Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Early the next morning, Zhao Dashan carried a groggy Zhao Xiaobao on his back and left the village through the back mountain.

The mountain path was a bit harder to traverse, but it had the advantage of being cool, shaded by the forest. Even though many leaves had fallen, the branches still provided cover, keeping the sunlight from reaching them.

As they passed the ridge at Yujiawan, they spotted several fresh grave mounds, with spirit money scattered on top and a few burnt-down incense sticks stuck in the front. As the wind blew, a desolate feeling hung over the whole hillside.

Zhao Dashan thought about going down for a closer look, but thinking of his little sister in the basket, he figured the enemy's graves were bad luck and might rub off on Xiaobao. He hesitated but decided against it.

"Woof!" Up ahead, Blackie let out an impatient bark.

Ever since Zhao Xiaobao had tossed him into the Immortal Land, this was the first time he'd been let out. The dog went nuts, impossible to call back, gone in the blink of an eye.

With him scouting ahead, they didn't have to worry about running into people or wild animals. If there was any trouble up ahead, he'd give them a heads-up.

Both dogs were smart and mean. Since they both had black fur, they got names that sounded like brothers, but they couldn't have been more different. One had short, stubby legs, the other long, lean ones. The only thing they had in common was that they were both vicious, mean to strangers and quick to bite.

Blackie had been cooped up in the Immortal Land, so the villagers had never seen how mean he could be. Only the Zhao family, who'd tried to pick fruit from the orchard, knew how "ruthless" he was. The only one who could control him was Zhao Xiaobao. Not by force, but by threatening to cut off his dog food.

Every village had its own mountains, and outsiders rarely set foot on them. Nobody dared go to another village's mountain to gather firewood or pick fruit. If you were lucky and nobody saw you, you might get away with it, but if you got caught, someone with a short fuse might beat you.

The forests didn't belong to anyone, but there were rules between villages. Even if something rotted on your own land, outsiders couldn't just help themselves. If you dared to reach out, you had to be ready to get hit. Behind their village, on those mountains, everyone knew where the wild fruit grew. Every year when the season came, people would keep watch, checking three times a day. Back when Zhao Dashan patrolled the mountains to keep refugees out, he'd moved every wild fruit he could find into the Immortal Land.

As for wild pear trees, he'd searched every mountain and hadn't found a single one. The one in the Immortal Land now had been dug up by his dad and little sister from the back mountain of the Big Granary.

Along the way, they didn't see any wild fruit, but they spotted plenty of grave mounds, especially at Liziba, where a funeral was going on. The sound of suona horns echoed through the mountains. It was hard to tell if it was an old villager who'd died, or a man who'd held on for a few days after a water fight but didn't pull through.

Zhao Dashan spent half the morning in the back mountain, not to gawk, but to dig up trees.

Liziba got its name from all the plum trees in the village. He didn't dig up big trees—too much work—instead, he dug up two little saplings.

It was hot, so nobody cared about the trees. These few plum trees in the back mountain were about to die if it didn't rain soon.

While her brother dug up saplings, Zhao Xiaobao watered each tree one at a time.

"Brother, if the plum trees were in our village, Xiaobao could water them every day," she said, stroking a plum tree sadly.

Zhao Dashan smiled. "It's okay. Brother's digging up the saplings, so it's the same thing. Once the little trees take root, the big trees will be happy too."

"Mm!" Zhao Xiaobao beamed and nodded.

"Woof!" Blackie burst out of the woods, tongue lolling and panting, familiar as ever, pressing his snout to her fingertips to drink.

After they finished digging up the trees, it was almost noon. The suona sounds from the mountain had stopped, and they could see the courtyard of the house with the shed was packed with people, probably for the funeral feast.

With the feast starting below, it was time to eat on the mountain too. The siblings didn't rush to continue. Zhao Xiaobao took a pot of porridge from the wooden cabin's kitchen, along with some cold wild vegetable salad on the stove and Blackie's dog bowl. The two of them and the dog found a shady spot and enjoyed a refreshing lunch.

After eating, the suona started again from below. Zhao Dashan tamped down the soil he had churned up while digging, had his little sister put away the hoe, and they continued toward Taoli Village.

On the way, they got lucky and encountered another variety of raspberry: the white raspberry.

Zhao Dashan had eaten it once as a child. White raspberries tasted better but were hard to find. The patch he had picked from as a kid might have been rooted up by wild boars, as it was gone the next year when he went into the mountains.

What they had picked before were red raspberries, the most common kind. Besides these, there were also yellow and black raspberries. Their mountains didn't have them; he had only tried them as a child when he and his two younger brothers sneaked over to another village's mountain to pick them.

Zhao Xiaobao had never seen white raspberries. She immediately couldn't move her legs, bouncing around in the basket. "Brother, brother, Xiaobao wants them, dig them up!"

"Dig, dig, dig, we have to dig!" He was even more excited than she was. He lifted her out of the basket and had her take a basket from the Immortal Land. The siblings crouched down and started picking.

The white raspberries had a strong, fragrant aroma and tasted sweeter. Zhao Xiaobao picked and stuffed them into her mouth, eating until her belly was round.

"Brother, they're so sweet, these fruits are so sweet, Xiaobao loves them."

"Brother loves them too. Let's pick a lot to take home. We can soak them in the stream later; they'll taste even better."

"Mm-hmm."

They picked for a good while until the basket was full, and there was still a large patch left on the ground.

After resting a bit, he took out a wooden spade and started digging. These weren't trees; they grew in a large patch facing the sun. He planned to dig them up with the soil and roots, just like he had done with the red ground fruit, and transplant them to the small orchard. Thinking of the red ground fruit covering the ground in the orchard, he was a bit tired of eating them. If he replaced them with white raspberries, the long drought season wouldn't be so hard to endure.

Zhao Xiaobao was tired from picking and full from eating, so she sat down directly on the ground.

"Rest a bit, Xiaobao. Brother will dig up some seedlings first. The soil in the Immortal Land favors fruits. Once the white raspberries grow a couple more rounds, they'll be as big and sweet as the red ones in the future," Zhao Dashan said with a full smile, his hands working nonstop as he dug up quite a few.

This spot was a slope with no tree shade. Zhao Dashan's face was sunburned black and red, with sweat the size of beans dripping from his forehead down his neck. He occasionally shook his head to flick off sweat beads that had reached his eyelashes. The weather was truly hot.

Zhao Xiaobao gave herself a pep talk, took out another empty basket, and continued picking fruit.

"Brother, Xiaobao isn't tired, I can still pick!"

The siblings picked and dug, working with great enthusiasm. They didn't finish picking all the fruit, leaving some for the animals in the mountains. People who live off the mountains understand the principle of sustainability—they always leave something behind when digging or catching.

"Woof!" Seeing them not moving for a long time, Blackie paced around in frustration.

"Don't bark!" Zhao Xiaobao grabbed a few white raspberries from the basket and stuffed them into his mouth. "What if you attract people? We're on someone else's mountain. Don't you want to eat good fruit anymore?"

Blackie rolled his tongue, crunched the fruit with his sharp teeth, and felt like he hadn't tasted much before it was gone.

Zhao Dashan lifted her into the basket, and the siblings continued their journey.

The mountains weren't all dense forests. Occasionally, they had to take detours or shortcuts. Walking under the scorching sun, even with straw hats, didn't help much, as waves of heat rose from the ground.

When they reached a spot with thick weeds, from a distance, it seemed like a wisp of white smoke was slowly rising.

"Xiaobao, is that smoke?!"

Seeing smoke in the mountains, Zhao Dashan was terrified. Without waiting for Xiaobao to confirm, he sprinted over, not bothering to check the surroundings, and shouted urgently, "Quick, Xiaobao, move the water tank from the yard out for me!"

"Okay!" Zhao Xiaobao, dizzy from the jostling, still managed to wave her hand.

The shadow of a wildfire had always hung over their family. The boys in the family would patrol the sandy ground every day, cutting down any weeds that grew, afraid that a wildfire might start if they weren't careful. But they never expected that despite all their precautions, their own mountain wouldn't catch fire, while smoke was rising from someone else's mountain!

Fortunately, it was just smoke; the flames hadn't fully caught yet. Zhao Dashan quickly unloaded the basket, lifted the water tank, and poured half a tank of water directly onto the smoking area.

"Splash—"

With a sound, the faint smoke instantly died out.

Zhao Dashan held the water tank, and when he saw that no more smoke was rising—truly no more—he slumped, staggering two steps before sitting down on the ground.

The mountains were connected. If a fire really started, with the withered trees and weeds, a single spark could spread over a large area. If one place caught fire, all the surrounding villages would have to pack up and flee.

Still uneasy, he had his little sister take a sickle from the storehouse and cut down all the weeds in the area where the fire had started. He didn't scatter the weeds either, gathering them all into the Immortal Land to use as firewood later.

The smoking spot had no grave mounds, so it definitely wasn't some family's ancestral grave emitting auspicious smoke. It was purely because of the hot, dry weather, with the sun igniting the area.

He felt an immense sense of relief—lucky, truly lucky, that they had stumbled upon it just in time. He dared not think what would have happened if they hadn’t noticed in time; once the fire started, not even a vat of water could put it out, and he would have had to flee down the mountain with his little sister.

Thinking of this, his hands trembled as he gripped the sickle. "Xiaobao, do you think it’s any use sending Xiao Wu and the others into the mountains every day to cut grass? No matter how carefully we guard, our reach is only so far—we can’t control someone else’s mountain. Fire isn’t like people fighting; once it starts burning, no one can stop it!"

Zhao Xiaobao sensed her eldest brother’s fear and clutched his clothes in fright.

"Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. I’ve put out the flames and cut the grass—it’s all good now." Zhao Dashan wiped the sweat from his forehead, unsure who was more afraid—his legs were still weak.

Seeing that her brother’s lips were cracked and dry, Zhao Xiaobao handed him a gourd of water. "Big brother, have some water."

Zhao Dashan took it and drank.

As soon as he finished, his little sister handed him a wild pear. "Big brother, have a pear."

Only after finishing the pear did his pounding heart start to calm down. A mountain breeze blew, though it brought no coolness, the absence of the smell of burning dry wood lifted his spirits a bit.

When Blackie came running back to hurry them along, Zhao Dashan finally lifted his little sister into the basket on his back. Still shaken, he circled the area twice to make sure everything was okay before continuing on toward Taoli Village.

They’d been delayed along the way, and by the time they reached Taoli Village, the sun was already starting to sink to the west.

To gather information, they couldn’t stay too far away, or they wouldn’t hear anything, making the trip pointless. Worried Blackie’s barking might draw attention, Zhao Xiaobao coaxed the dog close, then, following her brother’s instructions, sent him back to the Immortal Land. The siblings crept down the mountain like thieves, moving cautiously.

Perhaps because of the heat, the villagers didn’t seem inclined to go out, and no one noticed the two furtive figures slipping down the mountain, eventually hiding in a dense grove behind the village.

Not far away, through the gaps in the leaves, they could see the full view of Taoli Village, and with good ears, they could even catch snippets of conversation.

No sooner had they crouched down to catch their breath than they heard a commotion from below.

"He’s back! The Village Head is back! I saw the donkey cart!"

"Hurry! Go notify the village chiefs of the other villages—tell them the Village Head is back!!"