The long winter had passed.
As the snow melted, swathes of green appeared among the forested mountains and valleys. Rhododendron dauricum stood in bud, green pines and white birches showed fresh signs of life, spring colors emerged in the riverside wetlands, and the meadows turned green again... At last, this world of ice and snow was returning to its original appearance.
Earth Qi rose, and the hard black soil gradually awakened.
Likewise, the hardest trial the educated youths had faced since being sent up to the mountains and down to the countryside arrived with it.
Spring plowing.
Not just spring plowing, either. They also had to raise seedlings, protect the forests, and fell trees.
Amid repeated calls, the army of educated youths shouted the slogan "Conquer Heaven and Battle Earth," then shed their sweat and tears through toil and exhaustion, watering the soil beneath their feet.
The young man carried a shovel over his shoulder, his sleeves rolled up, his thick black hair cropped short and neat.
Sunlight fell on his wheat-colored cheeks, covered in a fine sheen of sweat. From a distance, it seemed to turn his skin to bronze.
In that hard, angular face, a pair of tiger-like eyes shifted, gleaming as they swept over the educated youths struggling away.
Most of these people were still children.
The young man raised his brows. The red mole between them lent a touch of softness to his otherwise resolute, steady face.
Spring plowing was a matter of utmost importance. Everyone had to take part, and they had to travel not only to Kaoshan Village but also to several neighboring villages.
After all, they followed a half-forestry, half-farming approach. In other words, once they finished working up in the mountains, they worked below, going wherever hands were needed. All the educated youths from the logging camps and farms worked alongside the production brigade members.
Not far away, a female educated youth was too exhausted to hold out any longer. She dropped onto the ground, crying and clamoring to return to the city.
"Ah, I can't take it anymore! When is this ever going to end?"
But after making a fuss for a while and finding that no one paid her any attention, she wiped away her tears and rejoined the others.
Never mind the female educated youths-even Lian Youming himself had developed blood blisters all over both hands over the past two days.
It was exhausting.
Not just his hands, either. His feet ached, and his back ached even more.
Most of the food in these villages had already been eaten over the winter. Basically, only coarse grains such as corn remained. Whatever they did with them, it was either flatbread or porridge. The trouble was, eating too much of the stuff made it hard to digest. Once night fell, those with weak stomachs either had the runs or found themselves constipated.
Just then.
"Food's ready!"
At the shout, everyone hurriedly dropped their tools and ran toward the educated youths serving the food.
The brothers Yu Wen and Yu Wu pushed over two handcarts. One held a large bamboo basket filled with neatly arranged aluminum lunch boxes. Three wooden buckets were tied to the other, with a few leaves floating in the thin, watery soup inside.
Lian Youming rushed to the front and took a lunch box, but his face immediately fell when he saw the rice packed inside.
Recognizing him, Yu Wu first blinked, then sank his ladle to the bottom and swept it upward, scooping up half a ladle of vegetable leaves before slapping them into Lian Youming's lunch box.
Famished, Lian Youming turned away, squatted on the embankment, and began eating. Behind him, someone complained, "Twice-steamed?"
Twice-steamed rice meant steaming cooked rice all over again. It looked plentiful, but it was full of water. A single scoop of uncooked rice might yield two jin of cooked rice. Every grain looked plump, but it did nothing to keep hunger at bay.
The sun hung high overhead. The snow had melted, but the wind was still cold.
As Lian Youming ate, he suddenly caught a medicinal fragrance. Turning, he saw a tall figure walk past him on unsteady feet, then squat down nearby and bury her head over her rice.
Yan Lingyun.
The young woman had bundled herself up so tightly in winter that Lian Youming had never noticed how pretty she was. Now, with her hat and scarf off and her padded coat changed, he finally saw that she truly had an indescribable air about her.
Gentle and quiet, with almond-shaped eyes, a finely shaped nose, and rosy fair cheeks, she exuded a scholarly air from within. There was also a peculiar medicinal fragrance about her. Even without dressing up, she was very pleasing to the eye.
With looks like hers, she would ordinarily have been highly sought after among the educated youths. But she was simply too tall. Before the New Year, she had only been around 1.7 meters, yet now she had grown another stretch and was probably nearly 1.75 meters-taller than most of the male educated youths, making them shrink back.
In the entire group, only five or six people, including Lian Youming, stood noticeably taller than her.
Seeing that her lunch box did not contain so much as a vegetable leaf, then looking at her little face, pale with exhaustion, Lian Youming immediately moved closer.
"Comrade Yan, how's that Old Medicine preparation coming along?"
He had been thinking about it all this time.
Yan Lingyun kept her face lowered and ignored him, shifting her feet to turn away.
Lian Youming smiled bitterly to himself. Ever since their last meeting in Kaoshan Village, she had lowered her head and walked away whenever she ran into him. Most likely, she still held a grievance.
But he had no intention of taking the hint. The sight of the rice soaking in thin soup in her lunch box tugged at him, and he immediately edged closer again. "I've got plenty of vegetable leaves. Let's share."
With that, Lian Youming stole a glance around. Only after seeing everyone bent over their food did he take a little liquor flask from his pocket.
Yan Lingyun still said nothing. Face lowered, she was about to move again when an impatient voice reached her ears. "Oh, come on, are there thorns under your backside or something? Stop moving. This is soy sauce. I'll pour you some."
Only then did Yan Lingyun stay put and raise her head, revealing a ring of rice grains stuck to her little face.
After pouring the soy sauce, Lian Youming took a small porcelain bottle from his other pocket and said mysteriously, "This is lard. Aunt Shen gave it to me."
Seeing how dazed she looked, he could not be bothered to explain any further. He pried out a little lump of white fat with the tip of his chopsticks, dropped it into her lunch box, and mixed it in.
"Eat."
After saying that, Lian Youming also gave her a few vegetable leaves.
But while he was enjoying his meal, he turned to find Yan Lingyun eating with tears pattering down her face.
"What are you crying for all of a sudden? What, didn't they put salt in your rice?"
"No," Yan Lingyun said quietly. "It's just been so long since I've eaten meat. I suddenly miss home a little."
Lian Youming sighed inwardly, but said, "You call this eating meat? I'll get you something good another day."
Although Qin Yuhu no longer let him touch a gun, he still had his slingshot. He could still hunt some game.
Yan Lingyun's eyes lit up, tears still brimming in them. "Then I want goose stewed in an iron pot."
Lian Youming did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Why don't you just stew me instead?"
Then he suddenly looked around. "Hey, where are those girls from your hometown? How come I haven't seen them?"
"They couldn't stand the hardship here," Yan Lingyun said dejectedly. "They went back to the city through job recruitment."
No wonder.
Lian Youming looked at the other female educated youths. They all kept their distance, as though deliberately shunning Yan Lingyun. Guessing they had had some sort of disagreement, his gaze steadied. "All right, stewed goose it is. But I probably can't bring it over here. Come back to the village with me when we get a day off."
He was on good terms with Liu Danaodai. With a little money added, surely they could get some goose to eat.
With the food settled, Yan Lingyun finally spoke of her own accord. "How's your recipe coming along?"
"Apart from a few odd ingredients, I've pretty much gathered everything," Lian Youming said as he ate.
Here in the Greater Khingan Mountains, things that grew in the ground, such as Solomon's seal and wild ginseng, were actually the easiest to obtain. During his breaks, Lian Youming had made several trips to the supply and marketing cooperative and sought out a few elderly mountain foragers. Without insisting on top-quality mountain produce, he had pieced together quite a collection.
The main issue was things like bear gall and tiger bone. Those were truly rare goods. He would have to seek out old hunters living deep in the mountains, and even then, whether they had any depended on luck.
Unexpectedly, after asking which ingredients he lacked, Yan Lingyun hesitated and said softly, "I have tiger bone and bear gall. My brother gave me quite a bit of money when he came before, and I bought them all from an Oroqen. I was originally planning to take them home..."
Before she had finished, Lian Youming unceremoniously scraped more than half his rice into her lunch box and smiled ingratiatingly. "Here, eat more."
"You think you can fob me off with half a box of rice mixed with lard?" Yan Lingyun said indignantly. "You haven't even thanked me for last time."
"Heh, you still remember that?" Lian Youming froze, then made to scrape the rice back. "Then I'd better find them myself."
Bear gall and tiger bone were simply too expensive. Good-quality specimens would cost at least a thousand yuan even in these times.
Lian Youming still remembered that his father, the security section chief, took home fifty-six yuan a month. Even working for four or five years on that salary might not be enough to afford them.
Yan Lingyun hurriedly blocked his approaching chopsticks. "Why are you being so disgusting? Am I supposed to eat this or not? Don't worry. You can trade me something for them."
"Trade what?" Lian Youming asked, puzzled.
Yan Lingyun smiled, her eyes narrowing. "Let me copy your recipe."
Lian Youming stared. "Didn't you say that stuff would only harm ordinary people and do them no good?"
"It's fine," Yan Lingyun said. "I can rebalance its medicinal properties and replace a few ingredients. It should still help strengthen the body and replenish Qi. My father's health is poor. Part of the reason I came here was to see whether I could find anything good."
Hearing that, what more could Lian Youming say? He agreed without a second thought. "All right. Deal."
But after eating a few mouthfuls, Yan Lingyun added, "You also have to help me with something."
Suspicion appeared on Lian Youming's face. "You're not raising the price on the spot, are you?"
Yan Lingyun looked at the young man before her, torn and hesitant. At last, she made up her mind and said nervously, "I found a Seven-Leaf old ginseng deep in the Greater Khingan Mountains. After it flowers this year, it'll probably grow its eighth leaf. Once your martial arts have reached a decent level, you'll have to protect me on the way in."
"What?"
Lian Youming's eyes widened.
An eight-leaf old ginseng was a peerless treasure. Many mountain foragers could go generations without ever encountering a single one.
"Last year, someone over our way disturbed a hibernating black bear. It was covered in fat, around two meters tall, and came down the mountain red-eyed and started eating people. After getting word, the militia took their guns into the mountains. I went along, and then, at... I found that old ginseng. Now that the weather's warming up, mountain foragers might head in. We need to prepare early."
As Yan Lingyun spoke, she carefully watched the changes in Lian Youming's expression. Fortunately, although his eyes were full of wonder, there was not a trace of greed on his face.
"Sister Qin is a good person. She said you're a good person too. I trust her, and I trust you."
"Don't worry," Lian Youming said solemnly. "When the time comes, I can carry you in on my back."
Yan Lingyun's cheeks reddened. "Hurry up and eat."
Three days later.
It happened to be the Qingming Festival, and the village Party secretary made work optional. Early that morning, Lian Youming rode a bicycle borrowed from the commune and carried Yan Lingyun and her box of treasures back to Kaoshan Village.
Though Liu Danaodai's medical skills were not up to much, he still had the desire to learn and improve. Hearing that Lian Youming had invited a successor from a family of traditional Chinese physicians to prepare medicine, he immediately volunteered to cover for them. He even prepared some twenty medicine pots and lit the charcoal, waiting to broaden his horizons.
And finally, there was goose stewed in an iron pot.
(End of chapter)
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