Summary

In Chapter 10, Violet and Magic Gourd travel alone to Moon Pond Village as Perpetual says he has been called away on business. Magic Gourd had argued with Violet up until the day before their trip trying to convince her not to go. She appears also not to want to go as well until she tells Violet the day before she is set to leave that she heard a rumor of a mother-in-law who beat her son’s wife to death. Although Violet recognizes the story as one she told Magic Gourd, she insists the older woman come with her as protection. Near the end of their journey, Violet finds herself looking at a valley similar to the one in Lu Shing’s painting of The Valley of Amazement.” Violet wonders if this place were her destiny all along.

When they finally...