Like an experienced and sophisticated fortuneteller, he read her in detail before she could work out what he was doing. She gave his hands a cold stare. Her eyes were distant. She was absent. Her neck shortened as her head drooped witheringly. The lobes of her ears looked too blank without the decoration of earrings. A cramped tremor was on her chin. She clenched her fi st, struggling. Her other hand seemed to break the fi st with her nails digging into the fl esh. She was quarreling with her fate.