In a pit dug around a depression (earth pit), Lin Xuelin curled up in a corner of the large communal bed, looking up at the branches, covered with a layer of wheat straw and sprinkled with dry soil on the roof.
The large communal bed beneath her, which could accommodate forty or fifty people, was too cold to light a fire, feeling unusually chilly. A strong gust of wind blew through, lifting the burlap sack serving as the door, provoking a slew of curses from the other women on the kang.
These sounds repeated year after year, day after day. When she first arrived, she would echo a few words, but now she already felt the deep malice from heaven against her. Frozen to numbness, she rolled her eyes, returning to a state of dead silence.
An old woman holding a shepherd's whip lifted the burlap sack, whipping the pit, "You can argue all you want, I'll let you argue!"
"Captain, we didn't dare."
