SES Chapter 73 Part 1

Chapter 73

Night fell quickly.

The mule cart swayed as it rolled along the seemingly endless road. Many passengers were dozing off, and drowsiness seemed contagious—Mu Dai’s eyelids soon drifted shut.

Half-asleep, she felt someone tap her arm and hand her a thin blanket. Murmuring a thanks, she wrapped it around herself and quickly fell asleep.

She dreamed of Luo Ren.

He stood bathed in light, smiling at her.

Overjoyed, Mu Dai ran toward him. But just as she reached him, Luo Ren’s expression suddenly darkened, and he shoved her away.

That heavy, inescapable sorrow seemed to seep even into the dream. Mu Dai woke with a start—the mule cart still rocked beneath her, the moon hung high above the mountain ridge. The dream left her feeling wronged. She reached up to touch her eyes; the corners were damp.

Tears from the dream.

A lantern now hung at the front of the cart to light the way. She asked Zha Ma, “We’re still not there yet?”

Zha Ma pointed into a hollow between the mountains. “Almost there!”

How could he see anything? No matter how hard she strained her eyes, she couldn’t spot a single light from the village.

A sudden thought popped into her head.

“You guys… you don’t happen to not have electricity, do you?” she asked, a little haltingly.

“It’s being put in soon,” Zha Ma said. “If you come back next year, the whole village will have power.”

To Mu Dai, that was far from good news. She quickly pulled out her phone.

Sure enough—no signal.

It was like a bucket of cold water poured over her head. If that was the case, how was she supposed to contact Luo Ren?

That night, she stayed at Zha Ma’s home. His father had died two years ago, so it was just him and his elderly mother. Their house was a two-story stone granary-style building made from rocks taken from the mountains—mules and supplies were kept on the lower floor, the family lived upstairs, and there was a drying terrace on the roof.

With no signal, Mu Dai grew restless. On a slim hope, she climbed up to the roof, thinking maybe the higher elevation would help.

Science hit her hard: no signal meant no signal. No matter how high she climbed, it wasn’t coming back.

Unable to sleep, she sat on the terrace sighing. Yan Hongsha came out to call her to bed, looking up and saying, “Oh, come on, so you can’t get in touch—big deal! Ever heard of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’?”

Is that even how you use that phrase? Mu Dai didn’t feel like responding, but forced herself to explain, “It’s Wednesday. This village only goes to market on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tomorrow, when Luo Ren and the others get to Braid Tree at the mountain pass, they won’t know which way to go—and there’ll be no one to guide them.”

Yan Hongsha’s mood sank too, but she couldn’t think of anything to say to comfort her, so she went back inside looking a little glum.

Mu Dai sat for a while longer, then suddenly had an idea and hurried downstairs to find Zha Ma.

He was still awake, helping his mother weave flower-patterned bamboo hats. The bamboo strips were as thin as half a matchstick, and they flew deftly through their fingers, forming intricate geometric patterns.

His mother smiled at Mu Dai and brought out a little stool with a hemp rope seat, inviting her to sit.

Mu Dai thanked her, sat down, and asked Zha Ma if he could take the cart out tomorrow and how much it would cost.

She was thinking she could pay him to make a special trip to Braid Tree at the mountain pass to wait for Luo Ren—or at least hand him her phone so he could call Luo Ren while on the road, letting him know where she was and what had happened.

But Zha Ma shook his head. The reason they only went to market on certain days was that the village had just one mule, and it couldn’t be overworked. A day’s journey left the mule exhausted; it needed a full day’s rest. Forcing it out tomorrow wouldn’t just risk injuring the mule—it would also disrupt the entire village’s trading schedule, which had been fixed for years.

Mu Dai was bitterly disappointed.

His mother didn’t seem to understand what she was saying—she just kept smiling. Mu Dai forced a smile back, said goodbye, and trudged outside.

She’d only taken a few steps when Zha Ma called after her.

He jogged over, looking embarrassed, rubbing his hands. “Just now, with my mom there, I didn’t want to say… If it’s really urgent, I’m free tomorrow. I could go to the mountain pass for you. I’m not as fast as the mule, but if I walk briskly, I can get there. I could call for you on the way, but…”

He hesitated, clearly awkward. “But, uh… could you maybe give me some money? L-Like a hundred…”

“A hundred?” Mu Dai blurted, surprised.

Startled, he stammered, “E-Eighty would be fine too…”

Mu Dai quickly waved her hands. “No, no, that’s not what I meant…”

The road was rough—seven or eight miles of muddy track. If Zha Ma were willing to let the mule rest and walk it himself, it would be exhausting and take up his whole day.

A hundred yuan for that felt almost too little; she felt like she was taking advantage of him.

He, however, took the money with obvious embarrassment and said, “Don’t tell my mom, or she’ll scold me.”

With the problem finally solved, Mu Dai felt relieved. She asked, “So you make a living just driving the mule cart?”

“Yeah. I get paid for giving rides, and I sell goods along the way. You saw it—when I’m free, I help my mom weave bamboo hats.”

Then something seemed to occur to him. He pulled her back inside, stacked three bamboo hats into her hands, and said that with the mountain rains, a bamboo hat would be useful.

Feeling bad about taking them for free, Mu Dai insisted on paying, saying it wasn’t easy for his mom to earn money weaving hats.

Zha Ma laughed. “My mom doesn’t make a living from this—she’s the most famous marriage shaman in the area. People from ten, even twenty miles around, come to see her, bringing lots of gifts.”

That piqued Mu Dai’s curiosity. “What’s a marriage shaman?”

He explained that although couples here were free to fall in love, marriage wasn’t entirely up to them. After the parents agreed and a matchmaker was involved, they still had to see the marriage shaman, who would divine whether the couple was truly meant to be together.

If the shaman nodded, the couple could marry without worry. But if she shook her head, even the most in-love pair would split.