“Instead of seeing Mrs. Yi, I’m meeting with her teacher. This is immensely satisfying.”

Their eyes fell simultaneously on a big clump of lily turf behind the rock.

“Could they have been growing here for more than a thousand years?” Tauber asked. The director noticed Tauber’s right eye staring blankly.

“Absolutely possible,” the director said.

“I’m shivering all over at the sight of these ancient friends. I hear them calling me. I’m so excited. What about you?”

“Yes, me too.”

“Why don’t you stroll around some more on the hill? I’ll rendezvous with them down below.”

With these words, Tauber sank down and disappeared into the soil.

The director turned away. When he sat on the rock again, he heard humming. It was not a common rock as he had assumed, but a living thing. The numerous patterns were shifting so rapidly that he couldn’t see them clearly, but he was very excited. He didn’t want to leave the rock. Could this rock be Dr. Lin Baoguang? The sun was setting, and the shadows grew thicker around him. The rock suddenly “hummed” again, startling him. He stood up and said to the rock, “I have to go now. I’ll come again soon.”

As he walked down the hill, he kept hearing Tauber whisper in his ear, “Roam around some more. They all love you! Because you’re meritorious!”

The director thought to himself, Why did Tauber say I was meritorious? Chunxiu and Kay are meritorious, but I’m just a useless old man. True, I’ve done some work in the past, but in the last ten years or more I’ve lost my willpower and I’ve led a befuddled life.

It wasn’t long ago that he had realized that he couldn’t die. As long as he was alive, Chunxiu and her colleagues would feel hopeful.

The lean-to was in sight now—this was heaven on earth—and he needed to return to it at once to rest and reflect on the wonderful moments he had had today. His life had changed a great deal since he came to Niulan Mountain, and it was as if he were driving a carriage speeding ahead—he was now as active as he’d been in the old days when he was practicing medicine.

At night the screeching of chickens woke him from his sweet dream.

The weasel scurried away, and the hen twitched and bled. The moonlight was clear, and the flowers’ shadows were quivering. The scene was breathtaking, and the director was numb all over. Suddenly he sensed a small animal moving in a nearby bush. Ah, it was the weasel coming back! Was it returning to observe its prey? Why didn’t it eat the chicken? What kind of relationship did the two of them have?

“Director, it’s so late, and you’re still outside. Isn’t the lean-to comfortable enough?”

It was Chunxiu coming back from a house call. She was as beautiful as before.

“The lean-to is a paradise of herbs. I don’t think I deserve to stay in it. I came out because of the tragedy here.”