Winters beyond the Pass are hard to endure. While poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese can be herded into the chimney house to bask in the warmth of the heated bed, large livestock like cows and pigs have no such option and must be kept in the yard. Therefore, building sheds and pens requires considerable thought.

To keep them warm, the small huts they built were hardly any less sturdy than houses meant for people.

After two days of hard work, Huo Feng and Huo Ling had the new cattle shed taking shape; all that was missing was a thatched roof to keep out the wind and rain.

There was some wood left over. Huo Ling crouched on the ground, sorting through it and gathering a pile. “Why don’t we use the leftover wood to build two doghouses? Hongguo’s due any day now. By the time the puppies are weaned and brought back, the weather will have turned cool. Since they’ll be nursing puppies, it wouldn’t be good for them to sleep out in the yard.”

Besides, once the puppy comes home, teaching it to go into its kennel is part of its training.

What happens when they grow up is another matter, but certain rules must be established from a young age so they know who the real master is and will understand whose commands to follow in the future.

Hongguo’er conceived in June, so by their calculations, she’s due in August—it really is almost time.

They said they’d send word to the Huo family in Xiashan Village as soon as there was news, but they haven’t heard anything yet. Still, it should be any day now.

There was no rush to build a doghouse; they had originally planned to wait until next month. But since they happened to have some lumber on hand, it seemed like a simple task to tackle right away. 

He figured if he put it off, he might not have the time later.

When Huo Ying heard that her father and uncle were going to build a doghouse for the new puppy, she immediately stuck to the spot. She claimed she was there to help, but in reality, she was just getting in the way.

But the two brothers didn’t shoo her away.

While working, Huo Feng said to Huo Ling, “We built a doghouse for Lao Hei when we were kids, remember?”

Lao Hei was a hunting dog once kept by Old Huo Shuan; he had died of old age long ago and was buried under a tree not far from the small courtyard on the mountain.

Back then, Lao Hei had spent his entire life in the mountains and left no offspring. Now that it was their turn to build a nest for Dager, their feelings were entirely different. Yan Qi also stood by watching for a while, then picked up a vegetable basket and went into the yard to gather vegetables for dinner.

During the summer and fall seasons beyond the Great Wall, the most plentiful food was green beans. The long, slender ones were called yardlong beans, while the short, flat ones were commonly known as oil beans. Oil beans held up well in stews; simmered in a pot with potatoes, they made a delicious dish. If you added some pork bones to the stew, it was almost like a New Year’s feast.

There were several varieties of oil beans, and every household often planted different seeds; the Huo family’s crop had a greenish-purple hue. Filling a basket with several kinds of vegetables, the two sisters-in-law sat in front of the stove room to sort through them.

Ye Suping reminded Yan Qi that before heading back up the mountain, they should harvest all the vegetables in the yard—washing those that need washing and drying those that need drying—to prepare winter provisions.

“It won’t be more than a month before the snow falls. Don’t think I’m joking. Once it gets cold beyond the Great Wall, it happens overnight—one day you’re wearing a cotton-lined jacket, the next you’re bundled in a padded coat.”

Yan Qi nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Once we’ve harvested everything from the fields, Huo Ling and I plan to plant another crop of Chinese cabbage and radishes.”

“Yes, you can still plant another crop. There’s also green onions and mustard greens—they won’t freeze to death in early winter. Once they’re ready to harvest, just throw them all into the vegetable cellar. When you’re ready to eat them, peel off the outer, tough leaves—the inner parts will still be fresh.”

Although the mustard greens’ leaves are edible, people usually pick the lower stems to make pickles. With no fresh vegetables available during the snowy season, these are what we rely on to eat with our rice.

There was a lot of hammering and sawing going on in the backyard for a while. With the doghouse only half-finished, he called over two men to eat first, and after they finished, they went back to work. Before nightfall, they finally finished building two doghouses of roughly the same size.

“The house is so big, I could even crawl inside.”

Huo Ying poked his head inside to take a look; a fresh scent of wood wafted out, and Dager and Huang Yae gathered around to sniff it too. Huo Ling wasn’t worried that they’d mark their territory by peeing—he’d trained them, so they knew better than that.

Only after Huo Ying stepped back did the two dogs each claim a kennel and lie down inside.

There were already two dog beds in the house. One was left behind by the family’s old black dog; it had been made from good wood and, despite some repairs over the years, had never been thrown away. The other was a new one Huo Ling had made after Dager joined the family, though the dogs rarely went inside them.

When it’s hot, they sleep in the yard; when it’s cold, they go inside. But occasionally, they need to stay out in the yard to keep watch, or if it rains and no one’s home—and they can’t make it back in time to open the door—they’ll go inside on their own to shelter from the rain. So even if they don’t use them often, we can’t do without them.

“Uncle, when can we bring the puppy back?”

Huo Ling swept the wood shavings into a pile with his broom, thought for a moment, and said, “I’ll let your father know. Wait two more days. If there’s still no news, we’ll make a trip to Dongjia Village.”

Since he had to prepare to fetch the piglets—and perhaps the puppies as well—with several tasks piling up, Huo Feng didn’t plan to accompany Huo Ling up the mountain.

“Once the harvest is in, I’ll go with you to catch a batch of forest frogs. That should be enough for this year.”

From late autumn to early winter, forest frogs come down from the high mountains to the mountain streams to overwinter. To catch them, one must either set nets along the path or place traps in the water; Huo Ling usually used the latter method.

As for the Lin family, Xiao Mingming stayed behind to help Mother Lin tend the fields, while only Lin Changshui went into the mountains. In another half-month, the millet in the fields would be ready for harvest; at this critical juncture, there could be no mishaps.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

“Woof—woof—”

Dager stood on the hillside and howled. As soon as he started, Huang Ya’er joined in, and the two dogs’ howls rose and fell in turn; from a distance, it sounded as if wolves were approaching.

“What’s going on here? A demonstration?”

Yan Qi asked in confusion as he tossed pinecones into the basket.

“Probably. They must have heard some noise in the distance that we didn’t catch.”

Huo Ling noticed two pine needles had landed on Yan Qi’s shoulder and flicked them off with his hand.

Lin Changshui walked over from a few paces away, scooped up a handful of pinecones with his sleeve, and dumped them all into the backpack.

On this trip into the mountains, he had already learned to climb trees using climbing irons. Since Huo Feng wasn’t there, he borrowed Huo Feng’s pair.

Climbing trees isn’t for the faint of heart; it requires both boldness and caution. Lin Changshui climbed slowly but carefully, remaining steady all the way to the treetop.

Huo Ling watched him climb from the ground below until he reached the top; his heart settled back into his chest, filled with the satisfaction of seeing a student finally master his craft.

After gathering pine nuts, they passed by a stream and stopped again. The three of them waded in and spent a while catching crayfish.

Since Yan Qi had drunk a couple of sips of cold water the night before and ended up with a stomachache, Huo Ling wouldn’t let him go in the water today. Instead, he fashioned a fishing rod for him out of a twig, pounded some snail meat into bait, and had him sit on a rock by the stream to pass the time fishing.

Yan Qi had never fished this way before. At first, he didn’t believe any fish would take the bait, thinking Huo Ling was just teasing him. To his surprise, not long after he sat down, the hook submerged in the water began to move.

Afraid the fish would slip off the hook, he hurriedly yanked it out of the water. The fish on the hook flapped its tail wildly—it looked like a species Yan Qi didn’t recognize. The live fish landed on the grass, and he happily called Huo Ling over to take a look.

“I can’t believe we actually caught one.”

“I told you so. I knew we would. There are plenty of fish in these waters, and since hardly anyone comes here, they’re all a bit dim—they open their mouths the moment they see bait.”

Huo Ling bent down to pick up the fish and examine it. “It’s a stickleback. Just like the mudskipper, you won’t find them in clean water. If you catch one in the spring, it’ll have roe in its belly.”

Lin Changshui leaned in to identify the fish and laughed, “Steamed—that’d be… delicious.” 

“Looks like I’m in luck.”

Yan Qi was overjoyed. To him, it felt as though he was destined to live on Bailong Mountain—ever since arriving here, all his misfortunes had vanished.

“Mountain God above.”

He silently recited a few words in his heart.

Seeing the ger smiling contentedly, Huo Ling baited his hook again and let him continue fishing.

As for himself, he continued searching the stream for crayfish with Lin Changshui; compared to the heart-pounding fear of climbing trees to gather pine nuts, the task at hand was far more enjoyable.

By the time they’d caught their fill, Yan Qi had also reeled in several fish. However, only that first fish was any size; the rest were small fish—two willow root fish and two spiny loaches—just the usual small, miscellaneous fish found in mountain streams.

Earlier, when they’d gone into the water, Huo Ling had sunk a loach trap into the stream, baited with earthworms dug from the soil. He’d thought that if they caught any, they could have a pot of stewed loaches; if not, it wouldn’t matter.

Now that it was time to leave, he pulled it out to take a look—and sure enough, three loaches had wriggled inside, all of them quite plump.

“We’ve got today’s dinner sorted. These will make a nice pot of fish soup.”

After a hard day’s work in the mountains, he wasn’t going to skimp on a good meal when he got home.

“Small fish soup” refers to a stew made with assorted fish. There’s a saying that eating loaches in the fall is particularly nourishing, so people often add loaches to their small fish soup after the autumn harvest. The loaches from the mountain streams were plump and succulent. With three of them—one for each person—the resulting soup was white and fresh.

Paired with steamed bamboo shoots and blanched crickets, this meal had no staple grain, yet it filled our bellies to the brim with river delicacies—and we were just as full. Living in these mountains, the only worry is what to eat, not whether there is enough to eat.

Lying in bed that night, Huo Ling rubbed his husband’s belly and felt it had become a bit softer than before, indicating he’d gained some weight—a good sign. He pinched his waist, which was still slender, and proceeded to grip his wrists and ankles one by one.

Yan Qi tried to pull his ankle away, but he was no match for Huo Ling’s strength. After struggling for a while, somehow they ended up in a position where Yan Qi was on top, and Huo Ling was on the bottom.

In the dim candlelight, the ger realized he’d never really looked at Huo Ling from this angle before. It felt different from looking up at him from below; he suppressed the jump into his throat and touched Huo Ling’s thick lashes with his fingertip.

A faint, tingling sensation traveled from his fingertip, spreading all the way to his heart.

The man’s eyelashes trembled slightly, yet the large hand resting on Yan Qi’s back was incredibly firm, holding him so tightly he couldn’t move.

As his fingers lifted the hem of his robe, Yan Qi watched helplessly as Huo Ling’s sash was undone—and it was all by the other man’s deliberate design. He sensed something was wrong and tried to roll away, but there was no chance of escape.

Just like a small fish hooked on a line, his only “fate” was to be devoured completely.

They didn’t encounter the club-wielding man again on this trip up the mountain. The three of them stayed for a total of ten days before packing up and preparing to head home. In addition to nearly a hundred pounds of pine nuts and two large baskets of mushrooms, they also gathered some late-ripening apricots from the mountain courtyard.

Apricots ripen later in the regions beyond the Great Wall than in the areas within it, and they ripen even later in the mountains than in the valleys below. They picked some that were ripe enough to pluck, though many fully ripe ones still hanging on the branches had already been pecked to pieces by birds.

When you bite through the thin skin, the ripe apricots burst with honey. Unfortunately, the kernels of mountain apricots are bitter and inedible, but they kept them all anyway. After washing them clean, they buried them in the ground, hoping they might sprout the following year. Even if they didn’t bear fruit for the first couple of years, at least they’d have apricot blossoms to admire.

As for why they were in such a hurry to head down the mountain early, it was because Lin Changsui was worried about the crops in the fields, while Huo Ling and Yan Qi were constantly thinking about Hongguo’s puppy birth, wondering if everything had gone smoothly. If they heard any news, they planned to go to Dongjia Village to take a look, so they could decide which one to take as soon as possible.

With their own concerns weighing on their minds, they didn’t linger in the mountains.

As expected, the good news came one after another once they reached the foot of the mountain.

In the pigpen at the back of the house, there was a plump little piglet—it looked sturdy and healthy just by looking at it.

As for Hu-zi’s father, he had actually stopped by that very afternoon when Huo Ling and the others went up the mountain to deliver a message: Hongguo’er had given birth to seven piglets on her first litter—four males and three females—and asked when the Huo family would come to choose. Once they had made their selection, the remaining puppies would be distributed to the Dong family.

Upon hearing this, Huo Ling and Yan Qi didn’t waste any time. The very next day after returning home, they bought gifts—both for the people and for the dogs—and set off, leading Dager with them.

However, Hongguo was fiercely protective of her puppies, so Dager couldn’t get close. Even Huo Ling and Yan Qi could only take a quick look from a distance, afraid of provoking Hongguo and causing her to stop nursing, which would leave the puppies hungry.

Of the seven puppies, four had the same coat pattern as Dager—black bodies—and only three had “four paws like snow.” The other three had white fur like Hongguo’er, and one of them had a black tail, which looked quite amusing at first glance.

The four black ones happened to be two males and two females. Huo Ling and Yan Qi picked out a lively male puppy that looked exactly like Dager, then planned to help Huo Ying choose a white one.

The two had originally wanted the one with the black tail, but unfortunately, it was a female. Since she was to be raised with Heiduo, they couldn’t choose one male and one female to prevent any potential mating issues in the future.

Yan Qi took a look, picked out another one with the most white fur, and agreed to come pick it up after weaning.