In 1996, the Acupuncture Board of California encouraged physicians of Western Medicine to take the acupuncture exam in order to promote integration of Chinese and Western medicines. Therefore, I submitted my certificate of ECFMG and the Diploma of Beijing Medical College to apply for the examination, which I passed to obtain the license. I was 60 years old that year. I reduced my hours in the lab and began part-time operation of my own clinic. This was an opportunity to use my knowledge of Western Medicine to integrate with Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture practice. It was very interesting. The License of Acupuncture, California, 1996 I retired entirely from the lab and my clinic in 2008 at age 72. Having more free time, I now was able to to do the following things. First, I summarized my experience in the treatment of Herpes Simplex I, II with combined Chinese and western medicines, to apply for a patent for the formula (consists of vitamin B2 and Bco, concentrated Chinese herbs, and amino acid) and the method of treatment. In fact, many years before the introduction of the antiviral drug Acyclovir, I treated herpes simplex effectively with this formula. I was inspired by the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine to address the conditions of developing herpes simplex. This is different from the anti-virus therapy of the Western Medicine. The treatment is fast, economical and convenient; patients can buy it over-the-counter. It can also be combined with an anti-viral drug such as Acyclovir and it should be a more reasonable therapy, especially in severe cases. The patent was granted in January 2011. The cover of the second patent, 2011 My second task was writing this memoir. A third activity was to write medical essays, post them on the web, and email them to friends. This kind of work has become voluminous. My aim is to provide a scientific basis for general medical concepts, so that the reader may know not only “what” but also “why”. Responding to suggestions from friends, I collected what I wrote in these years and compiled a book . The first edition was published in 2016. Later I plan to follow up with supplementary editions. I lead a simple life, my pensions and health insurance are sufficient. I have no desire to acquire great material wealth. If my patents or books have economic benefits, most of them will be donated. In addition, I conduct medical seminars at my parish church, and help friends translate or understand lab tests, medical examinations, medications and other problems. Just doing what I can, and being "a residual candle to emit odd lights" is my self-promise. I planted a dozen trees in my backyard and have harvested their fruits in recent years. Watching the trees blossoming and yielding fruits gives more pleasure than buying fruits from the supermarket. I exercise daily, enjoy family happiness, interact with friends, and arrange time to travel to see the wonders of the world....... I am satisfied with these days of retirement. I am very grateful for the grace of God. Zhangli Adapts to American Life In our first two years in America, Zhangli did one job after another, including weaving lace in a garment factory, pushing the snack cart in a restaurant, and working as a nursing aide in a sanatorium. This amazed two of our more traditional relatives. My uncle was the provost of a university in Taiwan, and another uncle was a professor. They came to the United States to visit my parents. Learning that Zhangli, who previously was a physician in China, now pushed a snack cart in a restaurant, they were incredulous. However, we didn't feel at all awkward, because we already had experienced much greater difficulty and humiliation. Moreover, in the United States, one’s social status may vary widely from one’s occupation. For example, you might see a waiter in a restaurant who is a PhD candidate, or meet a graduate student who does part-time domestic work in an old American couple’s home. The hierarchical order is much more informal than in China. When dining in a restaurant, the mayor may be seated at the next table. Once I went to a chapel to attend a party and met former Governor Gray Davis who, like everyone there, carried his own food tray and walked around chatting with other guests. Zhangli went to a community college to improve her English and also to study a bio-medical technique. Later she worked in a lab at UCLA as a medical technician. A professional license was important for finding a job, so Zhangli used her spare time to prepare for the examination. After a year she qualified for a medical technologist’s license, making her job more secure. To enhance her competitiveness, she went to California State University to study cytogenetics in the evening. After three and a half years she earned a Master’s Degree. At that time, my younger daughter was born. Zhangli returned to work after maternity leave. Every day after work, she drove to the university to attend the class until 9:30 pm, and then drove home where she did homework until midnight. Work, study, family ...... our family was busy as bees. It was our busiest time since we had come to the United States. At Zhangli’s graduation ceremony to receive her Master's Degree, my younger daughter (the elder daughter could not come because of work) and I watched her walk to the platform to receive her certificate and cried for joy. With Zhangli wearing her Master’s cap, my daughter and I with classmates and teachers took pictures everywhere on the campus. Compared to 1968 (when the Cultural Revolution was at its peak) when Zhangli was assigned to a remote countryside after graduating from Kunming Medical College and soon had to be parted from her family, the feeling now was a world of difference. Although busy and often tired, we still were full of vigor. To help remember our first year of coming to the United States, I took a picture of Zhangli standing near the door and beside our car, wrote a jingle on the back of the photo, and mailed to relatives and friends: “I love my home, I love my car. -- Expose us to ridicule? -- We just start at the other end of the world!” It meant that even though our home was a small rented house, and our car was just a used one, such self-satisfaction might expose us to ridicule, but never mind, we were starting over at the other end of the world. For more than 20 years, Zhangli experienced setbacks such as a job transfer, company merger, and unemployment, but it didn’t frustrate her. She retired at the age of 68, and has continued to enjoy life after retirement. Family Members Achieve Success The elder daughter immigrated to the United States after graduating from Ji-nan University in Guangzhou, and now is employed in a government department doing administrative work. Her husband was her schoolmate and currently is an interpreter for a school district. They have two children. The younger daughter was born in the United States. In order to help her better learn Chinese, she was sent to a Chinese school every day after her regular school from the first grade of primary school to the eighth grade of junior high. She can now understand and speak Chinese. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, works for a private company and is enjoying success. Her husband is an architect. They have a baby girl. She gets along very well with her half-sister. My brother and sisters all live and work in peace and contentment. The sisters’ children have graduated from college. It is worth mentioning that my two sisters were excluded from college and high school in China because of their religious belief and our father being a senior intellectual of the “Stink Ninth Category” at that time. After immigration to the United States, all three children of their two families entered Harvard University. My youngest brother holds a Bachelor of Microbiology Degree from Rutgers University and later was a graduate student at a medical school in France. However, he determined to dedicate his career to God, so he returned to the United States after two years. Considering that my wife and I had just arrived in the U.S. and needed help, my brother worked in a hospital lab for one year and then entered a monastery. After more than 10 years of study he was ordained a priest and served first in a parish. During that time he also completed two Master's Degrees and later a Doctoral Degree. Now he is both a priest and a professor in a university. To celebrate my father’s 80th birthday, our brothers and sisters and friends from all over the United States, Hong Kong and Australia gathered in Los Angeles. At the banquet my father spoke candidly and emphasized "freedom without fear”. Yes, people who have experienced only fear but not freedom will have a deep understanding of this. Both my father and mother enjoyed their later years and died at the age of 93 and 91, respectively. They selected during their lifetime graves in a cemetery overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Renewing Vietnamese Friendships In the late 1970s there was open hostility between Vietnam and China, and almost all overseas Chinese were expelled from Vietnam. They were re-settled in Chinese farms or factories. Two years later, authorities allowed them to purchase boats and flee China. Some did so and were accepted as refugees by the United States, Canada, some European countries, and Australia. My friends Qian, Adong, Chunxian, Zhen Kai and the deceased Uncle Lu Qi’s family settled in Canada or the United States, some in Los Angeles or San Francisco.