The afternoon sun shone into the detention center compound. The detainees were all wearing blue as they walked in groups of twos and threes. There weren’t many people talking to each other. You could only hear the rustle of people stepping on the sand. Most people had faces that showed numbness and indifference as they had become accustomed to this.

The patrolling armed police had live ammunition. There were barbed wire high walls and slogans painted with lime on the walls. They had long grown accustomed to this.

This was the twenty-fourth day that Chen Shi spent in the detention center. He was impressed by the strong adaptability of human beings. In the first few days of coming here, he experienced a huge psychological gap. He lived a regular and rigid life like a clock every day and studied with other detainees. The meals were also tasteless. He was full of resistance to these.

Gradually, all this was no longer annoying and unfamiliar. He...