Shengjing was not her Shengjing; this feeling had first crept up when Xie Chuantang, then half a head shorter, had stepped onto Zhuque Street. Back then, she wore tattered straw sandals and an oversized cloth garment, her eyes distant and alert.
Now, having lived here for nine years, that feeling still lingered, inseparable even amidst its prosperity and decay, witnessing the grandeur and sophistication, yet she felt like a mere onlooker, hardly ever feeling a deep sense of empathy.
She wasn't born here, nor had she come here of her own accord; she had been sold into this place.