In the sweltering heat of June, I was curled up in a shack in the backyard while Lou Xiao'e fed me medicine from a bowl.
Her husband muttered that I was half-dead already, so why bother looking after me? She shot back that she'd bought the groceries, so he could cook them himself.
Only after my fever broke did I open my eyes. The person inside this body had long since been replaced.
