In Memory of My Grandfather
At 1:00 PM on January 12, 2025, my father called me to say that my grandfather had suddenly passed away at home that afternoon.
A Lifetime in Geology
My grandfather was a top student in his youth. In the late 1950s, he was admitted to the Beijing Institute of Geology (the predecessor of China University of Geosciences), majoring in mechanical engineering. At that time, the Beijing Institute of Geology was a prestigious university that produced many talents. Premier Wen was his junior, and “Father of Chang’e” Ouyang Ziyuan was his senior. Of course, my grandfather was far from being an outstanding alumnus of the Beijing Institute of Geology. In his junior year, the Sino-Soviet split occurred, and all Soviet experts withdrew, leaving no one to teach. In his senior year, my grandfather joined the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and became an ordinary geologist.
Although my grandfather’s position was not fieldwork, mainly conducting research in the lab, he often had to travel across the country for geological surveys. Geological surveys were not tourism; living rough was the norm. Transportation was not developed at that time, and just taking a green train to the destination could take several days. The places he went to were mostly uninhabited (places with many people didn’t need exploration), with wild mountains and waters. It was not uncommon to encounter wild animals while camping in the wild or geological disasters halfway up the mountain. There were no mobile phones or GPS back then, and if you got lost, you might end up staying in the mountains.
A photo of my grandfather climbing a mountain after retirement, kept in the family album
My grandfather and grandmother were introduced by their families for marriage. After getting married, my grandfather still had to work in Beijing, coming home once every month or two. At that time, it was still a green train, and it took 7 hours just on the train from Shijiazhuang to Beijing, which was quite tiring.
My grandfather was the only son in his family, and his parents felt he should come back to accompany the family earlier, so they had him transferred from Beijing to Shijiazhuang to work at the Hebei Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. In Shijiazhuang, my grandfather gradually left the front line of scientific research and turned to administrative work.
My grandfather had a deep affection for his workplace. Even after retirement, although the bureau arranged for everyone to buy better elevator apartments, he insisted on living in the old house behind the unit. The old house had no elevator and was on the fifth floor. My grandfather said his legs were good, and he was willing to climb the stairs every day. But in recent years, his legs were not good, and he couldn’t go downstairs, so he had to stay at home.
The clock in my grandparents' house was issued by my grandfather's unit and has been running for over twenty years
Ten years ago, the Hebei Provincial Bureau of Geology decided to build a geological museum, encompassing the work achievements of many of my grandfather’s colleagues over the years and collecting many beautiful mineral specimens from around the world. The Hebei Geological Museum opened to the public in 2017, and my grandfather felt that his lifelong wish had been fulfilled. He said, “The value of a person’s life is to leave something for future generations.” His words greatly influenced me, and I also hope to do something of lasting value.
Online Tour of Hebei Geological Museum
Mineral crystals in the Hebei Geological Museum. When I was in college, my grandfather gave me a fossil he collected in his youth
Mineral crystals in the Hebei Geological Museum
Periodic table in the Hebei Geological Museum. I later imitated this and collected many chemical elements myself. Be careful with this; MSRA's assembly head got leukemia from collecting radioactive elements and died young. I was also invited for tea by Uncle Hat for collecting dangerous elements.
My grandfather's work content at the Geological Bureau back then
Grandfather Taught Me to Read and Write
When I was born, my parents were busy with work, so my grandparents mainly raised me when I was young.
My grandfather holding me when I was young
My grandparents both valued my education greatly. From the moment I was born, before I could speak, they taught me to recognize characters. My grandmother told me stories, read poems, and played children’s tapes every day. My grandfather took me to the street every day, teaching me to recognize the characters on store signs, road signs, and bus stop signs. By the time I was a year and a half and just learning to walk, I could recognize most of the characters on the street signs near our home. Neighbors gave me the nickname “the child who can read.”
My grandfather holding me on the street to recognize characters
Besides recognizing characters, my grandfather also taught me to read maps. He said,
Since I was born, my parents have maintained a “Little Miao is Growing” commemorative book, recording my growth every month with a photo attached. Below is the content of the growth record section, which is probably the first public release of these records:
One month old
Two months old
Three months old
Four months old
Five months old
Six months old
Seven months old
Eight months old
Nine months old
Ten months old
Eleven months old
Twelve months old
One and a half years old, already recognized 200 characters
Two years old, already recognized 1200 characters, can count from 1 to 100
Two and a half years old, already recognized 3000 characters
The next step after recognizing characters was writing. From the age of two, my grandparents taught me to write on a blackboard. Before I was three, I could write hundreds of characters.
Three years old, able to write on a blackboard with chalk
Before three years old, I could write the name of my grandfather's unit, taken in September 1995
Before three years old, I could also write "The World Only Has a Good Mother," taken in September 1995
When I was almost four, the last page of the growth record was already written by myself: I like to eat meat dishes and instant noodles, sing, exercise, and write. I started attending the first kindergarten of Hebei Province at the age of three years and nine months, in class three. Li Bojie, October 10, 1996
Grandfather Taught Me to Read Maps and Navigate in the Wild
Perhaps due to professional habits, my grandfather taught me to read maps and navigate from a young age. Before I could walk independently, he would carry me on the street, and when someone asked for directions, he would let me point the way. Passersby would say how could such a young child know the way. Of course, I don’t remember those things; my grandfather told me later. After I started going to school independently, he told me that if I got lost, it would be a disgrace to him.
My grandfather told me, “Reading maps and navigating is not difficult; the most important thing is to understand your position and the cardinal directions.” Whether in the city or the wild, it’s the same. In the city, as long as you mark the road routes and key landmarks on the map before setting out, and don’t get the direction wrong while walking, finding one landmark after another, you will definitely reach your destination. In the wild, you need to follow the map, find your location and direction based on the topographic map and compass in unfamiliar environments. He said, “As you walk on the road, the map moves in your mind,” as long as you have the map in your heart, it’s hard to get lost.
When I was in elementary and middle school, my grandfather would accompany me on bike rides on weekends. He rode a 28, and I rode a 24, circling the second ring road for 40 kilometers. We also went to nearby wild areas to pick wild vegetables and catch insects. He would also ride with me to the mountains west of Shijiazhuang to climb and collect stones. This trained my endurance and made me believe I could travel far. He said I should remember what my middle school homeroom teacher, Lei Yong, said about “The Road Less Traveled,” to find good stones, you must walk the road less traveled.
Of course, to walk the road less traveled, you must first have wilderness survival skills, not just map reading and direction finding, but also knowing how to identify dangers, understanding your physical limits, and planning the safest, most efficient, and fastest route from one place to another. Unfortunately, when I was young, I only knew how to study at home and didn’t have the opportunity to learn wilderness survival skills from my grandfather.
In April 2024, I went on a business trip to Dubai and happened to encounter a 75-year flood. Dubai, being a desert city, had poor drainage, and the city quickly fell into chaos. The airport turned into a “lake,” and planes on the tarmac looked like boats floating on water.
During the Dubai flood, the subway station was flooded, and the subway was suspended
The subway stopped halfway, and the station was flooded. I sheltered from the rain in a McDonald’s, and the rain only subsided a bit by 8 PM. The city’s traffic was completely paralyzed. I happened to meet someone also working in Web3, and we decided to go back together. I said, it’s only 10 kilometers, we can walk back in a couple of hours. He thought walking 10 kilometers was too far, but I said I often run 10 kilometers and ride 100 kilometers to the Great Wall with my wife. He thought about it and agreed that 10 kilometers wasn’t that much exercise.
The water got deeper as we walked, initially just over our feet, but most of the route was knee-deep in floodwater. The flood wasn’t flowing, so it wasn’t too dangerous. The biggest potential danger was falling into a manhole or stepping on exposed wires. So we walked along the center guardrail, lining up with the locals. He said if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t dare walk in such water.
If it weren’t for my grandfather teaching me to read maps and navigate in the wild, I wouldn’t dare walk 10 kilometers in a foreign city in a once-in-a-century flood.
Grandpa often said, “Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.” He mentioned that the places the Red Army passed during the Long March had many beautiful sceneries, though they certainly had no time to appreciate them during battles. If you don’t visit a place yourself and only rely on hearsay, how can you truly know if it’s good or not? In fact, I have never been to western Sichuan. According to my travel records from 2012 to the present, I’ve visited 80 cities in the past 12 years, but still not as many as Grandpa. I hope that in my lifetime, I can surpass the number of cities Grandpa visited.
The Home Workshop
Grandpa cultivated my interest in science from a young age. In elementary school, we had natural science classes, but they mostly taught theory. Occasionally, there were demonstration experiments, but the teacher would just quickly go through them in front of dozens of students, with no chance for hands-on experience. So, Grandpa collected many everyday items and set up a workshop for me on the balcony.
As a child, I often fell ill and had to receive IV drips and injections several times a year. After my grandmother took me to the hospital or clinic, she would bring the IV bottles and syringes home, fill them with water, and use them to water plants or for other experiments. I also collected beverage bottles at home. Occasionally, Grandpa and Mom would bring me some discarded beakers, test tubes, and measuring cups from their workplaces.
After third or fourth grade, Grandpa began teaching me how to creatively use everyday items at home to make crafts. In fourth grade, I made a small suspension bridge, in seventh grade, I made insect specimens and cell models, and I even participated in a school model airplane competition. A few years ago, when I first started dating my wife, I gave her a bat specimen, which scared her half to death. Later, when she found out I had various insect specimens at home, she asked me to hide them so she wouldn’t see them.
Making a small suspension bridge in fourth grade
Thanks to the workshop Grandpa set up for me, I never found natural science boring. On the contrary, I found scientific exploration fascinating. This method of learning through exploration not only taught me concepts and calculations but also helped me understand clear physical images. As a result, I had a deeper understanding and stronger memory of this knowledge, making it hard to forget even after many years.
Writing Essays, Publishing, and Recording Life
Grandpa not only encouraged me to make crafts but also to write essays summarizing them, honing my writing skills. Additionally, he urged me to document interesting events and important milestones in life through essays.
Grandpa said that written articles shouldn’t just be for personal viewing; they should be submitted for publication, as published articles hold value. Without submitting them for publication, there’s no objective evaluation of the writing quality, making it hard to improve.
I submitted some essays I felt were well-written to newspapers. If they were rejected, Grandpa would guide me in revising them and trying other newspapers. He also taught me to evaluate the value of an article and determine which level of newspaper it was suitable for. When newspapers held essay competitions, Grandpa would have me select suitable essays from unpublished ones to submit. Looking back, isn’t this similar to writing and submitting academic papers?
My Elementary School Essay Collection and Middle School Essay Collection contain many essays I wrote back then. The elementary school essays are categorized as follows:
- Childlike Heart and Eyes
- Feeling Nature
- Letting Dreams Fly
- Skill Display (such as crafts)
- One Thing, One Discussion (social commentary)
- Reading and Understanding
- Letters, Diaries, and Others
Using magnets to find things at home in fifth grade
Using New Year's money to pay for extracurricular classes and buy a computer
Grandpa said that published works should be collected and not scattered everywhere. He cut out every essay I published in newspapers, numbered them, and collected them in a box, using a notebook as an index. These photos are from the box I rummaged through.
In high school, under a classmate’s guidance, I learned website development and put my articles directly on a website (BoJie Learning Network, which no longer exists). This led to my habit of writing blogs to record life and share technical thoughts. I find writing articles easy; whether about life or technology, I can easily write ten thousand words if time permits. I realized many classmates struggle with writing long articles, and some don’t even like writing long posts on social media, which made me appreciate how valuable Grandpa’s early guidance was.
Grandpa Taught Me Good Study Habits
Grandpa and Grandma’s house was right in front of the largest bookstore in Shijiazhuang—the book wholesale market. From elementary school, Grandpa often took me to the book wholesale market. He would look for books he was interested in, and I would look for mine, reading in the bookstore and buying good books.
Initially, I couldn’t sit still in the bookstore; it was too noisy, and I couldn’t concentrate. Grandpa said that great people trained their focus by reading in noisy places. He encouraged me to take notes while reading, and after a while, he would ask me about the book’s content, so I didn’t dare slack off. Through this training, I could easily enter a study state no matter how noisy the surroundings were.
After living independently, I even had some funny incidents, like Newton boiling a watch thinking it was an egg. It’s not that Newton was foolish; it’s just that these great scientists were too focused. Today, I realize that focus is a rare quality.
Grandpa liked reading books and newspapers, not watching TV, playing cards, chess, or engaging in common elderly activities like square dancing. My bedroom had a wall of bookshelves filled with Grandpa’s books, which made me love reading.
For example, we had a colorful human anatomy atlas at home, which I flipped through so much as a child that the pages came loose. After starting school, when classmates asked about various human organs, I could explain them. My wife said she never received such education and even asked her (male) biology teacher in high school how boys and girls have children. The teacher awkwardly said that humans have behaviors similar to frogs’ amplexus. In college, I posted a Guokr Sexuality science article on the physics discussion board at the entrance of the second teaching building, which was later requested to be removed. A few years later, the entire Guokr Sexuality section was forcibly shut down.
Grandma always said, “Actions speak louder than words.” She said that if everyone at home is watching TV, it’s hard for a child to study. But if everyone is reading, the child will follow suit. So, Grandpa and Grandma limited my parents’ TV time at home, encouraging them to keep quiet in the evenings.
Grandpa left behind many neatly written notes throughout his life. After retiring, he used them as toilet paper, tearing off a few pages daily, which lasted over a decade. He insisted I take notes seriously in class, so until middle school, my notes were very organized. In high school, Grandpa stopped overseeing my studies, and my notes became increasingly messy.
I Didn’t Fully Follow Grandpa’s Advice
Grandpa and Grandma accompanied me to Chaozhou for the "Hua Luogeng Golden Cup" math competition, where I won a gold medal (only 10 gold medals nationwide)
Through their words and actions, Grandpa and Grandma instilled in me a habit of learning, and I achieved many accomplishments as a child. However, this also meant I had almost no other interests or hobbies besides studying and couldn’t interact with classmates. As I grew older and tried new hobbies, many friends said that whatever I tried, I seemed to improve quickly, but because I didn’t develop interests as a child, I couldn’t stick to any hobby long-term as an adult.
For example, running. Before working, I was quite overweight and barely passed physical education in school. But with the guidance of Huawei’s Mr. Ruan and other colleagues, I lost 30 pounds in 9 months and completed my first half-marathon a year after starting to run, with a personal best of 1 hour and 54 minutes in my second half-marathon. At that time, I ran 200 kilometers a month, and our team’s total mileage ranked first in the Beijing campus, with my personal mileage in the top twenty, and my resting heart rate was only 50-51. However, as work got busier, I ran less, and after starting my own business, I almost stopped running, gaining back the weight, though thankfully my cardiovascular fitness didn’t decline.
Because Grandma and Grandpa were afraid I’d get into trouble playing outside as a child, they would pick me up right after school and not let me play with classmates. As a result, I didn’t know how to interact with classmates, and in high school, I was nervous even buying things at the school store. But Grandpa didn’t see this as a problem because he was also someone who didn’t engage in entertainment activities, didn’t like socializing with colleagues, and didn’t enjoy interacting with strangers. Therefore, many relatives found Grandpa strange, and many classmates found me strange too; perhaps we are just outliers.
The issue of not knowing how to interact with people improved somewhat during university club activities and further improved while working at Huawei. At Huawei, I had to communicate with many upstream and downstream departments, forcing me to face strangers. Initially, I was afraid to call unfamiliar colleagues and reluctant to attend gatherings. Especially since I’m somewhat face-blind, I couldn’t remember names after meeting colleagues once, making subsequent encounters awkward. My supervisor encouraged me to communicate more and not be afraid. Through this training, my personality shifted from an introverted “I” during my Ph.D. to an extroverted “E” now, and I’m no longer timid around anyone. People who know me after starting my business can’t believe I was once an “I” person. But changing from “I” to “E” doesn’t mean I’ve become a social expert, as I still lack the ability to read social cues and remember names.
Grandpa was not only introverted but also a serious and reserved person, so he spent his life completing tasks assigned by leaders without pursuing what he truly loved, not even considering what he truly loved. I don’t want to be like that. During my entrepreneurial journey, several friends said I seemed different from most Ph.D. entrepreneurs, appearing more free-spirited, casual, and passionate, while most Ph.D.s seemed serious, reserved, and anxious. Even my collaborators said I didn’t care much about what the company could achieve, only about what I wanted to do. I thought about it and realized that’s true; my goal in entrepreneurship is to do what I want. If I just wanted to make money, why not join a promising unicorn company? This is where I differ from Grandpa.
The biggest time I went against Grandpa’s wishes was in choosing my major.
When choosing a university, between Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, and the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Grandpa suggested I go to USTC. He wanted me to become a scientist, believing USTC offered a quiet desk to build a solid foundation in mathematics and physics. Grandpa himself almost got into USTC and hoped I could fulfill his dream.
I followed Grandpa’s advice and went to USTC, even getting into the Hua Luogeng Class for mathematical talents. But I didn’t study mathematics seriously; I failed linear algebra in the second semester of my freshman year, and barely passed mathematical analysis. Because I spent most of my time in the computer lab of the School of the Gifted Young, tinkering with servers and networks. I found computer science much simpler and more useful than mathematics. I didn’t know the purpose of studying mathematics, but learning computer science allowed me to create anything I wanted, benefiting many classmates from what I made.
Grandpa was very angry and said that mathematics is the foundation of all sciences. I retorted that many fields in computing don’t require much math. Indeed, developing most software doesn’t need much math, and many research areas in computing only require elementary mathematics.
I also believe that information has many better properties than matter. The cost of copying information is very low, which makes open-source software and Wikipedia possible. In the material world, it’s hard to find any industrial product with such a low replication cost that it can be supplied for free.
Moreover, the transmission speed of information is naturally the speed of light, allowing it to cross interstellar distances. In contrast, accelerating matter to speeds sufficient for interstellar travel requires impractically large amounts of energy. Therefore, I believe that future intelligence will certainly be digital and may not need the human body as a carrier.
I don’t remember exactly what my grandpa said, but it was roughly the famous line from “The Wandering Earth”: “Civilization without people is meaningless.“
However, I ultimately followed my heart and switched to the computer science major in the first semester of my sophomore year. I think if I hadn’t switched to computer science back then, I might not have achieved much in mathematics either.
Grandpa’s Influence on My Values
When I was young, grandpa said, “Plant more trees, raise fewer mouths,” which was advice from his parents. The literal meaning of this phrase is to plant more trees, raise fewer animals, and have fewer children. Trees only need watering and fertilizing in the early stages to grow, and once they mature, they require little care to become century-old trees. Animals, however, need daily care, and once you raise them, you have a long-term responsibility. My dad and uncle liked keeping pets when they were young, but my grandpa was against it. Having children was for continuing the family line, and grandpa did want children (otherwise, I wouldn’t have my dad and uncle), but he didn’t want to have many children like most people of that era, which would burden the family heavily.
Grandpa said that not only in life but also in work, one should “plant more trees, raise fewer mouths,” do more things that benefit the present and future generations, and fewer things that stop when you stop working.
Grandpa also introduced me to more outstanding scientific workers in the geological bureau compound, encouraging me to learn from them. Opposite the geological bureau was the Hebei Academy of Sciences, and the nearby residential area was also full of researchers. Growing up in such a compound, I realized that doing research wasn’t something unattainable but just an ordinary profession. Grandpa told me, look at how many people are doing research; if you don’t pursue big achievements or fame, research is as simple as eating and drinking.
Grandpa not only cultivated my interest in science from a young age but also instilled in me a sense of mission for science. Interest and a sense of mission are different. Grandpa said, interest only leads you to the door, but once inside, you’ll find many tedious things, and that’s when a sense of mission becomes the long-lasting motivation to keep you going.
In my article “Space Exploration and Digital Life,” I talked about how grandpa cultivated my sense of mission and introduced me to an elderly gentleman involved in aerospace. Here’s an excerpt:
My grandpa liked to tell me about the seafaring feats of the Polynesians. He said that Easter Island in the South Pacific is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the nearest island, yet a thousand years ago, Polynesians lived there and left the Easter Island statues. How did the Polynesians migrate across two to three thousand kilometers to get there?
The Polynesians’ migration between islands in the South Pacific is a great feat in the history of navigation. Not only Easter Island, but Hawaii was also migrated to a thousand years ago. Because the Polynesians improved their canoes by adding planks to two parallel logs, the boats’ resistance to wind and waves was greatly enhanced, allowing more food and fresh water to be stored on the planks. Moreover, the Polynesians had strong abilities to navigate by the stars and oceanographic conditions. They also needed to choose the right dates to set off. Of course, a journey of several thousand kilometers, lasting several months, was destined to be a life-or-death endeavor.
The elderly gentleman involved in aerospace said that today’s space exploration is like the Polynesians’ ocean voyages. Modern people, looking at the Polynesians’ primitive canoes, would think it’s impossible to cross two to three thousand kilometers of the Pacific relying solely on wind power. Today’s space exploration is similar because the speed needed to escape a planet’s gravity is so fast that it reaches the limits of human fuel capabilities. Sending a little payload into space requires dozens or even hundreds of times its mass in fuel. Moreover, it requires launching during narrow windows of opportunity.
The elderly gentleman said that luxury goods are for people who have achieved nothing to show off, while exploring the world is the true value of life. Opening a new route on the solar system’s space map is far more valuable than having a fortune. Exploring the universe is certainly not for making money. But without money, it’s impossible either; money is a necessary resource for exploring the world. To get this money, you have to make people believe that this endeavor is valuable and that you are the person who can accomplish it. That’s why, even though they know interstellar travel is still far away, they still hang the solar system’s space map.
When I was in high school, Musk’s commercial space ventures had just launched successfully, and my grandpa encouraged me to learn from Musk, to see how he managed to launch rockets at such a low cost. Grandpa said that Musk had made enough money from selling a few companies to last a lifetime, but he still went into aerospace, investing all his wealth. If he failed again, he would basically be bankrupt.
During the NOI winter camp, CCF Secretary-General Du Zide told us that we were currently the group with the highest level of computer skills among students and the hope for the future of Chinese computing. I came back and told grandpa that the tone was too high. Grandpa said that this is the mission. If I were just an ordinary college student, lying flat and enjoying life would be more comfortable than doing research like an ascetic. But if people like me lie flat, some difficult scientific problems will never be solved. Therefore, the motivation that sustains our continuous exploration must not be to make life more comfortable but rather curiosity and a sense of mission.
This is like what grandpa often said, a few hundred years ago, those who did research were nobles, and their purpose was not to make more money but for curiosity and a sense of mission. Today, research has become a profession, so most people do it just to make a living. But at the top of this pyramid, there still needs to be people driven by curiosity and a sense of mission.
Grandpa indeed successfully cultivated my curiosity and sense of mission for research. But I also think it shouldn’t be so extreme; work and life should still be balanced. I believe that research doesn’t have to be like an ascetic; doing what you love, being with people you like, and being happy in life can also lead to good work.
Grandpa’s Shortcomings in Life and Family
Grandpa was devoted to his work and spent a lot of effort on my education, but he lacked in life aspects.
When grandma first got married, grandpa was always on business trips, and everything at home relied on her alone. Grandpa was away on business trips for years, so one would think his life skills should be strong. But according to grandma, grandpa was never very self-sufficient in life. He was unkempt, rarely washed clothes or bathed, and relied on grandma for cooking.
I remember when we made dumplings at home, it was always grandma, dad, and mom who were responsible for kneading the dough, chopping the filling, and wrapping the dumplings, while grandpa was responsible for boiling water and cooking the dumplings. Every time, there were always one or two broken dumplings. When I grew up and learned to cook dumplings myself, I almost never broke any, realizing that dumplings weren’t that easy to break.
Grandma said that before she married grandpa, she saw that grandpa’s grandfather was a scholar, his mother was a primary school (probably a private school) principal, and grandpa himself studied and worked in Beijing, so she thought the family should be well-off. But after marrying in, she found the family was so poor. On the wedding night, when grandma kicked the quilt, it tore with a loud rip. Flipping it over, there was another big tear. Grandma said she cried at that moment, “Entering the Li family, chaff on the lips” (chaff is a dialect, meaning to scrape).
Grandpa’s mother favored her daughter over grandpa, and coupled with the feudal traditional thought that grandma was married into the family, she did the most work and suffered the most grievances, and grandpa didn’t stand up for her much. She had to take care of the elders above, grandpa, and the children below. When pregnant with my dad and uncle, she still worked in the fields with a big belly. After giving birth, she hadn’t even finished her confinement before returning to the fields, or else the family’s land wouldn’t be planted.
Grandma always said she was destined to suffer in this life. Back then, marriages were arranged, and since grandma married in, she could only accept her fate.
I don’t want my grandma’s fate to repeat today. I also don’t want to be like my grandpa, who only cared about work all his life, neglected family, and couldn’t even take care of himself.
In recent years, under my wife’s guidance, my life skills have improved a lot. The house used to be messy, but now I can feel when it’s dirty and will clean up proactively. I definitely couldn’t live in a place as dirty and messy as the rental in Zhichunli anymore. I can’t imagine going back to my undergraduate dorm, where I changed sheets only once every few months and brushed my teeth every two or three days. Under the guidance of Huawei and my wife, my routine has become much more regular, no longer staying up until the early morning and sleeping until noon.
Forever Remembering Grandpa
From October 7, 1938, to January 12, 2025, grandpa lived an 86-year life. At the end, there was no pain, no resuscitation, no last words, so it was considered a happy funeral.
Life is unpredictable, and life is finite. In the face of death, everyone is equal.
Following grandpa’s wishes, the funeral was kept simple. No mourning hall was set up, only a memorial tablet was placed in grandpa and grandma’s home, and downstairs, there were only three wreaths from my father, uncle, and the old cadres’ office of the geological bureau. Close relatives, former colleagues, and friends held a brief farewell ceremony at the funeral home before cremation.
Grandpa said long ago not to spend too much money after death; money should be spent on the living. Grandpa said not to have complicated memorial ceremonies; things with memorial value will always be remembered by someone, and things without value won’t matter even if a memorial arch is erected. I think the Hebei Geological Museum is the best memorial to grandpa’s work before retirement. And my growth today is the best memorial to grandpa’s education after retirement.
I hope that if I quietly leave one day, someone can continue to maintain my homepage, just like grandpa’s work is recorded by the museum, always remembered by someone. I also hope that someone can continue the things I have done and will do in the future, not letting something valuable disappear for short-term interests like Renren Network.