Knowing Letters

Because she was illiterate, Lin Hongyun played the wrong funeral music at her father-in-law’s funeral, turning it into an absurd “joyful music mix-up” that made the whole family a laughingstock in the village. It was the last straw for her husband, Su Shijiang, who repeatedly teetered on the edge of collapse and tried to end his life. Forced to move to the city, she came face-to-face with a cold, unfamiliar world. She could barely make out the words on street signs or medicine packages. Neighbors looked down on her and whispered behind her back, even mocking her to her face for being uneducated. Her daughter-in-law gave her a place to stay, but always spoke to her with condescending distance. In this city built on words, she was like a blind person with her eyes wide open, unable to take a single step. Unable to recognize even the simplest characters, she stood at a crossroads in life, lost and looking in every direction. One difficulty after another closed in around her like a tightening net. She did not know how long the road ahead would be, but she knew that learning to read was the only way she could save her husband from the abyss…