Most dishes featured wild mushrooms. Simmered radish used radish and mushrooms as the main ingredients. Stir-fried mushrooms with pork had little meat but plenty of mushrooms. Scrambled eggs with mushrooms had few eggs but many mushrooms. There was also stir-fried greens with mushrooms, where the greens dominated. Then came mushroom soup. The banquet’s two main courses were steamed fish and braised pork hock.
Lu Liu really wanted to just pick at the pork hock. Looking at the table full of dishes, there really wasn’t much else worth eating. He saved some room, took two pieces of fish, and then three pieces of pork hock.
He ate one piece of pork hock and took the remaining four pieces home. The other dishes in his bowl were all kinds of wild mushrooms.
His family had been collecting mountain produce for a long time, but he hadn’t tried all the wild mushrooms yet. This was a good chance to sample them.
As before, Chen Jiu snatched nothing. After much effort poking around the fish platter, he landed a fish head. With little meat on it, it was inedible. Taking it home for the dog would only serve as a chew toy.
Fortunately, the banquet wasn’t lavish, and others showed little interest in the leftover dishes. While everyone drank and chatted, several plates still held food.
Seeing the small bowl before Lu Liu, they teased him: “Your business is thriving now, yet you still scramble for so many dishes?”
Lu Liu replied, “Just soaking up some good fortune.”
That’s how banquets work—a large turnout shows support, and eating everything cleanly shows respect.
Chen Jiu watched his expression and suddenly remarked, “They’re saying you’re greedy.”
Lu Liu missed the implication. “Oh? Is that what they’re saying?”
The teasing men grew awkward, chuckling awkwardly. “Just asking, just asking.”
Lu Liu missed the subtext but noticed their awkward expressions, realizing Chen was right.
He pursed his lips, his thoughts drifting. Back in Lujiatun, his family was poor and small, enduring scorn. That was one thing.
But now that they were doing well, with a reliable man of the house, they still faced pressure?
He pondered for a moment. In business, harmony was paramount. It wasn’t convenient to confront people in public, so he spoke plainly: “My family hasn’t had pork knuckle or fish in a while. I brought some home for Mother and Shun to eat. I haven’t had many mountain mushrooms either. Now that I’ve seen them, I thought we could all try some together.”
After he finished speaking, he cut a piece of pork knuckle for Chen Fulang. He thanked him for the reminder.
Chen Jiu retorted, “Who wants pork knuckle from your fork?”
He genuinely didn’t eat it, leaving it to cool in his bowl.
Lu Liu ignored him. When the banquet ended and they cleared the table, he noticed the pork knuckle was gone, leaving only a small bone behind.
Lu Liu chuckled at the sight, but Chen Jiu paid him no mind, turning instead to seek out Wang Meng.
Wang Meng and Li Feng were drinking at another table, so Lu Liu headed over there too.
The feast was modest, the wine scarce. Li Feng hadn’t drunk his fill and left the table as soon as he could.
After returning home with Lu Liu, still craving more, he bought five taels of wine himself and ate a plate of peanuts before feeling satisfied.
Lu Liu shared the leftover dish he brought home with his mother and Shun Ge’er—just a piece of pork knuckle. They both declined, but Shun Ge’er ended up eating it. Nothing else was worth keeping; the fish chunks were divided, and various mushrooms would be reheated for dinner as side dishes.
After finishing the wine, Li Feng could head to the county seat.
After the county seat, it was time to go up the mountain.
Lu Liu clung to him especially tightly that night, chattering away about this and that. She never uttered a single word of farewell, yet her actions spoke volumes of reluctance.
Li Feng felt warmed inside. He told her, “It’s fine. Think of it as me going on a long trip. Didn’t Mother say she was going to the county seat for business? While I’m gone, you can learn some skills from her. Our family will depend on you in the future.”
In the past, Li Feng would never have believed he could utter such tender words. Saying the family relied on his husband? He’d rather die than say that.
Now, the words flowed effortlessly, as natural as everyday chatter.
Lu Liu gave his earnest consent.
He hadn’t yet figured out what exactly he would do or how he would make choices, but one thing was clear: if he could earn a lot of money, Li Feng wouldn’t have to go into the mountains.
This was something decided long ago, and thinking about it again only strengthened his resolve.
Lately, he’d been pondering things constantly, mainly about selling books.
He hadn’t understood it before. When Li Feng came back talking about woodblock carving and printing, it still didn’t make much sense to him.
After calculating the silver, Li Feng explained it to him in detail, using wood and grass leaves as examples until he finally grasped it.
At the time, he’d asked Li Feng, “It seems selling books makes more money than carving blocks. Why doesn’t the Lu family sell books?”
Li Feng replied that while book sales were profitable, the number of buyers was limited.
Lu Liu then wondered: Did this mean the Lu family also sold books? Did they have extra woodblocks?
Lu Liu couldn’t figure it out. He shared his thoughts with Li Feng: “If they have printing blocks, you could bring them back tomorrow. I could print and bind the books at home. Then when I go to the county town with Mother, we could take them to sell.”
The plan sounded good. Li Feng nodded along during the first part, but when he heard the latter part, his expression turned hesitant.
How could he possibly let his own mother go selling such books with her husband?
“I’ll be back down the mountain in twenty days at most. Don’t worry. I’ll go to the county tomorrow to ask. If they can really print them quickly, you two don’t need to go sell them yourselves. Wait for me.”
Seeing his anxiety, Lu Liu’s eyes flashed brightly for a moment.
He said, “Then you must come down the mountain early. That way, I won’t have to go!”
But then he remembered what Li Feng had said: impatience and greed were the hunter’s worst enemies.
His eyes dimmed again. “No, don’t rush. I’ll wait for you.”
His quick change of heart softened Li Feng’s feelings.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
That evening, he shared many amusing tales from the mountains with Lu Liu.
They often went up without provisions, relying on whatever they could find in the wild.
There was a particularly unlucky stretch when they went days without catching anything worthwhile. Not even a single pheasant, let alone bird eggs. With no other choice, they resorted to digging wild vegetables.
Starving then, they devoured every part of the wild greens—roots and stems alike. Eating too much made them vomit a mass of red and black fluid. Thinking they were dying, they even made their last wills. But after eating something else, they bounced back to full health.
Sometimes a vine would suddenly drop from above, scaring them into a flurry of defensive moves—only to discover it wasn’t a snake after all.
Another time, they took shelter from the rain in a safe house.
The rain fell for six days straight. Deep in the mountains, they had to keep their clothes dry to avoid sickness, so they endured it for the entire stretch.
A squirrel also sought refuge from the rain. They caught it easily. Lucky for the squirrel, they had ample food and didn’t harm the live prey they’d captured.
After days sheltering in the same low hut, the rain finally stopped. By then, the squirrel had lost its fear of them, even climbing onto their shoulders.
Their hearts softened, and they set the squirrel free.
Months later, when they returned to that safe house, it was filled with pinecones.
Li Feng told Lu Liu, “It was tiny, shorter than my arm. At first, it was terrified of us. Inside the shelter, it darted around wildly, hiding in corners and digging holes with its paws. Only after two days did it cautiously peek out to eat the food and water we left. Once it was full, it tentatively curled up beside us. Back then in the mountains, we couldn’t speak loudly, so we were all quiet. It climbed all over us, even napping on our hats. We all loved watching it.”
As he spoke, Li Feng met Lu Liu’s eyes and suddenly smiled. “Just like you.”
“Huh?” Lu Liu blinked. “Me? Why bring me into this?”
Li Feng couldn’t quite explain it, but he felt Lu Liu embodied many traits of small animals.
Fragile, timid, soft and pure. She was clearly afraid, yet when treated kindly, she’d lower her guard and repay it wholeheartedly.
He used to think Lu Liu resembled a fawn, especially those eyes.
Tonight’s conversation made him realize it wasn’t quite a fawn, nor particularly a squirrel—just soft and pure.
Li Feng said, “Think about it—earning tons of money, doesn’t that feel like a squirrel gathering piles of pinecones?”
Lu Liu chuckled. Already pressed against Li Feng, he wanted even closer contact, so he squeezed and rubbed against him.
“Do you want to keep a squirrel?”
Li Feng didn’t.
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