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“It’s hu,” he corrected

He rested his back against the rock and spoke out into the gorge “‘In deep, fog-filled gorges, dragons and tigers sleep’”

She supposed that he was quoting Du Fu, but she wasn’t sure, and she was surprised that Quon, a Chinese Ah he’d known them his entire life

“Can you iine what this must have been like in the old days?” he asked “Men stripped down to loincloths with ropes slung over their shoulders and their bodies bent down so far with the effort of pulling boats upriver through the rapids that their noses nearly touched this stone floor Iine it, Inspector, the iain “For millennia the people followed Yu the Great’s approach to the river He adhered to nature’s laws and had great respect for the inherent aspects of water Then Mao ca floods was central to their success But the results weren’t always for the best, were they?”

“Well…”

His laugh floated out into the gorge, and he ran a hand through his straight black hair, ruffling it up from his scalp

“How do you look at the world, Inspector? I bet you like facts—like how the river has its source in the Tibetan Plateau and how it crashes down through the Himalayas Or how the river should drain into the Gulf of Tonkin but abruptly changes its course in Yunnan so that it washes through the width of China and eends are so much more romantic”

“I’m not from this area, so I don’t know them,” she admitted

“Every child knows the story of Yu the Great—”

“I don’t Tell me”

“At dinner,” he said, turning so that their arms touched

“I have to work”

“You still have to eat,” he countered

“It wouldn’t be proper”

“We won’t be alone We’ll be in a room with scholars and waitresses We all knoho you are and that you’re a married woman”