The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

For the next two weeks after the incident, the village adheres to ceremonial abstinence. Li-yan regularly does her chores, yet her mother neither praises nor scolds her, and the girl realizes that she has “never felt so alone or lonely” (35). When it’s time to give sacrifices, Ci-teh’s family members must offer “nine sacks of grain, nine pigs, nine chickens, and nine dogs” (35), which results in them losing all their wealth.

When the cycle of ceremonial abstinence ends, Li-yan returns to school. She is the first person in her family to go to primary school: Her parents are illiterate, and her brothers can hardly read or write. Since Li-yan’s mother won’t talk to her, the girl finds refuge in the school. She sits next to Ci-teh, but the two friends don’t talk about what happened to Ci-teh’s brother and sister-in-law, Ci-do and Deh-ja. There are 19 children in the classroom, ages 6 to 12. Their instructor, Teacher Zhang, was “pulled from his university post in the capital and sent down to learn from peasants” (36). Since he can’t get a permit to go back home to his family, he has become a bitter man.