Chapter 1: A Mother in the Dust
My name is Chen Jing, and I’m thirty-two. For the past five years, I haven’t really been living like a person. I’ve been more like a beast of burden, repeatedly whipped by fate but too afraid to fall. My world began to collapse in a diagnosis room at the Children’s Hospital, where the air reeked of disinfectant.
“Acute lymphoblastic leukemia.” The doctor’s face was hidden behind a mask, revealing only a pair of eyes full of sympathy. Those six words were like six icy nails, driven hard into my heart. My son, An’an, had just celebrated his third birthday. He was so little, and he loved to smile. He still...
