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9

A Vicious Girl

If the Great Leap Forward and the famine were like tidal currents that swept over China, affecting the lives of tens of millions, my private life in those years was like an undercurrent. The anxiety and despair I kept to myself.

All my trouble started with Lian, my younger brother, who was such a perfect boy. At the age of three he had large brown eyes, plump rosy cheeks, and soft black hair. When he smiled, tiny dimples floated up. All adults loved kids with such “wine nests,” which unfortunately I did not have. Lian's good looks must have given him confidence. Thus he was never shy and the one thing he enjoyed most was to socialize with people. On the bus, in the street, at home, in his kindergarten, at stores . . . everywhere he went, he was well liked.