They perched on a couple of old stools in their tiny courtyard. Both are in their mid 50s, but Mr Nie looks much, much older.
He can barely hobble, with the aid of a stick, pain etched on his face with every step.
Ten years ago, Mr Nie drank pesticide to try to kill himself. He was driven by madness and depression brought on by the death of his only son Nie Shubin.
Nie Shubin was barely 20 when he was killed by an executioner's bullet to the back of his head. While in police custody, he had confessed to the murder of a young woman.
"They beat him," Mr Nie tells me, tears now glistening in her eyes. "They beat him until he confessed. They did not care about the truth. They say you are guilty, so you are guilty."
China carries out the death penalty on an industrial scale. As many as 8,000 to 10,000 people are executed here every year.
Mrs Nie got to see her son only once before he went to his death.
"I found out which day he would be in court and fought my way in," she told me.
"The police did not want to let me in, but I pushed and screamed until they let me through."
"Then I saw him. In shackles, he was being led away. 'Shubin,' I called. He turned and saw me. 'Ma,' he shouted, tears flooding down his cheeks."
Mrs Nie rushed towards her son, but the police held her back. There would be no last goodbye.
Ten years after Shubin was executed, another man came forward and admitted he had murdered the young woman. Mrs Nie has appealed to the police to review her son's case. They do not want to know.
The reason I tell you this story is that Mr and Mrs Nie are far from being alone. Across China there are tens, even hundreds of thousands of people with similar stories to tell - stories of brutality and injustice at the hands of those in power."
Reproduced from BBC News Online. You can read the entire article here
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