Like showing off a treasure again, Mao Xiaoshu held up the fruit She Qi had given him for Qin Ziheng to see. Qin Ziheng had heard “round-fruit” just now and wondered what it was, one look showed a few persimmons and two clusters of wild mountain grapes bundled in Mao Xiaoshu’s hide garment.
Round-fruit… fairly apt.
There were still about twenty pucker-fruit left. Qin Ziheng got up from the bed and wrapped them all in the black overcoat. Mao Xiaoshu blinked and leaned in. “Qin Ziheng, what are you doing? Didn’t you eat your fill?”
Although the sun had set, it hadn’t gone fully dark outside the cave, the far edge of the sky was a swath of orange-red, as if washed with paint, looking from a distance like an oil painting. Qin Ziheng said, “These fruit are too astringent. We’ll take them to the river and soak them for a few days, and then when we eat them they’ll be very sweet.”
“Ah? Is that so? But pucker-fruit doesn’t turn sweet,” Mao Xiaoshu said.
Qin Ziheng thought it over. The woods here were vast and wild birds plentiful, if you really waited for the fruit to ripen before picking, the birds would probably eat it all clean, which was why the beasts always grabbed the persimmons before they’d ripened. Persimmons picked that way needed to be soaked in limewater, or plain water if there was no limewater, to remove the astringency. The beasts had never done this, so they probably assumed persimmons were simply astringent, and that was why they called it pucker-fruit.
“It should work. Let’s try it.” With one hand holding the overcoat-wrapped pucker-fruit and the other leading Mao Xiaoshu, Qin Ziheng headed for the river.
There was no bucket in the cave, so to soak the persimmons they had to go to the river.
Mao Xiaoshu obeyed him well, though he thought it impossible, he trotted along obediently. At the river, Qin Ziheng found a shallow spot along the bank. The riverbed here was fine pebbles rather than mud and sand, and the water was very shallow. The persimmons weren’t heavy, afraid they’d be washed away in the night or eaten by something in the river, Qin Ziheng ringed a circle of stones and then poured the pucker-fruit inside.
Only after pouring them in did he think to ask, “Do beasts usually come over here?”
“No.” Mao Xiaoshu shook his head. His cave was at the far left of the tribe, near the bamboo grove. The grove had no wild fruit and no game, there were Cluck-Cluck Beasts, but they ran very fast, could fly, and were small and hard to catch, so the tribe usually hunted on the great plain or in the woods, and gathered there too, rarely coming this way.
Qin Ziheng nodded.
Mao Xiaoshu thought they were about to head back and reached for Qin Ziheng again, wanting him to lead him home the way he had on the way there. He couldn’t say why, but he felt that with Qin Ziheng holding his hand, he wasn’t the least bit afraid, and it was fun besides.
Qin Ziheng’s gaze fell on Mao Xiaoshu’s messy, bird’s-nest of a head. Mao Xiaoshu had scampered through the woods all day at noon and then run off to cut fluff-grass, there were plenty of grass bits in his little curls.
Whether Mao Xiaoshu would sleep comfortably like this, Qin Ziheng didn’t know, but he was used to being clean, and seeing Mao Xiaoshu all grimy now, doing nothing about it made him uncomfortable. It had been hot at noon, and Mao Xiaoshu had sweated so much, Qin Ziheng himself was no better off. There was no shampoo or body wash, but the weather was hot, and a rinse would let them sleep more comfortably tonight.
“I want to take a bath. Do you want to wash up too?” he asked softly.
“Yes.” Mao Xiaoshu, pleasantly surprised, immediately said happily.
He liked bathing, cool and comfortable afterward. But Mao Xiaohe always worried about him, afraid his mind wasn’t right and he’d wash and wash and go chasing little shrimp into the middle of the river. She never allowed him to come bathe at the river on his own, coaxing him that he could come to drink water but not to bathe, because bathing took longer, and if he bathed long, the things in the river would see him and drag him in and eat him.
Mao Xiaoshu didn’t understand what was in the river that would eat a beast, but he knew his sister wouldn’t lie to him. He’d once seen a female of the tribe sink into the river and never come up again, the beasts all said she’d returned to the Beast God’s embrace.
Mao Xiaohe always kept track of the days, and every few days would come to take Mao Xiaoshu to bathe at the river.
If she didn’t come, Mao Xiaoshu wouldn’t run off to the river on his own.
But with Qin Ziheng here now, he wasn’t afraid at all. Happily he stripped off his hide garment in a flash, baring his round little bottom. He’d meant to bathe straightaway, but he felt a bit thirsty, and thirsty meant drinking. Mao Xiaoshu simply flopped onto the shallows and gulped water down, glug, glug. By the time Qin Ziheng had finished undressing and noticed, he’d already had several mouthfuls, the words “don’t drink that, stop” reached his lips and were forced back down.
Once Mao Xiaoshu had drunk his fill, he looked at Qin Ziheng and let out a “wah.” “Qin Ziheng, you’re so fair.” Even fairer than his sister.
Qin Ziheng had stripped down to his underwear. At school in the north he’d often bathed in the communal bathhouse with his dorm-mates, so stripping in front of Mao Xiaoshu felt like nothing.
People who sat in an office year-round couldn’t get very dark. Qin Ziheng’s face was fair, his body fairer still, yet he didn’t look frail, on the contrary, he had a nice set of abs, not exaggerated like a fitness trainer’s, but lean, with smooth, beautiful lines at the waist, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, long straight legs. From any angle, however you looked at him, there wasn’t a flaw, perfect to the point of being almost unreasonable.
Mao Xiaoshu was dumbstruck.
Amused by the sight of him, Qin Ziheng pinched his face helplessly, pulled him up, and led him toward slightly deeper water. The river was very wide, faintly blue in the middle where you couldn’t see the bottom. Qin Ziheng didn’t know whether there was anything dangerous in the river, so he didn’t dare go too deep, just a few steps in, the water over his knees, everything still clearly visible around them, before he stopped, reassured. “There. We’ll wash here.”
Mao Xiaoshu bathed simply and roughly. He stuck up his gleaming-white bottom, bent over, dunked his head in the water, poked at it a couple of times any which way, wrung out his hair, and plopped down onto the pebbles.
The water came just to his stomach, cool and comfortable, not cold in the least. He started trying to catch the little shrimp that dared to swim near him without fear for their lives, and when he caught one he’d cup it in both hands and lift it up to Qin Ziheng to show him.
Qin Ziheng told him to wash his hair first. He said he’d already washed it clean, then urged Qin Ziheng again to look at the little shrimp in his palms. Qin Ziheng pressed his lips together and, under Mao Xiaoshu’s expectant gaze, praised him for being wonderful, at which Mao Xiaoshu set to catching them all the more eagerly.
Qin Ziheng felt rather helpless. He finished washing his own hair, rubbed his body down, and then sat behind Mao Xiaoshu.
Mao Xiaoshu turned to look at him, puzzled.
Qin Ziheng patted his own thigh, telling him to lie down and rest his head on it.
Mao Xiaoshu’s hair was badly tangled, only once the little grass bits were combed loose could they be washed out. But bending over the whole time, Qin Ziheng was afraid he’d complain his back ached, so he simply had him lie on his lap.
Face to the sky, head pillowed on Qin Ziheng’s thigh, Mao Xiaoshu waited while Qin Ziheng adjusted his posture and the height, making sure no river water would get into Mao Xiaoshu’s ears, then dipped his rather long, curly hair into the water and slowly combed it out with his fingers.
“Ow.” Mao Xiaoshu suddenly cried out.
Qin Ziheng looked down at him and said apologetically, “Did I hurt you?”
Mao Xiaoshu’s eyes fixed on his face. “Mm, Xiaoshu hurts a tiny bit.”
“Then I’ll be gentler.”
Once the hair was combed smooth, Qin Ziheng gently massaged Mao Xiaoshu’s head. There was no shampoo, conditions were hard, so this was the best he could do.
He’d cared for Grandpa before, so Qin Ziheng knew exactly how much pressure to use washing someone’s hair. Apart from that one pull that had hurt, Mao Xiaoshu found the whole thing utterly comfortable, the river water cool, the pillow soft. His eyelids slowly grew too heavy to lift, and as his consciousness blurred he was still thinking: Qin Ziheng really is so good, so gentle, washing his hair for him, so nice.
Qin Ziheng cupped water to rinse his hair, and once he’d made sure there were no more grass bits, told Mao Xiaoshu to get up. But Mao Xiaoshu didn’t move, perfectly still and quiet. Shifting his gaze, Qin Ziheng found the other had already fallen asleep, even letting out little snores. Qin Ziheng started, and then couldn’t help shaking his head with a rueful smile.
After the bath he felt much more at ease. It had been very stuffy at noon, Qin Ziheng guessed around forty-one or forty-two degrees. Mao Xiaoshu’s cave mouth faced directly toward where the sun set, and around four or five o’clock the slanting sun would shine into the cave, so by rights it should be very hot inside, yet when Qin Ziheng carried Mao Xiaoshu back, he found the cave unexpectedly cool.
The two of them had worn themselves out all day, and had bathed besides. Although the stone bed was very hard and there was no pillow, they slept quite comfortably.
The next day when he woke, Mao Xiaoshu sat up groggily out of Qin Ziheng’s arms, the hair Qin Ziheng had combed smooth with his fingers exploded into a tangle again. He didn’t seem fully awake, staring blankly at the cave mouth in a daze.
Qin Ziheng rubbed the arm that had gone numb from being his pillow and sat up with him. Mao Xiaoshu always loved to burrow into his arms at night, pressing close against him. Qin Ziheng would edge back, and before long Mao Xiaoshu would rub over again as if following a scent. Qin Ziheng retreated several times until he reached the edge of the stone bed with nowhere left to go, and then, resigned, let Mao Xiaoshu sleep in his arms.
Only when his arm felt a bit better did Qin Ziheng rub Mao Xiaoshu’s head. “Let’s go wash our faces at the river. It’ll wake you up a bit.”
“Qin Ziheng!” Mao Xiaoshu cried out in delight, seeming finally to come awake, remembering he was no longer a lone beast, the beast he’d carried back was going to live with him now, and so he broke into a happy smile.
Qin Ziheng took him to the river to rinse his mouth and wash his face. Once he’d perked up, Mao Xiaoshu pushed at Qin Ziheng, telling him to go back to the cave, he was going to find wild fruit.
Qin Ziheng caught him and asked, “Is there a lot of wild fruit outside the tribe?”
Mao Xiaoshu shook his head. The safe zone outside the tribe wasn’t large. In this season it did bear a lot of wild fruit, round-fruit, pucker-fruit, but not all of it was the beasts’. The birds ate some, and of the remaining small portion, the tribe’s children and female beasts went picking every day, so by the time Mao Xiaoshu went looking there was really nothing left.
But fruit like pucker-fruit, which wasn’t very tasty, the beasts didn’t much like to eat, so some was still left on the trees, that was what had kept Mao Xiaoshu from starving. Although pucker-fruit wasn’t plentiful and he couldn’t find it every day, at least he’d survived this rainy season on his own.