A meal filled with heavy hearts, we left Uncle Wang's house silently and followed to the hand-carving workshop. Said workshop was actually more of a small studio, located near Guan Li Yaozu's office.

When we entered, Li Yaozu was there too. He greeted us warmly upon seeing us.

Yesterday afternoon, Bai Sanshui had withdrawn his accusation,

so naturally, Li Yaozu had been released. At that moment, he was standing in the room guiding workers in wood carving.

There was a person in charge at the workshop, and upon seeing us, he got up to greet us and arranged the filming.

The photographer signaled for me to take a rest since he had done this many times and could handle it himself.

With nothing much to do, I stood to the side watching the workers carve. One group was carving statues of the Mam Goddess, and as Uncle Wang had said, each outstanding part was different, none resembling those in Bai Sanshui's home.

I watched the workers carve attentively; they were very serious and focused, and the room was silent.

Their concentrated demeanor had a kind of devout allure, and before long, I was deeply engrossed, however, I also felt a certain sacredness in these carvings.

Seeing me so absorbed, Li Yaozu approached and proactively started a conversation, introducing the wood carving workshop's situation. He was some kind of technical advisor there.

Even though I had decided not to delve deeper into Bai Sanshui's incident, I couldn't help but ask about the different styles and meanings of the infant carvings.

Li Yaozu answered patiently, giving a more detailed explanation similar to Uncle Wang's.

Then, I asked the question I most wanted to ask: "So what does it mean if they all are there?"

Li Yaozu's expression didn't change as he asked back, "Are you referring to the one in Bai Sanshui's home?"

"That is the complete image of the Mam Goddess; it's offered when praying for something impossible."

"He wanted his son to come back to life."

"But you know, it's superstition. A wood carving is just a wood carving; any meaning it holds is given by people."

"What doctors can't achieve, praying to gods and Buddha won't help either."

At his words, I felt a bit embarrassed, realizing I didn’t even have as much belief in science as a spiritual person.

"What you say makes sense. We can't entirely blame him."

"Harsh living conditions require some kind of faith and a simple worldview to explain the various natural phenomena happening."

"Like this forest, I guess it's due to soil quality, water sources, and such reasons, making the trees lush and the soil fertile."

"People in the old days couldn't explain this, so they thought it was protection from deities and naturally believed they could pray for anything."

Li Yaozu's expression turned peculiar: "That's not quite it."

"Huh?"

"The lush trees and abundant grass, thriving descendants are certainly due to the protection of the Mam Goddess." Li Yaozu’s expression was so matter-of-fact, it was as if he had not just said that resurrection was superstitious nonsense.

I was extremely embarrassed: "Didn't you just say..."

"I only said the wood carvings are useless and the Mam Goddess can't resurrect people." Li Yaozu looked at me as if I were an idiot.

With the conversation reaching this point, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Thankfully, the photographer came to the rescue, telling us that the footage was almost complete and they just needed a few more recorded segments from the person in charge, then the rough cut could be ready tonight.

Upon hearing this, Li Yaozu took us to find the foreman, as such external promotions were usually handled by him.

When we saw Li Guofeng again, he was in his office shaving. Upon seeing us, he welcomed us warmly.

Since it was a free promotional video, the video's structure wasn't fancy.

It was just Li Guofeng speaking into the camera, introducing the promotional content: “According to local documents, it is said that... the mountain people of Mam would go to the legendary cave where the Mam Goddess and the hunter lived to worship. But with the progress of the times and the need to protect the forest, we carved the stone statues in the cave into wooden carvings to carry with us, providing the same protection, whether praying for a child or for peace...”

It was astonishing that such a remote and desolate place had any local documents at all.

Regarding my bias, Li Yaozu explained that although this whole vast border area had long been an uninhabited area, the location of the forest farm was an exception.

There had been stable settlements here since the Tang and Song dynasties, self-sufficient with their own beliefs, calendars, customs, scripts, and even one of the birthplaces of various northeastern hunting tribes' languages and cultures, naturally also having its own documents.

I found this hard to believe.

After so many years of education, I had never heard of such a thing, but out of politeness, I repeatedly praised it.

Li Yaozu casually took a promotional booklet of the forest farm from the foreman's office and handed it to me.

The photographer's shoot went smoothly, and after it ended, Director Li invited us to dinner.

We couldn’t refuse, so we followed to have a meal.