Late Autumn in the Mortal World

Introduction to Red Dust at Dusk It was raining the day Chen Xun came back from out of town. At the entrance to an alley, he met a woman carrying a red plastic bag. She had just moved in, to the third house from the end of the alley, the one that had been empty for nearly two years. Her name was Fang Chi. There was an old scar on her wrist, and hospital papers in the plastic bag. She spoke little and smiled faintly. They were the two most ordinary kinds of people in a small county town: he was in debt, and she had lost her home. The places they could reach by electric scooter made up their whole world. A bowl of noodles cost just a few yuan, while it took years to save the five or six hundred thousand needed for a house. But she said, “My mother always told me that when someone is struggling, you should help if you can.” She gave him the key and said, “Take it. It means you have me.” He said, “You get the life you get, and I guess we make a pair. As long as I'm alive, I'm yours.” Later, the debt was paid off, they bought a house, and the locust tree sprouted. Then, later still, she left anyway. Many years later, Chen Xun would still dream of that rainy night. She stood beneath the eaves, the plastic bag swinging gently in her hand. He walked over, bent down, picked up the roll of toilet paper, and handed it to her. Rain fell between them. As if nothing had ever begun, and yet as if everything had ended.