Loneliness

Chapter 13

Chen Dong Lan was born in the winter. His parents divorced in the spring of the following year.

He followed his mother. When he had just learned to say "Mama", his mother remarried and had a child with her new husband without stopping to rest.

His mother and stepfather loved him very much, and each of them knew there was real affection behind it. But there were always some things in the world that couldn't be changed—-his mom just loved his younger brother a little more. She would scold him because he always made her angry and even cry. But towards Chen Dong Lan, she seemed to only have the topic of living expenses to talk about.

Whether Chen Dong Lan cried or didn't care, it wouldn't change anything.

So, Chen Dong Lan grew up to be an inarticulate child.

Using inarticulate to describe him could be considered generous. Chen Dong Lan always walked with his head bowed and ignored anyone talking to him for a long time. Even if he didn't ignore them, he wouldn't chat, making the situation become awkward for his male classmates, who would scold him in their hearts and then turn their backs on him.

Besides that, he was very tall but was always hunched. When he was called by the teacher to answer a question in class, he would always shrink. Even if it was a simple question that could be easily answered, he would stutter and blush, unable to answer, as if the young female teacher, who was only as tall as his shoulder, would eat him up.

During the second year of junior high, classmate Yuan Yuan moved beside him and sat at the same table.

At the time, Yuan Yuan was the boys' most popular male student, as boys liked to befriend the cheerful and bold and those who could also carry. them on the basketball court and in games.

Moreover, his grades were good, and they could borrow his homework to copy from time to time. He was also tall, powerful, sunny and handsome, so being with Yuan Yuan meant that they could approach girls.

Yuan Yuan didn't change his seat because of Chen Dong Lan. It was for a good friend who was seated across the walkway.

Chen Dong Lan was silent so Yuan Yuan paid no attention to him. Since there were never any exceptional situations, Yuan Yuan also felt that Chen Dong Lan was very uninteresting, so he didn't make any effort to understand his interests.

In this way, Yuan Yuan and his good friends made a racket beside Chen Dong Lan for a semester.

After that, Chen Dong Lan had to move.

"After a long discussion with your uncle, we've decided to stick with our decision to send Xiao De to a private foreign language junior high. This way, it'll be easier to send him abroad in a few years. Dong Lan, it'll be further from your school this way, but we need to trouble you for the sake of your younger brother. If you would like to rent a place near school, it's not a problem. I'll hire someone to look after you."

Mom said this to Chen Dong Lan.

She and Uncle had already been worrying about his younger brother's schooling for a long time. Since they had a lot of worries, Chen Dong Lan did not dare to add to them. So he got up for school two hours earlier. In the evening, he would do some homework on the metro. It would already be dark before he got home.

On the first day he took the metro, he met Yuan Yuan.

The station where Yuan Yuan boarded was a peak station. The crowd surged, and everyone was squashed into meat pies. It was a little late, and Yuan Yuan was so anxious that he was perspiring. He lifted his head and saw Chen Dong Lan. As if seeing a saviour, he shouted, "Hey, give me a pull!"