Chapter Bonanza (5/5)

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“Heidou, sit!”

“Heidou, down!”

“Good job, good dog.”

Yan Qi was training his dog inside the house. It was too cold outside, so he had laid out a mat on the floor and was sitting cross-legged on it, holding a small wooden stick in one hand and a handful of chopped, sun-dried meat bits in the other.

Whenever Heidou followed a command correctly, he’d toss a piece, and the puppy would tilt its head back to catch it.

The meat bits were tiny, and the dog swallowed them whole—it probably couldn’t even taste them—but it still sat obediently and listened to the training out of sheer hunger. Yan Qi had watched his father train dogs since he was a child; the process was much the same, though the difference lay in the dogs’ temperaments.

Some dogs were naturally stubborn, unfriendly, and even prone to biting. With those, one had to be firm: lock them in a cage for a while, feed and water them at fixed times and places, and walk them on a leash to make them understand who the master was.

But dogs aren’t stupid; they can tell when people are kind to them. In any case, under his father’s guidance, even the fiercest dog would eventually learn to obey.

With ordinary, good-natured dogs—and the offspring of their own large dogs, like Heidou and Mantou—it’s much easier. You simply start with the simplest commands, teaching them the meaning of “obey or face consequences.”

Once they’ve mastered the basics of sitting, lying down, and standing, if they’re to be used as hunting dogs, you’ll need to teach them to sniff, track, and attack. If you have several hunting dogs at home, they’ll also need to learn to work together.

In the latter scenario, if there is a sufficiently intelligent alpha dog in the household—like Dager—the owner needn’t worry much. Dogs are animals with a clear hierarchy, much like a wolf pack; they will naturally establish their own leader and deputy.

With two puppies at home, Mantou spent most of his time guarding the house. For dogs, guarding and protecting their owners is instinctive; it doesn’t require special training. If he were trained as a hunting dog, he’d end up tied up at home all day, and the dog wouldn’t be happy about that.

So Yan Qi handed Mantou over to Huo Ying. The little girl spent her days teaching the puppy to sit and stand, and to fetch objects, as if it were a game, and she never grew tired of it.

After practicing those three commands seven or eight times back and forth, Yan Qi ran out of the meat treats in his hand and stood up.

He glanced at the time; it was nearly noon. The sky was clear and snow-free, and the surrounding landscape was brightly illuminated by the white snow. Before heading up the mountain, Huo Ling had promised to come down today—he wouldn’t break his word, whether he found the black oil mushroom or not.

“Sister-in-law, Huo Ling is coming back today. For lunch, I’ll stir-fry some pickled cabbage with pork belly and make some scrambled eggs. Is there anything else you’d like to eat?”

Ye Suping was pacing back and forth in the room, holding her back, feeling as if she was about to go stir-crazy from the stuffiness. It wasn’t until she heard the words “pickled cabbage” that her mouth began to water.

“Pickled cabbage is enough. Whatever else you make, I’ll eat.”

She wasn’t worried about a poor appetite now; on the contrary, she feared her appetite was too good—she wanted to eat everything. Sometimes she’d sit up in the middle of the night craving a cucumber, but in the middle of winter, where could she find fresh cucumbers?

In the end, Huo Feng got up and made her a bowl of stir-fried cucumber slices, which did the trick to satisfy her craving. Yan Qi nodded. “I’ve been craving pickled cabbage lately too. I feel like I can’t go a single meal without it.”

“Why not add a few chili peppers? A little spice makes it even more flavorful.” 

“Alright, I’ll go pick a few.”

Over the past few days, Huo Feng hadn’t come home for lunch, so usually it was just him, his sister-in-law, and his niece eating together—they’d basically only make one dish. Today, since Huo Ling would come down from the mountain, he planned to make two.

Lifting the lid off the pickle jar, the distinctive tang of pickled cabbage hit his nose. He scooped out a head and placed it in a basin.

Before cooking, the pickled cabbage needed to be rinsed several times. Some people who liked it sour would rinse it less, while those who preferred a milder taste would rinse it more.

After the first rinse, Yan Qi couldn’t resist plucking a leaf to taste. It was so sour it made his mouth water, but he found himself wanting more. On the other hand, thinking about the pork he’d be stir-frying later, he felt a bit of a greasy aftertaste in his mouth.

He chuckled at himself for having lived too comfortably—he’d even started to turn his nose up at meat. It just goes to show that while it’s easy to get used to the good life, it’s hard to adjust to a life of poverty.

Outside, the barking of dogs filled the air, so loud it made one’s ears ache. Yan Qi didn’t even need to go out to know that Huo Ling had returned. With vegetables sizzling in the wok, he couldn’t leave just yet, so he had no choice but to wait patiently.

Before long, Huo Ling swept aside the thick curtain and pushed the door open, bringing in a blast of cold, crisp air that instantly perked him up.

“You’re making pickled cabbage? It smells so good.”

“Yeah, pickled cabbage stir-fried with pork. My sister-in-law said to add some chili, but I figured this would go well with rice, so I steamed some.”

They hadn’t seen each other in days, yet their first words were about food; only after speaking did they exchange a smile.

Ye Suping and Huo Ying came out from inside to greet Huo Ling. After exchanging a few words, Ye Suping called her daughter back inside—she wasn’t about to be that meddlesome and get in the way of the young couple’s private conversation.

A kettle sat on the low stove. Huo Ling drank a bowl of warm water, took off his scarf and hat—both covered in ice crystals—and felt instantly lighter, almost wanting to jump up and down on the spot.

He said cheerfully, “I found an injured blue sheep up on the mountain. It was old, though, so the meat was too tough. I just cut off the leg and brought it down, along with a piece of tenderloin and a bag of cheek meat.”

“You actually found all that?”

Yan Qi was eager to hear the story but worried the food in the pot might burn, so he quickly stirred the pan a few times. “Let me finish cooking this first, then I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Then I’ll go tidy up the supplies first, and then I’ll take off this coat right away. It got splattered with sheep’s blood when I was butchering it the other day—it reeks of mutton.”

Huo Ling lifted the collar to sniff it, wrinkled his nose, and let go.

“I’ve been wearing it for two months now.”

Yan Qi kept his eyes on the pot as he instructed, “Take it outside later and wash it in the snow.”

It wasn’t until he came to the frontier that he learned how the locals washed fur-lined clothing and footwear.

No water, no soap nuts—just toss it into clean snow and rub it with the snow. Afterward, give it a good shake, and it’s completely clean. Huo Ling told him this method was to protect the fur, ensuring it stayed warm for years to come. Fur coats were far more valuable than cotton garments, but to ward off the cold, a person needed at least one; otherwise, one could truly freeze to death.

Huo Ling grabbed his hat, pulled it on in a hurry, and hurried back into the courtyard. There was plenty of meat on the four lamb legs; he planned to set one aside as a gift for the village chief.

Lately, because of the land purchase, the two brothers had been making frequent trips to the Zhou family’s house. Next, he planned to build a new house next to the old one. If the village chief could be a little lenient when marking out the plots, he could secure an extra piece of land, but the number of mu recorded in the register would remain the same, allowing him to pay less in taxes.

Every household understood this; otherwise, everyone would want to be the village chief. It was true that the job came with a lot of work, but the perks were plentiful.

He tossed the lamb shank into the clay jar and took out the lamb jowl to thaw—it would be perfect for a dish to accompany his evening drink. Just then, he remembered he still had two lamb shank bones in his pocket, set aside especially for Huo Ying.

“Yingzi, come out here. I’ve got something good to show you.” 

“What is it?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Huo Ying came running out. Seeing what was in Huo Ling’s palm, she exclaimed joyfully, “It’s a ‘galah’!” 

“That’s right, it’s a sheep galah. Hold onto this for now; next time, your uncle will find you another one to make a pair.”

There’s a knuckle bone on the back leg of pigs and sheep; in the regions beyond the Great Wall, it’s called “galah.” It’s a toy every child has played with. There are many ways to play—usually, you pair it with a small beanbag and toss it up and catch it according to the rules.

Everyone would mark their own set—some carved notches with a knife, others dyed them with grass juice. The skilled players could use their technique to win “galah” from others.

A set consists of four knuckle bones, but since only two bones come from a single animal, they are clearly very rare.

The ones left over from the butcher’s slaughter of pigs and sheep were simply unavailable for purchase; generally, children could only wait for their families to slaughter livestock during festivals—and it was lucky if they got to do so even once a year—and not every household kept both types of livestock anyway.

The Huo family had been raising pigs for several years, so Huo Ying already had two sets of pig knuckle bones. However, sheep were harder to come by than pigs, so compared to pig knuckle bones, the children all wanted a set of sheep knuckle bones even more. Whoever managed to collect a full set could definitely strut around in front of their peers in the village.

“Wah, wah, wah! Uncle, you’re the best!”

Huo Ying circled him, shrieking excitedly, which drew Ye Suping out to see what was going on—she thought the girl was having a fit.

Upon learning that Huo Ling had found her a pair of sheep knuckles, she laughed, “The three of us have been bored these past few days, so we played a few rounds. Qi is pretty good at this, too.”

“Do they play this back in their hometown too?” 

“Yes, they do.”

Yan Qi had just finished cooking and was about to call them to dinner when she overheard this. He smiled and said, “It’s just called something different. Back home, we call it ‘Grab the Knuckle.’ When we used to raise pigs, I had a set of pig knuckles too.”

Huo Ying immediately looked up and asked her mother, “Mom, I already have some. If we slaughter a pig at home, could we give the shank bones to Auntie?” 

“Sure.”

Huo Ying made clear arrangements for the fat pig still snoring away in the backyard, then carried the newly acquired sheep shank bones into the house to find a place to put them. He was gone for ages, so Ye Suping had no choice but to go in again and urge him to come out and eat.

At the dinner table, Huo Ling was ravenous. He polished off a bowl of rice in no time, then went to fill a second bowl to continue eating, all while listening to his husband beside him and his sister-in-law across the table recount, in detail, the events that had unfolded in the village while he was up in the mountains these past few days.

In a village the size of a palm, even the slightest stir could spread far and wide overnight—whether a couple had quarreled, or a child had gotten into trouble and been punished…

A fistfight—it might seem like a minor incident, but by the time the story gets passed around, everyone adds their own embellishments, and it all becomes quite a spectacle.

But this time, it really wasn’t just a trivial matter. To put it simply, it boils down to two sentences: Old Man Zhao took a fall, and Old Woman Zheng’s husband, Miao Daqiang, fell ill.

“Old Man Zhao fell? When did that happen?”

Huo Ling was more concerned about the first piece of news than the Yang family’s situation. He frowned and asked, “Was it the day I went up the mountain? I ran into him at the foot of the mountain that day and told him to carry a lighter load so he wouldn’t slip in the snow.”

Yan Qi shook his head. “It wasn’t that day. It happened the day before yesterday. He said he wanted to stock up on firewood while the snow had stopped and the paths were clear, and he planned to carry some into town to sell.”

“Was it a bad fall?”

“Doctor Ma came by. After examining him, he said he’d suffered a hairline fracture in his tailbone. But with proper rest, he’ll recover. He’ll be fine by the New Year, so it won’t interfere with his work in the fields next year.”

Huo Ling let out a sigh of relief. “That’s a huge relief. If he’d hurt his arms or legs, that would’ve been a real problem.”

If the injury were severe, the cost of treatment would be a minor concern; the real problem would be losing a working hand in the household. In the long run, that would make life even more hopeless.

Yan Qi, who had met the Zhao brothers, explained to Huo Ling, “Weren’t his sons supposed to go to the city to work with my older brother and the others? When they came back and found out, they were both furious and worried. They’d barely managed to earn a few coins, and they spent it all on medicine. But you can’t really blame Uncle Zhao for that.”

“It’s all to earn a few extra coins for the New Year.”

Huo Ling picked up a leaner piece of pork and passed it to Yan Qi. Earlier, he’d seen the ger pick up a fatty piece; since their chopsticks had touched, it would have been rude to refuse, but once it was in his bowl, he hesitated before taking a bite—probably because he was afraid it would be too greasy.

Not liking greasy food is a good sign; it means his palate has recovered from the hunger he suffered back then.

“So what’s the deal with Miao Daqiang?”

Huo Ling thought for a moment and said, “The Miao family isn’t exactly broke—they can afford medicine. If someone’s sick, they treat it. How could that cause a scene? It can’t be that, aside from Old Lady Zheng, their precious eldest son refuses to take care of them, so they want to call their second daughter back.”

Ye Suping clicked her tongue twice. “You guessed it exactly right. Not only did they call her back, but they also asked her for money to buy medicine. How could anyone possibly give it to them? Who’s got it easy these days? In the end, Old Lady Zheng threw a fit—crying, screaming, and even threatening to hang herself. Old Miao got an earful too, being called an ungrateful wretch and a disobedient son.”

Ye Suping couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “This time, her second daughter couldn’t take it anymore. They had a huge fight, she had a good cry, and her husband took her away. Her in-laws made it clear: unless she comes back to attend the funerals of those two old fools, she can forget about seeing them again.”

Huo Ling listened in utter amazement. “She’s been saving money all day long for her son to marry—how could she not have money to buy medicine for her old man? How dare she ask for help from a daughter who isn’t even her own and has already been married off?”

Anyone hearing this would have the same question, and it didn’t take long for the answer to emerge.

Miao Daqiang’s illness struck like a mountain collapsing; within a few days, he was already bedridden.

Old Lady Zheng went to see the village chief, saying she wanted to sell her land. The village chief asked her where all the money in her household had gone.

At first, she refused to say a word. Later, the village chief’s son went into town and saw Miao Shougen being beaten on the street by thugs from a gambling den, who were demanding he pay back his debts or have a hand chopped off. Only then did he learn that Miao Shougen had been lured into the gambling den and had become a hopeless gambler, having long since stolen and squandered the family’s meager savings.

Miao Daqiang and Old Woman Zheng were likely well aware of this, but had previously been afraid of the village gossip and dared not expose the family’s shame.

Miao Laidi likely understood deep down that this was a bottomless pit, which is why she refused to part with a single coin. In a way, it was for the best—by tearing off the mask now, they’d be rid of a burdensome liability that had grown too big to handle.

What kind of damn gratitude is that? Even if there was any, it was paid off the moment she was married off for silver.

“All in all, it’s just karma. She never did any good deeds in her life—look, she’s getting her just deserts right now.”

Huo Feng spat on the ground and said, “Old Zheng and Miao Shougen are both foul-mouthed; who knows how many times they’ve badmouthed our family behind our backs. Now that we’re struggling to buy land, look—it’s right here! If we go now, they’ll have to thank us instead. We’ll finally get that old grudge settled!”

The two brothers had returned from the Zhou household together. Yan Qi asked Huo Ling, “How many acres does the Miao family plan to sell?”

Huo Ling replied, “The Miao family has some assets; they own over ten acres of land. This time they plan to sell five acres—all prime farmland, and since they’re in a hurry to sell. If we have cash on hand, the price is negotiable.”

Earlier, the family had discussed adding three more acres to the deal. With the silver on hand, they wouldn’t have to deplete their savings, and the grain they harvested would be enough to eat.

“But after waiting nearly half a year, we’ve finally found these five mu—proof enough of how rare good farmland is. I can’t bear to let this go,” Huo Ling said to Huo Feng. “Big Brother, let’s go ask about the price first. If it’s reasonable, why not buy all five mu and split them between our two families?”

Huo Feng hesitated, but after a moment’s thought, Ye Suping spoke up: “I agree—if we can buy it, we should buy it all. Who knows when the next person in the village will sell land? Our family’s fortunes are on the rise; things will surely get better year after year. If we don’t buy it now, we’ll definitely regret it later. Let’s buy it first. If we can’t manage to farm it all, we can always rent it out—either way, we won’t lose out.”

When it came to matters like this, Huo Feng always listened to his wife.

The two brothers reached an agreement. Worried that delays might lead to complications, they decided to make one more trip to the village chief’s house before dark.