Growing Up with My Parents

This is a story about parents and children growing up together.

Her father didn't care for her, her mother didn't love her, and she lived under someone else's roof, where she was a burden. Wen Yan had known since childhood that she was unwanted. People say children are little angels, but Heaven not only broke her wings, it boarded up her window, too.

The story takes place in 2010. Wen Yan, a left-behind child from Qiancheng, is brought home by her parents after her younger brother dies. Full of hope, she goes with them to start living at home. But this family of three, strangers to one another, does not find the happy, warm life she had imagined. Different habits, clashing personalities, and arguments over every little thing keep them from growing close.

Her father is a compulsive gambler, and her mother is weak and helpless. The home that should have been warm is cold and unfeeling. The people who share her blood have become the world's most familiar strangers.

Every family has its share of sweetness and bitterness. We are all children for the first time, and our parents are parents for the first time. As we grow, we all have to keep learning and adjusting before we can understand how to make a family work.