At an empty field between a bridge with no railings and a long flight of stone steps, they got off the motorbike. Guo pulled up next to a pear tree. Ming walked to a huge rock nearby, scrambled up and jumped down with yelps. Mei gazed around. The three fl owering and fruitful peach trees were gone with only stumps left. Beside them, a small piece of raised land where her grandfather used to growing tobacco before he died, was now used for growing spring onions, cereals and coriander. Below the other side of the path, many tangerine trees grew vigorously. Along one side of the tangerine trees, a wild track with wild grasses that led to a deserted mud house, was hardly visible. Just above the wild path was a colorful vegetable plot. There were pumpkins, round or long, unripe or ripe, lying beside bamboo poles or hanging in the air. Some vines crawled over a bamboo fence. Some fi ne beans and melons with fl owers beautifi ed the regular poles. The back side was the front wall of her house. There were two parallel, high, tiny windows, one was open but the other closed. Mei fl ashed a glance at the closed window, which was once open every day in her childhood.