The Tropic of Cancer ran through Guangzhou. Although she was not sure what this meant, she remembered how excited her son had been when he told her this fact. The way he said it, she imagined a visible cord, hanging in the air, solid enough to swing from. Or maybe it was like an immense curtain, transparent like the walls of a greenhouse. That was one way to explain why it got so hot and steamy in the city in February and March. In that season, the city was too humid for comfort.
