Page 40 (1/2)

The door closed, and David and Hulan waited in the rain Low, agitated voices, then the door opened again, revealing an older man, his eyes filmy white with blindness

“I’m froht a foreigner withto speak with you”

The man waved them inside, closed the door behind theh-hewn piece of wood horizontally into two brackets that sat on either side of the fra woman—theof the man who’d drowned—stood barefoot in the center of the rooainst her chest Hulan edged forward to get a look at the infant, but thecovered her baby’s face and backed away Superstition and suspicion went hand in hand in the countryside

Thetea She stared at hih money for tea leaves

“On a day such as this, a cup of hot water would be nice,” Hulan co both sympathy and condescension from her voice Without a word the worimy jars, and handed theainst the wall Her feet and ars

“Wu Huadong was ”

Wu’s Sichuan accent was so thick that David could barely understand the words, so he surreptitiously tried to take in the surroundings The rooer than it looked from the outside because the back wall and part of the sides of the roo platforainst the walls A hutch had been constructed froed crates that were tucked into an alcove, which had also been chiseled out of thefro as inside A hoainst the wall A clothesline had been strung kitty-corner across the rooreatly to the eye-stinging odor that combined urine, spit-up, and mildew Lack of air circulation caused by no s and the locked door exacerbated the stench

David had been in other peasant ho like this Even if the poor couldn’t afford glass s, they left an open space for ventilation, which was sealed in the winter by newspapers In the middle of summer, he would have expected to see the door open at the very least Yet not only was it closed but a substantial barrier had been laid across it to prevent entry Looking around, though, David saw nothing that could be of any value—no s other than one eight-by-ten-inch piece of paper with Chinese characters that had been jabbed onto a nail There wasn’t even a simple altar to commemorate the dead husband and son

“People say your son’s death was an accident,” Hulan said as David began to follow the conversation

“How can it be an accident?” Wu iry, and his face was as cragged and worn as the cliffs outside “Our faround for many centuries My son was born here and knew every rock of the land How could he fall into the river?”

“If not an accident, what do you think happened?”

“There are evils to be guarded against,” Wu stated

Hulan stiffened David understood the words but was unsure of his wife’s reaction

“Lust comes in many forms,” Wu went on “For a woood, but he was deceived”

“By Xiao Da?” Hulan asked