Step by step, a gentle breeze leads to a smooth path

Ting Nan's mother, Song Xiuying, was once the most beautiful woman in the surrounding villages. She was tall and slender, and often wore two thick black braids. Her eyebrows and eyes were clear and bright, and when she smiled, her lips looked like a crescent moon.

She is efficient and decisive in her work, but she is rather introverted and doesn't talk much. Looking at her now, the fatigue and distress of these years cannot hide her delicate features.

During the best years of her life, Song Xiuying married her distant nephew, Zheng Yueqiang, a handsome young man of similar stature and social standing, through the introduction of her maternal grandfather's eldest daughter-in-law.

The young couple have complementary personalities, love each other dearly, and get along well with the husband's family.

The younger sister-in-law, Zheng Shujuan, also got married in the second half of the year after Xiuying married into the family. The younger brother-in-law, Zheng Yuejin, was smart and quick-witted, but somewhat ambitious yet impractical. He followed his older brother to earn work points, but he didn't make any major mistakes.

Song Xiuying became pregnant shortly after her marriage, which made her husband's family even more fond of her. She reached the pinnacle of her life after giving birth to her eldest son, Zheng Xiangqian.

Two years later, she gave birth to her daughter, Zheng Zhibei. The names of the children were carefully chosen, unlike the names of her other children which were chosen casually.

Unfortunately, a few years later, the war against Japan began, and soldiers were conscripted. Families with two sons were required to send one of them. Zheng Yueqiang was the eldest son, so he was naturally chosen. Moreover, he was already married with a son and a daughter, ensuring his lineage would continue. Unwilling to live an ordinary life, he wanted to go to the battlefield to earn military merit and experience a different kind of exciting life. He gladly bid farewell to his family and went to the battlefield.

The eight-year resistance against Japan was not just empty talk.

The civilians, unaware of the details of the brutality of the battlefield, understood the vast disparity in military equipment. Our army, armed with millet and rifles, faced off against aircraft and artillery, suffering a series of humiliating defeats.

The countryside was also filled with misery, like a living hell.

After her husband left, Song Xiuying, along with her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law, and their two children, followed the crowd, hiding and fleeing from the Japanese invaders' planes and bombs.

Tunnel warfare and landmine warfare are not games; the story of a crying baby suffocating to death by its mother in her haste to breastfeed is not a rumor; Xiuying has witnessed enemies staining the pond water red with bayonets while hiding under lotus leaves; not to mention her uncle Zheng Yuejin, who lost an eye to shrapnel while protecting his son Zheng Xiangqian...

The days of fear and anxiety passed by one by one. Finally, the War of Resistance against Japan was won, but Song Xiuying did not see her husband return.

In the nearby villages, there were wounded veterans, fallen soldiers who were posthumously awarded martyrs' titles, and those receiving pensions, but no news of Zheng Yueqiang came back. Day after day, the family waited anxiously for his return, but he never came back. They heard more rumors that Zheng Yueqiang had gone to Japan or that a high-ranking official had taken a liking to him and brought him to Taiwan, after all, he was clever and handsome.

Song Xiuying didn't believe it, nor did she want to believe it.

She worked hard to manage both the household and the outside world, diligently earned work points, and took care of her mother-in-law, children, and brother-in-law.

After losing an eye, Zheng Yuejin became increasingly depressed. The war had squandered all his family's wealth. The old were old, the young were young, and Zheng Xiangqian was only ten years old. There was no able-bodied man in the family, and no girl was interested in Zheng Yuejin.

After two more years of hardship, Song Xiuying and her brother-in-law Zheng Yuejin got together, thanks to her mother-in-law's arrangement.

They supported each other for the sake of the family. Many couples refused to marry out of their children's surnames, simply to survive.

Although they hadn't had romantic love all these years, they still had familial affection. Song Xiuying was a gentle and kind person, and Zheng Yuejin had always treated his elder brother's two children as his own.

Soon they had new family members—a young son, Zheng Ruidong, and a young daughter, Zheng Tingnan. The children loved each other dearly. The eldest brother, Zheng Xiangqian, was 14 years older than his younger sister Tingnan and was the absolute leader of his younger siblings. They all doted on little Tingnan.