Summary

Chapters 7-9 continue in China the morning after he and Ying Li have their first of two sexual encounters. Hector seems even more unhappy and unsettled than he was when he was back in his home country treating his patients. He takes a walk from his hotel and spends most of his day thinking about Ying Li. He tries to focus at a cafe but can't, and so he doesn't stay long. On his walk around the city he compares Edouard as a friend to a friend who is an excellent skier: the skier takes his friend to the top of a very tall slope because he thinks his friend will enjoy it, only to have the excellent skier enjoy the entire ride down and the person who doesn't know how to ski be miserable and scared and fail as they tumble down...