Another Qingming arrived. Lu Liu prepared some fruit and offerings and went up the mountain with Li Feng to pay their respects.
This was one of the few chances he had to go up the mountain. Living at the foot of it, he usually just wandered around the lower slopes. The farthest he had ever gone was to dig bamboo shoots.
He had once said he would take his older brother into the bamboo forest to drink bamboo sap. But when his brother finally came to stay for a short while, Lu Liu was about to give birth and wasn’t in condition to go anywhere. After that, it would be difficult for them to gather at the mountain again. They were all about to leave.
They lived nearby, so they finished handling household chores before setting out. A long line had already formed ahead of them, and insects and snakes had long since retreated. The path was muddy, mixed with rotting dead leaves and branches. Occasionally, the frozen corpses of small insects, snakes, or animals—disturbed by footsteps—were exposed.
When people encountered them, they would dig a hole on the spot and bury them.
The ground was slippery, and the road ahead was all uphill. Before they had gone very far, Lu Liu was already holding onto Li Feng’s arm for support.
After paying their respects on the mountain, they returned the way they came, preparing to go sweep the graves.
They had bought a lot of joss paper this year and folded many paper ingots, filling two back baskets.
There was no telling whether they would be able to come back next year. Chen Guizhi had prepared wine and dishes, packed them into a bamboo basket, and wanted to speak to Li Feng’s father.
The children were too young and needed someone at home to watch them. Lu Liu did not go to the graves and stayed behind to mind the children.
The weather was gradually warming, and the kang stove was no longer lit at home.
People said babies were afraid of heat. Lu Liu touched the babies many times a day to check whether they were sweating. With the kang unlit, they slept quite well in their wool sleeping bags. Judging by the situation, they could sleep like this until mid–Third Month.
The sleeping bags had been made a bit larger on purpose, so the two babies could stretch their arms and legs inside. The bags were always puffed up.
Lu Liu played with them. When they moved their hands or feet, he would reach in from outside the sleeping bag and touch them. The little darlings found the sensation novel and would move again, searching for the hand touching them.
They were three months old now and easier to care for, able to amuse themselves for a while.
When the two children lay together, tilting their heads, they would babble back and forth. Who knew whether they could understand each other—but in any case, they were both little chatterboxes.
Little Mai was still stubborn. If Zhuangzhuang didn’t respond to him right away, he would keep staring at Zhuangzhuang. Even when Lu Liu picked him up, he still wanted to look at Zhuangzhuang, his eyes wide, unwilling to blink. After a while, when his eyes grew sore, he would shed a couple of tears, crying with his lips tightly pressed together.
Zhuangzhuang was still domineering. His limbs were even more restless now, grabbing and kicking. If you stuffed a wool ball into his hands, you couldn’t get it back even after he fell asleep. If the brothers held hands, he absolutely refused to let go and could grab Little Mai’s hand until it turned red. If you forcibly separated them, he would kick up a huge fuss and cry for a long time.
The two babies cried less often than before. Whenever they were about to cry, Lu Liu would pick them up and let them look at each other. Most of the time, they would forget all about crying.
Lu Liu had heard that when children were in groups, one child crying could make a whole crowd cry. His two didn’t do that.
After playing with them for a while, the wet nurse came to feed them.
The babies had more energy than before and fed with gusto. If Little Mai was fed first, Zhuangzhuang would get anxious. If Zhuangzhuang was fed first, Little Mai would purse his lips and cry.
Usually, Lu Liu would hold them apart, back-to-back with the wet nurse. While Little Mai was nursing, he would play with Zhuangzhuang using a rattle. When it was Zhuangzhuang’s turn to nurse, he would play with Little Mai instead.
The wet nurse chatted with Lu Liu. “When they get a bit bigger, they’ll cling to you even more. They’ll crawl over to your feet if they have to.”
Lu Liu said, “Crawling on the kang is fine. Crawling on the ground is too dirty.”
The wet nurse laughed. “They’re all like that. You can’t keep an eye on them every second—turn around for a moment and they’re already on the ground. Once they learn to walk, they love playing with water and mud, rolling around in mud pits. If you go out one day, you’ll hear every household with a half-grown child scolding them daily. They’re raised with beatings and scoldings, tough as can be.”
Lu Liu had never scolded a child. Thinking about it, he felt this kind of thing should be left to Li Feng.
After Qingming, Li Feng was set to depart for the prefectural capital.
Once the babies were full and the wet nurse could soothe them, Lu Liu freed up his hands and began tidying things up.
Leather coats, thick cotton coats, and the quilts stored on top of the cabinet—all of these could be taken first.
These items were easy to pack and didn’t require rummaging through trunks. Lu Liu had already washed and dried the cotton boots, so he packed those as well.
Besides that, he gathered up hats and gloves, packing them together. There were also knee guards, oversleeves, and other warm items.
By noon, Li Feng and the others returned. After the wet nurse fed the babies again, they prepared lunch, then packed the luggage in the afternoon.
This time, Li Feng wasn’t bringing goods, so he told Lu Liu to pack more belongings.
When ordinary people moved, they couldn’t bear to part with even their pots and bowls. Lu Liu went to the kitchen to take stock. Fearing they might still need to host a meal before leaving, he didn’t take the bowls and plates yet. Instead, he went around each room to look at the miscellaneous items stored there.
Tables and chairs were hard to move, but they could take a few bamboo mats and straw mats. They wouldn’t take the lanterns. There were extra basins at home, bought when Lu Liu gave birth, so those would be taken first. The old basins would be left behind.
No need to take firewood, brooms, or bamboo poles. Lu Liu walked through the house and realized that most of what needed packing was in the rooms and the kitchen.
He went to help his mother pack as well. Winter clothes were gathered together; the lighter jackets would wait until next time. The time after that would be summer clothes—there weren’t many items then, and they could pack up the kitchenware.
Shun-ge’s belongings had already been taken away. Aside from these, what remained were Li Feng’s hunting weapons and farm tools.
The vegetable garden still needed tending, so the farm tools wouldn’t be moved for now. All the weapons would be taken.
Winter clothes were bulky. Adding in miscellaneous items, the pile grew very large. The main hall became crowded, while several rooms were emptied out.
Li Feng said, “We won’t take the remaining quilts. I’ll also leave a few sets of clothes here. In the future, when I come back to haul goods, I’ll still need to stay at home.”
Lu Liu nodded in agreement and even said he would leave two thick outfits at home for him, but Li Feng declined.
In winter, clothes weren’t changed often. When it was cold, one thick set was enough.
After Qingming, the husband and husband went to the county seat again.
Li Feng was going to the Lu family to see whether the woodblocks were finished. Lu Liu came along just to stroll around.
Their birthdays were close—one at the end of the Third Month, the other at the beginning of the Fourth Month. This year, they couldn’t celebrate together. Li Feng took Lu Liu to pick out a birthday gift.
Lu Liu brought along the private money he had saved, saying he would buy a gift for Li Feng as well.
They first went to the Lu family workshop. The woodblocks were already finished—two sets had been made.
One set followed the shop sign. Li Feng had wrapped mushrooms in white paper before, folding creases to determine the size of the woodblock. Larger blocks cost more, but they lasted longer and used better wood. One set cost seven qian of silver.
The other set was for the trading house. Old Master Lu had some clever ideas—he carved the character “Li” to resemble a mountain, with the phrase “Living off the mountain by relying on the mountain” carved below it. This set required Old Master Lu to design the pattern. The design wasn’t complicated, and the price was the same: seven qian of silver.
Li Feng planned to take the trading house woodblock to the docks and print it on red paper for visibility and festivity. When they shipped or delivered goods, they could paste red paper bearing their sign onto baskets and sacks, counting it as advertising.
For now, just these two sets were enough. If they weren’t sufficient later, he would ask Old Master Lu to carve a spare.
With Lu Yang as the connection between the two families and prior cooperation already in place, Old Master Lu wasn’t worried about them defaulting. While Li Feng was doing test prints, he chatted with Lu Liu.
“You brothers really do look alike, though you’re a bit plumper than Yang-ge. I heard you had a baby?”
Lu Liu had gained a lot of weight during pregnancy. After giving birth, he lost some, but over these months of good food and care, there was no way for the weight to drop further. He looked much rounder.
He said, “I had two. They’re both three months old now. As long as they’re fed, they’re well-behaved.”
Old Master Lu asked the children’s names, and Lu Liu told him both their formal names and nicknames.
“The older one is a little ge’er, and the younger one is a son.”
Old Master Lu worked with wood all the time. He had materials and tools at hand, so he picked out a good piece of scrap wood and planed two small wooden spoons, carving “Little Mai” on one and “Zhuangzhuang” on the other.
He handed them to Lu Liu with a smile. “Take these. When the children are a bit older, they can use these spoons to eat.”
The children were small, and the spoons were small too. In Lu Liu’s hand, they weren’t even as big as his palm. The spoons were shallow, with broad bowls and flat mouths—easy to scoop food and easy to bring to the mouth.
