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“You have a baby Where did you and your husband go to be alone?”

But before the woman could respond, her father-in-law said, “I am an old man, but I still remember the ways of a husband and wife I sat outside”

“I’ to say some names,” Hulan said “I want you to tell me if you ever heard your son speak of them Brian McCarthy…”

“The foreigner who drowned,” Wu answered

“Like your son,” Hulan pointed out

“The river takes the careless My son was not careless” It seee from this position, but David had seen this stubbornness before No parent wants to accept a child’s faults

Hulan continued listing the na, but neither Old Wu nor theprofessed to having ever heard of them

“Ask if they ever spoke to Brian,” David said “If Brian went to that spot down by the river often, then they must have seen him on their land”

Hulan asked the question Huadong’sshifted her weight Her father-in-laered, “He crossed our land every day We did not speak to him”

“Are you sure?” David asked in Mandarin Wu’s eyes widened He hadn’t expected the foreigner to speak the ue, even if it was the northern dialect

“I don’t speak English,” Wu responded

“But Brian spoke Chinese,” David revealed

An aard silence hung in the roolanced at Hulan Anything else? his expression asked These inquiries are going nowhere

David kept his eyes steady on Hulan as he asked the old man one last question “Were there any marks on your son’s body when he was pulled from the river?”

“I felt him with my own hands,” Wu answered “He was as perfect as the day he came into the world”