The first day of the second lunar month, the day before the Longtaitou Festival. Elsewhere, spring plowing had just begun, but beyond the Pass, the snow season was not yet over; the tree branches were still bare, and the fields lay desolate, without even a single wild grass sprouting.

The day before, Huo Ling had taken a special bath, gotten up early to put on new clothes, brought out a household tablet dedicated to the Mountain God, and set up an offering table in the courtyard.

Shortly after breakfast, the Zhao brothers arrived carrying their gifts for the initiation ceremony, with their parents following behind.

“Uncle, why did you come too? There’s still ice on the ground—you might slip and fall.”

Huo Feng took a step forward to help him up, but Old Man Zhao laughed, “I just came to take a look—just to take a look.”

On the offering table, besides incense and candles, there was a jar of wine and a plate of frozen persimmons serving as offerings, along with a steamed fish and a square block of cooked pork.

The Zhao family’s gift for the apprenticeship ceremony consisted of a block of frozen pork, a packet of salt, and a sack of white flour—they had brought the very best they could think of.

Huo Ling accepted the offerings and immediately passed them to Yan Qi.

Huo Ying pushed the window open halfway and peered out with Ye Suping, asking, “Mother, what are Uncle Xiao and the others doing?”

“They’re paying respects to their master. Your uncles Yingsheng and Chensheng are going to ask your younger uncle to be their master so they can go up the mountain to drive the herds.”

Children have short memories; she’d been told this just a couple of days ago, but had forgotten it as soon as she turned away. However, once reminded, she remembered.

Huo Ying rested her chin in her hand and leaned on the windowsill. “My uncle is so amazing—he can even be someone’s master.”

“That’s right. Your Uncle is one of the most promising young men in our village.”

The initiation ceremony in the courtyard had reached the part where they offered incense to the Mountain God. Huo Ling first bowed three times, inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner, and then called Zhao Yinsheng and Zhao Chensheng forward.

This was the first time the two of them had seen the Mountain God’s tablet. Afraid of making a mistake, they held their breath the entire time, eager to memorize even which foot Huo Ling lifted.

After paying respects to the Mountain God, Yan Qi stepped forward, picked up the wine jar, and poured three bowls of wine.

One bowl was offered by Huo Ling to the deity and poured onto the ground; the other two were offered by the two Zhao brothers to Huo Ling.

Inside the Pass, it was customary to offer tea when becoming a disciple, but since tea wasn’t produced outside the Pass and the climate was cold, most people preferred wine, so wine had always been used in place of tea.

However, some people cannot drink alcohol—such as Yan Qi. As Huo Ling’s wife, and since Zhao Yinsheng and Zhao Chensheng had taken Huo Ling as their master, he should also be honored as their “master’s wife.” Since he could not drink alcohol, he substituted a cup of sugar water instead; after all, there had to be some sort of ceremony to mark the change in his title.

Inside the room, Huo Ying watched with her mouth agape and turned to ask her mother, “Mom, can I become a disciple someday, too?”

Ye Suping smiled and said, “Aren’t you going to school? When the time comes, you’ll have to pay your respects to the teacher just like this.”

“Do teachers also pay homage to the mountain god?”

Ye Suping shook her head. “Teachers don’t pay homage to the Mountain God. Didn’t your brother Chunmu tell you that scholars all pay homage to Confucius?”

“Who is Confucius? Why does his name sound so much like Master’s? Are they related?”

Huo Ying muttered to herself, shaking her head. “I don’t get it, I don’t get it.”

Ye Suping couldn’t say who Confucius was either; she, too, knew only the name. Fortunately, the commotion outside had died down, and people were beginning to file back into the house. Huo Ying ran out, putting her earlier questions out of her mind.

It wasn’t yet the season to go into the mountains, so Huo Ling, the newly appointed master, could teach only so much. For the time being, after selling all the buns each day and returning home, he would call the students over, hand out two slingshots, and have them practice their aim at grass targets on the ground.

When used properly, a slingshot could serve as a warning signal in the mountains and also for self-defense.

Beyond that, he taught them only the most basic and simplest skills.

Zhao Yinsheng and Zhao Chensheng showed no signs of impatience. After practicing with Huo Ling, they continued practicing at home. After about ten days, they had already grasped some of the tricks of the trade and were no longer shooting all over the place.

This showed that the two brothers were at least not slow learners; Huo Ling was very pleased, thinking they would likely pick up other skills easily in the future.

By mid-February, Ye Suping’s pregnancy had reached full term, and labor could begin at any moment.

Since the due date had passed and the baby was still not coming, Huo Feng invited Bearded Ma’s wife over early to have her take a look.

Ma’s wife, who had assisted with dozens of births, felt Ye Suping’s belly upon arrival, then sent all the men out of the room. After a while, she called them back and said, “It should happen within the next two or three days. If there’s still no sign after three days, you’ll need to call my husband to prepare a decoction to induce labor.”

Ye Suping hadn’t experienced anything like this when she gave birth to Huo Ying, so she couldn’t help but ask, “Is the baby all right?”

Ma’s wife replied, “Yes, they’re fine. Some babies just take their time. As long as it doesn’t go past the time I mentioned, nothing will go wrong.”

From then on, not only were Huo Feng and Ye Suping on tenterhooks, but Huo Ling and Yan Qi were just as anxious.

“I’ve only ever heard of babies being born prematurely—I never knew there were cases where they wouldn’t come out even after the due date.”

Yan Qi stroked his belly, his face full of worry.

“I hope the one in my belly is well-behaved—neither too early nor too late.”

“It’s too early to be thinking about that now.”

Huo Ling handed him a bowl of water and asked if he wanted a drink, but the ger shook his head.

So Huo Ling dipped his finger in the water on the table and rubbed Yan Qi’s brow.

The spot between his eyebrows felt cool after Huo Ling’s touch. Yan Qi closed his eyes for a moment; when he opened them again, his sense of worry seemed to have eased a little.

He decided to follow Huo Ling’s advice and stop dwelling on all sorts of trivial matters.

Fortunately, Ye Suping hadn’t reached the point of needing to drink medicinal soup to induce labor. On the evening after the Ma family’s matriarch had visited—just as families were turning off their lamps and climbing into their heated beds—she suddenly called back Huo Feng, who had gone out to pour out the foot-washing water, saying she was about to give birth.

Huo Feng dropped the basin right there, hopped onto the oxcart, and raced toward Ma’er Village.

Huo Ling first tied up all the dogs at home so they wouldn’t scare anyone, then ran to a few families he knew, knocking on their doors to ask women who’d given birth before—and their husbands—to come help.

Faced with the momentous event of childbirth, no one would find it a bother to go out in the middle of the night.

By the time the midwife arrived, there were already several people in the house. Since Yan Qi was pregnant himself and couldn’t even be asked to boil water, he led Huo Ying—who was quite frightened by the commotion—into the house and gently calmed her down.

Huo Ling, meanwhile, stayed with Huo Feng outside the door of the east room.

“They say the second child is easier to deliver than the first. I hope Suping suffers a little less.”

Huo Feng pressed his palms together and bowed toward the sky, praying to some unknown deity.

“Good people are blessed by heaven; my sister-in-law and the baby will surely be fine.”

Huo Ling comforted his older brother, though deep down he was just as anxious.

Childbirth is a time-consuming process; from the onset of labor to the baby’s birth, it often takes several hours, or even longer.

All night long, except for Huo Ying, who managed to sleep for two hours before waking up from a nightmare, the rest of them didn’t get a wink of sleep. At dawn, they finally heard the baby’s first cry.

A woman from the Ma family came out to share the good news: “It’s a ger—plump and fair-skinned, and very strong!”

Huo Feng had rushed out so hastily that he tripped over the threshold and fell flat on his face. He quickly scrambled to his feet under the astonished stares of several pairs of eyes, not bothering to wipe the dust from his chin as he rushed to the edge of the kang to look at his wife and the baby.

“It really is a ger.”

He gazed fondly at the red mole between the baby’s eyebrows. As soon as he said this, everyone in the room laughed at his silliness.

“We all saw it clearly—how could we possibly be fooling you?”

After handing the midwife some money, Huo Ling drove the ox cart to take everyone—who had worked hard all night—back to their homes, one by one.

Unable to sleep, Yan Qi got up to put a pot of water on the stove and boiled red eggs together with Huo Ling, who had just returned from seeing everyone off.

At daybreak, Huo Feng entered the village to announce the good news, distributing six eggs to each household to celebrate the arrival of a new ger.

The families who had come to help the night before also received an extra piece of meat and a packet of sugar—all purchased in advance, just like the eggs.

After making the rounds and returning home, Huo Feng washed his face and went inside to see the baby. Ye Suping reminded him, “Your Second Brother helped you all night and hasn’t even come in to see his little nephew yet. Now that the room is tidied up, why don’t you call him and Qi in to take a look?”

Yan Qi had come in to see the baby earlier, but with everyone else still there, he hadn’t been able to get a good look. Now that the visitors had left and only family members remained, looking at the tiny figure in the swaddling cloth felt entirely different.

Huo Ying was undoubtedly the most curious. As she looked at her little brother before her, she seemed to be gazing at some rare curiosity she’d never seen before.

“Father, why is my little brother sleeping all the time?”

“Newborns are always like that.”

Since the baby was asleep, it wasn’t convenient to pick him up, so Huo Ling and Yan Qi simply stroked the little hand peeking out from the swaddling cloth.

Not wanting to disturb Ye Suping’s rest too much, they stood there for a moment before leaving, leaving the room to the family of four that had just come together.

There were still a dozen or so red eggs left on the stove. Feeling a bit hungry, the two pulled up stools, sat down, peeled and ate two each, and then drank some freshly cooked corn porridge.

“So the ger was born with a bright red mole on his face.”

Huo Ling had never seen the ger right after he was born. He said to Yan Qi, “Looking at him now, he looks more like my sister-in-law.”

Yan Qi touched the space between his eyebrows and told Huo Ling that he’d had it since he was a child.

“Yingzi looks more like my older brother, but her mouth is just like my sister-in-law’s.”

He blinked and said, “It doesn’t matter who he takes after.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment on how good-looking we Huo family members are.”

As soon as Huo Ling finished speaking, the ger wiggled his knees and bumped against his leg.

Huo Ling’s smile grew even wider.

Huo Feng and Ye Suping named their second son Huo Lin. Half a month before Lin’s full-moon celebration, Huo Ling took Zhao Yinsheng and Zhao Chensheng up the mountain for the first time.

After a month’s absence, several sets of animal claw marks had appeared on the courtyard wall and gate. Huo Ling concluded they were from a tiger, but not a fully grown one.

If it had been a full-grown tiger, this gate would likely have been smashed open by now.

Tigers that had just begun living on their own lacked experience; in winter, they were likely to leave the high, deep mountains and head downhill because they couldn’t find food.

However, since there were no living creatures in the courtyard, the tiger must have only lingered briefly before being lured away by something else.

Huo Ling took the opportunity to teach the Zhao brothers how to identify tiger tracks—a sort of “initiation” from Bailong Mountain for the two newcomers to the herding trade.

“Living in the mountains, this is unavoidable. Every kind of wild beast has come to my doorstep; more than one snake has slithered into my yard, and just two li away, the ground is littered with tree bark stripped by bears.”

Huo Ling warned the two, “Before you graduate, as long as you can accept the price you’ve already paid, I’ll accept it if you change your minds at any time.”

Zhao Yinsheng and Zhao Chensheng answered almost in unison.

“We won’t back out.”

“We have no regrets.”

“Good.”

Huo Ling said no more. Young bulls fear no tigers; it was still too early to judge their true character.

He opened the courtyard gate and let the two men and the three dogs in.

“Put your things down, clean the house first, rest for the night, and first thing tomorrow morning, I’ll take you to collect deer antlers.”