Tears Fell Silently as I Gazed at the Clouded Sky

Yuning and Huizhong were childhood sweethearts who had been inseparable since they were young. But in the end, they broke up over household registration issues, after Yuning’s mother opposed their relationship so fiercely that she threatened to kill herself. Huizhong hastily married Hu Yiyi, a soldier, while Yuning married Shi Yan, a woman from the city. On the surface, they had both settled into suitable lives, but neither marriage was happy. Twenty years later, Huizhong, now a Party committee secretary, unexpectedly ran into Yuning, who had become a professor. Their old love rekindled. By then, the heroine was suffering from a serious illness. For the sake of the happiness of the man she loved, she had no choice but to let go of Yuning’s hand in silence once more, never revealing the real reason for their breakup, even as she left this world. When Yuning learned the truth, he resolutely quit his job and divorced his wife. He came alone to the small county town and used all his savings to buy the cemetery where Huizhong was buried. He ran the cemetery and watched over her, keeping her company for the rest of his life. Their story is a deeply moving tale of two lovers who finally found each other, gazing across the clouds with tears they could not voice.

The most heartbreaking part of this story is the two crucial times they missed each other.

The first separation came from external, unavoidable structural pressures: the household registration system, the class differences it created, and the stubborn opposition of the older generation. Their love became a casualty of the policies of its time, the first time these lovers were forced to bow to reality.

The second separation came from an internalized sense of self-sacrificing duty. Seriously ill, she let go again. It wasn’t because she didn’t love him, but because she loved him too much to become a burden. This time she made the choice more deliberately and resolutely, with a tragic sense of self-destruction.

Lin Huizhong is a saint, doubly “imprisoned” by duty and love.

Yuning is a true devoted dog of a lover.