The high-speed train raced past the bustling city, leaving its high-rises far behind. Outside the window, the scenery gradually gave way to rolling green mountains and scattered villages.
The bus bumped along the winding mountain road, and the fresh scents of earth and plants began to mingle in the air.
Leaning against the window, Jiang Shu watched the lush greenery stream past. To her surprise, she felt at peace.
After returning from the wedding that day, she had “holed up” at home for a long time, mostly to come to terms with the baffling fact that she had crossed into another world and to think about how to take charge of this brand-new life.
Father Jiang and Mother Jiang, however, had misunderstood. They went out of their way to cheer her up, carefully trying one thing after another. Their excessive solicitude left her feeling a little helpless, yet it also gave her a warmth she wasn’t used to.
Then one day, as she idly scrolled through Xiaohongshu, a photo suddenly caught her eye. A village of green bamboo-and-wood houses climbed the mountainside in tier upon tier, while clouds curled around the slopes like a soft sash.
A stone path wound uphill, imbued with a quiet untouched by too much human interference and the weight of time.
She couldn’t say why, but something in her heart was gently stirred.
With hardly a moment’s hesitation, she booked her ticket.
When Father Jiang and Mother Jiang learned she wanted to travel alone to clear her head, their surprise gave way to immense relief.
At last, the bus lurched to a stop at the town’s rudimentary station.
The air was cool, damp with moisture and faintly scented with grass and trees.
Jiang Shu climbed off with her modest luggage and looked around. There were no signs for star-rated hotels picking up guests, only a few locals watching her with curious eyes.
She took out her phone, found the number of the local guide she had contacted earlier, and called.
The phone rang twice before someone answered. A loud male voice with a thick accent came through, with a noisy background that seemed to include crowing chickens and barking dogs.
“Hello? Miss Jiang, is that you? You’ve arrived? Don’t move, don’t move—I’m coming! I can see you!”
Before the call had even ended, Jiang Shu spotted a dark-skinned, middle-aged man in a navy homespun jacket. Grinning broadly, he hurried toward her from the entrance of a little shop beside the station, waving a well-worn smartphone in his hand.
He reached her without even seeming out of breath. His smile was warm and unassuming, crinkling the corners of his eyes. “You’re Miss Jiang, right? Hehe, I spotted you from way over there. You look like someone in a painting—not like us around here! You must be tired from the journey. I’m Luo Laosi. Just call me Uncle Luo!”
Without a hint of hesitation, he took the suitcase from her, moving briskly and leaving no room for refusal. “The car’s over there. We’d better hurry, or we’ll get told off if anyone sees us. It’s still a bit of a way to the village, so I’ll drive you there in my little van.”
His friendliness came at her like the mountain breeze—forthright and immediate, with the earthy warmth of the place.
The faint wariness Jiang Shu had felt in the unfamiliar surroundings eased a little beneath his hearty laughter.
She nodded, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. “All right. Thank you, Uncle Luo.”
The little van bounced along the gravel road like a tin can that had had too much to drink.
Gripping the overhead handle, Jiang Shu felt as though her insides were about to be shaken loose.
Uncle Luo, however, sat as steady as a rock, steering with one hand and pointing out the window with the other. “See those terraced fields? Our ancestors left us a real treasure! And over there—an old waterwheel. Still turning!”
Jiang Shu followed his gaze. The traces of human ingenuity scattered among the verdant mountains gave everything here a sense of timeworn vitality.
She caught her breath and couldn’t help sighing. “The scenery is beautiful… but it’s not easy to appreciate it.”
“Hey, you’ll get used to it!” Uncle Luo’s booming laughter drowned out the engine. “Our Yunjiang Miao Village is split into two parts, inner and outer. The Outer Village—that’s where we’re going now—is lively! There are guesthouses, restaurants, all sorts of things. It’s a nice place for city folk like you to visit!”
The van rolled over a deep pothole and jolted violently.
Jiang Shu asked without thinking, “And the other part? There’s an Inner Village too?”
Up ahead, Uncle Luo’s back seemed to stiffen ever so slightly. His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
But he quickly resumed his usual cheerful manner, speaking a little faster, as if eager to move past the subject.
“The Inner Village… well, that’s their own territory. Lots of rules. They generally don’t let people in.” He answered vaguely, most of his words swallowed by the engine.
From the back seat, Jiang Shu could see only the back of his head and his faded cap, not the hint of wariness and caution that flickered across his face.
It was a complicated expression, a mixture of respect and fear.
Silence fell for a moment, broken only by the clatter of the wheels over stones.
Jiang Shu had keenly caught his brief hesitation and evasion.
She wasn’t the sort to insist on digging into everything at all costs. She had an instinctive respect for other people’s boundaries.
Turning her gaze back to the window, she watched the clusters of wooden stilt houses drawing nearer along the mountainside and replied evenly, “Oh, I see. Understood.”
Jiang Shu didn’t press him. Her attention had already been drawn to the clouds curling around the mountainside and the unfamiliar song drifting faintly through the air.
Uncle Luo glanced at her quickly in the rearview mirror. Seeing her absorbed in the scenery, he visibly relaxed, his tone turning warm again. “Miss Jiang, we’re almost there! The place I booked for you is the best around. The view’s fantastic!”
After one last violent jolt, the little van finally came to a stop. The fine dust it kicked up glittered in the sunlight.
Jiang Shu pushed open the door, and a mountain breeze carrying the scents of earth, fresh grass, and faint woodsmoke rushed toward her, instantly sweeping away the stuffiness of the journey.
The view opened up before her.
Green stretched in every direction, as if someone had overturned a palette—from deep green and dark green to emerald and fresh spring green, layer upon layer, blanketing every mountain within sight.
Stilt houses stood scattered along the slopes, their wooden frames weathered to a deep brown and their roofs covered in gray-black tiles, as though they had grown naturally from the mountains themselves.
There were a moderate number of tourists, most of them locals strolling at an unhurried pace, which only added to the place’s unspoiled tranquility.
What drew Jiang Shu’s attention most was the way people dressed.
Nearly all the locals wore traditional Miao attire, adorned with brilliant embroidery and silver ornaments that glinted in the sunlight.
It was easy to tell who was local and who had come from elsewhere as a tourist.
Of course, there were also plenty of out-of-town visitors wearing local clothing!
As a woman carrying a bamboo basket on her back passed in front of the van, Jiang Shu’s eyes were immediately drawn to the intricate, exquisite embroidery on the front of her garment.
It wasn’t an ordinary pattern of flowers, birds, fish, insects, or auspicious motifs. It was a lifelike snake!
Its body coiled and wound across the fabric, its scales carefully outlined in dark blue and deep green thread. Its head was slightly raised, its eyes strangely sharp and piercing, giving it a mysterious, almost uncanny air.
Jiang Shu stared, momentarily stunned. She had never seen anyone embroider a snake on their clothes before.
The woman seemed to notice her gaze and turned to look at her. The silver ornaments at her wrists and neck chimed softly with her movement, like mountain springs trickling onto jade.
Just then, Uncle Luo parked the van and came over. Following Jiang Shu’s gaze, he smiled knowingly, revealing teeth yellowed by smoke. “How about it? Our clothes are pretty, aren’t they? Not like what you have in the city, huh?”
He pointed to a small shop nearby, where several beautiful sets of Miao attire hung by the entrance. “There, that shop does the best work. Every stitch of the embroidery is done by hand. If you like it, Miss Jiang, you can pick out a few outfits to wear for photos. They look great!”