The Little Orphan Girl of the Sixties, Raised by the Boy Next Door

In the winter of 1962, five-year-old Su Wanqing became an orphan. Her parents died of illness one after another, and her relatives passed her around. With the old bundle her mother had left behind in her arms, she stood in the wind and snow with nowhere to go. Lu Tingshen, the seven-year-old eldest son of the neighboring Lu family, quietly walked up to her, took the scarf from around his own neck, and wrapped it around her frozen hands. Softly, he said, “Come to my home.”

Those words, “Come to my home,” became the place she belonged for the rest of her life.

The Lu family wasn't well off. Six people lived in three modest rooms, but Mrs. Lu still made space for a bed. Lu Tingshen traded the egg coupons he'd saved for brown sugar and made her a bowl of brown-sugar water every day. He taught her to read and do arithmetic, warmed her hands in winter and fanned her in summer. He held her hand on the way to school and waited for her when she came home. She was the girl he had raised with his own hands, his precious treasure, cherished with all his heart.

Later, someone wanted to adopt her and could offer her better conditions. Mrs. Lu hesitated. Nine-year-old Lu Tingshen stood in the main room and declared firmly, “Wanqing isn't going anywhere. I can take care of her.” From then on, she called them Mom and Dad.

In the 1970s, he went to work in a factory to support the family while she insisted on continuing her studies. When the college entrance exams were reinstated, she got into university. He pressed the money he'd saved for three years into her palm. “Study hard. I'll take care of things at home.” Four years later, she graduated and returned to stand before him. “I'm back. This time, I'm not leaving.”

From childhood sweethearts to lifelong partners, he spent his childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood protecting and waiting for her. The scarf he gave her on that snowy night stayed around her neck for a lifetime.