Can't access number of items on navigational property - ef-code-first

Question

I'm not sure if this issue is an Automapper-issue or a Entity Framework-issue.
I'm having trouble getting the number of products from the navigation property ProductCount in my viewmodel. The value returned is always "0". If the function worked, it would return "no" on a category with no products and "15" on a category with 15 products.
The viewmodel:
public class ViewModelProductCategory
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int? ParentId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public int SortOrder { get; set; }
public ViewModelProductCategory ParentCategory { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<ViewModelProductCategory> Children { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<ViewModelProduct> Products { get; set; }
public string ProductCount
{
get
{
return Products != null
? Products.Count().ToString()
: "no";
}
}
}
To display number of products:
#model List<MyStore.Models.ViewModels.ViewModelProductCategory>
#foreach (var item in Model)
{
#item.Title has #item.ProductCount product(s).
}
I have also tried to use #item.Products.Count() in the view, but that always returns 0.
This is how the viewmodel gets populated:
// Getting the categories
List<ProductCategory> DbCategories = _context.ProductCategories
.Include(e => e.Children).ToList().OrderBy(o => o.SortOrder)
.Where(e => e.ParentId == null).ToList();
// Mapping to ViewModel
List<ViewModelProductCategory> MapCategory =
_mapper.Map<List<ProductCategory>, List<ViewModelProductCategory>>(DbCategories);
The mapping:
CreateMap<ProductCategory, ViewModelProductCategory>()
.ForMember(dst => dst.Products, opt => opt.MapFrom(
src => src.ProductInCategory.Select(pc => pc.Product)));
ProductInCategory is a linking table between categories and products:
public class ProductInCategory
// A linking table for which products belongs to which categories
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ProductId { get; set; }
public int ProductCategoryId { get; set; }
public int SortOrder { get; set; }
// Nav.props.:
public Product Product { get; set; }
public ProductCategory ProductCategory { get; set; }
}
Why can't I get the number of products?
Edit
With the help of #IvanStoev in the comments, I changed the query to this:
//get all categories, so we have each and every child in Context
List<ProductCategory> DbCategories = _context.ProductCategories
.Include(e => e.Children)
.Include(e => e.ProductInCategory)
.ThenInclude(p => p.Product)
.ToList().OrderBy(o => o.SortOrder)
.Where(e => e.ParentId == null).ToList();
Now it works! Yay!