Zhu Zhaoye's donkey was still being held in someone else's stable. Someone offered her two taels of silver to find their eloped daughter, and she took the job.
By the time she found the girl, a carriage had already reached the alley entrance. But the girl said, "My mother was buried last year."
Zhu Zhaoye returned the money and led her away from the carriage. She still couldn't buy back her donkey, but soon people began seeking her out: a hired hand who had broken his appointment, a boatwoman who never returned from crossing the river, an old man who remembered only the aroma of a bowl of noodles.
She knew the bridges, docks, and alleys of Linshui County. Gradually, she also learned where people had gone when their stories were dismissed with the words, "They ran off with someone."
But every time she found someone, she had to ask one more question: Where do you want to go?
