CHAPTER 100

2025-10-31

My wife and I have long observed the growth of Lun and his younger brother, and we’ve concluded that a person’s character and behavior are both influenced by innate heredity and the environment in which they grow up.

From birth, the younger brother had to face Lun, who was six years older than him. His elder brother had a temperament and manner of his own — vocal, but without language, unable to converse, and prone to frequent crying, day and night alike.

In pursuit of peace, the younger one developed, from the very moment he “entered the world,” a unique survival skill: he could sleep for twelve or even thirteen hours straight. Once asleep, not even thunder and lightning could wake him — he would sleep on until he had had his fill.

In this way, he secured the most basic condition for survival — adequate sleep. He could sleep from the early morning hours until the following afternoon, fully rested and ready for me to return home from work and take him from my wife’s arms. This deep-sleeping talent lasted all the way through high school.

As an adult, whenever he encounters difficulties in life and begins to feel anxious, his best coping strategy is sleep — sleeping it off until the next day.

Everything has its advantages and drawbacks. His greatest fear is insomnia. If he fails to sleep for several consecutive nights, he becomes like the Tang dynasty general Cheng Yaojin, who was known for having only a few signature moves — in other words, he becomes helpless. Unable to cope with both the anxiety brought by insomnia and the original cause of his sleeplessness, he ends up facing at least two problems at once. Moreover, insomnia drains him mentally and physically, compounding the situation. At such times, he tends to lose his temper. With age and experience, however, this has gradually improved.

The two brothers’ developmental progress differed greatly due to their innate conditions, yet their temperaments share many similarities. Firstly, both are calm and unhurried — neither impatient nor easily flustered. Like their mother, they dislike being rushed, needing ample space and time to enjoy life at their own pace.

Both are gentle and well-mannered by nature, with mild temperaments and little inclination toward anger. Their fingers are long and slender, like those of artisans. When I was young, I often quarreled and even fought with my two elder brothers. After watching wrestling on TV, I couldn’t resist trying a headlock on my fourth brother, provoking his wrath. He would then chase me around the long balcony connecting our bedroom and kitchen to get his revenge, until my mother intervened with her disciplinary “family law.”

Given Lun’s severe condition, it was truly fortunate that the younger brother grew up disciplined and well-behaved — without obvious rebellion or escapism, such as acting out for attention or retreating into isolation. During his high school and university years, he once recalled the three most difficult stages of his childhood. As a father listening to him, I could only look up and give thanks to the Lord for keeping him safe until this day.

I remember one occasion when a classmate invited him to a birthday tea party in Grade 5. We dropped him off, but less than two hours later, he called asking me to bring him home. On the way back, he told me that some of the boys there were repeatedly dialing random pager numbers — a common prank back then — just to harass strangers. He found it distasteful and didn’t want to join in, so he decided to leave. Such behavior, I believe, was simply true to his nature.