"This Mulberry Tree was planted by my late wife and me three days after our wedding. Now, it stands tall and proud..."
After the cleaning, dusk had settled. Wang Wenzhen walked out of his humble abode and, seeing the solitary, lush Mulberry Tree standing verdant and upright in the courtyard, couldn't help but feel a wave of emotion.
He had lost his mother at a young age, and his family was impoverished, so his father had remained a widower, never remarrying. Though his father studied literature, he repeatedly failed the imperial examinations. Later, his father passed away prematurely. Wang Wenzhen observed a few years of mourning, cutting firewood to support the household. At seventeen, through a matchmaker, he married Zhou Qiaoniang.
Zhou Qiaoniang was renowned throughout the nearby villages for her virtue. After marrying him, she asked him to transplant a Mulberry Tree from the mountain to their home, so they could raise silkworms and weave cloth to support his studies.
