A packet of homeland soil stained with the blood and tears of plague, and half a yellowed family genealogy chronicling a painful parting.
She led her daughter and carried her son out of the plague-stricken land, but left her children behind at a crossroads in 1940
Her son Tieqiao sank bloodied roots into the soil of the north, while her daughter Xiaomai drifted south aboard a train toward the lights of Hong Kong.
For seventy-six years, their descendants wandered through their respective homelands:
The ancestral hall on the mainland awaited an unlit stick of incense, while the ashes in the harbor city longed for water flowing north.
Then, in 1997, history rang out like a bell, tolling their separation and reunion:
The entry in the coastal family genealogy, "Li Lin Shi departed with her daughter Xiaomai and son Tieqiao," was finally identified by the third generation who returned home as
"Grandma, we're taking you home."
Not bad, but the update is too slow, I'll try again later 😄😄