The next day, Kira and Dan took their breakfast together as Kyrhan wanted to be as fresh as possible for a long and tedious day. They left to Han Zhou with Lan Yu, as scheduled. Wei Lin Had finally was decided to accompany Kira. Dan would have preferred to be alone with the two pretty women. Han Zhou was at some distance from Shanghai on a motorway. The road was crossing fields with some derelict farms, old canals in various states of decay, some of them in the process of being filled up. The city was built around a lake with a promenade around. From place to place, they were high and narrow bridges that Kira felt very romantic. She would have loved to walk hand in hand with Dan but Lan Yu and Wei Lin had clearly other ideas, Lan Yu had taken Dan's arm and Wei Lin kept to Kira's side. Romantic walks would thus remain a dream.
They visited the tomb garden of a general killed traitorously by an Emperor and buried there. Dan would have loved to find some secluded room to hide with Kira but their Chinese mentors kept very close to them and the tomb garden was far less labyrinthic than the stone garden in Shanghai. For lunch, Wei Lin took them to a restaurant in the center of the city. They had several vivariums in the entrance with various types of snakes. Soon after they had taken their seats at the table, a waiter came with a small snake that coiled around his wrists, trying desperately to get free. He presented it to Dan.
- Do you like it?
Dan, amazed, nodded wondering what the waiter meant. Soon after, the waiter came back with a tray with two glasses. One of them contained the blood of the snake which had just been killed to be cooked. The other small glass contained its gall in rice alcohol. Dan was rather disgusted but managed to keep cool. He asked what health benefits could be expected from them. Lan Yu told him in hesitant English that the blood helped to clear blood humors and that the gall gave, as could be expected, strength in bed with women. That gave Dan a partial way out : Lan Yu complained of pain in her legs since their dancing evening. Dan offered her the glass with the blood of the snake. She thanked him profusely. For the gall, the problem was still unresolved. He began to pretend that his wife was not accompanying him and the medicine would be wasted. Lan Yu and Kira both seemed disappointed. So Dan relented :
- But I've met at breakfast a pretty French woman who seemed alone. We chatted somewhat and I invited her to share my table. Maybe, I can find a use for this glass. . . Last night was rather lonely for me and the noise in a nearby room kept me awake a long time.
Dan gulped the content of his glass hastily. Kira knew perfectly that he had shared his breakfast with herself as Kyrhan had remained in bed. She felt guilty of having been so vocal during the previous night with Kyrhan and not having just paid at least a visit to Dan before sleeping in Kyrhan's arms. She would do her best to repay him somehow that day.
After the lunch, they went to a nearby Buddhist temple. It was a center of deep devotion with swarms of pilgrims praying, or burning sticks of incense. A heavy cloud of pungent smoke covered the buildings, half hiding them from view. Inside the temple hall, there were huge statues of bodhisattvas, warriors with fierce appearance to scare off evil creatures that really impressed Kira. In other halls, they admired human size bronze statues of monks. Not very far from the temple, there was a small mountain with hundreds of carvings of Buddha everywhere, on flat slabs, in niches or as statues and even in a grotto. Kira and Dan wandered in the maze of narrow tracks to admire the carvings and try to lose for a few minutes their guides but it was to no avail
A stone staircase nearby attracted a few tourists. Lan Yu and Wei Lin proposed Kira and Dan to climb the long staircase to a terrace in the mountain. Kira agreed immediately. They first crossed a forest of tall blue bamboos before discovering a pine shrub with stones poking everywhere through the soil. There were a few Chinese people climbing the stairs along them. They apparently looked for calm places to rest as their numbers dwindled until they found themselves alone. The tourists abandoned soon in front of the effort needed to climb that seemingly endless staircase. It got steeper and they finally glimpsed at a distance some old buildings perched on both sides of a narrow wooden bridge. The view was picturesque and Kira was sad not to have taken a camera or even her cell phone.
The buildings seemed less interesting when they arrived : the temple had been transformed into a coffee shop for tourists and was closed, the small shrine nearby had been razed, leaving just its foundations. They continued their ascension, finally arriving to the upper terrace with a magnificent view on the landscape and nearby steep mountains. After having watched the view for several minutes, Kira grabbed Dan's hand and began to descend the staircase. They got past the former temple. On the last turn before the pine forest, Kira stepped out of the path. Dan followed her, leaving Lan Yu and Wei Lin continuing down to the car. There was a sort of path that led away. Around one hundred yards from the staircase, they found a small clearing that had been used as an eating place. The path was continuing and Kira went exploring further. The path ended in a small sand basin at the base of the cliff. Kira turned toward Dan who had followed her.
- Dan, darling, I'm sorry for yesterday evening. We came back late and there was no light in your room. I had assumed that you were sleeping. I saw no harm in closing the door to let you sleep quietly. I was sure that Kyrhan would like to pound my cunt and my arse. I just didn't think I would scream so loud that I would wake you up.
- No harm in it. Just I would have loved to take a part in the fun. Kyrhan is sometimes so selfish. . .
- It's true but aren't you quite ready to take advantage of me in this place while Kyrhan attends some boring committee at this very instant? In such occasions, you never told me to wait until Kyrhan's return!
