Dongying Secrets

In Dongying, secrets don't stay buried. They just learn to walk in daylight.

Ashe came to China to teach English and stayed for the life he built: a house in the newer district, a girlfriend who trusts him, a weekend school, and a pen name that pays the bills. He told himself the third year would be quieter. He told himself Lucy was only a voice in his headphones.

Lucy is twenty-one, a third-year English major with an America-shaped dream and a boyfriend who cooks for her. She records Ashe's ...