Chapter 5

The squatting old man slowly straightened up, and once he was standing fully upright, Li Juxiang suddenly felt that his back didn't seem as hunched as before. "Heh?" The old man patted his own lower back too, thinking to himself that Granny Liu really was remarkable—he hadn't even had a proper word with her yet, had only stepped through her door, and already his body felt looser and lighter. He didn't linger, but walked straight on inside. "Cuihou, you and little Yuanhou go and eat." Having given the order, Li Juxiang went into the back room after the old man. Liu Jinxia's eyes were bad, so when business was being discussed she had to be at her mother's side to help take notes. "Brother Yuanhou, shall we go finish our meal?" "Mm." Li Zhuiyuan answered. Though the discomfort in his body hadn't faded, he still tried to take a step forward. With the first step, Li Zhuiyuan felt the cool stroking on his head slow its rhythm, and the ice-block feeling pressed against his left cheek gradually withdraw. But with the second step, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized the chill hadn't gone—the cold on his left cheek returned, and something like a block of ice seemed to be pressing on his right shoulder. By the third step, the cold left his cheek again and moved to his left shoulder, while his right shoulder stayed cold. Li Zhuiyuan took a fourth step, and before his foot landed, the cold in both shoulders abruptly intensified. "Hu..." Trembling, Li Zhuiyuan drew a deep breath and slowly pulled his foot back; the cold in his shoulders eased back to what it had been. He could see nothing, yet he could picture it: an old woman had been half-squatting in front of him, her right hand on his left cheek, her left hand stroking his head, saying: "This little one, he's such a good-looking boy." When he walked forward, the old woman changed her position with him, both hands gradually sliding down onto his shoulders—a motion of bracing herself to push up. If he kept walking forward, she would climb up with him. She wanted him to carry her! ... The room on the shaded side of the ground floor was Liu Jinxia's office. The room was large, yet once inside it felt cramped. Wooden chests were stacked in a ring around it, eating up seventy or eighty percent of the space outright; inside them were all manner of ritual implements, scriptures, and statues. If you opened a few of the chests, you could find the Lord Lao and the Buddha with their arms slung around each other's shoulders, and find that beneath Guanyin's seat there was not a child attendant but a crucifix and Jesus. In her early years, Liu Jinxia had dreams too. Answering the call of the new era, she wanted to gather the strengths of a hundred schools and carve out a path of her own. Unfortunately, the backward market in and around Shinan Town couldn't accept anything so novel. Liu Jinxia had no choice but to accept her fate and go back to the image of a traditional fortune-telling blind woman. So the only things in this room that could be put to use were a black-lacquered wooden table, a few stools, and two white candles. "Tss..." Liu Jinxia wiped her eyes with a handkerchief; the candle smoke stung them badly. It seemed the candles would have to go too, later on. By then the old man sitting across from her had finished his account, and he looked at Liu Jinxia with respect in his eyes. Since arriving here, not only had his hunched back eased considerably, his head was no longer muddled either, and he could speak much more fluently. The old man's surname was Niu; his name was Niu Fu. He was from neighboring Shigang Town, and he had come today about holding posthumous birthday rites for his mother. Yesterday his younger brother Niu Rui had been here about the same matter; Liu Jinxia had only gone to Li Weihan's house after seeing him. The Niu brothers and a younger sister—their father had gone early, and their mother had raised the three of them alone as a widow. Now they were all past fifty themselves, each with grandchildren. Half a year ago, their mother had passed away. But ever since the funeral, trouble in the three Niu siblings' households hadn't stopped—if it wasn't one falling ill, it was another having an accident. At first nobody paid much mind, but the frequency kept rising and the severity kept growing. Not long ago, Niu Rui's son had been riding his bike home from work, fallen into a ditch, and broken several ribs; if a passerby hadn't found him in time, he would nearly have died. And Niu Fu's hunchback had grown worse and more grotesque by the day—the seventy- and eighty-year-old hunchbacks in his village weren't as bad as his, and six months ago he hadn't been hunched at all. Add to that the dreams about their mother that came to the three siblings now and then, and they began to suspect that their mother's attachment hadn't dispersed. They meant to hold posthumous birthday rites for her and burn a blood-written sutra, to drive off the evil air and ask for peace. But now the two brothers were at odds: the younger, Niu Rui, wanted the rites held at his own house, while the elder, Niu Fu, refused and insisted they be held at his. To an outsider it might even sound like the brothers were filial, quarreling over such a troublesome, exhausting business—wasn't that fighting for the chance to show their mother their devotion? Liu Jinxia plainly didn't believe it. Her eyesight was getting worse and worse, but her mind was getting clearer and clearer. Of the people she received here, those like Li Weihan were very few; most had guilty consciences. As the old saying goes, turned around: do a guilty deed, and you'll always fear a knock at the door. Still, Liu Jinxia wouldn't dig to the bottom of things. She only said mildly: "Don't tell me your sister wants to hold one too?" "Mm, she does too." Liu Jinxia's eyebrows lifted. By the village rules of the day, once a daughter marries out she's a guest. Being able to find a few spare days a year to visit her parents' home, and bringing her husband back for a New Year call, was enough to keep up appearances. If her parents fell ill, a daughter who could serve at the sickbed for a while at the end and see the old folks off would be a filial daughter praised by neighbors and relatives alike. Since daughters didn't get a share of the family property, they only had to show up and lend a bit of effort for their parents' care in old age and their funeral—no money required. Yet this third Niu sister actually wanted to hold posthumous birthday rites for her mother too... That plainly broke the rules. No amount of filial feeling was shown that way. If the family had only daughters and no sons, it might be another matter, but she had two older brothers above her. Liu Jinxia lowered her eyelids and said: "That's easy enough too. Since you all want to be the host household, then all of you be the host household. Borrow a piece of ground on your village's public threshing floor, set up three offering tables, prepare three sets of birthday offerings, and burn three blood-written sutras." Niu Fu blanked for a moment, then asked, "Can... can it be done that way?" Liu Jinxia nodded. "It can. Hold them together, in one place, and your mother won't have to divide her time between them. Your brother Ruihou already gave me his family's birth dates yesterday; you give me yours today, and then go tell your sister to bring hers in the next couple of days, so I can write out the invocations for you." One job, one fee—now one job brought in three fees. Liu Jinxia came out ahead. Niu Fu hesitated, then finally nodded. "Then that's how it'll be. I'll go back and tell them, we'll do it together." "Mm. Once all the birth dates are in, I'll set a date for you." "It has to be quick." Niu Fu pressed her. "Hurry." "I understand." Liu Jinxia nodded, signaling him not to worry, then rose to see him out. Niu Fu had barely lifted his backside off the stool when he seemed to think of something else and sat back down. "There's one more thing. When the rites are held, Granny Liu must be invited to sit the rites." A zhai affair was a ritual; "sitting the rites" meant inviting someone with the knack to sit in and hold the line, to keep petty ghosts from making trouble. As for what exactly "the knack" meant, that was left to interpretation. If there was really nobody else, even a pig butcher could sit in. Because Li Sanjiang's family made paper effigies for funerals, whenever he delivered paper to a household it was taken for granted that he would sit the rites for them—not only a free banquet but a ritual fee from the host family as well. But this "taken for granted" came cheap, and the fee was thin. Actually saying the word "invite" was another price entirely. Niu Fu added at once, "The fee is no problem, Granny Liu. We... all three of our families will pay." "Is that so..." Something began to thump in Liu Jinxia's chest, a vague unease. "Also, please, Granny Liu, ask Uncle Sanjiang from your village too. We want to invite him as well." Liu Jinxia swallowed and didn't agree outright. "I'll go talk to Sanjianghou, but I don't know if he'll have the time. Give me the birth dates first, and I'll work out the days for you. This can't be delayed." "Good, good, good." Next, Niu Fu took a cloth bundle from his pocket and unwrapped it layer by layer, revealing a stack of dog-eared Great Unity ten-yuan notes. He licked his fingertip and began counting out the money. Liu Jinxia took the first payment but pushed the second aside. "As for sitting the rites, once Sanjianghou and I have talked it over, I'll let you know." "This..." Niu Fu was clearly reluctant. "How about we settle it now?" Liu Jinxia said firmly, "Nothing's settled until the business is clear, and there's no rush to settle the money either. That's the rule." "All right then. Sorry for the trouble, Granny Liu. I won't go to Uncle Sanjiang's myself; I'll wait for your word." "Mm." Niu Fu opened the door himself and went out. Li Juxiang went to help her mother up and asked, puzzled, "Ma, what is it?" This one job was worth a whole season's income. Li Juxiang didn't understand why her money-loving mother was hesitating this time, and it didn't look like she was posturing for a higher price either. Liu Jinxia said quietly, "They're farming folk, not rich people. For them to be this agreeable and this free with money, there can only be one reason." "What?" "Losing money to fend off disaster." "Ma, you mean?" "Xianghou, tell me—under this heaven, what mother goes and brings misfortune down on her own children after she's gone?" "That's true." "What's even harder to understand is how many sons and daughters, when life won't settle down, start to suspect their mother down under is doing it to them? Unless they did something themselves that no beast would do." "Ma, so this job?" "Forget it. Once I've found Sanjianghou and had a word with him, we'll see. If he thinks it's all right to go, then we'll go earn the whole sum. Ai, they really are paying too much." "And if Uncle Sanjiang says no, will you be willing to let it go?" "What's the point of earning money you won't live to spend?" "True. Uncle Sanjiang's skills are reliable. With him there, we can set our minds at ease." "His skills..." Liu Jinxia frowned, as if finding it hard to judge, but then affirmed, "With him there, I do feel sure of my footing." ... "Brother Yuanhou?" Seeing Li Zhuiyuan not moving for a long while, Cuicui reached over to take his hand. The instant they touched, Li Zhuiyuan felt the cold on his left shoulder vanish, and at the same time he caught Cuicui giving a shudder, her hand trembling as she held his. "Cuicui, back away!" "Huh?" "Get away from me!" She didn't know why, but Cuicui obediently let go and retreated several steps. "Cuicui, stay right there. Don't come near me." "Mm..." Yuanhou's sudden manner brought back memories of being looked down on, and a mist of tears already rose in her eyes, her little nose sniffling. Li Zhuiyuan, for his part, had a feeling that when Cuicui had touched him just now, the old woman whose hands had been resting on his shoulders had taken one hand away and reached for Cuicui. Only after Cuicui retreated did the old woman return to her former position. "Granny Liu, I'll be off then!" Niu Fu's voice came from inside, full of vigor—not a trace of the earlier hoarseness. He came into the main hall, swept his gaze over the two children still there, gave no sign of anything, and headed for the door. "Grandpa..." Li Zhuiyuan raised a hand and pointed to the corner—to the washbasin on the stand beside him. "Wash your hands." Cuicui wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand and said with a smile, "Grandpa, wash your hands before you go out. It takes the bad luck away." Having said that, Cuicui lowered her head and looked at her toes. Did Brother Yuanhou think her family was bad luck too? She was long used to that and wouldn't have thought it a big deal, but somehow today she was sensitive about it. "Oh, all right, I'll wash them then." Niu Fu drew back the foot already over the threshold and walked to the basin and began washing his hands. As he washed, Li Zhuiyuan felt the cold in his shoulders gradually fade, and a looseness spread through his body along with a certain weakness. Niu Fu's back, meanwhile, visibly began to hunch again. Li Juxiang came out supporting Liu Jinxia and said, "I'll see you out." "Don't trouble yourself. I'm off. See you." Niu Fu finished washing, reached for the cloth on the stand, found it a bit out of reach, so he shook his hands dry, clasped his hands behind his back, and turned sideways to step slowly over the threshold. Li Juxiang looked puzzled. Something seemed off, but she couldn't say what. She walked to the basin to change the water, and when she saw what was in it, the look on her face froze: The banana leaves in the basin had been reduced to extremely fine strips—so fine and so neat that even someone tearing them by hand couldn't have managed it. And most important: the water in the basin had turned black! Li Juxiang hurried to her mother's side, bent her head, and told her quietly. Liu Jinxia looked at her daughter in astonishment, then looked outside. By then Niu Fu had finally gotten over the threshold and onto the threshing floor; Li Zhuiyuan had also recovered from the weakness. He walked up to Liu Jinxia, pointed at Niu Fu's retreating back, and said to her: "Granny, on his back..." "Hush!" Liu Jinxia's hands clapped over the child's mouth at once. The smell of those hands was overpowering; Li Zhuiyuan's eyes stung to the point of tears. Outside, Niu Fu paused, half-turned, shot a meaningful glance back, then continued on his way. Only when the man had left the threshing floor and gone far off did Liu Jinxia take her hand from the child's mouth. "Child, now, tell me." Li Zhuiyuan took several deep breaths, then said, "Granny, is there anything on that grandpa's back?" Liu Jinxia brought her face close to Li Zhuiyuan's and lowered her voice. "Little Yuanhou, did you see something?" Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. He truly hadn't seen anything—only felt it. Liu Jinxia frowned. "Little Yuanhou, Sanjianghou went to your house last night, didn't he?" "Granny, I was asleep. I don't know." "Heh heh." Liu Jinxia smiled and nodded. She didn't press further, but said earnestly, "Little Yuanhou, remember one thing Granny tells you." "Go on, Granny." "Some things—even if you see them, you must never let on in front of them. If it knows you can see it, it might just... attach itself to you." Was that why? Li Zhuiyuan nodded hard. "Granny, I'll remember." "Good. Now go eat with little Cuihou." "All right, Granny." Li Zhuiyuan walked over to Cuicui, who looked at him, a little puzzled. "Cuicui, come on, let's eat." "Okay! Hee hee." A smile surfaced on the little girl's face again. Once the two children had gone into the kitchen, Liu Jinxia sat in the chair in the main hall, her expression grave. "Ma?" Li Juxiang was still holding the basin. "That child Yuanhou—did he really see it?" "Sometimes, to see a thing, you don't necessarily need eyes." "How can that be?" "That's a question for Sanjianghou, I expect. Heaven knows what methods he's been messing about with." "Ah. I hope the child will be all right. I really do like that child." "Oho." Liu Jinxia looked at her daughter with a half-smile. "What, taken a fancy? Thinking of him as a son-in-law?" "Ma, don't joke like that. I couldn't have any such thought. He's Lanhou's son." This time Liu Jinxia, unusually, didn't scold her daughter for "cheapening herself," but consoled her instead: "That girl Lanhou had a good head on her from childhood, and this son of hers is even sharper—precocious to a frightening degree. So he really isn't suited to be a son-in-law." Li Juxiang was amused into laughter. "Ma, listen to yourself. What nonsense are you saying? Being clever is a fault now?" "Daughter, it's that you don't understand. Have you ever seen a child who was possessed by filth yesterday and lay unconscious, and today can come out holding hands and playing like nothing happened? Guess whether he knows what happened at Big Beard's house. Do you believe him when he says he was asleep last night and knows nothing? Hah, just now—he ran into something unclean here, and now he can sit down calmly and go on eating. That child is more than just clever. He can quickly work out what situation he's in, and adjust himself. Even with... something like seeing ghosts. It's only that he's still small, still carrying some of a little child's naivety. When he's grown, living with a man like that would really be rather dull, because one look from him and he sees right through you. You'd have no secrets at all in front of him. You couldn't even act spoiled or throw a tantrum with him, because he stands higher than you do—he looks down, and he's looking down on you from every angle. Cold. No warmth to him." "Ma, how can you talk about a child like that? I think little Yuanhou is really quite nice—polite and well-behaved." "That's because he's like that with everyone. Same as his mother when she was small." "Ma..." "True enough, isn't it? His mother got divorced too." "You..." Li Juxiang was angry. Liu Jinxia, still not finished, blew out a mouthful of smoke and went on: "People like the two of them, mother and son, are suited to finding a partner with no self of their own, whose eyes are full of nothing but them." "Ma, I'm going to find Uncle Sanjiang." "Go on, go on." Liu Jinxia waved her hand. "If Sanjianghou dawdles, ask him whether, if he really does ruin Hanhou's favorite grandson, he still expects Hanhou to see him into the ground." Li Juxiang quickly poured out the dirty water and set off on her tricycle. She truly didn't want to hear her mother talk about this anymore. Liu Jinxia stubbed out her cigarette, yawned, and shuffled slowly toward the kitchen. The two children had already finished eating. Liu Jinxia saw her granddaughter, who never did chores at home and was spoiled, eagerly snatching up the bowls and wiping the table, saying over and over, "Brother Yuanhou, put that down, I do this work every day." It made Liu Jinxia laugh. Perhaps because it concerned his own old age and burial, Li Sanjiang didn't dawdle at all this time; he arrived early, riding in Li Juxiang's tricycle. Liu Jinxia had Li Juxiang take the two children upstairs to watch TV, then led Li Sanjiang into her office. "Ho, Blind Liu, you've really packed this place tight." Li Sanjiang patted the wooden chests stacked high around them. "Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd just brought in a shipment from Guangdong and were switching to wholesale." "No time for your nonsense." Liu Jinxia told him everything about today, including the Niu family's rites. Li Sanjiang's eyes went wide. "How could little Yuanhou see that?" Liu Jinxia drew a deep breath, clenched her fist, and finally forced down her anger. "You're asking me?" Li Sanjiang took out his cigarettes, tossed one to Liu Jinxia, and put one under his nose to sniff and ponder. Liu Jinxia picked hers up, tapped the filter end against the table, and asked, "What good deed did you do last night?" "An act of merit." "You..." Liu Jinxia licked her lips. "Big Beard and his son turned up floating in the fish pond today. You took that dead-flipper over there, didn't you?" Li Sanjiang said nothing. "How did you take it over?" Liu Jinxia kept probing. Then, as if she'd hit on a dreadful possibility, her voice rose and she cursed, "You rotten old devil, you didn't have little Yuanhou lead the corpse, did you?" "Ahem..." Li Sanjiang cleared his throat. "Blind Liu, got a light?" Liu Jinxia threw the matchbox straight at him. "You really did it!" "Scratch..." Li Sanjiang looked away and lit his cigarette. Liu Jinxia left her chair, went around the table, and stood in front of Li Sanjiang, spittle flying into the old man's face: "The living walk the yang road, the dead walk the yin road. If you had little Yuanhou lead the corpse, you had that child walk the yin road and take on ghost air. Don't you know he might already have been made able to 'walk the yin' by what you did?" "Walk the yin?" Li Sanjiang blanked, then laughed as if he'd heard the biggest joke in the world. "Haha, bullshit. How could a little trick like that make anyone walk the yin!" "Heh... heh heh heh." Blind Liu gave a cold laugh. Now it was Li Sanjiang who grew anxious; he shot to his feet. "If it were that easy to walk the yin, you, Blind Liu, after decades in this trade, wouldn't still be putting on your charlatan's act!" Walking the yin—called "groping in the dark" or "calling down the spirits" in some places—referred to the ability to go from the yang world to the yin world. Put plainly, it meant being able to see things not of the yang world. People came to "spirit mediums" like Blind Liu precisely for the image they cultivated, that they could commune with gods and ghosts—and yet almost none of them had any such ability at all. Blind Liu certainly didn't. Liu Jinxia steadied her breathing and said, "That child is clever. He notices things." At that, Li Sanjiang swallowed. The scene from last night suddenly rose in his mind: little Yuanhou pointing at the river, saying, "Aren't we waiting for her?" "Thump!" Li Sanjiang dropped back into the chair, his expression all alarm and doubt. He suddenly realized that what Liu Jinxia said seemed to be right. "His own father and mother are both in the capital, with capital household registration. The boy has a good head, and whatever he turns to—schooling, work—he'll have it in hand. A fine future is nailed down for him, and you've gone and done this. Never mind how always seeing such filth affects his daily life—just look at you, a man all alone, who even has to line up someone dependable like Hanhou in advance to see you into the ground. And me? Hah, don't even start. Anyone who touches this road picks up some of the five misfortunes and three lacks. You're piling up bad karma, you are. Was your head full of water when you did it?" Li Sanjiang did not talk back; his brows drew into three deep furrows. Seeing that, Liu Jinxia stopped needling him and offered comfort instead: "It's lucky the child's case isn't serious yet. From what I can tell, he can only vaguely sense filth in a general way—he isn't really walking the yin. It can still be undone. He can still be pulled back." Li Sanjiang's eyes hardened with resolve. "Then I'll cut it off for him!" "How?" "I'll go talk to Hanhou and have him send little Yuanhou out of the household to live with me for a while. I'll sit the living rites for him." At that, Liu Jinxia's mouth fell open. "Sit the living rites?" There was generally no such thing, because sitting the rites at a funeral was to keep filth from making trouble; sitting the rites for a living person meant taking that person's ill luck onto yourself. Nobody was willing to do that. As for "leaving the household," it meant a temporary break with one's family, cutting the karmic tie; after a time one could still return to lay life. In remote parts of the country and in Southeast Asia there was still the tradition of sending a child to a temple for a time and then bringing him home to go on with life. In the inland, having a child acknowledge "godparents" was a simplified version of that custom. Li Sanjiang looked at Liu Jinxia. "You think it'll work?" Liu Jinxia nodded. "If you're willing to pay that price, then it will certainly work." She had come to this trade late and had mostly groped her way into it herself, but in her early years she had thought of learning some real skill from Li Sanjiang. In the end she hadn't, because she'd found Li Sanjiang a bit unreliable. Call him unskilled, and yet whenever trouble came he could always produce some trick; call him skilled, and he often made a muddle of things, half-blind—like this time. But one thing Liu Jinxia was sure of: there was something about the old man that she couldn't put a name to. When she had first married into the village, she'd heard her father-in-law say that Li Sanjiang had been press-ganged three times in the Republican era, and everyone taken with him had vanished without a trace, yet he had slipped back each time with every arm and leg intact. He made his living at a taboo trade, yet never fell ill or met disaster. And to call him a lone man was a bit of a stretch, because unlike her he had never married, and his little life had always been comfortable and free. By any number of reckonings he should have been dead long ago, yet he was long-lived, ruddy-faced, and full of vigor. Liu Jinxia was a full generation younger than him, and yet she reckoned she'd most likely go before he did. Sitting the living rites to transfer ill luck depended on whether you had the fortune to take it on. Without question, Li Sanjiang did—not only did he have it, he had it to spare. Li Sanjiang stood, dropped his cigarette butt on the floor, and stamped it out. As he made for the door, Liu Jinxia called him back. "I say, Uncle Sanjiang." "Hm?" "Uncle Sanjiang, I was too worried about the child just now and my tone was sharp. I'm sorry." Li Sanjiang glanced at Liu Jinxia. "Spit it out." Liu Jinxia put on a fawning smile. "Since you've decided to do it anyway, sitting the rites for one child is the same as sitting them for two—it's just a matter of doing it while you're at it. How about I send my little Cuihou to your house too? She can keep little Yuanhou company. What do you say?" "Thought it wouldn't be anything good." Li Sanjiang walked out without looking back. Sitting the rites for little Yuanhou was, first, because he bore responsibility for this, and second, for the sake of having Hanhou see him into the ground. He'd lived free and easy all his life; losing a little at the end to make sure of that was no loss at all—far better a bargain than those old folks who slave half their lives for their children. But sitting the rites for Blind Liu's family—Li Sanjiang felt that if he dared do it today, he'd better be ready to drop dead tomorrow! "Little Yuanhou, come, Great-Grandpa will take you home!" "Coming, Great-Grandpa." Li Sanjiang led Li Zhuiyuan by the hand away from Liu Jinxia's house. On the road he asked, "Little Yuanhou, Great-Grandpa wants to discuss something with you." "Go ahead, Great-Grandpa." "Your family has a lot of children now, and it's crowded when you sleep. Great-Grandpa's place is roomy, and living alone gets lonely. Come stay at Great-Grandpa's for a while and keep me company, all right?" "Great-Grandpa..." "Hm?" "Is something wrong with me?" "Uh..." Today Li Sanjiang finally felt that a child being too clever wasn't such a good thing either. "Don't worry, little Yuanhou. Whatever's going on with you, Great-Grandpa will help you settle it. No need to be afraid." "It's all right, Great-Grandpa. I can get used to it." "Quick, spit! That's not a thing to get used to!" "Ptui, ptui, ptui." ... When Li Sanjiang brought Li Zhuiyuan back, Ying Zi was on the threshing floor with her two little sisters, jumping rubber band. Two long benches were set four meters apart, one at each end, with the rubber band looped around the bench legs. "Little rubber ball, banana pear, malan blooms at twenty-one. Two-five-six, two-five-seven, two-eight, two-nine, thirty-one..." "Yinghou, are your grandpa and grandma back?" Li Sanjiang called out. "Oh, Great-Grandpa, Yuanzi." Ying Zi and the others spotted them. "Grandpa and Grandma just got back." "Good." Li Sanjiang let go of Li Zhuiyuan's hand and went inside, where he found Li Weihan and Cui Guiying. The old couple thought Li Sanjiang had come about the "statements," and hurried to give their account. Li Sanjiang listened and nodded, then reassured them: "All right. The business with Big Beard's family is settled, then. I don't think there'll be any more entanglement." Li Weihan asked worriedly, "Uncle, that Little Oriole—have you dealt with her already?" Li Sanjiang's eyelids twitched. Dealt with her—how? Take a shovel, dig around the bottom of Big Beard's fish pond, and shout to ask if she was still there? By rights, a corpse that had just died couldn't be that vicious. That she could come ashore and chase them all the way home was already absurd. But whether Little Oriole had dissolved after her revenge, or still lurked in the fish pond watching over Big Beard's old house as an evil presence, Li Sanjiang wasn't going to dig into it. "She won't trouble your family again. Mark the date, and next year make her another offering, just for form's sake." "All right, Uncle. We've marked it." "Mm. But there's another matter I have to tell you about." Li Sanjiang explained the problem with Li Zhuiyuan, leaving out his own mishandling of it—for no other reason than that a man has to keep some face. Hearing it, Cui Guiying's lips went white again. "Good heavens, is it not over yet?" Li Weihan was much calmer. To his wife he said, "The most dangerous hurdle is past. This is nothing now. Uncle has a way, doesn't he? Do as Uncle says. Hurry and pack some clothes and things for little Yuanhou." Li Sanjiang waved his hand. "He's going to my place to stay, not to prison. You can come visit. Just bring his things over tomorrow yourselves. It won't be long—a fortnight at most. Think of it as me raising a child for a while and enjoying the happiness of being a grandpa, heh heh." Li Sanjiang's easy tone steadied Cui Guiying's heart considerably. She wiped the tears from the corner of her eye and said, "Then we're truly putting you to trouble, Uncle Sanjiang." "Hey, don't say that. We're family, family. All right, set out a table, light a pair of candles, pour three bowls of wine. We'll go through the motions and perform the rite of leaving the household." The rite of leaving the household was simple. A table with candles was set on the threshing floor, and Li Sanjiang, murmuring all the while, led Li Zhuiyuan around the table three times. At the end, Li Zhuiyuan was made to lift three bowls of yellow rice wine in turn: one sprinkled toward the sky, one poured over himself, and the last flung toward the family standing inside the house door. The most important rule here was that while the rite was performed, Li Weihan, Cui Guiying, and all the brothers and sisters had to stay inside the threshold. They couldn't come out, and couldn't make a sound to disturb it. The rite was done. "All right, Hanhou, see you tomorrow." Li Sanjiang waved. "I'll take the boy home with me now." With that, Li Sanjiang hoisted Li Zhuiyuan onto his back and set off beyond the threshing floor. Carried on his back, Li Zhuiyuan twisted around, keeping a smile, and waved goodbye to his family, as if he were merely off to visit relatives. Inside the threshold, Li Weihan had an arm around Cui Guiying's shoulders, his eyes fixed on him. Pan Zi, Lei Zi, and Huzi and Shitou, though told to keep quiet, all covered their mouths and poked their heads out around Grandpa and Grandma to watch him. It happened to be sunset, and the warm orange light poured down, casting a soft halo over everything in sight. A sudden daze came over Li Zhuiyuan. He had a vague premonition that this scene would remain forever deep in his heart, and in the future he would often look back on it. Like opening that... old, yellowed photograph.