Found Lin Cheng

Following the address Teacher Wang had given him,

Wen Ning finally found the Public Elementary School in the city where Lin Cheng worked.

The elementary school students were getting out of school, and the gates were crowded with parents picking up their children.

Lin Cheng now taught sixth-grade Chinese at this school.

Wen Ning had messaged him in advance, and he had readily agreed to meet at the school gates.

Wen Ning did not wait long before a figure emerged from the campus, wearing a simple white shirt and thin-framed glasses. His face was gentle, and he had the air of a man devoted to teaching and nurturing his students.

The moment he appeared, Xiao Ya, who floated beside Wen Ning, grew excited. Seeing her reaction, Wen Ning knew this man was Lin Cheng.

"Hello, I'm Wen Ning. We spoke on the phone earlier."

Wen Ning stepped forward to greet him.

Lin Cheng smiled and held out his hand, his tone modest and courteous.

"Hello, hello. I'm Lin Cheng. Teacher Wang said you wanted to talk to me about an old middle school classmate?"

There was still some confusion on his face. Wen Ning did not look like one of his middle school classmates.

At Lin Cheng's question, Wen Ning began to explain.

"I'm not one of your middle school classmates. I came to see you today about a girl named Xiao Ya. She was in your class in middle school. Do you still remember her?"

"Xiao Ya?"

The moment Wen Ning said that name, the smile froze on Lin Cheng's face.

Surprise, regret, and a trace of deeply buried longing flooded his gentle expression. He instinctively took a step forward, his voice tinged with sadness.

"Xiao Ya? Of course I remember her. How is she? I never heard anything about her after we graduated from middle school."

Behind Wen Ning, Xiao Ya had frozen the moment she saw Lin Cheng.

The man before her was no longer the awkward boy who had sat in the back row. He had grown steady and gentle, but Xiao Ya recognized him at once by his eyes. They were still as tender and kind as they had been back then.

Xiao Ya's eyes instantly reddened, and her small body trembled. She wanted to say something, but she was so overwhelmed that she could not get a word out for a long while. She could only stare at Lin Cheng, her eyes filled with gratitude and longing.

Wen Ning looked at Xiao Ya, then at Lin Cheng's concerned face. Suppressing his own emotions, he told Lin Cheng everything that had happened to her.

"After Xiao Ya graduated from middle school, her family couldn't afford to send her to high school."

Wen Ning spoke very softly, slowly recounting her story, word by word.

"She had cerebral palsy from childhood, which made speaking and moving difficult. She suffered a great deal while she was alive. In middle school, her classmates often bullied her. You were the only one who always protected her."

Lin Cheng listened quietly, his eyes full of heartache. He remembered the little girl who always huddled in a corner, stumbled over her words, and did not dare cry even when she was bullied.

He remembered the timid, grateful look in her eyes whenever she looked up at him after he stepped in to protect her. It felt as though something had lodged in his chest, painfully tight.

"I always thought she just didn't like talking. I never imagined she had suffered so much."

Lin Cheng's voice was low and full of guilt.

"I should have looked after her more back then. I should have done more to help her."

"Later, one winter, she went to the river to wash clothes for her family. Everything was covered in ice and snow. She slipped and fell into the river, and they couldn't save her. She was only fourteen when she died."

As Wen Ning's words fell, Lin Cheng jerked his head up, his eyes reddening in shock. He stood rooted to the spot, unable to speak for a long time. At last, he let out a heavy sigh, his eyes wet.

"Only fourteen... so young. What a terrible pity. She suffered so much."

"After Xiao Ya died, there was one lingering attachment she couldn't let go of."

Wen Ning looked at Xiao Ya beside him, his tone growing even gentler.

"You protected her back then, and she always wanted to thank you. But she was timid and couldn't speak clearly, so she never found the courage. Even when she died, she still hadn't had the chance. All these years, she's been wandering the human world, wanting only to find you and thank you in person."

Lin Cheng had never imagined that the little girl who had so tugged at his heart would come to such an end in her brief life.

Still less had he imagined that his own insignificant act of kindness would become the only light in that little girl's bleak adolescence.

Lin Cheng followed Wen Ning's gaze. Though he could not see Xiao Ya, he could sense a faint, gentle presence in the air.

It was as though he could see that timid little girl in her shabby clothes standing before him, looking at him with eyes full of gratitude.

He gently wiped the corners of his eyes and spoke toward the space beside Wen Ning, his voice warm and earnest. It was as though he was speaking both to the Xiao Ya of those days and to the Xiao Ya of the present.

"Xiao Ya, I understand now. You don't need to thank me. What I did back then was only what I should have done. You were such a good girl. You didn't deserve to be bullied. If I'd known how much this meant to you, I should have talked to you more back then."

Hearing Lin Cheng's words, Xiao Ya could no longer hold back. Tears slipped down her face without a sound, but a smile of relief rose at the corners of her mouth.

She struggled to open her mouth and, using every ounce of strength she had, spoke toward Lin Hao. Word by word, she clearly voiced the words she had kept in her heart for so many years, words delayed through countless days and nights.

"Thank you, Lin Cheng."

It was the most complete, fluent sentence Xiao Ya had ever spoken in her life.

Since her death, she had silently repeated those words tens of thousands of times in her heart. Today, she had finally said them in front of Lin Cheng.

Though Lin Cheng could not hear Xiao Ya's thanks,

Wen Ning clearly saw her ethereal figure gradually turn luminous. The gloom and hurt lingering around her slowly faded away. At this moment, the attachment she had carried for so many years finally vanished completely.

Lin Cheng stood in silence for a long time. When he spoke again, his voice was filled with emotion.

"I became a teacher later on, and I always tell the children in my class to treat everyone around them kindly and never bully the weak. Deep down, I've always remembered that little girl from back then. I never imagined things would end like this. I hope she can have a better life on the other side, free of illness and pain, never having to suffer injustice again."

"She will."

Wen Ning nodded firmly. He knew Xiao Ya must be happy now.

The setting sun stretched the two men's shadows long. The bustle at the school gates gradually faded, and Xiao Ya's figure grew fainter and fainter. She took one last look at Lin Cheng, then at Wen Ning, and bowed gently to them both.

Just then, a crack invisible to mortals appeared in the ground behind Xiao Ya.

The figures of Black and White Impermanence appeared.

White Impermanence, Xie Bi'an, gave Wen Ning a slight nod, then walked over to Xiao Ya.

"Xiao Ya, the hour has come, and your lingering attachment is gone. Come with us to the Underworld to be reincarnated. Do not cling to the mortal world."

Xiao Ya's soul was clear and pure, without a trace of lingering attachment. Once again, she bowed to Wen Ning and Lin Cheng.

Then they stepped into the crack and vanished from sight.