The evening breeze in Yantan Town is always wrapped in the moist fragrance of rice ears and the mellow smell of peanut oil. I grew up in this kind of wind, and the word "jade" in my name has never been held in the palm of anyone's hand.
In the evening of 2004, I landed in the adobe house next to the oil pressing mill. Just because I was a girl, my grandparents' joy was in vain. Childhood was filled with endless bowls to wash, endless rice stalls to guard, red marks on the palms of my hands from steelyard scales, fairy tale books snatched to pieces by my younger brother, and the slaps and cigarette sticks I received for looking for my lost brother in the winter of fifth grade. It was at that moment that I realized that the tenderness of this family had never belonged to me.
Later, when I went to junior high school in the town, I met the gentleness of my deskmate Xie Yuheng. He would pull my textbooks and silently stand in front of me when I was bullied. I also met senior Liao Qingxu's startling glance. The afterglow in the library was the haziest light in adolescence.
The days in technical secondary school were wrapped in grievances, and the dormitory of junior college was filled with sadness. I met the wrong people and endured difficult nights. My father's departure made me grow up overnight. Now that I have been with him for two years, I have tasted sweetness and endured heartache, but I am always sober - his distant place is not my return, and I will not marry far away, let alone lose the jade in my heart just to make ends meet.
This is not a dramatic story, it is just a story about the growth of a girl from Yantan Town. From longing to be loved, to learning to love myself, from crying while holding on to extravagant hopes, to smiling and holding on to my heart, I finally lived like the person in my name, gentle but powerful.
Purpose: From a little girl who lacked love in a water town in northern Guangdong to a girl who dares to love and let go, I finally understand that being favored is never an extravagant wish. I should keep my bottom line and tenderness, not give in to marry far away, and not force myself to live the rest of my life. Even if life is full of wind and rain, I can still be my own shore.