Read Part 1 of the story here.

After being separated from her family at age 12 by traffickers, leaving her in-laws’ village, and wandering the streets of Guangzhou before being sent to a new government-run leprosy hospital for treatment, Xu He is finally reunited with her father and ready to resume her normal life. Find out what’s in store for her in the next 60 years of her extraordinary life.

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After Xu He came home, her father wouldn’t allow her to do heavy labor out of concern for her health. She did household chores instead, looking after her younger brother, who was only a few years old at the time. One day, Xu He was by the doorway when she saw a woman heading up the mountain to gather firewood. Wanting to add to their own stocks, she followed the woman up the mountain. After she was done chopping, she bundled up the firewood and left it by the door. But her father got angry when he saw this, telling her not to do it again.

At Xinzhou, the doctors were always reminding patients to look after their fingers and toes. Because leprosy causes nerve damage, they lacked feeling in their extremities. By the time they noticed a burn or cut, it was often already quite serious. But working at the hospital, they frequently handled rough bricks, thorny wood, and knife-like grass—how could they not get hurt? Xu He would rinse the cut, bind it with cloth, and go right back to work. Long accustomed to ignoring her injuries, Xu He was touched by her father’s anger, because it showed that he cared about her.

However, the real obstacle between Xu He and her “homecoming” was the hukou system. At the time, staples such as rice, salt, and oil had to be bought using coupons, which were alloted by the state according to each person’s residence permit. Xu He’s hukou was still registered under her mother’s in the countryside, while her father’s permit was in the city. In order to stay with her father, Xu He would run down to the police station after eating each day and ask, “Why must children be separated from their parents? I am my father’s child, why can’t my hukou go with him?”