As Li Long drove the Jeep out of Red Mountain Mouth, the sun had just set, leaving the western sky ablaze with red sunset clouds.
"So beautiful! When I read that textbook passage 'Fire Clouds' as a child, I wondered what fire clouds were. Only later did I realize they looked like this." Sitting in the back, Ma Xiaoyan leaned against the window and looked out. "I won't be coming tomorrow..."
"You can still see them without coming here," Li Long said as he drove. "You can see them in the county seat too, can't you? You work there, after all, and you have so much to do. How could you watch this every day like us? Being able to come along with us for these past few days was already quite something."
That was not what Ma Xiaoyan wanted to hear, but Li Long was married and very proper about such things. Though she had some feelings for him, she could say nothing.
When they reached the county seat, Ma Xiaoyan asked Li Long to take her home, saying she had nothing left to collect at the County Party Committee offices.
Ma Xiaoyan's home was in the south, near the Urban-Rural Fringe-or rather, aside from its very center, the county town was not much different from the surrounding countryside.
Her house was quite close to Sister Yang's former courtyard, three alleys away. Sister Yang's place had been near Wuyi Road, while Ma Xiaoyan's was at the very end of an alley.
When Li Long's Jeep reached the alley entrance, Ma Xiaoyan told him to stop. She said driving in would be easy, but getting out would be troublesome, so here would do.
Li Long was eager to get home, so he did not take her any farther. Once Ma