The abrasions on the thighs scabbed overnight, making every movement painful. Mi Niang did nothing all morning except bossing around the little one, fetching water, and moving stools.
“Let’s cook when you get up. We usually eat with Uncle Jinku in the morning.” Mi Niang looked up at the man stretching lazily, with faint traces of blue under his eyes. “Didn’t you sleep last night?”
“I did, just couldn’t fall asleep.” Bahu went to the kitchen to get soap and washed his face by the river, lying that he was too excited after seeing Khan and Ke Dun yesterday.
Mi Niang believed him, joking that he wasn’t this excited even the night before their wedding.
Bahu quickened his pace, pretending not to hear.
The water grass by the river had turned yellow, and families upstream were busy packing up their belongings to move to the Xia Ranch. He asked Mi Niang when they would depart: “The day after tomorrow?”
The honey was almost drained. Mi Niang glanced at the two children walking with stiff legs and said, “This afternoon, we’ll squeeze the honey out of the beehive. We can leave tomorrow. The three children and I will ride in the Lele car.”
“Okay,” Bahu answered and rolled up his sleeves to cook. Today, they received lamb chops and legs. “The newly brewed garlic chive sauce should be ready to eat. Shall we boil lamb in clear water for lunch, or roast lamb chops and fry lamb legs?”
“Let’s boil the meat.” Autumn is already dry, eating grilled meat again will cause blisters on the mouth.
“Alright, whatever the boss says, I’ll do it.”
He cooked in the house while Mi Niang took care of the three children in the yard, brushing the fur of the dogs and the mountain ferrets. Every spring and autumn, they shed heavily and also liked to rub against people.
“You guys should have your fur trimmed too. We’ll make a dog fur felt every year.” Mi Niang patted the fat haunches of Bala, and the dogs enjoyed it too. She brushed them, and one by one they closed their eyes comfortably and fell asleep.
Bahu stewed the meat in the pot. When he didn’t need to watch the fire, he leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed, watching. When he noticed too much dog hair, he took a shovel of cow dung with fire on it and poured it over, causing white smoke with a burnt smell to rise, wrinkling his brow.
“Finished brushing?”
“Yeah.” Mi Niang nodded, her hands black. She stood up with stiff legs and went out to wash her hands, asking Habul to fetch soap.
“Dad, get the soap.” Habul also ordered, running out with his legs.
Bahu chased all the dogs out before sending out the soap. As he turned around, he kicked the little one’s butt and went inside to sweep the floor.
“Mom, Dad kicked me,” Habul complained.
“He deserved it.”
Habul grunted heavily, dug up a clump of mud from the riverbed, and rubbed it in his palms, his fingernails filled with black mud, while also receiving a slap on the butt.
“If you don’t clean up, you won’t eat,” Mi Niang warned him.
“I don’t care if I don’t eat. Our little third one is chubby and won’t starve even if he misses a meal,” Jiya teased, leaning over to tease him, “Brother, don’t you agree? Be tough, tell Mom you won’t eat until you’ve washed up.”
“Do you want to get slapped too?” Mi Niang raised her palm.
“Hahaha.” Jiya laughed loudly a few times, then ran into the house, “I’ll go eat first. The lamb smells so good.”
Habul glanced at the person squatting beside him, then pulled out a grass stem to poke at the mud under his fingernails, pretending to be cute, “Mom, I’m the one who listens to you the most.” One sentence stumbled over two hiccups, but he laughed ingratiatingly, causing people to chuckle.
“Yes, you’re the most obedient. Hurry up and wash up.” In the end, the temptation of food was still great. Among the three children, he had the best appetite, not picky at all, enjoying both meat and vegetarian dishes, wild vegetables, and mushrooms. If it was in his bowl, there wouldn’t be anything left.
Bahu and the two children were already sitting at the table, waiting. Once everyone was gathered, they could start eating. Each had a bowl of butter tea to ease the greasiness. They grabbed the lamb chops with their hands and gnawed at them directly. The boiled lamb was only seasoned with salt, the soup remained clear, but the taste was excellent. With a little chive sauce, it never felt greasy.
After finishing a pot of meat, only Bahu still wanted another bowl of lamb soup with noodles. He had a large appetite, didn’t eat breakfast in the morning, and had an astonishing capacity for food.
“Did you inform Xi Jil?” Mi Niang leaned back in her chair, watching him slurp noodles, always finding his eating very appetizing, and also wanting to take a bite.
Bahu noticed her implication and picked up a few strands of noodles, “Don’t mind me being dirty, do you?”
“Yes, I do mind.” Mi Niang gave him a sideways glance, speaking incoherently, “I’m full, can’t eat anymore.”
“Just knew you’d find fault with me.” With a twist of the chopsticks, the noodles went into the man’s mouth, responding to her previous words, “I told him, he’ll pay attention.”
“Dad, ah!” Seeing this, Habul slipped off his chair, opening his mouth wide, “I don’t mind you.”
Bahu smiled at Mi Niang, the little one had grown a big belly like a calf, he casually picked up a noodle and fed it to him, teasing, “He’s still my son.”
“Yes!” The little third one proudly glanced at his siblings, affectionately leaning against his father’s leg, completely forgetting the kick he received before dinner.
Qiqige and Jiya couldn’t be bothered with him, taking the soap and going outside to wash their hands and mouths. Mi Niang also shifted her position, washed her hands, and opened the felt bag used for storing honeycombs, squeezing out the remaining honey.
…
As dusk fell, Bahu opened the door first, not surprised to see the dogs and marmots crowded outside. He returned inside and brought out the honeycomb still with some honey remaining. “Here, have some.”
Most of the honeycombs were eaten by them every year, and not content with that, they also licked clean the water used by him and Mi Niang to wash their hands.
It wasn’t late yet, as summer days were already long. Bahu busied himself tying the felt and wooden fences onto the carriage frame. The clothes and shoes for autumn, the beef dried for nearly a year, and other miscellaneous items were all packed up. There was no need to get up early the next morning.
As the sky darkened, a few barks sounded outside. Bahu dusted off his hands and went to see. A bailiff, dressed in black, had just come out of the Bao Yin family’s house and was heading in his direction.
“Ready for dinner?” The bailiff didn’t approach, standing in the space between the two houses, “The master asked me to inform you. This year, there won’t be any military escort back to the winter pasture. We need to return earlier. We must be back in Lingshan by the fifteenth of September and set out west on the twenty-fifth.”
“Ke Dun won’t be returning to the North in winter?” Bahu saw Ajima returning from school and nodded to him, “Are you hungry? Dinner is almost ready.”
“After finally visiting my mother’s family, we’ll surely stay for a while. The message is delivered, remember it.” The bailiff also needed to rush back to have dinner with his family.
“Alright, thanks for the trip.” Bahu went back inside and asked Ajima, “Are you going to the Xia Ranch with us or going back to the winter pasture with others to cut and dry grass? Your elder brother-in-law is staying in Lingshan this year to look after our home.”
“I’ll go back to cut grass.” Ajima didn’t hesitate at all. Going to the Xia Ranch with them was of little use to him. Returning to cut and dry grass allowed him to keep track of his work, and someone might report him if he slackened off privately, so he wouldn’t dare to be lazy openly.
“Alright, we’ll set off early tomorrow.”
…
This year, there were many servants, and Bahu took four of them to the Xia Ranch. With sufficient manpower, they could take turns keeping watch at night. With two or three dozen dogs and marmots patrolling at night, he could sleep soundly at night. During the day, all cooking was done by him. Mi Niang and the children could rest their legs on the carriage, nursing their leg injuries.
“Raising so many mouths is also useful.” Bahu squatted on the side, watching as the Da Huang and spotted ones ate meat heartily. Since raising them, it seemed like there were fewer wolves in the past two years, and they hadn’t encountered any wolf packs during the transfer nights.
“It’s all thanks to our Da Huang.”
“What about the Alse wolves?” Bahu disagreed. “They might not have contributed directly, but they had their share of labor, and we lost a lot of eggs.” And there was Bala, a reliable helper with offspring, who also contributed.
With a mischievous glint in his eyes, he grabbed Mi Niang’s hand, glancing at the three children. “Or are you saying that I haven’t contributed because you were the one who bore three children? I’ve also put in a lot of effort, sweating profusely every night.”
Mi Niang pinched him, a shameless guy. Who knows who enjoyed it? She shook off his hand, stood up, and called the children onto the carriage. “Let’s go, the sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll arrive.”
They were not far from the Xia Ranch, and by mid-afternoon, they had arrived. Seeing the hills covered with purple flowers, Mi Niang and Qiqige were both amazed. “This is too beautiful!”
“This year, why are there so many flowers? Where did the seeds come from?” Bahu wondered, plucking a flower and examining it carefully. He couldn’t recognize it, so he handed it over to a ram nearby. Seeing it sniff and then chew on it, he boldly remarked, “Not poisonous. Next year, we can place ten or so beehives here.”
“Yeah, besides us, there haven’t been any outsiders coming here,” Mi Niang said, already having picked a large handful of flowers, her nails stained with colors. “The scent is quite pleasant. Once the felt bags are made, we’ll hang them by the bedside.”
Leaving the women to play in the grassy flower beds, Bahu took the servants to burn cow dung to smoke out insects and make felt bags. While moving the boxes, one of the servants accidentally knocked over a chest, and the raincoats inside spilled out.
“Master, your chest has been infested by insects,” the servant said cautiously, lifting the chest and finding insect holes at the bottom. Looking at the raincoats scattered on the ground, he noticed various sizes of holes. “The raincoats need patching; they’ve been chewed up by insects.”
Bahu took a look. Except for Habul, the wooden chest contained raincoats for their family of four, all of which had been riddled with insect holes.
“Forget it, I’ll make new ones this year. These have been worn for several years already.”
“Do you still want these?” the servant asked cautiously, his face showing some embarrassment. He had only arrived this year, and after last winter, where eighty percent of the family’s lambs froze to death, the situation at home was quite tight. “If you don’t want them, I can take them back. They’ll come in handy to keep warm in the winter.”
“Sure, take them,” Bahu replied. He had originally planned to take them back for the dogs to use as bedding.
“Dad, do you think I look pretty?” Qiqige ran over with a head full of flowers, dropping petals along the way.
Bahu waved his hand, signaling the servant to continue with his tasks. “Very pretty, very pretty. The most beautiful little girl in the Mobei.”
“But you haven’t even looked yet!” The little girl extended her chubby hands, each finger adorned with the juice from crushed petals, staining her nails. “Do I look pretty? My mother dyed them for me.”
Mi Niang also approached, her delicate hands also stained. “Do I look pretty? This type of flower petals makes for good dyeing. Purple flower petals produce a light pink color, with a hint of purple shining through the red.”
Bahu suddenly had an idea, so the next day he took a woolen bag and went out to pick flowers. He spent the whole day picking and filling five bags. After dinner, he tore the petals and boiled them in water. After letting them sit overnight, he scooped out the softened petals and added coarse salt before pouring them into the bath, which was lined with felt.
“There’s a bit too little water; I’ll boil another pot,” he said enthusiastically, grabbing another woolen bag and heading out.
They felt soaked in the purple-red juice for three days before being lifted out, hung on ropes to dry, and then washed in the river. The color faded slightly, leaning towards a pink-purple hue, even more beautiful than the watermelon red robe they had bought last year.
During the month and ten days at the Xia Ranch, Bahu busied himself with dyeing and making clothes. It wasn’t until the second day after returning to Lingshan that he finally cut the last thread on the final raincoat.
Of the family of five, only Mi Niang and Qiqige’s raincoats were pink-purple. The rest of the felt was tucked away by Bahu, who claimed it would be saved as part of his daughter’s dowry.
“There are always ones for sale,” Mi Niang said, watching Qiqige proudly flaunt her well-fitted raincoat outside, feeling happy inside that her little girl remembered her father at all times.
The man gave her a sideways glance. “Don’t forget, although the felt I dyed may lose color when wet, it’s something I made with my own hands—picking flowers, boiling them, washing and drying them. It’s priceless.”
Mi Niang was no longer angry at him. “Yes, even if someone offered me a fortune, I wouldn’t sell.”
Bahu felt relieved now that Mi Niang wasn’t mad at him anymore. He smoothed his hair and stood up, stretching lazily. “I’ll go find the horses and camels. You take Qiqige and Jiya to bring back the beehives.”
Time was tight, and both of them worked tirelessly. Knowing they wouldn’t all migrate together this year, Mi Niang brought back the beehives without harvesting honey. The honey from this summer would be enough to sell along the way.
On the morning of September 25th, the drums sounded three times, and the families from the westernmost area hitched their Lele carts and herded their cattle and sheep onto the road home.
“What about these five piglets, master? Should we tie them with ropes and walk them?” asked Xi Jil.
“Put them in theLele cart,” Mi Niang replied. The piglets would be nothing but skeletons by the time they reached Wahu Lake after a month on the road.
Qiqige and Jiya rode on the camels again, running back and forth restlessly. They would occasionally return to report which families they had reached.
Half of the families they mentioned were unfamiliar to Mi Niang and Bahu, leaving them feeling bewildered.
“Next year, next year we’ll come back to Lingshan, and you two will go to the private school with Ajima,” Mi Niang said, closing the window after the teasing laughter from Habul.
“You should grow up quickly too and go to the school to study with the teachers.”
“Mother, I also want to ride a camel,” Habul cried. He didn’t want to ride in the Lele cart anymore.
“You’re still young. When you’re older, you can ride however you want.” Mi Niang sat him in the Lele cart because she was afraid he might catch a cold from the chilly morning air.
“Why didn’t you make me as big as Jiya?” Emboldened by the fact that Jiya couldn’t hear, the chubby little boy dared to call his older brother by name.
Mi Niang raised her hand to slap him. “Did you just call him Jiya? Call him that again, and I’ll slap your mouth.”
Habul stopped his complaining, sulking. After a while, he squeezed into her arms again and accused her of favoritism, saying she favored the youngest because he was born last.
Mi Niang couldn’t help but laugh at being accused of favoritism. Wasn’t he just trying to take advantage of the situation?
