Growing Like a Tree

Su Yun was born in a county-level city. From a young age, she and her half-sister Su Yan, who was four years older, lived with their grandparents. Su Yun was the well-behaved, obedient child adults praised, while Su Yan became a cautionary example for poor grades and talking back to elders. With limited resources to begin with, the sisters inevitably competed for their share, sometimes without even realizing it. Su Yun received more because she was compliant, but she also bore all the expectations and pressure. Neither sister was happy.

A few years later, Su Yan was taken away by her birth mother. As time passed, the sisters went down different paths in life.

Su Yan was often out of touch, and when she did get in contact, it was usually because something serious had happened and she needed these people. She unexpectedly became pregnant and had a child, repeating her parents' troubled marriage and beginning the second half of her life in chaos.

Su Yun realized that the people closest to her had caused everything that had made her suffer. Her family treated her as a means of support for their old age. Yet they had only given Su Yun basic educational support, not enough to help her reach a higher platform, and she could not give them the returns they wanted. Su Yun was often painfully clear-eyed, though at times she immersed herself in an illusory world of her own making, pretending to be happy and content.

Su Yun did not want to return to the home that had made her feel trapped, and kept making a living elsewhere. With no one to help her, she went through plenty of hardship, but fortunately she never gave up. Gradually, she found opportunities to meet benefactors. With their guidance, her life improved greatly. Su Yun did not know what the future held, but she knew she would keep drawing nourishment from every source, like a tree, and would never stop growing upward, no matter how many storms and hardships she faced.