Chapter 7

That night, Li Cunxin slept very properly. She lay ramrod straight, not having moved an inch.

Having an extra person beside her, she wasn’t used to it. She was also worried that her terrible sleeping posture would offend Yan Baiyu. She fell asleep groggily but still felt that part of her brain was left empty and alert, controlling her body to not move randomly.

The next morning, Li Cunxin woke up on time, her body stiff and sore.

Lying in bed, she stretched lazily, reaching her hands toward her headboard direction, stretching her legs as far as they would go, pulling her body in opposite directions like pulling dough. All ten toes spread open. With the movement, a long, low groan escaped her nose involuntarily.

This movement woke Yan Baiyu as well. Over half a month of this life had relaxed her considerably, but years of ingrained habits were hard to break. At the slightest sound, she would still wake, just not as tensely as before.

Li Cunxin sat up, pressing down the quilt beside her to keep Yan Baiyu’s feet from being exposed to drafts. She whispered, “You can sleep a bit longer.”

Yan Baiyu also sat up. “If I stay asleep, what will you wear?”

Li Cunxin paused, only just realizing. She had three sets of furs in total, accumulated over the years. She had used a stone needle and thin strips of tough, pliable bark to crudely sew together those small pelts until they were large enough to cover the body.

Two of these furs were used as bed sheets for the earthen bed and the bamboo bed. The third Li Cunxin wore as winter clothing. Last night, this “winter coat” and the fur belonging to Yan Baiyu had been evenly given to Yun and Xia to use.

Li Cunxin getting up to move about couldn’t possibly wear only a jacket. She still needed to pull out the “bedsheet” from under the bamboo bed to wear.

“I’m already awake. I won’t be able to fall back asleep even if I close my eyes. You also said yesterday we need to build a cowshed, but things came up and we didn’t get to it. Today we’ll get up early and build as much of that cowshed as we can.” Yan Baiyu used her fingers as a comb and gently gathered her hair.

Li Cunxin sat for a while, feeling the icy tongue of the cold air licking her back raw, yet her front and limbs were still buried in the quilt. Because of the cold, she couldn’t help but greedily nestle deeper into the quilt. The warm bed made her comfortably scrunch up her neck and narrow her eyes.

She rested her chin on the quilt, tilting her head to watch Yan Baiyu tidy her hair.

When loose, Yan Baiyu’s long hair reached down to her ribs. It was soft, like dark clouds. Because it was usually tightly bound, it held a slight wave when let down.

This direct, appraising gaze made Yan Baiyu feel constrained. She met the look with her own, encountering Li Cunxin’s curious, pure, unmalicious eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

“Your hair looks so soft.” Li Cunxin grinned, showing an even row of teeth. “Not like my hair, all stiff and prickly.”

Yan Baiyu looked at Li Cunxin’s head and couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh.

Li Cunxin’s hair was a jet-black shine, as tough and vibrant as her own life force, a quantity to be envied. After a night’s sleep, it would explode wildly, standing up in every direction, framing her face like a sunflower.

Yan Baiyu said, “Alright, get up quickly. The longer you don’t move, the less you’ll want to.”

Like a martial artist gathering qi in their dantian, Li Cunxin took a deep breath and held it, then swiftly threw off the quilt.

Only by decisively and quickly leaving that warmth, giving herself no time to regret, could she avoid an endless, lingering struggle with the bedclothes.

She thought to herself, sure enough, it’s warmer when more people squeeze in together.

When Li Cunxin and Yan Baiyu got dressed and went out, Yunxiu and Xia Qing were already awake. Having been unconscious all day yesterday, they weren’t very sleepy and had woken early. It was just that the bed was soft and warm, making them reluctant to move.

“You’re awake just in time. Feeling unwell anywhere?” Li Cunxin asked.

Both shook their heads. They felt that this moment was simply too wonderful.

Li Cunxin breathed a sigh of relief. Yan Baiyu said that frostbite was no small matter; the most feared were recurring symptoms. Only if they showed no adverse reactions in the coming days could this hurdle be considered passed.

Yunxiu and Xia Qing prepared to get up. Li Cunxin walked to the door and moved aside the thatched curtain. The cold, refreshing air outside poured in. The two had just extended their arms and immediately retracted them, lying back down in bed.

Li Cunxin lit a fire in the stove to boil water. Yan Baiyu came out after getting dressed, and Li Cunxin asked her to watch the fire while she took a burning log in the fire basin and carried it to the main room, placing it in front of the bed.

The two on the bed were warriors battling the cold. The most unbearable part of getting up in winter was putting on the clothes taken off the night before, which had gone cold as ice.

“Warm your clothes first, then putting them on won’t be so bad, and you won’t catch a chill.” Li Cunxin sat on the wooden stump and fished out the two’s socks, holding them over the fire to warm.

The two wrapped themselves in the furs, gathered their clothes, and moved to the edge of the bed, following suit.

In the black, cracked fissures of the wood, a magma-like red light glowed. Flames licked out, their heat scorching. After warming them by the fire, the clothes became hot to the touch.

Outside was a vast expanse of white. The snow’s reflected light filled the room with brightness. The firelight dyed Li Cunxin’s features especially warm and kind.

Xia Qing spaced out, vaguely recalling the New Year celebrations of her childhood. Back then, it also snowed in the southern winters, back then the whole family reunited for the holiday.

A feeling stirred in her heart, hard to tell if it was sadness or emotion. A tickle in her throat, she called out to Li Cunxin, “Mom.”

Li Cunxin’s eyes widened. She was certain Xia Qing had indeed called her that just now and knew she was joking. She laughed: “I couldn’t possibly have given birth to a daughter as old as you. Don’t take advantage of me.”

Xia Qing grinned and hugged her arm. “I’m calling you Mom; if anyone’s taking advantage, it’s you of me.”

Li Cunxin stuffed the socks into her hands. “Cold rises from the feet. Put on your socks; don’t walk barefoot on the ground.”

Li Cunxin stood up. Xia Qing hugged her waist again, calling out even more merrily, “Mom, Mom.”

Yan Baiyu came in carrying hot water for the three of them to wash their faces. “When did you gain a daughter?”

Li Cunxin said, “She’s gone crazy.”

After the three had washed their faces, Yunxiu finished dressing and followed Li Cunxin to the kitchen. Yan Baiyu reminded them not to catch cold and that it was best to stay indoors. But the two had been lying down for a whole day, their bones turning soft; they couldn’t stay cooped up.

Li Cunxin handed Yunxiu a willow branch. Yunxiu held it with a blank look.

“Chew this end into a brush shape to clean your teeth.”

“How do I chew it?”

“Chew along the branch until it’s like a brush.” Li Cunxin brought over the clay jar from the stovetop and, before Yunxiu was prepared, opened it. “After chewing it, dip it in a little salt. It can disinfect.”

Yunxiu was like a machine stuck on a glitch, stopping abruptly without moving. Her eyes went wide, staring at Li Cunxin, then at the snow-white crystals inside the jar.

“You… and you just brought this out with such a normal expression.” Her brow trembled, her eyes reddened, a sheen of water forming. She let out a choked laugh.

Li Cunxin was confused. “What’s wrong?”

“This is salt.” Yunxiu’s voice trembled with excitement.

The convenience of modern life made it easy to forget the preciousness of salt in ancient times. It was essential for human survival, the chief of all flavors, a major economic benefit, and something rulers had to control.

In modern society, one could walk into any small shop and buy a pack of salt for one-fifty, in less than ten minutes.

In this godforsaken place, you could go a whole year without seeing a living soul. Getting enough to eat was blessing enough; obtaining salt was truly rare.

It was difficult, too difficult to obtain.

Yunxiu thought, perhaps part of it was her own talent acting up, the instinct of the chef within her surging forth. Even if Li Cunxin had brought out a lump of gold right now, she wouldn’t lose her composure like this.

“Can I taste it?”

“Of course.” Li Cunxin realized that among the few of them, she had been in this place the longest and commanded the richest resources. Things that had become ordinary in her eyes might not be so in the eyes of the others. “How have you been solving your salt requirement all this time?”

Li Cunxin brought out two more willow branches and handed them to Yan Baiyu and Xia Qing, who had come over.

For humans, salt was a necessity. Going without salt for long periods easily led to listlessness, muscle cramps, and a host of other problems.

Yan Baiyu said, “Animal blood and muscle contain small amounts of salt, barely enough to sustain my needs.”

Xia Qing said, “That’s what we did too. We’d also look for fresh mushrooms to cook.”

Only without salt, the flavor was never that good.

Li Cunxin hefted the salt jar. “I got this from the salt lake to the west. That place is a bit far. When the weather warms up, if you want to see it, I’ll take you there. There’s not just a salt lake there; there’s also an open-pit mine.”

Yunxiu put a bit of salt on the tip of her tongue to taste. “Is this lake salt? There doesn’t seem to be much bitterness.”

Salt obtained by evaporating water from lake salt would taste bitter due to impurities. The bitterness Yunxiu tasted on her tongue was already very faint.

“Of course, I purified it.” At this, Li Cunxin felt a bit proud.

Yunxiu said, surprised, “Without reagents, how did you purify it?”

“Heh heh.” Li Cunxin folded her arms. She couldn’t help but act mysterious and show off this once. Truly, she had been very satisfied with how she’d done it back then, but had been unable to share it with anyone, which was a great regret. Now that someone was eagerly asking her about it, she felt hot all over and couldn’t hold back from opening the floodgates. “I crystallized the salt at the salt lake, put it in jars, and brought it back to purify…”

Li Cunxin’s cheeks were flushed, and the more she talked, the more animated she became. She told Yunxiu how she dissolved the salt again, added lime water, alkali water, fruit acid, and utilized the solubility of potassium chloride, and so on and so forth…

Yunxiu listened intently. Xia Qing was half-understanding, her attention caught by the thatched shed next to the kitchen. She walked toward it while chewing on her willow branch.

Yunxiu repeatedly praised Li Cunxin, “You’re really amazing.”

If there was just one praise, Li Cunxin felt happy. But after Yunxiu said it several times in a row, Li Cunxin suddenly felt embarrassed and thought the praise was undeserved. Actually, this was a traditional purification method she’d learned online before transmigrating.

From the thatched shed, Xia Qing heard a lowing sound. The shed, which had been open front and back, now had curtains hung.

Li Cunxin had always raised the black donkey roughly. She thought the donkey was thick-skinned and cold-resistant. Building it a shed to shield it from snow, laying down straw for its bedding, was about good enough.

And indeed, Mei Wenqin truly had survived one winter after another without getting sick from the cold.

It wasn’t until Yan Baiyu saw it and said they should be more careful. To be safe, they should hang thatched curtains on all four sides to block the wind and prevent the two draft animals from freezing.

Li Cunxin still hoped to use this water buffalo for plowing in the spring, so of course she listened to Yan Baiyu. With Yan Baiyu’s talent, she was certainly more knowledgeable in this area.

The rabbit kits too, Li Cunxin had, on Yan Baiyu’s advice, divided the enclosure into two sections, separating the bucks and does to prevent premature mating.

Xia Qing lifted the shed’s curtain and saw that robust water buffalo. She jumped in fright, then shouted excitedly, “Ah! A water buffalo! Yunxiu! Yunxiu! They also have a water buffalo!”

Xia Qing couldn’t wait to share this treasure-finding surprise with Yunxiu. She walked to the kitchen doorway, only to see Yunxiu holding up a cleaver. The iron blade gleamed with a cold, greenish luster. Yunxiu held the cleaver up, gazing at it as if basking in the holy radiance it emitted.

Seeing iron, seeing that sharp blade, Xia Qing’s eyes turned green with desire.