It took a long time for Li to come into her life.
Like Genevieve and Mei Lin, Li existed only in stories and pictures for Jean. She learned of her precociousness from Lucien - how Li's wit and big brown eyes got her in and out of so much trouble when she was growing up. She learned of Li's resilience from Mei Lin - how she'd stick out her chin (looking much like her mother and father) and survive out of spite during the war and then her separation from both her parents.
After her marriage to Lucien, Li's letters arrived more and more - tentatively reaching out to her new stepmother in halting English alongside letters to her father in Chinese. Jean reached back out with broken and wobbly Chinese characters - if Li could make the effort, so would Jean. As Li's written English improved (Jean knew Mei Lin helped her), and Jean's grasp on her stepdaughter's native language grew stronger, the letters became more enjoyable and Jean saw a passionate young woman unfurl across each page. She'd inherited her father's artistic talents - sending Jean paintings and sketches of China, of Mei Lin, of her own beautiful daughter, Yu. Her wit flourished against Jean's humor and Jean found herself looking forward to the post.
She was glad she got to know Li through more than just stories and photographs. Her and Lucien even made special plans (it took a lot of wrangling at the embassy and through Lucien's contacts, even Frank Carlyle helped them out), to get Li and her family to visit Australia. That week up in Melbourne where Jean finally got to meet her stepdaughter, and greet Mei Lin like an old friend, was a bright moment to carry Jean through the next few tumultuous months after Lucien's disappearance. Li's steadfast hope that her father would return to Jean kept her going after the phone calls and the whispers. Her letters (and Mei Lin's) were the reason she got out of bed on the worst days, and brought joy into her life when she was doing better.
Li taught her to maintain hope. Li taught her to see the beauty in the little things - a child's dark eyelashes against their cheeks as they slept, a sly smile on a stoic face, flowers growing through the cracks in a sidewalk. Li taught her to appreciate another culture, to appreciate their differences as well as similarities. Li taught her to keep going - life is awful, life is heavy, but keep going, keep pushing - it will get better.