact. If it weren't for the man, he might have become a meal for the giant gecko.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm a grown man, what can happen to me?" Avery patted Hunter's shoulder, comforting his good friend.

Hunter glanced at Avery, then at the man in the room, and muttered: "What's wrong with men? Men are not safe these days either, although the unsafe one may not be you..."

Avery was shocked: "......What do you mean?"

Hunter: "You heard me wrong. I didn't say anything."

"I'm too lazy to talk to you. The tofu pudding is still in the pot. Go cut the meat and I'll stir-fry the pork later." Avery carried Hunter back to the kitchen.

This meat was bought by Hunter in the morning. It was authentic pork belly. It was very fragrant when used to stir-fry twice-cooked pork. Avery ordered the tofu pudding and cut the pork belly into even pieces three fingers wide. After heating the oil, he added garlic sprouts and bean curd and stir-fried them. After the meat and oil came into contact, a rich aroma unique to meat was exuded. The white fat part was fried to produce fat and turned into an attractive golden color. The whole piece of pork belly curled up. Before tasting it, you can know that it will definitely taste good.

Hunter couldn't wait to pick up a piece with chopsticks, chewed it twice and exclaimed: "It's delicious, the meat is so fragrant."

"Take it out. I'll cook some cabbage and egg drop soup." Avery wiped the sweat from his chin and said, "Please serve the rice and tofu pudding. I'll make the seasoning for the tofu pudding later."

"Okay." Hunter went to work happily.

Avery finished preparing the remaining things. The two people outside were already sitting in front of the table, waiting for him eagerly. Hunter was fine, but Avery could actually see the anticipation on Nathan's face.

Avery put the food in his hand on the table and said, "Eat."

Upon hearing this, Hunter and Nathan, who were standing next to them, picked up their chopsticks and went for the meat.

Avery also took a piece of twice-cooked pork with chopsticks, tasted it and found it tasted really good. His cooking skills were actually quite average, but he didn't know if it was because of the ingredients, but the twice-cooked pork was particularly fragrant. The fat on the pork belly was not greasy at all, but rather very chewy, soft and fragrant.

Avery tried some tofu pudding, which was also very well made, soft and solid, and went very well with rice when dipped in the specially prepared condiments. Avery could eat a large bowl by himself.

He was almost full after eating two bowls of rice. Hunter had also finished eating, but it looked like Nathan had no intention of stopping. The most surprising thing was that his eating movements were quite elegant, as if he was not eating some home-cooked dish but some exotic delicacy.

Hunter touched his belly and said, "I'm full."

"I'm full too." Avery said, "Nathan, you should wash the dishes later."

Upon hearing this, Nathan nodded naturally, as if he had completely integrated into this collective family.

Avery didn't think there was anything wrong with asking him to wash dishes. Although he didn't know why he wanted to live here, since he moved in, he must get used to doing these things.

After Hunter had eaten his fill, he stood up and said goodbye, saying that he wanted to go home and take a nap.

Nathan picked up the bowl and chopsticks, rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen. Avery was also ready to sleep for a while, so he moved a chair to the yard and prepared to sleep in the sun. The sun in early spring was much gentler than that in summer. When it shone through the clouds, people felt warm all over.

When Avery was about to fall asleep while sitting on the recliner, he felt something dripping on his face. He woke up suddenly and found that the bright sun above his head had disappeared without a trace, leaving only a dark cloud. Tiny raindrops fell from the clouds and dripped on his cheeks.

Is it going to rain? Avery reached out and touched the tip of his nose, feeling a little wet. He got up from the chair and was about to go into the house when he heard a strange sound... bang, bang, bang, as if someone was hitting something heavily with a stone. That thing should be meat or something, because Avery clearly heard the sticky sound of the meat being smashed.

Avery's footsteps moved slowly. He walked around the corner and saw the backyard shrouded in rain. A man had his back to him, holding a heavy stone in his hand. The stone was covered with bright red blood. He bent over and hit the object in front of him again and again. Although Avery was far away, he could see clearly what he was hitting. It was a bloody man. The man's face was no longer visible. The long hair and the smashed flesh were mixed together. There was no way that man was still alive.

Seeing such a horrific scene, Avery paused for a moment and shouted loudly: "What are you doing!"

The man paused, obviously hearing Avery's shout. He slowly turned his head and let Avery see his face. It was not a human face at all. It was covered with dense black hair, and only the blurred facial features could be vaguely seen. The man screamed miserably after seeing Avery, and then the black hair grew longer and longer, and finally completely wrapped up the bloody man.

Plop! There was another sound of a heavy object falling into the water, and Avery suddenly woke up as if he had been hit on the head by someone. He then realized that he was still lying on the bench, and Nathan, who had just finished washing the dishes, was standing next to him, looking at him expressionlessly.

"I seemed to have had a dream." Avery said vaguely.

"Yes." Nathan said, "You had a dream."

Avery said: "I dreamed of a dead person in the well in the backyard."

Nathan looked at him without saying anything.

Avery asked: "Is it true?"

Nathan was silent for a moment, and asked instead: "Then why did you come back here?"

Avery frowned: "I just feel tired in the city and want to come back."

Nathan asked: "Is that all?"

Avery shut up. In fact, he didn't want to mention the reason why he came back here, because it was too absurd, so absurd that it seemed like a joke to tell it out loud.

Avery didn't say anything, and Nathan didn't ask either. He looked at the sky, said it was going to rain, and turned back to the house.

Avery looked around the yard and suddenly felt the biting spring chill.

He stood up from the chair and walked to the backyard, but saw only a black well standing in the empty backyard. Seeing this scene, Avery nodded and went back to the house.

Sure enough, as Nathan said, a drizzle soon began to fall from the sky.

Spring rain is as precious as oil, especially for farmers. As Avery watched the rain nourishing all things, he felt as if he had also gained a sense of Zen.

But Nathan, who was sitting next to him, obviously didn't think so. He stretched out his hand to Avery and said, "Give me some melon seeds, too."

Avery said "oh" and shared half of the melon seeds with Nathan.

Nathan said: "You just saw the yard, what do you think?"

Avery said: "The time is not right."

Nathan's eyes darkened: "How long are you going to wait?"

Avery: "Summer!"

Nathan: "What if we wait until summer?" He was about to say that the things in the well would come out regardless of spring or summer, when he heard Avery sigh: "You don't understand this, you can only grow watermelons and grapes in summer. The yard is too small, so you can only grow these vines."

White Moon Fox: "......Are you just thinking about the yard?"

Avery was puzzled: "What else?"

Nathan: ... He continued to eat melon seeds in silence.

Avery propped up his chin and spat the melon seed shells into the trash can next to him, sighing: "I was just kidding, let's call the police first, there must be something in the well."

Nathan said: "Yes."

After a moment of silence between the two, Avery mustered up the courage to turn his head and look at Nathan: "I have another question..."

"I'm a fox." Before Avery could ask the question, Nathan spoke very seriously, "I'm the kind of monster that you humans like the most!"

Avery: "......" He hasn't even asked yet.

No one knew what Avery's expression had caused Nathan to misunderstand. He stood up quickly, turned his back to Avery and said, "I really am a fox." As soon as he finished speaking, several big furry tails stretched out from under Nathan's clothes.

The tail was covered with pure white fur, soft and fluffy, and looked very nice to touch. Avery felt a little itchy, but he didn't dare to reach out, and just said: "Oh, I know."

He didn't know if it was Avery's illusion, but he felt that after he said this, Nathan breathed a sigh of relief in a very subtle way, as if he was relieved of something.

Why did this fox reveal his identity so directly? Wasn't he afraid of scaring himself? Avery felt a little lonely and a little strange at the same time. He always felt that Nathan's behavior was a little strange, as if... he was afraid that he didn't believe he was a fox.

Well, but there is no reason for him to pretend to be a fox, right? Avery explained to himself.

Perhaps it was because Avery's desire for the white furry tail was too obvious. Nathan frowned and looked at Avery, then said, "You can touch it."

Avery let out an "ah" but didn't react.

"You can touch it." Nathan Fox repeated it again, and its furry tail trembled slightly.

When Avery heard this, he immediately put his hand forward. After touching the furry tail, he even heard his soul sighing with joy. The big tail was furry and smooth, and felt like soft silk... Avery stroked it hard, and reluctantly withdrew his hand after a while: "Thank you, Brother Bai." This was the first time in his life that he touched a vixen's tail, and it might also be the last time.

Seeing Avery's face full of happiness, Nathan nodded, got up and went back to the house.

Avery did not move. He had actually encountered these strange creatures many times before. There were so many kinds that it was hard to guard against them.

As time went by, he got used to it. If an ordinary person encountered someone like Nathan who revealed his identity as soon as he arrived, he would probably be scared to death.

But to be honest, this was the first time Avery had seen a humanoid and conscious fairy like the White Moon Fox. Most of the ones he had seen before were things without self-awareness, such as a big tree at the entrance of their unit that would repeat the gossip that others had said...

After the dream just now, Avery was sure that there must be something dirty in his backyard, so he picked up his phone and called the police. Of course, he didn't say that he was dreaming, but just said that there seemed to be something in the well water, and he suspected that someone accidentally fell in.

After hearing this, the police said they would come as soon as possible and asked Avery to protect the scene. There were no police in the village, so the police had to drive from the town, and it would probably be dark when they got here.

Avery went to the kitchen to get some flour, beat a few eggs, and baked a big omelet. He also cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge, chopped two cucumbers, and prepared a simple dinner.

The three of them sat by the well and had dinner. Hunter was a little confused and asked, "What are you doing? Why are you guarding the well? What's in the well?"

Avery: "There is a ghost."

Hunter took a bite of the biscuit and said vaguely: "You can't call the police if there is a ghost, right? Do they care about this?"

Avery said: "There must be a reason for ghosts. What if the ghost's body is in the well?"

Hunter: ... He felt that the cake in his mouth seemed to have a different taste... He silently put down the cake in his hand.

Around ten o'clock, the sound of sirens was heard at the entrance of the village. The sirens drove all the way to the door of Avery's old house, and then two policemen got out of the car.

"Did you call the police?" The young policeman knocked on the door of the old house.

"It's me." Avery said.

"You said someone fell into your well?" the policeman asked. "Are you sure?"

"I called the police because I was not sure." Avery said, "I heard something fell into the well."

The two policemen looked at each other, and the older one said, "Take us to have a look first."

So the group returned to the backyard, and the young policeman shone a flashlight inside, then frowned and muttered: "It seems like there is really something floating in here."

The old policeman said nothing. After careful observation, he took out a rope from his bag. There was an iron hook on the rope. He threw the rope into the well, stirred it vigorously in the water, and said, "It's hooked."

"Can you pull it up?" asked the young policeman.

"I'll try." The old policeman tried to pull it out, but the thing in the water seemed very heavy and he couldn't hook it up. He shook his head and his expression became serious. "No, it's very heavy."

"It can't be a real person." The young policeman began to get a little nervous.

"I'll call the bureau and ask them to send some more people and equipment to confirm it." The old policeman looked at Avery with a subtle expression and said, "It might really be a person."

Facing the police's suspicious eyes, Avery thought, "It's useless for you to look at me. This matter really has nothing to do with me." Of course, the police would definitely not believe him, after all, he was the one who called the police to report that someone fell into the well.