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“These are golden ela answered, her voice oddly flat “They popped up last night”

“Are you going to give thehtly “Maybe he could sauté thearlic”

“These aren’t for eating”

“Poisonous, then?”

Angela didn’t bother to respond

“Aren’t mushrooms usually found in shady areas?” Hulan asked

“This once was a shady area,” Angela answered, then gestured to the skeletal re killed the trees and this shrubbery”

“Too bad those zhi,” Michael went on “You would have struck gold”

Angela’s face reddened To cover the emotion, she bent her head back down to stare at the little cluster that had surfaced near the trunk of one of the dead bushes When she didn’t look up again, Michael looked at Hulan and shrugged

Hulan headed east along the path Michael followed, although she hadn’t invited him In fact, she’d wanted time alone to think about what Li Guo had said She was sure he’d been trying to send her a e But Michael didn’t ask permission to accompany her, and she didn’t send him away As he’d shown yesterday, he wasn’t a bad companion His stride was steady and surefooted He kept quiet even when they passed the little shack that belonged to the Wu fa inside

They crossed over the trail that led down to the cave where the All-Patriotic Society held its s A short way beyond this was another path Hulan had already explored the e with David and Dr Ma the other day, so she dipped down onto this new path, hoping it h she could see the cove where Brian’s things had been found, though she wondered howwaters Still, she wanted a closer look and edged down farther

Michael was right behind her when she heard the Wu infant’s cries again They sounded as though they came from below her, which meant that there had to be some kind of acoustical anomaly caused by the cliffs around them She went down another five vertical meters and came to the entrance to a cave The baby’s cries see her umbrella shut

“Do you hear that?” she asked

Michael nodded “The one into some other part of the cave” He listened, then added, “I can re us in the back of the car when my little brother wouldn’t sleep This wo the kid helps”

Hulan took a couple of steps farther into the cave and called hello The sound disappeared into the blackness The baby continued to cry