In the modern Chinese literary scene,Lin Huiyin(1904-55)was a prominent woman writer who applied free indirect discourse(FID),a“new”narrative device,into her creative writing.In some of her works,FID is not only a new way in which to realize a modern narrative style but also a discreet way to provide her own voice.The existence of slippage between the narrator and character-focalizer deliberately destabilizes the reader,somehow swaying between the narrator’s authoritative and the character’s initial characteristics.In this way,this narrative strategy allows Lin to establish a kind of private space for herself within which to query authority,thereby escaping the material world dominated by male writers at that time.For instance,in her well-known short story,“In Ninety-Nine Degrees of Heat”(Jiushijiu du zhong),Lin Huiyin employed this typical narrative strategy,illustrating the modernity of her creative writing and revealing some meanings of social and gendered narratives.