Lu Xiaotang and Xu An had climbed the mountain after lunch. Xu Ning sat on the kang, making shoes, while Xiao Mo took off the bullet casing he wore around his neck to study it.

Xu Ning couldn’t understand what was so interesting about it. He took it off and touched it several times each day.

Xiao Mo put the bullet necklace back around his neck and let out a long sigh.

Hearing that sigh, Xu Ning almost pricked her hand with the needle. She looked at Xiao Mo, whose face was filled with worry, and nearly melted at the sight of him.

With a smile, she asked, “Xiao Mo, what’s wrong? Why are you sighing at such a young age?”

Xiao Mo straightened his small face and replied, “Sister, I’m almost five years old now. By next spring, I’ll be able to earn work points too. I’m not just a little kid anymore.”

Xu Ning found his expression so amusing that her stomach hurt from laughing. Suppressing her giggles, she said, “Alright, alright, Xiao Mo is a big kid now! But can you tell me what you were sighing about just now?”

“Alas, Big Brother Lu is leaving the day after tomorrow. Once he’s gone, who knows when we’ll see each other again? If I miss him later, I can only look at this bullet necklace,” Xiao Mo said, his face filled with sorrow as he touched the necklace around his neck, lost in thought.

Xu Ning initially felt a bit sad from his first two sentences, but when he mentioned missing Brother Lu and only having the necklace to look at, she couldn’t help but laugh.

Yet, as she laughed, her smile faded. Yes, he would leave the day after tomorrow, and they wouldn’t meet again for at least a year. She never expected that after crossing over, she would find herself in a long-distance relationship.

With a sigh, Xu Ning lost her motivation to make shoes. She decided to pack what he would take with him, knowing she needed to prepare dry rations for the journey tomorrow.

First, she filled a bag with hazelnuts and pine nuts, then grabbed another bag for dried vegetables and mushrooms. She would prepare the smoked rabbit and deer meat tomorrow. After finishing that, she headed to the kitchen, where she chopped a wild chicken and placed it in a clay pot to simmer on the stove.

Looking around the room, she realized she had tidied everything up, and her heart felt a little calmer. She sat back down on the kang and picked up the shoes, planning to sew a few stitches.

Just as Xu Ning sat down, she thought she heard someone opening the door. As she was about to check, Xiao Mo had already climbed down from the kang, putting on his shoes. He ran outside, exclaiming, “It must be Big Brother Lu coming back!”

Xu Ning followed him out, wondering how early he had returned. Had he just taken a quick stroll around?

As she reached the door, she spotted Xu An walking ahead with a basket on his back, covered with dried grass, making it hard to see what was inside. She quickly stepped forward to take the basket from him.

Just as she placed the basket on the ground, Lu Xiaotang entered, carrying two wild goats. The goats were still alive, their hooves and mouths tied with rope.

Lu Xiaotang instructed Xu Ning to spread a piece of oiled paper in the kitchen and place the goats on it. Xiao Mo poured two bowls of ginger water with brown sugar for them to drink.

After finishing his water, Lu Xiaotang rubbed his hands and paused for a moment before saying, “Xiao Ning, I’m going to kill the goats. Can you get a basin to catch the blood?”

Xu Ning hurried to fetch a basin and turned to Xiao Mo, asking, “Xiao Mo, are you afraid of killing goats? If you are, you can go into the other room.”

Xiao Mo scoffed, “What’s there to be afraid of? I watched them kill pigs when I was little!”

Xu Ning thought to herself, Oh, you were so little last year, and now you’ve grown so quickly. If someone didn’t know better, they’d think you were talking about your childhood years ago. Seeing that he wasn’t scared, she decided to leave him be.

Xu An watched the two of them prepare the goats. He added water to the pot and asked Xiao Mo to tend the fire while he took out the wild chicken and rabbit from the basket to clean them.

Once they finished, they had about 60 pounds of meat from the two goats, along with a few wild chickens and rabbits.

Xu Ning placed the goat skins in the basket, planning to take them to Grandpa Qi in the cow shed that night to be processed. She also chopped off a leg of goat to add to the basket.

That evening, when Lu Xiaotang returned from the cow shed, Xu An and Xiao Mo were already lying on the kang, asleep. Xu Ning was still working on her shoes. Seeing him back, she poured him a glass of water.

“Brother Lu, I gathered some dried vegetables and mountain goods for you today. Tomorrow, I’ll pack the smoked meat. Should I separate them into three portions or pack them together?” she asked.

“Let’s pack them separately. Please include some extra mountain goods for Zhen Ting, as there are a few other kids in the compound with him too,” Lu Xiaotang replied.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll pack them separately for you,” Xu Ning replied.

Lu Xiaotang watched the young girl making shoes under the dim light, the warm glow illuminating her gentle face, creating a feeling of tranquility. He wished time could freeze at that moment.

Noticing he had fallen silent, Xu Ning looked up and caught him staring. Embarrassed, she said, “I’m going to bed now. Brother Lu, you should rest early too.”

After saying this, she climbed down from the kang to put on her shoes. Lu Xiaotang was quicker and set her shoes neatly for her.

Once Xu Ning had put on her shoes, she found Lu Xiaotang had already prepared water for her to wash her face. After she washed, he brought over the foot washing water. He even took the used water outside to dump it, then stood by the door, waiting to help her with the foot washing.

Seeing how quickly he moved, Xu Ning hadn’t had a chance to speak. She thought to herself, It’s fine for him to handle the face washing water, but how can I ask him to take the foot washing water? With him standing there, I feel awkward to wash my feet.

Clearing her throat, Xu Ning said, “Brother Lu, you should go wash up. I’ll take the water out myself later.”

Lu Xiaotang replied from the door, “It’s fine; I’ll just toss it out. It’s so cold; you shouldn’t go outside.”

Seeing that he seemed to notice her embarrassment, he turned his face away.

Xu Ning sighed internally, realizing he wouldn’t leave until the foot washing water was disposed of. Resigned, she took off her socks and began washing her feet.

The next day, Xu Ning woke up early. Lu Xiaotang was leaving for the capital tomorrow, and she needed to prepare the food for his journey.

The lamb and radish soup simmered on the stove, bubbling with warmth and set for lunch.

In the big iron pot, she steamed brown sugar rice cakes and salted pepper flatbreads. Both would still taste good even when cooled. She also planned to make a jar of deer meat sauce and a jar of roe deer meat sauce, along with some pickled cucumbers and sour green beans.

Seeing Xu Ning up early preparing everything, Lu Xiaotang watched as she kneaded a large bowl of dough, despite his suggestion to do less. With no other choice, he could only help her out a bit on the side.

In the morning, Xu Ning finished making the meat sauces and brown sugar rice cakes. After lunch, she continued with the salted pepper flatbreads.

She managed to make about 70 cow tongue flatbreads, each the size of an adult palm. Together with the rice cakes, that should be enough for the journey.

Around four in the afternoon, just as it was getting dark, Lu Xiaotang headed to the cow shed. Yesterday, Xiao Mo had mentioned that he would be having dinner there.

That evening, the siblings had their meal together, adding some noodles to the leftover lamb soup for a hearty bowl each.

After dinner, they began preparing Lu Xiaotang’s luggage, packing the food for the journey into one bag and his friend’s items into a larger bag.

When Lu Xiaotang returned from the cow shed, he found that the siblings had already organized his belongings into three full bags.

His luggage bag, which had originally been only half full, was now bulging.

Next to it was a similarly sized bag filled with unknown contents, while the smaller one seemed to be the snacks Xu Ning had prepared for him for the journey.

He walked over and opened the bag. Inside, he found his clothes and personal items at the bottom, with a package of pine nuts and a package of hazelnuts—each weighing about ten pounds—on top. There was also a large bag of jerky, and the other big bag had been sewn shut, hiding its contents.

Xu Ning explained, “Brother Lu, this bag is filled with things for your three friends’ families: two smoked rabbits and one wild chicken for each family, along with two pounds of deer meat, some pine nuts and hazelnuts, and a bit of dried vegetables. They’re packed separately for each family.

Additionally, I included ten pounds of deer meat and half a hare for you. You mentioned there were a few brothers from the compound with you, so just bringing pine nuts and hazelnuts wouldn’t be proper. You can stew the meat somewhere and treat them to a meal.”