Chapter 2

Overnight, I became famous throughout the village.

“Some wild little girl appeared out of nowhere. Let her touch a pregnant woman’s belly, and she’ll have a son!”

Family after family wanted to take me in, including the fathers and mothers who had refused to keep me before.

I didn’t want to go with them. I chose to live with an old woman who lived alone.

Granny had given birth to seven daughters, but never managed to have a son.

After her husband died, she lived by herself.

Her daughters often visited, so she never lacked food or clothing.

In fact, she lived more comfortably than many people who had sons.

Even so, she still had to endure their mockery.

My arrival brought life to her quiet home.

Every few days, someone came to invite me over to touch a pregnant woman’s belly.

Gifts of every description poured into Granny’s house.

I turned nothing away. I accepted them all.

As more and more boys were born with my help, I became the village’s blessed girl in every sense.

Whatever the time, whichever house I visited, people treated me to their best food and drink.

Families who had borne sons, in particular, regarded me as their savior.

The surrounding villages heard and sent people to invite me over.

Our village chief refused. “The blessed girl is Shangxi Village’s treasure. If anything happened to her in your village, could you afford to make it up to us?”

The visitors from the other villages looked troubled.

They understood his meaning well enough. They were just afraid he would demand an outrageous price.

Life was hard, after all. None of them were well-off.

I stepped out from behind Granny and stood very straight in my small body.

“I can go with you. But I have one condition!”

The visitors were overjoyed. “What is it? Tell us!”

I smiled. I must have looked mischievous and sweet.

But their expressions grew uneasy when they heard what I said.

“I want every girl to go to school!”

“If I discover a girl who’s dropped out in any village, I’ll never visit that village again!”

Having said my piece, I watched them with wide eyes.

I had never been to school. But I remembered an older girl once telling me that school was the only way out of the mountains.

Especially for girls.

One of the adults saw how young I was and tried to fool me.

“Little blessed girl, you don’t understand. School costs a great deal of money. We don’t have the money to send those older girls to school!”

Very few girls in the villages attended school. Almost everyone took it for granted that girls had no need of an education.

Only Granny’s seven daughters—my seven aunties—had all gone at least as far as vocational school.

And so, one after another, they had left the mountain village.

If Granny hadn’t been so unwilling to leave her flock of chickens, ducks, and geese, her seven daughters would have taken her away long ago.

Whenever they came home, they arrived in cars with big bags of gifts.

Even so, the villagers still mocked Granny for having no male heir, no son to care for her in old age and bury her when she died.

I didn’t understand. Were their ignorant sons—men who only knew how to do hard labor and odd jobs, or couldn’t find work their entire lives—really better than Granny’s seven accomplished daughters?

I asked the man, “Which village are you from?”

He told me he was from Xiaxi.

“Then I won’t go to Xiaxi anymore.”

“Don’t think you can trick me just because I’m little. Compulsory education has been free for ages. There are no tuition or miscellaneous fees, and the school even provides meals every day.”

“If you won’t let girls go to school, I won’t help your village!”

Another man from Xiaxi grew agitated at this.

“Easy for you—you’ve already got a son. I’m still waiting for someone to carry on the family line! School doesn’t cost anything, and it’ll save two meals a day at home. Just tell the village chief to let the girls go!”

I slipped behind Granny again. “I’ll wait to hear from you. Until then, I’m not going anywhere!”