5. In the Basement
********** awoke. He could see a shock of blue sky through the window above his bed and reaching lucidity, he recalled suddenly that he had a newfound sense of purpose in this space. Fall had made its first overtures. The sky’s colours had changed slightly from the previous day. The smog had subsided, and the air was not as thick. The pressure that he felt in his chest while first reacclimatising to the Beijing’s pollution had eased.
Sam marvelled that all it had taken for his whole world to be recast in technicolour was a homework assignment. His thoughts became occupied by Professor Wang’s challenge.
As Sam performed his morning toilette, he prepared mentally to go out on the streets and talk to people and realised that he was without the Chinese vocabulary to speak
