The next day,Cuicui was in the vegctable garden below the white pagoda again when Grandpa asked

for her decision.Her heart still pounding,she bowed her head as if she hadn't heard and went on picking her scallions. Grandpa smiled and thought:“T d better wait till later.If I

keep at her,she'll pick every scallion in sight!”Yet he also sensed something strange in her manner.He couldn't very well continue in this vein,so he stifled his words and changed

the subject with a contrived joke.

The weather was warming day by day.It was hot by the time the sixth month drew near.The old ferryman found time to drag a black earthenware vat covered with dust out of the corner of the house and piece together some wood slats to make a round lid for it.He also took out his saw and made a tripod stand,whitled a big bamboo tube as a ladle for dip- ping out tea,then tied it to the vat with kudzu vine.After

he'd moved this vat out the door to the stream bank,Cuicui

would boil a big pot of water every morning to make tea.

Sometimes she'd add tea leaves;other times,she'd just drop

in some burned crusts from their cooked rice.The old ferry-

man,as was his custom,prepared native cures from roots and

tree bark to heal sunstroke,stomachaches,blisters,and sores.

He kept these medicines close at hand.The moment he saw

a pasenger who didn't look right,he'd press the traveler to

try his remedies,relating the source of his many prescriptions

(it went without saying that he learned them from the med-

ics and spirit healers in town).Bare-armed the day long,he

stood firm in his square-nosed ferryboat,often bare-headed,

too,his short,white hair shining like silver in the sunlight.

Cuicui acted happy,running around outside the house sing-

ing.When not on the move,she sat in front of the house on

the high bluffs,in the shade,playing her little bamboo fute.

Grandfather acted as if he had completely forgotten No.I's

marriage proposal,so of course Cuicui did,too.

But before long the matchmaker returned to sound them

out.As before,Grandpa relegated the matter to Cuicui and

sent the go-berween back.Later he had another talk with

Cuicui,again without any resolution.

The old ferryman couldn't guess what the obstacle was,or

how to fix it.He'd lie in bed,mulling it over until finally it

began to occur to him that perhaps Cuicui loved the younger

brother,not the elder.That made him smile,an unnatural

smile from fear.In truth he was a little worried,because it

suddenly occurred to him that Cuicui was like her mother in every way.He had a vague feeling that mother and daughter would share the same fate.Events of the past swarmed into his mind and he could no longer sleep.He ran out the door alone, onto the high bluffs by the creek.He looked up at the stars and listened to the katydids and sounds of the other insects, constant as rain.He could not sleep for a very long time.

Cuicui,of course,was unaware of this.A young gitl whose days were always filed with play and work,she fel something very mysterious racing within her little heart,but when night came,she went peacefully to sleep.

And yet,everything changes with time.This family's quiet and ordinary life,as days came and went in succession, saw the peace in its human affairs completely broken.

In Fleetmaster Shunshun's houschold,Tianbao's actions were already known to No.2,and Nuosong let his elder brother know what was on his mind,too.They were brothers in the hardships of love,both loving the granddaughter of a ferryman.This did not seem at all peculiar to the local folk.

A common saying in the borderlands was:“Fire can burn and water can flow anywhere;sunshine and moonshine alsoreach everywhere;and so,too,does love.”It was not remarkable that the sons of a rich fleetmaster had fallen in love with the granddaughter of a poor ferryman.There was one problem. Would the brothers decide who would marry the girl by the usual Chadong practice of a bloody struggle?

These brothers would never take up arms against each

other,but neither were they accustomed to “yielding in the

contest of love,”like the laughable behavior of cowardly city

males when faced with matters of love and hate.

The elder took his younger brother to a shipbuilder's yard

upstream to see the family's new boat,then told the younger

boy all that was in his heart,adding that his affection had

been growing for two years.The younger brother heard him

out with a smile on his face.The two boys followed the river-

bank from the shipyard to Squire Wang's new grain mill.The

elder brother said:

“No.2,you're lucky to be Militia Captain Wang's pro-

spective son-in-law and have this mill;as forme,ifI do things

right,Ill be inheriting from that old man the right to row a

ferryboat.But I'd like that.I'd like to buy up the two hills

at Green Creek Hill and plant stands of bamboo around the

boundaries,fencing us in at our own little fortress by the

stream!"

No.2 continued listening in silence.He hacked at grasses

and shrubs by the roadside with his sickle.When they reached

the mill,he stopped and told his brother:

“Elder Brother,would you believe me if I told you that

this girl already has her heart set on another,and has for some

time?”

“Not a chance.”

“Elder Brother,do you think this mill was meant for me?” “No.”

They entered the millhouse.

No.2 continued:“Now don't...Well,Elder Brother,let me ask you again,suppose I didn't want this mill,but that ferryboat instead,and suppose,too,that I'd got this idea two years ago—would you believe that?”

Startled,the elder brother stared at his younger brother, Nuosong,sitting there on the horizontal axle of the mill roller. Realizing that No.2 was telling him what was in his heart, he came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder,as if to bring him down to the ground.He understood now,and laughed.He said:“Now I believe you.Everything you've said

is true!”

No.2 looked back at his brother and said,with utter frankness:

“Elder Brother,belicve me,this is the truth.This has been my plan for some time now.If her family agrees,even if ours doesn't,I truly mean to be a ferryman!What about you,then?”

“Papa has already acted on my behalf.He had Horseman Yang come from town to be my matchmaker and deliver my proposal to the ferryman!"When No.1 got to the part about how he went about it,as if aware thar No.2 might laugh at him,he explained why he wanted a go-between to do it:“You

see,the old man said that chariots must move like chariots

and horsemen must move like horsemen.So I adopted the

direct way,the chariot's move.'

“What was the response?”

“There's none yet.The old man talked out of both sides

of his mouth.”

“What about adopting the horseman's move?”

“The old man said that the horseman's move means sing-

ing for the girl from the bluffs across the creek for three years

and six months.If I could bend Cuicui's heart toward me,

she'd be mine.”

“What a good idea!”

“Maybe.Sometimes a stutterer can sing what he can't

say.But that's not me.I'm no song sparrow;I haven't got the

voice.Who the hell knows whether the old man would rather

marry his granddaughter to a singing waterwheel or to a real

man!”

“What are you going to do,then?”

“T d like to see the old man and get a straight answer out

ofhim.Just get the word.If No,Tll take a boat downstream

to Taoyuan.If Yes,'I'll agree,even if it means tugging that

ferryboat.”

“Would you sing for her?”

“Younger Brother,that's your strong suit.If you want to

be a song sparrow,hurry up and get to it.I won't stuff your

mouth with horse manure.”

No.2 could tell how upset his elder brother was.He knew his temper,which embodied the rough,straightforward side of the Chadong folk.In the right circumstances,he'd tear out his heart for you;cross him,and he'd battle his own maternal uncle blow for blow.IfNo.1 met with failure after making the chariot's move,surely he would want to try the horseman's. But once he'd heard his younger brother's frank profession, he realized that No.2 would best him at the latter approach. No.1 hadn't a chance.Hence he was a little offended,a little indignant,and he couldn't hide it.

No.2 had an idea:let the brothers go together to sing at Green Creek Hill one moonlit night,without letting on that there were two of them.They would sing in turn and who- ever got a song in response could let his victorious lips take up the refrain for the ferryman's granddaughter.Since No.1 was not much of a singer,when it was his turn,No.2 would sing for him.What could be fairer than to let fate decide their future happiness?When he heard this proposal,No.1, thinking that he could not sing for himself,didn't want his younger brother to be the song sparrow in his place.But No. 2,being of a poetic disposition,stubbornly insisted on this solution.He said this was the only way,for it was completely fair and impartial.

No.1 thought about his younger brother's suggestion some more and smiled wryly.“Damn it all!I'm no song- bird—so I'm going to ask my little brother to be one for me?

All right,ler's do it this way:we'll take turns singing,but I

dont want any help from you.Yll do all my own singing.An

owl in the forest can only screech,but when he wants a wife,

he sings for himself,he doesn't hire a stand-in!”

Once in agreement,they picked the date.The moon would

be fullest this night,the fourteenth,and the two nights fol-

lowing.It was midsummer;the nights were neither too hot

nor too cool.Wearing plain white homespun undershirts,

they'd ascend the high blufs where the moon shined bright

and,according to local custom,truthfully and earnestly sing

for the gitl-an unspoiled maiden,made unafraid by her

innocence.When it was time for them to go home,as the

dew fell and their voices grew weak,they would make their

way back in the dimming moonlighr.Or they might stop

at a familiar grain mill that operated all night without rest,

lying down to sleep in the cozy barn until daybreak.It was

all so natural,and alchough neither brother could imagine

the outcome,that would come just as naturally.They decided

to do it that very night:engage in a competition honored by

local custom.