3
Fresh ingredients require the simplest cooking method—eating them raw.
He Tian picked up a medium-sized stone from nearby, sat down on the ground, and cracked open the nearest chestnut with a sharp smack of her cleaver. From within the prickly husk, she extracted the glossy nut, placed it on the stone, and smacked it again.
The split revealed a pale, moist kernel, releasing a faint, sweet fragrance.
She peeled off the shell and ate it directly. It was tender—crisp and delicate. Each bite filled her mouth with fragrance and a natural sweetness. It was truly delicious, a flavor she had never tasted in the apocalypse.
She was too hungry, and the fresh chestnuts were too good. Once she started, she couldn’t stop.
Smack, crack, crunch, crunch…
Smack, crack, crunch, crunch…
Smack, crack, crunch, crunch…
Smack, crack, crunch, crunch…
Smack, crack, crunch, crunch…
…
Deep within the quiet, dense forest, the occasional calls of birds and beasts drifted through, along with the rustle of wind combing through leaves. Only the sounds of He Tian cracking chestnuts, shelling them, and eating them broke the stillness—steady and rhythmic.
Chestnuts lay scattered all around. She moved as she ate, leaving a long trail of husks in her wake, until a feeling of fullness spread through her stomach. Only then did she stop.
She patted her round belly and let out a satisfied sigh. It was truly delicious.
What surprised her even more was that she could feel her body slowly recovering. It was a very gradual process, but recovery was happening nonetheless.
That was good news. No matter how slow, as long as she could recover, one day she would regain a physique she was satisfied with.
This realization settled her restless mind.
The He household was in its current sorry state, and Liu Erniang’s condition was far from good. If she remained this frail, even with a mountain of treasures at her back, life would still be difficult.
There was no one else to rely on. She could only depend on herself. Only when she was strong would she truly be fearless.
Having just eaten, she didn’t immediately set to work. Instead, she sat quietly, taking in her surroundings. Partly to let her food settle, partly out of curiosity.
The world before the apocalypse truly was beautiful.
So many plants, so lush and full of life and no need to stay constantly alert for a sudden attack from a mutant. This was what living meant.
He Tian’s gaze burned as she took in the scenery. The more she looked, the more she loved it.
She closed her eyes and felt the mountain breeze brush gently against her cheeks—fresh and soothing. Her lips curved upward again of their own accord.
Once the bloated feeling in her stomach had subsided, she got up and began gathering chestnuts into her basket.
She had eaten her fill, but Liu Erniang hadn’t. And there was no food left at home. If she collected more chestnuts, at least they wouldn’t go from one meal to the next with nothing. Having food in the house steadied the heart and allowed one to breathe a little easier.
Most of the fallen chestnuts had already gone into He Tian’s stomach. Seeing none left on the ground, she secured her basket on her back and, with the nimble agility of a wild mountain cat, scrambled up the chestnut tree in a few swift moves.
It was good to be full. Climbing didn’t tire her at all; in fact, she felt refreshed and energized.
Chestnuts kept well, could be prepared in many ways, and were nutritious. Following the principle that more was better, He Tian stripped the entire tree bare.
She gathered exactly one full basket’s worth.
Jumping down from the tree, she didn’t rush back down the mountain. The household had no firewood left; she needed to chop some. While up in the tree harvesting chestnuts, she had already spotted an excellent spot for woodcutting, not far away.
She covered the basket with a few large leaves, securing them with vines to keep the chestnuts from spilling out, then headed toward the woodcutting site.
It wasn’t far. She reached it quickly.
Setting down her basket, she pulled two chestnuts from her robe, she had tucked them there earlier, cracked the shells open with her teeth, and ate them. Then she rolled up her sleeves and began to chop.
He Da had passed away some time ago, and Liu Erniang had been ill for a long while. The once-sharp cleaver, long unused, was covered in rust. At first, cutting was not very smooth.
But He Tian was no ordinary person. Even in her weakened state, she was stronger than most. Soon, the cleaver regained some of its former edge.
The more she chopped, the better the blade became. Now that she had eaten and her strength had returned somewhat, cutting wood was as easy as slicing through melons and vegetables.
Before long, she had piled up a neat stack of firewood.
Estimating that it would last a few days, He Tian stopped—she was beginning to tire.
This body was still far too weak. Even chopping a little wood was too much for it. She had overestimated its endurance. She needed to rest and recuperate properly before venturing out again. It wouldn’t do to leave herself with lingering health issues.
She sat for a while, eating a few more chestnuts until her strength had recovered somewhat. Then she bound the firewood with vines, slung her basket across her chest, and began the descent.
She hadn’t gone very deep into the mountain to begin with, just strayed a bit off the main path where few people went. Before long, she heard voices and footsteps—she must be nearing the foot of the mountain.
Just as she was about to round a large boulder twice her height, He Tian caught a faint sound.
Rustle, rustle. Very soft.
She stopped and listened again. This time, she pinpointed the source. It sounded like a small animal.
Something occurred to her making her eyes flicker. She set down her basket and firewood and strode quickly toward the sound.
It came from a dense thicket of shrubs, as tall as a person.
Parting the branches, she spotted a half-grown wild rabbit, munching happily on grass she didn’t recognize.
The little gray rabbit seemed rather dim. Its hiding spot had been discovered, yet it remained oblivious, chewing away contentedly until sunlight spilled over it. Only then did it jerk its head up and stare at He Tian.
The next moment, its ears were seized, and it was lifted clean off the ground.
The little gray rabbit kicked its hind legs uneasily in the air, as though it meant to struggle. But after two hesitant kicks, it suddenly gave up.
He Tian ran her hand along its back and hind legs, feeling a faint twinge of regret.
It was too small. Too thin. Better to keep it for now and fatten it up. She remembered Yao Yao had written in her journal about the recipe for spicy rabbit stir-fry. It sounded delicious. She wanted to taste it someday.
So, He Tian stroked her future spicy rabbit dish and said, “Come home with me.”
The little gray rabbit still had an unfinished blade of grass in its mouth. At her words, it kicked its legs once whether in agreement or refusal, He Tian neither knew nor cared. She tore off a few long blades of grass and bound its legs.
The rabbit didn’t resist. It let her tie it up and hang it from her person, only straining its neck to reach the grass it had been eating.
It stretched so hard, it seemed desperate to gather a whole pile of it into its chest. Even after He Tian turned away, it kept craning its neck backward, reaching for something…
Mm?
She hadn’t paid much attention at first, but now something struck her as odd.
She thought for a moment, then set the rabbit down. It immediately hopped a few times, returning to its original spot, and resumed devouring the same grass with great enthusiasm.
She walked over, crouched, and poked it. The rabbit didn’t move. It didn’t run. It was simply too absorbed in its feast to care.
He Tian decided this rabbit might be a bit simple.
But when her gaze fell upon the grass it was so eagerly consuming, a thought surfaced: Could it be that all that frantic neck-stretching earlier was just to reach this grass—not to escape?
Intrigued, He Tian plucked a blade of the rabbit’s chosen grass and examined it closely.
It was lush green, with serrated edges, and had a faint, clean scent. But aside from that, it looked little different from most of the other grasses she had seen in the mountains.
What kind of grass was this, and why did the rabbit love it so much?
She studied it for a long time but still couldn’t identify it, that wasn’t surprising. By the time the apocalypse arrived, most species had gone extinct. She truly had never encountered this plant before.
The rabbit was small, and she would need to keep it for a while. Rather than worrying later about what to feed it, why not just harvest some of this nameless grass it clearly favored? That would simplify matters.
In the end, He Tian returned home with a load of firewood on her back, a basket full of chestnuts strapped to her chest, and dangling somewhere about her person, one small gray rabbit along with a large bundle of the nameless grass it so adored.
As He Tian had expected, Liu Erniang had been anxiously waiting. She had even propped herself up and made her way to the door. At the sight of her daughter, relief flooded her pale, careworn face. “You’re back?”
He Tian quickened her pace, set down her basket and firewood, and immediately reached out to support Liu Erniang. “The wind is strong. Why did you come out? Please, go back inside and rest.”
Seeing her daughter unharmed, Liu Erniang smiled. “It’s nothing, I just came out for a bit. It’s fine.”
Her hands were ice-cold, yet she said it was fine.
He Tian knew it was worry for her daughter that had driven Liu Erniang out. She said nothing more, only insistently guided her back inside to lie down.
“Did you catch a rabbit?” Liu Erniang asked, noticing the little gray rabbit bound and lying beside the basket, still munching away industriously on its grass.
“Picked it up on the way down the mountain,” He Tian said.
In her current state, actually catching a nimble, wild rabbit would have been quite a challenge.
In the past, her daughter had often accompanied her father into the mountains to hunt small game. Liu Erniang had no reason to doubt her. Still, she found her daughter’s choice of words amusing.
Wild animals in the mountains were far too clever to simply be “picked up.” Catching one must have taken effort and care. Her daughter was only saying it was picked up to ease her worry so Liu Erniang did not press further.
“I gathered a lot of chestnuts,” He Tian said. “I’ll make you some chestnut porridge.” She helped Liu Erniang settle back into bed and carefully tucked the blanket around her.
The moment her fingers touched the blanket, He Tian’s expression flickered.
It was too thin. Too worn. It could hardly provide any warmth at all.
She would need to find a way to get two new blankets as soon as possible, she thought. The one she slept under was cold as iron as well.
She didn’t voice these thoughts. She only said to Liu Erniang, “I picked a full basket. It’ll last us quite a few days. Don’t worry, Mother. Our days will get better from now on. Just focus on resting and recovering.”
The smile on Liu Erniang’s face froze for an instant. Then, with a touch of bitterness, she nodded. “Yes.”
He Tian noticed but she said nothing, after all, Liu Erniang’s illness was born of grief.
Her husband, gone. Her son, dead. The blows were too heavy.
For now, she would focus on getting through each day, He Tian thought.
She stepped outside, tipped the chestnuts out of her basket, and sat down in the yard. Basking in the warm sunlight, she began cracking and shelling chestnuts.
Smack, crack… Smack, crack…
The sounds rang out in the small courtyard, which had lain silent and deathly for months. They shattered the gloom and lethargy that had settled over the place. Suddenly, this still-worn and shabby little yard seemed to stir back to life.
Like a clear spring, suddenly flowing into a dry, barren pond.
In an instant, it was filled with vitality.
**