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In the winter of 1969, Wang Yuming and Yan Baoxia made an eternal vow at a simple and warm wedding.
Due to the family's financial constraints, Wang Yuming could only barely scrape together two washbasins and four towels as a dowry, and Yan Baoxia only wore an unpretentious dress to attend.
Although the two did not have a lavish banquet on their wedding day, the fiery love between them was vividly displayed.
Yan Baoxia affectionately told her husband: "From now on, we will no longer distinguish each other, but become a family in the true sense."
"No matter where you are, I will always be there for you.
The days after marriage were not easy, Wang Yuming only had a meager income of 42 yuan a month, but he always did not hesitate to send all his salary back to his home in Tangshan, giving his wife meticulous care.
In 1976, when the Tangshan earthquake struck suddenly, Yan Baoxia successfully saved Wang Yuming's life with her keen insight and decisive actions, but unfortunately she was injured in her lower leg, leaving a lifelong indelible scar.
In the face of various difficulties in life, they have always relied on each other hand in hand, survived every difficulty together, and lived with ordinary and real firewood, rice, oil and salt, interpreting their indestructible marriage vows.
Time flies, in a blink of an eye, in 2008, after years of hard work, Wang Yuming's family finally ushered in the joy of housewarming. Yan Baoxia was overjoyed, humming a cheerful song, full of endless longing for a better life in the future.
However, fate seems to have played a merciless joke on the loving couple once again - Yan Baoxia has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and her memory is gradually losing at an alarming rate.
At first, Yan Baoxia only occasionally forgot about trivial things, such as the specific location of the newly purchased clothes.
Seeing this, Wang Yuming had an ominous premonition in his heart, and he suspected that it might be the after-effects of his wife's mild schizophrenia.
Soon after, the doctor's diagnosis confirmed his suspicion that Yan Baoxia was indeed suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Hearing this sad news, Wang Yuming seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. He thought that after years of careful care, his wife's condition had improved significantly, but now he is facing the test of life and death again.
How could Wang Yuming stand idly by while his loved one was about to disappear from his world? Since then, he has been like a loyal guard, always waiting by his wife's side to ensure her safety.
He strictly followed the doctor's instructions to take his wife's medication regularly, and at the same time often told her about the strange things in society in an attempt to alleviate her illness.
However, Yan Baoxia's condition is still deteriorating at a rate that is visible to the naked eye. Sometimes, she even adds salt repeatedly during the cooking process, which makes the food taste unusually salty.
Whenever the shadow of tragedy gradually expands, Yan Baoxia can always face the reality with firm courage, but the guilt in her heart cannot be dissipated;
But Wang Yuming could only grit his teeth under the painful torture, with tears in his eyes, hiding the endless melancholy in his heart.
In the face of his lover's deteriorating health, Wang Yuming never had the heart to give up for a moment, he resolutely took out all his savings and spent tens of thousands of yuan to buy pension insurance, hoping to hire a caring nanny to take care of his beloved wife in the future.
However, fate always seems to like to play tricks on this couple who are in love with each other. In 2018, it became a deep scar in their lives.
That night, Wang Yuming was washing in the bathroom as usual, and suddenly found that his wife Yan Baoxia had disappeared into the room, and a sense of foreboding immediately surged in his heart, but he still comforted himself that maybe his wife had just gone to a nearby public toilet.
However, time passed minute by minute, and Yan Baoxia never returned to the room. Wang Yuming began to feel extremely uneasy, and he called out his wife's name, hoping to get a response from her, but he was met with a deathly silence.
Wang Yuming could no longer bear the torment in his heart, he rushed out of the door and went straight to the nearby public toilet, however, when he arrived at his destination, he was stunned by the sight before him - the toilet was empty, and his wife was long gone.
Wang Yuming fell into an unprecedented panic, he asked his neighbors everywhere, and even searched the nearby streets for a whole hour, but still found nothing. Just as he was about to collapse, a villager who had just returned from the farmland told him that he had seen Yan Baoxia walking alone on National Highway 316.
Knowing this important clue, Wang Yuming rushed to the national highway without hesitation, however, when he arrived at the scene, the bustling road was full of traffic and crowds, but his wife disappeared without a trace as if she had evaporated from the world.
As night fell, Wang Yuming could no longer bear the pain in his heart, and he called his two sons, who were far away, to inform them of their mother's disappearance. Hearing the bad news, the two sons immediately put down their work and hurried back to their hometown.
The next morning, Wang Yuming decided to seek help from the local police, and after an in-depth investigation, the police found that Yan Baoxia had left the national highway and walked 18 kilometers on foot, and finally came to Fujia, a remote mountain town, and has not been heard from since.
Despite the difficulties, the police still carried out a painstaking search around the town for more than a month, but the specific whereabouts of Ms. Yan Baoxia were still as uncertain as a cloud of smoke.
Deprived of clues, the two brave sons had to return to their respective jobs and temporarily interrupt their journey with their father to find their mother.
At the time of their parting, they affectionately exhorted their father to face up to the cruelty of reality.
However, Mr. Wang Yuming did not waver in his determination because of this. He firmly stated: "As long as I am alive, I will never stop searching!"
For his sons' admonitions, Mr. Wang Yuming chose to ignore them. After his sons left again, the old man began a lonely and helpless life like a fish out of water.
In order to find out the whereabouts of his wife Yan Baoxia, he embarked on a long and challenging journey to find his relatives alone.
Mr. Wang's backpack was filled with hundreds of missing person notices that he had made himself, as well as a bedding and an old military quilt. He embarked on the journey alone, starting from Hui County, and first posted missing person notices everywhere in the local county.
When he was tired, he did not hesitate to take a break on the street and eat steamed buns from roadside stalls.
Walking through a county town, Mr. Wang Yuming rushed to the next destination, and so on, his footprints gradually covered hundreds of kilometers. He handed out a missing person notice to every passer-by, imploring them to provide any clues about his wife's whereabouts.
However, this was undoubtedly an unrealizable dream, and no one knew or seen Yan Baoxia along the way.
Like an ascetic, Mr. Wang Yuming walked city after city, confused and helpless along the way, only supported by his deep longing for his wife and a firm faith.
At first, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places where they once lived had been trodden by him, but his wife's whereabouts were still as unpredictable as fog.
When he arrived in Tangshan, Hebei Province, the hometown of his wife, Yan Baoxia, he stayed there for months, relying on clues provided by local residents.
Ultimately finding nothing, he decided to expand his search, gradually expanding his itinerary to more distant places.
Time flies, time flies, Wang Yuming has always crossed the vast land of the motherland alone with a lonely pace. Like a troubadour, he carefully admired every familiar and intimate picture along the way, with expectant eyes, longing to meet his beloved wife again around the next corner.
Along the way, he could not suppress his deep longing for his wife, and often shouted on the side of the road: "Baoxia, where are you? Can I see your face again?" However, only the merciless wind responded to him.
Whenever this happens, Wang Yuming always can't help the ripples of tears, and the sadness in his heart swells like a tide. He would pull out a picture of his wife and ask passers-by about it, hoping to find any clues about her.
However, the middle-aged woman in the photo is far from her current image and is difficult to identify.
When people saw this yellowed old photo, they could only shake their heads helplessly, indicating that there was nothing they could do. Wang Yuming has experienced countless winds and rains, endured the torture of harsh winter and heat, his hair is gray, and his face is full of wrinkles.
He has traveled more than 6,000 miles, and more than 20,000 missing person notices have been posted along the way.
However, despite such tremendous efforts, Yan Baoxia's trace was still remote, which made Wang Yuming fall into endless confusion and despair, and he was in great pain. Just when he was about to give up looking, a glimmer of hope illuminated the path ahead.
The media across the country have focused on the unfortunate experience of this loving couple, which has aroused widespread attention in the whole society.
The well-known TV search column "Waiting for Me" also extended a helping hand to the elderly Wang Yuming and expressed sincere care and support.