It was just that they had recently gone through those sensitive years, and with the reforms and opening up not long ago, most families didn’t have much spare money, so there weren’t as many customs to observe. William Clark was still very young and naturally didn’t know about these things.

“Master, where does that family live?” William Clark asked again. Kids care about their image—he didn’t want his classmates to see him dressed like this, or he’d be laughed at for sure.

But the old Taoist didn’t know what William Clark was thinking and said, “In Maolu Town. Walk a bit faster, or we won’t make it there by noon.”

“Okay!”

After learning where they were going, William Clark happily agreed and quickened his pace. His school wasn’t in Maolu Town, and he didn’t know anyone there, so he didn’t have to worry about losing face.

After coming down the mountain, the old Taoist and William Clark found a stream to wash their feet and put on their shoes, then headed toward Maolu Town. Although it was only a little over twenty li, they didn’t arrive in town until noon.

“Hey, it’s market day today!” As soon as they reached the town, William Clark shouted excitedly.

In their area, there was a market in town on the first and fifteenth of every month. People from all the nearby villages would come to set up stalls and sell things—it was the liveliest time. The town, which was relatively spacious, was now packed with people.

Located within the Maoshan area, William Clark and the old Taoist’s attire didn’t stand out, since there were plenty of Taoists in the crowd.

“Master, look, there’s a monkey show over there.”

“Hey, Master, look, popcorn…”

Squeezed among the crowd, William Clark was dazzled by everything. At this moment, in William Clark’s heart, this might just be the most bustling place in the world.

“Ahem, Master, isn’t that one of our peers? He’s even doing iron-mouthed fortune telling. Master, between you and that old man, who’s better?” William Clark had sharp eyes and spotted a fortune-telling stall, immediately pulling the old Taoist over.

“Come on, how can you compare? Your master used to visit the grandest mansions—if I ended up like this, how could I face our founder?”

The old Taoist’s face turned green at William Clark’s question. As a direct descendant of the Ma Yi lineage, how could he set up a stall by the roadside? Although fortune-telling was common in the world, there were still different levels.

Those who set up stalls by the roadside, reading faces or interpreting characters for just eighty cents or a yuan per reading, were the lowest tier in the trade, and most of them didn’t have any real skills. The old Taoist disdained such things.

“You little rascal, you’re wearing me out.”

After using all his strength to drag William Clark out of the crowd, the old Taoist was panting and pointed ahead irritably, “Hurry up, or we won’t even get lunch.”

They squeezed from the east end of town to the west, where the crowd had thinned out. Following the old Taoist’s pointing finger, William Clark saw a house with a two-story building.

In this era, transitioning from a planned to a market economy and still using grain coupons, being able to build such a two-story house was a big deal—at the very least, it meant the family was worth over ten thousand yuan.

Normally, such a family would be the envy of everyone. But at this moment, the people passing by looked at the house with mostly pity in their eyes, and some even had a hint of schadenfreude on their faces.

…

In the private courtyard of this two-story house, there was a mourning hall. A woman in her twenties was holding an eight- or nine-month-old boy, already asleep, her face full of worry.

“His uncle, why don’t we take Little James to the county hospital? He cries every time he wakes up—this can’t go on.”

Looking at the pale-faced child in her arms, the woman’s heart ached. Her husband was gone—if anything happened to the child, how could she go on living?

It had already been five days. In the first few days, many people came to offer condolences, so she didn’t have time to think. Now that the funeral was over and everyone had left, the courtyard was quiet, and the child’s crying seemed even more heartbreaking.

A man in his thirties was silently smoking. Hearing the woman’s words, he stubbed out his cigarette hard on the ground, stood up, and said, “Alright, your sister-in-law will look after things here. Eat something, and then we’ll go to the county hospital…”

Mr. Miller was feeling down. Ever since he started working in transportation two years ago, life had gotten better and better. Not only had he become a well-known ten-thousand-yuan household, but more importantly, his younger brother’s wife had given birth to a big, healthy boy last year.

For the Miao family, this was a huge deal. The two Miao brothers—Mr. Miller had four daughters in a row, but when the younger brother’s son was born, the whole family treasured him immensely.

But who could have predicted that the moon waxes and wanes, and people have their ups and downs? Just as life was getting better, the younger brother had a car accident on a trip—there wasn’t even a whole body left.

Worse still, ever since the accident, the little nephew had fallen ill, crying all day and refusing to eat. The town hospital couldn’t find anything wrong.

The string of misfortunes at home had added a few white hairs to Mr. Miller’s head, a man in his thirties whose back was already starting to stoop.

“Sigh, Little James is awake again. His uncle, what should we do?”