With her eyes moving from one end of the long table to the other, from right to left, from the father-in-law to the mother-in-law, Mei viewed more helplessness from the two old faces. Their bloodshot weariness carried much weight. Their eyelids seemed too heavy to lift completely and their eyeballs were harrowing. They nodded, but as though each nod was an unanswered prayer.
Mei took her eyes off those two distressful faces. In front of her was a bottle of white vinegar boiling with a bottle of black vinegar under Mang’s loose-tight nostrils. She smelled the greatest sourness from his contradictory silence. She saw the fl ames all over him, hither and thither. She sensed the trouble - his long shut lips were going to babble about madness. Mei was hesitating.