They met plenty of beasts along the way, and everyone, seeing Mao Xiaoshu and Qin Ziheng, stopped to ask a few curious questions. Qin Ziheng had worked for years and knew that to blend into a group you had to take the initiative, so he greeted many along the way.
Qin Ziheng noticed the male beasts dressed much like Mao Xiaoshu, a sleeveless, shoulder-covering hide top and a hide skirt below, while the female beasts dressed more scantily, their hide skirts shorter. Everyone, without exception, dressed this way, so there must be no hemp cloth or the like here yet, the Beast World was far more backward than he’d imagined.
But the Fluffy Tribe was more spacious and level than he’d expected. Across from the tribe was a river, over four meters wide, very large. At a narrower stretch two bamboos were bound together with grass vine, this was the only “road” to the small plain and woods opposite.
This road was easy for two-legged creatures, for four-legged ones, getting into the tribe by that narrow path was very hard, so few wild beasts ever broke in.
Not only that, the Fluffy Tribe had great mountains at its back, a bamboo grove on the left, another large bamboo grove on the right, and a river in front, forming natural lines of defense on all four sides. Seated here, in a world overrun by wild beasts, the Fluffy Tribe could be called very safe.
The Fluffy Tribe wasn’t well planned, though, stone houses one here, one there, no order to them, and none of them large, each like a little single room. The great mountain at the tribe’s back was very broad, its cliff face all brown stone, and very tall, this wasn’t an earthen mountain but rock, jagged all over.
Where the cliff met the ground were stone caves with beasts living inside. Qin Ziheng noticed that some four or five meters up the face were densely packed small holes too, but those mouths weren’t as wide as the caves at the base where people lived, and were high off the ground, for a moment he couldn’t tell what those holes were for.
The ground in the tribe was well-packed, and where no beasts lived, no weeds grew, little beasts ran about the flat ground bare-bottomed.
Light glittered on the river across the way, and farther off were a scenic grassland and lush green woods. Poor as the tribe’s conditions looked, listening to the ceaseless laughter of playing children, and the old beasts sitting before the caves beating hides and washing intestines, Qin Ziheng suddenly felt a great peace, the restlessness that had gripped him all this time settled.
This was rather like the village he’d lived in as a child, back when few had left to work away, and the village had been just this lively.
The Fluffy Tribe’s chief was of the Tiger clan, very tall and burly, a scar on his face running straight from brow to mouth, but heroic and handsome, thick-browed and big-eyed. Qin Ziheng had thought he’d be an older man, only to find him quite young, no more than thirty-one or thirty-two.
Along the way Qin Ziheng had seen quite a few male beasts, all very tall, powerfully built, around one meter eighty to nearly one meter ninety, with more or fewer scars, uniformly bronze-skinned. His own one-eighty-nine had once counted as tall, but here it seemed hardly worth mentioning.
Huya was quite happy to see Mao Xiaoshu, he’d just laughed, but then, catching sight of Qin Ziheng beside him, his gaze paused. “And you are?”
Mao Xiaoshu looked at Qin Ziheng and said urgently, “Qin Ziheng, this is the chief. Hurry and tell him.”
Tell him, and he could stay.
Qin Ziheng gave the same account. Hearing it, Huya nodded and looked him up and down. “You’re a demi-beast, aren’t you?”
His tone was very certain. Qin Ziheng still didn’t understand what a demi-beast even was, but that didn’t stop him from nodding.
“Yes.”
A demi-beast this good-looking, if he were from the neighboring tribe, Huya couldn’t possibly have never seen him. Huya believed the better part of it. “Since you want to stay, then live with Xiaoshu from now on. There are no empty caves in the tribe anyway.”
Stone houses weren’t easy to build, those who lived in them were usually of the Tiger, Leopard, or Dog clans.
The chief’s house was very large, but had no stone bed and no wooden bed, only some dried thatch spread in one corner, and in another corner a stack of beast hides on a wooden stump, bear and tiger it seemed, many of them, piled high.
Qin Ziheng privately guessed those must be the quilts the beasts used in the snow season.
There were no stools in the house, everyone sat on the ground.
Huya’s female was busy nearby. Apart from a couple of glances at Qin Ziheng when he entered, she never said a word, nor greeted Mao Xiaoshu, crouching outside the cave cutting mutton.
Huya was thinking that if Qin Ziheng lived with Mao Xiaoshu, maybe he could look after him a little, otherwise, how would that dopey Mao Xiaoshu get through this snow season? Speaking of which, looking at Mao Xiaoshu made him worry, and he said to Qin Ziheng:
“In a little over two months the snow season will be here. Neither of you demi-beasts has a mate, and you’re both grown, so you can only rely on yourselves. While there’s still time, store up more food and firewood, or how will you two survive this snow season?”
Mao Xiaoshu had said before that the snow season was very cold, Mao Xiaohe had come by at noon and nagged about it once too, telling them to hurry and store food, brows knit with worry as she spoke, now the chief was the same. So the snow season here must be truly hard to weather, which was why everyone frowned at the mention of it.
Qin Ziheng said, half in earnest, “I understand. But Chief, how long does the snow season usually last? I’m from a far tribe, where I’m from it’s only cold for three months.”
Huya said, “Ours is longer, nearly four months.”
Qin Ziheng asked a few more things.
The Beast World had no spring, summer, autumn, winter, but it did have twelve months.
Four months of snow season.
Four months of hot season.
Four months of rainy season.
The hot season was followed by the rainy season, and after the rainy season came the snow season.
As he talked, Huya got up and fetched a few bubble-fruit from the corner for Mao Xiaoshu and Qin Ziheng.
The bubble-fruit was a bit like strawberry. Qin Ziheng thanked him and ate one, somewhat sweet, somewhat sour. Seeing Mao Xiaoshu seemed to like them, he handed him the three still in his hand.
Mao Xiaoshu looked up at him.
“You eat them. I don’t care for them.” As Qin Ziheng finished, out of the corner of his eye he saw Huya’s female watching them, her face gone long.
Qin Ziheng lifted his eyes and met hers, a not-quite-smile on his lips.
Ah Ya’s heart lurched, and she hurriedly lowered her head.
Huya didn’t notice, prattling on. He said last time he’d been over he hadn’t seen the door-board of Mao Xiaoshu’s cave, where had it gone? And he told Qin Ziheng to make one with Mao Xiaoshu quickly, or with nothing to block the entrance, what would they do if Woo-Woo Beasts and Black-Fur Beasts came into the tribe in the snow season? If they ran into any trouble later, they should come to him.
Coming back from the chief’s, Qin Ziheng felt a certain urgency.
And the news that a very beautiful demi-beast had come to the tribe spread through the whole tribe in a single night.
Qin Ziheng didn’t know this, on the way back he was busy thinking where to find food.
Four months of snow season meant a great deal of food to store. He alone didn’t eat much at a meal, but Mao Xiaoshu was a monster, one beast could put away half a big pot of meat in a single meal. Counting Mao Xiaoshu’s share, the food to be found was a great deal.
More importantly, the chief said wild beasts came into the tribe in the snow season. The only road out was two bamboos, which the beasts pulled away when they weren’t leaving the tribe, if wild beasts could still break in, that could only mean the river froze over in the snow season.
How cold would that be? Forty or fifty below? In such conditions, relying on fire alone for warmth probably wouldn’t work.
Perhaps he’d have to figure out not only how to store enough food, but also how to keep warm and fend off invading beasts.
The thought made Qin Ziheng unable to sit still.
But to leave Mao Xiaoshu to fend for himself…
Up ahead Mao Xiaoshu was bouncing along, running a bit and then stopping to call, “Qin Ziheng, hurry and chase Xiaoshu, let’s go home and cook Cluck-Cluck Beast.”
To be honest, though they’d been together only two days, to leave Mao Xiaoshu to live or die on his own, Qin Ziheng couldn’t do it.
Without Mao Xiaoshu, he might not be standing here now without a scratch.
And besides, if he didn’t look after Mao Xiaoshu, what would become of him?
Back then, if Grandpa had also seen him as a burden and abandoned him… what would he have done?
He often saw the shadow of his younger self in Mao Xiaoshu, and he couldn’t bring himself to be indifferent.
Mao Xiaoshu, seeing him walk along then suddenly stop and gaze fixedly at himself without speaking, cocked his head. “Qin Ziheng, what’s wrong?” His eyes lit up, thinking of something, and he scampered a few steps up to Qin Ziheng, then crouched down with his back to him. “Are you tired? Then Xiaoshu will carry you home.”
Qin Ziheng looked at him crouched into a small ball, because he was so thin, his spine stuck out a little as he bent.
He smiled and pulled Mao Xiaoshu up.
Mao Xiaoshu looked at him, uncomprehending.
Qin Ziheng shook his head. “Not tired. Come, let’s go home, I’ll cook you Cluck-Cluck Beast.”
“Okay!”
There were only two Cluck-Cluck Beasts left, surely not enough for Mao Xiaoshu’s appetite, but luckily Mao Xiaohe had sent over some wood-root.
Qin Ziheng looked at the few lengths of cassava, feeling a touch of nostalgia. As a child there’d been plenty of cassava grown in the village, most of it used to feed pigs, but later, as conditions improved, few grew cassava, and few were willing to keep pigs at home, most had gone off to work. Households with old folk, unable to do heavy labor, only grew some corn to raise a few chickens and ducks, those without old folk mostly planted trees in the fields.
Mao Xiaohe hadn’t sent much cassava, only three lengths, each as big and long as a forearm.
Qin Ziheng killed the chickens and had Mao Xiaoshu wash the cassava, then cut it and put it in the pot, he planned to cook it with the chicken later.
Mao Xiaoshu said “mm, mm,” took the cassava out of the pot, and scrubbed it carefully in the river.
Actually, chicken parboiled first and then stewed would be more fragrant, but with nothing at home to hold the meat or water, it all had to go into the pot and be carried back.
Home again, Qin Ziheng had Mao Xiaoshu light the fire and watch the meat. While the sky wasn’t fully dark, he went into the woods himself, cut two more bamboos, and dragged them back.
Mao Xiaoshu asked what he was doing.
Qin Ziheng said he wanted to make a basket and two back-baskets, so that later, holding things or going out gathering, it would be more convenient, no more having to carry everything in his arms.
Mao Xiaoshu had never seen a back-basket and had no idea what it was. Knowing he couldn’t help, he crouched quietly by the stove and watched the meat, feeding in a couple of sticks whenever the firewood in the stove was about to burn out.