'So, someone *is* here.'
Li Xu had suspected as much when he first saw Da Huang.
He quickened his pace, hoping to ask for a place to stay the night.
As he drew closer, Li Xu got a better look.
The old man wore a traditional front-buttoned tunic, its original color faded beyond recognition. His trouser cuffs were tied with straw ropes, and his exposed ankles were covered in cracks that resembled tree bark.
Da Huang was sitting at the edge of the field. The dog's ears perked up the moment it saw Li Xu, but it didn't bark.
And right beside the dog,
was a small pile of chewed-off foxtail grass.
'Is he saving that to eat later?'
The sight of the old man pulling a large leveling rake was both strange and familiar to Li Xu.
When he was a boy, he'd gone with his mother to his grandpa's house, and his grandpa had used a similar rake to level the fields.
A leveling rake was a tool used for flattening soil. It was built like a ladder laid flat, with tines on the underside.
