Chapter 1: The Photograph
After retiring from teaching, I took a tutoring job with a high school senior in the next city. The moment I entered the apartment, I saw the photograph. A family of three smiled down from the living room wall: a man, a woman, and a girl of seventeen. The man was my husband, Lin Jianguo. We had been married for thirty years. The girl came out of the kitchen with a plate of fruit. "Teacher, have some fruit. I will get the test papers." My chest tightened until I could hardly breathe. "Is that your father?" I asked. "Yes. He is busy, so he can only come back two days a week to stay with me and my mother." She chattered on about how he promised to send her abroad after the college entrance exam. Then she asked if I had children. "One daughter," I said. "She wants to study abroad too. Her father says we have no money." The girl's smile froze. She set the papers on the table. Beside them lay a fountain pen I had given my husband for his fiftieth birthday. Lin Jianguo worked in construction and came home once a week, sometimes once every three. I had never doubted him. Thirty years, I thought, had made us family. It had all been false. "Teacher?" the girl said. I picked up the pen. "Your approach to this problem is wrong. Let me show you." My voice was steady. I had taught for thirty years. I could do this.