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PASSION AND MY Granddad made wild love for three days and nights, until her already thick lipswere puffy and swollen¹. Trickles² of blood seeped³ into the cracks between her teeth, and whenGranddad kissed her, the taste of blood nearly drove him crazy. The rain didn’t let up duringthose three days, and when the blue-and-gold light vanished from the room, the rustling⁴ of grey-green sorghum⁵, the watery⁶ croaks⁷ of frogs, and the nibbling⁸ sounds of wild rabbits came on theair from the fields. The chilled, fetid air was saturated⁹ with a thousand smells.
When Granddad awoke on the morning of the fourth day, he looked at Passion lying besidehim and discovered how gaunt and bony she had become; her closed eyes were rimmed¹⁰ withdark-purple circles, her thick lips were cracked and peeling. Hearing the loud crash of a housecollapsing somewhere in the village, he quickly dressed and stumbled down off the kang, only tofall flat on his face; he was stunned¹¹. As he lay on the floor, his stomach rumbled¹² from hunger.
Managing to get to his feet, he called out weakly for the woman Liu. No answer. He went intothe room that Passion shared with her, but the only thing lying on the kang mat was a green frog;no sign of Liu.
Returning to the room where he and Passion had spent the last three days and nights, he pickedup several squashed slices of salted eggs and gobbled them down, shell and all. But they onlywhetted his appetite, so he went into the kitchen and dug through the cabinet, where he foundfour

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