Shirley Yu's adobe house wasn't big, with just two rooms and a slightly lower kitchen, and even the courtyard walls weren't finished yet. The thatch used for constructing the house was millet straw from the village's autumn harvest, with Lu Debang, Zhang Hongfa, and Guo Xiuxin leading the effort. Many people helped build the house. Everyone had a hard time making ends meet. Those who had given money before did so, and those who didn't have money gave away some unused items from their own homes.
A bowl with a chipped edge, two pairs of idle chopsticks, a few old luffa scrubs, a pocketful of dried wild vegetables—all these odds and ends pieced together somehow made life manageable.
Half a month later, Shirley Yu was discharged from the hospital and moved into the adobe house, which hadn't dried yet. In her home were two old quilts with holes and a kang cabinet that Guo Xiuxin had snatched from Lai Zi's house. Apart from these, there was no other decent piece of furniture.
