I am seventeen and it is a sweltering summer morning. I open the creaking shutters and look out at the hills. Rows of sweet potatoes stretch into the distance. The silent fields shimmer in the heat. I contemplate the pale clouds collecting in the sky. It’s time to leave. The unforgiving sun is melting my youthful body. I tell my seventeen-year-old self: Fenfang, you must take care of your life.
