Telling Stories, Saving Families
91
divorce cases. Finally, she announces that she would break off the mother-son
relationship if he still wants to divorce his wife.
The eleven-year-old daughter is the direct victim of the divorce. She
puts all the blame on her father and chooses to live with her mother who has just
lost her Job. Not long after her parents’ divorce, she is diagnosed with leukemia
and is immediately hospitalized. During daytime, her mother stays in the ward to
take care of her. At night, she washes clothes for other patients to earn some
money so that she can buy nutritious food for her daughter. Deeply moved by
her mother’s love, the little girl fights against the illness bravely, and at the same
time, she continues to study her lessons in the ward. Fortunately, she gets help
from society. Her mother’s friends help pay the medical expenses. Her
classmates come to the ward to help her with the lessons. Both she and her
mother are interviewed by a local TV station. When her grandma learns about
her granddaughter’s illness from the TV interview, she loses consciousness. The
poor old woman looks like a dead person, unable to see, hear, eat, or drink. She
wakes up only after her d aughter-in-law leads her to the hospital and lets her see
her granddaughter face-in-face.
The architect’s life with his mistress is not happy. He constantly has an
uneasy conscience towards his ex-wife and his daughter. His mother regards him
as an unfilial son and refuses to talk to him. Some of his and his ex-wife’s
friends even plan to beat him up. He is much older than his mistress. So they
often get cold eyes in public. Because of the age difference, their life is not very
harmonious. Later, when his mistress learns about his ex-wife’s and his
daughter’s story from the local TV interview, she goes to the hospital to meet
them. Realizing that she is partially responsible for the situation, she decides to
leave the architect for good. The end of the story implies that the architect would
return to his ex-wife and rebuild the family relationships.
Holding Hands tells about a family of three. Zhong Rui, the husband, is
an engineer at a computer software company in Beijing. His wife, Xia XiaoXue, is a reference librarian. They have a five-year-old son. Zhong Rui is a
talented software engineer who devotes most of his time and energy to his work.
Xiao-Xue is both a caring mother and a good wife who does all the housework.
Since Zhong Rui spends too much time in his office, Xiao-Xue complains that
she and her son are somewhat neglected.
The company has hired a college graduate, who seems quite attractive
to Zhong Rui. Her name is Wang Xing. Zhong Rui disagrees with his boss
concerning the future development of the department of which he is in charge.
So, he chooses to leave the company. Wang Xing also resigns from her Job. To
his wife’s dismay, Zhong Rui has to move his family out of the spacious
apartment owned by the company. He finds a small apartment for his unhappy
wife and rents an old classroom from a primary school to start his own software
company. One rainy night, he invites Wang Xing to his office and has sex with
her.