The midsummer sun scorched the earth, just as the old folks always said—it was like fire raining from the sky. Walking outside, you could almost feel the heat from the ground scalding your feet.
Though Fang Li, now thirty-two, looked younger and more radiant than her peers, she wasn't tall. Even with high heels in the summer and thick-soled shoes in the winter, she still stood under one-point-six meters.
Having left in a sudden rush, she had forgotten to change into her "height-boosting" shoes. Her shorter stature made her feel the ground's malicious heat all the more intensely, and her mood grew increasingly agitated.
At last, a large public bus arrived. She got on, and it swayed its way south. After another transfer and more than an hour of travel, she finally reached the southern part of the city.
