As another month passed quictly by,the heartaches of

all concerned seemed cured by the long summer days.The weather grew so hot that everyone was prcoccupied with their sweating and they ate their fermented glutinous rice in cold water.There was no place left in their lives for heartaches and worries.Every afternoon,Cuicui took a nap on the shady side of the pagoda.It was very cool on that ele- vated spot.The soothing songs of bamboo finches and other birds came from the bamboo stands of the mountains on ei- ther side.The birds were such a numerous flock that in her dreams the mountain birdsong lifted her up into the air and brought her the most fantastic dreams.

There was no sin in that.Poets could spin out books of poetry from a small incident.Sculptors could carve the liv- ing image of a person in a piece of stone,and painters could turn out one magical painting after another from streaks of green,red,and gray.Who among them was not inspired

by the memory of a smile,or a frown?Cuicui could not use

writing,or stone,or colors,to transfer her heart's passions of

love and hare into a work of art,she could only let her heart

race ahead with the most absurd thoughts.This secretiveness

ofren brought her an excitement both shocking and clating.

A wholly unknowable future was shaking her emotions to

their foundations,and she could not completely hide these

passions from her grandpa

As to Grandpa,one could say that he knew everything,

but in fact he was wholly ignorant.He understood that Cui-

cui was not displeased with the No.2 son,but he could nor

comprehend the young man's own disposition.He had met

with rebuffs from both the fleetmaster and No.2,yet he

failed to be discouraged.

“If I can fix things up a litdle better,it will turn out all

right,if only fate allows!”In that frame of mind,he mused

that the course of love was never easy.The visions he dreamed

with his eyes wide open were even more fantastic and unfet-

tered than thosc of his granddaughter,Cuicui.

He inquired about the lives of No.2 and his father from

every local person who took his ferry,as solicitous about

the River Street people as if they were family.Yet,strangely

enough,this made him all the more fearful of actually run-

ning into them.When he did,he couldn't think of a thing to

say.He rubbed his hands together nervously,as was his habit,

having completely lost his composure.No.2 and his father

knew what he was up to,but the departed son,to use a cold expression,was chiseled into their hearts.They went about their business as the days passed by,acting as if they didn't know what the old ferryman was about.

Early in the morning,when it was obvious that he had not dreamed a single dream the night before,Grandpa would

say,

“Cuicui,Cuicui,last night I had a simply awful dream.”

“What awful dream?”Cuicui asked.

Then,pretending to be remembering his dream,he would scrutinize Cuicui's slender face and long eyebrows while tell- ing her of a wonderful daydrcam he'd imagined at another time.Needless to say,none of these dreams were so fearsome

after all.

All streams fow to the sea eventually.Although the conver- sation took a quite different direction to start,in the end it always came back to those matters that made Cuicui blush. Only when it became evident that Cuicui was displeased,her expression betraying embarrassment,did the old ferryman pre- tend that he was upsetand hurry to explain himself,using small talk to cover up his intentions in bringing up thesetnatefs.

“Cuicui,that's not what I meant,not at all.Your grandfa- ther is old and muddled,full of crazy talk.”

But sometimes Cuicui quietly listened to Grandpa's crazy talk and muddled thoughts,to the point where she found

herself smiling to herself.

She might suddenly blurt out

“Grandfather,you really are mixed up!”

Hearing that,Grandpa would stop speaking.He meant

to go on to say,“There are a lot of things on my mind,”bur

before he could speak,he was summoned by a ferry pas-

senger.

It was hot,so when ferry passengers from far away atrived

bearing eighty-pound loads on their shoulder poles,they

would rest and cool off by the crcek.Squatting under the

cliffs by the keg to cnjoy a cool drink of tea,they passed their

long puffer”tobacco pipe between them while drawing the

ferryman into their conversation.Thus did all sorts of base-

less rumors,from the heavens above to the earth below,reach

the old ferryman's cars.Sometimes the passengers would tak

advantage of the clean stream waters to wash their feet or

bathe.The longer they stayed,the more gosip passcd between

them.Grandpa passed some of the talk on to Cuicui,and she

learned a good deal in the process:the rise and fall of com-

modity prices,the going rate for riding a sedan chair or a

boat,how to steer a timber raft down the rapids using its

rudders,what it was like to look for a prostirute on an opium

sampan,how ladies of the night with unbound feet boiled the

opium—just about everything

Nuosong,No.2,rerurned to Chadong with his goods

from East Sichuan.It was almost dusk and very still out on

the stream.Grandpa and Cuicui were in the vegetable gar-

den,inspecting the turnip sprouts.Cuicui had napped a little too long that day and was feeling a little forlorn,so when she thought she heard a hoarse voice summon the ferry,she was the first to go down to the landing.As she went down the bank,she saw two men standing by the pier.She could recognize them clearly in the light of the setting sun,though their backs were to her:it was Nuosong,No.2,and the fam- ily servant!Startled,like a little wild animal encountering a hunter,Cuicui ran back into the bamboo grove on the hill.

But the two men at the stream turned around at the sound of her footfall and saw everything.They waited a while and still no one came,so the servant shouted again for the ferry in his raspy voice.

The old ferryman heard him very clearly,but continued squatting in the garden,counting his turnipsprouts.He found it amusing.He'd seen Cuicui take fight and knew it must be because she recognized someone at the landing.He purposely kept on squatting under the high cliffs,ignoring the men. Cuicui was young and not in charge;when she didn't respond to the men who wanted to cross,they had no recourse but to keep straining their voices to summon the ferry.After sev- eral more shouts,the hired man rested his tired voice and asked No.2,“Whats this all about?You don't suppose the old man is down.sick and has left the ferry to Cuicui all by herself?”No.2 answered,“Let's wait,we're in no hurry!”So they waited awhile.Because the passengers had fallen quiet,

the old ferryman in the garden thought to himself:“Could it

be No.2?”As ifafraid of annoying Cuicui further,he kept on

squatting there and didn't make a move

But notlong afier,the shourting for the ferry resumed,and

this time it sounded a litle different.It was No.2s voice.Was

he angry?Tired of waiting?Had there been an argument?

Frantically trying to size up the situation,the old ferryman

raced down to the stream bank.When he got there,he saw

the two men already aboard the boat,and one of them was

No.2.The old ferryman shouted out,anxiously,

“Hey there,No.2,you're back!'

Showing his displeasure,the young man answered,“Yes,

I'm back.What's wrong with you folks atthe ferry?We waited

forever and no one came for us!”

“I thought it was--”he looked all around and there was

no trace of Cuicui,but just then the yellow dog ran out of

the bamboo grove on the mountain,so he knew she had gone

up there.He changed his drift and said:“I thought you had

already crossed over. ’

“Already crossed over?Who would dare launch the boat

without you?"said the servant.As he spoke,a waterfowl

skimmed over the warer.“That jade-green bird is headed toward

its nest.We have to hurry back home in time for supper!”

“You'te in time,youi ve got plenty of time to get to River

Street.”The old ferryman had already jumped into the boat.

“Don't you want to inherit this ferryboat for your own?”

he thought,as he pulled on the cable and the boat left the shore.

“No.2,it must have been a tiring trip!”

As the old ferryman spoke,No.2 listened without let- ting on how he was feeling.When they reached the shore, the young man and his servant shouldered their loads and crossed over the hill without saying a word.The old ferryman took note of their coolness.He shook his fist at them behind their backs,shook it three times.He cursed them under his breath and pulled the boat back to his side