Chen Ruo had been paralyzed for four years. When he woke, it felt as if he had just dreamed it all.
In the dream, he had also been born in the 1950s. He went to school, joined the army, and later witnessed Hong Kong's return. That same year, he led a team in an anti-drug operation. To protect an informant, he was left to die in a swamp as an explosion roared around him.
Now the dream was over, and he had returned to Qinghegou, the place where he was born and raised.
He looked at his wife, who had taken meticulous care of him for four years while enduring one hardship after another herself.
He looked at the girl seven years younger than him, a young woman in the bloom of youth who had gritted her teeth and played the role of his sister-in-law. Chen Ruo decided he would make it up to her twice over.
It was 1980, an era of rapid change as the old gave way to the new.
Chen Ruo would prove through his actions what it meant to be utterly devoted to his wife.
