When he arrived at the temple in Fanzai Wood, he saw Mingcheng and his wife and Dexin and Dechang, as well as Azhen, Ashu, and his own wife, waiting there. They must have heard the rumors.

  “The Japanese dogs have surrendered,” announced Mingqing.

  “Can the men sent overseas come home now?”

  “Of course they can.”

  Azhen breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She turned and left. Ashu followed her in silence.

  “Is it true?” asked Dengmei, who somehow had managed to walk up the slope to the temple.

  Mingqing rushed to give her a hand.

  “Don’t worry about me. Are you sure it’s true?” she asked, pushing him away.

  “It’s true!”

  “I knew this day would come. Did you find out what was going to happen to Taiwan?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve been in the resistance. I’m asking you if the Japanese are going to leave. Are they giving Taiwan back to us?”

  Mingqing laughed until he was red in the face. He handed the materials for the firecrackers to Mingcheng and then picked up all the money there was in the house—about thirty dollars—and set off for Miaoli and Taichung. He didn’t return for three days, and when he got back he found out that Fanzai Wood had been filled with the sound of firecrackers until there were none left. No one knew where so many firecrackers had come from.

  Mingqing returned with news that Taiwan was being retroceded to China. The Chens and Tangs of Miaoli had returned. He also said that his companions in the resistance wanted him to join them to help keep civil order, because the Chinese officials might be delayed for a time. They wanted to take matters in hand to assure that things were secure.

  “I don’t think I should get involved,” said Mingqing to his mother. “I’m just an old farmer. What can I do?”

  “I disagree. You had better do it. If others want you to join, you should,” his mother replied with a smile.

  “But Mother, you’re not well.”

  “That’s true, but I have been waiting for this day for so long.”

  “You ought to relax. Things will improve in Taiwan now.”

  “It’s a pity I can’t wait for my son and grandson.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Dengmei took no notice of her son’s surprise. She waited until her whole family was present before she softly announced, “Yesterday I had a vision of Kuanyin Bodhisattva, and she beckoned me.”

  The whole family was struck dumb.

  “It has been appointed that the day after tomorrow I will go, and Kuanyin will receive me.”

  “Mother, you are tired,” said Mingcheng, trying to lead her home to bed.

  “Let me finish,” she said, shooting a look at Mingcheng. “You should not grieve; let me depart happily and at peace.”

  Mingqing wanted to stop her from saying any more.

  “It is good,” said Dengmei, as if talking to herself. “It’s doesn’t matter if Mingji and Jiansheng haven’t returned to see me off. It will be fine if they simply return alive. Life doesn’t always go the way one wants. But everything will be all right.”

  Mingqing’s wife brought her a cup of hot water. She took a sip. When they tried to help her, she pushed them aside.

  “Did Dexin take care of the coffin boards?”

  “Yes,” replied Mingcheng, stamping his feet.

  “Don’t set up an altar or hold any fancy ceremonies. Just have Huoxian hold three sutra readings. It should be simple since the Bodhisattva is meeting me. I leave all this in Mingcheng’s hands.”

  “I won’t do it,” said Mingcheng, his temper flaring. “I mean, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Mingcheng, when will you ever grow up?”

  “You said tomorrow. Why don’t you go rest?” said Mingqing.

  “My remains should be buried with your father’s behind the temple. Mingqing will handle it.” She paused for a while. “Ask my daughters and their husbands to come day after tomorrow to see me off.”

  “All right. Will you rest now?”

  “Okay. Everything must be as normal. You have never gone against my wishes, and these are my last. Do not anger or upset me.”

  Dengmei pushed away their hands as they tried to help her, and with steady steps she set off to lie down, leaving the entire family stunned.

  “Did Mother say that she is leaving us?” asked Mingsen.

  “Yes.”

  “Where is she going?”

  “She is going to meet Kuanyin Bodhisattva.”

  “Then, that means …” Mingsen seemed to have recovered suddenly.

  “Mingsen, you go rest too.”

  “You should rest too,” said Mingsen firmly. “We have to do what Mother wants.”

  As Dengmei lay awake, she heard what her children were saying. She could not help smiling to herself. She knew she looked pretty when she smiled, and could almost visualize her own happy expression.

  Man’s life, like the mountains and rivers, must one day end, thought Dengmei. The scene the previous night had been real and not a dream. Meeting Kuanyin would be easy, and wonderful. Everything had been arranged. She had waited for Mingqing to return before telling everybody, and he had returned in time.

  The Japanese no longer ruled Taiwan; the island was once again theirs. From then on they would be their own masters. Ahan would be pleased to know that his wishes had been granted. She sensed him standing there in front of her with Qiu Mei and their other comrades. She thought to herself that she had to leave, and wondered if Ahan knew.

  Ever since her encounter with Kuanyin, she felt that everything superfluous had been stripped away. Life, old age, illness, and death were all illusory. To part with loved ones was no parting at all, and sorrow was no sorrow at all. If you strove for nothing, you lost nothing. Form, feeling, thought, formation, and consciousness were all empty.

  When Dengmei awoke, she heard the cicadas chirring in the xiangsi trees behind the house. Mingqing and Mingcheng had been standing at her door for who knows how long. Dengmei was feeling lighthearted. When she finished washing, Mingqing brought her a bowl of water.

  “I will eat nothing today,” said Dengmei.

  “That won’t do, Mother.”

  “Don’t you understand, Mingqing?”

  She did not let him reply. She sent her sons off to make the arrangements. Then she asked her grandsons to take her for a walk.

  “Mingcheng and I will come,” offered Mingqing.

  “That won’t be necessary. I’ll be all right.”

  Mingqing and Mingcheng were silent. They knew their mother’s temper, and she always meant what she said. They had to do as she wished.

  Dengmei took no more notice of them. Accompanied by her grandsons, she walked across the slope in front of the house, crossed the bridge, and went up the slope to the cliff. They sat down on a stone bench that had been placed there for people to rest. Her eyes and ears were sharp. She could clearly see the bamboo, the house, and even the firewood piled outside.

  “Grandma, what are you looking at?” asked Jiancai.

  “At our brick house,” she said, hugging him.

  “Grandma, how long have we had this house?”

  “Almost fifty years.”

  “Grandma, how old are you?”

  “Don’t you even know how old your grandma is?”

  “Seventy-two! Grandma’s birthday is coming soon.”

  “You do know.”

  “Everybody knows except Jiancai.”

  “Actually, Grandma is just eighteen.”

  “What are you talking about?” they asked in astonishment.

  “Seventy-two and eighteen are the same. Didn’t you know that? Grandma is eighteen every year.” Dengmei couldn’t help laughing at her paradoxes.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You know that Grandma often sits here. Later she will always be here,” she said, stroking Jiancai’s face.

  “Grandma, are you going far away?”

  “It’s not really far away. Just remember that I’ll always be here.”

  She stood up and started climbing the steps up the slope. Jianting, always a sensible child, tried to persuade her not to make the climb. She said that she could beat him. He reminded her that she had had nothing to eat that morning. She replied that from then on she would have no need to eat. She went on up the slope. The children had no choice but to follow her.

  “Grandma, where are you really going?”

  “I am going to have a look at our fir farm,” she said. Leading her grandsons, she eventually reached the top of the slope where the fir trees grew in profusion. The Lius had planted the slope with trees and the twenty-year lease on the land had expired the year before, but because of the war, they had not yet felled the trees. The trees were all at least a foot in diameter, and each would yield more than ten yards in boards. The Lius had worked hard planting the trees, and now that the war was over, building materials would be badly needed. The Lius would get 30 percent of the wood, the rest going to the landlord. There were at least 10,000 trees, 3,000 of which would go to the Lius.

  “Poor children,” said Dengmei without thinking.

  “What did you say, Grandma?”

  “Nothing,” she said, pointing at the trees. “I’m saying that it was hard work planting the trees in this forest.”

  “Yes, it was hard work.”

  “And what about Grandma?”

  “And Grandpa!”

  “Yes, and Grandpa.”

  “I’ve never seen Grandpa.”

  “Grandpa looked like your fathers and uncles together.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I mean your father looks like your grandpa, but not exactly. Each one looks a little like him, and if you put them all together, that would be him.” She didn’t understand what she was saying herself.

  As they talked, Mingqing and his wife arrived in haste. He insisted that his aged mother come down the mountain. She couldn’t argue with them and finally agreed. At noon she didn’t eat but did have some water with a little salt in it. In the afternoon she once again insisted on going out. Accompanied by her daughters-in-law, she set off for lower Fanzai Wood, where the Pengs, Huangs, Xus, and Chans all lived. She said good-bye to each family in turn. It was tiring for her, but fortunately the houses were close together. By the time the sun had set, her visits were done.

  “I don’t have enough strength to make it back up the slope,” she said.

  When she finally reached home, everyone came to see her. By the time it was dark, her daughter Qinmei from Long Hole had arrived.

  “Qinmei, you haven’t been telling everyone, have you?” said Mingqing reproachfully to his sister.

  “No.”

  “Then why is everyone here?”

  “I just said that Mother wanted to see everyone,” said Qinmei, sobbing.

  “Stop crying. What if Mother saw you?”

  That evening Fanzai Wood was ablaze with torches. People had converged at the Lius’ house. The brothers found the situation difficult and had to stand on the path to turn away the well-wishers.

  “There’s no need to visit. If you do, you’ll only be giving credence to this,” said Mingqing.

  No one knew what to say.

  Mingqing was reasonable and they didn’t want to argue with him, but they didn’t want to leave without seeing Dengmei. They put out their torches to discuss what they should do.

  “Will it be all right if we come tomorrow?”

  “No, it won’t,” said Mingqing.

  “Then when can we see the old lady?”

  “Do you really think that by tomorrow my mother will have passed away?”

  “Don’t you believe her?”

  “No, I don’t,” said Mingqing angrily.

  “Okay, we’ll go home and pray for the old lady tonight,” said someone.

  After nightfall, Dengmei drank some water and lay down to rest. Her children didn’t want her to find out about all the people who had come to see her. But she seemed to know that the neighbors had all gathered outside. She instructed her daughters-in-law that they should tell them all to go home.

  “All this coming and going. I haven’t gone anywhere. I saw everyone this afternoon, so what are they doing here? We’ll see each other again, so why struggle for a few minutes now?” Her words were passed on to those outside. They half understood and they ceased to worry. The old lady had said that they would meet again.

  Everyone went away satisfied. Azhen and Angmei managed to slip into the house.

  “Azhen, go home,” said Mingcheng’s wife, pushing her toward the door. “Don’t disturb the old lady.”

  “Wait,” said Dengmei from her room, “let them come in. I have something to say.”

  “Okay, but you should lie down,” she said, letting the women in.

  Azhen stood solemnly before Dengmei.

  “Azhen, take care. You must look after Amei properly.”

  “I will.”

  “A hundred years is an instant, Azhen. Live your days one at a time.”

  “I know.”

  “Your life is hard, Azhen, but I know you can do it.” She was silent for a while before continuing. “Learn from Angmei. The rivers are rivers and the mountains, mountains. Don’t be consumed by idle thoughts the way you were with the sand in the box.”

  Azhen was silent, her tears streaming down her face. She had told only Dengmei about the sand in the box. Just the two of them knew what the old lady was talking about.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow,” said Azhen, crying.

  “There is no need to come, Azhen.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going now.”

  “Don’t cry anymore. Even the crying on Hawk’s Beak has ceased. You had better go. Take care on the road at night.”

  “That’s right! I haven’t heard the crying in days,” said Jianting, who had been hiding in a corner of the room.

  By the time Azhen had made her way out the door and down the slope, Dengmei was already asleep.

  Dengmei rose early. After her sutra recitation in the morning, she walked out into the courtyard. As she looked over the mountains, she did her exercises.

  Mingqing and Mingcheng remained out of sight. She still did not eat anything and would drink only water. She thought she saw Mingqing wiping tears away. She spoke to him.

  “Have you prepared everything?”

  “All done.”

  “You are the master of the house, now.”

  “Mother….”

  “It has been hard for you the last few years.”

  “Not really.”

  “You will have to keep an eye on Mingcheng.”

  “Yes, Mother,” said Mingqing, smiling in spite of himself.

  “You will have to be a big brother to Mingsen.”

  “I will.”

  “There is also Mingji, when he comes home.”

  “I was thinking that when we get our share of the timber, we’ll have to find a wife for Mingji.”

  “You’re a good brother.” She smiled.

  “I think we should buy those orchards on the slope. If we don’t have enough money, we’ll have to find a way.”

  “It would be a good idea to get some paddy land as well. Wasn’t Ye talking about selling his paddy land by the temple?”

  “Yes, he did say something. Okay, we’ll put half our profits in paddy land and the other half in orchards.”

  “Mingqing, you and your brothers have to get on in the world. If it means splitting up, don’t do so until after Mingji is set.”

  “Set your mind at ease—we won’t split up.”

  “How old are you now?” she suddenly asked.

  “Fifty. How could you forget? Mingcheng is forty-six, Mingsen is thirty-eight, and Mingji is twenty-seven.”

  “I asked just to remind you!”

  “For what?”

  “Next year you will have passed fifty, and you will have to have a big celebration. After you sell the timber, you can really celebrate properly.”

  “Let’s do it,” said Mingqing childishly. “Shall we have a joint birthday party? Perhaps Mingji’s wedding can be arranged for the same time.”

  “Good! That would be perfect.” She laughed happily. She looked at her son for a while. Then she asked her daughters-in-law to prepare her bath.

  The sunlight shone on the cliff opposite the house. After finishing her bath, Dengmei put on the blue robe that she wore on the first and fifteenth of every month—it was the robe that the holy woman Alian had made for her. After Mingqing had returned from Taichung, the ancestral tablets that had been stored in a corner of the house for years were taken out and placed on the altar. On one tablet Huoxian had inscribed LIU AHAN OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH GENERATION. It was sad to think that offerings had not been made to Ahan for so many years.

  Dengmei sat in a rattan chair facing the altar. She had always wanted an altar painting of the Buddhas or Kuanyin but had never acquired one. She began to recite the Amithabha Sutra and a chapter from the Lotus Sutra.

  Mingqing and the rest of the family were asked to leave the main hall, but they remained by the door. Dengmei’s recitation was as clear and as soothing as ever, like the lapping of water in a mountain stream or the sound of the wind in the trees. The old lady was at peace and calm; there was even something about her reminiscent of a religious painting. She didn’t appear hungry, even though she had had nothing to eat in almost two days.

  It was past nine o’clock in the morning when she finished chanting the sutras. She placed them in a cloth-covered box.

  Her grandson Jianting offered her a washcloth, at the instigation of his father.

  “Grandma, would you like to wipe your face?”

  “That would be nice, but it doesn’t matter. Grandma is always clean.”

  “Mother, you must have something to eat and lie down,” said her sons, bursting in.

  “No, the time has come.” She stood up. “Jianting, take a chair out to the courtyard. Hurry now.”

  Jianting picked up a chair but didn’t seem to know what to do next. Mingqing fell to his knees before his mother. Mingcheng did the same and was followed by Mingsen, who seemed to have recovered completely. Jianting was quick to understand, and he also knelt before his grandmother. Soon the entire family was kneeling.