Chapter 3

I remember that photo.

It was taken before the college entrance exams, and it was the only photo I had.

When I got home, I told my parents I needed to have my picture taken.

Both their faces went cold at once.

My father especially—he snatched up the fire poker off the ground and started beating me with it.

He said I was young and already going wrong, acting like some rich young master getting his picture taken.

What was next—was I going off to drink and run wild?

No matter how many times I explained that the school required the photo, they simply didn't believe me.

They even took the only ten yuan I had for food, shoved a few dinner rolls and some sweet potatoes at me, and told me to get lost back to school.

I went back to school in tears.

I wasn't lying. The photo was for the college entrance exams.

Without a photo, you weren't even allowed to sit the exam.

Luckily my homeroom teacher had a kind heart and paid the twenty yuan for the photo.

But my eyes were still swollen from crying, ugly, exactly like the memorial portrait in that person's hand.

I was terrified, so I rushed to the ditch beside me and compared my reflection in the water with the boy's face in the memorial portrait.

The eyes and brows were almost a perfect match...

And the mole at the corner of the mouth!

I nearly broke down.

But I still couldn't believe it.

I bolted into the funeral procession and threw open the coffin.

It was completely empty inside.

Only a few brand-new sets of clothes, in a style I had never seen before.

I let out a huge breath and dropped down onto the ground.

Thank goodness. It was just a false alarm.

Kids in the mountains all look about the same.

Maybe I'd seen it wrong.

I brushed the dirt off myself, made my apologies to the funeral procession, and moved off to the side to rest for a bit.

I was so tired. All that commotion just now had used up nearly all my strength.

To climb up from the bottom of that steep cliff, I'd need to be in good shape.

But no sooner had I closed my eyes than I heard a familiar shout.

"Found him! He's over there!"

"Grab her!"

I opened my eyes on instinct.

And saw a crowd of villagers standing less than twenty meters from me.

At the front was the old widow my parents were forcing me to marry!

Almost by reflex, I scrambled up and ran.

The wind whistled past my ears, and the thorns of the unmarked graveyard tore at my legs until they burned.

But I didn't dare stop.

Because I knew exactly what would happen to me the moment I was caught and dragged back!

I ran with everything I had, wishing I were one of these mountain beasts, born with four hooves to run on.

But after a whole night I was hungry and worn out, and after only a few steps I felt completely drained, my hands and feet barely obeying me.

As I passed a jutting rock, I lost my footing and crashed hard to the ground.

Blood immediately welled up from my leg, and the pursuers behind me closed in and grabbed me by the collar.

Slap, slap, slap!

The old widow at the front pinched my chin and struck me back and forth, three slaps in a row.

My cheeks swelled up like dinner rolls, my head spinning, and the whole time their cursing never let up.

"Your parents want you to marry me, so you're my man! You've got to provide for my whole family!"

"Still trying to run?"

"Take him back right now!"