As night fell, Pear Tree village was engulfed in darkness. Having just finished a long talk with the old couple, Liu Xuan and Hu Shao, I set off to leave. I politely declined their kind offer of sending me home since it was not very far, and they were not in good health. I did not take the flashlight they offered either, which they often used for night walks. Instead, I opened the flashlight on my smartphone. The light from my phone’s torch illuminated the narrow muddy path ahead of me, and I heard nothing but dogs’ barks. I looked around, only scattered lights illuminating this quiet village, thousands of miles from Shanghai. The old couple’s words and their deeply harboured feelings that lingered in their dilapidated living room reappeared in my mind. I could not help thinking about Liu Xuan’s way back home under the dazzling lights of the metropolis, the place that speaks of the quintessential modern life of China. Was she lonely, afraid, amazed, or tired? As someone who is largely illiterate and can hardly read the road signs, let alone use a map app to find directions (she has an old mobile but not a smartphone), she might get lost in that overwhelmingly complicated city, even after six years. However, her tone betrayed that she had no doubt about where she was heading—the family.