Chapter 99: Hua Zhang Returns Home
After lunch, Mu Lantu lay comfortably on the kang bed, watching The X-Files on the “big screen” with practiced ease. After finishing an episode, he urged Little Five to quickly play the next one.
[Host, how about I load some ads for you? Watching with ads will reduce the cost to one yuan per hour.]
Maybe because the host had been living too well lately, Little Five seemed to be deliberately picking a fight.
Mu Lantu rejected the offer. It’s already the 1970s—should he still be tortured by endless ads?
[No need. I’ve got money.]
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it? In this cold weather, isn’t it better to stay in bed?”
Mu Lantu muttered as he got up to open the door, putting on a fur hat, a thick cotton coat, and heavy cotton boots.
The moment he opened the main hall door, a burst of cold air rushed in, making him cough.
Cough cough cough—“Who is it?”
“Brother Mu, it’s me and Xuewen!”
It was Miao Jiaze’s voice.
Mu Lantu glanced around the hall, quickly tidied up the potato chips and sunflower seed wrappers from the kang table, and laid out a special thin quilt for guests before going to open the door.
Miao Jiaze and Du Xuewen came in and automatically closed the door behind them.
The wind was so strong it took both of them some effort to bolt the courtyard gate.
Inside the hall, they went straight to the kang to sit down, but they were considerate enough not to put their feet up without taking off their shoes.
“So cold! So damn cold!”
“It’s okay, take your shoes off and get on up,” Mu Lantu said as he grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds from the cupboard, filled the dish, and poured two bowls of hot water. He sat on the kang too. “If you’re afraid of the cold, why are you out running around?”
Once invited, Miao Jiaze and Du Xuewen took off their shoes and got on the kang, grabbing sunflower seeds to snack on.
Miao Jiaze said, “We’re here to report the latest news from the educated youth site.”
Du Xuewen added, “Xie Xiaojun went to see the team leader. He said he also wants to go hunting in the mountains with the villagers.”
“Guess what happened?” Miao Jiaze said, trying to build suspense.
Mu Lantu chuckled lightly and cracked a sunflower seed. This thing really was contagious.
“Let me guess. The team leader told him to go talk to the villagers himself. Zhao Chengxin went and asked around, but no one wanted to take him.”
The two looked at him in shock.
Miao Jiaze gasped, “How did you know? Were you hiding nearby?”
Mu Lantu was speechless. “Why would I hide nearby? Isn’t it obvious? Anyone forming a hunting party into the mountains either knows how to hunt or has experience going in. They already know who the capable teammates are. Why would they take greenhorns like us?”
Seeing that the two looked a bit indignant, Mu Lantu added, “You guys are oversimplifying things. This is Heiliao Province, and behind the village is the outer range of the Changbai Mountains. This isn’t some lowland area where the hills barely reach 100 meters. The mountains have not just wild chickens, rabbits, and boars—but also wolves, bears, and tigers. Tell me—who would dare take you? Even the militia wouldn’t risk it.”
Miao Jiaze and Du Xuewen went silent. Now they fully understood why Mu Lantu never wanted to go into the mountains with the other educated youth. If something really happened, no one could bear that kind of responsibility.
Miao Jiaze looked around for something to throw sunflower seed shells into and spotted a folded cardboard box already filled with shells. He tossed his in and grabbed another handful of seeds.
“Xuewen and I are planning to build our own house together next year.”
“That’s great. You can build next door to us,” Mu Lantu said in support. The more educated youth who built their own homes, the less “special” he and Xu Huazhang would seem.
Du Xuewen smiled. “That’s exactly what we were thinking. We’ll be neighbors then.”
Both he and Miao Jiaze came from decent families and could afford to cook their own meals. Eating with the group was inconvenient. Not sharing felt stingy, and sharing made them feel like suckers. Better to live separately and eat what they liked.
They’d adapted well to life in the village and could handle living on their own. Their cooking skills might still need work, but they weren’t stupid—they’d figure it out.
“When is Brother Xu coming back?” Miao Jiaze asked. “I heard during food distribution this morning that it might snow in a couple of days.”
Mu Lantu knew some experienced old-timers could predict weather shifts. He looked out at the cold, gray sky and frowned.
“Let’s hope he makes it back before it snows.”
For the next three days, Mu Lantu opened the gate and looked outside seven or eight times a day. Just when he was about to head to the county himself, Xu Huazhang finally came back!
Maybe he really was lucky—because that very afternoon, a heavy snow began falling unexpectedly.
Had he come back even two hours later, he might’ve been stranded in the county.
But he was back—and that was all that mattered.
Mu Lantu grabbed the man and kissed him fiercely in joy.
Xu Huazhang let him vent his emotions indulgently, then turned from passive to active.
His kiss was far more intense than Mu Lantu’s, only easing up after a long moment to soothe the ache of longing. If he weren’t so hungry and exhausted, he would’ve carried him to the kang right then and there.
Mu Lantu’s excitement radiated from every pore. “We’re having pork rib hotpot tonight! The brigade distributed meat—we’ve been waiting for you to get back!”
“Whatever you make is delicious,” Xu Huazhang replied as he lay motionless on the kang, eyes following his lover’s every move.
Mu Lantu could see how tired he was. “I’ll make you a bowl of noodles first. Then you can have a nice hot bath.”
Xu Huazhang nodded, watching him enter the kitchen before sighing happily.
Mu Lantu brought up the noodles and was about to heat water when his hand was caught.
“Baby, stay with me.”
“Okay.” Mu Lantu sat back down and watched Xu Huazhang eat while munching on chips and even fed him one.
“Wow! It’s snowing—so hard!”
“Let’s go build a snowman!”
“Snowman? Nah, snowball fight’s way more fun!”
The voices came from the educated youth site.
The village, by contrast, was quiet—as if it had gone to sleep. Understandable—this kind of heavy snow wasn’t new to them. Only the young outsiders from all over the country would react with such excitement.
Mu Lantu prepared two large pots of hot water so Xu Huazhang could enjoy a proper soak, then hurried to the kitchen to cook.
The one jin of pork ribs they were given wasn’t nearly enough. Fortunately, Mu Lantu had some premium ribs stored. He chopped up five jin in total.
He poured oil into the pot, sautéed half a bag of hotpot base until fragrant, added water, boiled it for five minutes, then filtered out the dregs, saving the broth.
He disliked finding peppercorns stuck in his vegetables while eating hotpot, so straining was a must.
After cleaning the pot, he added fresh oil and stir-fried the blanched ribs with ginger, garlic, green onions, and dried chilies. Once the ribs browned slightly, he added a splash of rice wine to remove the gaminess, poured in the strained broth, added soy sauce, dark soy, salt, and sugar, then covered it to simmer.
He used another pot to cook rice.
While waiting, he prepared hotpot ingredients: meatballs, lotus root slices, potato slices, fatty beef and lamb rolls, cabbage, spinach, tofu, glass noodles, etc. He sliced and marinated two jin of lean pork into thin sheets.
His favorite hotpot vegetable was spinach; Xu Huazhang’s was cilantro. He prepped a jin of each.
Xu Huazhang emerged in brand-new cotton clothes and shoes. The aroma of hotpot filled the air—and so did the scent of happiness.
He entered the kitchen and picked up Mu Lantu like a child.
Mu Lantu adjusted his position so his legs wrapped around Xu Huazhang’s waist. Xu held him with one arm under his bottom, the other around his back.
After his bath, Xu Huazhang looked dashing again—rosy cheeks, deep eyes that only reflected Mu Lantu.
Mu Lantu touched his face—warm and smooth. The spiritual spring water in the bath really did wonders.
Xu Huazhang kissed his lips and asked in a hoarse voice, “What were you working on just now?”
“The dipping sauce.” Mu Lantu wrapped his arms around his neck, cheek pressed to his, whispering, “You’re finally back. I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” Xu Huazhang let out a low laugh and held him tighter.
They basked in their quiet happiness—until the pot lid rattled from the steam.
Mu Lantu tested the ribs—they were tender. He added the lean pork, meatballs, tofu, and potatoes.
Xu Huazhang returned to the hall, lit the charcoal stove, and brought the coal stove closer to the kang.
Wang Cai ran over, eyes gleaming.
Dinner time!
Xu Huazhang noticed the thick bedding in the corner—it was Wang Cai’s new nest.
He ignored it and walked quickly back to the kitchen. Before Mu Lantu could bring out the hotpot, he picked it up and placed it on the charcoal stove.
Mu Lantu followed with a tray of ingredients, two bowls of rice, two dipping sauces, and an empty bowl.
He handed Xu Huazhang a bowl of rice and ladled ribs, meat, and meatballs into the empty bowl.
“Eat up—careful, it’s hot.”
In his past life, his mother and sister-in-law used to care for his nephew like this. Xu Huazhang’s lips curled. Was his baby treating him like a child?
He didn’t mind. He liked being cared for.
“Baby, you eat too.”
“I am.” Mu Lantu used a slotted spoon to fish up some meat, dipped it in sauce, and popped it into his mouth. Tender and flavorful.
It was his first time making hotpot with actual hotpot base since arriving in this era. One word: divine!
“Woof!”
Wang Cai sat by the kang, staring at the hotpot.
Mu Lantu scratched his head. Oops, he’d been so focused on Huazhang, he forgot the dog. No veggies or rice for it.
Xu Huazhang didn’t look up, but his smile widened.
Mu Lantu took out two boxes of rice and two of braised ribs from his space and poured them into Wang Cai’s bowl.
Wang Cai looked at the hotpot, then the braised ribs. They were both ribs—but why did the hotpot smell better?
Forget it, no point thinking.
Wagging his tail happily, Wang Cai dug in!
Outside, the wind howled; inside, warmth and comfort filled the air.
After eating and washing up, the couple returned to their room. They didn’t do anything “unspeakable”—Xu Huazhang simply pulled Mu Lantu into his arms under a warm cotton quilt and went to sleep.
As for the dishes? They could wait until tomorrow…
A dreamless night. They slept soundly until morning.
With the blackout curtains Mu Lantu had installed, they couldn’t even tell whether the sun had risen.
