The rest of the trip back to Chongzi Village was short. He Yi had not even started getting motion-sick on the ox cart before they arrived.
He was carrying a pile of things, with a young man with gray-blue eyes walking beside him. It happened to be around the time villagers were heading home for their evening meal, so quite a few people saw them.
Out of the corner of his eye, He Yi noticed some households craning their necks to stare, while others whispered with obvious ill intent. He kept his gaze straight ahead as he walked toward the Tang residence, thinking that Xue Ci’s status as an outsider was still rather conspicuous. He probably ought to find some way to deal with it, or sooner or later some fool might try to use it to make trouble.
After nightfall, He Yi steamed egg custard for Xue Ci.
Steamed egg custard was probably the dish He Yi made best. He remembered to keep the water-to-egg ratio at 1.4 to 1, mixed boiling water into the beaten, salted eggs, skimmed off the foam, then set it to steam. Done this way, the custard came out smooth and flat, without air holes on the surface.
He succeeded again this time and even added two drops of sesame oil for fragrance. It was aromatic, silky, and tender, and went extremely well with rice. The two of them ate a large bowl of rice with the egg custard.
The troubling part was that they were almost out of rice, so he would have to see whether he could trade for some from the villagers. He also had not eaten leafy greens in quite a while. Going without vegetables for too long was no good, but he had no land available for planting them yet. If he wanted to forage on the mountain, he would need Auntie Liu or someone else to take him along, because he was completely incapable of telling edible wild plants from weeds.
If he could gather some wild scallions and fry them with eggs, that would be nice too. The only dishes he really knew how to make were steamed eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, and fried eggs. He could not even make egg fried rice. The new iron wok could not be used yet either, because he vaguely remembered that a new wok had to be seasoned first. He just did not know how, so he would have to ask someone. It was already dark, which meant he could only leave it for now and deal with it later.
In short, improving their meals needed to go on the agenda.
That night, He Yi lit a lamp and sorted through everything they had bought that day in his room.
Xue Ci had not gone back into the mountains. He Yi could not help wondering whether he wanted to stay the night.
While He Yi was still agonizing over the fact that there was no sleeping mat and whether he should let Xue Ci sleep on the bed, his gaze casually swept over Xue Ci sitting on the other side of the table. The other man was holding the storybook and silently flipping through it.
He liked it that much?
He Yi quickly finished sorting everything and sat down as well. “Want me to read it to you?”
Xue Ci looked as though he had been waiting for exactly that question. He raised his head, shoved the book into He Yi’s hands, and nodded emphatically.
He Yi chuckled softly. Beneath the faintly flickering lamplight, he opened the book and began reading it word by word.
He Yi’s voice was low and deep. Although he had never really studied recitation, he handled basic pauses, stress, and rhythm fairly well. There was only one problem: if he read in Mandarin, Xue Ci probably would not understand him at all, which meant he had to read in the local dialect. Getting through an entire storybook that way was anything but comfortable.
At the beginning in particular, He Yi stumbled constantly. Every so often he had to stop and think about how a word should be pronounced. There were plenty of formal expressions and obscure characters in the book that he barely knew how to pronounce even in Mandarin, never mind in dialect.
Xue Ci understood even less. Every few words he would ask what something meant, what it was used for, whether it was a person’s name or a metaphor… The poems that appeared from time to time were even harder to explain. And so the romantic scene of one person reading by lamplight while the other listened attentively gradually turned into a frazzled study group.
“…” So tired. That was enough for today. He had been so busy reading aloud that he had barely absorbed what story the book was even telling. He Yi thought it would be better to practice beforehand and then read it to Xue Ci.
So he said, “I’ll read to you again next time. I need to prepare first.”
Xue Ci did not feel tired, but since He Yi had said so, he restrained his urge to keep listening and nodded.
He Yi put the storybook away, then asked as casually as he could, “Are you sleeping here tonight?”
Xue Ci blinked his bright, almond-shaped eyes and swung his legs on the bench. “Sure.”
“It’s dangerous to go up the mountain this late, so…” Xue Ci had refused the last time, so He Yi had assumed he would refuse again. He had just started trying to persuade him when he heard Xue Ci agree.
As soon as Xue Ci said it, he tried to climb onto the bed. He Yi hurriedly stopped him and took him to the kitchen to heat water for a bath.
Apparently the Tang residence had a large bathing room, but He Yi had never used it. He usually just hung a grass curtain in the courtyard and ladled water over himself, casual to the point of simplicity.
With He Yi leading him, Xue Ci took an equally quick and makeshift bath. The grass curtain did not actually block the view very well, but He Yi had gone into the kitchen, so there was no risk of accidentally offending him.
He Yi had already set aside another clean coarse-cloth work jacket for him to change into. Only after putting them on did Xue Ci wander into the kitchen to find He Yi.
Hearing footsteps, He Yi knew Xue Ci had finished bathing. The moment he turned around, he saw someone approaching slowly through the dim glow cast by the stove, hair still wet and his whole body seemingly wrapped in a faint veil of steam.
“Why did you wash your hair too?” He Yi asked. As soon as the question left his mouth, it occurred to him that Xue Ci might simply not know he was supposed to tie his hair up while bathing and had gotten it wet by accident.
“Be careful you don’t catch a chill. I’ll find you a dry cloth to wipe your hair. Sit in front of the stove and warm yourself by the fire for a while. It’ll dry faster.” With that, He Yi went out.
Only the lamp in the bedroom was still lit. The rest of the residence was pitch-dark, so it was not until the two of them returned to the room together that He Yi could clearly see how fresh and radiant Xue Ci looked after his bath. His gaze immediately stuck to Xue Ci and refused to move away.
Xue Ci’s pale skin had been steamed faintly pink by the hot water, and even his cheeks seemed slightly flushed, making him look absurdly adorable. His light-colored eyes appeared even clearer beneath the lamplight, as though shimmering ripples moved within them, enough to drown someone with a single glance. The lamplight also picked out the light and shadow of his features, making his already handsome face look even more striking.
Was he seriously going to lie in the same bed and sleep beside someone who looked like an immortal descended to the mortal world? He Yi fell silent.
The other person involved, meanwhile, had not the slightest awareness of his own beauty and therefore not a shred of wariness. Completely unconcerned, Xue Ci clambered onto the bed and flopped straight down on top of the quilt.
He Yi was still standing by the door, muttering something under his breath. Only after a while did he finally move, tuck the quilt around Xue Ci, blow out the oil lamp, and lie down as well.
He left a considerable gap between himself and Xue Ci and even turned his back to him, hoping that would stop his mind from wandering into places it had no business going.
Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that not being able to see Xue Ci only made it easier to imagine things. Before long, he was already wondering what he would do if Xue Ci suddenly pressed up against him from behind.
The more he thought, the more ridiculous it became. A certain part of him was beginning to react as well. He Yi resigned himself to his fate and hurriedly rolled onto his back.
He had spent the whole day shopping and carried so many things for so long that, by the time he got back, he had barely wanted to move and only wanted to lie down. Yet once he actually got into bed, the mere fact that Xue Ci was lying beside him chased away every trace of sleepiness.
Xue Ci, on the other hand, slept wonderfully. Not long after the lamp went out, he was already fast asleep without a care in the world beneath the quilt He Yi had tucked around him.
They had slept together before, that night in the hunter’s hut, and had even been much closer, close enough to feel each other’s breathing. But back then He Yi had not thought much about it, and he had been sleepy enough to fall asleep quickly.
Why was his imagination running wild now, becoming more complicated the longer he thought about it? Somewhere in his heart, He Yi already had a faint answer, but he did not want to accept it too easily. Falling for someone did not come easily to him. He had never felt this way about anyone before, but whether this was merely impulse or something else, he did not think he could decide so simply. Making a careless decision just to make himself happy would be disrespectful, disrespectful to both of them.
He had perfectly upheld the civil-engineering department tradition of graduating with absolutely no romantic history. Even after working for years, he had never successfully dated anyone. Still, he did not think that meant he understood nothing about relationships. He was simply cautious.
Acting on a sudden rush of emotion was easy; taking it back afterward was hard. Right now, listening to the barely audible breathing beside him and catching the faint scent of the person lying there, He Yi could feel his body heating up of its own accord. It was sweet and miserable at the same time.
Heaven knew how he got through that night. He had no idea how long he lay there, but he thought he had already heard someone else’s rooster crowing before he finally managed to fall asleep.
The next morning, He Yi overslept again. Xue Ci had once again ended up sprawled across him in his sleep, except this time He Yi had not been woken by the weight.
Xue Ci woke before him, climbed off He Yi on his own, put on his shoes, and went outside to look at the chicks.
Seeing that He Yi had still not gotten up, Xu Qianli had already helped collect the hen’s eggs and put grass seeds into the feed trough. She had just brought back a jug of water to refill the water trough when she saw Xue Ci crouching there. Several chicks were so frightened that they had retreated to the edge of the nest inside the coop, and the hen had begun squawking as well.
The chickens finally woke He Yi completely. He reached beside himself and found the bed empty. Outside, the birds were still clucking away. He Yi changed his inner clothes and underpants, waited until things below had settled down, and only then opened the door and went out.
The moment he opened the door, he saw Qianli standing in front of the chicken coop with a broom raised, staring at Xue Ci ahead of her as though facing a formidable enemy.
Hearing the door open, Xue Ci looked toward He Yi with an innocent expression that said he had no idea what was happening either.
He Yi had no choice but to walk over to Qianli. “The chickens are all right, aren’t they? Thanks for helping take care of the chicks, Qianli.”
“H-he scared the chicks, and he still wants to get closer and look at them!”
He Yi had not expected Qianli to have learned how to tattle. He laughed. “Xue Ci doesn’t mean any harm.” He just wanted to eat them, that was all.
If the hen kept screaming like this, it would not lose its voice before He Yi lost his mind. He quickly pulled Xue Ci away to wash up. “I’ll take him with me now. Xue Ci, apologize to Qianli.”
Xue Ci tilted his head. “Apologize.”
“Say ‘sorry.’” He Yi corrected him.
“Sorry.”
Qianli froze for a moment. This young man looked almost twenty, so why did he seem a little slow in the head? Forget it, forget it. She would not hold it against him.
Qianli said it was fine, then went into the coop to check on the chicks.
*
When He Yi returned from the fields, Xue Ci had vanished again.
Madman Tang, unusually, had a bamboo basket strapped to his back and was sitting in the main hall taking a tea break.
“Going out to gather medicinal herbs?” He Yi asked as he put down his sickle and carrying basket.
“That’s the plan. What about you? What do you have to do today?”
An idea occurred to He Yi. “Brother Tang, do you know how to identify wild vegetables?”
“Some wild plants can also be used as medicine. If you’re asking whether I can recognize them, then yes, I know a fair number.”
“Mind taking me with you? I’ll go too. I want to gather some wild vegetables and improve our meals.”
The corner of Madman Tang’s mouth curved upward. “All right.”