Left:
In 1976, after Tangshan’s earthquake, experts predicted another earthquake in Hefei. People were asked to leave their buildings and build tents in open fields. During such an extraordinary time, my mom and fellow children were ecstatic to not have school. Every day they excitedly bet on which direction the building they lived in would fall and which tree would get smashed. My mom looked forward to the earthquake every day, hoping to witness a magnificent war movie scene. 
In the end, the earthquake never came.
‍
Right:
I read Hans Christian Andersen’s Princess and the Pea in primary school. The story tells of a prince who wanted a princess for his wife, but there were many imposters. It was hard to tell who was a true princess. On a stormy night, a girl came to seek shelter. She claimed to be a princess. In order to test her legitimacy, the queen set up the girl’s bed and placed a pea under 20 mattresses and 20 blankets. The next morning, the girl cried that she hardly got a wink of sleep and that her body was bruised all over from something hard in her bed. The queen took the girl’s delicacy as proof of her being a real princess and immediately the prince married her.

Written at the end of the story: “The pea was put in a museum. There, that is a true story.”

I was more than excited to share this fascinating tale with my parents, yet they only found it ridiculous and dumb, which infuriated me. I fought hard to convince them the story was real, that it must be real! I reasoned with all my might, like the way Copernicus defended the heliocentric theory against the holy church.