She smoothed one hand over the rubbled texture. She had bargained for the fabric herself, on their last trip to Suchow.

They click their glasses and knock down the toast.

Farmer Foster's averted face — his wife's slow-dropping tears — Peggy's uplifted hands and pitiful, shocked look, told quite another story.

Zhang Jiacheng has lived his entire life in Longhuai village, a small settlement comprised of earthen and aged red-brick homes in Li county, in southern Gansu province's Longnan city.