"Mom, wake up, please wake up." Sun Xiaoqin, in a daze, thought she heard her son calling for her.
She thought she was dreaming again, but when she rubbed her eyes and sat up from the lounge chair, she was surprised to see Li Huowang watching her from the bed.
"Son? You're finally lucid?"
Sun Xiaoqin quickly took out a nearby calendar and started marking it. "Son, look at this. It seems like the intervals when you're lucid are getting shorter. Does that mean your illness is almost cured?"
Li Huowang looked at her, smiled, and nodded. "Yes, maybe I'm really getting better."
"That's wonderful news! Oh, are you hungry? How about an orange? Ah, when you weren't lucid, you'd talk nonsense all day. I never even knew if you'd eaten enough."
Sun Xiaoqin took a red plastic bag of small, sweet sugar tangerines from underneath the lounge chair. She picked one out and began to peel it.
"Mom, I'm not hungry. Have you been here with me all this time?"
