104: Joy of moving to a new home, Grief of losing a child

Rural residences were mostly self-built single-family homes.

They were either two or three-story buildings, surfaces covered with white tiles, very square, and surrounded by a three-meter-high concrete wall with an iron gate welded on.

Most households also raised chickens, dogs, or other livestock and pets in their yards.

Not very aesthetic, but spacious enough.

The house of Song Hu was one of these homes.

When Lu Li arrived near Song Hu's house, the two iron gates, normally tightly shut, stood open. Only a few scraps of red paper remained from the Spring Festival couplets that had been torn down. A van, adorned with a white cloth, was parked by the wall. A few middle-aged individuals stood at the car spot, cigarettes pinched between their fingers, enveloping themselves in smoke.

White spirit money littered the ground like mold spots, turned into clumps by the damp frost.