Reborn: This Time, I Won't Be Abandoned Again

The words “withdraw from treatment” on the hospital form were so piercing they were hard to look at. In 2016, Cheng Chi lay in a hospital bed and watched her sign the form, watched the nurse remove his breathing tube. It felt as if his lungs had been emptied. This time, he would live.

The afternoon sunlight slanted into the living room. An open file lay on the floor, its paper corners curling slightly in the breeze.