Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Just as the arrowhead of the black eagle-feathered arrow was about to strike the snow leopard’s head, an invisible current of air suddenly formed beneath its hind paws in midair and lifted it. The snow leopard seemed to kick off against empty space, shooting into the hut with thunderous speed. Before entering, it did not forget to snatch He Yi up in its jaws and carry him inside as well. The arrowhead narrowly missed the snow leopard and buried itself diagonally in the dirt, stopping about fifteen centimeters before the threshold. The shaft hummed for several moments before finally going still.
When He Yi landed hard on his backside, the first thing he noticed was not the dull ache in his tailbone but a sharp pain in his left arm. His arm had accidentally scraped against the doorframe as he was dragged inside, and the smell of blood immediately spread through the air.
“Hiss—” He Yi sucked in a breath and struggled upright.
Although blood was pouring from the wound, He Yi had no time to deal with it. He merely clamped his right hand over the injury, shifted behind the door, and used his foot to shove the hut’s bamboo-slat door closed.
The snow leopard had been bristling, its forequarters lowered as it glared outside. Once it saw He Yi shut the door, the high arch of its back gradually relaxed. Then it noticed his injured arm. It padded over, used one thick paw to push aside the right hand pressing the wound, and licked the cut on his left arm.
A snow leopard’s tongue was barbed, yet He Yi felt no pain, only a brief tickle. The wound that had still been welling blood a moment ago immediately stopped bleeding.
He Yi stared at the snow leopard with an indescribably complicated expression. He had never heard of snow leopard saliva being able to stop bleeding. Even if it could, there was no way it should work within a second. Yet such a bizarre sight had happened right before his eyes, and he had no choice but to believe it. Just what exactly was this snow leopard?
But the urgent matter was not puzzling over how this leopard differed from an ordinary one. It was keeping both the man outside and the beast inside under control.
That arrow had obviously been aimed at the snow leopard. Most likely, the archer had assumed the leopard was about to eat him and fired in order to save him.
He Yi was grateful to whoever had shot it, but he did not dare imagine what would have happened if the arrow had hit. A chill ran down his back.
After thinking it through calmly, He Yi decided that gratitude was one thing, but the snow leopard had truly saved his life before, and just now it had not meant to attack him at all. It had only been chasing the ball when it charged in his direction. He absolutely could not let the other person keep attacking it.
He Yi chose his words carefully, no longer caring whether his accent was correct, and shouted out the window, “Is that Hunter Xu? Brother Xu, is that you? I’m He Yi! I’m fine! That’s not a tiger, and it doesn’t eat people!”
Hunter Xu immediately shouted back from outside, “What nonsense are you talking about?! How do you know it doesn’t eat people?!”
That was true. How did he know the snow leopard did not eat people? He had modern knowledge beyond this era, the accumulated experience and results of scientific observation left by those who came before him, and his own firsthand experience interacting with the snow leopard. Suddenly, he realized there was no way he could convince Hunter Xu.
Hunter Xu made his living through hunting, and killing animals with beautiful pelts was ordinary business for him. Even if He Yi told him that snow leopards did not usually attack people, he could not be sure Hunter Xu would not try to trap one or find some way to approach it.
Since he could not get through to Hunter Xu, He Yi inexplicably found himself pinning his hopes on communicating with the snow leopard instead. If anyone knew about this, they would definitely think he had lost his mind.
He Yi lowered his voice and said to the snow leopard, “The man outside is a hunter. You need to be careful. But… that arrow just now was meant to save me. When I open the door, run out immediately. Don’t attack him first.”
The request was somewhat selfish, but He Yi had no other choice. Hunters and fierce beasts could practically be called mortal enemies. How could they possibly establish trust between them?
At least, not now. He barely understood either of them himself.
The snow leopard turned its eyeliner-like eyes toward He Yi as though considering his words. A moment later, it gave a small nod.
He Yi silently marveled at how extraordinary it was. Then he negotiated with Hunter Xu. “The fact that I’m still alive is the best proof. I’m going to open the door and let it leave now. Brother Xu, please don’t attack it first. It’s very intelligent, and it saved my life before. I’m asking you this favor!”
Only after a pause did Hunter Xu’s voice come from some distance away. “Understood.”
He Yi did not want to gamble, but he had no choice. He was betting that Hunter Xu would keep his word, and betting that the snow leopard truly understood him.
With both sides’ agreement secured, He Yi’s throat bobbed. He yanked open the bamboo-slat door and shouted at the snow leopard, “Go!!”
Outside, Hunter Xu was perched on the branch of a large banyan tree, gripping his longbow tightly, not daring to relax. His palms were slick with sweat. With an arrow nocked, he stared intently toward the hut’s doorway.
The instant the snow leopard beside He Yi shot out, He Yi unconsciously held his breath and clenched his fist, staring hard toward the general direction where Hunter Xu was positioned.
At some point, gray clouds had swallowed the setting sun and the temperature abruptly dropped. A cool white mist suddenly rose along the mountainside. A silver-gray figure burst from the thatched hut and, in the next instant, sprang into the vast fog and vanished.
Hunter Xu’s bow hand trembled slightly from tension, but he still did not dare lower his guard. Only after the mountain mist completely dispersed and he waited a little longer without anything unusual happening did he sling the longbow across his back and return the arrow to his quiver.
As he passed the front of the hut, he pulled the earlier arrow from the ground and, with a reverse flick of his hand, slipped it into the quiver at his side before striding into the hunter’s hut.
The moment Hunter Xu entered, he noticed the blood on He Yi’s arm and frowned. “Didn’t you say it wouldn’t attack you? What happened to your hand?”
Now that the snow leopard had left safely, He Yi finally relaxed. He pointed at the bloodstain on the doorframe and answered, “…Caught it on the door.”
“…” Hunter Xu’s expression became difficult to describe.
He Yi, however, suddenly sensed something was off. After a moment, he remembered that he still had symptoms of what might be an epidemic and should not stay too close to other people. He hurriedly told Hunter Xu to step back outside.
Hunter Xu could only retreat several paces. Then he took off his shoulder bag, searched through it for some mugwort leaves, placed them on the stool by the doorway, and said, “Chew these up and put them on the wound. Tie a scrap of cloth around it to stop the bleeding.”
He Yi waved a hand. “No need. The bleeding already stopped.”
“It’ll heal faster with this on it,” Hunter Xu insisted.
“Thanks.” He Yi glanced at the mugwort leaves and hesitated before going over to pick them up. He drew some water from the clay jar in the corner of the hut, rinsed both the wound and the leaves, then put the mugwort into his mouth.
As he chewed, an intensely bitter taste burst across his tongue and aggressively filled his mouth. He Yi chewed only long enough to mash the leaves, spat them into his palm, and pressed the pulp over the wound. Only after applying it did he realize there was no usable scrap of cloth in the hut, and with one hand occupied, he could not tear a strip from his clothes either.
He looked toward Hunter Xu. Without even glancing over, the other man tossed him a small roll of cloth strips.
He Yi reacted quickly and caught it one-handed. Then, with practiced movements, he wrapped the strip around his arm using one hand, bit through a short length, and tied a neat knot.
A trace of surprise crossed Hunter Xu’s face. After a moment, he asked, “You said that beast saved you before?”
He Yi nodded. “When I went to ask you for help last time, I ran into a python on the way. That snow leopard suddenly appeared and killed it. That’s why I wasn’t hurt.”
“Could it actually understand people…? I’ve seen traces of it several times on the mountain to the north, but never met it head-on. I dug pit traps, but it never stepped into a single one.”
The mountain to the north… He Yi roughly understood which one Hunter Xu meant. If the mountain they were currently on was Peak A, then the one where Hunter Xu lived would be Peak B, while the mountain where Hunter Xu had seen traces of the snow leopard would be Peak C. A through C ran from south to north.
“You call it a snow leopard?” Hunter Xu asked.
“That’s the name of the species.”
“Never heard of it.”
He Yi was not surprised. Snow leopards were rare and generally lived at high elevations. He himself had no idea why one would appear in these southern forests. Even the summit of Yaluo Mountain’s highest peak never kept snow year-round. Snowfall was uncommon even in winter, and the elevation was not especially high, so at most the peaks usually saw some frost.
A cool sensation continued to spread from He Yi’s injured arm. He did not know whether the mugwort was actually doing anything, but it felt quite comfortable.
He did know that mugwort leaves came from mugwort plants. There were plenty of mosquitoes and insects in the mountains, and Chongzi Village at the foot of the mountains had many as well. Villagers commonly burned mugwort to drive them away.
Right now, whether for dressing his wound or burning to repel insects, he needed it.
So He Yi asked Hunter Xu where mugwort could be found in the mountains. Hunter Xu named several places and even left one intact leaf on the stool so He Yi could take it along for comparison later.
He Yi was surprised by the man’s thoughtfulness. Herbs were already difficult to identify, with countless plants resembling one another. Outside flowering season, distinguishing many species became even harder.
Now that he had this leaf as a reference, he was unlikely to make a serious mistake while searching.
Hunter Xu also mentioned that this happened to be a good time to gather mugwort leaves, before the plants flowered. The leaves could also be pounded for their juice and mixed with water to drink, while the ashes from burned mugwort could be applied externally…
Usually a man of few words, Hunter Xu explained quite a lot in detail under He Yi’s questioning. It was obvious that although he looked hard and cold, he was warmhearted underneath.
He Yi already considered him someone worth befriending. He also owed Hunter Xu two favors, so keeping in touch was only right. Perhaps one day he would come across some way to return the help.
Only when Hunter Xu was about to leave did He Yi remember that he had nearly forgotten to ask about A’ma’s funeral.
“How are my eldest uncle and the others handling A’ma’s funeral?” He Yi asked.
At the question, surprise flickered across Hunter Xu’s face. Evidently, the fierce beast had frightened him badly enough that he too had forgotten the matter they were actually supposed to discuss. The two men stared at one another, both somewhat awkward.
Hunter Xu said, “Great-Aunt will lie in state for three days before the burial. The village head is overseeing things, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“…??” Wait. Great-Aunt? Was he talking about A’ma? Were he and Hunter Xu relatives?
He Yi froze and immediately searched the original owner’s memories. Only then did he realize that Granny Zhang, Hunter Xu’s grandmother whom A’ma had mentioned, really was He Yi’s great-aunt. In other words, He Yi and Hunter Xu were cousins. Hunter Xu looked taller and more mature than the original He Yi, so he was most likely considerably older.
“…Older Cousin?” He Yi tried.
Hunter Xu raised an eyebrow and said nothing, but his expression clearly confirmed it.
Hunter Xu took in He Yi’s thoroughly bewildered face and said, “The road from here to my place is dangerous, but the route I took you along last time is safer. If anything urgent comes up, come find me.” With that, he turned and left.
Before night fell, He Yi could not be bothered making anything complicated. He cooked another pot of brown rice, mixed it with preserved mustard greens that had been washed and soaked, and made do with a simple meal. It was still the same brown rice as before, but the preserved greens added something new. They had not been stir-fried in oil for fragrance, yet even simple saltiness was enough to awaken He Yi’s increasingly bland palate. The satisfaction surpassed even what he had felt at noon when he discovered how to cook softer brown rice.
…
Mugwort prefers moist, warm environments but tolerates both cold and drought. It commonly grows beside roads, on wasteland, hillsides, and in forests. It flowers in summer, and the best time to gather it is before flowering.
He Yi knew none of the above and had little relevant memory to rely on. He simply walked through several areas Hunter Xu had pointed out.
Fortunately, mugwort grew everywhere. It did not take He Yi long to find a cluster of plants whose leaves closely resembled the sample in his hand.
He crouched down and carefully compared the leaf veins and shapes, examining both front and back. He was certain this really was mugwort.
He Yi briskly plucked the leaves one by one and put them into his back basket.
After gathering around a hundred leaves, He Yi looked up at the sky. It was still blue, but clouds as dark as thick ink were riding the wind toward him. He decided what he had gathered would do for now. If it was not enough, he could come back.
As he stood, He Yi noticed several long fruits lying beside his feet. They were dark purple-black, almost the same color as the wet soil and therefore easy to miss. Their surfaces were densely bumpy, their shape elongated and oval, and each was about two finger joints long.
Even He Yi recognized these at a glance. They were mulberries.
He Yi had spent the entire walk staring at grass and had failed to notice that several wild mulberry trees grew nearby. The trees were only about twice a person’s height, with very slender trunks that made them look more like shrubs. From top to bottom, they were heavy with purple-red and purple-black fruit.
Mulberries were in season. He Yi remembered that after graduating high school, he had gone with his family to a farm stay around this same time, in mid-April. They had picked plenty of mulberries in the orchard, eating until their tongues turned black. He had even bought extra to take home for his younger sister, who had not gone with them.
In the original owner’s memories, villagers also came up the mountain at this time of year to gather wild mulberries. Very few households in Chongzi Village raised silkworms or planted mulberry trees, so everyone competed to collect this kind of wild fruit and bring it home, whether to eat fresh, make into preserves, or pound into juice.
Now that He Yi supposedly had an epidemic, the villagers would not be coming to Yaluo Mountain anytime soon. That happened to work in his favor.
There was still plenty of space in his back basket, so He Yi picked some mulberries and put them inside. But without any way to preserve them, the fruit would be best eaten fresh. The trees were not going anywhere, so once he had enough, he stopped.
The cool wind grew stronger, forcing He Yi to quicken his pace back. Just as he was about to leave, however, he caught sight from the corner of his eye of a wild mulberry tree bearing milky-white fruit.
At first he could not be certain it was a mulberry tree, but after seeing several others just moments earlier, their image was still fresh in his mind. This tree’s fuzzy leaves and trunk shape were identical. Looking more closely, its fruit had the same uneven oval shape, only shorter and plumper, with black-green speckles scattered across the surface. They were unmistakably mulberries.
It was actually He Yi’s first time seeing white mulberries, but there was no time to think about it. He plucked a handful into his basket and strode quickly back toward the hut.