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In a town called Tongguan in Henan Province, there was a place known as Chen Family Village. A year ago, a boy named Wen Sheng left home after a quarrel with his father and had not been heard from since. He was a neighbor of Yuan, three years older than Yuan, one year older than Reiko, and the same age as Lan Lan and Wang Lijuan. However, he was slightly older than Gao Ming, Lan Lan, and Wang Lijuan. He and Gao Ming were classmates.
Wen Sheng's family situation was dire; his older brother often argued with their father. Eventually, the family's poverty became unbearable, leading him to drop out of school.
He had known Wang Lijuan for quite some time, having met her when they were in the first year of middle school, along with Lan Lan and Gao Ming. Wen Sheng was closest friends with Gao Ming but had secretly harbored feelings for Wang Lijuan without ever confessing; Wang Lijuan was aware of his feelings.
At that time, their homeroom teacher, Ma Teacher, was a woman in her mid-thirties who was an excellent teacher. She was not very tall but considered attractive, with a round face and shoulder-length hair. Her husband worked in business out of town, which provided them with some financial stability, allowing her to dress well and take care of her appearance. Despite nearing forty, she still had a charming figure.
Ma Teacher liked Wen Sheng because he excelled academically and had good handwriting. She seemed to appreciate him so much that she assigned him the responsibility of designing and writing for the class bulletin board. Wen Sheng was pleased; he saw it as an honorable task. Since Lan Lan wrote well, Ma Teacher appointed her as the editor for the bulletin board. Wang Lijuan lived close to the school and was enthusiastic about helping out every week.
One day, Wen Sheng jokingly said to Wang Lijuan, "Sister Lijuan, why don't you join our bulletin board team? I recommend you as our deputy editor." Of course, Wen Sheng had a bit of a crush on her due to her beauty and intended to flatter her.
When Wang Lijuan heard this invitation, she was thrilled! With a playful smirk, she replied, "Sure! I've been wanting to join you guys! Go talk to the teacher and get her to appoint me. If you pull this off for me, I'll have your back in my territory; no one will dare bully you!" With that, she burst into laughter.
They were quite familiar with each other and often joked around—one acting like an older brother while the other played the role of an older sister. In truth, Wang Lijuan cared about Wen Sheng but felt a bit shy about it. Seeing Wen Sheng actively trying to impress her made her feel flattered.
Initially thinking it was just a joke, no one expected that on that Friday afternoon, Wen Sheng would seriously approach Ma Teacher: "Ma Teacher, I want to bring something to your attention: Wang Lijuan has been helping with the bulletin board every week; she's very enthusiastic and wants to join our team. Can we let her in?"
Ma Teacher readily agreed; she wanted her students to get along well and appreciated positive feedback from them. Later that evening during class announcements before dismissal, Ma Teacher shared the news with everyone—not only appointing Wang Lijuan as the deputy editor but also praising her in front of all the classmates while mentioning that it was Wen Sheng who recommended her. Both Wen Sheng and Wang Lijuan turned bright red.
From that moment on, although they never explicitly stated it, both liked each other very much. Spending more time together while working on the bulletin board every week allowed them to develop a strong rapport. They claimed their relationship was purely platonic sibling-like friendship; naturally, Wang Lijuan referred to it as a brother-sister relationship.
Gao Ming also lived in town and had feelings for Wang Lijuan too. Sometimes when they worked on the bulletin board together, Gao Ming would come by to hang out; he understood that Wen Sheng and Wang Lijuan shared a purely friendly bond.
One morning a week ago, Wen Sheng was working on the class bulletin board with Lan Lan and Wang Lijuan. Gao Ming approached Wen Sheng with a smile and said, "I like Wang Lijuan. Can you help me pass a message? I'm a bit shy. What do you think her reaction will be?"
Although Wen Sheng was somewhat reluctant, he agreed because he got along well with Gao Ming. After returning, Wen Sheng smiled at Wang Lijuan and said, "Hey, Gao Ming wants to ask you out!" Wang Lijuan immediately frowned and scoffed, "Him? No way!"
The matter passed without further incident, but later Gao Ming wrote several love letters for Wen Sheng to deliver to Wang Lijuan. However, Wen Sheng tore them up and didn’t give them to her because he had secretly harbored feelings for Wang Lijuan himself.
Wen Sheng said to Wang Lijuan, "If Gao Ming asks you whether you received his letters, just say you did! Otherwise, I won't know how to explain it to him, haha!"
"Wang Lijuan asked, "Gao Ming wrote me a letter? Where is it?"
"Sorry, I accidentally washed it while doing laundry; I had it in my pocket!" Wen Sheng lied.
"Ugh!" Wang Lijuan rolled her eyes and turned away, ignoring Wen Sheng.
Time passed, and for several months Gao Ming didn’t bring up the subject with Wang Lijuan. When they met, he joked around as usual, pretending he hadn’t written any letters. He even felt too embarrassed to mention asking Wen Sheng to convey his feelings. Wang Lijuan treated him like an older brother and didn’t bring it up either.
Gao Ming had no idea that Wen Sheng had torn up his letters, so their friendship remained intact. Time flew by, and soon it was the second half of their first year in middle school.
During this time, Wen Sheng's family underwent some changes that greatly affected his personality. He began to speak less and developed feelings of inferiority. Aside from a few close friends—Wang Lijuan, Lan Lan, and Gao Ming—he rarely spoke to anyone else. He became more solitary and appeared exhausted, as if burdened by something heavy.
The people who showed the most concern for Wen Sheng were Ma Teacher and Wang Lijuan. Sometimes Gao Ming would ask about him, but Wen Sheng never revealed the reasons behind his change. Perhaps he felt that family troubles should not be aired in public; he was unwilling to talk about the frequent fights at home because he believed it wouldn’t help anyway. However, many people were genuinely worried about his transformation into a silent recluse.
One day, Ma Teacher invited Wen Sheng over for extra lessons but actually aimed to comfort him. Ma Teacher wanted him to express his feelings about what was happening at home; the classmates already knew about his situation but chose not to confront him directly. They pretended not to notice because they didn’t want to hurt Wen Sheng further.
Ma Teacher prepared a delicious meal for Wen Sheng, and the two chatted as they ate. Ma Teacher treated Wen Sheng as if he were her own child. With patience, she asked, "Do you know that your grades have been dropping quickly? You also seem to be talking less with your classmates lately. Can we talk about it? I'm not here to criticize you; I just want to understand what's going on. Please don't keep everything bottled up inside."
After a moment of silence, Wen Sheng slowly began to share the events of the past few months with Ma Teacher.
Once he finished, he stared blankly at her, as if lost in thought. Ma Teacher sighed deeply and took Wen Sheng's hand, holding it for a long time before saying, "Focus on your studies; things will get better soon. If you ever feel unhappy or uncomfortable talking to your classmates, remember you can always talk to me. Think of me as a friend, someone who understands you, okay?"
Wen Sheng remained silent for a long time, looking at Ma Teacher. He felt that she was like an older sister or a good friend. As he felt her hand in his, an unfamiliar sensation washed over him. Ma Teacher's hand was soft and smooth, warm to the touch. It was a strange feeling that made his heart race. His face flushed slightly, and Ma Teacher mistook his reaction for excitement, comforting him with, "You can come to my house anytime to chat; I really like having you around."
After another moment of silence, Wen Sheng finally replied, "Okay, I will, Teacher!"
Feeling a bit sad, he added, "Ma Teacher, I don't want to go home!"
Ma Teacher was momentarily at a loss for words. Seeing Wen Sheng's sorrowful expression brought tears to her eyes. She couldn't fathom what kind of hurt could make a child so silent, so withdrawn, so insecure—so much so that he didn't even want to return home, as if he were afraid of it.
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