"Long, I reckon there are fallen trees under the snow over there. Let's get to work here!" Tao Daqiang said, panting as he looked around and pointed to a wind-felled tree farther down the slope.
"No, let's go a little farther." Li Long pointed to the slope beside Winter Camp. "That's the best spot."
"But there's no road ahead. Our cart might not make it any farther up." Tao Daqiang looked troubled.
"We'll push it." Watching the smoke rising from Winter Camp, Li Long smiled. "A little trouble like this won't stop us, will it?"
So he pulled from the front while Tao Daqiang pushed from behind, and together they got the cart onto the gentle slope ahead.
"All right, this will do." Li Long surveyed the terrain, decided it was a good spot, then pointed toward Winter Camp.
"Come on, let's have lunch over there before we get to work."
"Have lunch... over there?" Tao Daqiang was surprised. "Will they let us?"
"Don't worry. They're very hospitable." Li Long pointed to the tea and salt they had brought on the cart. "We're not freeloaders, either. We brought gifts."
Winter Camp was a fixed place in the mountains where herders lived and grazed their livestock during winter. In summer, they moved up to the higher alpine meadows, known as summer pastures. In winter, they came down to lower elevations, lived in Winter Camp, and grazed their animals on the winter pastures. The journey between the two was called a seasonal migration.
Most of the herders in these mountains were Kazakhs. After the turn of the new century, the authorities organized their relocation to the foot of the mountains and allocated land to them, shifting them from nomadic herding to grazing in fixed areas.
Several households had been settled in Li Long's village, so he knew their circumstances quite well.
Kazakhs were very hospitable. In the past, even strangers who arrived outside their felt yurts would usually be offered dried milk curds, naan, and milk tea.
Winter Camp was built by digging a triangular recess into a mountainside, using the mountain itself as the rear wall and timber as supports, then putting up a row of rooms. These included warm pens for cattle and sheep, as well as living quarters. Large piles of cattle and sheep dung were usually heaped outside.
Li Long also planned to come back in spring to haul away some manure, because he remembered that the first round of land contracting would begin then.
Although each person would only receive two mu of land, it would truly be their own!
They unhitched the cart and led the horse up to Winter Camp. Two dogs came charging over, barking furiously at Li Long, Tao Daqiang, and the horse.
The door of Winter Camp opened, and a man around thirty came out. He looked surprised to see Li Long and the others.
"Hello, we're here to haul timber. We're tired from the journey. Could we rest here for a while?" Li Long asked with a smile.
After sizing up Li Long and the others warily, the man nodded, shouted at the dogs, then came out and pointed to a wooden post a short distance from Winter Camp.
Li Long understood that he meant for them to tie the horse there, so he led it over. The man pulled a bundle of hay from the stack beside Winter Camp and set it down by the horse, which immediately lowered its head and began eating.
After tying up the horse, Li Long saw the herder's three horses eating hay nearby as well, and smiled.
They really were as welcoming as the people he had met in his previous life.
The man led Li Long and the others inside Winter Camp, and everything suddenly went dark.
Once his eyes adjusted, Li Long saw that Winter Camp was not very large. There was a wooden sleeping platform with a low table on it, and a kettle sat on a small, burning stove.
An Old Lady sat beside the wooden platform, working a clump of wool with her head lowered. A woman around thirty, wearing a headscarf, watched them awkwardly.
Blankets covered the platform, where two children were playing with a pile of sheep Ankle Bones. They were watching the visitors too.
Li Long took the brick tea and salt from his bag and handed them to the man.
"These are for you."
Tao Daqiang winced inwardly. Those two things together cost several yuan. They could easily have eaten lunch outside. They had so many Sesame Cakes—something he might only get to eat a piece of at New Year! With such a luxurious lunch already on hand, why come here?
Still, since Long had made the decision, he must have had his reasons.
"...Thank you." The man looked surprised at the tea Li Long had brought out, and a little excited.
He turned to look at the woman, then at the Old Lady, before accepting the gifts.
The Old Lady and the woman both smiled. Li Long could tell that they genuinely liked the gifts.
The man invited Li Long and Tao Daqiang onto the platform and had them sit toward the back. The Old Lady took a bundle wrapped in a bedsheet from a cupboard and opened it on the low table, revealing naan broken into small pieces. The younger woman began preparing milk tea, while the man went outside. When he returned, he carried an air-dried leg of lamb and gestured for them to slice off pieces to eat. Then he drew a knife and prepared to go out again.
"No, no, please don't go to so much trouble. We need to eat quickly, then load the timber and head back." Seeing that the family seemed about to make a big occasion of it, Li Long hurriedly waved his hands. "This is plenty."
The man would not agree, so Li Long grabbed hold of him. He could tell that if he let the man go, he would most likely head outside and slaughter a sheep.
That would be taking things too far.
Although sheep were not worth much to the herders at the time, they were usually reluctant to slaughter any for themselves.
The Old Lady said something to the man in Kazakh, and he tried to pull free of Li Long and go outside. In desperation, Li Long looked around, then pointed to something beside the stove.
"Don't slaughter a sheep. Just give me that instead!"
The man stared at the object, taken aback.
Seeing an opening, Li Long smiled and said:
"That's all I want... I can sell it when I get back."
He had recognized it as a deer antler.
A few decades later, antlers would not be worth much, since deer farming would be widespread by then. Even the price of velvet antlers would fall considerably, let alone hard antlers.
But at this time, deer farming was still extremely rare. Ordinary people hardly ever encountered it.
The antlers of male red deer in the mountains fell off once they reached a certain stage of growth, and any shed antlers people found could indeed be sold.
"Really?" the man asked doubtfully.
"Really. One yuan a kilo," Li Long said, making up a figure. "That'll be enough for me."
The antler had three tines and looked as though it must weigh at least two or three kilos. It would certainly be enough.
Only then did the man put down his knife. But after a moment's thought, he went outside again.
A short while later, just as the woman held out the prepared milk tea to Li Long with both hands, the man came back in carrying another antler and placed it beside the first.
Li Long could see that a section of this antler had broken off. It was neither as attractive nor as heavy as the first.
"Nasen found this in the woods," the man said, pointing to the little boy on the platform.
"We were going to burn it as firewood."
Firewood? What a waste!
(End of chapter)
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