Hot water poured into the glass. The man eagerly took off his gloves and cupped the glass in his hands, soaking up its warmth.
"You've got some nerve. I've warned you so many times, and you still dare to wander around." The man's room had undergone several renovations. It had not only a fireplace but also a stove and a heated brick bed. Even without a door, the room was still warm.
"I'm a curious person." Gao Ming picked up his glass as well, but he had no intention of drinking.
"Curiosity killed the cat. What's wrong with living in blissful ignorance?" The man wanted to warn Gao Ming about a few things, but when he looked up, he found Gao Ming already walking around the room, holding a photograph he had hung on the wall. "Touching other people's things without permission isn't a good habit."
The photograph showed a family of five, with three children standing in front and their parents behind them. What stood out was that the face of the child in the very center had been gouged out, leaving a pitch-black hole. The other four stared expressionlessly at the camera. If the frame hadn't borne well-wishes such as "A happy family," Gao Ming would probably have thought they were five strangers standing together.
They exchanged neither looks nor words, and there was no physical contact between them. A gap separated each person from the next.
"Are they your family?"
"Yes." Holding his glass, the man seemed to drift into his memories. "That savage-looking, rough middle-aged man is my father. He's of mixed ancestry, and he's a handsome bastard. Unlike my womanizing grandfather, he's rigid and stern, with a deep-rooted reverence for violence. About two years ago, he even killed a bear deep in the snowy mountain