The Left-Behind Child

Nuo Fei wasn't doing well. She missed her mother terribly.

Missing her mother so much had taken its toll: over the past two weeks, Shen Nuo Fei had lost a whole pound.

Shen Nuo Fei knew her mother was in the hospital. Her father had told her.

A child her age didn't understand what a clinical trial was, but she knew that being hospitalized couldn't be a good thing.

Shen Nuo Fei wanted to visit her mother in the hospital, but her father wouldn't take her, and neither would Aunt Cuiping.

Ou Ye had instructed them not to. She didn't want her daughter to see her in a hospital gown, looking weak and haggard, almost unrecognizable.

Her mother was in the hospital, and Nuo Fei had no idea when she would come home.

Her father left early and came home late every day, looking busier than ever.

Shen Nuo Fei used to wish her parents wouldn't be so strict with her.

They wouldn't let her eat too many snacks or watch too much TV, and she had to learn all kinds of things every day... Nuo Fei used to think she had no freedom at all.

Now things had changed. Her mother wasn't home, and she couldn't even see her.

Her father might as well have been gone, too. When he left in the morning, Nuo Fei was still asleep. When he came home at night, she was already in bed.

Neither of her parents was looking after her anymore. Nuo Fei was free at last, and could finally do whatever she wanted.

But she wasn't happy at all. Instead, she felt awful.

She felt like she'd become a left-behind child.

At kindergarten, Shen Nuo Fei grew quiet, even a little listless and dejected.

In a few months, she would