Lu Liu asked about how things went on this trip to the prefectural capital—whether he’d been eating and drinking well, whether he stayed in a private inn room or a shared bunkhouse, whether he had to haul heavy loads, whether he’d gone at all, and if anyone had given him a hard time.
Li Feng had indeed stayed in an inn room, and he could vividly describe what it was like, neatly glossing over that question.
When it came to food, Li Feng told him he’d been craving things nonstop.
“It’s strange. There are plenty of restaurants in the prefectural capital, and it’s always the same few dishes. Most days it’s just noodles or steamed buns, or maybe two stir-fried dishes. But I still really missed home. Home cooking just tastes different.”
Lu Liu immediately told him to name whatever he wanted to eat. He’d make it all for him.
Li Feng liked heavy flavors and loved meat—livestock from home, game from the mountains, he wanted it all. They’d eaten grilled meat several times on the road and were sick of it. Now he wanted braised or stewed meat. He also wanted fish soup, though Lu Liu couldn’t stand the smell of fish, so he planned to have Shun-ge’er make a bowl for Li Feng.
After dinner, they could rinse some rice and put it in a clay pot to simmer overnight, so they could have clay-pot porridge in the morning.
Lu Liu asked if he liked lotus root. The lotus roots were ready now.
They could stir-fry lotus root slices, make lotus root balls, dice it up for spicy-sour lotus root cubes, or mince it even finer to make filling for pancakes or buns. All of it was good.
He’d also had lotus root starch recently—so fragrant and delicious.
Li Feng didn’t like lotus root balls, but he could eat spicy-sour lotus root cubes with rice. As for lotus root starch, he’d never bought it before and asked Lu Liu what it tasted like.
Lu Liu couldn’t quite describe it. You mixed some powder with water and stirred, and slowly it turned into a translucent paste. It was fragrant and lightly sweet, and you swallowed it without much chewing. He could eat a whole bowl at once.
Not long ago, he’d added some crushed walnuts and peanuts to it, and even mixed in freshly dried osmanthus. It was still delicious.
“When we get home, I’ll make it for you,” Lu Liu said.
The things he usually ate—his brother had packed up plenty for him to take along. There was still more than a pound of lotus root starch, more than enough.
Li Feng glanced back at the things on the cart and said, “Lu Yang really treats you incredibly well.”
Lu Liu nodded repeatedly. “Yeah. Ever since I came to the county town, my brother’s barely gone to the shop. Every day he takes me out for walks. We often go to teahouses to listen to storytellers, and we’ve seen acrobatics and shadow plays. I even wandered around near the yamen. Just today, we went to a banquet at Old Master Wu’s place.”
After circling around, Lu Liu came back to the main question—hauling big loads.
He also mentioned Li Feng’s clothes. The sleeveless top left his shoulders exposed, just a piece of cloth hanging over one shoulder.
Carrying heavy loads rubbed the shoulders raw. Li Feng worked hard, and his shoulders had been red and abraded. After a few days on the road, only faint marks remained. In a couple more days, they’d be gone.
Lu Liu reached out and touched them, suddenly at a loss for words.
Supporting a family was truly hard. Making money was never easy.
He wished he could be as capable as his brother.
When they reached the turnoff for Lu Family Hamlet, Lu Liu looked at the sky but didn’t go home to visit.
If Li Feng had time in the next day or two, they’d go back together to deliver festival gifts, and he’d see his two fathers then.
After traveling this long, his waist was sore and he couldn’t sit upright anymore. He shifted over, moved behind Li Feng, placed the waist cushion between them, and leaned against Li Feng’s back to rest.
Once past Lu Family Hamlet, there was only one village left ahead—Li Village.
Lu Liu had been curious about something for a long time. “Da Feng, why was an official road built here? Once you get into the mountains, there’s no road anymore.”
Li Feng said, “So they could suppress bandits.”
“Huh?” Lu Liu was puzzled. “Bandits? Are there bandits in our mountains?”
Li Feng wanted to laugh. “You came late. The bandits all went straight.”
Lu Liu was shocked.
“What?!”
“That was one or two hundred years ago,” Li Feng said. “Where would you find bandits now?”
Lu Liu was still stunned. He’d never heard about this.
Li Feng explained, “People say you have to claim a mountain to be king. Otherwise, with such a huge mountain, why would it just let us pick silver off the ground? Later generations became hunters. Too many men died, the numbers dwindled, and they stopped being a force. Then some land was parceled out.”
Lu Liu stared wide-eyed at the broad official road before him. After a long while, he said, “So this official road was built for our mountain stronghold…”
Li Feng asked, “Scared?”
Lu Liu shook his head. There were no bandits anymore—what was there to be afraid of? He was just astonished.
No wonder people always talked about this hunting area or that hunting area. Other villages divided farmland; they divided mountains. Incredible.
The couple chatted as they traveled and soon reached the new village.
Turning onto the smaller road, they hadn’t gone far before they saw San Miao and the others gathered by the roadside, bragging about odds and ends from the prefectural capital.
When they saw Li Feng bringing his husband home, they all greeted them cheerfully.
Li Feng told them to stop bragging. “You’re gonna scare all the oxen out of the fields!”
Between brothers, everyone understood the subtext.
No one mentioned the river pirates.
The double bounty totaled eighty taels of silver. Five people split it—sixteen taels each. They were ecstatic.
But they all knew better than to flaunt wealth. The money from selling mushrooms had to be divided up and taxed. Each person’s share wasn’t much, so boasting about that wouldn’t raise suspicions in the stronghold. After all, selling mushrooms didn’t require traveling far and still brought in money.
Past the new village, the mountain stronghold was close.
Seeing the familiar mountain paths and houses, Lu Liu’s smile became genuinely warm.
He loved this mountain and felt a strong sense of belonging to the stronghold. His home and family were here.
Back in the stronghold, familiar faces were everywhere.
There was no school here. Children ran wild all over the village—some playing on their own, some chasing dogs.
Hunting dogs roamed the stronghold in groups, running back and forth. Give them a simple rattan ball, and they could play for ages.
Lu Liu spotted Er Huang among them and called its name.
Er Huang froze, ears twitching, eyes turning their way. Its body stayed rooted in place until Li Feng called it again. Then it shot forward like lightning, barking happily, its joy impossible to hide.
It chased the cart, far faster than the mule. When it ran ahead, it would stop and wait; once the people caught up, it’d circle the cart again.
All the way to the front of the house, it ran in ahead of Li Feng, spinning in circles in the open space, digging at the ground with its front paws. In no time, it’d dug a small pit.
Seeing this, Li Feng scolded it, “You stupid dog, what are you digging rocks for? Do you know how hard it was for me to fix this road?”
Whether Er Huang understood or not, it pounced on Li Feng.
If it had pounced on Lu Liu, it could’ve licked his face. Li Feng was too tall—it could only reach his neck.
Li Feng hugged it and ruffled its fur, telling it to go play somewhere else, then went to help Lu Liu down from the cart.
Shun-ge’er came out of the kitchen. Seeing them return together, he wiped his hands and smiled. “Come in and rest. I’ll get hot water so you can wash up. Mom just stepped out—said Brother Jiu wasn’t feeling well and she went to check on him. She’ll be back soon!”
Li Feng wasn’t shy at all. Seeing his younger brother, he even said, “Looks like you’ve grown taller.”
Shun-ge’er laughed. “Nope. I just tucked up my pant legs on purpose so they look shorter. People say it makes me look taller. Don’t ask why—I just feel like it!”
Li Feng couldn’t be bothered to argue. “If you want to look pretty, just say so.”
Shun-ge’er ignored him and went back to the kitchen to fetch water. In the main room, he looped his arm around Lu Liu’s and leaned close.
“Big sister-in-law! You’re so cruel, staying away for so long! Mom and I missed you so much!”
Lu Liu smiled, took the half-dried cotton cloth Li Feng had wrung out, wiped his face, and said, “I was gone just as long as your big brother. Did you miss him?”
Shun-ge’er told the truth—he didn’t really.
“Big brother’s always up in the mountains. One year, I only saw him two or three times. I’m used to it.”
Compared to the prefectural capital, Shun-ge’er was more curious about what it was like living in the county town—what people did there every day.
No farming, no vegetables to grow, no mountains to hunt in. What was the point of guarding a shop? Could you really have social engagements every day?
Lu Liu briefly described his recent routine. Shun-ge’er listened with wide eyes. “No wonder you didn’t come back! You’ll even get to see the lantern festival soon. Big brother came back too early—otherwise you could’ve played around in the county town for a couple more days. When you come back next time, tell me all about it. I’ll enjoy it just listening.”
