After years of failed attempts to conceive, Ling adopted the baby her relative didn’t want. I’d encouraged her. Now she was pregnant, two children forbidden. “How can we abandon our daughter?” Ling’s tears flowed. I handed her a tissue, wanting to remind her it wasn’t just about hefty fines—as a civil servant, she’d lose her job. My fault she already had a child. Now, I could offer no advice; anything I said would hurt her more. She terminated the pregnancy, a year before China’s two-child policy. Should I have advised differently? Her voice, trembling, still echoes: “What should I do?”
Huina Zheng either writes as an admission coach at work or writes for fun after work.