Chapter 49: Planting Fragrant Cypress
For most humans, climbing mountains in winter was hard labor.
The mountains were high and the winds were strong. After climbing for only a little while, cold wind would pour into the mouth, nose, and throat, making them ache. People would also easily become short of breath.
Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan had no such trouble.
The two carried back baskets and remained as light as swallows. In half an hour, they could climb from the foot of the mountain to the summit.
“The fragrant cypress we need to cut is up ahead. We’ll reach it after climbing another two hundred meters or so.” Ying Kongtu pointed forward. “It’s right there. That fragrant cypress grows especially well and smells especially fragrant.”
Wen Zhongshan looked up along with him. “What a huge cypress tree.”
“Yes. It’s a small tree. Several kinds of cypress around here can be called fragrant cypress. Its scientific name is alpine cypress, and it counts as one of the larger local cypresses.”
That alpine cypress grew in the wind. Its branches spread in every direction before gathering again into a pointed shape, making it look like a giant standing on the slope.
Because it had long endured the wind, it also had a slight tendency to lean to one side.
Wen Zhongshan stood beneath the tree. “It’s so tall. I always thought cypress trees didn’t grow very tall.”
“No. Some cypress trees can grow into giant trees, much taller than ordinary trees. In the neighboring province, there’s a super cypress over a hundred meters tall and more than three thousand years old.”
Wen Zhongshan sighed. “Older than both of us.”
“Our age really doesn’t count for much in the natural world.” Ying Kongtu gently patted his back. “We’re not humans in the first place, so we can’t compare ourselves to humans.”
Ying Kongtu looked up. “This tree is too tall. It’s hard to cut from here, so I’ll climb up and cut from the tree.”
Ying Kongtu turned to Wen Zhongshan and said, “I can prune its branches while I’m at it. It’s been too many years, and the branches are growing a little messily. After pruning, it’ll grow better.”
“Be careful. I’ll catch the branches under the tree.”
“All right. Move aside. I’m starting to climb.”
Ying Kongtu held the firewood knife in his mouth, hugged the cypress trunk, and climbed up to the branches in just a few movements.
Although the entire cypress tree was of especially high quality, even on the same tree, some branches were better than the others. There was still plenty of room to choose.
While pruning the cypress, Ying Kongtu also cut down the especially high-quality branches.
Plants had very strong vitality. As long as the harvested branches did not exceed one-third of the total branch weight, they would not suffer much harm.
This cypress was too large. Ying Kongtu and the others did not need too many branches for one batch of cured meat.
After taking about one-tenth of the branches, Ying Kongtu stopped.
These branches were already enough.
Wen Zhongshan picked up the branches beneath the tree, bundling them neatly and placing them into the back baskets.
They had only brought two baskets, but they could hold a surprising number of branches.
Before long, the two finished tidying up the cypress branches and carried them down the mountain.
On the way, they saw quite a few young cypress trees growing on the slope.
Ying Kongtu carefully identified them and said, “They’re all descendants of the cypress we just harvested. It has scattered quite a lot of seeds.”
“You can tell that too?”
“Of course. Every tree actually has different traits, and its descendants often inherit similar traits.”
Wen Zhongshan looked back. “It can be considered the cypress king around here, right?”
Ying Kongtu also looked back. “It seems so. There aren’t any cypresses nearby that grow better than it. These small cypresses are good too, but compared to it, they’re still a little lacking.”
“Because it stands on the high mountain, receiving the most sunlight and rain, and resisting the most wind and frost?”
“That way of putting it is rather interesting. I’ll observe it later.”
The two chatted as they walked home.
When they returned, the cured meat hanging in the courtyard had already dried on the surface.
Ying Kongtu reached out and touched it. The surface was very dry, with no remaining spices.
This kind of dry, well-cured meat would not develop any unnecessary flavors from things stuck to its surface when it was smoked.
“All right. We can start smoking it.”
“Are we smoking it in the courtyard?” Wen Zhongshan glanced around, considering how to clear out space.
“No. In the kitchen. We can smoke it with the firewood stove.”
“Doesn’t the firewood stove have a chimney that vents out the smoke?”
“We just need to move the big iron wok away.”
Ying Kongtu soon directed Wen Zhongshan to move the cured meat into the kitchen.
After they moved away the big iron wok, the firewood stove left behind a large pit like a fire hollow.
Putting the cypress branches into this hollow was just right.
“How is it? Convenient, right?” Ying Kongtu smiled at Wen Zhongshan. “If we smoke it here, the ash won’t drift everywhere. When the cured meat drips oil later, it will drip right into the stove and won’t dirty the outside.”
“It is convenient.” Wen Zhongshan looked up at the cured meat above. “After we finish smoking it, do we—”
“After smoking, we’ll nail a piece of cardboard beneath the cured meat to catch the oil. It has to be smoked for several days in a row, so there’s no need to move it back and forth.”
Wen Zhongshan could not help saying, “Very efficient.”
“Of course. After the cured meat is done smoking and has been dried in the sun, we’ll move it back here too and store it here. When we want to eat some, we can just cut off a piece.”
Ying Kongtu had already planned everything. There were even long, thick nails left on the kitchen beams.
The thick nails could be used to tie wooden rods and hang the cured meat.
When drying it, they would only need to carry the wooden rods out and back in, without lifting each piece of cured meat one by one.
The two worked together and quickly hung up the cured meat.
Ying Kongtu placed the cypress branches and pine sawdust into the stove chamber, then pulled Wen Zhongshan to sit in front of the stove and eat tangerines.
The tangerine peels they peeled off could have the white pith slightly scraped away with a knife, then be tossed into the stove chamber to smoke the cured meat together with the cypress branches, giving the cured meat a fruity fragrance.
Ying Kongtu lit the fire, eating tangerines while guarding the cured meat, waiting for the deliciousness to slowly mature.
The pine sawdust caught fire, and the smoke from the cypress branches gradually rose.
The two were talking when, all of a sudden, they both stopped at the same time and looked at the cypress branches in the stove.
“This smell—” Ying Kongtu straightened up while holding a tangerine. “Isn’t it a little too good?”
Wen Zhongshan also raised his head. “It’s very mellow. It has a kind of mountain fragrance. It smells better than the cypress branches other families use.”
“Right?” Ying Kongtu fanned the smoke toward his nose. “The smoke from these cypress branches really seems a little different.”
“Will it affect the finished cured meat?”
“If we’re talking about influence, then all I can say is that the cured meat smoked with this will definitely be tastier and more fragrant than ordinary cured meat.”
Smoking cured meat required several consecutive days.
Every time they smoked it, the cypress fragrance in Ying Kongtu’s home smelled especially good. It was a unique mountain fragrance.
Even Tiaozhu and the others loved crouching at the kitchen doorway more than before.
Several neighbors even came to ask Ying Kongtu where he had cut the cypress branches, and why they were so fragrant.
After ten consecutive days of smoking, the two baskets of cypress branches at Ying Kongtu’s house were used up, and the meat was finished.
The smoked meat had a soy-sauce color. Its surface was dry and firm, carrying a rich, warm smoky aroma and cypress fragrance, with a hint of fruitiness.
When Ying Kongtu carried it outside to dry in the sun, the cured meat looked even more translucent under the sunlight. The fat was semi-transparent, as though the cured meat had also ripened on the rod.
“This meat has been smoked rather well.” Ying Kongtu smelled the cured meat and said in amazement, “This batch of cypress wood was far too useful.”
Wen Zhongshan also said, “It is worthy of being cypress branches you personally chose.”
“That’s true.” Ying Kongtu smelled it again, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.
Wen Zhongshan immediately asked when he saw it, “What is it?”
“The effect of using this cypress to smoke meat is too good. We’ll want it next year too, and the year after that, and the year after that…”
When Wen Zhongshan heard “next year too,” he was still smiling. But after hearing the rest, he said, “You mean there might not be enough cypress branches?”
“Maintaining this amount should be enough, but next year we’ll definitely slaughter more pigs, and the year after as well. If we keep plucking branches from just one cypress tree, it might not be able to bear it.”
“Then what should we do? Didn’t you say the branches from other cypresses don’t smell as fragrant?”
“That’s the problem.” Ying Kongtu said, “That cypress may have mutated a little. Its fragrance is unique. Other cypresses simply don’t have that scent.”
“Then, should we take cuttings—”
“Now isn’t the season for cuttings. Wait, we don’t necessarily have to solve it through cuttings. We can transplant its descendants back.”
Wen Zhongshan looked puzzled. “Transplant them back where?”
“Back beneath that mother tree.”
Ying Kongtu was a man of action. The very next day, he dragged Wen Zhongshan up the mountain to transplant the cypress seedlings.
Wen Zhongshan was uncertain. “Will this really work?”
“It very likely will.” Ying Kongtu looked at the tall cypress and said, “It has a special fragrance. It may be because the soil here is rich in some trace element, or it may have mutated itself.”
“No matter which reason it is, transplanting the young trees here may allow them to accumulate a similar fragrance.”
“If the soil here is rich in some trace element that reacts chemically with the cypress itself and gives it a different scent, then its descendants, once transplanted here, will also be able to absorb that trace element and undergo the same chemical reaction.”
“If it is only this particular cypress that is special, then after its seedlings are transplanted here, it will nourish the seedlings with its own nutrients, and the seedlings will likewise receive some substance and develop a similar flavor…”
“Wait.” Wen Zhongshan hesitated. “I understood the first two lines, but the part about nourishing seedlings—”
“You can understand it as nursing.” Ying Kongtu raised his head and said, “A mother tree can identify its own descendants through the root system, then transmit water and nutrients to them.”
Wen Zhongshan hesitated even more. “Really?”
“Really.” Ying Kongtu said seriously, “All things have spirits. A mother tree can actually recognize its young trees too. And young trees that grow in the same place under the care of the mother tree often develop traits similar to the mother tree when they mature.”
Looking at Wen Zhongshan’s incredulous expression, Ying Kongtu smiled. “If the young trees don’t develop similar traits, it doesn’t matter either. We can just consider it two days wasted.”
“Two days?”
“One day to transplant the young trees here now, and when they grow larger and can’t absorb enough sunlight, rain, and nutrients beneath the mother tree, another day to move them away again.”
“That’s true.” Wen Zhongshan thought for a moment. “It doesn’t cost much to give it a try.”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
The two searched nearby and dug up six seedlings descended from that cypress tree, transplanting them over. They happened to form a circle around the mother tree.
In the days to come, the mother tree would continue to nurture and watch over the young trees until they slowly grew.
Although alpine cypresses were monoecious, so the father tree was also itself.
“All right, let’s go.” After giving the young trees the “Mountain God’s Blessing,” Ying Kongtu happily called Wen Zhongshan down the mountain.
He could basically be certain that all these young trees would survive.
And in a few years, if they were lucky, these young trees would possess the mother tree’s traits. After being transplanted elsewhere, they would slowly grow into cypress trees with that special fragrance.
That way, they would have enough cypress branches to cut, and there would be no need to worry when smoking cured meat.
When Ying Kongtu returned home, he entered the kitchen to wash his hands and immediately saw the cured meat hanging above.
The cardboard was doing its job well, catching the dripping oil so the cured fat would not fall down.
Because of this, the whole kitchen was clean and tidy while still carrying the fragrance of cured meat. Ying Kongtu looked at it and felt deeply satisfied.
These cured meats would hang here day and night, receiving the smoke from three meals a day and the northern wind blowing in from the window.
They would slowly shrink, slowly ferment, and eventually develop a unique deliciousness.
If Ying Kongtu wanted, next year he could cut more cypress branches and smoke more cured meat.
And each year’s cured meat would carry that year’s unique flavor. Through fermentation in different times and environments, each batch would also take on its own distinct imprint.
Ying Kongtu thought of the cypress growing on the high mountain, the dried goods stored in the attic, the cured meat hanging in the kitchen, and the flowers planted in the courtyard.
Then he looked at the furry creatures lying in the courtyard and basking in the sun, and at Wen Zhongshan, who was teasing Jingwei. A feeling of indescribable steadiness welled up in his heart.
This was life.
Author’s Note:
One day, Ying Kongtu, who routinely brought the family’s furry creatures for checkups, was kept behind by the doctor for a talk.
“Your cat has such a big frame. Look at those big paws.”
“Your cat has such a gentle personality. Anyone can hold and pet it?”
“Your cat is a little overweight. Look at this solid little belly. You should put it on a diet when you go back…”
Dart, lying in the doctor’s arms and being petted until it was dozing off, suddenly sat up from its dreamlike state: Meow meow meow?!!! [Question mark]
And so, besides being the heartbreaking place where Dart lost its cat eggs, the hospital also became the heartbreaking place where it lost its cat treats, cat cans, cat jerky… and a huge pile of other snacks. [Cracked] [Cracked] [Cracked]
