The weather turned warmer amidst the sound of Jiang Beibei’s loom. The sun grew more intense. A sudden heavy rain fell, washing away the last of the tender green.
Dandelions by the roadside wore spherical white pom-poms. Foxtail grass drooped, the needle hairs on its spikes looking just like the coarse hairs on a dog’s tail. Wild clover bloomed with small yellow flowers. Zhou Huan loved seeing it most. In her eyes, it wasn’t a weed but patches of animal feed.
Cattails grew along the pond’s edge. Yu Muyang said the yellow flower spikes atop the cattail stems looked like sausages from afar. Saying this, he swallowed hard, went up to pinch one, and the cattail burst open, releasing white fluff. Like dandelion fluff, it drifted away with the wind.
The goosegrass on the field ridges grew back every spring, impossible to eradicate. Wild oats tried to blend in at the edges of the wheat fields, hoping to pass for wheat, but their efforts were in vain.
On the open ground before the house, newly harvested wheat was laid out to dry. Beneath it were bamboo drying mats woven by Miao Bing. Li Cunxin, Di Wanling, Feng Huai, and Yu Muyang threshed the wheat with flails, knocking the grains loose. Zhao Penglai used a pitchfork to pile the threshed wheat stalks to the side.
Miao Bing came from the new house out front, holding a pair of straw sandals. He called into the house, “Zhou Huan.” He called twice, but no one came out.
Di Wanling said, “She probably went out back to feed the chickens.”
No sooner had she spoken than an “Aye?” floated over from behind the adobe house. Zhou Huan jogged over. “What is it? You called me?”
Miao Bing handed her the straw sandals. “Your shoes are done.”
“Ah!” Zhou Huan let out an extremely delighted, light cry. Taking them from Miao Bing, she said, “Thanks, let me try them on.”
Zhou Huan sat on a stool in the yard, took off her shoes, and put on the straw sandals. She stood up and took a few steps. They fit perfectly and were soft and light. She ran over to Li Cunxin and Di Wanling, who were threshing wheat in the yard, and struck a pose. “How are they? How do they look?”
The two stopped to catch their breath, their gazes falling on Zhou Huan’s feet. They couldn’t help but inwardly sigh. The talents of Miao Bing and Jiang Beibei were truly remarkable. They could weave you anything.
They each had two pairs of straw sandals. One pair was fully enclosed, suitable for spring, summer, and autumn. The other was originally intended as a spare. Unexpectedly, after Xia Qing asked, “Can you make them like flip-flops?”, everyone had quirky ideas. They wanted ones shaped like flip-flops, strappy sandals with patterns, even slides. The most outrageous was Zhou Huan, who wanted a pair of Roman-style sandals.
Weave it, they could weave it all.
And indeed, Zhou Huan’s shoes looked beautiful on her feet. They had an exotic flair and, paired with her headpiece, a unique style.
Li Cunxin said, “If you put on a dancing skirt, you’d look like a Gypsy girl.”
Di Wanling said, “Like an Amazon warrior.”
Yu Muyang cupped his chin, pondering deeply. “Mm… like a witch.”
“Get lost!” Zhou Huan grabbed a nearby broom and chased Yu Muyang, swinging to hit him.
Zhao Penglai leaned on his pitchfork, his interest piqued. He composed a poem on the spot and recited it with passion. “With bamboo cane and straw sandals, one journeys lighter than on horseback. In a cloak of straw, I face life’s mist and rain with calm.”
“Hey, Sister Wen and the others are back,” Di Wanling said, looking into the distance.
Everyone looked west. Sure enough, they saw Yan Baiyu, Wen Mi, and Xu Yin returning.
Ever since Wen Mi came back from the search for ramie, it had always been these three who went hunting.
These three worked together incredibly well. Strong in combat, excellent talents, whether actively attacking or setting traps, whether close-quarters capture or bow and spear throwing, they had a good track record. Three or four times out of five, they brought something back. The only pity was the survival rate wasn’t high; most of what they brought back ended up in their stomachs.
So whenever these three went out hunting, everyone would look forward to it, hoping for abundant spoils, hoping their prey’s fate was sealed, already having breathed its last.
Di Wanling said, “Looks like they brought back quite a lot.”
Zhou Huan’s eyes lit up. “I think I hear a pig squealing.”
The group moved to meet them. Zhou Huan said, “Sister Wen, did you catch pigs?!”
Xu Yin was hauling on a hemp rope, behind him tied four half-grown, adolescent pigs. Wen Mi was also leading three. The pigs, their legs tied, had been dragged all the way, their grunts weakening to weak squeals.
Among the three, only Yan Baiyu wasn’t riding a donkey. She held the reins of Mei Wenqin with one hand and carried a piglet in her other arm. This piglet was the smallest of the lot, looking like a suckling pig just weaned. The piglet in her arms was very docile, not making a fuss, letting her hold it.
Everyone was truly shocked. This was the most bountiful hunting trip they’d ever had.
Zhou Huan stared wide-eyed. “Did you guys go wholesale shopping?”
Li Cunxin asked Yan Baiyu, “Where did you catch so many pigs?”
Yan Baiyu handed the suckling pig for Li Cunxin to hold and smiled. “Didn’t we mention last time? We found some traces. Those were traces of a sounder of pigs.”
Di Wanling said, “Why are they all juveniles?”
Wen Mi said, “That sounder had quite a few members—fifteen to twenty. When they attack ferociously, their aggression is no joke. To be safe, we coordinated with the wolves and only captured some piglets.”
Yu Muyang stared at the suckling pig in Li Cunxin’s arms. “Village Chief, roast suckling pig…”
Li Cunxin said, “Don’t even think about it.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Zhou Huan looked toward Mei Wenqin’s back. Her view of the black donkey’s load had been mostly blocked by Xu Yin and Wen Mi. She could only see something black, wrapped in ropes.
Li Cunxin, being closer, had her view blocked by Yan Baiyu and hadn’t paid attention to what the black donkey was carrying, assuming it was some other prey Yan Baiyu and the others had hunted.
“What else did you catch…” Li Cunxin asked as she leaned sideways to peer behind Yan Baiyu. “Uh…”
Sprawled on the black donkey was no prey at all. It was a woman. Black clothes, black pants, black shoes. Her body was tied with rope like a twisted fried dough twist.
Zhou Huan also saw her and jumped in fright. “Dead or alive?”
The woman lifted her head. Her face was flushed from hanging upside down for so long. Her eyes were brimming with tears, full of indescribable grievance.
Yan Baiyu said, “Let’s go back first. The ropes on her can’t be untied. We’ll need a knife to cut them.”
The group led the donkeys home. They helped Zhou Huan carry the piglets to the pigsty. Di Wanling and the others, along with Wen Mi and Xu Yin, returned to the house front to continue threshing wheat.
Li Cunxin cut the ropes binding the woman like a fried dough twist and freed her. In the process, she learned from Yan Baiyu that they had encountered this woman while hunting; she had stepped into one of their traps.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal. If anything, Yan Baiyu and the others were more surprised than pleased. Finding a person was far more satisfying than any amount of hunted prey.
But the woman had clearly only recently arrived in this world. Highly strung, she wouldn’t listen to reason. Before they could release the trap, she shrieked wildly and struggled frantically. The ropes became more tangled, tighter.
They could have cut the hemp ropes with the spear blades they carried, but it would just take some effort. However, Yan Baiyu, after consideration, decided to just let her be, bring her back like this first, and wait for her to calm down on her own.
The woman was quite pretty, with delicate features. She held a cup; the brown sugar water inside was already drained to the bottom.
Yan Baiyu asked, “Calmed down now?”
The woman sat huddled in a bamboo chair, pitifully nodding. “Mm.”
A moment later, the woman looked up at Li Cunxin again. “Were you all really transported here too?”
Li Cunxin smiled. “Why would we lie about something like this? If we were lying, wouldn’t you catch us with just a single question?”
The woman nodded again. Her face still had a bit of baby fat, slightly puffed up from her posture, looking soft, tender, and very pinchable. Her face was a little dirty. She pressed her lips together, her eyes reddening. She began to sob quietly, tears falling like translucent pearls.
“Don’t… don’t be sad…” Li Cunxin didn’t know how to comfort her. Whenever someone cried, the roots of her hair prickled, and she broke out in a nervous sweat. Her bones and sinews buzzed as if with a thousand things to say, but when it came to her mouth, she didn’t know how to speak.
The woman wrapped her arms around Li Cunxin’s waist and cried into her. Li Cunxin’s body stiffened. After a long moment, she came back to herself and gently patted the woman’s shoulder.
Yan Baiyu glanced over indifferently, her expression unchanged.
Li Cunxin was helpless when it came to crying people. Yan Baiyu had discovered this long ago.
And Yan Baiyu, this person, happened to dislike crying.
“Don’t be afraid. You’re safe now. Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat? Yunxiu!” Li Cunxin called out.
“Aye!”
“See what food we have and make her a little something.”
“I’ve cooked two flatbreads.” Yunxiu was already coming over carrying a plate and a bowl of water. “Have something to start with, to line your stomach. Chew slowly when you eat, be careful not to choke.”
Having cried her fill, the woman’s emotions eased. Smelling the baked aroma of the flatbread, she unconsciously let go of Li Cunxin. She stared fixedly at the golden-brown flatbread on the table, the edges of its surface crispy. Her eyes were straight.
Li Cunxin sat to the side and smiled. “Eat. Don’t be shy.”
The woman took the flatbread. At first, a bit shy, she took a tentative bite. Then she began to chew large mouthfuls.
“What’s your name?” Li Cunxin asked.
After swallowing her mouthful of food, the woman said, “Bai Ling.”
Li Cunxin asked again, “How long have you been here?”
Bai Ling thought for a moment but couldn’t figure out exactly how long she’d been here. Her days felt like an eternally long century. “Maybe a little over a week? No, over half a month…”
Li Cunxin studied Bai Ling’s clothing and inwardly concluded this person hadn’t been here long. To survive in a place like this, besides having extremely strong wilderness survival knowledge or choosing a related talent, you needed to cooperate with others to survive. Alone, without a survival-type talent, one couldn’t last long.
Yunxiu asked curiously, “So, what’s your talent?”
Bai Ling was momentarily stunned. Yunxiu prompted, “That knowledge that suddenly appeared in your head.”
“Seems like it’s… Afforestation.”
“Ah, planting trees…” Yunxiu smiled. “Your talent and our Village Chief’s are in the same family.”
Li Cunxin, however, glanced at Yan Baiyu. Yan Baiyu asked, “What is it?”
Li Cunxin sighed. The talents people had chosen were all over the place. Few were geared toward survival. This was because few people, upon arriving, could, like Yan Baiyu and Xu Yin, treat what was before their eyes and in their minds as real, calmly analyze the immediate environment, and realize what kind of life awaited them.
Bai Ling hesitated. “Is that… bad…?”
“No, no.” Li Cunxin saw her misunderstanding and quickly shook her head. “I was just thinking, choosing that talent makes it hard to survive alone in the wild. But it’s fine. Now that you’ve met us, that’s no longer a problem.”
Yunxiu’s curiosity was piqued. “Speaking of which, what other talents are there? I don’t really remember them all.” Looking back now, the talents people had chosen for survival were each more off-target than the last.
Yan Baiyu said, “Chemical Engineering, Dyeing, Paper and Ink, Astronomy, Geological Exploration, Breeding, Water Conservancy, Glue, Medicine, Food Processing, Tailoring, Complete Library in Four Sections…”
Yunxiu said, “Stop, stop, stop. The ones before, fine. But what on earth is ‘Complete Library in Four Sections’?”
Yan Baiyu said, “Probably related to books.”
Yunxiu said, “Talents like Paper and Ink, Tailoring, Glue are completely useless here.”
Li Cunxin said, “You can’t say that. Talents are divided into foundational infrastructure and superstructure. Right now, they may not be very useful. But if we build a solid foundation and develop upwards, to live better lives with more material richness and color, we’ll need them too.”
“There’s some logic to that,” Yunxiu said. “But some of them sound just too unreliable.”
“Seems so,” Li Cunxin chuckled. “Baiyu, which talent do you think is the most ridiculous?”
Yan Baiyu thought for a moment. “Probably… Flower Arrangement.”
“…” Li Cunxin, Yunxiu.
How could there even be a talent like that? Who chooses Flower Arrangement as their talent?!
