After Tang Huai left, Xue Ci followed He Yi everywhere like a little tail. He said nothing, but his eyes were so bright that they spoke for him.
The excuse He Yi had only just used to put him off had flown back like a boomerang and hit him in the face. It was rather embarrassing. But he could not very well go back on his word, and he had no defense against Xue Ci. After tidying the house completely and eating supper, he took Xue Ci down to the river to walk the big goose.
They found a quiet place on the riverbank, pushed aside the reeds and foxtail grass, and crouched together to watch the goose enjoying itself alone in midstream.
The sun had not entirely set, and its lingering light hung like purple smoke. Perhaps because Xue Ci was there, not a mosquito or fly approached, even though they were sitting in thick vegetation. Only the distant calls of birds and the chorus of insects surrounded them.
He Yi’s voice suited his appearance, clear and refined. Slowly he told Xue Ci several well-known stories of love, some beautiful, some cruel. He offered no judgments and drew no conclusions. He wanted Xue Ci to discover their meaning himself.
Xue Ci was utterly captivated. Compared with what He Yi was telling him, the stories in his own books seemed sketchy and far less absorbing.
Naturally. The stories He Yi knew were classics, the accumulated creations of generations. Looking into his own heart, he believed he had chosen them without bias or any deliberate attempt to steer Xue Ci. He had told him the good and the bad alike.
There was no single correct answer to love. It was something mysterious that people had pursued since time immemorial. It did not merely mean a particular kind of intimate relationship, but, even more, a meeting of spirits and hearts.
“Tell me a few more. I still want to hear them.” Xue Ci tugged at He Yi’s sleeve.
“…Think about these first.” Had they come all this way just to hear him perform as a storyteller? He Yi did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Xue Ci obediently fell silent and went back over the stories in his mind.
He Yi had never expected a few stories to teach Xue Ci the meaning of love. He knew Xue Ci felt physical desire for him and certainly had affection for him too. Otherwise Xue Ci would not have traveled all that way back to find out whether he was safe and save his life. But rushing headlong into a relationship without understanding what they were doing was hardly sensible.
Once a relationship ended, there would be no going back to what had existed before. The mere thought that he and Xue Ci might gradually drift apart someday left the air around him feeling so thin he could barely breathe.
That was why he had to be cautious, then still more cautious. He did not want Xue Ci to be led by physical desire. As the older of the two, and half a teacher in Xue Ci’s introduction to the human world, he felt bound to uphold that principle.
He recalled reading popular-science articles saying that mating was instinctive for animals. Snow leopards were extraordinary and solitary creatures, perhaps going their whole lives without finding a mate, while the males left their partners after mating.
Unable to stop himself, He Yi asked Xue Ci, “Have you ever thought about leaving this place?”
Xue Ci, absorbed in thought, took a moment to react. He looked perplexed. “You want to leave?”
“I’m asking about you.”
“If you’re not leaving, why would I leave?” Xue Ci asked, genuinely confused.
He Yi fell speechless. A moment later, the tips of his ears quietly reddened where he could not see them.
Night deepened. The goose’s grayish silhouette gradually blended into the darkness and disappeared. Little points of fluorescent green began emerging in the air, strange-colored stars fallen to earth, flickering as though blinking their eyes.
He Yi became entranced by the fireflies gathering around them.
He had scarcely begun to enjoy the sight when a splash sounded beside him and water struck his face. On the bank there was now nothing but a heap of clothing. A black-and-white figure, like ink spilled across snow, had leaped into the river.
The goose was badly startled by the splash and swam frantically toward the shore. Once there it tried to leap out, but kept crashing against the high bank. It flapped desperately, unable to get ashore.
“…” He Yi watched in speechless disbelief and wiped the water from his face.
Not long afterward Xue Ci swam back, lay down on the shore, and placed what he held in his mouth between his two thick paw pads. Then he presented it to He Yi as proudly as though he had found a treasure.
He Yi leaned in and realized it was a firefly whose light had gone out. He stared, then looked at the snow leopard’s face. The beast looked so majestic, but He Yi suddenly saw something endearingly foolish in it and could not help laughing.
“You went to catch a bug.” He Yi sounded certain. Perhaps that was simply a big cat’s instinct.
But then the snow leopard transformed back into a human, threw himself into He Yi’s arms, pressed the firefly into He Yi’s hand, and asked, “Does that mean we’re married now?”
He Yi almost lost his footing. As he struggled to keep his balance, his hand landed involuntarily against Xue Ci’s smooth, bare back.
He could not fathom how the conversation had suddenly taken this turn. He looked down blankly at the person in his arms.
Reading the confusion in his eyes, Xue Ci explained, “Didn’t the stories you told me say you could pledge your love with a token? If you accept this, that’s a pledge. Then we’re lovers.”
At that, He Yi tried to open his palm and look at the “token,” only to discover that Xue Ci had his hand wrapped so tightly around it that he could not open his own fingers at all.
Could someone really force a gift on you like this? He Yi deliberately applied a little pressure as though to pull away. Sensing it, Xue Ci tightened his grip and grew anxious.
The little rogue’s behavior made He Yi laugh. But as he laughed, moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes and spilled down his cheeks. An intense longing accumulated in his gaze, too strong to dispel. It was not physical lust, but a profound desire in his heart calling to him: Stop holding back and imagining all the worst possibilities. Xue Ci was so brave. He wanted to answer that bravery, wanted so badly to answer it, and his pounding heart kept urging him on.
So He Yi cast aside every distracting thought and pulled the person in his arms into a fierce embrace, holding him as though he wanted to make them part of the same flesh and bone.
Then he lowered his head and kissed Xue Ci on the lips.
Neither knew who released the other’s hand first. The firefly trapped between their palms quickly flew free and relit its glow, its gentle light waxing and waning as it gradually joined the countless points above them.
“You’re so soft here.” He Yi stroked Xue Ci’s lips with the pad of his thumb, his eyes overflowing with tenderness and affection.
Xue Ci was panting lightly, his breath having been stolen by the kiss. He was still dizzy. When he raised his eyes to meet He Yi’s, he nearly drowned in that gaze and could not find his way out.
Their hot breaths seemed to make even the cool night breeze sticky. Afraid Xue Ci might catch a chill, He Yi picked up his clothes and helped him dress. “Let’s go home.”
He Yi’s somewhat larger hand enclosed Xue Ci’s. Xue Ci could not help smiling as he answered, “All right.”
Before leaving, they remembered to rescue the exhausted big goose, which had ended up upside down on the surface of the river after all its frantic jumping. They brought it home with them.
*
The older farmers in the village said it would certainly rain in a couple of days. Looking out over his two mu of cotton fields, now as white as though snow had fallen, He Yi decided it was time to bring in a substantial part of the crop.
After the morning frost and dew had evaporated, He Yi and Xue Ci went out to work among the cotton. He Yi had been picking up cotton that fell to the ground from time to time, yet in just half a day the field was littered again. He crouched to collect the scattered tufts one by one and place them in his bamboo basket.
They also had to pick the cotton still attached to the plants. The fluffy white bolls resembled mangosteen flesh, except that each had four sections. He Yi cupped an entire tuft in his hand, pinched the four edges, and pulled gently. The long, clean white fibers came away, leaving the golden-brown sections of the husk behind. He dropped the cotton into his basket.
It was easy for the husks to scratch one’s hands. After suffering two little cuts himself, He Yi called out to Xue Ci, who was picking nearby. “Watch your hands! Those husks can hurt you!”
Xue Ci turned at his voice, glanced at the husk He Yi was pointing to, nodded, and went straight back to work.
Picking cotton made the stems and leaves rustle like dry twigs. With that crisp sound as accompaniment, pulling a whole clean tuft from its husk was astonishingly satisfying. Sometimes a bit of cotton clung to the bottom of a husk, but working it free until the husk was entirely bare felt gratifying too.
The sun had warmed the cotton until it was delightful to touch, almost addictive.
At first they talked as they picked. Later, soothed by the work, they fell silent and simply gathered cotton together.
But they were too leisurely about it. After working all morning, they discovered they had harvested less than twenty percent of the ripe cotton.
Realizing how slowly they were moving, He Yi and Xue Ci stopped and looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
After laughing, they had to work out what to do. Insects had already ruined a small portion of the yield. If the coming rain soaked the cotton and caused mold, the two mu could end up producing next to nothing.
This was no laughing matter but an urgent problem requiring attention. After thinking it over, He Yi decided to ask the Zheng family for help.
After a simple midday meal, which he jokingly called his “breakfast,” He Yi went to the Zheng household. Unexpectedly, only Zheng Yuanshi was free. The other three members of the family had gone to make a marriage proposal.
“What? When did things progress that far?” He Yi was taken aback.
Zheng Yuanshi picked up a bamboo basket and followed them toward the cotton fields. “A little while ago, actually. They should have gone sooner…”
Then he seemed to realize that he had let something slip and abruptly fell silent.
He Yi quickly worked it out. Zheng Yuanfeng’s marriage negotiations had probably been delayed because of his own accident. Otherwise, they could have been settled earlier.
Zheng Yuanshi hesitated, then reached out and patted He Yi’s shoulder. “I’ve never picked cotton before. Anything I need to watch out for?”
When they reached the fields, He Yi demonstrated how to pick it. There was little that required special attention, apart from the prickly husks.
“Shouldn’t we keep the cotton you pick up from the ground separate from what you take off the plants?” Zheng Yuanshi asked.
“Do we need to?” He Yi replied.
“The fallen cotton doesn’t look as good. Better to separate it. When you hand over the required portion, you can use what you picked up from the ground and keep the better-quality cotton to sell.”
He Yi genuinely had not considered that. His only concern had been that the fallen cotton looked rather dirty. Zheng Yuanshi’s suggestion made sense, so he set aside an extra basket for the tufts collected from the ground.
They worked for quite a while longer. While they were waiting for Xue Ci to return with water, He Yi went to fetch Qianli.
Xu Qianli looked at the cotton field, not even half harvested, and her eyes widened. She tugged at He Yi’s trouser leg. “If I help, will I get cotton too?!”
“Mm.” He Yi nodded. “But these husks are too prickly. You just pick up the cotton off the ground, Qianli, and put it in that basket over there. Don’t mix them up.”
“…Okay!” Eager to begin, Qianli let go and dashed into the field. Her two little horn-shaped pigtails swung so high they seemed about to fly into the sky.
Fortunately, there was less cotton ready to pick than He Yi had originally estimated. The plants opened their bolls at different times. After the rain, another batch would probably burst open and could be harvested once ripe.
Everyone kept gathering cotton for a long time. When Qianli finished collecting the fallen tufts, she still wanted to help pick from the branches. But it was almost mealtime, so He Yi hurriedly took her home, sparing the little girl a scolding from her mother.
The Zheng family had no time to make dinner, so He Yi invited Zheng Yuanshi to eat at his house and let him head home afterward.
“There’s still thirty percent left,” He Yi said worriedly, gazing toward the cotton fields. They had all of tomorrow to finish, but he was uneasy about the weather.
“It’ll rain tomorrow afternoon,” Xue Ci said.
He Yi had felt the same thing and chose to trust Xue Ci. They could hardly see well enough to work at night, and He Yi did not want to leave all the work to Xue Ci. They agreed to wake a little earlier tomorrow and gather as much as possible before the rain came.
Outside, the sky had turned completely black.