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When Ah Jin came out of the room, Ji Huan was kneeling on the floor in the hall scrubbing the floor, he had been wiping for who knows how long and was drenched in sweat, probably because he was wearing an old white t-shirt to make the job easier, the sweat soaked through the whole t-shirt, showing a little color of his skin and muscle as well as the fine shape of the boy’s back.
The little devil named Hei Dan was crawling beside Ji Huan, following Ji Huan’s direction whenever he went when he was wiping the floor and occasionally he would laugh when he bumped into Ji Huan’s leg.
However, his happy time only ended here and now.
Sensitive to Ah Jin’s line of sight, Hei Dan immediately raised his head to look up into the direction of the corridor. The moment he saw Ah Jin, he froze.
Ji Huan also noticed Ah Jin’s arrival: “Good morning!”
Not only did he say hello himself, he also held up Hei Dan’s little paw, “Hei Dan also wants to say hello to Ah Jin.”
Showing a small expression of wanting to cry but also not, the stiff Hei Dan pulled by Ji Huan and waved his little paw twice. The moment Ji Huan released him, he immediately at lightning speed crawled behind him.
“Good morning.” Nodding slightly, Ah Jin said good morning to Ji Huan as well. After that ——
“Good morning.” The second good morning was said to Hei Dan who only showed his small head behind Ji Huan.
Hei Dan’s head that had just stretched out immediately retracted again, then stayed for a while. Taking advantage of the time when no one was paying attention to him, he quietly stretched his head out again.
After repeatedly finding out that Ah Jin was not looking at him, he finally dared to keep his head out.
Ah Jin came over from the other side of the corridor. Carelessly, he took a look at his surroundings. He was not surprised to find that the living room had already been cleaned, the floor being the last step and before that, Ji Huan had already wiped the higher shelves and tables.
Easily picking up a vase from the display shelf, it was a brand new vase, white with a smooth surface and exquisite shape, at first glance it was the type he would like, but …
He did not remember there was such a vase in this suite.
“Did you bring this here?” Holding the vase, Ah Jin looked toward Ji Huan.
Ji Huan shook his head.
“No, it was originally placed there.”
“?” So it was originally there! Wait, wait … This vase looked a bit familiar …
Just as Ah Jin began to remember where exactly he had seen this vase before, Ji Huan continued:
“This vase originally looked very old, but I didn’t expect it to be new when I rubbed it. It had a bit of a crack in it, so I used the glue I brought to patch it up …”
Looking at the perfectly mended crack at the bottom of the vase, Ah Jin’s expression suddenly became subtle.
He finally remembered why this vase looked familiar: it was obviously an antique vase he had bid from the auction!
A red-glazed porcelain vase originated from a long time ago, approximately two thousand years ago in the time where the Yama King shined upon the night. Although the process was very simple and the workmanship was not at all comparable to that of today, the surface of the vase was a red glaze that cannot be replicated today, and the shape of the vase really suited his aesthetic. He immediately bid for the red-glazed vase at a high price.
It was now the one that he held in his hands.
The red glaze vase that represented the characteristic of that era has been wiped clean, to symbolize the precipitated soil over the years that also had been completely erased. The red glazed vase which was previously full of the historical archaic feel of it was now changed shape in a single shake into a brand new white vase.
Ah Jin: =-=
“Is there … something wrong with that?” Noticing that Ah Jin hadn’t spoken for too long, Ji Huan asked very cautiously.
Ah Jin shook his head and smiled gently, “This vase must be hard to clean. Thank you for all your hard work.”
Ji Huan then breathed a sigh of relief.
In the end, the flower vase was eventually filled with the wildflowers that Hei Dan had pulled from the yard. The yellow wild flowers swayed and bloomed in the white clean vase, looking unexpectedly beautiful. Ah Jin was very satisfied with Ji Huan’s ‘flower arrangement’ work then he placed the vase on the dining table.
The invaluable antique vase finally came off the display shelf and resumed its original job from 2,000 years ago.
With this kind of incident, the moment when he saw the “weeds” being pulled out of the yard later on, Ah Jin was able to keep a smile on his face and remain calm.
If he remembered it correctly, he had paid a lot of money for the weeds in the yard, which had a very low chance of producing the beautiful flowers known as “The not rotten thousand-year heart”. When the flowers slowly bloomed, it was an instant that has been described as one of the ten most fantastic moments in the world.
But Ji Huan didn’t pull out all the weeds in the yard, he kept some on the corners and exposed it to the sun. Last night, this kind of grass was the ration for Da Bai (the pig’s name). Da Bai seemed to love it, ate a lot of it and didn’t die the next day (=-=). This proved that this kind of grass can be used as food for Da Bai . Thinking of this , Ji Huan kept some of the weeds.
Ji Huan was a neat person. Even if there were weeds in the yard, he wouldn’t let anyone recognize it as weeds: Ji Huan also trimmed the left behind weeds into a shape. In just one morning he had wiped clean the house, pulled out the grass in the yard and trimmed the remaining ones. Ah Jin had a new understanding of the extent of Ji Huan’s competence.
Thinking about the rest of his collection on the second floor, Ah Jin made a suggestion:
“Is there anything else you’re missing? Go out and buy it ba! A lot of the things in this house are too old, so just replace all of it with the new ones.”
“It’s a bit old, but it still can be used …” Ji Huan hesitated, he was a very frugal person.
Without giving him a chance to hesitate, Ah Jin immediately said, “We have to buy food anyway. The food you bring is not that much anymore, right?”
As soon as this sentence was uttered, Ji Huan’s alternative/ escape route was immediately blocked.
Grandpa and Hei Dan stayed at home. He followed behind Ah Jin’s back, Ji Huan once again left the house.
Before they left the house, Ah Jin told Ji Huan to put his cloak on. Previously, he didn’t quite understand why. However, just about half an hour after they left the house, the temperature suddenly rose.
The temperature rose rapidly as the sunlight became unusually strong. Ji Huan had no doubt that if he didn’t have a cloak on him at this moment, he would be scorched by the sunlight.
“We live in a place where there are devices installed on top of the sky that absorb the light radiation. Once you step outside the range of the device, it will be like this.” Ah Jin explained to him as he walked,”The light radiation is quite strong over here so if you are afraid of radiation, try not to go out as much as possible during the hours between 11 and 14 o’clock every day.”
“… However, if you want to be a little safer then it is best to go out during this time.”
Ji Huan was stupefied.
“During this time, the higher level demons are afraid of the heat and are not willing to go out during this time. The ones that will come out are the less capable demons.”
Ji Huan nodded, indicating that he remembered.
“Don’t go too far! Do not go over the rubbish mountain or anywhere that looks busy, especially the latter.”
“Remember the road we took today, you’ll be coming here a lot later.”
The temperature was very high, but Ah Jin’s voice was as clear and calm as ever. By listening to him single mindedly, Ji Huan felt as if the temperature had lowered a little.
Beside listening to Ah Jin’s explanation, Ji Huan also divided some of his attention to his surroundings. During the time he took note to record the road map, he also noticed that the number of people around him was slowly increasing.
Everyone was wearing huge cloaks like him. Yesterday, the people in that little town seemed to be wearing cloaks too, but the cloaks there were a little more fancy and thinner, whereas here the people’s cloaks were mainly black and gray and most of them were already torn and tattered.
Although Ji Huan and Ah Jin’s cloaks were newer than the others’, they did not attract the attention of the others as the light was so strong and everyone was hurrying along with their cloaks over their heads.
These people seemed to be moving in the same direction as they were, since more and more people were walking around them.
There were many people, yet it was extremely quiet.
For an instant, Ji Huan really thought that the people around them were hallucinations caused by his dizzy mind from being basked in the sunshine.
It was a good thing they had arrived at their destination. Following the main stream of people slowly moving ahead, Ji Huan arrived at the very long alley. Both sides of the alleyway were lined with low houses; the windows and doors of these houses were small. The houses were ancient, crude and extremely solid looking.
Probably to dodge from the light, these houses one after another were covered with a wide shed on the roofs, in all sorts of colors. It was clearly broad daylight, but inside the shacks were very dim.
Walking underneath the sheds, Ji Huan was immediately relieved that these sheds were still somewhat useful. Although the temperature under the sheds was not much lower than outside, the less intense light immediately made people feel more comfortable.
A whiff of strong smell of blood came from below, and when he lowered his head, he saw ‘the staring with open eyes dead monster’ dripping with fresh blood on the chopping board. At first, Ji Huan was startled by this but when he looked around and saw the similar stalls everywhere around him. He then realized that this was actually a market.
Translator’s Note:
Sorry I have to split this quite long chapter (almost 5k in raw) for the sake of this translator’s sanity. Recently I kept hoping that I could do more updates and faster updates for every novel that I translated but yeah… sometimes it didn’t go as what I wanted .
By the way, the beginning of this chapter is so sweet. I got the feeling that as if Ah Jin picked up a diligent wife plus one kid that still wary about him and one grandpa under his care LOL .
Moreover, how Ji Huan unconsciously messed up with Ah Jin’s valuable collection in that way…and Ah Jin was still able to remain calm and keep a smiling expression.
I saw it as if there is a deep meaning behind it though…I mean, about the vase metaphorically.