Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary

In the fall of 1966, part the hospital's staff goes on a field-training exercise, a month-long foot march of 400 miles. They are not permitted to take any automated vehicles. Lin and Manna must go, and as they reach the snowy mountainous areas, the walk becomes more arduous. Manna and another nurse develop such serious blisters on their feet, they can barely walk.

Lin checks on all his nurses that evening, bringing them food and then treating the two nurses by piercing their blisters and leaving a piece of Manna's hair inside the wounds to keep them open and draining. The ladies ask him to stay and eat dinner with them. He refuses but later has a fantasy about doing so, musing about the days when rich men had multiple wives. Lin thinks of touching Manna's foot, which it seems he can still...