At noon that day, Zheng Yuanshi came to the fields to find He Yi and told him someone was looking for him. He Yi followed him back to the Zheng home.
To his surprise, the person who had specifically asked for him was the head of the Li household, Li Chi, the family that raised the spotted pigs He Yi and Xue Ci had joked about before.
Li Chi was not familiar with He Yi and had never really dealt with him, though he had chatted with Xue Ci a few times. By now, virtually everyone in the village knew that the green-eyed foreign youth was living with He Yi after He Yi established his own household, and that the two were often seen together. Li Chi liked Xue Ci quite a bit and therefore held no particular prejudice against He Yi. Since he had also come asking for help, his attitude was unusually warm.
He said, “I really do feel embarrassed. We’ve hardly had a chance to get acquainted before, and now here I am shamelessly asking you for a favor. Please don’t take offense. I hear everyone calling you Yi-lang. You don’t mind if I call you that too, do you?”
He Yi could not imagine what the man might need his help with, but since Li Chi was being so courteous, he responded in kind. “I don’t mind. I’m the one who was remiss before. This is a good chance to get acquainted properly. I’m He Yi, and you’re Uncle Li Chi, correct?”
“Hahaha, such good manners! Yes, Uncle is fine, perfectly fine.” Li Chi was somewhat awkward himself, so he exchanged a few jokes with Uncle Zheng to ease the tension.
Uncle Zheng was not especially close to him, but neither were they on bad terms. He smiled and joined in, helping warm the atmosphere.
Once everyone had relaxed for a while, Li Chi finally explained why he had come.
He Yi was rather surprised. “Several walls collapsed, and the roof is leaking too? What condition are the concealed posts and roof beams in?”
Li Chi could not answer those questions, so he suggested, “Yi-lang, could you come take a look for me? I’ve seen the wall you fixed for Brother Zheng. I trust your skill. But this time it isn’t as simple as patching a wall. I’m afraid the roof will have to be dealt with too.”
He Yi believed he could probably handle it, but he did not overestimate himself. He only said that he should inspect the house first.
Li Chi was overjoyed and quickly led him home.
The Li family was also approaching the much-rumored He Yi for the first time. Some looked constrained, some curious, and some suspicious. In any case, every one of them stared at him.
He Yi smiled calmly and gave everyone a simple greeting. “Sorry to intrude.”
“No, no, it’s no trouble. Look around as much as you like. Xiang, bring the guest a bowl of water!” Li Chi’s wife called toward the young daughter-in-law sitting on a bench beneath the eaves, sheltered from the wind.
The young woman answered, “Coming,” and rose from the bench. Watching her footing carefully, she avoided the dangerous walls and made her way toward the courtyard cistern.
By the time she had drawn a bowl of water, He Yi happened to have reached that side of the house.
He Yi was examining the building and found several wooden beams badly rotted. Part of the roof was still at risk of collapse. Some walls looked as though they were standing securely, but the concealed posts inside were already unstable. One external force would be enough to bring them down.
When the young daughter-in-law saw He Yi coming, she set the bowl on the ledge and said softly, “I’ve left it here for you. Drink if you get thirsty.”
He Yi glanced back and nodded. “Thank you.”
The village did not follow any strict rule forbidding unrelated men from approaching the women of a household, but the young daughter-in-law was still very young and had only recently married into the family. She was just sixteen, younger even than He Yi. Uncomfortable standing too close to an unrelated man, she waited until he answered, then gathered her skirt and slipped away by another route.
Li Chi saw it but said nothing. He only asked, “Does it need major repairs? The bedrooms are what we’re most worried about. You’ve seen it yourself. There are many women in our family, and right now only the main hall doesn’t leak. Having everyone squeeze together there at night is really inconvenient.”
“It needs major work. Several walls on that side will have to be knocked down and rebuilt.”
“What? Did you point to the wrong side? Those walls haven’t collapsed!”
“The concealed posts are failing and no longer provide support. If we leave them and they collapse after the other walls are rebuilt, doing the work again will be much more troublesome.” Those walls happened to sit right at a junction.
“…” The explanation made too much sense for Li Chi to argue. He listened dazedly as He Yi analyzed the structure, becoming more alarmed the longer he heard. “You’re right. We can’t be careless. If it fell on someone, that would be terrible.”
“To be frank, your yellow-mud bricks are poor at resisting water. Lime-sand bricks would be more suitable, but those would have to be purchased separately because we don’t have the facilities to fire them ourselves. If that costs too much, rammed earth is still the most economical. Mix some lime or shell ash into the earth, then apply some lime plaster to the rain-facing surfaces.”
“Ai, I don’t even know whether there’s time to haul in enough earth now.”
“I have some earth materials at my place that you can use.” He Yi’s own house was still unfinished and would require plenty of material, but the Li family’s immediate needs were replacing roof beams and rebuilding several walls. That would not require too much timber or earth, so he could spare some first. “You’ll need wood too. I have some suitable timber there as well, good pieces specifically chosen for beams.”
“How could we possibly take that?!” Li Chi’s urgency betrayed him. He said it was too much, but could not suppress a grin. Once he realized he was smiling, he immediately covered his mouth.
He Yi merely said, “It’s fine. I can buy more. My own house isn’t that urgent.”
Li Chi probably knew He Yi was still sleeping in a woodshed. His expression became awkward. He felt guilty, yet selfishly could not bring himself to give up the opportunity. He stammered for a long while without managing a polite refusal. After all, the leaking roof was already damaging the family’s wooden tables and beds, and replacing large pieces of furniture was expensive. The entire household was genuinely desperate.
Li Chi said sincerely, “Thank you, truly. Our sow gave birth not long ago. I can give you two piglets from the litter as payment for the materials you’re providing now and for your labor. Would that be fair? We’ll pay for whatever additional materials are needed later. If you can help buy some of them for us too, that would be even better. We’re not very good at choosing them.”
He Yi had never asked the market price of piglets, so he looked somewhat uncertain.
Li Chi more or less guessed his concern and explained, “I’ll have both piglets castrated before I give them to you. If you buy castrated piglets like that in town, they cost about one tael. Our spotted pigs have especially good meat. They don’t grow enormous, but raise them for ten months and you can sell them for at least three taels! Your uncle isn’t lying to you.”
Even castrated for me? That’s very considerate. He Yi’s thoughts drifted despite himself. He remembered a certain someone solemnly teasing him and could not keep the corner of his mouth from lifting, amusement appearing in his eyes.
He Yi did not think Li Chi would deceive him about something like this. He could simply ask about prices the next time he went to town. Repairs would also take a while, so he would easily have time to make the trip. Besides, He Yi was confident that other people could not readily imitate his construction methods. If they truly fell out and he refused to finish the job, the Li family would have difficulty finding someone else to complete the later stages.
After comparing the material costs, He Yi estimated that his labor would amount to roughly seven or eight hundred wen, which was fairly good.
With the arrangement tentatively settled and repairs urgent, He Yi first returned home to transport some timber over.
*
The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching. The Zheng family called He Yi and Xue Ci over and gave them zongzi that Auntie Liu had wrapped herself.
The two households had grown so close that He Yi did not act overly polite. He accepted two to taste.
He noticed that the zongzi were tied into long narrow shapes and asked curiously, “What kind of zongzi are these?”
“Ash-water zongzi. What other kind is there?” Auntie Liu asked in surprise.
He Yi was equally surprised that she apparently knew only this one type. “What about guozheng?”
“Oh… guozheng? Those have meat inside. We only make those for festivals and the New Year. Come eat at our house during the New Year and Auntie will make some for you!”
Guozheng is something you eat for New Year? He Yi felt a little confused.
Guozheng actually differed quite a bit from ordinary zongzi. Instead of bamboo or reed leaves, it was wrapped in large winter leaves. The filling was usually pork, mung beans, and salted egg yolk, then the parcel was cooked over a wood fire for roughly four to six hours. For that reason, some people did not consider guozheng a type of zongzi at all. Its name carried auspicious ideas of abundant harvests and steadily improving fortunes, so people commonly made it for celebrations and New Year festivities rather than treating it like a Dragon Boat Festival zongzi.
In Chongzi Village, everyone was accustomed to making ash-water zongzi and seemed to know only that type. In He Yi’s experience, however, the varieties of zongzi were practically endless. In the past, he had only eaten savory meat zongzi such as guozheng around the Dragon Boat Festival. Later, because of his younger sister, he learned that every part of the country had its own varieties: yellow-rice zongzi, roasted-pork zongzi, pillow-shaped zongzi, and many others. Some were triangular, some four-cornered, some sweet, some salty, and some even spicy. His sister had once traveled with the crew of a traditional-food program, and one Dragon Boat Festival special had introduced regional zongzi like those.
The reason He Yi remembered it so clearly was that local people had given his sister an enormous number of zongzi while the crew traveled. She brought back a little of every kind. In the end, He Yi and his sister ate until they were stuffed and still could not finish them all. It had been so overwhelming that from then on, the sight of zongzi alone made him nervous.
That was why the two zongzi He Yi accepted were both meant for Xue Ci. He genuinely did not want to see another zongzi. He let Xue Ci carry them home while he himself headed to the Li residence.
Repairs on the Li house were progressing well. Over the previous two days, they had rushed to replace the roof beams, added an extra backing layer beneath the tiles, and sealed it with lime plaster. With that, the roof-leak problem was essentially solved.
Next came rebuilding the walls. The Li family’s adult men all joined in, so the work moved quickly.
After working all day, He Yi returned home and discovered that Xue Ci still had not eaten either ash-water zongzi.
“Why haven’t you eaten them?” He Yi asked softly.
Xue Ci shook his head. “I was waiting for you to come back so we could eat them together.”
He Yi paused, the corner of his mouth twitching. “You go ahead. I don’t like these. Both are yours.”
Each ash-water zongzi was quite long but not very thick. Even He Yi probably would not find one particularly filling, much less Xue Ci.
“Why don’t you like them? Are they not good?” Xue Ci’s voice rose slightly and his eyes widened. He had been looking forward to zongzi for so long that they suddenly seemed less appealing.
“…No. They should taste good. Try one. Didn’t Auntie say you can dip them in yellow sugar or honey? We don’t have sugar at home, only honey. Do you want white honey or black honey? I’ll get it.”
Xue Ci blinked and stared brightly at He Yi without answering.
He Yi immediately understood and sighed with a smile. “Fine. I’ll bring some of both. You can try each one.” What a greedy cat.
Ash-water zongzi were made with alkaline water prepared from the ashes of burned plants. Auntie Liu had already cooked theirs. When the reed leaves were opened, they revealed golden, translucent glutinous rice permeated with the ash water.
This kind of zongzi tasted best after cooling. Since it had no filling, it could be somewhat plain, offering mostly a sticky, glutinous texture. Fortunately, both the white and black honey were excellent. He Yi figured Xue Ci would be perfectly satisfied once he dipped the zongzi in them.
And he was. Xue Ci ate with his eyes curved in delight, his smile as sweet as honey.
He Yi did not eat any, but merely looking at Xue Ci’s expression was enough to tell him how sweet it tasted.
Before long, both zongzi were almost gone. When only a short piece remained, Xue Ci paused, dipped it in white honey, held it to He Yi’s lips, and asked, “It’s good. Are you really not going to eat any?”
Does this count as taking food from a tiger’s mouth? He Yi had never expected the greedy cat to share something already at his lips. Did that mean He Yi was, at least in some small way, special to Xue Ci?
He Yi’s heart softened. For a moment he forgot the trauma zongzi had inflicted on him in the past. He opened his mouth and took the section Xue Ci had already bitten, chewed the sweetness inside, and swallowed.
“It’s good.”
“See? I told you it was good.”
*
Two days later, the Li family’s walls were nearly repaired. He Yi sat astride one wall, carefully coating its rain-facing surface with lime plaster.
He had no idea how long he had been working when he suddenly felt a gaze boring into his back. He turned around and saw two young men dressed as scholars in formal robes standing not far away, staring at him. The slightly older one was carrying several strings of zongzi wrapped in green leaves.
He Yi: “…”
He had a bad feeling.