“I see. Let’s go home. This damn fool!”

Though she scolded her dead husband, she was very happy. She imagined that on this beautiful day, her late husband was singing mountain songs and coming home.

Mother and daughter descended the hill in silence. But when they came to the fence and looked in the big round mirror, they saw nothing but the woods.

“Daddy must have grown tired of waiting,” Yungu said, downhearted.

“Nonsense.” Mud came out with a cup in his hand. “After you left, I drank a few cups with Mr. Ma! Didn’t I say I would have my friend over for a drink? He’s the one I meant. I was afraid Yungu would be in our way, so I flimflammed her into leaving. Ha. What a beautiful friendship!”

Mrs. Ma kept wiping away her tears, and then she laughed.

“He said he would return often,” Mud announced.

“What about the deer?” asked the girl.

“Your father and I summoned them. I used to hunt, so they also know me.”

At dinner that night, they saved a seat for Mr. Ma.

“You never know when he’ll show up,” Mud said.

Over time, Ginger became prettier, and her sallow cheeks turned rosy. Ever since her late mother-in-law, Mrs. Yossi, came to visit her at home at midnight, she had grown more self-assured. She was no longer suspicious of others, and with Mrs. Yi’s encouragement she began to study medicine. “It’s never too late to learn,” Mrs. Yi said to her. “Besides, you can help others with your medical knowledge.” Ginger thought that helping neighbors was now her favorite thing to do.

She was a happy young woman now. She attributed her change to Mrs. Yi and her late mother-in-law. Sometimes she would wake up at night and say aloud, “I love Mrs. Yi so much!”

“Good, that’s very good. Mrs. Yi is all right . . . ,” her husband replied sleepily.

“But you don’t understand that kind of love. I often wonder how Mrs. Yi communicated with your mother. My memories burrow into one dark hole after another, where I eavesdrop on their conversations. Sometimes I hear, sometimes I don’t . . . Alas!”

Now fully awake, her husband said, “My mother loved you and was a little worried about you, so she asked Mrs. Yi to look after you.”

“You’re right. Yun Village is really a good place. Now I’m sleepy.”

In her dream, she laughed and laughed.

When her elder daughter left for school, Ginger followed her, shouting, “If you run into a weasel, be sure to stay out of its way! It is Mrs. Yi’s pet, and everyone else’s, too. Be kind to it!”

Ever since seeing the weasel in Mrs. Yi’s herb garden, Ginger had been in love with it. It had lost a patch of hair on the left side of its belly, so it was easy to recognize. She had seen it in the vegetable plot, by the toilet, in the lean-to, and in the woods. In order to lure it to her home, she raised several black-and-white chickens, hoping the weasel would fall in love with one of them because Mrs. Yi had told her the weasel had been in love with her black-and-white chicken. Ginger watched her own chickens closely, but never saw the weasel approach them. The weasel was elusive, solitary, beautiful, and arrogant. Ginger sighed, “What a devoted lover!”