Listening to the laughter and chatter of the three children next door, Mi Niang turned her head to look at the man with his hands behind his head. He was swinging his legs contentedly, with no trace of the coldness he had just shown.
“You’ve been waiting for this day, haven’t you?” She nudged him, teasing.
Bahu smiled without denying it, reaching out to pull her waist. “Anyway, the three of them get along well. Sleeping together suits them.”
With one less kid, lying on the bed felt much more comfortable. There was no worry about bumping into anyone with hands or feet.
“Lie down quickly. It’s been a long time since we had a room to ourselves.” Bahu covered them both with a thin blanket, lying down and coughing loudly, which immediately quieted the noise from next door.
Feeling her hand reaching out in front of her, Mi Niang bit her lip and took it, whispering, “I’m not sleepy yet.”
“I know.”
As the thin blanket covered their heads, the dark blue undershirt mixed with gray undershorts fell from the wooden bed to the ground, the crimson sheets forming wrinkles as they flapped in the wind outside. Bahu tentatively called out to the children a few times, but there was no response. The thin blanket was then flipped onto the floor and covered with the undershirt.
After the calm, Bahu leaned against the bedpost, his arm hanging over the edge of the bed. He picked up the thin blanket piled on the edge of the bed, shook off the dust, and threw it onto the bed, covering them both. After sitting for a while, he reached out into the darkness and grabbed the smooth, delicate calf. He massaged her legs lightly, “Does this feel better?”
“If you use this much pressure to massage Jiya’s legs, Habul wouldn’t scold you for being naughty,” Mi Niang bent down, resting her head on the man’s leg.
Bahu lowered his gaze, the oil lamp on the table had gone out at some point, he couldn’t see the woman’s face clearly, but he could gauge the intensity of his touch through the breath on his leg. Moreover, there was a soft nasal sound, indicating discomfort. He shifted slightly to continue massaging.
“The other one,” his voice was hoarse.
Mi Niang sensed something was wrong and quickly raised her head, but was pressed down again. Her legs were tightly held, and the lingering warmth of the room suddenly intensified.
…
The redwood door creaked open, and a figure emerged from the felt bag, carrying a kettle of hot water and a wooden basin from the courtyard.
“You wash up, I’ll go rinse in the river,” Mi Niang replied. She casually threw the sweaty bedsheets onto a chair. She hadn’t finished washing her feet when footsteps entered again, paused outside the door, and then went to the next room.
Bahu refilled the oil lamp and then brought Habul out to pee. He was still half asleep, barely opening his eyes, muttering “Dad.”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Bahu glanced at the chubby little one in his arms. He didn’t resemble Jiya, looked more like Qiqige, or even himself, a straightforward silly kid.
He carried the youngest back and forth twice. The siblings on the bed didn’t stir at all. He jokingly shouted, “Someone’s stolen the kids!”
Not a flicker from their eyelids. They could probably sleep even if the house were being robbed.
“Qiqige, Jiya,” he gently nudged them, “time to get up and pee.”
The two children finally reacted, sitting up dazedly. After peeing, they returned to bed, only then realizing there was someone else in the bed. “Why is our little brother here?” Qiqige hadn’t fully woken up yet, forgetting what happened before sleep.
“He’ll be taken away soon,” Bahu teased. After tucking the children in and retrieving the shoes scattered on the floor, he waited until Qiqige and Jiya were asleep before quietly closing the door and leaving.
Mi Niang was in the process of spreading the bedsheets when she heard him come in and asked him to pour some water. “Don’t close the door yet, leave it open for a while.”
They ended up leaving it open until late into the night. They exchanged only a few words before drowsiness overtook them, and they slept soundly until morning. The sound of rustling awakened them, and Bahu furrowed his brow before even opening his eyes, remembering that they had forgotten to lock the door. He jolted awake, only to find a dog’s head.
“It’s you, Da Huang. You scared me,” Bahu gasped in relief before settling back into bed.
“Is it morning already?” Mi Niang covered her dry eyes, burying her head in the crook of Bahu’s neck. “You cooked breakfast this morning; I want to sleep a bit longer.”
“Okay,” Bahu absentmindedly straightened her messy hair before getting out of bed to take Da Huang out. Da Huang had been with them for four or five years now, no longer sleeping by the door at night to guard its owner. It could now roam with the pack of dogs to patrol and protect against wolves, chasing rabbits and catching mice alongside the other dogs.
While Bahu washed his face by the river, Da Huang drank water nearby. Bahu fetched water to cook, and Da Huang lay by the wooden box, licking its dew-dampened fur. When Bahu started cutting meat, Da Huang walked in silently, staring at the meat on the cutting board, waiting for a piece to be handed to it. Hearing Habul’s crying from inside the felt bag, it hurried to the door and scratched at it before Bahu could react.
Bahu unlocked and opened the door, only to see Da Huang squeezing past him to get inside. He couldn’t help but snort coldly; this was the real ungrateful wolf he had raised. He regretted indulging it.
“Dad,” Habul stood by the bed, reaching out to be held, tears streaming down his chubby cheeks.
“Why are you still crying? Did your brother or sister hit you?” Bahu patted his pants and saw that they were dry before pulling him into his arms.
“No, they didn’t. We were awakened by him,” Qiqige also woke up, slipped off the bed, put on his little jacket, and brought the outer clothes of the youngest to the bedside. “Little brother, why are you crying?”
Jiya was also puzzled; why was he crying out of the blue, especially when they hadn’t done anything to provoke him?
Habul stopped crying as he hugged Bahu’s neck, his feet resting on Bahu’s legs. When getting dressed, he reached out whenever Bahu indicated.
“Want to walk down by yourself?” Bahu asked, already guessing the reason behind his youngest son’s tears.
“No, Dad carries,” Habul replied, particularly clingy at the moment.
“Aren’t you going to scold me for being a bad dad?” Bahu lifted his youngest son onto his shoulders and walked outside. Normally, Habul slept with him and Mi Niang. Not finding his parents when he woke up this morning must have made him anxious.
The youngest also recalled last night’s events, blushing as he pressed his face against Bahu’s body, giggling as he washed his face.
“Don’t laugh at me,” Bahu teased, pinching him gently. “Am I still a bad dad?”
“Not bad,” Habul replied, opening his mouth for his dad to help him brush his teeth. After rinsing his mouth, he puckered his lips and kissed Bahu loudly on the cheek before shyly burying his face in Bahu’s chest again.
With such a cute expression, how could anyone stay angry? All the anger disappeared, and even when Bahu was starting the fire, he still held the person on his lap.
Mi Niang woke up to this scene and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, have you two made up?”
“Father and son don’t hold grudges overnight,” the man said proudly. “The meal will be ready soon. Once you finish washing up, you can eat.”
Mi Niang took the towel and basin and headed out. “Habul, will you sleep with your brother and sister tonight, or with me and your dad?”
“Hmm!” Bahu wanted to stop her. Habul had just cried, and this matter shouldn’t be brought up. Sure enough, Habul said he wanted to sleep with his parents.
“If he falls asleep, I’ll carry him over,” Bahu muttered quietly.
But Habul was easily fooled, and they couldn’t risk him wetting the bed again. The second night sleeping with Qiqige and Jiya, he wet the bed, causing the previously affectionate siblings to change their attitudes instantly, refusing to let the bed-wetter back into their bed.
“You two are really unfair,” Bahu complained. Just when he started feeling comfortable, the little troublemaker returned. He pointed at the siblings resentfully. “I’m the one feeling sorry for our bed-wetter.”
“If you’re feeling sorry for him, then stop complaining and take him back to sleep with you,” Mi Niang said as she changed the bedding and put on the sheets for Qiqige and Jiya to sleep. She pulled Bahu outside. “You’re already this old, and you still have the nerve to say such things. Your father’s behavior makes me blush for you.” She was more interested in her comfort, so she left the youngest to the older siblings.
Habul was still confused. He babbled on, and Mi Niang barely understood what he meant. He must have woken up from a dream to go pee and was still wondering how he ended up wetting his brother and sister’s bed.
“It’s all your fault,” Mi Niang scolded Bahu as she gave him a light punch.
“It’s my fault, it’s my fault,” Bahu readily admitted, feeling satisfied nonetheless. While the mother and daughter slept in bed, he busied himself cleaning up the mess on the floor. They had stayed up too late tonight, missing the usual time to remind the children to pee.
…
Since learning to ride horses, Qiqige and Jiya have been grooming and feeding the horses every day. They even picked wild fruits from the bushes to feed the two horses, and every morning they led the horses to run around the pasture. Their legs were sore from this routine, and at night they would cry out when Bahu massaged them. After two months of this, when Mi Niang went to harvest honey, the two of them could ride their horses and follow behind the Lele cart without resting along the way.
“Come down and sit on the cart pole to go back, or else when we get home, your legs will hurt too much to walk,” Mi Niang said as she closed the door of the Lele cart, shooing away the bees that had followed before taking off her hat and outer garments.
“It hurts, but it’s okay. Dad will massage us hard again, and it’ll be fine,” Jiya didn’t want to get off the horse. Slowly catching up to the cart, he looked back on the way home. “Mom, do you think someone will come to steal our honey?”
“It’s unlikely.”
“I think they will. Why don’t my sister and I come here every day on horseback?” He came up with this idea. “We can bring Big Spot, Little Spot, Da Huang, and one of the donkeys.” Seeing a bird flying overhead, he suddenly had another idea. “It would be great if we had an eagle too. We could ride horses, bring dogs and donkeys, and have an eagle. That would be so much fun.”
At their age, they were talking about fun like that.
Mi Niang didn’t agree. The two children were too young. Even if they brought along a tiger, she wouldn’t feel comfortable letting them run so far away. Besides the risk of encountering bad people, even if they fell off their horses accidentally, in such wilderness, they wouldn’t be able to call for help no matter how loudly they shouted.
Qiqige and Jiya grumbled all the way home, sitting on the ground in pain as soon as they got off their horses.
“Exactly, serves you right for not listening,” Mi Niang said as she bent down to lift Qiqige. “Bahu? Are you home? Come out and carry your eldest son.”
No one responded so she carried Qiqige into the house. Then she came out again to carry Jiya. “Now you know to listen to your mother, right?”
“Yeah,” Jiya nodded with a smile, hugging his mother’s neck and asking if he was heavy.
“Not at all. Even if you grow two years older, I can still carry you.” Even when Bahu was around, she always seemed to find excuses not to carry or hold the children.
“I’m going to take off my outer clothes. I’ll go boil some water,” she said.
“Mom, you can massage too?” Qiqige was surprised.
“It’s not that difficult. I’ve watched and learned. It just depends on whether I want to do it or not.”
Just as the water boiled, Bahu came back with Habul. His face was full of joy, and he exclaimed excitedly when he saw Mi Niang, “There’s great news! You’ll never guess. The government just notified us that this year, Ke Dun is returning to the Central Plains to celebrate the emperor’s birthday, and she’ll pass by our place! I saw her when I was around ten years old, and finally, finally…”
Seeing him so excited with flushed cheeks, Mi Niang smiled too. “When is it?”
“It might be soon, but I’m not sure.” Thinking about having to move to the Xia Ranch, he changed his mind and said, “We’ll postpone our departure to the Xia Ranch until after Ke Dun leaves.”
From the moment the people in the mountains received the news, they began preparing joyfully. They cleaned up the cow dung and sheep droppings on the road, replaced the old felt on the Lele carts with new ones, and the women in each family busied themselves making new clothes. The cosmetics and powders in the makeup shops were all sold out, and the children were on vacation, busy practicing horseback riding.
Qiqige and Jiya were also practicing. Every night, after taking off their pants, the roots of their thighs were red, but fortunately, they had cotton padding in their pants to prevent their skin from chafing.
“I remember when I was around ten years old, Ke Dun passed by Xushui and returned to the Central Plains. We rode horses and escorted the king’s army to the edge of the grassland,” Bahu said as he moved a stool to the bedside to massage the children’s leg muscles. “We have the good days we have now all thanks to Ke Dun bringing craftsmen and skills from the Central Plains and teaching them to the pastoralists of the Mobei. You’re lucky to be able to see such beauty at your age. When you grow up, you’ll be able to brag about it to others.”
Ten years, not many people have many tens of years. Every glance is precious.
Because of Bahu’s attitude, Qiqige and Jiya also looked forward to Ke Dun with admiration. They hadn’t met her yet, but they already had a clear impression in their hearts. She was an extraordinary person, a princess from the Central Plains, and also a phoenix who married into the Mobei.
