Recalling this remote past helped Mrs. Yi understand Ginger’s fear. She was not a local, and her attitude toward death was different. Mrs. Yi planned to be in touch with this young woman more in the future and help her out.

“Mrs. Yi, are you going to the county town to buy medicine?”

“No, I’m going to see my old teacher.” She wanted to cry.

She finally came back to the old barefoot doctor training center. She had been too busy to do that for a long time.

The old director of the center stared at her as if she were a stranger.

“Director, you are my pillar. You . . .” She was too emotional to go on.

“You used to come here frequently. But I can’t remember your name right now. It doesn’t matter. You’ve run into difficulties, haven’t you?” he said, leaning close to her.

“I am Chunxiu. I used to be your favorite student. Someone in Yun Village is threatened by death. She can’t adapt and lives in a hell of her own making.”

“Ha-ha-ha, I remember now. Yes, you are Chunxiu, I entrusted you with my hope for the future. Did someone tell you of the pain in her heart? I think she loves you.”

“But I feel she doesn’t love me. She’s afraid.”

“That is love. You are her hope, just as you are my hope.”

“Director, do people come to see you at night?”

“Yes, quite a few. It relieves my loneliness. Do you understand this, Chunxiu?”

“Yes, director, I understand now. I need to let her know that I really love her.”

The old director clapped his hands and said happily, “Good, you are really the daughter of Yun Village! People are constantly coming down from the mountains, and they come here to talk to me. It will soon come.”

“You’re so calm!”

“It’s nothing to do with being calm. I have just become familiar with them. Listen—”

Mrs. Yi didn’t hear anything, but she did smell a faint odor of Lysol.

“Is there a doctor among them?” she asked.

“Of course. It’s no coincidence.”

The old director pointed to a box on the table and said it was a gift for her.

She opened the box carefully and saw a big handful of dried wild rose petals.

“I picked these roses for you on Niulan Mountain, but I didn’t have the courage to present them to you. I was a respected director at that time . . . It doesn’t matter now. They’re coming for me soon, anyway. Chunxiu, I am proud of you.”

The director waved Mrs. Yi away.

Sitting on the bus in tears, Mrs. Yi opened the box and sniffed the dried flowers. She imagined how happy the flowers would have been when the director picked them. How long had this love lasted? Would it last forever in the mountains? It turned out that he knew everything! At that time, she thought nobody knew the secret. Alas, how wonderful youth was! She had a presentiment that the old director would go away soon, but why was she sad? No, maybe she wasn’t sad, just reluctant to let him go . . .