It was not until 2012, when Wu Zimu died of heart disease, that this unyielding tangle of love and hate finally drew to a slow close.
2012: Lin Anhao was 40, Lin Xi'an was 52, and Gu [corrupted name] was 52. They reunited.
2000: Lin Anhao got married at 28. Lin Xi'an, 40, suffered hardening of the arteries and was admitted to the intensive care unit. Gu [corrupted name] was 40, and Wu Zimu was 40.
1995: Lin Zihai and Gu Mingyong were both killed in a car accident at the age of 65.
1991: Lin Xi'an got married at 30. Lin Anhao was preparing for the college entrance exam.
1988: Gu [corrupted name] proposed to Lin Xi'an and she accepted. Lin Anhao failed the high school entrance exam.
1980: Gu [corrupted name], Lin Xi'an, and Wu Zimu went to university. Lin Anhao started elementary school.
1970: Gu [corrupted name] and Wu Zimu promised Lin Xi'an they would marry her. Wu Zimu got a thorough beating.
1960: It all began.
In 1991, when Lin Xi'an got married, Lin Anhao asked, "Sis, don't you regret it?" Lin Xi'an said she'd never had time to think about it.
In 2000, Lin Anhao laughed and told Lin Xi'an that the lives of the four of them seemed to be linked, with all their major events happening in the same years. Lin Xi'an was helping with Lin Anhao's wedding dress. Her eyes reddened as she nodded.
.
At the very end, in 2012, only after Wu Zimu died did the three of them truly understand what regret meant.
If I had one more chance, I would understand that your presence gave me memories that were beautiful or painful.
Our memoir of fifty years.
