In early summer 1996, the spring breeze in Kangding, an ancient plateau city in western Sichuan, still carried a trace of chill. For Chen Zhiyuan, who had just graduated from Aba Teachers College and started working at the Culture and Tourism Bureau, the day was supposed to be just another beginning to an ordinary life. He had no idea that this was the day his life’s path would cross with someone else’s, as fate had ordained.
He was the orphaned son of a fallen hero. His father lay at rest in the red earth of southern Xinjiang, while his mother, with her frail shoulders and a lifetime of hard work, had instilled in him both his family’s revolutionary legacy and the resilience of their mountain city. Yet his father’s shadow had never left him. Like a silent monument, it guided him forward.
And she, Lin Jingyao, was a girl from Neijiang, the Sweet City. With the gentle warmth and clarity of a Sichuan woman, she was like a beam of light that unexpectedly entered his world.
From 1996 to 2025, the river of time flowed on. Their story began in Kangding on the snow-covered plateau, found a home amid the bustling everyday life of Sweet City, took them north to strive in the vast lands of Shengjing, and finally put down roots amid the openness and prosperity of the Heavenly Capital, Jincheng.
It was a journey in which personal destinies resonated with the changing times of China. They faced decisions about having children under the family-planning policy and embraced the new joy brought by the two-child policy. They witnessed the earth-shattering Wenchuan earthquake and stood together with their country in the fight against the pandemic. A university education changed his fate, and in the end, their son followed the path to a doctorate, devoting his knowledge to the land of China.
Twenty-nine years and four cities later, they were partners, confidants, and comrades who had weathered every storm together.
