Newborns after earthquake: "For this kid, we must live our life!"

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CGTN

For most survivors of the disaster 10 years ago, it was like a permanent scar. Yet they are grateful for surviving.

For some of them, however, the aftermath still causes suffering. They are parents who lost their only child in the earthquake.

Photo courtesy of VCG

According to statistics, children of nearly 8,000 families were lost or maimed in the disaster.

That was what Wen Zhiquan and Chen Guifang experienced. The couple were ordinary farmers in Yangliuping, a village near Beichuan. In 2008, their nine-year-old daughter was in the third grade of primary school. She was the apple in the eye of the whole family.

When it happened, Wen went to look for his daughter immediately. He saved 10 people along the way, but saw no signs of his daughter.

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Nine days later, Wen was interviewed on the debris of his house. Beside the bonfire, he said: "I have no regrets."

"My daughter was in the third grade. Were she to write a composition, the title would be 'My Father'."

After Chen recovered from the injuries, the couple began to rebuild their home.

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"We've got two things to do," says Wen, "A new house, and a new family." The house seems hollow, and there isn't much sense of purpose for the couple without a kid running about.

He much loved making money. But after that, money is not that important for him: "The key is confidence."

In 2009, Chen became pregnant again. In the examination room of the village clinic, Wen couldn't stop grinning: "The baby is fine. I only wish it to be healthy and lively."

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Eventually, the couple fulfilled their wish. Their second daughter was born, and they named her Wen Yi. When she was only three-year- old, she loved to run and pull a cart in the courtyard, or to feed kittens with grass. Wen Zhiquan would take her everywhere.

She turned nine this year, the same age of her sister that she would never meet.

"We still miss her. Seeing other children of her age, we'd think that she would have been in college by now," says Wen, "For the sake of Yi, we have to go back to normal life as soon as possible."

"We shall raise her well, and let her grow up safe and sound," says Chen.

"Dear sister," Wen Yi writes in a letter, "Mom is the same as always, helping me with my homework after doing chores. Dad goes to work every day, and comes back to spray pesticide and trim the trees.”

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The late girl loved Barbies. On her anniversary, the family picked a big Barbie doll for her.

"Dear sister, we come to see you. The whole family misses you so much. We are fine." They burn the letter together with paper money and the doll for her.

At the end of 2015, 3,542 children were born in the same situation as Wen Yi. They've brought new hope to over 3,000 broken families.

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The story is one in The 1.3 Billion series exploring the diverse lives that make up China.