Xu Duoyan opened the door and glanced twice in the direction of the fields, but saw no sign of anyone.
He wasn’t particularly worried—after all, people have two legs, and they were already married adults, not children.
Surely they knew to come home before dark.
Honestly, it’d be better if he didn’t come back.
Thinking this, Xu Duoyan prepared to cook dinner, so they could eat together when the other person returned.
He went to the stove, grabbed a handful of prickly dry cedar leaves to light a fire in the stove, and then added water to the pot.
The rice jar was under the cupboard, tightly covered with an old hemp cloth.
He squatted down to pull it out and opened the lid—inside, it was pitch black.
Xu Duoyan sighed.
The rice was almost gone, barely enough for two or three more meals.
Ever since coming to the Cao household, even though Cao Wen hadn’t been home, he had never squandered the household’s food.
He only ate one bowl of thin porridge a day.
Although he disliked being in this household, he never damaged anything recklessly.
He had grown up poor and understood how hard it was to come by every grain of rice and every thread of cloth.
But the rice had been scarce to begin with—even frugal eating couldn’t make it last forever.
He didn’t know how they’d get through the days ahead.
He took a small handful of rice, washed it simply, and added it to the pot, then anxiously crouched by the fire again.
As the scent of rice began to drift from the pot, the sky outside had already darkened.
But it wasn’t fully dark yet, and they couldn’t bear to light a candle at home.
Xu Duoyan sat silently by the stove, the firelight reflecting on his drowsy face from exhaustion.
He thought about the rice in the pot, the farm work he had to do tomorrow, how to guard against that younger man…
But what he thought about the most was his weak, often-sick mother, now alone at home.
Since coming to the Cao family, he had always wanted to find time to visit her.
While Cao Wen was away recently, he had gone to see her twice late at night after finishing his work.
Now that Cao Wen had returned, he didn’t know if there would still be opportunities to visit her regularly.
The small courtyard in the darkness was so quiet you could hear the fire crackling in the stove.
His thin figure swayed slightly on the earthen wall like a lonely lamp flickering in the wind, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.
Xu Duoyan suddenly trembled and woke up with a jolt.
He squinted at the stove—the firewood was nearly burned out.
He had actually fallen asleep sitting here without realizing it.
It wasn’t time for sleep yet.
He forced himself to stand, only to find the sky had already turned into a dark veil.
The firelight had been glaring in his face just now, so he hadn’t noticed it had gotten so dark.
Smelling the fragrant rice in the pot, Xu Duoyan went over and stirred the porridge with a ladle.
The rice was nearly done.
Just before serving, he’d toss in a few green vegetable leaves—it would taste better.
But by this hour, the person who should’ve returned for dinner still hadn’t shown up.
Xu Duoyan couldn’t help walking to the stove room door to look out.
The winding path leading home showed no familiar figure.
He furrowed his brow, getting a little impatient.
That person was still injured—who knows where he had gone?
This household didn’t even have the means to fool around outside.
If he collapsed on the road because of his weak body, who would care?
Not that Xu Duoyan particularly wanted to care—
But the delay meant he couldn’t eat dinner either.
The more he thought about it, the more unreasonable it seemed.
He buried the fire under the stove and went out of the courtyard to look around.
“Isn’t this the mute from Cao Wen’s house? Have you eaten yet?”
As soon as Xu Duoyan got on the small path, he ran into an old man carrying manure.
The man greeted him.
Xu Duoyan shook his head and used hand signs to ask the old man if he had seen Cao Wen.
After gesturing for quite a while, the old man didn’t respond, just kept staring at him.
Xu Duoyan guessed the old man had no idea what he was trying to say.
Helpless, Xu Duoyan gave up asking and was about to leave—
The old man seemed to think he was finally finished talking and said,
“Cao Wen?”
Seeing that, Xu Duoyan quickly waved his hands, indicating that the person hadn’t come back yet.
The old man finally seemed to understand: “He’s still not back?”
Xu Duoyan quickly nodded.
“Oh! I saw him up on Mount Gong today. He was empty-handed, and I even warned him not to go deeper into the mountains. Could it be that he hasn’t come down yet?”
At the mention of “deep mountains,” Xu Duoyan instantly tensed up.
“Ai, these young folks just don’t know better!”
“The Sun family’s boy back then didn’t listen either. He was starving and ventured into the deep mountains—and never came back. When they finally found him, there wasn’t even meat left on his bones. Let’s hope this Cao Wen doesn’t suffer the same fate!”
The old man couldn’t stop bringing up old tragedies.
Xu Duoyan frowned tightly.
That damned brat—what was he doing going into the mountains for no reason!
“Hey! Mute boy! Where are you going?!”
The old man watched him suddenly turn and stride off.
Only then did he realize he might’ve said too much.
He called after him twice but couldn’t get him to stop.
It wasn’t like he could chase after him either.
“It’s so late, don’t go looking for him alone in the mountains!”
Who says I’m going to look for him?
If he wants to go die in the mountains, he’s more eager than anyone!
Xu Duoyan returned home and stood in the courtyard with his hands on his hips for a moment.
He cursed in his heart—injured and still not staying put in bed, running around everywhere.
Now that he’d gotten some news, it didn’t feel right to just ignore it either.
What if he ran into a bear and had all his meat licked clean off his bones?
Even if he was going to die, that wasn’t a death he deserved.
In the end, Xu Duoyan still grabbed two sturdy firewood sticks and stirred up the stove coals to light a fire—planning to notify Cao Wen’s uncle.
Whether the uncle wanted to go search or not, that was his call.
He lit a torch, tucked the worn sickle used for chopping firewood into his belt, and headed out.
“Out so late…where are you going?”
Just as he reached the gate, a somewhat stiff voice dropped down from overhead.
Xu Duoyan looked up—and saw a figure he’d only recently become familiar with.
Under the flickering torchlight, the youthful face gradually became clear.
He paused in his tracks, slightly stunned, but the tension in his shoulders unconsciously eased.
“Oh my, Cao Wen, why are you only just coming back? Your wife was just about to go looking for you!”
The old man from earlier came by again, still carrying his manure load, panting,
“We were afraid you hadn’t come down from the mountain—scared us half to death!”
Cao Wen glanced at Xu Duoyan, then turned to the old man,
“Thank you for worrying, Uncle Wang. I just ran into two villagers on the way and chatted for a bit, so I got delayed.”
“No problem. As long as you’re home safe. But next time, you really should tell your family where you’re going. It’s already dark, and the girl’s at home all alone—you know she must’ve been scared.”
The old man grumbled a few more lines before turning to leave: “I’m carrying a load of manure and stinking up the place, so I’ll stop bothering you two.”
“Alright, walk safe. Thanks again!”
Only after watching the old man disappear into the distance did the two of them turn back to each other.
The night breeze stirred their sleeves; the torch in Xu Duoyan’s hand flickered wildly in the wind.
Cao Wen looked at the thin figure before him—he seemed so delicate under the shifting firelight and night breeze.
A pang of guilt struck him.
He really shouldn’t have come back so late and made the other person worry.
He opened his mouth, about to offer a word of comfort—
But before he could speak, Xu Duoyan turned his back abruptly and strode into the house without saying a word.
Cao Wen rubbed his nose.
Still mad, huh?
In silence, the two of them returned to the courtyard—one ahead, one behind.
Once inside the stove room, Cao Wen kept sneaking glances at Xu Duoyan as he put down his basket.
Xu Duoyan extinguished the torch in a pile of cold ashes, unwilling to waste good firewood, then turned to glance at the basket Cao Wen had brought.
One look and he knew—it wasn’t theirs.
He pointed to the basket, asking where it came from.
“The hunter up in the mountains lent it to me. I’ll return it in a few days.”
Seeing that Xu Duoyan was finally speaking to him again, Cao Wen quickly bent down and lifted the large banana leaves covering the basket.
Xu Duoyan was about to take a quick look at the contents—
When suddenly, two tightly bound green rice dumplings were held out to him.
The dumplings, dangling from a piece of straw rope, gently swayed in the man’s hand.
They looked heavy and incredibly tempting.
Xu Duoyan stared blankly at the zongzi, slightly dazed.
He’d been so busy helping out all day, he had almost forgotten—today was a festive holiday.
“Take them,”
Cao Wen said.
“I traded some wild cherries for them with a villager on the way back. That’s why I got home a little late.”
He stretched out his hand, pushing the dumplings closer.
“Eat them while they’re hot.”
The zongzi were still warm in his palm—
Xu Duoyan could feel the lingering heat in his hand.
He stood there, stunned, staring at the dumplings.
It had been years since he’d eaten one—
He vaguely remembered the last time was when his father was still alive, back in his childhood.
Cao Wen saw that he had taken the dumplings but was still frozen in place.
It made him feel awkward too, so he turned around under the pretense of grabbing the bamboo sieve used for rinsing rice.
He had spent the whole afternoon picking wild cherries—and surprisingly, managed to fill a whole large sieve, about seven or eight jin (3.5–4 kg).
If he hadn’t used some to trade for the dumplings, he would’ve had even more.
Xu Duoyan snapped out of it as he watched Cao Wen busy himself.
He put the dumplings down and went to help unload the cherries.
What surprised him even more wasn’t just the amount of wild cherries the man had brought back—
But what he found beneath the cherries.
Laying under several layers of taro leaves were two wild mountain pheasants with colorful plumage!
They’d been dead for a while, lying quietly at the bottom of the basket.
Covered up like that, they had been completely hidden.
Xu Duoyan looked at Cao Wen in astonishment, silently asking where the pheasants had come from.
“The hunter gave them to me,” Cao Wen said.
He hadn’t wanted to mention that he’d gone deep into the mountains and caused anyone to worry.
But if he didn’t explain where the food came from, it might make the other person even more uneasy.
So he briefly recounted what had happened in the mountains earlier that day.
Xu Duoyan held his breath as he listened closely.
He quickly gestured with his hands, asking Cao Wen where exactly on Mount Gong he had encountered the bear, and whether he had come across any other wild animals while staying in the mountains for so long.
His movements were so fast that Cao Wen looked utterly bewildered, unable to keep up with the constantly changing gestures.
Although he couldn’t understand every motion, seeing her furrowed brows and slightly parted lips from anxiety, Cao Wen could more or less guess what she was trying to say.
Realizing that someone was this concerned about his safety stirred something indescribable in Cao Wen’s chest.
He replied softly,
“I’m fine.”
Seeing how moved he looked, Xu Duoyan grew a little embarrassed and slowly lowered his hands.
He had just been a little curious, that was all.
Still, this man was really too bold—venturing into the deep mountains and even daring to confront a bear.
Ordinary people wouldn’t even talk about such things lightly, let alone try to save someone.
Just hearing about it would be enough to give most people chills down their spine.
Xu Duoyan didn’t know whether Cao Wen was just fearless like a newborn calf, or if he was aware the household was nearing starvation and had no choice but to take such risks.
Cao Wen lifted out the two wild pheasants.
“The hunter said it’s hard to sell game meat once it’s dead, and it’d be even worse if it’s left overnight. It’s not that late yet, so I’ll hurry to town and try to sell it tonight.”
As he spoke, he put the fatter pheasant back into the basket and handed the thinner one to Xu Duoyan.
“Pluck this one after boiling some water—you can eat it tonight.”
Xu Duoyan shook his head in refusal, motioning for him to take both pheasants to sell.
He pointed to the zongzi, as if to say, there’s already food to eat.
But Cao Wen said,
“It’s a holiday today, after all. We should have some meat to celebrate.”
“I’ll head out now—I have to hurry. There won’t be anyone left in town if I’m late.”
Xu Duoyan pressed his lips together.
In a blink, Cao Wen had slung the basket onto his back and left.
Watching him disappear once again into the night, Xu Duoyan withdrew his gaze and looked down at the pheasant in his hand.
His fingers tightened slightly around it.