emily’s Reviews > Night Train > Status Update
emily
is on page 128 of 290
‘—pan-fried buns—spicy soup—then straight to the greenhouse. When X first arrived in this town, he was sent to a place called Cottonflower Village—They were city folk who—couldn’t tell rice paddies from chives. They looked like they might eviscerate themselves with—sickles, and kept slicing into their own feet with their hoes—this useless bunch—they were like over-fertilised wheat, sprouting quickly but pointlessly.’
— Jul 09, 2026 11:07AM
1 like · Like flag
emily’s Previous Updates
emily
is on page 162 of 290
‘Four-Eyes was always bringing up her grandpa, whom he said had brought down their entire clan. He made her family sound like they’d plummeted to depths from which they could never be rescued, and she hated how he was always going on about landlords this and landlords that, just like everyone else. One by one the Educated Youths departed. Expert might only have lost one finger, but he felt ashamed of his disability—’
— Jul 11, 2026 06:50PM
emily
is on page 108 of 290
‘Seeing how—he looks, Xu plucks a tomato from its vine, rinses it off, and hands it to him. “Eat this—You need energy, or you’ll catch a cold.” Squatting on the ground with a sigh, he eats nine tomatoes in a row. His guts revolt, and he spews up all nine. The red gunk spattered on the ground—Xu digs a trench and buries his puke among the tomatoes. Van Gogh was an anomaly—If Van Gogh would step up, then so must he.’
— Jul 08, 2026 04:45PM
emily
is on page 72 of 290
‘His respect—continues to grow. This unassuming gardener hardly ever speaks, but every sentence he utters feels like the result of a lifetime’s reflection. What is anyone doing with their lives except constantly rearranging things? Mr. Xu only left one thing out: you need to be sincere in your rearranging, otherwise there’s no point. He keeps the plants alive, and the work doesn’t exhaust him. ‘You’re a Nanjinger?’’
— Jul 01, 2026 05:08PM
emily
is on page 33 of 290
‘—he wonders how a greenhouse worker could quote Xin Qiji’s Song dynasty poem—squatting and carefully arranging each pot—He finds a tree to sit—gets out his cigarettes, offering one to Xu, who refuses. In Nanjing, he chose a train at random and ended up with a ticket to Sichuan—Hunan, Hubei, Jiangnan, and Beijing. In Viktor Pelevin’s novella, ‘The Yellow Arrow,’ a train misses its destination & keeps going forever—’
— Jun 29, 2026 06:46PM
emily
is on page 12 of 290
‘—burn through the book at 20 pages per second—his body lightening—coming back to life inch by inch—The cigarette scorches a black-rimmed hollow right through Songs of Chu, like a creature burrowing through—He picks up the now numberless book & looks through the hole at the next book on the shelf—Bai Juyi’s Collected Works. The phone rings—he thinks about the Cao Zhi line, ‘Such sorrowful wind on this high terrace.’’
— Jun 28, 2026 08:15PM