Chapter 211: Snow Country

Our three crates were carried out by the shop hands and loaded into the trunk one by one. I lay curled up inside my crate, listening to the movement outside. After a moment, I heard Qian Deli get into the car. He called out a greeting to the workers, inserted the key, started the engine, and hit the gas.

I felt the vehicle slowly pull away. Qian Deli lit a cigarette and took a drag before tapping on He Yu’s crate next to mine. “You can all come out now. They can’t see us anymore.”

He Yu was the first to sit up, his nose bumped bright red. He had scrambled into the crate too quickly earlier and hadn’t had time to adjust to a comfortable position. He’d been stuck face down with his rear in the air, half-kneeling in the box, likely having taken a hit when the workers tossed the crate inside.

Qian Deli’s beat-up van had a low ceiling. I crawled out of the crate feeling completely disheveled, then poked my head forward. Qian Deli was driving quite fast; we were already on the national highway. I checked behind us and saw no one following, so I let out a deep sigh of relief.

I moved to the back seat and sat down. Qian Deli spoke up, “Rest easy, folks. No one on these roads is more reliable than Old Qian. Young Master, you can put your heart right back in your chest.”

As he spoke, he turned the wheel and pulled into an abandoned gas station. Another van of a similar model was parked there, though it had different license plates. I glanced at Qian Deli, thinking to myself that I hadn’t expected the old rascal to be thorough enough to swap vehicles.

When the car stopped, the three of us hopped out with our bags. Qian Deli drove his original piece of junk further into a nearby ditch until the weeds mostly covered the body, only then climbing out.

The three of us tossed our bags into the trunk and settled into the back seat of the second van. Qian Deli gripped the door frame, pulled himself in, and slammed the door shut with a thud. He didn’t put the key in the ignition; instead, he turned around and looked at us with a grin.

Seeing that he wasn’t making any further move, my heart sank. As expected, there was no such thing as a free lunch, and free things were often the most expensive. Judging by Qian Deli’s stance, he was probably about to name his terms.

He Yu hadn’t caught on yet. “What’s wrong, Old Qian? Why aren’t you driving?”

I held him back and gave Qian Deli a faint smile. “If you have something to say, speak plainly.”

Qian Deli cupped his hands toward me. “The Young Master is indeed perceptive. Word on the street this year is that a junior has emerged, someone who hasn’t even been in the business for six months but is already fit to enter the Treasure Hall, rising to fame on the strength of his Mohist Art of Mechanisms^[1]. Young Master, too many eyes are on you. By helping you get out of the Central Plains today, I, Old Qian, am practically risking my life to protect you.”

He Yu interrupted him with a wave of his hand. “Hey, hey, stop right there. Don’t start playing the emotional card. Just say it straight. What do you want? What will it take for you to agree to take us out of the province?”

Qian Deli didn’t get angry at the interruption. He gave a sly chuckle. “You folks have been to so many fine places before. I’ll take a bold guess and say you’re planning to make a big score this time too, aren’t you?”

The three of us instinctively exchanged glances.

Qian Deli rubbed his hands together. “To be honest with you folks, Old Qian here has been bored out of his mind staying in this place. If there’s a chance, I’d like to visit a few grand halls myself. I’m not greedy; I just want to follow you masters to broaden my horizons. Let a commoner like me see the world and find out what an imperial tomb looks like, how long and wide it is.”

So he wanted to team up, I thought. And right at a critical moment like this, too. Out of the corner of my eye, I peered outside, calculating the chances of silencing this guy named Qian right here. The national highway was less than twenty meters away with many cars passing by; any commotion inside the van could be seen from outside. I didn’t want things to turn ugly; if I could avoid using force, I would.

I decided to be blunt with Qian Deli. “You’ve misunderstood. We aren’t grave robbing this time, nor are we entering any imperial tombs.”

Qian Deli laughed. “Young Master, don’t take me for a fool. The Lantern Festival^[2] hasn’t even passed yet, and you’re in such a hurry to leave the province. If it isn’t for grave robbing or an imperial tomb, what else could be so important?”

I opened my mouth but didn’t argue further. I couldn’t exactly tell this man our real purpose. Since he wanted to follow, then let him. Having one extra person wouldn’t be a threat to the three of us anyway.

Seeing my reaction, he seemed even more convinced he was right.

I could only sigh. “Fine. If you want to go, then come along. Just don’t regret it when the time comes.”

Seeing me give in so easily, He Yu was clearly indignant. He shot me a series of frantic looks, but I shook my head, signaling what else could we do? Right now, only this man named Qian could get us out of the province. In this freezing weather, a group of good citizens like us couldn’t exactly knock him out, stuff him in a sack, and dump him here. Let him be.

“Alright then!” Qian Deli immediately buckled his seatbelt and floored the gas. The van pulled back onto the main road and headed toward the city.

This was a long-distance journey. When we were buying train tickets, Qian Deli’s jaw nearly hit the floor when he learned we were heading to the Greater Khingan Mountains. It wasn’t just him; this was the first time I had ever traveled so far.

The journey was incredibly difficult. We first took a connecting train, rattling all the way to Harbin, only to be met with a blizzard the moment we arrived. Because of this sudden snow, our next train was canceled, forcing us to go to the bus station.

But due to the snow blocking the roads, we were stranded again. The bus ride took two days and one night. By the time I got off, my legs were shaking. The snow was so heavy that vehicles couldn’t pass, so the final stretch had to be done on foot. Thus, the four of us, fully geared up, walked for half an hour. It took a monumental effort just to find a guesthouse in Mohe County to settle down temporarily.

Despite how he seemed, the things Qian Deli had learned had some connection to the He Clan. He and He Yu got along surprisingly well. In the end, they even ended up scrubbing each other’s backs in the public bathhouse, a sight that made me laugh.

I skipped the back scrubbing, so I washed up quickly. I carried my washbasin back to the room and spread out the map I’d bought on the way, beginning to study the address on the slip of paper.

Our current location was at the northernmost tip of the Greater Khingan Mountains. To the northeast lay the Emu’er River, with Emu’er Mountain at its back. To the south was Along Mountain. It was a world of white snow, where mountain ranges met a sea of forest. It was a famous snow country, and when the snow fell, it was exceptionally beautiful.

We had been asking for directions the entire way here. Even though the locals in the Northeast were incredibly warm and hospitable, we still hadn’t managed to pinpoint the exact location of Huhe Village. I started wondering if there were small settlements scattered deep within these woods, hidden by the vast sea of forest and so sparsely populated that they remained unknown to outsiders.

As I was thinking this, the door opened. Lu Ayao walked in carrying a basin, bundled in a thick padded coat. His hands were tucked into his sleeves and his neck was pulled deep into his collar, making his movements stiff and sluggish. I couldn’t help but laugh, seeing how he had wrapped himself up like a ball.

He and Qian Deli were the ones struggling most with the climate here. For Old Qian, it was simply because he was so thin. For Lu Ayao, it was because he had lived in the south his whole life; if you added up every day he’d spent in sub-zero temperatures over the last decade, it wouldn’t even amount to twenty-four hours. While we were discussing things, he usually just huddled in a corner. I knew it wasn’t that he didn’t want to speak, but rather that he was too cold to utter a single word.

I looked at the map on the table, using a pencil to circle several connected patches of forest. “Feeling any warmer after that bath?” I asked.

He climbed onto the heated brick bed and wrapped himself tightly in a quilt. “I just need a little more time to adjust.”

I looked up. “We can’t find anyone who knows where Huhe Village is. We’ll probably have to head into the woods tomorrow to scout. A factory of that scale can’t be small. If it was built in the forest, there should be traces nearby. Have you ever been into a forest like this before?”

Lu Ayao shuffled forward and glanced at the map I turned toward him, then shook his head. “No. But in this weather, the snow will be deep. Our pace will definitely be slow.”

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“The sky gets dark fast here,” he said. “The moment the sun sets, the temperature drops. We might not be able to make it back in time, so we’ll need a place that can block the wind and snow at night.”

I thought about it and decided to ask the landlady when we went to the restaurant tomorrow. I’d heard that people used to work as loggers around here long ago, frequently heading into the woods. Those old workers might have left behind log cabins or shelters that could serve as a barrier against the cold at night.

Lu Ayao had already rolled himself into his quilt and lain down. Seeing that, I packed away the maps and lay down as well, listening to the howling wind and snow outside.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. “Hey, I haven’t asked yet: who is it that keeps calling you all the time?”

There was total silence from Lu Ayao’s side, but I knew the kid wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t like He Yu.

I gave a soft, dismissive “Tch” and turned my back to him. “Fine, don’t tell me. I didn’t want to hear it anyway.”