Chapter 53

Huo Jilin's clay bricks had dried in the sun for five days, and the straw mats Zhou Qingshan had woven were finished too—you couldn't fault his handiwork.

He said to Huo Jilin, "Dalin, give me one more day, and I'll help you build it."

He was able to stand on his own now.

Uncle Zhou had brought back the prosthetic leg Chen Jue had ordered made for Zhou Qingshan.

When Zhou Qingshan saw this thing he had never encountered before, yet instinctively knew was meant for him, he was rooted to the spot in shock.

He stared at Chen Jue in disbelief; Chen Jue nodded. Zhou Qingshan then turned to Uncle Liu.

Uncle Liu had been watching him with a smile the whole time. He hadn't told Zhou Qingshan that, while he was asleep, he'd used a string to measure his leg's length and thickness, then had Uncle Zhou make it.

He'd worried it might not turn out right and Zhou Qingshan would be let down, but it looked great now.

"Try it on."

The prosthetic had an extra piece to fit over the lower leg, with bandages to strap it over the shoulder.

Uncle Zhou had sanded the wood silky smooth, leaving a finger's width of extra room for Zhou Qingshan to pad with soft cotton, so the leg wouldn't chafe, even though his wound had long healed and years of work had worn thick calluses there.

The prosthetic worked.

The moment Zhou Qingshan tossed aside his crutches and stood up, his eyes suddenly welled up.

Chen Jue told him, "Don't rush into walking. First, get a feel for the pressure, and once you've got your balance, then walk. It's like a kid learning to walk—you gotta be patient, don't rush it, or you'll end up falling."

Zhou Qingshan nodded over and over, his voice choked up as he said, "Okay, I get it. It's made so carefully—I definitely won't break it."

"..." Chen Jue had meant he was worried about Zhou Qingshan falling, but fine—worrying about the prosthetic breaking worked too.

Zhou Qingshan spent the whole day learning to walk, going from stumbling around to finding his balance on two legs. When he walked out of his house and all the way to Chen Jue's place, the villagers who'd come to help build a stable for Huo Jilin's Old Horse Ancestor were completely stunned.

Zhou Qingshan walked just like anyone else, in a brand-new pair of cloth shoes. Lifting his foot and putting it down—no different from anybody else.

"...Qingshan, you... you can walk? You're all better?"

"This ain't just healed, but... how'd this happen?"

"Did his leg just grow back out of nowhere?"

Zhou Qingshan walked slowly past them, stopped in front of Chen Jue and Huo Jilin, and gave them both a deep bow.

Chen Jue accepted it without protest—if he'd stopped him, Zhou Qingshan would've felt even guiltier.

But he stayed bowed for a long time.

Huo Jilin had to reach out and raise him up: "Brother Qingshan, didn't you say you were coming to help me build?"

Zhou Qingshan lifted his head and laughed heartily: "Right, right, I'm here to build."

His laugh was so open and cheerful—this was the real Zhou Qingshan, wasn't it?

Chen Jue watched Uncle Liu wiping his tears off to the side and thought to himself.

The villagers asked Zhou Qingshan how he'd gotten better, and he didn't hesitate to roll up his pant leg to show them—otherwise they'd start thinking Chen Jue was some kind of wizard.

Auntie Zhang said, "Is Jue Geer some kind of god? How'd he make a leg grow back out of thin air?"

Zhou Hehua stirred the pot the hardest: "Chen Jue is the best doctor there is! I think he's a miracle worker! Even miracle workers can't top him!"

Zhou Dajiang rarely spoke up: "That's right, Jue Geer's a miracle worker, better than Hua Tuo himself."

Okay, that's enough of that.

Chen Jue smiled and told them to knock it off, or lightning would strike them all.

"Let's get to work! Let's get to work! While the weather's good today, let's hurry up and build a house for our village's first horse."

Since Huo Jilin had excused the whole village from three years of forced labor and taxes, quite a few folks showed up to help today. But a stable didn't need that many hands, so in the end only five people whose harvests were finished stuck around.

Five people were more than enough—they had the stable done in less than a morning. Sturdy and good-looking, with the thatched roof all neat and tidy. Auntie Zhang marveled, "This is good enough for a person to live in, no problem."

Uncle Liu laughed: "This horse is worth a lot more than a person."

That was true.

Auntie Zhang watched Chen Jue feeding soybeans to the horse and sighed with a smile: "With all that silver spent on it, it deserves to be spoiled."

They didn't even have enough soybeans for themselves.

Today's meal was cooked up by Zhou Qingzhu, Uncle Liu, and Auntie Zhang.

The village head hadn't come, but Auntie Zhang had, which counted as representing his family.

The food was made with generous portions. Huo Jilin had ridden the horse into town at dawn to buy meat, tofu, and even two big carp.

With the horse, the round trip only took fifteen minutes.

Uncle Liu looked at the supplies he'd brought back—way more than he'd suggested—and already knew those two would never save a penny.

The fact that Huo Jilin got back so fast meant he hadn't browsed from stall to stall but had just bought stuff outright, without even haggling.

Sigh, a real spendthrift.

But Uncle Liu was just commenting in passing. The food was still made with hearty portions and plenty of grease.

Cabbage stewed with tofu, white pork fried until the fat rendered—how could that not be tasty?

Not to mention the braised pork belly Chen Jue had been dying for.

To make proper braised pork, Chen Jue picked out star anise and Sichuan peppercorns from his herbs. He also mimed to Uncle Liu how Qin Yuelou had eaten it that day at the restaurant.

Auntie Zhang was a woman who'd seen things. She clicked her tongue and said, "Don't worry, I know this dish."

Three-layer pork belly cut into chunks, stewed until soft and tender, seasoned with Uncle Liu's homemade fermented bean paste. Once the aroma filled the air, not only could Chen Jue and Zhou Qingzhu hardly sit still, even the men building the stable outside kept sniffing the air.

In the village, folks helped each other build houses without charging wages—just a meal in return.

More generous households would serve one meat dish to show some oil.

Fat cracklings stewed with cabbage and tofu was already considered a decent meal. They never expected the Huo household to be so generous.

It wasn't cracklings stewed with cabbage—it was big slabs of white pork.

Plus a whole basin of glistening braised pork. Just looking at the color made your mouth water.

And there was a big carp placed right in the center of the table. Although the villagers rarely ate fish—there was a big river northeast of the village, so getting fish was easy, but without oil or cooking wine, the fish always had a muddy taste, and with more bones than meat, it wasn't worth the time it took to catch. So they only bothered to catch fish when there was absolutely nothing else to eat.

Since the village was far from town, hauling fish all the way there to sell just wasn't practical either. So when Huo Jilin went out of his way to buy fish in town, Uncle Liu had already given him an earful about it.

But on New Year's Eve, there had to be fish on the table—it meant "surplus year after year."

So the villagers were happy to see the fish on the table.

The other dishes were just as hearty.

Scrambled eggs with chives—there were more eggs than chives, golden yellow and mouthwatering to look at.

And there were steaming white steamed buns, each one the size of Zhou Hehua's face.

Zhou Hehua had steamed those buns, and she did everything on a grand scale. As soon as the buns came out of the steamer, Aunt Zhang remarked that they looked full of good fortune.

And most importantly, there was a jar of wine. The food made everyone's mouth water, but the wine had everyone's eyes glued to it.

The five able-bodied men who stayed behind were all close to the family: Zhou Dajiang, Uncle Zhou, Zhou Qingshan, Hehua's husband, Zhao Chun, and Zhou Shun from the east side of the village.

Zhou Shun had been coming by every day to help out lately. He lived with just his grandpa—his parents had died young—and he didn't have much land, but he was hardworking and knew how to handle people. Besides working for families in town, he'd pitch in whenever anything needed doing in the village. He never asked for much—sometimes just a meal for his grandpa.

The villagers all liked him and would ask him to help out, partly to look after the two of them.

This time, when Huo Jilin was building the horse stable, Zhou Shun had come over on his own to help.

Zhou Shun worked in town all year round and had seen a thing or two. Pointing at the jar of wine, he grinned and said, "I've seen this wine before—it's pricey. Its aroma carries for miles."

Hearing this, Uncle Zhou sighed, "No wonder it's been teasing my nose so bad. Dalin, put this expensive wine away—we'll just eat. No need for the wine. And Jue Geer, put the meat dishes away too."

Aunt Zhang also said, "That's right, Jue Geer, take that braised pork away right now. The weather's cool enough that it'll keep—save it and eat it slowly."

Zhou Hehua swallowed hard and nodded too: "Put it away, quick! I can't eat it—I can't control myself! Hurry!"

Chen Jue told her, "Eat the eggs. Eat plenty of vegetables."

Zhou Hehua squeezed her eyes shut in agony.

Huo Jilin, acting like he hadn't heard Uncle Zhou at all, had already unsealed the jar and filled everyone's bowl to the brim. He raised his own bowl first and said to the group, "Thank you all for coming to help me build the stable today. I won't make a long speech—you've all worked hard all morning and must be hungry. This cup is my toast to all of you. I'll drink mine first. Cheers, Uncle Zhou!"

Huo Jilin knocked back his bowl in one gulp. To be honest, the wine in this era was weak—there was no distillation tech, and it wasn't even as strong as the disinfecting alcohol Chen Jue had purified himself.

He'd bought the strongest stuff the winery had, and it was only 12 proof—about the same as beer. A few drinks wouldn't hurt anybody.

Even though he wasn't a fan of drinking culture, he still had to follow the rules of hosting a meal.

After setting down his cup, Huo Jilin looked at the bashful guests who hadn't touched their chopsticks and smiled: "Uncle Zhou, you're the eldest here. You've got to lead the way. If you don't pick up your chopsticks, how can they?"

The villagers were pretty reserved. His overly polite speech had made them even more self-conscious, unsure how to start.

Uncle Zhou raised his cup, brought it to his lips with a trembling hand, closed his eyes, and scrunched his brow into a deep crease—like he was drinking poison. But after he swallowed, he kept exclaiming, "Good wine, good wine."

His hand stopped shaking. He stared at the bowl, then picked up the one he hadn't dared to touch and downed it in one go.

Aunt Zhang teased him: "Look at that face—like you're taking medicine! And why'd you go and drink twice?"

Aunt Zhang and the rest were all seated at the table too. Huo Jilin had brought out their big square table.

Originally, Uncle Liu had planned to eat in the kitchen, not wanting to squeeze in with everyone.

But there was no way Huo Jilin was going to let Chen Jue eat apart, so in the end, everyone sat down together.

The village wasn't as fussy as the town—when a family ate together, did they really need two separate tables?

So Uncle Zhou and the others didn't think anything of it. Hearing Aunt Zhang's teasing, he waved his hand: "You don't get it—wine's a good thing. I just couldn't bear to drink it! One cup costs how much grain! This time, I've got Dalin to thank for it!"

Just one cup and he was already talking like that. Huo Jilin shook his head a little, refilled his cup, and said with a smile, "Then Uncle Zhou, you better drink plenty today. Come on, everyone, bottoms up."

At last, everyone raised their cups.

"Thank you, Dalin—I should've thanked you a long time ago! My grandpa always says we owe you so much! If it weren't for you, our village wouldn't have gotten out of corvée labor and taxes! This cup I toast to you!" Zhou Shun finished speaking and tipped the cup into his mouth. He'd never drunk before, so of course the wine made him cough.

Uncle Zhou watched with a pang of worry: "Slow down, slow down—you can't rush wine. See how I drank mine just now?"

"Right, right, Dalin, I toast you!"

Everyone raised their cups one after another.

"Dalin, I'm so glad you're back. I'm so happy today! So happy!"

Zhou Qingshan didn't dare say much. He just raised his cup and downed it in one go.

He figured Huo Jilin had no idea how moved he was inside.

He was so happy today. He looked at his own legs, then at his brother sitting there alive beside him, and his eyes got wet again. A day like this was enough for him.

Wine really was a great way to bring people closer. After a few cups, everyone at the table was acting like brothers.

Zhou Dajiang said, "Dalin, from now on, anything you need, just say the word. If I can help, I definitely will!"

"Me too! Through fire and water, I won't back down!" Zhou Shun said.

Uncle Zhou said, "Well said, Shun. That boy's got a way with words."

Aunt Zhang said, "Shun's a studious boy. He works at the dock and picked up his letters from the foreman."

Huo Jilin glanced at Zhou Shun. "You know how to read?"

He needed someone who could read and use their head.

He needed a lot more people.

Uncle Liu called him a spendthrift, but the truth was, he had a plan.

He wasn't the type to sweat the small stuff. Maybe in Uncle Liu's eyes he was wasting money, but if you wanted to get anything done, you had to be generous.

If you wanted people to back you, you had to be open-handed—especially since he planned to ask the villagers for help down the road.

Whether it was growing medicinal herbs or doing something else—this was an era where everything took manpower. He needed people on his side. Lots of them.

That was the real reason he'd traded his military achievements for the village's three-year exemption from taxes and forced labor. He needed to stay in this village for a while, which meant he needed to win people over.

The meal ended with everyone happy and well fed. Even though Chen Jue, the husband of the house, didn't talk much, Huo Lin alone was enough—because one word from him was worth ten from anyone else.

People had always thought of Huo Lin as cold and quiet, but they never expected him to be someone with a warm heart under a cool exterior.

Just listen to how well he put it.

"In the past, our family was poor, and I didn't want to be a burden to anyone, so I kept my distance. Now that I've got some savings and some ability, I want to work together with everyone to make our village better. Thank you all for looking after us in the past. And I hope that from here on, we can move forward together and make Pingshan Village better and better."

His words really heated up the atmosphere.

"Dalin, don't say that. We were all poor back then, but our lives are only going to get better and better!"

"That's right, it'll definitely keep getting better. As long as we brothers stick together, we're unstoppable!"

"I believe that day will come," Huo Jilin said calmly.

Chen Jue glanced at him. Huo Jilin's expression was indifferent, yet he gave off the vibe that he could make anything happen.

He had no idea what he was up to.

If he wanted to do something, then he would definitely do it. He just hoped he wouldn't try to fly too high.

Chen Jue grumbled inwardly.

Huo Jilin noticed the look he gave him and smiled at him. He wasn't aiming for the sky—he just wanted to make things happen down here on earth.

Huo Jilin used the serving chopsticks to give him a piece of fish: "Have some fish—it's good for you."

The others barely touched the fish, but Chen Jue seemed to enjoy it. He must like fish quite a bit. He'd have to buy him more fish in the future.

Author's note:

Relationship improving, everything being talked out, four more chapters to go.