Closer and closer as it was, Mei and Ming couldn’t wait to walk on the street. Around seven, they reached her auntie’s home, starving!
Chapter 15
The winter night in Shouning was that cold. On the second fl oor in a large living room, where Mei was lying still beside Ming, the thin curtain surrendered to a deafening noise of tuk-tuks running at a gallop in a lane. One of the windows was kept open because the room gave off the antique smell of stinky feet. When they woke up after eight the house was empty. Their arrival seemed not to have made any diff erence. They’d eaten leftover food in an atmosphere that seemed more than usually disharmonious and quiet, which was unexpected. There wasn’t much to share either, no serious discussion of importance, except some useless gossip. Generally, the people here slept early and got up very early. For instance, her uncle and auntie would usually leave the house to kill a pig and sell pork in the market at three-thirty. Her cousins were either still in bed or out. Such emptiness sent shivers down her spine. Shortly, they went out taking their luggage for breakfast.