Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary

Shuyu arrives at the hospital, where, as Lin had always predicted, everyone is amazed to see a woman under seventy with bound feet. People stare and Lin refuses to be seen with her. Shuyu starts to have trouble with her back and receives treatment at the hospital, where the nurses treat her kindly, knowing she will soon have no one. This is Shuyu's first experience outside her village, and she is amazed at the comforts and ease of city life. The nurses question her about Lin, but she always sings his praises and never faults him.

The nurses beg her to show them her bound feet, but Shuyu explains that only her man can see them, that that's why feet were bound, to make them a treasure only for a husband. She tells them about enduring the process that started when...