“You’re very pretty, Mia. Twenty-eight is the best age for a woman,” Chunli said admiringly.

“Ah, but why am I feeling at a loss?”

“It’s because you’re obsessed with the idea of being a barefoot doctor. You need more time to think it over.”

“Chunli, you know me best, you have to save me. I’m sinking.”

“Hold on to me. You won’t sink.”

Mia got home at dusk. From a distance she shouted, “Milan, Milan.”

Her little boy ran out of the house, and—wailing—he threw himself into her arms. Mia cried too.

Afterward, Mia wondered why she had cried as if she were going to abandon her son. Of course she wouldn’t abandon him. Her son was her life blood.

The next day, Lohan said to Mia, “I’ve always thought you hit it off with that Mrs. Yi. You can have your career and family at the same time. I’ve given it a lot of thought: I don’t have to expand the oil business. I’ll support you by spending more time at home.”

They drank silently to a career which hadn’t yet started.

“I didn’t see your true character before. I’m sorry,” Lohan said.

“I didn’t see it myself. Until I stood on the hillside and saw the herb garden . . . actually now, I still don’t know exactly what it was, but I want to make a change. Oh, I feel terrible.”

“You still have time. Don’t worry, Mia, I’ve got your back!”

Mia was strongly motivated. She studied day and night. Her sense of urgency increased when she heard that Gray had left Mrs. Yi. She also took a day to visit the kind director of the former barefoot doctor training center in the county. He was now a sick old man.

“At that time Mrs. Yi was about your age, or even a little younger.” The old man spoke hoarsely, by fits and starts. “She was a natural for this occupation. Her hands seemed glued to the baby when she delivered it, and her movements were perfectly coordinated. She was the daughter of the forest, and everyone could see this . . .” He was interrupted by a violent cough.

“Director, you’d better have a rest. I’ll come to see you another time.”

As she walked out, Mia turned and looked at the partly collapsed red-brick building of the barefoot doctor training center. She wept.

Two dark-complected middle-aged women caught up with her and took turns speaking with her.

“Young lady, are you here to study medicine? Now . . .”

“Have faith in yourself, young lady. Though this place appears to be decaying, a great woman doctor was trained here, and her name was . . .”

When Mia was about to ask them a question, they ran off and were soon out of sight.

“The good old days will come again . . .” The wind carried their voices to her.

What a beautiful career—exactly what she’d been yearning for. She hadn’t gone to see Mrs. Yi yet, because she didn’t feel well enough prepared. She vowed to herself, “I will be indomitable.” The old director had said that Mrs. Yi was the only trainee who had persevered until today. The words touched her, and she immediately conceived of an herb garden, not in her front yard but on a hill. She would fill the barren hill with herbs. She wanted to enlist the young people of the village to help.