In 1996, when Suqian was just established as a prefecture-level city, it was young and full of vitality. My husband and I both worked at the Junior High School of Shunhe Town in Suyu County, living in the school's residential quarters, while our two children attended the local town's primary school. My life back then mostly followed a two-point pattern, shuttling daily between the office and home. The school was my home, and my home was the school, a simple yet joyful existence.

What I remember most are the winter days in the office. Before winter arrived, the male teachers would showcase their "special talent" of building coal stoves. Working together during their spare time, they could construct a brick-and-mortar stove with a chimney in just one day. After letting it dry for a while, when the winter solstice approached, the school would supply honeycomb briquettes. The teacher on duty would take one or two briquettes to the cafeteria's boiler to heat them red, then place them into the office stove, adding a few raw pieces of coal on top. Soon, the flames would rise, the office would become warm, and we could quietly prepare our lessons and grade assignments.

Every evening when we returned home, our family of four would gather around the stove, replaying the day's stories. I would be grading essays, my husband would be writing furiously, planning his lessons for the next day, while the children, after finishing their homework, would read their comic books like "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck" or "Doraemon". At this hour every day, the staff dormitory on campus was our family's exclusive gathering spot, with the fire's glow illuminating the children's faces and light streaming through the glass windows into the quiet campus.

In 2000, the trend of buying commercial housing began to take off, with settling in the city becoming the top priority. Of course, even if we didn't move into the city center, we would try to buy a home to the west, closer to the urban area. My husband and I went to the east bank of the Grand Canal on a tentative visit. After viewing the only two available developments, we also inspected a construction site that was just breaking ground. At that moment, our hearts sank. The site was a mess of roaring machinery, potholed ground, and piles of fresh earth that smelled of mud, surrounded by endless golden rice paddies. Setting up our home here? Was this going to be a city? We had no confidence. But the desire to buy a home grew stronger, and after much discussion with a colleague, we decided to take a gamble together, choosing a property near a key secondary school. The following year, our dream came true as we took out a mortgage loan and finally owned our first commercial apartment. That summer, my husband was also selected to work at the key secondary school near our new home.

In 2001, I bid farewell to my small courtyard on campus, my little garden, and my grape trellis, moving into our new home, the commercial apartment we had longed for. The new place was bright and spotless, and with an air conditioner making its "grand entrance", we bid farewell to the era of coal stoves. With a distance now between home and school, I swapped my bicycle for an electric scooter styled like a "motorcycle". At that time, a brand new teaching building had risen at the school, and my office was on the fourth floor. Standing there, looking toward the direction of my new home, all I could see were rows of new apartments and upscale office buildings.

In 2013, we changed homes again. This time, our choice wasn't to look west or move closer to the city center, but to head east toward my ecological Suyu, the livable town. I told my husband that settling our home in a park was the wisest decision I'd ever made. Indeed, my new community was adjacent to a public park outside its walls. Inside, there were small bridges over flowing water, seasonal flowers, sports fields, children's playgrounds, and supermarkets, all with complete amenities. That same year, we also acquired our own car. On weekends or holidays, the family would drive to Liyuan Bay to admire the pear blossoms, to Shanhe Garden to pick lotus seeds and explore the "Shangri-La" deep within the lotus ponds, to the beautiful Liutang Riverbank to relax, to Yuanjiacun Suqian Impression to sample local snacks, to Zhumeng Town's night market to check in as trendy visitors, to farm parks to pick fruits, and to JD.com's Agricultural Technology Demonstration Park to harvest organic vegetables. Life was comfortable and content.

My new home is right next to the Suqian E-commerce Industrial Park. Major heavyweight e-commerce companies like JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), Dangdang, and Tuniu have set up operations in the park, and the 158-meter-tall JD Smart City is the new landmark of Suyu District. Projects such as internet finance, innovation and entrepreneurship incubation, and cross-border e-commerce have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, attracting nearly 40,000 young people from all over the country to work and settle here. Walking into the park, you'll see red JD autonomous delivery vehicles shuttling along the roads, knowing to yield to pedestrians and obey traffic signals. Their politeness and intelligence symbolize the JD staff who ride the wave of the times, and their courteousness also represents the wonderful image of the people of Suyu. In our residential area, we often see these agile and adorable vehicles, as well as JD delivery drones slowly descending.

The year 2017 marked a major turning point in my life as I retired. I threw myself wholeheartedly into the literary scene of Suyu and even all of Suqian, working with several editors at the editorial department to manage the writers' association and publish "one newspaper and one magazine"—the internal publication "Luomahu Literature" by the Suqian Prose Society and the "Suyu Literature and Art" magazine by the Suyu District Writers' Association. The first two chairmen of the Suyu District Writers' Association, Fan Jinhua and Zhou Yongwen, led the members and literary enthusiasts in overcoming difficulties and forging ahead, elevating Suyu's literary endeavors to new heights. I was fortunate to learn from them while contributing my part to the local cultural scene.

During those years, "one newspaper and one magazine" received wide attention and welcome from literary enthusiasts across the city, the province, and even the nation. Suqian's literary atmosphere grew increasingly stronger, with enthusiasts writing the changes of their hometown into words, showcased in every issue. "One newspaper and one magazine" became a window for Suqian literature to the outside world.

In 2019, Suqian entered the high-speed rail era. In recent years, Suyu District has also gained urban expressways, while projects like the Suqian High-Speed Rail East Station and Suqian General Airport are progressing steadily.

In the summer of 2025, I bid farewell to my Bora car that had served me for over a decade. When choosing a new vehicle, my husband said, "Our children have their own lives and cars. Let's buy a seven-seater—it will add color to our retirement, make family trips easier, and also help fulfill your literary dreams. I'll drive you to distant places, and you can enjoy the scenery and write poetry." He made a good point. And so, a Buick commercial vehicle came into my life. My family often jokes that I drive as slowly as a snail, but I rather appreciate my pace. With so many cars and people on the road, safety comes first, and I treat slow driving as a pleasure—enjoying the joy of yielding to pedestrians, savoring the benefits of a retired yet active life, and relishing the calm of peaceful days.

As I drive past towering buildings, passing grand cinemas, green squares, large shopping malls, and libraries, I suddenly realize: Suqian, this city of blue skies, clear waters, and beautiful scenery, is so full of charm and substance. Thinking about the journey of striving and growing together with this beautiful city, a warm current surges through my heart.