Upon returning, Xu Shuangci poured the salt spring he had collected into a clean stone pot.

She took some firewood from the fire and lit it; it took a long time before the water in the stone pot began to boil. Xu Shuangci stood in front of the pot.

His pale, somewhat unhealthy face was warmed and flushed by the heat.

As he added more firewood, he asked, “Qing, did you use to get your salt by drinking water straight from the mountain?” Qing paused for a moment, then nodded.

He watched Xu Shuangci boil the water, assuming he intended to wait until it bubbled like they had done when drinking hot water before. But the fire burned for a long time, and he didn’t move a muscle.

“Aren’t you going to drink it?”

“It’s not for drinking.” Xu Shuangci looked at the water, which hadn’t dropped even half a knuckle’s worth after boiling for half an hour, and sighed, “Let’s see if we can extract any salt from this little bit of water.”

Qing: “There’s nothing in it.”

Xu Shuangci: “There is. Have you ever tasted the water from the river? This spring water has a salty taste because there’s salt in it.” Qing understood, but remained skeptical.

He’d never seen anyone boil anything out of water using a stone pot. Half a day passed, and the water finally boiled dry.

Xu Shuangci moved the stone pot aside, not bothering to wait for the steam to dissipate, and looked down.

A thin layer of white crystals covered the bottom of the pot. Pure white as snow—what else could it be but salt?

“Come take a look,” Xu Shuangci said, waving his hands excitedly. Qing stood up.

“Want to try some?” Xu Shuangci dipped the wooden stick into the dish and held it out in front of him.

Qing glanced at the stone pot, which looked as if it hadn’t been washed properly, and sniffed the substance on the stick. Hesitating, he let the tip of his tongue brush against it.

As he savored the flavor, his expression grew somber.

Xu Shuangci asked expectantly, “How is it? Is it bitter?” 

Qing gathered his thoughts: “What is bitter?”

Xu Shuangci paused, then ran outside, plucked a leaf from the medicinal herb, and tasted it himself. He spat it out twice, then grabbed another leaf and placed it in Qing’s mouth.

Qing’s face remained expressionless.

Xu Shuangci smiled, pursing his lips. “That’s what bitter tastes like.”

After explaining, Xu Shuangci eagerly ate the salt straight from his hand. As the salty flavor spread in his mouth, he closed his eyes in bliss. It had been half a month—he’d finally found salt!

Paying no mind to Qing, who was still staring blankly, he carefully scraped the salt from the stone pot with a wooden stick and poured it onto a leaf. He looked at it and muttered, “No, I need to make some wooden bowls.”

No sooner said than done, he rummaged through the firewood pile and pulled out a few suitable pieces of wood.

Passing by Qing, he smiled. “There was something in the water—I wasn’t wrong, was I? That salty taste is salt—and it’s actually very high-quality salt.” 

Qing noticed a hint of curiosity in Xu Shuangci’s eyes.

The sub-beastman knew an extraordinary amount. He didn’t know about the salt in the lake, but he knew how to boil salty spring water to extract salt.

Qing was certain: the sub-beastman must be a Priest from one of the major tribes.

Even if he wasn’t, he was being raised as a Priest. Realizing this, Qing’s raised tail slowly dropped. Since that was the case, he would eventually have to return to his tribe.

He hadn’t brought back much water, and since the stone pot was small, he could only boil it in two batches.

Stone pots are inefficient for boiling salt; it takes half a day. In the end, only a small pinch of salt was produced. Even if they ate sparingly, this would last no more than two days.

Xu Shuangci gritted his teeth. A clay pot would be necessary after all.

He chiseled away at a piece of wood, not looking up as he asked, “Qing, how much longer until it snows?” Qing glanced outside.

“Any day now.”

Xu Shuangci: “Do you have enough food?” 

Qing stood up: “Fish.”

Xu Shuangci’s stone scraper slipped in his hand, nearly cutting his own wrist. In that brief moment, the big cat had vanished.

That’s fine. There are plenty of fish in the river, so this makes it even less likely they’ll go hungry this winter.

But then he snapped back to reality, looking at the unfinished wooden bowl in his hands, and thought about the time it would take to boil the salt… There was no way he’d finish before the snow fell.

Never mind. At worst, he’d just collect some salt spring water before the snow fell and set it aside. If the big cat could lick the water to replenish its salt levels, so could he. The immediate priority was to stock up on food.

For the next few days, Xu Shuangci followed Qing out every day.

Since the big cat went into the water to catch fish, he wove a rattan net to help it intercept them a little further downstream. Just from the fish alone, they brought back two or three hundred pounds.

Who knows how long these fish had been growing—each weighed about ten jin.

Even further upstream, the fish that broke the surface weighed as much as several dozen jin. Qing was so absorbed in fishing that he hadn’t lifted a finger these past few days.

Once he felt they had had enough, they went into the forest to gather plants.

They gathered all sorts of fruits, herbs, edible roots, and tubers, and even found some ingredients for seasoning. During this time, Xu Shuangci also helped Qing haul back many vines and a large amount of firewood.

The days flew by, and they had just enough food to get through the winter.

Xu Shuangci dared not rest, so he grabbed a leather bag and went up the mountain to carry down water from the salt spring. To store it, he also had Qing haul two large stones down from the mountain.

Working together, the man and the tiger quickly chipped the stones into rectangular water cisterns over a meter long and set them up in the cave. Just as they finished filling the cisterns with brine, the snow began to fall.

The first snow came suddenly.

Although a fire burned in the cave that night, the temperature dropped to its lowest point overnight.

Xu Shuangci hadn’t yet finished weaving the curtain in his hands, nor had he hung up the animal hide to block the wind. The snow drifted directly into the cave on the wind, and the cold seeped unimpeded into his bones.

Even sleeping by the fire, wrapped in a thick animal-skin blanket, Xu Shuangci was woken by the cold during the night. He couldn’t warm himself up, and his feet were ice-cold.

Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, he simply got up, gathered the animal skins around him, and sat a little closer to the fire. Qing heard the movement and half-opened his eyes.

The sub-beastman was freezing.

His lips were pale, and the corners of his eyes drooped listlessly.

He clutched the animal hide with both hands, only a few fingers visible.

Through the gaps in the fur, a pair of feet lay crossed and pressed together; the tops of his feet were so pale you could see the blue veins, taut and tense, with his toes curled up. Outside the cave, heavy snowflakes were falling, and the wind made the flames inside flicker erratically.

Qing glanced outside, brushed the tip of his tail against the dry grass, then stood up and moved closer. Xu Shuangci rested his chin on his knees and tilted his head back slightly. “Can’t sleep either?”

Qing lowered his gaze to his pale face.

“I can sleep.”

“Then get up… Ugh!”

Xu Shuangci was pushed backward onto the animal hide by Qing’s paw.

His eyes widened. The feet he’d instinctively lifted were now right on Qing’s belly. The fur on his belly was soft and warm, and Xu Shuangci simply couldn’t bear to move it.

“Sleep.”

“It’s cold. I can’t sleep.” Seeing Qing staring at his feet, Xu Shuangci pursed his lips, reluctantly withdrew them, and curled up inside the animal skin. Qing lay down on the grass mat.

Xu Shuangci startled, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Are you going to sleep with me? Isn’t it cold on a snowy day?” He pulled the animal-skin blanket over Qing, smiling as he said, “The blanket’s big—I’ll share half with you.”

With that, he raised his hand and patted the big cat’s back.

Qing watched his movements; the tip of his tail, exposed outside the fur blanket, twitched slightly, then he closed his eyes again. In past winters, Qing had always spent the season on this grass mat.

The golden-eyed beast’s pelt, laid upon it, was so large it could cover even him, and for Xu Shuangci, it was more than ample. But the sub-beastman had slept on this straw mat for so long that this familiar place felt slightly different now.

The straw mat had become thicker, now lined with the animal hide.

The sub-beastman had also sewn the hide into a long pouch, stuffed it with dry grass, and placed it under his head. The fur blanket was also filled with the sub-beastman’s sweet scent.

It was faintly sweet—the scent of having eaten too many red fruits.

Even though it was his own cave, at that moment, he felt as if he had stepped deep into a nest the sub-beastman had prepared.

Though they slept together without touching, he could hear the sub-beastman’s heartbeat and the faint sound of his breathing. Qing felt a bit uneasy.

He closed his eyes and waited for a moment; there was no movement beside him. He opened his eyes.

The sub-beastman had curled up like a cub.

Only half his face was visible—pale and translucent, with little flesh on it.

Such a frail sub-beastman posed no threat to him whatsoever. Yet he was constantly aware of his presence. It was strange.

He had originally intended to simply take him in, wait for him to die, and then bury him. He never imagined that while the sub-beastman was weak, he could still cause such a stir.

He’d only been in the cave for a short while, yet he’d already transformed it beyond recognition. And he, too, had been affected by it. A thousand thoughts swirled through his mind.

Even through the fur, one could see the gravity on his face.

Yet the tip of his tail seemed to have a mind of its own, lifting slightly. Even as he quietly curled up under the covers, it wrapped itself around the sub-beastman’s ankle. The large stove nearby continued to radiate warmth, and Xu Shuangci soon fell into a deep sleep.

But Qing’s beast form was too large; lying side by side—one tall, one short—left a draft in between. As he slept, he unconsciously shifted toward the warmer spot.

Qing froze, his claws flickering in and out of view.

He was lying on his side, but the sub-beastman who had been so clearly separated from him moments ago had now nestled into his embrace.

His forehead rested against his chest, his bare feet pressed against his stomach, and his arms were wrapped tightly around him. He didn’t seem the least bit shy. Qing shifted slightly.

The sub-beastman in front of him stirred as well, and his face, which had been buried, emerged. His brows and eyes relaxed, the corners of his mouth turned up, and his entire being radiated a sense of contentment.

Qing stared intently at that face for a long time.

Then he let out a soft groan, rested his chin on the top of his head, and closed his eyes. Never mind—it would be a pity to wake him up.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

A night of sound sleep.

In his dreams, Xu Shuangci lay on a cloud, sleeping soundly. But in the morning, he was awakened by the cold.

He sat up, wrapped in the animal hide, a strand of his hair—which had grown long enough to reach his ears—standing on end. He pulled his slightly chilled feet back under him and scanned the cave with a dazed expression.

Qing wasn’t there.

After sitting for a while, a sound like bones snapping echoed from outside the cave.

Xu Shuangci squinted out. In just one night, the area outside the cave had turned into a vast, desolate snowfield. He shivered.

Spotting the tail of a large cat sweeping past the cave entrance, he simply fell backward and burrowed deeper into his bedding. It’s snowing. I’ll doze off for a bit longer.

In his daze, he felt as if something were pressing down on him.

Xu Shuangci opened his eyes to see Qing using his paw to pull back the animal hide covering his head, his large, furry face leaning in close.

Xu Shuangci reached out dazedly: “Big cat…”

Qing loosened his grip, and the animal hide fell back over his head.

His tail brushed against the animal hide draped over Xu Shuangci as he waddled out of the cave. There was no way he could go back to sleep now.

Xu Shuangci pulled back the animal hide and got up, wrapping himself up in layer upon layer.

On the first day of snowfall, Xu Shuangci made a mark on the stone wall. Glancing at the tally marks above, he realized this was his seventeenth day in this place.

The fire blazed brightly inside the cave, yet the temperature remained the same both inside and out. Xu Shuangci cooked a pot of meat and herb soup, then, shivering, went out to call for Qing.

The big cat was scratching at the ground outside the cave; the occasional crunching sound came from him trampling the trees. Xu Shuangci stood at the cave entrance, and Qing noticed him immediately.

“Want some food?”

Qing swished his tail and got up to approach.

The stone pot held a vibrant green meat broth. Soft, wilted vegetable leaves floated on the surface, and the bits of meat swirling in the boiling liquid glowed a vivid green. Qing sneezed and turned to run back out.

Xu Shuangci: “Hey! You’re not eating?” 

Qing: Didn’t understand.