Mrs. Yi brewed tea for everyone.

“It’s midnight,” said Gray uneasily.

Mr. Yi put his hands on Gray’s shoulders to comfort him and said, “Tonight is an important occasion. We Yun villagers, along with friends from the surrounding area, are gathered together to ‘discuss matters of vital importance.’ Did you hear your father’s voice?”

“Yes, I did! It really was my father. What a heated discussion.”

When the young couple left Mrs. Yi’s home, they no longer looked lonely. As Mrs. Yi watched Gray walking away, she was recalling the first time he came here.

The Yis weren’t at all sleepy. They heard ebullient bubbling in Yun Village. Mrs. Yi said, “Now I know hearing can also be trained. You’ll have to train me more.”

“Where do you think Yun Village is heading?” Mr. Yi asked.

“I guess maybe it’s at a turning point, and it’s going to become completely different.”

20
Footsteps of the Times

Mrs. Yi prescribed medicine for Ginger’s two daughters, and she herself helped them take it. The girls had measles but were not in danger.

Ginger was grateful and insisted that Mrs. Yi stay for dinner. Ginger made a delicious dish of long beans with rice, and Mrs. Yi enjoyed it very much.

“I don’t have a mother, and my mother-in-law has gone. You’re my mother now,” Ginger said.

“I’d love that, though I always feel that your mother-in-law is still around.”

“It’s true. I heard a voice calling me one night, so I got up and went outside. My mother-in-law was standing in the moonlight wearing a white scarf on her head. When I walked over, she looked at me and said, ‘Go to Mrs. Yi, go to Mrs. Yi.’ She said this twice. But she didn’t come in. She went behind the house and disappeared.” Ginger looked a little worried.

“Oh, she thought of everything. It’s all right now, isn’t it? We’re always together.”

Mrs. Yi hugged Ginger to comfort her, and assured her that her daughters would be okay.

“I’m afraid you’ll leave us,” Ginger said tearfully.

“Nonsense. I would never leave you. I promise.”

It was late when Mrs. Yi left Ginger’s home, but she still wanted to gather herbs on Niulan Mountain as she had planned. She went home, picked up a bamboo basket and a two-toothed hoe, and set off. Mr. Yi told her not to go too far, so he would be able to find her if something happened to her. Mrs. Yi knew that her husband worried about her safety. She thought she wasn’t that old yet and should still be able to go to Niulan Mountain, at least this year and next. Later on, she would turn this work over to Gray and Spoon.

It was afternoon already. Mrs. Yi planned to dig some goldthread in a pit halfway up the mountain, because two villagers diagnosed with malaria needed it.

After entering the mountains, she sensed that Niulan Mountain was a little restless. This was most noticeable with the rocks. For example, the rock in front of her, which was mostly buried in the earth, made slight explosions as the sun’s rays fell on it, as if expressing its impatience or a warning. Mrs. Yi went around the rock and climbed up. She longed to run into Tauber, but she was going in the opposite direction from his cabin. She thought Tauber would always hang around his cabin.