By YE JIANPING, LIU MIN & WU XIAOYING

Lin Xingcong learns cross-stitch embroidery from his wife Li Yunxiang. Xinhua

    WHEN we first met in Gangou Village of Gaochuan Township, Lin Xingcong had just returned from his hillside farming plot. Seeing he had worked up a sweat and was still in his dusty clothes, his wife Li Yunxiang hurried to fetch a basin of water and scolded him: "You are not going to meet the reporters like this. Wash your hands and face and change your clothes."

    Lin Xingcong and Li Yunxiang both lost their spouses in the earthquake on May 12, 2008. Now they have built a new family together and are taking care of three children and five seniors, including Lin's former parents-in-law, Li's parents and Li's former mother-in-law.

    After the quake toppled their hometown, Lin carried his dead wife down the mountain, becoming drenched in her blood. The disaster also snatched Li's husband from her, but she never found his body, despite going to the site numerous times.

    They struggled helplessly and alone with their grief, until months later when Lin helped Li with small housekeeping matter.

    That day, Lin Xingcong was in charge of distributing bottled LPG gas. Since Li Yunxiang was not present to pick hers up, Lin carried the cyclinder to her home as an act of neighborliness. Some neighbors joked: "Lin, you must have a crush on Li Yunxiang. You two would make a perfect match." These words brought the two lonely hearts together.

    The more contact they had, the closer their relations grew. "I knew little of her before, but I often heard people speak well of her when we lived in the same village." Lin said. "She takes good care of her husband and mother-in-law. I see my first wife in her."

    In September 2008, Lin proposed to Li. But he worried about the ten-year age difference and the financial uncertainties that nagged at him. "What I appreciate is your personality," Li reassured him shyly, "We can work hard together for a better life."

    On the Spring Festival's Eve in 2009, Lin and Li tied the knot. They agreed to place photos of their former spouses on the bedside to commemorate their first loves.

    Xingcong designed and built a two-storey wooden house on the site of Yunxiang's former home. Yun-xiang embroidered a curtain with the saying: "If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper" and hung it on their balcony. Yunxiang loves embroidery and gardening, so their front yard is in blossom for much of the year.

    "I thought he had forgotten my birthday last year," she pouted. "But at bed time, he gave me a pair of golden earrings." Li was moved, "He's not romantic really, but he is considerate and sometimes gives me a surprise gift!"

    Talking about the future, Lin is very optimistic. He plans to build another log cabin next to their house to run an agri-tainment operation (farm-based tourism). "In the beginning of the year we planted some 10,000 trees on our two-hectares of forestland, and we are going to plant some edible wild herbs. We believe we will prosper in the future."

    The family of Lin Xingcong and Li Yunxiang is just one example, but a touching one, of thousands of families rebuilding their lives in the disaster zone. Bearing in mind the loved partners who have passed away, they warm themselves to new loves and new lives.

YE JIANPING, LIU MIN and WU XIAOYING are reporters of Xinhua News Agency.