Aman arrived at Green Creck Hill bearing gifts.Dock-

master Shunshun had indeed asked a matchmaker to go to the ferry to seek matrimonial relations for his first son. Flustered,the old ferryman brought him across the creek and into the house.Cuicui,who was shelling peas outside by the door,at frst paid the gucst little attention.But when she hcard the matchmaker say,“Congratulations,congratula- tions,”at the door,she began to worry.Unwilling to squat by the front door any longer,she pretended to be shooing away the chickens in the vegetable garden.Flailing a bamboo whis- tling pole in the air,she softly scolded them as she ran toward the white pagoda in back.

The visitor made small talk.When they got around to the matter at hand,namely Shunshun's initiative,the old ferry- man didn't know how to respond.He could only rub his

big,calloused hands together,as if he couldn't believe it.The

expression on his face seemed to say:“Fine,this is wonder-

ful,”yet the old man said not a word in reply.

When the visitor finished,he asked Grandpa what he

thought about it.The old ferryman smiled and nodded:“So

No.I wants to make the chariot's move,that's just fine.But

I must ask Cuicui,to get her reaction.”After he had seen off

the visitot,Grandpa stood in the prow of the boat and called

Cuicui down to the river for a talk.

Bringing a pan of peas down with her to the stream,

Cuicui boarded the boat and asked her grandpa,with all the

charm she could muster,“Grandfather,what is it?”Grandpa

smiled in silence.Tilting his hoary white head,he looked at

Cuicui for a long time.Cuicui sat down in the boat,a little

taken aback.She bent over to continue shelling her peas when

she heard the call of a yellow finch from the bamboo grove.

Cuicui thought:“The days are growing longer,and Grand-

father is taking longer to get his words out,too.”Her heart

was gently pounding

After another pause,Grandpa said:“Cuicui—Cuicui—

do you know what that visit was all about?”

Cuicui answered,“No,I don't.”But her face and neck

fushed crimson.

Observing all this,Grandpa sensed Cuicui's anxiety and

looked up far away across the sky.In the misthe saw Cuicui's

mother as she was fifteen years earlicr,and his heart melted.

He said,under his breath,“Every boat needs a berth,and

every sparrow needs a nest.”He began to think about the unhappy fate of Cuicui's mother.His heart ached and he smiled with difficulty.

And Cuicui—Cuicui was thinking about so many things,

amid the calls of the finches and cuckoo birds in the moun- tains and the chops of lumbermen felling bamboos in the val- leys.Stories of tigers eating people,and the mountain songs people sang to belittle and make fun of each other,the square pit in which papermakers mixed their pulp,the molten iron that flowed out of a foundry smelting furnace-she felt com- pelled to recollect everything her ears had heard and her eyes had seen.It seemed to be her way of putting aside the present matter and wishing it away.And yet she misunderstood what was really going on.

Grandpa said:“Cuicui,Fleetmaster Shunshun's family invired a matchmaker to ask for you as their daughter-in-law. They sought my permission.But I'm old.I might pass from the scene a couple of years from now,so it's not fit for me to delay things.This is all about you.You think it over and you give me your decision.If you're willing,then its settled.If not,that's all right,too.”

Cuicui had no idea what to do.Pretending to be unruf- fed,she timidly eyed her old grandpa.She didn't feel like asking for an explanation,and certainly not like giving an

answer

Grandpa added:“No.I is a man of good prospects.He's

fair-minded and generous.If you marry him,you can say

you're blessed with good fate!”

Cuicui understood for the first time:the intended match

was with No.1!She didn't raise her head.Her heart beat

fast and her face burned as she went on shelling her peas,

from time to time throwing empty pods into the creck and

watching them drifr slowly downstream,as if she had calmed

down

Grandpa responded to Cuicui's silence with a smile.“Cui-

cui,it's fine if you want to think it over for a few days.Luo-

yang Bridge wasn't built overnight.You've got time.When

No.1 came the time before,he spoke to me about this and I

told him then:chariots have to move like chariots,and horse-

men like horsemen,according to the rules.If his father was

going to take charge of this,he had to have a matchmaker

do it according to custom—thats how chariots move;if he

wanted to take charge of it himself,he had to go up into the

bamboo grove on the bluffs across the creek and sing for you,

three years and six months—that's the horseman's move.If

you prefer the horseman's move,I'm sure he'll sing passionate

songs during the day and tender ones in the moonlight,like a

nightingale,singing his throat out until he spits blood!"

Cuicui remained silent.She felt like crying,but for no

apparent reason.Grandpa got to talking again,and now he

came to Cuicui's dead mother.After a while,he fell silent.

Dipping her head in sadness,Cuicui could see tears in her

grandpa's eyes.Upset and afraid,she fearfully asked him, “Grandfather,what's the matter?”Without saying a word, Grandpa clumsily wiped his eyes with the palm of his hand.

He jumped ashore and ran home,giggling like a litle boy.

Upset,Cuicui couldn't bring herself to run after him.

As it cleared up after the rain,the sun beat down pain- fully on people's backs and shoulders.The reeds and water- willow shrubs by the creek,like the vegetables in the garden, ran riot,bearing a hint of wild vitality.Green grasshoppers Hew among the thick grasses,their wings setting a stir in the wind.Newly emerged cicadas on the branches had not yet set up a din,but their noise was gradually strengthening.In the stunning verdure of the emerald bamboo groves on the mountains,yellow finches,bamboo finches,and cuckoos sang in turn.Cuicui looked and listened,took it all in,and

also reflected:

“Grandfather is seventy this year...three years and six months—who gave us that white duck?...what luck to get that mill,or is the mill even luckier to get him?...”

In her own little world,she stood up abruptly,spilling half her pan of peas into the creck.As she retrieved the pan from the water,someone hailed the ferry from the other shore.