When I opened my eyes again, it was already getting dark out. My stomach was growling like nobody's business. Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten a thing all day.
Figuring Xiuhua would probably swing by that night, I got off the kang, boiled a few goose eggs, and threw together a plate of greens. Honestly, I've never liked eggs, even as a kid. These I made special, just for her.
Before long, there was a knock at the door. Xiuhua came in, faded blue cotton jacket, hair loosely pinned up with a wooden pin. Under the lamp I could see her clearly. Skin all sallow. So skinny she was practically wasting away, like one good gust of wind would knock her flat.
"Why are you eating so late?" She frowned.
"Slept all day. Got to run down to the black market tonight." I peeled a goose egg and stuck it right in her hand.
"For me?" She blinked, caught off guard.
"You're too skinny. Got to put some meat back on." I looked at her and my voice got serious. "Frame this frail, if you ever end up pregnant, something could go real bad."
She looked down at the still-steaming egg in her palm. The fingers holding it gave a little shake.
I paused, then added, "Xiuhua, don't worry. The day your in-laws actually throw you out, don't be scared. Don't panic. You've got me."
That one line was like a needle poking right through the shell she'd been holding up all this time.
All those years out here. Coarse grain, wild vegetables. When had she ever gotten a taste of meat? She finally gets married, and the guy ends up paralyzed on the kang. Her in-laws start cursing her the second they open their mouths. Up before dawn, working till dark, choking down every dirty look and every unfair thing they threw at her.
All her life, nobody'd ever been this good to her.
"Chunzhu." She looked up, eyes already gone red, voice cracking. Couldn't get another word out. That little goose egg sitting in her palm was so warm it had her eyes brimming over.
After we ate, I threw on some black clothes, then tore off a strip of black cloth and wrapped it tight around my face, leaving just my eyes showing.
"I'm heading out. Just wait for me here."
Second she heard black market, Xiuhua lost it. She grabbed my sleeve. "I'll be waiting for you. You be careful. Please, please be careful. That place is totally lawless. Thieves robbing thieves happens all the time. Not long ago, somebody from our team went. A deal with a Russian buyer went south and they just opened fire right there. Like a dozen people dead, just like that."
Her eyes were full of fear.
I reached out and gave her hair a little ruffle. "Relax. I'm just going to feel out the prices. No trouble, no fighting."
I didn't say one word about the space or the phoenix tail bow. That secret had to rot away inside me and me alone. If I ever got in real trouble, one thought and I could duck into the space clean and clear. Nobody could lay a hand on me. But all that, I couldn't tell a soul. Not even her.
I pulled the door open and, quick as a flash, melted right into the pitch-black night outside.
Xiuhua followed me to the door, leaning against the frame, staring off in the direction I disappeared, her hands clasping together against her chest without her even realizing it. Please, please come back safe.
Once she'd said it, she turned around and spotted the new bedding I'd thrown down on the kang, all sloppy. She sighed, half annoyed, half amused. This man. No woman around to look after the place, and he's just hopeless.
She walked over, bent down, and spread that soft goose down quilt out inch by inch, smoothing it perfectly flat. Then she wiped down the table and chairs, tidied up all the little odds and ends around the room. And only when she was done did she sit down easy on the edge of the kang.
She reached out and ran her hand over that thick, warm new quilt under her, her eyes going soft little by little, and murmured under her breath, "This quilt. It's so warm."
Winter in the Northeast is no joke. Cold as hell.
I stuffed my hands deeper into my cotton sleeves, hunched over, and started inching my way down the mountain, slipping the whole way. Barely made it a little ways down before frost caked up on my eyelashes, flaking off every time the wind blew. I rubbed my numb ears. Had to be thirty below, easy. And this was just early winter. Come deep winter, you could spit and it'd freeze into little ice chips before it hit the ground.
Past life, I was born on the coast, grew up somewhere warm. Never dealt with anything like this. Now the wind was slicing at my face like a knife, and the trail underfoot was one solid sheet of ice. One wrong step and I'd be flat on my back.
Ten-plus miles of mountain road, grabbing onto bare trees, walking on ice. One deep step, one slippery one. It took me a solid two and a half hours. By the time both my legs had gone completely numb, I finally spotted it, down in the woods at the foot of the mountain. That faint little cluster of lights.
I'd heard about this black market straight from Donkey. It was tucked away in the woods along the Ussuri River, real well hidden, and only people in the know could find their way to it.
I came out through the trees, and sure enough, there were more people around. But here's the weird part. Every single one of them had their face wrapped up tight in a scarf. Couldn't make out a single face.
I knew what this was. The black market's old-as-dirt rule, called gold in the sleeve. Supposedly goes all the way back to the Qing dynasty. Broke-down old nobles who needed to sell off their stuff but were too proud to be seen doing it would cover their heads and faces, turn the kerosene lamps down as low as they'd go. And when they made a deal, neither person would say a word. They'd just reach into each other's sleeves and haggle by feel, working out the price with their fingers.
Never would have guessed that after all these years, way out here in the middle of nowhere up north, the whole thing was still exactly the same.
As I got close to the entrance, I glanced around, and when nobody was looking, slipped into the hunting space.
The space wasn't big, but it had a little vegetable patch and a coop. I grabbed the axe from the corner and got to work quick. In under half an hour, I'd slaughtered and cleaned every chicken, duck and goose, plucked and gutted them, tied them up in bundles, packed thirty chicken eggs and forty goose eggs into a bamboo basket, and then, goods in hand, slipped back out.