Three Miles

When Zhou Han was little, he couldn't nurse from his mother. Hoping he would drink more milk, she called him Han Ge'er, and that was what everyone called him from then on. Han Ge'er had been promised in marriage since childhood. His mother had secured him a good match, but one day she fell and broke her leg while picking dates. Her injury worsened, and she passed away within a few months. Not long after Han Ge'er turned ten, his stepmother drove him out to live on his own. All the family gave him was a dilapidated old house and a plot of land three li away, on a mountain ridge so distant that even by cart it would take him half a day to get there. Zhou Han figured the marriage his mother had arranged for him was probably off by now. Besides, with a body like his, he shouldn't ruin some girl's life. He had a patch of corn, and one day a large section of it was trampled flat. Zhou Han had lived a hard life. Even after running into the mountains, he had to drag along a little debt collector. But when the hungry little thing squirmed into his arms, nuzzling against him, he held the tiny child, his heart as sweet as if it were coated in honey. That was when he knew he wanted to watch the child grow up happy, safe, and healthy. *Heartbreaking rural fiction / Fictional period setting / Entirely imagined except for a few necessary details Theme: Love life and face it with optimism.