Books & Beyond

The mother lies ill and weak in bed for days after the abortion, and the cousin's kind wife helps her in all the ways she can. She cries with the realization that there is no hope from the landlord's agent, who remains oblivious to all her suffering.

There is no other path for her to take. The mother can feel the baby growing inside her and greedily absorbing her life away. She goes to the cousin's wife for help.

The news of her husband’s death spreads throughout the hamlet. The woman weeps and weeps and knows that she won’t be able to stop until she finishes what she must do.

In her next fake letter, the mother writes that her husband is dead. With the last bit of hope, she goes to the landlord’s agent to see how he will respond to the news. But it ends up no more than another heavy disappointment.

The mother's elder son starts to wonder if his father is dead, and plans to go look for him in town. He sets his heart on finding his father and forces the mother to decide to end her made-up tale once and for all.

The landlord's agent clearly doesn't want to have anything to do with the mother anymore. He won't look at her even when she puts on the jewelry he bought for her. It's the Mid-Autumn day, a time when families gather to celebrate. But for the mother and her children, it’s a day that reminds them of their sense of loss and joylessness.

Months later, the mother's fear comes true. She is pregnant again. She curses that day of the storm and her own foolishness and desire. The landlord's agent, on the other hand, is finished with her. He comes no more throughout that summer and treats the mother the same as everyone else when he comes to collect the grains in autumn.

The cold rain comes as a surprise and washes all the heat out of the day. When the mother returns home from her sweet and evil dream, she finds the old mother seriously ill, attacked by the sudden chilliness from the rain. With her own money, the mother buys some fine red cotton cloth and makes the old woman a brand-new shroud before she passes away.

This day, the landlord's agent comes to the mother's hamlet. She dares not to look at him, or to return the trinkets in broad daylight, so she lowers her head and answers his questions as the man glances up and down on her body. Deep down, the mother feels this same hunger inside her. So when the man asks her to lead the way to her family's less noticeable field up around the hill, she hesitates, but still agrees. With blood thundering in her ears, she walks to the private little shrine with the man, as the day gets darker and full of deeper and more burning heat.

It's summer again and the land is scorched with soft heat that's almost unbearable for any labour. But the mother fills her day with work in the field. The heat is in her veins too…and as she waters the dried soil and sees the dirt turn dark and moist, she feels as if she has fed some thirsty living thing and given it life.