Life

by Lu Yao

When he saw Jialin look up, he beamed and said, “Any tears left?” The wrinkles on his face crept back toward the corners of his eyes, and he shook his snow-white head back and forth. “Oh child, don’t be afraid of coming back here—hard labor’s not so bad. But you’ve lost your gold! Qiaozhen, she really is a piece of gold!” “Grandfather, I’m so depressed. Please, let’s not talk about this. I know that I had a piece of gold and that I threw it away like a clump of dirt. Now it feels like life has no meaning and I might as well die.” “Nonsense!” Grandfather Deshun stood up suddenly. “You’re only twenty-four years old, how can you have such shameful thoughts? If I thought like you do, I’d have died a long time ago! I’m almost seventy, with no son or daughter, a bachelor all my days. But my heart still beats, and I plan to keep it going a few more years! You’re still young and tender. Even though I have no wife or children, I still think life has meaning. I’ve loved and I’ve suffered, I’ve used these two hands to do hard labor, I’ve planted the five crops, I’ve planted trees, I’ve repaired roads . . . Don’t these things also create a meaningful life? To use a word you young people like, it’s called happiness. Happiness! You young people don’t realize, but when I pick the fruit from my trees and give it to the children, my heart is so . . . happy! How much of my fruit did you eat when you were little? You’re too young to understand, but when I plant a tree, I think about how when...