25. In Hainan, Missing Our 3rd Son for Three Days

We left Chongqing on November 26 in the 38th year of the Republic [~1949]. We went to Neijiang on November 29th and arrived in Chengdu at the end of the month. When we arrived in Chengdu, it was in a state of turmoil. The traffic was chaotic, and there was no room on planes or buses. In the end, life is precious. No one wanted to accept the gold bars. I just wanted to spread my wings and fly into the air, but I couldn’t do it at this time. What can I do? In the face of disappointment, Mr. Chen Lifu reached out to Mr. Gu Zhengwang, and Mr. Gu Zhenzheng’s brothers tried to think of a solution, and he also reported to the chairman. The chairman approved two married people with two children.

Oh my God! I left so many children in Beibei, and my heart is already shattered. I only brought out four young ones, and now they are telling me I have to give up two of them? In the hearts of parents all over the world, who could be so cruel as to do this to me again? I won’t go! None of us will go!

No! Absolutely not! We will stay in Chengdu and let fate takes its course. Later, a friend tried to buy an airplane ticket, and he was finally able to purchase the ticket. There was also another plane, where luckily we could carry three children. So, we handed over one set of tickets to Liu Wendao and Chen Tianyi of the Yellow River Bureau, who would take our son Yunchao. My wife and I, along with our daughter Defan and her two younger brothers, [used the other set of tickets] to fly to Hainan Island [in the South China Sea]. We asked Liu Wendao and Chen Tianyi to look after Yunchao [until we were together again].

The weather was fine that day. When we took off from Chengdu, I was wearing a leather robe. When we got off the plane, it was so hot that one could only wear a single layer of clothes. We would temporarily stay at the Party headquarters on Hainan Island.

We stayed on Hainan Island for two or three days. Every time that I heard the sound of a plane, I hoped that it was my son Yunchao coming! Even though he is the oldest [of the younger four children], Yunchao was still only 13 years old. How could I have let him go [without us]? I kept looking up into the sky and hoping that Yunchao would be flying on the iron bird. However, hearing the plane and not seeing my son, I could only mutter to myself: Is he still in Chengdu? Why hasn’t he been returned [to us]? I am at the other end of the world but my heart is still connected to my son…

I was shocked to see the news of a plane crash in the paper. I couldn’t help but feel nervous, and my heart was beating wildly. I thought that Yunchao might have been on that plane. While I was reading the list of people who were killed in the plane crash, my hands trembled as I held the newspaper, and I felt like my heart was jumping out of my mouth. Fortunately, Yunchao was not on the list, so I was somewhat relieved. At the same time, I heard that there was another plane that went to Kunming. It went to Kunming because in those days, [General Long Yun] had already sent a telegram to [order the communists] [to steal it], so the fate of the passengers on the plane was the same [i.e., the passengers also had to go to Kunming]. So while I was thinking about Yunchao coming, these two planes [had misfortunes, and as a result] never arrived [in Hainan]. One crashed and the other was stolen. I was losing hope! Yunchao’s face often floated up in my heart, and I feared that he would suffer misfortune at any moment.

[However], we couldn’t stay in Hainan any longer. I had been looking out through these old eyes over the past few days, but I couldn’t wait [any longer] for Yunchao to appear. I just felt completely helpless. So, we boarded with the three children on the “Hualien” steamboat that was bound for Taoyuan in Taiwan. It followed the same rainbow [of migration] that flowed towards Taoyuan that was used by generations of Han [Chinese ethnic group], as well as those fleeing the danger. When the ship arrived in Yulin, some refugees got on board. I was thinking about Yunchao, and I was about to ask for information when [one of the refugees] told me,

“There were two people with their grandson. They have already arrived in Taiwan by warship.”

I carefully asked about the child’s clothing, age, and appearance, all of which turned out to be similar to Yunchao. The other two people also sounded like they were Liu Wendao and Chen Tianyi. There was unspeakable joy in my heart!