Koala Reads

"Xu Lize stopped listening. He stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette, pushed open the guestroom door and walked in."

"The villa in Linde had been bought by Xu Wenhai in the second year after his accident. Nestled at the foot of a bamboo-covered hill, with the mountain at its back and a lake at its front, bamboo groves ringed the property—an ideal summer retreat. Xu Wenhai spent a portion of every year here: sometimes two or three months, once even half a year, only returning to Haicheng when the first snows came."

"The house was fully outfitted; when it sat empty in winter a housekeeper came by regularly to clean and maintain it. Every room, inside and out, was neat and impeccably kept."