This may sound like fiction, but it really happened.

The time was around 1921, less than a decade after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. The father of the Ren family of Panzhi Island had a small boat, which he used to transport goods for farmers among the nearly 100 small islands of Zhoushan. That is how he got to know the Cen family. The patriarchs of the two families would talk about their families as they loaded freshly harvested crops into the boat.

"How old is your son and what is his name?" asked Ren.

"Jinlong, and he was born in the Year of the Rat," responded Cen.

"Hey, that's a coincidence! My baby daughter was born in the Year of the Bull, making her a year younger than your Jinlong. Her name is Yinfeng."

That's the way that the marriage of Cen Jinlong and Ren Yinfeng was arranged. Everyone said that their match was fated, especially as Jinlong's name means "Golden Dragon" while Yinfeng's means "Silver Phoenix." They were wed when Jinlong reached 20 and Yinfeng 19, and they had one son and one daughter. By that time the Japanese occupiers had come and gone, and the Nationalist government had retreated to Zhoushan two years previously. One night in 1950, Jinlong and some other strong young men were rounded up by the military to go to the docks and move some things. Little did they expect that along with the food and weapons, they too would be taken to Taiwan. From this point on this couple whose match was made in heaven had to live apart.

War and flood

Jinlong was taken away without a chance to leave any word behind. Yinfeng was left with two children less than ten years old. Women in similar situations rushed to remarry in order to meet their daily needs.

Fate dictated that not long after the fighting between the Nationalists and Communists stopped, there was an enormous flood, which ruined the just-planted crops. Staring at her home which was full of mud and water, Yinfeng knew that she could not go on alone. Every time she talks about those harsh days, she sighs repeatedly and has to fight back tears.

She thought about remarrying, but feared that her children would find it rough going. The family then came up with a solution of sorts. After repeated urgings from her father-in-law and sister-in-law, Yinfeng consented to move in with the children's uncle Yinbiao. In this way the two children would not end up in some stranger's household. However, it was agreed beforehand that if Jinlong came back, Yinfeng would return to his side.

Yinbiao was a simple and honest man. He never struck the children, and he worked hard to allow his older brother's offspring to attend secondary school. Amidst the seasonal cycles of planting and harvesting, he and Yinfeng gave birth to four kids of their own.

Ten years went by. Finally, Jinlong, still in Taiwan (which at that time banned postal links with mainland China), finally managed to get someone to take a letter to his wife. It said that he was a soldier, and that he had not remarried.

Love is. . . unending patience

After receiving Jinlong's letter, Yinfeng wrote back. But as she feared that Jinlong would never return if he knew about her arrangement with his younger brother, she never dared mention this in her correspondence.

Like many old soldiers who came to Taiwan, Jinlong did not know how to do anything but farm the land. So he stayed in the military for nearly a decade. After being discharged, he worked in a restaurant, getting through each of the next 16 years, one month, and 12 days, one day at a time. Thinking that his marriage with Yinfeng was witnessed before God, Jinlong hung on to his crucifix and waited for a chance to reunite with his family.

Time flew by, and another a decade passed. Jinlong's hair was completely white. Some of the people from his hometown had sneaked back to mainland China to visit their families. One day Jinlong heard that someone from his hometown had just returned to Taiwan, and he thought he would like to hear some news of the old place. The man told him that many women had remarried, and one woman, married to a certain Ah Long, had even gone so far as to marry the fellow's younger brother Ah Biao. The man telling the story had no idea that the person asking all these questions was Ah Long himself.

"I never even held hands with another woman in Taiwan. If I had known early on that she was with someone else, I could have married a wealthy girl from Taiwan who was in love with me.

"Our marriage was made before God, and I am her rightful husband." Thinking back on his life in Taiwan, when he had no one to even pour him a glass of water when he was sick, and of all the chances to remarry that he passed up as he moved from youth to old age, he could not help but cry, overcome with agitation, anger, and sorrow.

Truly a dilemma

It was 1984. Jinlong, who had left home at the age of 26, walked home with the steps of a 60-year-old man. Yinfeng, with a crowd of children and grandchildren, was now old and gray. Faced with a choice between her original husband, who was suffering a lonely existence, and his brother, with whom she had lived as husband and wife for most of her life, she was at a loss for what to do. Not to mention the fact that if she did return to Jinlong, gossips would say she just wanted to get her hands on an old man from Taiwan, where the standard of living is much higher.

She finally went to a priest, who told her: "If he wants you back, then go back to him. If he doesn't ask, then don't go to him." Yinbiao understood her dilemma, and said to her: "Since we agreed at the start, now that my elder brother has returned you should go back to him. Otherwise he'll end up going back to Taiwan all alone."

This situation lasted for three years. The two brothers would only meet for cleaning the family's ancestral graves on the Tomb Sweeping holiday; otherwise it was a case of "if he won't come to see me, then I won't go to see him." Finally, eight years ago, Yinfeng, accompanied by the family of her youngest son, moved into an apartment in Zhoushan City and resumed her life with Jinlong.

But what about Yinbiao? Yinfeng could not bear to see him living alone, so she herself acted as matchmaker and went to Hangzhou to find him a partner. She patted her chest as she declared to the woman: "I swear on my life that he is absolutely a good man." Thus did this story of love and hate and of tortuous dilemmas reach something of a conclusion.

Starting married life at 70

Now whenever Yinfeng goes to the market she remembers to buy Jinlong's favorite fish. When Yinfeng fell ill recently, Jinlong looked after her. Thus the two have come to care for each other. But when they have an argument, Jinlong cannot help but bring up his old grievances and release some of the bitterness that has accumulated in his heart.

"I got by on my own in Taiwan for 35 years, and I could get by on my own for 35 more." But before Yinfeng even has a chance to be hurt by these words spoken in anger, Jinlong has broken down in tears.

"He doesn't normally cry, but when this subject comes up his tears roll because his life was so hard. It's just that I also had many hard times. He always brings up the old days and thinks that I should feel that I have done him wrong, but he doesn't stop to think that I cried my eyes out too. . . ." says an aggrieved Yinfeng. Sometimes she infers that Jinlong gets so angry because he truly cherished their days together, so she says nothing. But if Jinlong gets her angry, this silver-haired couple sit on opposite ends of the couch, as far away from each other as they ever were, pouring out their long stories and grievances to whoever will listen.

[Picture Caption]

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Their marriage was witnessed before God. After half their lives apart, they are together again in their later years, yet both feel aggrieved. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)

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With no family remaining in the old hometown, Ah Yao never thought he would have his own family again in this life. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)