He bragged to Lu Liu about Huaniu: “Every dog has to eat, poop, and get baths. Da Feng complains about Huaniu, but our Huaniu’s smart—she even knows the way to the little cart for hauling goods. She delivers it all without anyone watching!”
Li Feng cut in, “She ate half of it on the way, too.”
No hunting dog was that undisciplined.
Yao Fulang said, “…That was a bone. It’s meant for her to eat. Whether she eats it now or later, she still eats it.”
A lively dog—especially one that liked to jump on people—could be pretty scary to someone who’d never had a dog before, or hadn’t raised one well. For someone like Lu Liu, who was timid and small-framed, it was especially intimidating.
Huaniu kept trying to jump on Yao Fulang. While dodging her, he found moments to say nice things to her, and Huaniu clearly thought it was a game. Lu Liu watched them and got scared stiff.
Remembering Erhuang’s earnest hopes, Lu Liu made a small effort and asked Li Feng, “What’s self-control?”
Li Feng said, “Like Erhuang.”
She only eats when the food’s in her bowl. If you put a live rabbit in her kennel, she won’t even bite it.
If you don’t let her out, even if you unchain her, she won’t run out of the yard.
She’s clean. In winter, with all the mud, she hardly steps outside, but when she hunts, she’s fierce.
Most importantly, she understands commands.
Erhuang jumps on people sometimes, but Li Feng allows it in other seasons—it’s play, interaction, a necessary part of getting along. In winter, though, he restricts Erhuang; winter clothes are expensive and hard to dry, so no messing around.
Lu Liu thought all hunting dogs had these traits, but after hearing Li Feng, he praised him, “You really know how to raise them—Erhuang’s very well behaved!”
That pleased Li Feng.
Lu Liu asked again, “Is Sanmiao’s dog like Erhuang?”
“Sanmiao’s dog’s a homebred hunting dog, good-looking, majestic, better trained than Erhuang. Even when sitting, it looks proud. Knows more commands, runs like a leopard.”
Li Feng’s expression turned hungry—like he was craving chicken.
Lu Liu saw he was genuinely hungry and felt awkward.
On one side was Li Feng’s dream dog; on the other, Erhuang’s beloved dog.
He clumsily said, “Look at us—you’re amazing, I’m not. Maybe Erhuang doesn’t like obedient dogs.”
Li Feng: “…”
Li Feng glanced at Huaniu again.
What a frustrating dog.
If those two end up together, Li Feng didn’t dare imagine how many worries he’d have for the dogs later.
Lu Liu came up with an idea: “Can we get a puppy from Sanmiao’s place to raise?”
Li Feng looked at him.
Lu Liu painted a picture: “Even if you like Sanmiao’s dog, it belongs to Sanmiao. But if you bring a puppy over and raise it, you become the puppy’s dad! You raise it up, keep it close, take it to the mountains—imagine how cool that’d be!”
Then Erhuang could be with the dog he loved!
Li Feng thought for a moment and said, “Get a female, so other folks have to consider me.”
Yao Fulang, watching, thought, “Do you need to look at me? I have a female dog, but I’m the one watching your faces.”
Yao Fulang awkwardly took Huaniu back to the kennel, not giving up, and forced himself into the conversation: “Then Erhuang and Huaniu get together. You’ve raised this one so big; you can’t just be thinking about marrying off yourself, right?”
Li Feng needed to think it over.
He liked well-behaved dogs.
He saw Lu Liu still hesitating, as if willing to sacrifice his own preference for Erhuang’s happiness. Li Feng leaned close to him and said, “If Huaniu bumps into you, you’ll end up a wreck.”
Lu Liu shivered—he was so fragile.
He could be wrecked by Da Feng, a wild boar, or Huaniu.
Suddenly, Lu Liu thought well-behaved dogs were really great.
Sorry, Erhuang, Daddy also likes Sanmiao’s dogs—even though he hasn’t met them yet.
Li Feng still had to go back to the new village to make rice cakes and would come back to visit this year, but nothing was decided yet.
After going home, Lu Liu felt too guilty to face Erhuang and busied himself in the front yard.
After cleaning up the stove room, he checked how much fresh meat there was and decided to cure some first.
This half side of meat had already been cut at the butcher’s—four long strips, each about eight pounds.
Lu Liu and his father had tried making smoked meat before to save on salt, but they hadn’t realized smoked meat also needs to be cured before smoking.
They didn’t know exactly how to cure smoked meat, so they usually just salted it and then dried it.
He was careful not to skimp on the curing salt—too little salt would make the meat spoil quickly.
His father told him some people’s cured meat went bad with worms inside, and they hated to throw it out but couldn’t eat it either. Just looking at it was awful.
Lu Liu put each piece of meat into a big basin and went to get salt for curing.
Li Feng said he would have Shun come help tomorrow, but curing meat was hard work, and if Lu Liu could do it, he should. Let Shun rest.
The new village was busy making rice cakes, which was exhausting enough. If Lu Liu finished curing the meat today, tomorrow he could work with Shun on the gloves. Lately, Li Feng had been pestering him so much that he hadn’t finished the gloves. If he procrastinated more, Yao Fulang would be right: by spring, the gloves still wouldn’t be done.
Lu Liu wasn’t very strong compared to Li Feng—in front of Li Feng, he felt weak. When he tried to push Li Feng, Li Feng didn’t even feel it, standing still like a rock.
When working, Lu Liu could mostly manage on his own. He picked up the eight-pound piece of meat without hesitation, put it in the basin, sprinkled salt and rubbed it in. After curing all four pieces, the whole basin weighed over thirty pounds, too heavy for him to carry.
He dragged the basin slowly to the east side of the house and covered it with something.
Once cured, the meat could be hung out to dry.
After all that, it was time to make dinner.
Before dinner, Yao Fulang brought over a pair of gloves.
He’d mentioned helping Lu Liu make them the last time he visited.
Lu Liu felt awkward and embarrassed to accept them, but Yao Fulang stuffed the gloves into his arms and insisted.
“If we can’t become in-laws, at least we’re good neighbors. It’s nothing.”
Though he said that, it was hard to refuse.
That night, when Li Feng came home, Lu Liu shyly and quietly told him about the gloves.
Li Feng took it well.
“No problem. Another day, we’ll find a different dog for Huaniu.”
Lu Liu: “…”
He was right—Huaniu wouldn’t be happy with the two grumpy old men like them.
That day, Lu Liu’s hands were covered in grease and blood—from pig stomach and curing meat. He washed several times with soapberries and scrubbed with stove ash, but his hands still felt slick.
Li Feng, sticking to his frugal ways, told him to touch a chicken to toughen up his hands.
No more words that night.
………………………………………..
The sky was clear. The Xie family’s shop officially opened. The stock was varied, so they temporarily named it “Food for Sale.”
The shop counter was a long table, blocking half the doorway horizontally. Lu Yang and Xie Yan carried it and turned it vertically against the wall. On top, they placed shallow baskets with sunflower seeds, peanuts, and red dates for sale.
At the far end of the table near the door, they left over a meter of space and set up a stove with pots on it, along with a few steamers.
The steamed buns from the stove room were taken out and placed on the stove to keep warm. There was a stool just behind the stove where someone could sit, watch the shop, sell goods, and warm themselves by the fire.
At the shop entrance, directly across from the stove, Lu Yang stacked two baskets to raise the height and covered them with a round winnowing tray. On top, he put some radishes and Chinese cabbage, so passersby could see them clearly.
After arranging the shop’s front, Lu Yang took Xie Yan and walked back and forth along the street, adjusting the placement of things in front of the shop based on their walking distance and angle of view.
Xie Yan couldn’t see what the differences were, but Lu Yang moved the stove and vegetable racks five or six times, then neatly rearranged the vegetables until it looked just right. Only then did they go back inside to sit, but the inside wasn’t comfortable, so they went back outside again.
Lu Yang was very happy—this was his family’s shop!
The money earned was theirs to hold, and they could run it however they wanted, open whenever they wanted.
Neither he nor Xie Yan minded the wind; both wore hats and kept their hands tucked inside their sleeves. Squatting beside the vegetable racks, they watched the people walking by in small groups.
Whenever Lu Yang saw someone, he called out, “Fresh vegetables! Fresh radishes and cabbage for sale!”
