Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: Rice-and-Salt Days: Into the Mountains Summary & Analysis

Snow Flower writes Lily and says that her family survived, although she miscarried a daughter early on. She invites Lily to visit, and despite Lily's husband's protests, Lily accepts. Lily travels to Jintian late in the fall. She and Snow Flower eat lunch outside and then go to the women's chamber. Snow Flower's mother-in-law is as nasty as ever. They discuss waiting to bind their daughters' feet until they're seven. Looking at Snow Flower’s daughter Spring Moon, Lily says the girls will be like a pair of mandarin ducks.

Snow Flower's husband won't allow Snow Flower and Lily to sleep together, as is customary, so Snow Flower makes Lily a bed in the women's chamber. Lily listens to Snow Flower and her husband have sex downstairs, embarrassed. The next day, Snow Flower boils water so she and Lily can wash. Upstairs, alone with each other and naked, Lily thinks that Snow Flower looks old.

Lily says she didn't realize at the time that the outer world of men was now pushing into her life. The second night at Snow Flower's house, they're awakened by sounds and smoke outside. People begin to flee the village. They learn that the Emperor has sent troops to the area to drive out the Taipings, and the fighting will arrive soon. Lily, panicked, wonders why her husband hasn't sent for her. In the late afternoon she sees a palanquin from Tongkou coming towards Jintian, but Snow Flower's husband refuses to let her stay and wait for it. He insists that she come with them to the mountains instead.

Snow Flower's husband lifts his mother, Snow Flower, and Lily into the cart, and he and Snow Flower’s eldest son push. Spring Moon walks with Snow Flower's second son. They travel through the night and watch the fire behind them. When the cart can go no further, they continue on foot. The next afternoon, the road turns into a narrow path. Elders sit abandoned along the path. Lily's feet hurt, but she's lucky. Other women's feet break and leave them crippled.

By the second night, Lily sees young girls whose foot bindings have just begun—abandoned. Little boys beg for help, but Lily asks how you can help others when you're afraid for your life and thinking only of those you love. The path narrows even more. Lily knows her feet are bleeding, and she hears the screams of people who slip off the edge and fall down the mountain.

The travelers reach a sheltered spot on the mountain. Snow Flower recognizes three families from Jintian and she and her family join them. Snow Flower's husband leaves to look for firewood. Lily and Snow Flower are too tired and scared to sleep, and one Snow Flower's friends, Lotus, leads them in a familiar chant that tells the story of the Yao people, Lily's ethnic group.

Lotus begins the story of a woman who marries a dog. The two escape to the mountains and have 12 children. Willow picks up the story, chanting that the emperor wanted to tax the Yao descendants of the woman and the dog. Snow Flower chants that the emperor sent troops to flush them out of the mountain, but they’re unsuccessful. Finally, the Yao divide a water buffalo horn, distribute 12 pieces of horn, and the groups scatter. Lily wonders if she's truly safe in the mountains, as the mountains couldn't protect the Yao people.