“Coal, coal! It’s coal . . .”

The villagers, men and women, old and young, were beaming. They came running over with baskets.

On the way back, Gray couldn’t stop talking because he was so stirred up by what had just happened. For no reason, he started telling the Yis that when he was a child he had mistakenly entered the courtyard of the ancestral house. Now it no longer existed. He ran all around and lost his sense of direction. Though he tried and tried, he couldn’t find a way out. The house was very dark, and he was afraid to go in. He dashed back and forth in the courtyard, but no matter which direction he took, he ran into the wall. He wanted to make some marks on the wall, but he couldn’t find any chalk. Desperate, he finally remembered to shout for his dad. Dad appeared at once, not at all surprised, took his hand, and led him out the gate. “This is our ancestral home,” Dad told young Gray. He noticed that Dad never mentioned this incident to anyone later.

“Does the ancestral home exist?” Gray asked the air, bewildered.

“You are remarkable!” Mr. and Mrs. Yi praised him in unison.

“What do you mean?” Gray asked.

“It’s a remarkable thing that you came out of the ancestral house!” Mrs. Yi said.

“But I was muddleheaded, just following Dad out!”

“Muddleheaded!” Mr. Yi laughed heartily.

Mrs. Yi was also laughing. Gray wasn’t able to follow their train of thought at the moment, and he felt embarrassed.

After returning to his own home, Gray couldn’t calm down for a long time. Outside, the villagers passed by carrying coal and singing folksongs, as if celebrating a festival. Gray thought he should get some coal, too, so he picked up his basket and went out.

Standing at the gate, Dad smiled at him and said, “When you dig coal, you’d better keep watch all around!”

“Will something happen, Dad?”

“Wait and see. This is always the case, you’ll see. It’s the same as when we gather herbs . . .”

Dad didn’t finish what he was saying. Gray thought Dad wanted him to figure something out by himself. So he began to pay attention to his own action.

Gray met the security guard Xiaoqiang, who was on his third trip. Xiaoqiang said he needed more coal because his wife would soon give birth.

When Gray reached the place, he looked about. He heard a wolf howling from underground. He tried to move aside, but the wolf howled at wherever he was standing. This frightened him, and he didn’t dare dig down. He looked at Xiaoqiang beside him and saw that the guard was doing just the opposite. Xiaoqiang dug like crazy at wherever the wolf’s howls came from. Soon his basket was full.

“Gray, are you thinking of your sweetheart?” Xiaoqiang asked mockingly. Then he walked steadily home with a full load of coal.

Gray stood and watched him blankly. The howls of the wolf in the earth gradually subsided into whimpers but still followed Gray wherever he went. Gray kept listening to them, tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t dig down, for the wolf was right under the coal. It was a mountain spirit. He had dug at the python before. He had been so cold and unfeeling because he didn’t recognize the mountain spirits. As it grew dark, Gray looked around and saw the coal quietly piling up at his feet, as if waiting for him to make up his mind.