Ode to Joy: You’re My Emotional Anchor

Her name is Yun Xi. When she was three, she learned to read danger in her adoptive father's brow: when it furrowed, the belt was about to come down. At five, after being sent back to the orphanage, she learned to tell truth from lies by reading other people's eyes. At six, an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor adopted her and took her to Germany.

At thirty, she returned to China, opened a therapy clinic, and moved into the twenty-second floor of Ode to Joy. Her professional instincts let her sketch out someone's secrets in just three sentences. Then, on the day the elevator broke down, she met Andy from apartment 2201.

Andy was a CFO back from Wall Street, calm, rational, and impossible to read.

She was afraid of losing control, afraid of depending on anyone, and afraid of becoming like her mother, who had inherited the family's mental illness.

Until a woman appeared on the balcony next door, watering fruit trees and caring for a tabby cat named Nian Gao.

Later, Andy asked Yun Xi, “When you look at me, are you seeing me, or analyzing me?”

Yun Xi was silent for a long time. “I can't tell the difference.”

Andy said, “Then don't. I need you, not your analysis.”

Two orphans who grew up with trauma learned to become each other's anchor on the balcony of the twenty-second floor.

Have you found your emotional anchor?