May 1999
Life settled into a rhythm.
I'd become a junior cook at the restaurant, earning over 700 yuan a month. Every night, I brought home dishes I'd cooked myself—our midnight snacks.
After more than a year, my father-in-law and I were like blood. Neighbors called me *the live-in son-in-law*, but I didn't care.
*So what if I "married into" her family?*
I'd had no home. Now I'd built one.
——
One evening, I walked in carrying dinner to find my in-laws beaming at Li Fang across the table.
Confused, I stepped inside—and they turned their smiles on me. Her mother waved me over, eyes crinkled with joy.
Even a fool would've understood.
*"Mom… is Li Fang…?"*
She nodded, over and over.
I kicked off my shoes, rushing to the table barefoot. *"You're really pregnant?"*
Li Fang smiled weakly. *"Morning sickness. Threw up all afternoon. Mom's taking me to the hospital tomorrow."*
Joy—pure, dizzying joy—flooded me.
At twenty-eight, I stood at life's highest peak.
Six years ago, I'd had nothing.
Now? A steady job. A home. Parents. A wife. Soon, a child.
For the first time, life felt whole. Complete.
*Let it stay like this*, I prayed. *Forever.*
Even decades later, after fortunes rose and fell, I'd still cradle this memory like something fragile and rare.
But life has peaks and valleys.
——
Perhaps I'd climbed too high.
The fall would break me.
Looking back, four catastrophes shaped my life.
The first: prison in '93.
The second:
Losing Li Fang.