Her nonfiction work comprises five chapters and 37 articles covering her childhood in the mountains, her education and adaptation to modern society as an ethnic Huayao Yi, and her years of confusion, hurt and resilience. She also shares stories about fellow villagers, especially women, such as her mother and older sister.

Her tone is measured as she recounts difficult memories: shifting a bed on a rainy night because the roof leaked; the deaths of loved ones; endless farm labor; severe school bullying; heated family conflicts; professional disappointment; crippling panic attacks; and her parents later apologizing for their lack of understanding.

"The reserved way I tell the story might be due to my eight years of training as a journalist. It may also be my way of shielding myself from further harm," she says.

After she married, she lived a comfortable life with a supportive husband. She also quit her job as a journalist. But one day at a beauty salon, a young esthetician accidentally pricked her, and she felt an unexpected surge of anger.

"I wasn't used to being served," she said on a podcast. "When a clerk helped me try on shoes, I felt uneasy. But at that moment in the salon, my head 'boomed'."

Panic attacks began to surface more frequently.