The outside of the house seemed unchanged. An angle of the same sloping black-tiled roof was visible from where she was standing. Attached to a sidewall, the pigsty and the toilet looked eerie with a naked door. Over time the stone steps were naturally polished, and some shiny.
They were about to climb those steps but were delayed by a warmly thin yet rather familiar voice from behind.
“Aren’t you Mei?”
It was the hard-working, tireless woman, who lived next to the deserted house. She was a respected mother of four sons as well as the youngest grandma in the village. Wearing a very thick but loose brown coat of low quality, she looked weak with a pale face and colorless lips. Her messy hair spread down her neck, lifeless. She was walking awkwardly towards them. Her ankles seemed to be chained together. Mei was startled by her shockingly disturbing exterior. Clearly as Mei remembered, her small and thin body was once round and strong and full of light; her yellowed hands with penciled fi ngers were once big and healthy with expanding veins. Now there was no sign of fl esh and blood but only skin and bone.