Summary

Li-yan, as narrator, begins with the month of Chor La Bar Lar (September) where they celebrate the swing festival. This is a chance for men and women to meet and potentially marry. Li-yan is now 16 and receives a new headdress from her mother. Li-yan has learned how to deliver babies including all the traditions, and expresses that a new fascination with twins in the main part of China has now allowed the tribes to have twins. She is told to take a boy to the flower room and have sex with him to see if he is a good fit. However, she has fallen in love with San-pa and the two go straight for each other. Her parents, however, are upset because the two were born on conflicting days in the Akha tradition. Though...