The dish known as “Piglet Under the Blanket” involves steaming flatbread over braised spare ribs. He had to admit, upon reflection, the name is a bit inappropriate.

But it was genuinely delicious. The ribs are braised until the meat falls off the bone—a simple flick of the tongue sends them sliding away. With a perfect balance of lean and fatty meat, the flavor lingers in your mouth. The side dishes—potatoes and green beans, staples of the region beyond the Great Wall—are tender and well-seasoned. The broth is so rich that you’d want to soak not just the flatbread, but even the soles of your shoes in it.

“Sis, how did you make those flatbreads on top? They’re not just plain flatbreads, are they?”

“You definitely can’t use unleavened flatbread—it won’t soak up the broth, and it’s not thick enough.”

Ye Suping served Huo Ying a piece of spare rib and explained, “You have to use leavened dough. Roll it out flat, fold it once, then roll it out again. Make the flatbread the same size as the pot. When you put it in the pot, don’t lay it too flat—it’s just like the quilt you use to sleep under. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bit messy; that actually makes it taste even better.”

To make sure the whole family had enough to eat, Huo Feng splurged and bought five pounds of spare ribs. Ye Suping kneaded a huge batch of dough—enough to cover a pig with three layers of blankets. Huo Feng was the first to finish. When he reached for his bowl to clear the table, Huo Ling reached out to stop him, telling everyone to stay put and leaving the dishes for himself and Yan Qi to wash.

Huo Feng agreed, but still took his empty bowl back to the kitchen, filled a wooden basin with water, and soaked it first—otherwise, the dried-on soup would be hard to scrub off.

“This meal has made my belly round like a ball.”

After Yan Qi stood up from the table, he couldn’t sit down again; the little pig and the blankets seemed to be stuck in his throat.

“Really?”

Huo Ling reached around from behind and said with a straight face, “Let me feel it.”

Even through his clothes, he could actually feel Yan Qi’s slightly rounded belly. He took the opportunity to rub it a couple of times. “Let’s go out to the courtyard in a bit to help with digestion.”

Just as Yan Qi was wondering what they could possibly do in the courtyard with the ground covered in snow, Huo Ying came looking for him.

“Uncle, Auntie, come build a snowman!”

The village had plenty of land, and every family had a large courtyard; the Huo family was no exception.

That morning, Huo Feng had only cleared a few paths leading to the various houses, the livestock shed, and the chicken and duck coops; the snow everywhere else remained untouched.

With the exception of Ye Suping, the three people and two dogs trampled the neatly packed snow in the backyard, shoveling it with iron spades to pile it into a small mound in the center of the yard.

“This is the snowman’s body. Let’s make another snowball for its head. 

Huo Ying worked steadily with her hands while muttering to herself.

She led Yan Qi in rolling the snowball, gathering the snow bit by bit, adding fresh snow on top, and shaping it into a round form with their hands.

Dager and Huang Yae rolled around at the base of the wall along the edge of the yard, biting each other’s snouts. Their chubby bodies slammed into the wall, shaking the snow off the top and soaking them from head to toe.

“You two have turned into white dogs!”

Huo Ying couldn’t stop laughing when she saw this, then suddenly remembered her own little white dog and started looking around for her father and uncle.

“Dad, Uncle, when are we going to pick up the puppy?”

Huo Ling chimed in, “If it doesn’t snow tomorrow, your uncle and I will go to Dongjia Village to pick up the puppy. I heard from your parents that you’ve already picked out a name for it, right?”

Huo Ying nodded vigorously. “I have! I’m going to call him Mantou.” 

“Mantou?”

Huo Ling couldn’t help but laugh. “Why did you choose that name?”

“She said the dog is white, and mantous are white too, so she named it Mantou. I figured people say you have to give dogs humble names so they won’t get out of hand—Mantou should work, right?”

Yan Qi smiled. “I think it sounds pretty nice.”

“Hmph, I’m going to call the puppy Mantou, Mantou, Mantou…”

A snowman that looked exactly like a steamed bun and a cornbread bun stacked on top of each other was finished. They stuck two twigs in for hands, a red chili pepper for a nose, and two small stones for eyes. Huo Ying even used some dry grass to stick on a few sparse strands of “hair,” then went back inside, thoroughly satisfied.

Huo Ling and Huo Feng had mainly helped shovel snow, so unlike Yan Qi and Huo Ying, their fingers weren’t frozen bright red; as soon as they stepped inside, they felt a burning heat. Huo Ling took his husband’s hand, cupped it on his own, and rubbed it vigorously.

“Don’t play in the snow like that next time. If you get chilblains on your hands, they’ll be itchy tonight.”

Yan Qi had endured his share of hardships; of course, he had chilblains. Once they set in, they were hard to cure, flaring up every winter. Huo Ling then dug out the badger oil left over from last winter and scraped out a bit for him to use.

“I’ll make some fresh oil this year, though everyone says the old oil works better.”

He said, “When the peddler comes to the village, or when the two of us go to town, remember to buy one of those little porcelain jars used for rouge. Put some badger oil in it, carry it with you, and rub it on as soon as you come inside from outside.”

Badger oil solidifies as soon as winter sets in, turning into a white paste just like lard, so it can only be stored in wide-mouthed jars or containers.

Yan Qi nodded in agreement, watching as Huo Ling carefully applied the badger oil to the back of his hand—the spot where he’d previously told him he’d developed frostbite.

“Now that it’s snowing, do the peddlers come by less often?”

“We’re lucky if they come once a month. Our village is just too remote.”

He thought to himself that it was a good thing they had an ox cart this year; it made it easier to go to town, so they could bring back more supplies at once.

The next day, they arrived at Dong Chengcai’s house. After sitting for a while, Huo Ling and Yan Qi were led to see Hongguo’er and her litter—seven puppies. Like the Huo family, the Dongs had kept one that looked just like their adult dog.

Counting the two that Huo Ling and his group had selected, there were four left. All had been promised to families in the same village, and two had already been taken home.

“Does Hongguo mind if we hold the puppies now?”

Huo Ling crouched down beside the doghouse, holding back from reaching in for the moment and simply watching.

The puppies had all been weaned. Hongguo lay to one side, resting her chin on her paw.

“I guess she’s worn out from raising the pups, so she’s fine with it now. But when you take one away, she’ll follow to watch. She followed the other two all the way to their new owners’ doorsteps—probably to get her bearings.”

Dong Chengcai looked a bit worried. “I’m afraid it might insist on following you back to the village later. What are we going to do then?”

Dong Chengcai’s son chimed in from the side, “If it insists on coming along, I’ll take it to Xiashan Village. Once it sees the two pups, it’ll have nothing else on its mind.”

Huo Ling and Yan Qi had no objections to this. Dong Chengcai sighed and waved his hand. “Let’s see how it goes first.”

With that, he stepped forward and lifted out a little black puppy with all four paws white as snow and a little white puppy that was almost entirely pure white. Hongguo’er hadn’t reacted at first, but when she saw him holding the puppies, she sprang to her feet.

“Hongguo’er, don’t worry. These two are coming back with us to live in comfort.”

Huo Ling pointed at the two dogs as he spoke to Hongguo’er, speaking in a serious, matter-of-fact tone, as if they were people, not dogs.

“This one is Mantou. My older brother will keep him at our house down the mountain to guard the place. This one is Heidou. He’ll be coming with us to herd the livestock on Bailong Mountain.”

Heidou was the name Yan Qi had come up with last night—or perhaps Huo Ying had given him the idea. Since they were all from the same litter, why not give them all food-related names?

The two names had the Dong family laughing for quite a while.

Whether Hongguo understood or not, when Huo Ling and Yan Qi each tucked a puppy under their arms to leave, it still followed them. Dager, tied to the large tree by the Dong family’s gate, let out a loud bark upon seeing it.

Hongguo’er wasn’t about to be outdone; it turned and barked back.

“Oh my, isn’t that your child’s father? Don’t you recognize him?”

Dong Chencai said, patting Hongguo’er on the head.

But the two dogs didn’t harbor much hostility; their barking was more of a formality. After all, since Dager had entered Hongguo’er’s territory, he couldn’t afford to be too arrogant.

As they prepared to head back, both families kept an eye on Hongguo’er to see if she would follow.

In the end, however, Hongguo only escorted them to the village entrance. Dong Chengcai and his son followed up to the road and waved goodbye to Huo Ling and Yan Qi.

“Come visit us sometime!”

“We will, Uncle. You two go on home!”

It had stopped snowing two days ago, and the village path was frequently traversed by pedestrians, ox carts, and donkey carts, leaving a trail of bare earth where the snow had been trampled away. Huo Ling and Yan Qi, each holding a warm puppy in their arms, didn’t feel the cold at all.

“Hongguo has really nursed this pup well. Look at how plump it is—it’s so soft to the touch.”

Yan Qi hadn’t held a puppy in ages and was overjoyed, even rubbing his nose against the fine fur on its back.

Huo Ling was holding Heidou, who was a bit more mischievous than Mantou. He kept wriggling about, so to prevent him from falling off and hitting the ground, Huo Ling had to press his head back down every few steps.

Dager was also curious about the two puppies. Normally, when walking along the village path, he would always stay far ahead, but today he kept hugging close to their legs, veering to the left one moment and to the right the next.

Conversely, the puppy was sleepy and had no sense of caution; it showed no interest in Dager on the ground. Halfway through the walk, Yan Qi stopped fidgeting, looked down, and realized it had already fallen asleep.

Once they arrived home and entered the new place, surrounded by unfamiliar smells, they finally began to panic, running around frantically and whimpering. Huo Ying scooped up the little white dog and placed it on her lap. “Mantou, this is going to be your home from now on.”

The other puppy, Heidou, was still on the floor. Dager came over to sniff him, and in his panic, Heidou stumbled and bumped into Dager’s leg.

“Woof!”

The puppy let out a high-pitched yelp—it sounded like a threat, but it was completely ineffective.

“It’s such a joy to see them standing together. They really are father and son—they look like they were cut from the same mold.”

Ye Suping walked over, looked at the dogs scattered on the ground, and said with a smile.

Huo Feng stayed by her side and warned, “The puppy is still small and hard to see when it runs—be careful not to trip over it.”   

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this under control.”

It was cold, so they didn’t bathe the puppies. After feeding them, they put the two of them in the doghouse.

The two puppies, bellies round and full, fell asleep without a care in the world. They woke up in the middle of the night, whining for their mother, and finally found Dager. They buried their heads in his fur and fell asleep again.

For once, Huang Yae outsmarted Dager. While he was tending to the puppies, he slipped into the house, curled up at Yan Qi’s feet, and managed to snag half a corn cob.

After spending two nights at home, the puppy had mostly adjusted to life at the Huo household and no longer barked incessantly in the middle of the night.

During this time, Huo Ling and Yan Qi took the ox cart into town, spending a little over two taels to buy a hundred catties of white flour. They also made arrangements with the butcher in Sanjia village to come buy meat every three days, asking only for the front legs.

The front legs had a good balance of fat and lean meat, whereas the hind legs were mostly lean, making it difficult for the meat filling to render fat and resulting in a dry, tough texture.

Yan Qi minced the pork into filling and made a pot of pork and scallion buns, sending a few to the Qi and Lin families as well, which earned him nothing but praise.

With everything prepared, all that remained was to set up the stall.

That evening, Yan Qi asked Huo Ling when they would go to town to sell the dumplings.

“It’s getting cold now. Unless it’s market day, I don’t know if there’ll be many people on the streets.”

“The bun business is good all year round, and yours are delicious. Just keep your heart in the right place.”

Huo Ling took the opportunity to rub Yan Qi’s belly, but the ger gently pulled his hand away. He laughed and chased after him, tickling the soft flesh on the ger’s side.

After a good while of roughhousing, Yan Qi finally had a moment to catch his breath.

Huo Ling then returned to the topic at hand. “Let’s put the stall business aside for now. We’ll talk about it after you celebrate your birthday tomorrow.”