In "A Decade," we learn the story of Zhu Wenli. During the Cultural Revolution in China, Zhu Wenli was a pretty, young teacher who had a relationship with a man. The narrator, who was a student of Zhu Wenli reported this behaviour, and Zhu Wenli was sent to a labor camp. Years later, when the narrator looks for her, we discover that this experience turned her into a hardened, angry woman.