The bone knife was borrowed, and after Ah Hong hinted obliquely that her family’s bone knives were in short supply, Qin Ziheng had Mao Xiaoshu return it. You couldn’t wait for someone to come to your door and ask before thinking to return a borrowed thing, that wasn’t right. He hadn’t thought of it before, had let it slip his mind, and Mao Xiaoshu, busy digging the cave all day, probably hadn’t remembered either.
Mao Xiaoshu went to return the bone knife on his own, Qin Ziheng didn’t like going into the tribe. He couldn’t fathom why the Beast World’s males were so often into their own sex. Ever since he’d come back from the chief’s, male beasts kept coming to the cave asking whether he’d form a bond with them.
The Beast World’s beasts didn’t know the meaning of reserve, if they took a fancy to you, they said so. At first Qin Ziheng could still decline politely, but within a few days he found it tiresome, not that he looked down on or disliked those who loved their own sex, nor that he disliked beasts, but that in six days alone over twenty male beasts had come, and it was seriously interfering with his work.
The snow season was almost upon them, he was very busy and had no wish to waste time on side matters.
And every time a beast came, Mao Xiaoshu grew uneasy, his whole self on edge, even anxiously chewing his fingers. Even after Qin Ziheng said he wouldn’t form a bond with any other beast, Mao Xiaoshu still fretted, every time those beasts came, he’d run straight to Qin Ziheng’s side, saying nothing, both hands gripping his hide skirt, gazing at Qin Ziheng with longing and dread, looking utterly pitiful.
Then, once the beasts left, he’d cling to Qin Ziheng and refuse to go anywhere, as if afraid that if Qin Ziheng left and came back, he’d be gone.
Mao Xiaoshu feared Qin Ziheng would grow annoyed, yet couldn’t help himself, asking over and over whether he really wouldn’t leave.
Qin Ziheng couldn’t stand to see him like this, and grew all the more irritated with the male beasts who came knocking without cease.
But Qin Ziheng had been pursued plenty before, his skill at rejecting people so they wouldn’t dare approach again was masterly. So when the last male beast came, Qin Ziheng’s gaze went heavy, his eyes frosty, and without a word he looked at the beast until it didn’t dare open its mouth and scurried off.
The males no longer dared come to the cave, but seeing Qin Ziheng, they still couldn’t help striking up conversation.
Now Qin Ziheng most dreaded passing through the tribe.
The bone knife had been borrowed a good while. When Mao Xiaoshu set off to return it, Qin Ziheng picked out two of the fatter Cluck-Cluck Beasts for him to take to Ah Hong.
With no bone knife at home now, never mind that everything was inconvenient, if they really went into the woods and met a wild beast, they’d have nothing to defend themselves with.
Lately, every few days a male beast was carried back into the tribe. The nearer the snow season, the more the lack of enough food unsettled the beasts, who kept wanting to risk hunting large game, but big-bodied prey was often powerful in attack, not easy to catch.
The beasts fretted over snow-season food, and the wild beasts were the same.
Every year at this time, whether the safe zone or the hunting belt, everything outside was more dangerous than usual.
That day, back from the grove with a catch of eight Cluck-Cluck Beasts, Qin Ziheng took four and had Mao Xiaoshu lead the way. He wanted to visit Mao Xiaohe’s family and see whether they had a spare bone knife to lend.
The moment they reached the cave where Mao Xiaoshan lived, Mao Xiaoshu called out, “Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, Xiaoshu’s come to see you.”
Mao Xiaoshan had been lying down, but at his voice hurriedly sat up and said with a smile, “Xiaoshu’s here, come in, come in.”
Mao Xiaoshu looked utterly delighted, his little curls sticking up, his two ears twitching and wagging merrily. Qin Ziheng thought this brother-in-law Mao Xiaoshan must be quite good to Mao Xiaoshu, or he wouldn’t be this happy.
It was Mao Xiaoshan’s first time seeing Qin Ziheng, and the moment Qin Ziheng stepped through the cave mouth, his eyes lit up.
This demi-beast really was beautiful, no wonder Xiaohe said male beasts kept running to Xiaoshu’s cave lately.
These days Mao Xiaohe had even worried that Qin Ziheng, afraid of having no food in the snow season, might carelessly form a bond with just any male beast.
Most females and demi-beasts, on coming of age, formed bonds with male beasts directly. For one thing, beasts were called people but still bore beast “traits,” and “spring has come, the season for animals to breed again” applied to beasts too, after the snow season they too would meet their heat, and bearing offspring was, to them, of the utmost importance.
For another, females and demi-beasts couldn’t hunt, which meant that to eat their fill, to have meat, to survive the snow season, they could only bond with a strong male beast.
Although Mao Xiaohe felt it wasn’t right to think this way, a bit selfish, with Qin Ziheng there, Mao Xiaoshu had company every day, and for that she was glad. With a normal beast at Mao Xiaoshu’s side she could rest much easier too. If Qin Ziheng bonded with another beast, what would become of Mao Xiaoshu?
She could see her brother greatly feared being alone and clung to Qin Ziheng. If Qin Ziheng left, her brother would surely grieve a good while, and might even have an episode. When her father had returned to the Beast God’s embrace, her brother had had one such episode, shouting and screaming, unstoppable no matter how they coaxed.
She worried, couldn’t sleep, muttering about Qin Ziheng every day. Mao Guoguo, too, had been scampering over to Mao Xiaoshu’s these past days, always coming home saying Uncle Qin’s chicken soup was so delicious. Mao Xiaoshan wouldn’t let him go, always running over to mooch food, what did that look like? It wasn’t easy for two demi-beasts to scrape up a bite, if Mao Guoguo went, Mao Xiaoshu and Qin Ziheng probably wouldn’t get enough themselves.
So Mao Guoguo stopped going, and yet that evening Qin Ziheng had Mao Xiaoshu bring over a plate of meat.
Here was a beast who knew how to do things. Mao Xiaoshan’s impression of Qin Ziheng was good, and now, seeing him, he was very warm.
Mao Xiaohe wasn’t in, out with the gathering party. Mao Guoguo was playing by himself on the stone bed, and the moment Mao Xiaoshu arrived he latched onto him, the two crouched at the cave mouth chattering about who-knew-what. Qin Ziheng didn’t listen closely, greeting Mao Xiaoshan and chatting with him.
Mao Xiaoshan was rather dark, but looked somewhat “refined,” and like Mao Xiaohe seemed thirty-one or thirty-two. Probably owing to his race, compared with the other male beasts Qin Ziheng had seen, Mao Xiaoshan wasn’t very burly, standing beside a beast like the chief, he was plainly smaller by more than a little.
The cave Mao Xiaoshan lived in wasn’t large, and with rather a lot of things in it, it felt crowded, unlike Mao Xiaoshu’s, which, empty and bare, seemed spacious though it was really just as small.
Qin Ziheng stood by the stone bed, not comfortable sitting. His gaze fell on Mao Xiaoshan’s leg, on the calf was a scar over a finger wide, very long and hideous, like a giant centipede crawling up it, running almost from knee to ankle.
Mao Xiaoshan volunteered, “This leg’s been hurt nearly three years. Looks frightful, doesn’t it?”
He seemed not to mind, so Qin Ziheng asked, “How were you hurt?”
“Also at this time of year. Our hunting party went two whole months without catching much food, apart from what we ate each day, we could store nothing. With the snow season coming, our party talked it over and decided to go deep into the woods. Whether that day’s luck was good or not, I can’t say, the moment we went deep we ran into a herd of Spinefang Boars. This leg was done in by a Spinefang Boar. I don’t know why, it’s all healed, yet I can’t walk on it,” Mao Xiaoshan said.
Qin Ziheng: “May I touch it?”
The Beast World had few such niceties, no fuss about men and women keeping their distance. Mao Xiaoshan laughed. “Why not?”
Qin Ziheng pressed it lightly, and understood why Mao Xiaoshan couldn’t walk, the bone had broken, how could he walk on it? Mao Xiaoshan was now no different from a one-legged beast.
The Beast World had no crutches, no wonder he could only lie on the stone bed.
Qin Ziheng thought: once they’d stored enough food, or when the snow season came and he had free time, he’d try to make Mao Xiaoshan a pair of crutches. Now certainly wasn’t the time.
After chatting a good while, Mao Xiaoshan asked what had brought them over so suddenly, everyone in the tribe was busy at this hour, after all.
Qin Ziheng said, “Tomorrow I want to take Xiaoshu into the woods to find food. Afraid of the danger, I’ve come to borrow a bone knife. Do you have a spare?”
Mao Xiaoshan’s cave was rather small and held a lot of things, firewood and hides laid on the floor, and Qin Ziheng, not wishing to look around, hadn’t seen any bone knife.
Mao Xiaoshan said he did, and pointed to a spot in the corner, telling Qin Ziheng to look. There, piled up, were dried fluff-grass and two small beast hides.
Qin Ziheng felt around at the very bottom and pulled out a bone knife. Mao Xiaoshan glanced at it, still sharp, and told Qin Ziheng to take it, then pointed to the Cluck-Cluck Beasts by the cave mouth and said to take those home.
They had plenty of bone knives at home, lying in bed all day, he had no use for them, take it, take it, no need for any Cluck-Cluck Beasts.
Qin Ziheng said they were for Mao Guoguo, thanks for his help these past days.
Now Mao Xiaoshan didn’t know how to refuse.
Mao Xiaoshu and Mao Guoguo were playing with leaves at the cave mouth. What species those leaves were, no one knew, not flat leaves but long strands, that pulled into threads when snapped, a bit like sweet-potato stems. The two snapped them into segments and wore them around their necks like chains. Mao Xiaoshu even showed Qin Ziheng, some twenty strands around his neck, looking terribly pleased with himself, and asked whether it was pretty.
Qin Ziheng didn’t see anything pretty about it, it was like grass vine looped around in a jumble and slung over the neck, where was the beauty in that?
“Let me see.” He leaned in slightly, pretended to study it a good while, then said earnestly, “Mm, really nice! But Xiaoshu is good-looking, Xiaoshu looks good in anything.”
Mao Xiaoshu wanted to smile but didn’t dare, looking bashful, and said coyly in a small voice, “Mm. Sister used to say Xiaoshu is good-looking, and Qin Ziheng says Xiaoshu is good-looking, so Xiaoshu is the best-looking.”
Qin Ziheng: “…”
This little dummy really was so confident! First saying he was the cleverest, then the most impressive, and now, with a mop of little curls like a chicken’s nest, declaring himself the best-looking.
What’s next? “I’m the coolest”?
Qin Ziheng found him rather funny and couldn’t help praising him a couple more times, then praised Mao Guoguo once too, before leading Mao Xiaoshu home.
Mao Xiaoshan watched Mao Xiaoshu trailing at Qin Ziheng’s heels, then looked at his own son, still flushed with joy, and understood why Mao Xiaoshu clung to Qin Ziheng so. How could he not, when the man was so good at coaxing?