Childhood

Ting Yuan was not a lazy person.

Busy during the day, planning at night, day after day, year after year.

But his state over the past few months had been truly strange. Whenever Ting Yuan sat in front of the computer, his mind began uncontrollably wandering, his thoughts flying everywhere.

He often sat there until three in the morning.

Ting Yuan considered himself a highly responsible person, but the more responsible he was, the less he wanted to let everyone down. The more he wanted to promise something, the more painful it became when he could not deliver.

Might as well stop thinking about it.

Today, let's do something lighthearted. I wonder if everyone would be interested in hearing Ting Yuan talk about his childhood.

Ting Yuan had grown up in the countryside. His family had farmed the land for generations, and his parents had hoped he would rise above the rest and make something of himself.

He remembered that when he was ten, he attended the elementary school at the entrance to the village.

He had heard older students say that the school used to be a graveyard. Later, excavators had flattened it before the elementary school was built.

Ever since I entered first grade, the number of students at the school had decreased year by year. I heard they had all dropped out to work. Some of them were not even ten yet. It was simply insane—though perhaps I remembered wrong.

He also remembered one time after school, when Xiao Fei from the same village told him that working in Zhejiang could earn a lot of money. He asked if Ting Yuan wanted to go. The next day, Xiao Fei was taken home by his parents, and Ting Yuan never saw him again.

Xiao Fei had been