C25

On the days that followed, she felt as if she were being turned over and over in a frying pan, waiting for the right heart, and the condition of the summer became worse.

She would stare out the window at the sky for hours at a time.

The children wake up less and less, opened their eyes only to weakly call out to their mother twice, and then fell asleep.

Xia Chou became more and more afraid