Crossing the Line - Chapter 2

Shen Yanchuan headed back, carrying the heavy mooncakes. She had already counted them on the way—fourteen in total. She decided she would share two with her roommates.

An unfamiliar sensation fluttered in her chest: joy. Her footsteps grew light.

In the end, she had half of a flaky pastry mooncake for herself. She used a tissue to catch every falling crumb, making sure not to waste a single bit. She didn’t tell her classmates where they actually came from, simply offering a vague explanation that the school had handed them out.

That night, Gu Tan called her family. Her mother asked how she was doing and if she had eaten any mooncakes, then quickly pivoted to asking when she would be coming home, mentioning that her joint pain was flaring up again.

“This weekend, I’ll take you to the hospital for a checkup,” Gu Tan promised.

The orphanage felt exceptionally empty that evening. After hanging up, Gu Tan lit three sticks of incense for a small statue of the Bodhisattva.

The orphanage had its own internal school, but it only provided education from elementary through middle school. From there, the children had to forge their own paths, whether that meant attending a vocational school or, for a rare few, testing into a high school.

Gu Tan was well-versed in the routine of seeing the grown children off. There was a never-ending stream of children being sent here, but very few ever truly left, many remained due to physical disabilities that prevented independent living.

Calculating the days, based on Shen Yanchuan’s age, she would be leaving in another year to embrace a new life of her own.

Gu Tan wasn’t exactly a veteran staff member. The true veterans remained unmoved, whether faced with a child’s coaxing or their tears, they could remain indifferent.

In an orphanage, one must never give away too much sympathy.

Gu Tan understood this principle, but she simply couldn’t harden her heart.

“Teacher, Shen Yanchuan hit me.” A girl named Kong Wenyi walked into Gu Tan’s office, huffing with indignation, a red mark the size of a palm visible on her face.

Gu Tan set down her work and glanced at her. “Who started it?”

“It was Shen Yanchuan! She slapped me, plenty of people saw it.”

Gu Tan waved her hand. “Go call her in here too.”

Before long, Shen Yanchuan entered. Her face bore injuries as well, and they looked far worse than Kong Wenyi’s, the wounds were even seeping a faint bit of blood.

“Alright, tell me what happened between you two.”

To Gu Tan’s surprise, Shen Yanchuan was the first to speak. “I hit her first, but only because Kong Wenyi provoked me. I was sitting on the garden bench reading, and as soon as she and her friends came over, they snatched my book.”

Shen Yanchuan felt blood about to drip down her face and instinctively tried to wipe it with the back of her hand, only to hiss in pain. Her expression, however, remained dignified.

“She’s lying! We just wanted to see what you were reading, then you suddenly hit me!”

“You grabbed it right out of my hands,” Shen Yanchuan countered.

Gu Tan grasped the gist of it. It wasn’t a major conflict. “Reflect on your actions, both of you. Write a 300-word apology letter to each other. Getting physical is never the answer. Shen Yanchuan, come with me to the infirmary.”

The infirmary was empty. Gu Tan took some iodine from the sterilization cabinet and carefully examined the scratches on the girl’s face. They looked like they had been made by fingernails.

Those girls have always bullied her, yet today they were the first to complain to the teacher, Shen Yanchuan thought. Luckily, her teacher’s eyes were like a clear mirror.

The iodine stung as it touched the broken skin.

“Be careful not to let the wounds get wet,” Gu Tan said as she packed up the supplies. “I know they were in the wrong first, and I’ll have a talk with them later. But Student Shen, you lose the moral high ground the moment you use your fists, do you understand? If they do this again, tell me. If I’m not in the office, come to my dormitory. You remember where that is, right?”

Shen Yanchuan didn’t tell Gu Tan that the bullying in their class was severe. Because she was solitary and quiet, the small cliques marginalized her. First, they would “accidentally” knock her pencil case off her desk as they walked by, and later, they began kicking her legs with full force under the guise of a joke.

Shen Yanchuan thanked her teacher and headed back to the dorm, clutching her book.

If there was one thing that kept Shen Yanchuan going, it was perhaps that she still held onto hope for the world. The world she saw in books was entirely different from her reality—a world she borrowed from the tiny library.

She believed she would grow into an extraordinary adult.

And Gu Tan’s appearance only deepened that conviction.

She was the first beam of light to shine into Shen Yanchuan’s life, the first beautiful microcosm of the world she saw before she even truly understood it.

However, the matter didn’t end with two apology letters. Kong Wenyi targeted Shen Yanchuan again. Like a tired cliché from a TV drama, Shen Yanchuan was cornered in the restroom.

There were three girls. Their faces began to twist, as if their noses were no longer noses and their mouths no longer mouths, but blades set on destroying her.

A thought crossed Shen Yanchuan’s mind, and she suddenly found them pathetic. They were also just poor orphans going to school here, so why did they feel the need to bully someone just as unfortunate as themselves?

“Shen Yanchuan, what exactly are you pretending to be all day? Do you think you’re so refined and aloof?”

“Do you really think the teacher would like someone like you? You’re so hypocritical.”

The restroom stalls were thick with the foul stench of waste. Shen Yanchuan was slapped, leaving her vision swimming, but when she saw her brown leather notebook in Kong Wenyi’s hands, she was instantly plunged into despair.

“Shall we see what you’ve been writing? ‘Others like to call her Teacher Tan-hua, but I am used to calling her Teacher Gu in my heart. First, because I find “Teacher Tan-hua” too childish, like something a kid would say, and I am no longer a child. Second, because I feel it is too informal…’ “

The three of them erupted into loud, mocking laughter.

Shen Yanchuan felt her face burning. That was her diary, the sanctuary for all her beautiful fantasies, her place of peace.

How could they humiliate her like this?

Shen Yanchuan couldn’t take it anymore. She grabbed a nearby toilet brush and swung it with all her might, trying to drive back the shallow, foolish group. It worked, and she managed to snatch back her diary.

She finally stumbled out of the restroom, a mess.

Her teacher’s words echoed in her head, telling her to go find her.

Shen Yanchuan ran all the way to the dormitory. Looking at herself in the mirror, her hair was a tangled mess, and her arms were covered in bruises and scratches. She had intended to comb her hair and wash her face first, but the moment she picked up the comb, she changed her mind.

It was better to go to Teacher Gu just like this.

She wanted the teacher to see how pitiful she was.

Shen Yanchuan locked her diary in her cabinet and ran straight to the office. Fortunately, the teacher was still at her desk.

“Teacher,” she called out.

Gu Tan looked up, a vague answer already forming in her mind: Shen Yanchuan had been bullied again, and it looked much worse than last time.

“They cornered me in the restroom, they pulled my hair…” As Shen Yanchuan spoke, she found herself choking up. It felt strange and shocking to her, she rarely cried. Now, her throat just felt incredibly tight and bitter.

Gu Tan took her to treat her wounds once more, but this time they were far more serious. Gu Tan’s hands were practically shaking. She wasn’t the type who could stand seeing others in pain.

To put it another way, Gu Tan hated seeing anyone hurt. She would rather take all the world’s pain onto herself.

“I will punish those students,” she said, determined to make them realize their mistakes.

But Shen Yanchuan pleaded with her not to blame them. She was secretly worried—how much of her diary had Kong Wenyi and the others actually read?

Thankfully, there was only one year left before she could leave this place. Shen Yanchuan’s life was only just beginning.

As Gu Tan looked at the girl, her heart swelled with an even deeper sense of heartache.

“Teacher, please don’t go after Kong Wenyi and the others, okay?”

“Then what if they bully you again?” Gu Tan took out her small comb and slowly began to brush Shen Yanchuan’s hair. It was undeniable that she had already developed a certain favoritism for this child.

“I’ll do my best to avoid them from now on.”

However, Gu Tan didn’t believe for a second that those girls would stop. One evening, she summoned them and gave them a stern warning.

On the other side, Shen Yanchuan watched them secretly. Catching them while they were alone, she grabbed Kong Wenyi by the arm and dragged her to a corner of the garden.

The sky had just turned dark, and most of the younger children in the garden had already gone back.

For the first time, Kong Wenyi realized how strong Shen Yanchuan was. Both of her wrists were pinned by a single hand, making her almost unable to move. “Shen Yanchuan! What are you doing?” she shouted, her face contorted with anger.

With a sharp crack, Shen Yanchuan slapped her again. When Kong Wenyi looked at her, she realized Shen Yanchuan was unnervingly calm, with no intention of letting her go.

“Student Kong, I don’t believe I’ve ever provoked you,” her voice was dead and cold.

The noisy chirping of birds nearby seemed to amplify, and a wave of fear washed over Kong Wenyi.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone? Why did you have to look at my diary?” Shen Yanchuan’s voice grew louder, finally showing a flicker of emotion.

Slap. Another dull thud. Kong Wenyi’s head began to spin. She started to wonder why she had bullied Shen Yanchuan in the first place. It was because she was too aloof! She was always immersed in her own world. I tried to talk to her, but she was the one who ignored me first.

“Don’t let the teacher know what was in my diary, or there will be a next time.” Shen Yanchuan squeezed the girl’s upper arm and gave it a hard pinch.

Finally, Shen Yanchuan left the garden, leaving Kong Wenyi sitting there alone, her heart still racing.

A few faint stars flickered in the sky.

Shen Yanchuan’s legs were shaking, and her gait was unsteady. It wasn’t until she got back to her dorm and sat on her bed that she finally let out a long, deep breath.

Until the day she graduated middle school, no one ever bothered her again. Instead, the bullying transformed into rumors that “Shen Yanchuan is crazy.”

“Student Shen, keep working hard when you get to high school.” Everyone at the orphanage offered her their blessings.

Shen Yanchuan tested into a prestigious high school, leaving Kong Wenyi and all the irritations far behind.

The only thing she felt any lingering attachment to was her teacher, Gu Tan. Shen Yanchuan knew there was a farewell ceremony for when the children left.

As soon as summer break ended, Shen Yanchuan would be heading to her new school. Before that, Gu Tan gave her a thick paper bag. Inside were two thousand yuan neatly wrapped in newspaper, along with a note: Use this money for your pocket money during these three years of high school. You must stay strong, Student Shen Yanchuan.

When Gu Tan was wrapping the money, she suddenly felt foolish. Two thousand yuan was more than half of her monthly salary. But then she thought that this money might be enough to change the girl’s life, and she felt it was the wisest choice she could have made.