"Thank you! Thank you so much!" An Susu's uncle showed up shortly afterwards to fetch her, and thanked the others repeatedly.
The girl might address him as her maternal uncle, but he was actually more like a distant relative. The man was a government employee in the Wula Province; he and his colleagues had been assigned a quota, requiring them to each find a candidate to go to Phoenix Mountain.
His own son was already a married man. After searching through his acquaintances, this distant niece was the only one he could find. Susu's parents were honest farmers with little education and he had expected much persuasion would be needed, but surprisingly, the parents agreed almost right away.
The uncle found their reaction somewhat puzzling, but did not think much of it, for the farmers had been having such a rough time these years he thought this was probably the parents' idea of finding a way out for their daughter.
