Part 3, Chapter 8 Summary

As Manna's pregnancy progresses, she is cranky, resentful, and possessive. A little short of her ninth month, she goes into labor and they make their way to the hospital, where the labor progresses rapidly. Lin is completely out of his element, and unsure what to do, even though he is a doctor. He tries to remember what he read in a textbook about childbirth twenty years earlier.

Haiyan, who is now an obstetrician, arrives to deliver the baby. She assures Lin that Manna is doing fine, and sends him to get something to eat. In the mess hall, Lin cannot decide whether he is happy about the baby, whose arrival is taking him by surprise. He has terrible heartburn and cannot finish eating. He returns to the medical building, where Manna is screaming, and Haiyan tells him the baby is coming...