For my beloved husband,
Toby Eady
28 February 1941–24 December 2017

In the twenty years we knew each other, we came to understand what it truly means to be in love. My darling Toby, without you, so many Chinese authors like me would still be buried seeds, never to sprout in Western literary soil. Without you, I would still feel like an orphan suffering in loneliness, never to become the person I am today – your beloved wife and a woman who can feel and understand love.

Thank you, my Toby. You are my soulmate, a man of letters, and your promise of love has led me to this book.

As the poem we both loved goes:

天不老, 情难绝,

心似双丝网,

中有千千结。

Heaven will never grow old, nor will my love for you.

Our hearts are like fishing nets,

tied together by a thousand threads.