Rebirth in a Wonderful Era

In the lingering chill of early spring, when the weather wavers between cold and warm, the happiest thing on a weekend is, of course, to curl up at home and sleep in. Yet even that simple pleasure eludes Dong Yanyan now. She sits before her computer, struggling to finish today’s three thousand words, the results so discouraging she can hardly bear to look again. Listlessly, she opens a group-buying website, browsing through clothes and cosmetics with no real aim, musing that perhaps now spring has come, it’s time to do something to change her current state.

She’s been a stay-at-home mom for four years, her life revolving endlessly around her daughter Lulu. In the first two years, Lulu was more troublesome than other children, so much so that Yanyan often missed lunch, let alone had time to comb her hair or wash her face, looking not unlike a beggar’s disciple. She had finally looked forward to Lulu starting kindergarten, thinking she could breathe at last. She found a job, but after only a few days at work, Lulu, used to being with her mother since birth, came down with a fever that nearly turned to pneumonia. That was when both her mother-in-law and her own mother erupted in blame for her supposed negligence. Their words chilled her heart: back when she gave birth, her mother-in-law had only stayed in the hospital for two days before disappearing; her own mother barely tolerated taking care of her for a handful of days before fleeing in exasperation from the little one’s endless fussing. All these years, she raised her child alone, her husband Xu Cheng away at wor