The Hunter's Little Husband on the Mountain

When floods ravage her hometown, Luo Ying is abandoned as useless. Ye Lanying, who lives in the mountains, finds her and takes her in. In a world plagued by floods and warfare, Ye Lanying’s family doesn’t have much food, yet she always makes sure Luo Ying gets a share. She takes her in and cares for her attentively. Who would have thought she’d found herself a treasure? With a flick of a silver knife, radishes are sliced thin as cicada wings, tofu blooms like fluffy snow, and cucumber is cut into overlapping sheets that look like jade curtains! The family’s wild rabbits and the fish caught by the neighbors aren’t selling, so they set up a stall in town. They debone the meat and slice it paper-thin, then marinate it in rice wine, Sichuan pepper, and fried bean paste before blanching it in bubbling porridge. Add chopped scallions, cilantro, and celery leaves, and a bowl is ready for just five coins! Boatmen and laborers hurrying to work love it! Now they can pay their autumn taxes and afford winter clothes. Even Ye Lanying’s son, who had been like a walking corpse, with no attachment to the world, lights up when he tastes Luo Ying’s cooking. Before long, the way he looks at her begins to change. * When Luo Ying was dying, someone saved her, so naturally she worries about everything in her benefactor’s household. Ye Lanying’s son went hunting in the deep mountains and never came back. Luo Ying heard there were bears in those mountains, and worried something had happened to him. But his own mother was far more relaxed about it. “He’s bigger than a bear, meaner than one, and clever to boot. He’s lucky if he hasn’t bullied a bear. You think a bear could eat him?” Luo Ying had seen bears and knew how dangerous they were, but she still couldn’t stop worrying. Two months later, Luo Ying took the quilt she’d slept under all autumn down the mountain to wash it. She ran into a tall, broad-shouldered man, bigger than a bear. A wild boar was slung over his shoulder, his hair was a mess, and he was barefoot. His dark eyes stayed fixed on her, making her heart pound. She hugged the quilt and ran to the stream, but the man’s gaze followed her. Ye Chunshan suspected there was a thief in the house. That pretty young man who’d just run past was carrying his quilt! The silk quilt he’d traded a year’s worth of rabbit fur for! If the young man hadn’t looked so unlike a thief, Ye Chunshan would have chased after him right then. Back home, he found his mother and asked her about it. Only then did he learn that while he’d been away these past few months, someone else had moved into his room, and his mother had given that pretty young man all the good things in the house. Before long, Ye Chunshan wanted to give that young man every good thing he owned. He treasured him like the apple of his eye, and no one else was allowed to criticize or lay a finger on him. [Coming next: Please add my new farming novel, “Look, the Ancestor Is Here!” to your reading list!] Xie Lin never expected to die so soon, before he could enjoy the good life. Everyone in his family was sick every other day, and he’d raised them all. Back then, none of the houses or fields belonged to them. He’d worked himself to the bone, day and night, to buy it all. But before he could enjoy a single day of it, he died. On the day his adoptive father, Xie Lin, passed away, his second son welcomed a delicate, fair-skinned baby boy. There were plenty of men in their family, but few young boys, and they’d all said that if a boy was born, they’d raise him like a little ancestor. The boy was born, but his adoptive father never got to meet him. Xie Jiangping wept for months, blaming his family for wearing their father out. When the boy was three, he waited until they were alone, then pulled Xie Jiangping into the main hall. His small body climbed onto the armchair Xie Jiangping always sat in. Looking at him with a solemn, sorrowful expression, he said, “Jiang, your father worked himself to exhaustion for decades, but he never got to enjoy a single day.” Xie Jiangping dropped to his knees with a thud. Reborn as his own great-grandson, Xie Lin had just one demand: this time, he was going to live however he pleased. He sat in a rocking chair, cracking melon seeds as he watched the stonecutters pass by outside, one after another. One of them was so handsome he looked unreal. His older brother complained to their grandfather that all he ever did was crack melon seeds. Xie Jiangping smacked the boy on the forehead and said, “How dare you try to boss your little brother around!” His brother clutched his head, looking aggrieved. Their grandfather came out smiling with a fresh basin of roasted melon seeds, swapping it for the one that was almost empty. His brother came over, fuming. “You really think you’re an ancestor or something?” Xie Lin smiled and replied, “That’s right. I really am an ancestor.” Theme: In the darkest hours, we can feed each other’s flames and keep the warmth burning bright.