Inside the small room, under a poster of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix posing as Uncle Sam, four young Shanghainese women—the other members of Sammy's punk rock band, Black Luna—are starting to jam.

In his room, she sat on a volume of encyclopedias and listened to him play his guitar.

Autumn was nearly over. One day, when I was listening devotedly, the sound suddenly stopped. To my astonishment, the girl came over to me.