Half a Life Adrift, a Dream of Nanke

When Lin Ping was six, she was brought from the mountains to live with her maternal grandmother. Belts and insults became part of her everyday life. Only the three boys beneath the courtyard’s Chinese parasol tree protected her through her bleak childhood. In eighth grade, the transfer student Lu Chen appeared like a beam of light. But the red apple on Christmas Eve was ultimately pushed away by her own hand, driven by her inferiority complex. When she honored their five-year promise and turned down the whole world, all she got in return were two cold “Mm”s over the phone. She never once looked back at the boy who spent every Friday making a two-hour journey to see her. He had already etched “protect you for a lifetime” into his very bones. Fourteen years of unrequited love, eight years battling cancer, and a bout of depression that left her twenty pounds thinner and shut away at home. After a life adrift, she finally understood: missing some people is a regret, but missing others is the greatest piece of luck of all.