A Five-Year-Old Cutie Brings the Golden Age to Life for the Nation

[Little Girl Protagonist] [Across Time] [Postwar Reconstruction] [Heartwarming and Healing] [Tender Historical Story] [Love of Country and Family]

Five-year-old Su Tang accidentally lights a rusted kerosene lamp in her grandmother’s old house.

As the flame flickers, she sees another world: the winter of 1948, when the fighting has just ended and famine is sweeping the land.

A group of children who have lost their parents huddle in a ruined temple. The eldest, Lin Dongqing, is only eight, yet she must keep five younger children alive.

Su Tang helps them endure the freezing nights with chocolate, hand warmers, and storybooks. Lin Dongqing teaches her what it means to cherish what you have and to be strong.

Ten years later, fifteen-year-old Su Tang combs through historical records and finally finds the children’s names.

Of the six children, only two lived to see the founding of New China.

Lin Dongqing died of typhoid in the spring of 1949.

That night, Su Tang lights the kerosene lamp and, weeping, speaks to its flame: "Sister Dongqing, I got to see it for you. The land is at peace, and the prosperous age is just as you wished."

From then on, every winter solstice, she lights the lamp and sees all the wonders of this world for the children who never lived to see spring.