He Yi had barely stepped through the door when rain began to fall behind him. Dark clouds churned overhead, yet only a fine drizzle came down. The rain was dense enough, however, that anyone caught in it would be soaked through in no time.
His fever had only just broken these past two days. If he got drenched and caught a chill, that would be trouble.
He Yi took out the mugwort and picked away the leaves that had been crushed, deciding to pound the rest into juice and apply it to his wound. He had no intention of chewing it again; the mugwort leaves were simply too bitter. Earlier, he had brought back a stone mortar from where the rice and flour were stored. He guessed A’ma had specifically carried it up the mountain for pounding medicinal herbs, and now it came in handy.
A’ma had not brought many things, yet somehow she had still thought of nearly everything. He Yi could not help admiring how attentive she had been.
He Yi sorted out the rest of the mugwort but did not process it yet. Once the weather cleared, he planned to spread some out to dry so he could burn it later.
Then came pounding the medicine. A stone mortar required no particular technique. He simply picked up the pestle and pounded away.
Before long, the mugwort leaves had become a dark green mash swimming in juice. He Yi untied the sackcloth wrapped around his left arm, washed away the old herbs, and examined the injury. There was no pus, and the wound was even beginning to scab. Its healing speed was remarkably fast.
He Yi spread the freshly pounded leaf paste over the wound and wrapped it with a clean strip of sackcloth, his movements becoming more practiced. The strip had come from beside the cattle shed the night before. It was the last unused piece, so the one he had just removed had to be washed and dried, or tomorrow he would have nothing left for bandaging.
But the rain outside was steady and looked as though it might continue for a long time.
He Yi looked at the mugwort juice remaining in the mortar and could almost taste the bitterness at the root of his tongue. After thinking for a while and finding no use for it, he poured it away, gave the mortar a casual rinse, then put in the mulberries he had soaked for a while and began pounding them for juice.
While he worked, he picked out a few mulberries to taste. The moment he bit down, juice burst from the plump flesh. It was tart without being astringent, with a faint sweetness rising at the back of his tongue.
The berries he had picked were purple-black or reddish purple. He looked at the conspicuous white mulberries in the basket, curious whether they tasted different, and put one into his mouth.
After eating it, he had only one thought: sweet. For He Yi, who did not like overly sweet food, the white mulberry was almost too sweet. Its sourness was barely noticeable and served only to make the flavor a little fresher.
Even so, the sweetness loosened something in He Yi that had been tense for days, and he felt a little lighter.
People said sweetness could lift one’s mood. Apparently that was true.
He Yi pounded for quite a while, reducing the mulberries to fruit pulp. A shallow layer of dark juice gathered in the mortar. He had originally planned to mix the juice with water, but throwing away the pulp would be a waste, so he poured both juice and pulp into a bamboo tube and drank them together with cool water.
What he had not expected was that the water would dilute the already faint sweetness until only sourness remained, along with a trace of bitterness.
Where had the bitterness come from…? Had some of the mulberries gone bad? He Yi stared into the bamboo tube, deep in thought.
No. Could it be because he had used the mortar for mugwort earlier and some bitterness from the leaves remained behind? Then when he pounded the mulberries afterward, the flavor had transferred into the juice.
He Yi picked up the mortar and sniffed it. Mugwort’s distinctive herbal fragrance rushed into his nose.
“…” So that was it.
Silently, He Yi washed the mortar thoroughly twice. Only when he could no longer smell the mugwort did he add white mulberries, pound out their juice, and mix it into the remaining mulberry drink in the bamboo tube.
The bold sweetness of the white mulberries completely covered the slight sourness and bitterness, yet their clean fruity fragrance kept the drink from becoming cloying. He Yi pounded a little white, then a little purple, mixing and drinking quite a lot. The softened fruit pulp gave him something to chew as well. All in all, it made a pretty good snack.
…
That morning, He Yi had made do by rubbing his teeth with a finger and rinsing his mouth. Once his breath became a little less unspeakable, he had completely forgotten about gathering willow twigs. Remembering it now, he decided he should still make a trip to the foot of the mountain.
After the rain stopped, He Yi headed downhill along a muddy path that was much harder to walk than usual.
When he passed the cattle shed, however, he found the corner where the rice straw was stored in complete disarray. The straw was no longer bundled and laid flat but scattered everywhere, clumped here and strewn there. Quite a few stalks had even been curled up, just like when he had first tried making the straw ball yesterday, only these were left in a total mess.
“…” Had a typhoon gone through here?
He Yi looked over the wreckage, which truly resembled the aftermath of a storm, then raised his head to study the sky. No, it had not rained last night, and today’s rain had only been light. The wind had not been strong enough to do this either.
He walked closer and found footprints all over the ground. Some had been blurred by the rain, but others were still clear enough to make out human handprints and footprints.
He Yi held out his own hands and feet to compare and discovered that the prints were a size smaller than his.
His first thought on finding traces of another person was that Hunter Xu might have come by, but there was no way these handprints and footprints belonged to that tall, powerfully built older cousin.
Could a villager have run up the mountain? Logically, the village head should have told everyone about He Yi’s situation. To avoid infection, the villagers ought to stay away from the mountain for the time being.
Of course, there could always be someone who was not afraid of dying, or a mischievous child who had slipped away while their family was not watching.
He Yi thought the latter was more likely, but he could hardly go searching for the person to chase them back to the village. The mountainside was not especially dangerous, and perhaps some village child was more familiar with these woods than he was. Besides, as the supposed source of infection, he was the last person who should be approaching anyone.
So He Yi could only gather the scattered straw back together, stay alert in case anyone came near, and continue slowly down the mountain.
Fortunately, he found the willow twigs, and on his way back to the hunter’s hut he did not encounter anyone. He relaxed and assumed whoever had been there had probably gone home.
From now on, unless necessary, he should probably wander around the mountain less.
Using willow twigs was simple. According to the original owner’s memories, you first soaked one in water. When it was time to clean your teeth, you chewed one end until the fibers separated into fine bristles, then dipped them in tooth powder and brushed.
He did not have tooth powder now, but there was no harm in trying the rest. So He Yi tested the willow twig for cleaning his teeth. It really was easy, though different from what he had imagined. The bristles were extremely soft and did not seem to clean between his teeth very well. The few bites he had taken while chewing the end into fibers had felt more effective.
Still, after rinsing his mouth, the fresh fragrance of willow lingered between his teeth. He Yi cut off the used end and set the rest aside for tomorrow.
Later, wanting to draw a fresh jar of water, He Yi carried a clay jar to the stream. He had assumed the person who left traces by the cattle shed would have departed long ago, but when he reached the stream, he found a disorderly pile of wet branches on the bank. There were no signs of a fire, and the same slightly smaller handprints and footprints surrounded the woodpile. At the same time, a few river shrimp and crabs lay scattered beside the branches. Unfortunately, they were already dead. Otherwise he could have picked them up and made a pot of freshwater congee.
He was certain the person who had left these traces was the same one who had been around the cattle shed. He had no idea whether they might return, but in any case, it would be inappropriate for him to linger. He Yi went to the bank, filled his clay jar with water, and prepared to leave.
The instant he turned around, however, water splashed beside him. A river crab suddenly flew through the air and struck him, its claws clamping precisely onto his sleeve. Fortunately, it caught only cloth and not flesh.
He Yi felt something wet hit his side and his left arm grow heavier. Naturally, he turned to see what had happened. But the moment he looked back, he saw a human figure floating in the stream. Beneath hair as long and black as a waterfall, a pale jade body was faintly visible, the skin gleaming like polished jade. Two shallow dimples at the lower back held little pools of stream water, while short, loose boxer-style underpants covered the waist, leaving a pair of long and beautifully shaped legs completely exposed.
He Yi, who had been nearing thirty in his previous life, suddenly stared like a callow teenager, completely dazed.
After a moment, the person was still floating face-down on the stream without moving. He Yi’s eyelid twitched, and unease immediately rose in him.
Could he have drowned? The stream only came up to the knee, but there was no shortage of news stories about people who could not swim drowning in shallow water.
He Yi could not help calling out, “Hey, are you all right?”
The person still did not move, though He Yi vaguely thought he heard some tiny sound beneath the water, too faint to make out clearly.
Was he trying to call for help? The longer He Yi watched, the more alarmed he became. He had no time to overthink it and instinctively stepped into the stream to haul the person up.
When He Yi lifted the floating figure and turned him face-up, the young man’s handsome, delicate features effortlessly captured all of He Yi’s attention.
The youth had deep-set features, a straight nose like carved jade, and a heroic facial outline that gave him a sharp, almost aggressive beauty at first glance. Yet he also had a pair of bright almond-shaped eyes and full, rounded cheeks that softened the severity of his features, creating a striking balance between strength and gentleness.
Under the glaring sunlight, a closer look would reveal that within his unusual gray irises shone a sky-blue hue, clear and luminous as fine celadon glaze.
Unfortunately, He Yi had no leisure to admire him. That brief glance was enough to tell him that the youth had neither choked on water nor suffered oxygen deprivation. There were no signs of drowning at all. He looked perfectly normal.
Wait… he hadn’t been drowning??
Meanwhile, the youth in He Yi’s arms was staring at him in complete bewilderment, seemingly unable to understand why some stranger had suddenly hauled him out of the water for no reason.
The two stared at each other in an indescribable silence. It felt like a long time passed, and yet perhaps only an instant. Then something in the youth’s hand suddenly twitched and splashed water across both of their faces.
He Yi looked closely and discovered that the youth was holding two fairly large river shrimp. The droplets had been flung up when they struggled.
He Yi’s confusion finally cleared. So the other person had not been drowning at all. He had been swimming after river shrimp, which explained the strange posture. He Yi had simply tried to help and made matters worse, even disturbing him. More importantly, if there had been no need for rescue, then their physical contact had been entirely unnecessary. Remembering that he was still supposedly ill, He Yi promptly set the youth down and scrambled several meters away.
The youth had not expected He Yi to let go so suddenly. He braced himself backward on both elbows in time to keep his upper body from falling. Then, seeing how desperately He Yi had retreated, his bewilderment gained two parts disbelief and one part irritation.