On their way home, the rain stopped, and a rosy cloud floated in the sky.

“They love each other very much,” Mr. Yi said.

“You saw it at a glance. I’m not as perceptive. I never knew that Kay had such a deep, loving heart. And no wonder—I don’t pay close enough attention.”

“We can see people’s true temperaments only in special circumstances.”

“You’re almost a shrink now.”

“That’s because my wife’s a doctor.”

As they walked, they discussed how to reconcile Gray and Spoon.

“Why did they break up in the first place? It was wrong. It wasn’t principled.”

After saying this, Mrs. Yi sank into meditation. She felt that they were discussing a big problem, infinitely big. She could not define what the “principle” was, but still she thought it was wrong for the young couple to have broken up, and that disturbed her.

“Our team is growing by the day.” Mr. Yi changed the subject. He wanted to say something positive. Let time solve the mysteries of life. Wasn’t there an old saying that “everything will be all right in the end”?

Mrs. Yi understood her husband, and smiled. She began to remember something else.

“The old director could also make mistakes in judging people. He always valued me more than anyone else, and he didn’t know that Kay was the real star of hope.”

“I should say you and Kay both excel, in different ways. Now that you are both here, Yun Village has become even stronger.”

“You are so kind, you always encourage me. Look, it’s just turned dark, and the ball of phosphorescence has come out. It seems that the old director has just realized that all his former students are now grown up. He is so happy.”

As they passed the window of Sangyun’s house, they heard the newborn’s powerful cry. Mrs. Yi felt her heart beat violently in her chest, and she vividly remembered the scene not long ago when she delivered the baby.

“An old farmer from somewhere else introduced a new kind of herb to me. It is commonly called stop-bleeding grass (like Aspilia Africana), and it’s truly miraculous. I put it in the medicine cabinet . . .”

Mrs. Yi heard her husband talking from far away; his voice faded in the wind. Once again she felt the strong vitality of this place.

15
Gray Is In

Gray learned acupuncture by practicing on himself. He thought he was ready to treat Grandpa Onion’s lumbago when he returned from afar. He felt that Grandpa Onion hadn’t really left Yun Village: he was just hiding somewhere to watch him closely. Grandpa Onion had reason to watch him because he was in a transition. In some ways he was becoming a better person—for instance, he was missing Grandpa Onion more and more, as if Old Onion were his own grandfather. But in other ways he felt he was getting worse—his attitude toward Spoon, for example. Deep down he still loved her, but when they were together he would suddenly retreat into his shell. He was absentminded when talking with her, and even totally ignored her. What he was most passionate about was collecting herbs, and he went to the mountains every two or three days. So were the herbs changing his nature? When he was alone in thought, it occurred to him that herbs were not only healing the sick, they were also secretly shaping people’s dispositions. Indeed, the charm of the magical little grasses was irresistible.