“What a huge courtyard. Building this out here in the mountains back then must have been no easy feat.”

When Xiao Mingming arrived at the small courtyard in the mountains—since he was the only one there who had never been before—Yan Qi gave him a tour of the entire place, inside and out. Xiao Mingming remarked with admiration, “You’ve tended the vegetable patches in the front and back yards so well. Those cabbages are all plump and fresh—it doesn’t seem like there are as many bugs here as down in the valley.”

Yan Qi pointed them out to him, “Those plants are white-headed anemones. The flowers have already faded. Huo Ling said planting them around the vegetable patches keeps bugs away, so we planted quite a few in a circle. It looks like it’s actually working.”

“We also boil herbal decoctions to spray on the vegetable patches. Not to mention anything else in the mountains, but these herbs are plentiful. If we run out at home, we just go out for a walk and pick a few handfuls—we can’t even use them all.”

Xiao Mingming looked envious. “With all these vegetables, you won’t have to worry about getting through the winter. Since it’s not too cold yet, if we hurry and harvest the cabbages and radishes from the field now, we can even plant another crop.”

Some vegetables wilt after a frost, but others become even sweeter and more flavorful. Take radishes, for example: before the frost, they’re too spicy to eat raw and must be cooked, but after the frost, they’re sweet enough to eat raw.

“We definitely have to plant Chinese cabbage. People beyond the Great Wall pickle it for the winter, so let’s give it a try this year.”

Xiao Mingming nodded in agreement. “The pickled cabbage here is a bit different from the pickles back home, but it really is delicious.”

The two strolled back to the front yard. Hearing the last few words, Huo Ling smiled and asked, “Why bring up pickled cabbage? Are you craving some?”

Yan Qi’s lips curled upward. “Seeing the Chinese cabbage reminded me. We don’t know how to make pickled cabbage, so we were just saying we should learn how to do it properly.”

“Pickling is very simple. When the time comes, you two can pickle a couple of jars up in the mountains—that’ll last you until next spring.”

Huo Feng carried a few bundles of firewood into the kitchen. Tonight, the three men would sleep in the west room, so they needed to heat up the bed there, while Yan Qi and Xiao Mingming, the two gers, would sleep together in the east room.

After washing their faces and resting for a while, the group gathered in the main hall for a meal.

Although they’d walked a long way through the mountains, since they were all familiar with one another and the rare liveliness of the mountains felt fresh and exciting, they didn’t feel particularly tired. They’d originally planned to just eat some ready-made dry rations, but in the end, they cooked two dishes.

One dish was stir-fried fresh pork—carried up the mountain that very day—with potato slices and green chili peppers; the other was a soup made by stewing a few fish they’d just caught with fresh tofu.

Fresh meat and fresh tofu were treats they could only enjoy on the very first day of their mountain stay. The group ate heartily, pairing the dishes with the pancakes that Mother Lin had prepared at home and that Lin Changshui had carried up.

Dager and Huang Yae ate fish soup with steamed corn buns in the courtyard. When they came inside afterward, their snouts were dripping wet. Yan Qi, though annoyed, took a handkerchief to wipe them down.

They had originally planned to rest today before heading into the mountains early tomorrow morning to gather pine nuts, but none of them could sit still—especially Huo Feng. As the only one who had gone into the mountains alone, he felt a pang of longing whenever he looked at Huo Ling and Yan Qi on one side, or Lin Changshui and Xiao Mingming on the other. He missed his wife and daughter terribly, so he suggested, “Rather than sitting around at home, let’s go out and do some work.”

“Then let’s just wander around near home and pick some mushrooms.”

Huo Ling had noticed this as soon as they arrived on the mountain: after spending a few days at the foot of the mountain, the mushrooms growing in the woods had become increasingly plentiful, and it was now the perfect time to harvest them.

Selling mushrooms every year was a major source of income, especially this year when luck was on their side, and Liao Dehai had already placed an order early on for pine mushrooms and hazelnut mushrooms.

These mushrooms aren’t very large when fresh, and they shrink even more when dried, so it’s not easy to fill a whole sack. As long as the quantity isn’t too large, he could eat them all himself; even if there were leftovers, others would be eager to buy them.

Although Lin Changshui and Xiao Mingming had never ventured deep into the mountains, they knew how to pick mushrooms and understood where to look.

So the group each grabbed a basket, called the dog, bundled up warmly, and set off into the mountains.

“Woof! Woof!”

Since there were so many people this time, Dager dutifully brought up the rear. Whenever someone fell behind, he’d let out a couple of barks.

At his bark, Huang Yae also grew alert, pricked ears twitching. A snake darted out of the grass along the path; thankfully, the dog spotted it in time. They waited until the snake had slithered away before continuing on.

“I think I caught a glimpse of the tip of the snake’s tail.”

Xiao Ming’s face paled, and he patted his chest. “Thank goodness we have the dog. No wonder mountain travelers keep dogs.”

Judging by the treatment the Huo family’s dog received—to put it bluntly—many people wouldn’t even get to eat such good food. But when he considered that keeping the dog wasn’t for fun, but to save their lives in the mountains, he felt that feeding it meat at every meal was well worth it.

“A dog’s ears and nose are incredibly sharp; they can pick up a scent from a long way off.”

Yan Qi moved through the mountains with far greater ease than Xiao Mingming, though Xiao Mingming was no frail young ger. When they reached a difficult stretch, Huo Ling and Lin Changshui each gave their husbands a helping hand, leaving only Huo Feng and Dager walking together.

Mushrooms were everywhere, so Huo Ling called a halt after they hadn’t gone far. He gestured in a circle and said, “Few wild beasts venture into this part of the forest; we might as well start looking here first.”

Places like beneath tree roots, in the grass, and on fallen, rotting logs are all prime spots for mushrooms to grow. And the mushrooms in Bailong Mountain aren’t limited to just pine mushrooms and hazelnut mushrooms. Aside from the elm yellow mushrooms that Huo Ling and Yan Qi had already eaten several batches of, there are also lion’s mane mushrooms that can be foraged in winter, as well as oil mushrooms, red mushrooms, and thunder mushrooms, not to mention sheep’s stomach mushrooms, pig’s snout mushrooms, cockscomb mushrooms, chicken leg mushrooms, and thigh mushrooms.

In a little while, when the weather gets colder, there’s also a type called the frozen mushroom.

Once the frozen mushrooms have been gathered, the annual fresh mushroom season comes to an end.

The seasons in the mountains are distinct and wait for no one.

The greatest danger when foraging for mushrooms is picking poisonous ones. Yan Qi and Xiao Mingming weren’t very familiar with the mushrooms of Bailong Mountain, and even Lin Changshui didn’t know them all—they feared making a mistake, so they all followed Huo Ling, learning the ropes first.

Mushrooms like the hazelnut mushroom and the pine mushroom are the hardest to mistake. These are staples in every household during the winter; even on the New Year’s Eve dinner table, there is always a pot of chicken stewed with mushrooms, and the mushrooms used are hazelnut mushrooms—using any other variety simply wouldn’t have the same flavor.

Red mushrooms are easy to identify as well; there’s only one edible red mushroom in the mountains. It’s deep red in color and looks a bit strange, but it’s actually nicknamed “vegetarian meat”—when braised with soy sauce, it tastes just as rich and savory as meat.

You have to be extra careful with the oyster mushroom and chicken-leg mushrooms, as there are two poisonous varieties that are easily confused with them. As for the poisonous ones, most don’t have proper names; they’re all called “Leg-Kicking Mushrooms,” implying that eating them will kick you to the grave.

Adults often use this to scare children—it’s far more effective than any fancy name—to keep them from picking mushrooms at random and popping them into their mouths.

The remaining variety, the pig’s-mouth mushroom, is the ugliest of all—dark and slimy, growing on tree trunks just like wood ear fungus. If not prepared properly, it retains some toxicity and can cause the mouth to swell like a pig’s snout—hence the saying “being snouted by a pig”—yet there are those who specifically crave this taste.

All things considered, the tastiest ones are still the hazelnut mushroom, the pine mushroom, and the morel—and they’re easy to identify, so you won’t pick the wrong ones.

Other mushrooms aren’t commonly sold at the market; even if they are, it’s usually just a few scattered ones. Like the mixed mushrooms Huo Ling used to pick in past years, most were dried and kept for the family’s own consumption—after all, they needed to stock up on winter provisions.

This year, with more people around and everyone in need of money, he thought it might be a good idea to gather as much as possible, bundle it all together to sell, and split the profits when they returned.

After learning the ropes, the group split up, though they didn’t go far; Dager and Huang Yae ran back and forth patrolling the area.

Huo Ling joined Yan Qi. Last night, Yan Qi had slept with Xiao Mingming, and this morning they’d been busy together preparing to head into the mountains, so neither of them had had a proper chance to speak.

Now, as they sat together under a red pine tree, Huo Ling finally asked, “I heard you two talking quite late last night. Did you sleep well?”

Yan Qi had indeed talked with Xiao Mingming for quite a while that night. Since arriving in Xiashan Village, the two hadn’t slept head-to-head like that before. Once they started talking, they couldn’t stop. If it hadn’t been for the need to get up early the next day to go into the mountains, they probably could have talked all the way until dawn without feeling sleepy.

But even though they’d gone to bed late, once they’d fallen asleep, it had been a sound sleep.

“It was fine, actually. Pretty good.”

He asked Huo Ling in return. Huo Ling sighed and whispered, “Big Brother was snoring and kept me up for a while. Finally, I gave him a shove—he didn’t wake up, but at least the noise stopped. I managed to fall asleep right then.”

Yan Qi chuckled, then quickly glanced at Huo Feng. Seeing that they were quite a distance apart and he surely couldn’t hear them, he continued, “Big Brother doesn’t snore every day. I guess he must have been exhausted from walking the mountain trails yesterday.”

“But the two of us haven’t slept in the same room for nearly half a month.”

As Huo Ling spoke, a hint of grievance crept into his voice. Yan Qi’s face flushed slightly, and he cleared his throat. “Well… well, Ming-ger and his wife, and Big Brother—aren’t they in the same boat?”

At that moment, he was thinking: Thank goodness there aren’t enough rooms at home to force us to sleep apart like this. Otherwise, if Huo Ling were to pester me for sex in the middle of the night, knowing Ming-ger was sleeping right next door, I’d rather suffocate myself than make a sound.

Huo Ling smiled, stopped teasing him, and reached out to pick a few pine mushrooms from the ground, placing them in the basket.

When pine mushrooms first sprout, they feel slightly sticky to the touch—that means they’re fresh. If they’re dry, it means they’ve been out for a while.

“We can take these home to stew with Chinese cabbage, or stir-fry with meat.”

Yan Qi thought for a moment and said, “Let’s stir-fry them with meat. We haven’t finished the meat we brought, and it would be a shame if it went bad by tomorrow.”

Meat is expensive; it’s not easy to come by a piece, and not every household has a well. In fact, many people—even in the heat—grit their teeth and keep the meat, eating it sparingly. If it feels sticky to the touch, they’ll just wash it and cook it anyway.

The Huo family, however, never did that. Trying to save money on food could lead to stomachaches, and then they wouldn’t even have enough to buy medicine.

Especially since Huo Ling and Yan Qi were still in the mountains, if they actually fell ill, it would be hard to find a doctor.

Furthermore, having meat twice a day was indeed a luxury. But when they thought of how people outside the mountains had to spend money to buy food, while they could eat freely without spending a penny, they felt quite content.

Even if skipping a meal could save a few coins, having lived with Huo Ling for so long, he knew the principle that one should never skimp on food.

Besides, the mushrooms at this time of year were simply too fresh; he felt that not eating them a few extra times would be a disservice to Bailong Mountain, which had produced such delicacies.

The pine mushrooms and hazelnut mushrooms were kept separate, while the other varieties were picked as they were found. A mix of colors crowded together—red ones were red mushrooms, yellow ones were cockscomb mushrooms, and white ones were chicken leg mushrooms—it looked like a basket of wildflowers, both delicious and beautiful.

After wandering through this patch of woods for over half an hour, we’d gathered nearly everything we could find, so Huo Ling led us on to the next spot.