The drizzle turned into a torrential downpour. He Yi and Xue Ci sat under the eaves, feeling the damp mist against their skin as they listened to the rhythmic pounding of the rain.
“So it really did start raining right at the wei hour…” He Yi sighed. “Fortunately we brought in all the cotton that was ready. Once the weather clears, we can spread it out to dry.”
With rain falling so heavily, they could not go anywhere. He Yi wanted to copy out some poetry he remembered for Xue Ci, but the wooden chest holding his things had not yet been delivered. After turning the matter over in his mind, he decided to repair the cupboards, tables, and stools instead.
Fortunately the damage was minor. There was no need to send for Carpenter Zhou. He could manage the repairs himself.
Xue Ci leafed through a book on herbs for a while, then grew bored and asked He Yi if there was anything he could help with.
“Don’t want to read anymore?” He Yi turned to look at him.
“The herb book… is a little dull. Most of the descriptions are the same, and many of the plants do much the same things.”
He Yi thought about it and found that fair enough. “When I finish this, we’ll mix some clay paste and mortar together and touch up the plaster on the walls.”
Xue Ci looked from the furniture He Yi was working on to the pieces he had already repaired, then nodded.
The rain let up for a little over one shichen, a little over two hours. During the break, Zheng Yuanfeng came to visit, bringing two salted duck eggs. “I meant to bring you red-dyed chicken eggs, but we didn’t have many eggs left at home, and we’ve already eaten them all. So I brought you these instead.”
He had rubbed red paper against the faintly bluish shells, leaving streaks of red. Without his explanation, He Yi might never have guessed they were salted duck eggs.
Xue Ci’s pale hand suddenly appeared beneath He Yi’s eyes, and He Yi passed an egg into his palm to hold.
“Did it work out?” He Yi asked Zheng Yuanfeng.
Zheng Yuanfeng elbowed him, his face flaming red, and stammered, “What are you talking about? It’s… it’s been settled!”
If it was settled, didn’t that mean it had worked out? He Yi rubbed the spot Zheng Yuanfeng had jabbed, utterly puzzled.
Xue Ci asked, “How do you eat this?”
“Just peel it like a boiled egg.” He Yi turned to Zheng Yuanfeng again. “Do we need to cook these first, or can we eat them as they are?”
Zheng Yuanfeng was blushing with embarrassment, but the other two had already moved on to discussing salted duck eggs, as though neither intended to ask any more about his marriage. He protested in exasperation, “They’re already steamed! You can eat them!”
Xue Ci immediately tried to peel one, but He Yi stopped him. “Let’s make some congee to eat with them. Otherwise they’ll be too salty.”
Xue Ci swallowed and glanced at He Yi. “Then we’ll have them at dinner.”
Zheng Yuanfeng had the distinct impression that those two had grown even more affectionate lately, though he could not put his finger on why. He soon abandoned the puzzle as thoughts of his own marriage took over. Unable to keep quiet any longer, he volunteered, “You’re not even going to ask me…? Ahem. You’ll have to come and help on the day. We don’t have many relatives, so there might not be enough hands.”
“Right, I forgot to ask. Which family is the bride from?”
Pleased that He Yi had finally taken the hint, Zheng Yuanfeng slapped him on the shoulder and launched into an enthusiastic account of his future bride.
She came from Cen Family Village, and her father was the oil worker at the oil mill whom He Yi already knew. What a coincidence! The wedding date had also been set for late in the ninth lunar month. They had calculated the auspicious hour, and it was almost time to begin preparing the banquet.
“No problem. Just say the word if you need anything. Don’t be shy.” He Yi draped a bent arm over Zheng Yuanfeng’s shoulder and smiled.
“You can count on it. What about you, Xue Ci? Will you help if you’re free?” Zheng Yuanfeng leaned around He Yi to address Xue Ci, who was sitting on his other side.
Xue Ci gave an emphatic nod. “I’ll come.”
“That’s a true friend!” Zheng Yuanfeng reached out to pat Xue Ci on the head, only for He Yi to stand abruptly and block his hand.
He Yi glanced at the sky. “Looks like it’s about to rain again. You should head back. Why didn’t you bring a rain cape?”
“Right! I only planned to stop by briefly, so I didn’t bother putting one on. Didn’t realize we’d been talking this long. I’d better go.”
He Yi and Xue Ci waved to him in unison, then bent over their work again.
Their decisive movements were so alike that Zheng Yuanfeng stood there dumbfounded. It took him dozens of breaths to remember that he was supposed to leave.
Not long after, rain began pattering down again. Water washed the stones of the open courtyard smooth and gleaming. The grassy scent of moss drifted everywhere with the rainwater, leaving the house fresh and clean.
When He Yi had designed the bedroom, he had made it unusually large, occupying two-thirds of the east wing. Even after they had installed the canopy bed, there was a great deal of space left over, and the room looked rather empty.
But He Yi had deliberately reserved that space for a cat climbing frame. With rain falling outside, building perimeter walls and similar outdoor work was out of the question. He went to the woodshed for some lumber and decided to build the frame now.
Since it was for Xue Ci, the first consideration had to be its load-bearing capacity. If that was inadequate, the entire structure would be unsafe.
Big cats naturally liked clawing and scratching to sharpen their claws, so He Yi left the bark on the logs. He only smoothed the bends and corners to keep them from digging uncomfortably into the snow leopard.
He arranged the large round load-bearing posts in a triangle and connected each pair with crosspieces, creating a firm supporting structure.
Next came the steps, smaller platforms, and a large resting platform.
He Yi remembered a section of hollow tree trunk he had found before. He lined the inside with a layer of dry grass and fastened it at a forty-five-degree angle midway up the frame, creating a climbing passage through the center. At the very top he laid the longest and widest board to form a broad flat platform, then surrounded its edges with bundles of grass. That would serve as the cat’s nest.
Xue Ci had no idea what He Yi was making, and He Yi refused to tell him. His curiosity was unbearable. Every so often he hid a board or saw He Yi needed, but He Yi never seemed to grow angry.
The gaze He Yi turned on him was impossibly gentle. He merely said helplessly, “If you keep interrupting my progress, won’t it take even longer before you find out what I’m making?”
Xue Ci thought about it and conceded the point. Pouting a little, he obediently began passing him wood and tools instead.
He Yi worked very quickly, but evening was still approaching. He threw several grass balls he had woven earlier to pass the time onto the top platform. He did not dare suspend them on strings. The snow leopard’s strength and bite were hardly delicate. Anything hanging from the climbing frame would probably be torn apart in less than a quarter-hour, making all that work pointless.
By the time Xue Ci saw the grass balls, he had transformed into a snow leopard. With one swift leap from the floor, he landed on the very highest platform and began playing with them.
The freshly built structure promptly sank under the impact. He Yi held his breath. The hollow passage in the middle seemed rather redundant now, yet if Xue Ci kept leaping straight to the top, the frame would eventually collapse.
“Next time, go through the middle here. Climb through this part and then go up. I’m afraid the whole thing will topple over.” He Yi looked up at the snow leopard, curled into a ball at the top with only his round eyes showing, and tried to persuade him.
Xue Ci was enthusiastically chewing on a grass ball. Only then did he edge forward and peer down. He spotted the round hollow trunk, glanced back at He Yi, jumped down, and demonstrated that he could crawl inside it.
The trunk was so wide that even the snow leopard’s solid body could pass through without obstruction. He Yi relaxed. But just as he stepped forward to pet the enormous head poking out of the tunnel, his shoe accidentally landed on the clothes Xue Ci had shed.
“…” He picked them up and shook off the dust, then looked around for somewhere to put them. There seemed to be nowhere suitable. He decided on the spot to add a clothes basket to the climbing frame. He bent bamboo strips into a half-sphere and wove more strips through them, making a simple basket that he attached where the snow leopard’s hanging tail could reach it.
“If your clothes fall off, put them in here. When you need to dress, just hook them out again.” He Yi brushed the bamboo shavings from his hands and went outside for a dustpan to clean up.
The snow leopard’s enormous fluffy tail immediately drooped and curled back on itself like a little hook, swinging left and right, as though answering that he understood.
He Yi turned to look once more at Xue Ci, who refused to leave the very top platform. Amused, he walked out.