Li Ao's illegitimate daughter Li Wen long lacked fatherly care, only met him once in 2005, never saw him again before his death, and suffered deep family rifts and regrets.
When Li Ao passed away, his eldest daughter, Li Wen, was unable to see him one last time, nor was she allowed to attend the funeral.
As Li Ao’s eldest daughter born out of wedlock, Li Wen’s mother, Wang Shangqin, gave birth to her while en route to the United States to study.From as far back as she could remember, her father existed only in the casual conversations of others. Throughout her more than a decade of growing up, she had never met Li Ao in person nor received a single phone call from him. Their first encounter as father and daughter did not take place until 2005, when Li Ao returned to the mainland for the first time after an absence of fifty-six years.On the very next day after Li Ao landed in Beijing, he met with Li Wen, who was living there—this was the first formal meeting between the two in their entire lives.
During that
2005 meeting, both father and daughter smiled slightly for the cameras. The sense of estrangement that had built up over decades began to ease slightly in that public photo, much like a thin crack appearing in a long-frozen sheet of ice, finally letting in a hint of warmth.At the time, many people believed that the father-daughter relationship—which had been at an impasse for most of their lives—was finally about to see a turning point toward reconciliation.
No one could have imagined that this would be the last time the two would ever see each other. Not long after the meeting, the father and daughter fell out completely, and the fleeting moments of warmth that had just begun to emerge were gone before they could even be salvaged.What was even more heartbreaking was that, not long after, Wang Shangqin auctioned off every single love letter Li Ao had written to her over the years. She did not set aside a single penny of the proceeds for Li Wen; instead, she used the entire sum to support her youngest son, leaving Li Wen without even the faintest memento of her father.When Li Wen was fourteen, she was sexually harassed by her stepfather. She turned to her mother in tears for help, but all she received in response was, “Don’t make a scene.” Because of those words, the mother and daughter severed all contact and had no communication for a full forty years.
Speaking of this family’s entanglements, they always leave a heavy feeling in one’s heart. But when you really dig deeper, it’s not exactly a blood feud—it’s just that everyone has their own agenda and sticks to their own principles, forcing those who should be the closest blood relatives to drift further and further apart.What exactly is
family love? It is the absence of companionship during one’s formative years, the late nights spent crying out for help with no one to answer, the regret of a fleeting warmth that turns into a permanent farewell, and a family where each member clings to their own stubborn convictions, turning bonds that should have been held tightly into an inextricable knot.
