It Took Me Ten Years to Dig Through That Mountain

It took me ten years, pickaxe after pickaxe, to dig through the mountain that swallowed my children. The moment the tunnel opened, the whole village cheered and cried behind me. I was the only one who didn't cry. I stroked the rock wall, as if I could still feel the growing coldness of Xiao Yuan in my arms on that rainy night ten years ago. I will always remember what the doctor said: "Acute pneumonia, if I could have arrived an hour earlier..." This sentence became my obsession for the next 3,600 days and nights.