Starting from Mountain Farming and Hunting

This kind of three-wheeled motorcycle wasn’t difficult. Under normal operation, there was no risk of tipping over. The only tricky part might be shifting gears.

Lin Heng taught for a while, and his Elder Brother had grasped the basics, able to get it moving on the road. Xiulan was the same, clever and dexterous, so learning wasn’t too hard for her either.

After teaching them the basics, Lin Heng still had his Elder Brother practice first. Xiulan could learn anytime; there was no rush.

After practicing for a bit, Lin Heng had his Elder Brother drive him to Third Uncle’s house in Shanghe.

“Brother Heng, Brother Yue, what are you two planning to do?” Lin Hai, who was planting potatoes at the doorway, asked curiously.

“Lin Heng, come inside for some water. Have dinner at our place tonight,” Li Xue, Lin Heng’s Third Aunt, greeted him with a smile. She was even more enthusiastic now than his Third Uncle.

“No need,” Lin Heng shook his head, then added, “My brother is practicing driving. The two of us going to Ancheng the day after tomorrow, it isn’t very safe, so I came to ask Lin Hai if you want to come along.”

He then added another sentence, “Don’t worry about the expenses. I’ll cover all food, drink, accommodation, and travel.”

“I have no objections. It’s good for him to go out and see the world,” Li Xue said first.

If it were before, they might have hesitated a bit, but now there was nothing to hesitate about. They were overjoyed that Lin Heng was willing to take Lin Hai along.

“Of course I’m willing! I’ve never been to Ancheng before,”

Lin Hai said happily. He hadn’t even been to downtown Taibai City many times, let alone Ancheng.

“Alright then, we’ll set off early the morning after tomorrow,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

After saying that, he had his Elder Brother continue driving. They went up for about two kilometers, turned around, and headed back.

Many people were planting potatoes at this time. Seeing Lin Yue learning to ride the motorcycle, they all showed expressions of envy. Some even curiously asked how far it could go, how fast it could run, and other questions.

Lin Heng didn’t put on airs. He told them very gently and even handed out cigarettes to some people.

“Got the hang of it now?”

After half an hour of practice, Lin Heng asked with a smile.

“This three-wheeler really isn’t that difficult,” Lin Yue nodded.

“Then I’ll get off. You practice slowly on your own. Don’t worry about the fuel cost.”

Lin Heng said and got off the vehicle. As soon as he got off, Lin Tao and Lin Hai scrambled to get on, but were sternly scolded away by their father.

Seeing this scene, Lin Heng didn’t stop them. Mainly, his brother’s skills weren’t proficient yet, and riding along would be quite dangerous.

Returning to the house, Lin Heng found Tian Yan and Caiyun had come to his home. The two were teaching Xiaoxia how to write characters in the study, but Xiaoxia wasn’t very willing to write and just wanted to scribble and doodle.

Xiulan was chatting with them nearby. There wasn’t much else to do at the moment.

“This study of yours is quite nice. Just get a few more books and it’ll be even better,” Tian Yan looked up and said. Lin Heng’s home was now more luxurious than hers, and this study made her particularly envious.

“I’m planning to buy some more,” Lin Heng nodded with a smile.

“Boss Lin, buy a couple more history books. That way I can benefit from reading them too, and I can even borrow a couple for the book-loving kids at school to read,” Tian Yan said with a smile.

Lin Heng glanced at her and joked, “If you teach Xiaoxia to read and write, I’ll personally donate a thousand reading materials to the village elementary school.”

“Is that for real?” Tian Yan stood up, her eyes fixed on Lin Heng.

Lin Heng nodded, “Asking you to teach Xiaoxia was a joke. I already planned to buy some books for the village elementary school. I can do it within two years.”

Xiulan also nodded beside him, “Lin Heng did say that. He said once he made money, he’d buy some extracurricular reading materials for the village elementary school. He said us rural kids lack exposure, so we can only read more books to learn about the outside world.”

“My brother said that to me too. He often reads books himself,” Caiyun also nodded.

Tian Yan didn’t know when Lin Heng had become like this, completely different from the Lin Heng she used to know, but he was indeed much more pleasing to the eye now.

Although Lin Heng never flaunted any literary knowledge, she could see some clues from Xiaoxia. Xiaoxia knew more fairy tales than she did.

Xiulan also asked her about cultural things from time to time, obviously influenced by Lin Heng.

“Joking or not joking. I’ll take care of Xiaoxia’s literacy and enlightenment education. You just donate the books,” Tian Yan waved her hand dismissively.

Lin Heng shook his head, “She’s still young. There’s no need to learn characters so early. Don’t worry about the books. I said I’d donate them, and I definitely won’t go back on my word.”

He thought it was good for Xia Xia to have a happy childhood. This kind of thing wasn’t urgent. It wouldn’t be too late if she wanted to learn herself at four or five years old.

“That’s fine. I can teach casually. She’s so smart, maybe she’ll want to learn herself,” Tian Yan insisted.

“Alright then,” Lin Heng nodded. If Tian Yan wanted to teach, he couldn’t very well refuse.

Watching Xiaoxia write for a while, Lin Heng felt it was still too much to ask of his precious daughter. When he had time, he’d teach her to play with paper-cutting instead.

After writing for a bit, Xiulan seized the chance to run off, pulling Lin Heng to go out and play.

However, it was almost dark, so Lin Heng promised her they’d go out tomorrow.

The next day after breakfast, seeing the weather was still good, Lin Heng prepared to take them out to play.

Inside the house, Xiulan was bent over sweeping the floor. Lin Heng suddenly hugged her from behind, pressing against her full, round buttocks.

“Ah! What are you doing again!”

Xiulan’s face instantly flushed red. She glared fiercely at Lin Heng. Being hugged so tightly from behind like this was too embarrassing.

Lin Heng didn’t let go. Instead, he said with a smile, “I was saying we should go out to play. Take you and Xiaoxia to Heihe. The scenery there is quite nice.”

Xiulan slapped his hand away hard and shook her head, “It’s too far. I don’t want to go. Let’s wait until the trees sprout.”

“Alright then,” Lin Heng shrugged helplessly.

“Let’s go help Mom and Dad plant potatoes in a bit. I’d feel bad eating potatoes without doing any work at all,” Xiulan added.

“That’s fine. My skin is thick,” Lin Heng chuckled.

Xiulan glared at him. After finishing sweeping, she pulled Lin Heng and took Xiaoxia to the field. Their parents had almost finished planting the potatoes; only a small portion of the field remained.

“None of you need to help. Go check on the cattle. They wandered off along the river, not sure where they went,” Father Lin waved his hand dismissively. He never intended to have Lin Heng do the planting anyway.

“Let’s help first, so they don’t refuse to let me eat potatoes later,” Lin Heng joked.

“As if they ever refused to let you eat when you worked before,” Mother Lin glared at him.

“Who told me to be a such a filial son? I’ll do it.”

Lin Heng took a hoe and dug holes with his father. Mother Lin, wearing leather gloves, grabbed cow dung and tossed it into the holes. Xiulan also wore a pair of gloves and placed the cut potato sprouts, bud-side up, on top of the cow dung.

Once Lin Heng finished digging the holes here, he used the hoe to hook soil over them, and the planting was done.

With Lin Heng and Xiulan helping, the remaining work was finished in an hour.

After resting for a while, Father Lin picked up the hoe again and headed to the lower field. Lin Heng spoke up, “Dad, what are you planning to do?”

“Nothing much. Going to find the cattle and sheep,” Father Lin shook his head.

“Alright.”

Lin Heng thought he was going to dig the field again.

After resting a bit longer, they got up and returned home. At this time, only early potatoes could be planted; other crops weren’t in season yet.

After lunch, Mother Lin called Xiulan to go wash clothes. Lin Heng took Xiong Ba and Xiaoxia for a walk on the road.

Unknowingly, they had already walked to the boundary with Shimen Village. Going up a bit along the wide gully on the left, you could see the temple of Guanyin Laomu, but usually, unless it was the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month, there was no one at the temple.

“Moo!!”

Just as they were about to head back, a cow’s moo came from inside.

“Daddy, there’s a cow,” Xiaoxia pulled Lin Heng, wanting to go into the gully.

“Then let’s go in and take a look.”

Lin Heng led her a bit further in. Xiong Ba led the way, very excited to be out playing.

“So it’s you.”

Walking in a little further, Lin Heng saw that the person herding the cow was actually Liu Ciwen. He was sitting on a rock, deeply engrossed in reading a book.

Seeing Lin Heng, he looked up with a simple, honest smile, “Brother Lin Heng, are you out for a walk?”

“Yes, accompanying my daughter and walking the dog,” Lin Heng noticed the book in his hand was from his own house. No need to guess, his younger sister Caiyun must have lent it to him.

“Brother Lin Heng, Caiyun and I are classmates. I asked her to borrow this book for me,”

Noticing Lin Heng’s gaze, Liu Ciwen quickly explained, seeming a bit flustered.

He and Caiyun had become reading buddies because they both loved books. Books Caiyun finished reading, she would lend to him. At school, they sometimes discussed the contents.

Now that Lin Heng had discovered it, he felt a bit embarrassed, since he hadn’t gotten Lin Heng’s permission.

Lin Heng smiled and waved his hand dismissively, “What’s the big deal? You read your book. It’s normal for classmates to borrow books from each other.”

“Okay, thank you, Brother Lin Heng,” Liu Ciwen quickly nodded.

Lin Heng chatted with him for a few sentences, and only then did he relax, gradually becoming more talkative.

While they talked, Xiaoxia threw stones at the water in the valley. When she got tired, she leaned against Lin Heng.

“I’m leaving. Be careful herding the cattle.”

Lin Heng said, holding Xiaoxia.

“Okay, Brother Lin Heng, you be careful too.”

Liu Ciwen stood up and said.

Lin Heng waved his hand, broke off a bit of firethorn berries by the stream for his daughter. Xiaoxia rested her head on Lin Heng’s shoulder, tasted two berries, then spat them out in disgust.

“Really, told you not to run around. Now you know you’re tired.”

Lin Heng pinched her cheek.

Xiaoxia blinked but didn’t speak, holding onto Lin Heng’s neck and calling out to Xiong Ba from time to time, acting very spoiled.

Lin Heng didn’t go straight home. He carried her and walked towards Banli Mountain for a distance. Xiaoxia, weighing over twenty pounds, served as weight training.

Not far into the walk, Lin Heng found the water hole where he had thrown the clouded leopard bones several months ago. The water had dried up, and not a trace of meat remained on the clouded leopard bones.

“Something took away a part of it.”

Lin Heng picked them up and found only a leg bone remained; the spine was gone too. It was different from when he had placed them there.

He took the skull to the stream to wash it. In the end, he only pulled out and took the four canine teeth; the rest he discarded.

Originally, he wanted to make a leopard skeleton specimen, but now there was no hope.

The canine teeth would make nice pendants. The tusks he obtained from hunting the wild boar before had been made into wind chimes together with bamboo.

Taking the canine teeth, Lin Heng carried Xiaoxia down the mountain. By the time they got home, it was almost four o’clock.

“Where did you two run off to? I thought you’d gotten lost.”

Seeing father and daughter return, Xiulan asked curiously.

“Mommy, I’m hungry~”

As soon as Xiaoxia got on the ground, she went and hugged Xiulan’s leg.

“I’ll make you some honey kudzu root powder in a bit,” Xiulan looked at her and said.

Lin Heng drank some water before briefly explaining where they went in the afternoon.

“No wonder Xiaoxia is hungry. You two really can wander,” Xiulan shook her head.

“I’m hungry too,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

Xiulan looked at the two of them, went to make some honey kudzu root powder, and brought over some malt sugar cut cake.

“Eat up. We’ll cook dinner after you finish,” Xiulan said.

The kudzu root powder with honey added was a pale yellow gel. Lin Heng broke the cut cake into pieces, dipped them in, and ate them. It had a unique flavor.

After finishing the snack, they didn’t feel like doing anything in the afternoon. Leaning back in the chair, watching Xiulan pick vegetables and Xiaoxia play, they idly passed the time.

In the evening, Tian Yan came over, fulfilling her promise to teach Xiaoxia to read and write. Xiaoxia was too tired to write and kept acting cute and spoiled with Tian Yan.

Lin Heng and Xiulan laughed beside them. In the end, Tian Yan gave up too, taught her some pinyin for a while, and then left.

After dinner, Lin Heng had only told one story before Xiaoxia fell asleep.

The two of them moved the bed aside and took out three thousand yuan from the twenty-five thousand yuan hidden in the underground secret compartment.

A few hundred yuan would be enough to buy saplings. Lin Heng took this much money because he planned to buy some other things as well, including some equipment for raising shrimp. After all, a trip to Ancheng wasn’t easy.

After moving the bed back, Xiulan started looking for clothes for Lin Heng to wear tomorrow. He needed a whole new set, inside and out.

She had just finished washing up and was wearing a loose nightgown, bending over rummaging through the wardrobe. Seeing this scene, Lin Heng couldn’t help but hug her from behind again.

No helping it. It was too tempting—so round and perky.

“Oh, can’t you be good for a moment? I’m looking for clothes for you.” Xiulan patted him, her face flushed as she struggled free.

Lin Heng was currently wearing just his thermal underwear, and being pressed so close against her felt far too hot.

“Don’t bother looking, we can deal with it tomorrow morning.” Lin Heng embraced her again.

“I’ve already found them. Let’s go to bed and rest.” Xiulan quickly finished gathering the clothes and climbed onto the bed, her face still red.

Her man was about to go out, so he really needed to be satisfied, lest he be unable to resist temptation outside.

“Wait, wife, can you switch to twin tails?” Lin Heng pulled at her, pleading.

“Why?” Xiulan didn’t understand.

“Just change it, please.” Lin Heng proactively fetched the hair ties.

Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and had no choice but to tie her waist-length long hair into twin ponytails.

Watching Xiulan tie her hair into twin tails, Lin Heng lowered the black curtain on Xiao Xia’s wooden bed, completely concealing the inside.

Then, unable to wait any longer, he turned off the light and headed towards the bed. Through the faint glow emanating from the fireplace, he could see Xiulan’s full and graceful figure.

As soon as Lin Heng climbed onto the bed, he could smell a faint fragrance, the lingering scent of shower gel from Xiulan’s freshly washed body.

“Wife, I love you!”

No need for many words, Lin Heng went straight for a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey.

“Don’t, cover us with the blanket.”

Xiulan grabbed Lin Heng, not wanting to be outside the blanket; that would be too shameful.

“Mmm…”

Lin Heng didn’t give Xiulan a chance, directly kissing her.

A few minutes later, she finally understood the purpose of the twin tails. That fellow Lin Heng was truly too wicked. She felt so embarrassed she wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Lin Heng was just trying it out; he didn’t actually pull hard on the twin tails.

But it had to be said, this was a feeling he had never experienced before. Combined with Xiulan’s expression, this great knight of his nearly met his end right then and there.

“You are truly bad.”

After a long while, Xiulan lay sprawled on the bed, glaring fiercely at Lin. Her body was still covered in sweat; it had been too exhausting just now.

She really didn’t know where he got all these strange and bizarre ideas, always forcing her to experience novel things. Every time, she found herself struggling back and forth between pleasure and shame.

Lin Heng didn’t speak. The slightly salty large steamed bun tasted quite unique.

…

(End of Chapter)

#### Translator’s Notes

• the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month: In traditional Chinese folk religion and Buddhism, the 1st and 15th days of each lunar month are considered auspicious days for making offerings and visiting temples.

• pinyin: The official romanization system for Standard Chinese (Mandarin) in mainland China. It uses the Latin alphabet to represent the sounds of Chinese characters and is used to teach pronunciation and typing.