Dear Shadow Classmate

Three years after graduation, I received a belated love letter in the simple dormitory where I was teaching as a volunteer in Yunnan. The signature is that young boy from seven years ago, Gu Xingzhou. The date of the letter fell three months before he died in the line of duty. Time flashes back to the high school in Wujiang, Suzhou. I was the girl who had just graduated from the town and had low self-esteem like a shadow. The wonton shop downstairs of his house was a business that my parents struggled to support. There is a whole youthful silence and temptation between us. He hid his only timidity in my unsent classmate book; and I used up all the courage I had in the future to go to the southwest border where he could never come back. When the mudslide submerged everything, I seemed to see him smiling and reaching out to me, just like what was written in the love letter - "It's dark, can I hold your hand?" This is a story about love, courage and inheritance. It is also the most heart-wrenching echo of our silent confession of youth at the end of the years.