FRIENDSHIP

In the ensuing weeks, Li, Xie and Sun spent a lot of time together. They got along well and helped each other. Soon, each of them fell into a specific role.

Li's strength was coming up with new ideas. He could find a solution in even the most difficult situations.

Xie, for his part, was good at networking. He became friends with a prisoner whose job it was to sort prisoners' files for the police. As such, Xie and his friends were always well-informed about any camp newcomers and why they were there. They knew who they could trust and who they should avoid.

Sun became their protector. Ever since the guards assaulted him in the dormitory, he had grown more aggressive and defiant. He continued to receive beatings, but he also managed to dish out a few punches to group leaders himself. That led some supervisors to go out of their way to avoid him, a situation from which Xie and Li also profited.

The company of his two friends made Xie's time in the prison camp slightly more bearable. But he still spent many nights lying awake in bed, plagued as he was by severe headaches.

Xie spent many of those waking hours thinking about his wife. She was overwhelmed by having to do everything on her own in the factory and some customers had already begun canceling their orders.

Outside the prison windows, somewhere in the mountains to the west, a cuckoo sang. Xie tried to focus on its melody, but he couldn't concentrate. The DIY tear-off calendar he had made still had many pages to go.