Qin Ziheng hadn’t meant to eat the chicken tail. While chopping, he’d cut it off whole, originally meaning to toss it, but for chicken soup, to make the broth rich and fragrant, it was best to have the tail in. Although the tail had a bit of a smell when eaten, the soup boiled from it was fragrant, with no odor at all, this was wisdom passed down by the older generation.
Every time Qin Ziheng put meat in Mao Xiaoshu’s bowl, Mao Xiaoshu felt very happy. He wanted to make Qin Ziheng happy too, and Cluck-Cluck Beast tail had lots of meat, give it to Qin Ziheng.
Mao Xiaoshu fished around and around in the pot and put four chicken tails one after another into Qin Ziheng’s bamboo tube, stuffing it full to the brim.
Qin Ziheng: “…”
Looking at the several plump, round chicken tails in the tube, Qin Ziheng fell into a rare silence.
……
Mao Xiaohe had cooked a pot of cassava, the water bubbling and burbling in the pot. She poked a stick into the cassava and found it soft, so she pulled the fire away.
Mao Xiaoshan sat on the stone bed and craned to look out the cave. “Why isn’t Guoguo back yet?”
“Probably playing with his uncle and lost track of the time.” Mao Xiaohe fished out two lengths of cassava, wrapped them in a big tree leaf, set them on the stone bed, and said to Mao Xiaoshan, “You eat first. The child will eat whenever he gets back, no need to wait for him. He had two pucker-fruit earlier.”
“How many wood-roots did you dig today?” Mao Xiaoshan took a bite. By “wood-roots” he meant cassava, that was what the Beast World’s beasts called it. Cassava wasn’t sweet and had no real flavor, but it filled the belly. “If there’s a lot, we’ll boil some tonight and send Xiaoshu a bit.”
Mao Xiaohe sat down beside him. “I know. That’s what I was thinking too.”
At the mention of Mao Xiaoshu, Mao Xiaoshan wanted to sigh. “That child hasn’t come over in ages. No telling what he’s been eating these days.”
“I heard from Huzi and the others that he’s been going to find pucker-fruit lately. Don’t worry,” Mao Xiaohe said.
Because he was of the Cat clan, Mao Xiaoshan wasn’t especially sturdily built. In the tribe, beasts of weaker races actually had a hard time finding a female. The reason Mao Xiaohe had been willing to move into Mao Xiaoshan’s stone house and become his mate, besides the bond of growing up together, was that Mao Xiaoshan had a good temperament, was gentle, and could help her look after Mao Xiaoshu.
Before Mao Xiaoshu came of age he’d lived with them. Any other male beast would probably have long since objected.
Mao Xiaohe thought of the beast her own mother had taken up with, he’d been like that. In the old days, Mother had only sent her little brother meat a couple of times, and that beast had glowered at him, made a face at him.
Her own mate, even at a juncture like this, still hadn’t forgotten to think of her little brother.
Mao Xiaohe wiped her tears, and Mao Xiaoshan said helplessly, “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
Mao Xiaohe shook her head, unwilling to say more, but Mao Xiaoshan knew what she was thinking.
Their Cat clan wasn’t a large one in the Fluffy Tribe, only a few dozen. Since childhood he’d played with these two, Mao Xiaohe and She Qi. He’d been twelve when Mao Xiaoshu was born, and afterward Mao Xiaohe would often carry her little brother over for him to see.
As a baby, Mao Xiaoshu was very cute, a head of little curls, two bright shining eyes. Mao Xiaoshan had held him plenty, he was called a brother-in-law, but really he was scarcely different from a son to him. A child he’d watched grow up, of course he thought of him.
Earlier, when he’d gone out with the hunting party and had that accident, he’d nearly not made it back. Although he’d been lucky to keep his life, his leg was broken. A beast with a bad leg was really no different from a cripple. In that period he’d thought and thought, and finally told Mao Xiaohe: she wasn’t to send Mao Xiaoshu food anymore.
He’d doted on Mao Xiaoshu before, knowing his mind wasn’t quick, he pitied him, cherished him, and raising him had never bothered Mao Xiaoshan in the least, figuring that since he could go out hunting with the party, one more mouth was nothing.
But the day of the accident, he’d suddenly felt he’d been wrong, he shouldn’t have thought to keep raising Mao Xiaoshu.
Not that he minded Mao Xiaoshu becoming a burden, but when the Black-Fur Beast had him by the leg, flung him against a tree, and pinned him down hard, he’d suddenly thought: if he returned to the Beast God’s embrace, what would become of Mao Xiaohe? What would become of his son? And what would become of Mao Xiaoshu?
True, if he were gone there was still Mao Xiaohe, but Mao Xiaohe went out every day, gathering with the other demi-beasts and females, and that wasn’t very safe either.
Beasts like them, every time they left the tribe, never knew whether they’d come back, outside really was so dangerous.
If he were gone, and one day Mao Xiaohe didn’t come back either, his son was still small, and the tribe would look after him, take him to the Big Cave. But Mao Xiaoshu? He was already grown, the tribe would never see to him again.
He couldn’t rely on them anymore. He had to learn to find food himself, had to learn how to survive in this world, so that if one day they were all gone, Mao Xiaoshu could go on living.
Mao Xiaoshan hardened his heart and stopped letting Mao Xiaohe send Mao Xiaoshu food. At first Mao Xiaoshu didn’t know how to find things and went hungry for several days running. Once, unable to bear the hunger any longer, he’d come over, head bowed, and asked Mao Xiaoshan whether there was any food, he was so hungry.
Mao Xiaoshan lay on the bed and said there was no food at home either. Mao Xiaoshu’s tears fell right then. Later, terribly hungry, he’d gone every day to the river to drink water, and every time Mao Xiaohe saw it and came home, she’d cry in secret.
When Mao Xiaoshan next saw Mao Xiaoshu, he found him gone terribly thin, and it grieved him too. But what could be done, at least Mao Xiaoshu now knew how to find food.
“We’re all family,” Mao Xiaoshan said, and sighed deeply again. The snow season was coming, how they’d get through it, he still didn’t know. His leg hadn’t healed, the family had no food stored, to say he wasn’t worried or troubled would be a lie. But he didn’t dare say much, Mao Xiaohe went out early and came back late every day, hard-worked enough already.
There were only three wood-roots on the big tree leaf. Mao Xiaohe picked the smallest and began to eat.
“Mother, Father.”
The two of them were halfway through their meal in the stone house when Mao Guoguo came running in from outside, cradling two Cluck-Cluck Beasts, his face full of joy.
Mao Xiaohe got such a fright she shot up from the stone bed. “Where did you get Cluck-Cluck Beasts? Did your grandma give them?”
By “grandma” she meant Mao Xiaoshan’s mother.
Mao Xiaoshan looked over too.
Mao Guoguo shook his head and said gleefully, “No, Uncle and the other uncle gave them.”
“What other uncle?”
……
Being still small, after all, Mao Guoguo gnawed three drumsticks and had a bit of soup and was full. Qin Ziheng was very hungry, but eating nothing but meat actually felt a bit cloying to him. As a child he’d craved meat because he rarely got it, but these years, with conditions good, what hadn’t he eaten, things that fly in the sky, run on the ground, swim in the water? He no longer loved meat the way he had as a boy.
He drank a good deal of soup and ate maybe two bowls of meat, the rest mostly went into Mao Xiaoshu’s belly.
When Mao Guoguo was about to leave, Mao Xiaoshu looked at Qin Ziheng, wanting to speak yet not daring. He knew his sister surely hadn’t eaten meat these days either. There was still a bit of meat in the pot, Qin Ziheng wasn’t eating anymore and had said the rest was all his. He wasn’t full yet, but he wanted to give some to his sister and brother-in-law, only he was too shy to say so.
The Cluck-Cluck Beasts had all been caught by Qin Ziheng, they weren’t his, so Mao Xiaoshu was torn.
Qin Ziheng had said the rest was all Mao Xiaoshu’s, meaning Mao Xiaoshu had the right to finish it, pour it out, or give it away. But Mao Xiaoshu, whose head had once been rooted at by a wild boar, plainly hadn’t thought of that.
He couldn’t hide his feelings, whatever he thought showed on his face. Qin Ziheng, being who he was, perceptive and sharp, could hardly fail to know what was on his mind. When Mao Guoguo was about to leave, he simply took two Cluck-Cluck Beasts and pressed them on Mao Guoguo to take home.
The remaining two didn’t need killing yet. The pot wasn’t very dirty and didn’t need washing, Mao Xiaoshu finished all the leftover meat, then took the pot to the river for a quick rinse and came running back.
The fluff-grass cut yesterday was still spread on the ground and had dried out a bit. He turned it over, and halfway through turned to sneak a look into the cave. Qin Ziheng was bent over with a handful of bamboo twigs, sweeping up the bones, he meant to finish sweeping the floor and make another trip to the bamboo grove later.
They’d eaten in a rush at noon. He’d cut two bamboo tubes to serve as bowls, but he’d cut them a bit long, so the tubes were deep and it was hard to pick out the meat. He planned to make them shallower and smooth the rims well, or they’d scratch the mouth. He’d have to whittle a few pairs of chopsticks too, the bamboo twigs were slippery for picking up meat, inconvenient after all. Since he was going to make them, he’d best make them well. The very bottom section of old bamboo was harder and bigger, best for making bowls and chopsticks.
When Mao Xiaohe came hurrying over, the cave was silent, not a beast in it. But sharp-eyed, she noticed a certain thing folded on the stone bed…
Mao Xiaohe couldn’t tell what it was, black and glossy anyway, and didn’t dare open it to look. To the left of the cave was a firewood stove, beside which lay two Cluck-Cluck Beasts with bound claws and a small pile of dry bamboo, to the right, a good deal of fluff-grass was drying. And the cave was filled with the fragrance of meat. It seemed her son hadn’t lied, a strange beast really had come to the household.
Who on earth was it?
A bit uneasy, Mao Xiaohe couldn’t sit still, pacing back and forth before the cave. Was it a male beast? Cluck-Cluck Beasts were hard to catch, small and fast, even a male beast couldn’t easily catch them, let alone females and demi-beasts, who had worse endurance and speed.
The moment Mao Xiaoshu reached the bamboo grove, his eyes lit up and he wanted to go check whether there were Cluck-Cluck Beasts in the traps. Qin Ziheng held him back and said not to rush, the traps had only been dug this morning, their scent hadn’t dispersed yet, and the Cluck-Cluck Beasts wouldn’t take the bait so fast. Come again tomorrow. Check too often and, if the Cluck-Cluck Beasts happened to be clever and noticed their traces, it would only be bad.
Mao Xiaoshu was very obedient and gave up the idea then and there, not fussing in the least, following Qin Ziheng docilely to find big bamboo.
Mao Xiaohe had waited in the cave a good while when she heard a sound outside, like branches being dragged along the ground.
She ran to the cave mouth and followed the sound, and saw her rather foolish little brother shouldering a big bundle of firewood, head tipped up, chatting and grinning with another wholly unfamiliar beast. That beast dragged two lengths of bamboo in his hand, freshly cut, still a bit green, and as he walked, he tilted his face slightly, head lowered, listening attentively to her little brother.