Li Feng had work to do as well—hauling water, chopping firewood. None of it was trivial.
Wang Meng’s household was small. Chen Jiu usually went out to work for others, sometimes not even coming home for meals, so they didn’t go through much firewood or water. During the rainy season they could set out buckets and basins to catch rainwater. While Wang Meng was away, Chen Jiu just rationed a bit—the water in the storage jar hardly got used at all. Living alone, he had more than enough.
The more Wang Meng thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
He needed to find more work to do. Otherwise, Chen Jiu could manage perfectly well on his own—what use was he?
He didn’t say anything more to Li Feng. He picked up a shoulder pole loaded with stones and left.
Not long after he’d gone, Da Qiang showed up.
Da Qiang had Li Feng look at the road. “Better than yours, right? You only fixed the stretch into your courtyard. Your husband can barely get out—he has to shout to chat with people at the gate. Pitiful.”
Seeing Da Qiang made Li Feng think of what Lu Liu had written in his letter: “Da Qiang is an idiot.” Knowing exactly how this road had come about, Li Feng didn’t bother getting angry. He just asked, “How many is your husband carrying?”
Da Qiang: “……”
So annoying.
What was wrong with carrying one child? Everyone else carried one too.
And why was he showing off? It wasn’t even him who was pregnant.
“Your husband’s the one carrying—what are you bragging to me for?” Da Qiang snapped. “If you’re a real man, compare roads. I built this one.”
This road couldn’t be extended anymore—any farther and it would go straight into the mountain. Extending it downhill would make it too long.
While Li Feng shoveled sod into a pit, he rested a bit and said, “Wang Meng’s fixing a road too. You see him?”
Da Qiang nodded. “Yeah. He passed my place a few times. I shamed him so hard he was hopping mad.”
Li Feng talked it over with him. “How about this—we stop shaming Wang Meng. The mountain path’s narrow. Each household fixes a stretch in front of their place—it’s not much trouble. The stones are easy to dig up at the foot of the mountain. When you go out, needle people whose houses don’t have roads yet. I’ll do the same later. Get everyone to level the mountain path a bit.”
Da Qiang gave him a sideways look. “Road-building counts as corvée labor. What are you calling this?”
Li Feng said calmly, “Any man who won’t fix the road in front of his house is a weak-kneed coward. That’s all you need to say.”
They’d grown up walking these muddy paths. In summer, plenty of people wore straw sandals. Stepping into a mud pit wasn’t a big deal—just rinse your feet when you got home.
Once someone took the lead, it’d be easy. A few families following suit, each fixing a stretch—that was enough.
If it worked, everyone benefited.
If it didn’t, forget it.
With just a handful of them, fixing the whole mountain road was too hard anyway.
Da Qiang thought about how Yao An was still stir-frying mushroom sauce. No matter what, he couldn’t let go of that little bit of money. Better roads meant easier deliveries. He nodded. “Alright. I’ll go take a look around later.”
While they were at it, Li Feng asked if there’d been any progress on the beekeeping plan.
Da Qiang shook his head. “Not yet. I’ve got to figure out how to fool my brothers first. I need to keep the hunting grounds in my hands—otherwise it’s all for nothing.”
Li Feng gave him an idea. “Would you be willing to go into the deep-mountain hunting grounds? I’m planning to hand things over to Wang Meng as the lead. A stable five-man team. I’ll step back, and you take my spot.”
Da Qiang was stunned. His husband had been running around, struggling for a year or two, and suddenly there was news like this.
There was nothing to think about. He agreed on the spot. “Sure, no problem. Do Wang Meng and the others have any objections?”
Li Feng shook his head. “None. Once I rest for a few days, I’ll set up a table and host a joining feast. We’ll all get together then.”
Da Qiang was overjoyed and said something flattering. “Da Feng, I’m not just praising you—you really do things in a big-hearted way. Even having kids, you go two at once!”
Li Feng laughed and told him to go home and talk it over with his husband again. Pregnant people’s minds change easily. With a new baby coming, the deep mountains were dangerous—he might not be willing to let him go.
Da Qiang left, grinning from ear to ear.
Li Feng stayed busy a bit longer. On the road he ran into a few people heading down the mountain back to the new village and asked them to pass a message to Er Tian—asking whether he wanted fertilizer. If he did, he could come get it himself.
He made it home before dinner, first washing up to get rid of the smell.
Lu Liu had been thinking about him. He hadn’t slept deeply during his afternoon nap. As the sun was setting, he woke up, lazed around in bed for a bit, then got dressed and came out. He hadn’t taken his socks off to sleep, so he didn’t need to put them on again.
For dinner he stir-fried vegetables. In summer there was plenty to eat—eggplant was still available. He made Li Feng a huge basin of it, generous with oil and sauce, added chilies and quite a bit of garlic. The color came out beautiful, the smell rich and inviting, and the taste salty, fragrant, and spicy—perfect with rice.
Li Feng had主动ly drunk some water that day, so Lu Liu didn’t make soup, letting his stomach rest and stick to dry food.
The eggplant was excellent. His mother and Shun-ge’er loved it too.
They hadn’t talked much the night before. Tonight, Li Feng shared more stories about the prefectural city.
Its bustle was alluring. Shun-ge’er listened without blinking, mouth hanging open, almost drooling.
Li Feng brought it up again. “Lu Yang needs people. If you want to go, he’ll keep you.”
Shun-ge’er wiped his mouth and went to wash the dishes. He still wanted to stay home. By the end of the year, when his brother and sister-in-law’s child was born, and once spring came and the baby could go outside, then he’d leave.
Li Feng’s gaze softened. “Shun-ge’er, you’ve grown up.”
Shun-ge’er just smiled and said nothing.
He went to the kitchen. Lu Liu burned mugwort to fumigate the room.
Li Feng sat in the main room and chatted with his mother for a bit longer. “Lu Yang’s also negotiating a medicinal herb deal. That herb dealer won’t teach the processing methods. I remember hearing before that processing methods are mostly similar—teach one and the rest follow—so he probably doesn’t want to teach at all. This time they’ll try a few kinds first, let him see the quality and sincerity. If it works out, that’s another path.”
Chen Guizhi knew a bit about processing medicinal herbs. She’d done all kinds of work when she was younger. But with valuable herbs, she didn’t dare try lightly—one mistake could mean losing several taels of silver. The risk was too high.
Li Feng wanted to be cautious too. He planned to send some herbs to the prefectural city first. Once the dealer taught the method and it was confirmed, then they’d try it themselves.
He’d barely said a few sentences when Lu Liu came back.
The couple planned to sleep later, letting his mother and Shun-ge’er wash up first.
Li Feng boiled more water and took Lu Liu to bathe.
The bathing tub was tall. Using a stool or ladder to climb in wasn’t convenient. Lu Liu was shy and didn’t want his mother or Shun-ge’er to help. Usually he’d just haul extra buckets of water inside and wipe himself down several times.
With Li Feng there, he could be lifted straight into the tub and washed properly.
Lu Liu was very happy about that. While the water was heating, he hurried back to the room to gather clothes.
The mugwort smell in the room hadn’t dissipated yet, so Li Feng stopped him.
The mountain sky was clear and bright, with fewer mosquitoes. They could sit in the courtyard, enjoy the cool air, and watch the stars.
Lu Liu leaned against him, holding his hand, rubbing the calluses on his palm, and told him about watching stars in the past.
“At night my family rarely lit lamps. When I was little I had night blindness—I couldn’t see anything. Even when I got up to pee, I couldn’t find the chamber pot and would get so anxious I’d cry. I’d been sick before, and my father and my dad were both very worried. They asked around, and everyone said it was because I didn’t eat well. Our family still owed money—we couldn’t even afford meat.
“In the nearby villages, butchers could eat meat for free. When they helped slaughter pigs, they’d get lots of offal. If you talked it out, you might even get a pound or two of meat. My father didn’t have money to buy meat, so he went to slaughter pigs. He didn’t know how at all—I saw his hands shaking when he held the knife. After the first pig, he was covered in injuries, all from being rammed by the pig. The families scolded him because he didn’t know what he was doing and still insisted on trying. It turned into chaos, and the hosts even had to call people to chase and catch the pig.
“But my father charged less. He only wanted one pound of meat. One pound—just thirteen copper coins. Killing a pig, covered in blood and wounds, all for thirteen coins. Because he charged so little, many people were willing to hire him. After killing enough pigs, he learned how.”
During that period, Lu Liu ate better, and his night blindness really did improve.
Being able to see things at night felt novel to him. He kept his eyes open, staring and staring. He noticed a bit of light above his head and realized there was a hole in the grass-thatched roof where wind leaked through.
He didn’t rush to fix it. During breaks from daytime work, he’d deliberately go into the room just to look.
