“Mia, do you have something on your mind?” Lohan asked solicitously.

“No. What makes you think that? I’m fine!”

“Just a guess. How’s it going with the barefoot doctor?”

“I don’t know exactly. I’m concentrating on studying acupuncture and haven’t been in touch with her for a while. She must be doing well as usual.”

“Why don’t you go to Yun Village and visit her? I think you’ll get along with her.”

“I will. Maybe after a while. She’s so busy that I hate to disturb her.”

Lohan ran an oil extraction plant in town. All he wanted was to make more money in order to provide a better life for Mia.

When Lohan went out to work, Mia stayed home. She was such a capable woman that housekeeping wasn’t enough to fill her day. The village loafers often stopped by to play with her four-year-old son, Milan. Sometimes Mia liked to shut the door for a quiet moment and read a little. But the village women wouldn’t leave her alone. They knocked, and Milan raced to open the door. “Milan, Milan, would you marry my baby girl?” They laughed, the boy laughed, and Mia laughed, too. The little boy was adorable. Mia felt sorry for him.

These happy days flew by. Mia turned twenty-eight. Once, she had gone to Yun Village to visit relatives and had seen Mrs. Yi walking on the narrow path with a medicine kit on her back. Mia’s cousin Chunli said the woman was the barefoot doctor of Yun Village. It was the first time that Mia had heard the term “barefoot doctor.” Looking at Mrs. Yi’s receding figure, Mia actually felt panicky. She had experienced this panic before when she was a junior high student. On her way to school, a bird nearby made a strange noise: chi, chichi, chi, chichi . . . but she didn’t know where the bird was. Whenever she heard the bird, she felt panicky. After she got married, the bird disappeared, and she had never felt this way again. Was this barefoot doctor the bird?

Chunli told her that the sweet fermented rice was ready to eat, and they should hurry home.

“Are you interested in practicing medicine?” Chunli asked.

“I’d like to be like this doctor.”

“Let me show you her herb garden. Let’s just look at it from the outside. We shouldn’t waste her precious time.”

They stood on the slope looking at the herb garden. Mia wasn’t just panicking now, she was choking.

“Mia, are you sick? Why are you so pale?”

“Let’s go,” Mia said, taking a deep breath.

“Are you allergic to herbs, Mia?”

“Oh, no, I love herbs. They seem to be my destiny!”

“People in Yun Village respect Mrs. Yi very much, but I don’t understand why no one wants to be her successor.” Chunli looked puzzled. “Too bad I don’t have the aptitude. I’d love to do this work!”

After they ate the fermented rice, their faces reddened. But Mia was in a bad mood. She looked into her cousin’s eyes and said vaguely, “I’m already twenty-eight. How strange.”