[Three sample chapters are available. The full story is about 100,000 words and is free to read.]
Three years after her mother died, the phone number she'd once used had long since been disconnected. Lin Tingxia had sent many text messages to that number over the years, but there had never been a reply.
One day, at seventeen, a heartbroken Lin Tingxia sent one last message to her mother's number:
“Mom, you've been gone for three years. I miss you so much. Life feels so pointless. I really want to see you.”
The next day, she discovered that she'd actually received a reply:
“Good girl, Mom will always love you.”
*
Seventeen-year-old Lu Xiao had just bought a new SIM card, but before long, he received a strange text from the new number. The person on the other end called him “Mom.”
Lu Xiao quickly figured out what had happened and sent a reply.
After receiving an unexpected response, the sender gradually sent him more messages.
Lu Xiao was forced to play the role of a “loving mother,” carefully choosing his words every day.
As the messages kept coming, he pieced together the identity of the person texting him from the information they shared. It turned out to be Lin Tingxia, a girl in the class next door.
*
Later, since playing “loving mother” was just too difficult, Lu Xiao called on his own mom for backup and generously told Lin Tingxia, “From now on, my mom is your mom too. Just think of me as your big brother.”
Later still, whenever Lu Xiao heard Lin Tingxia call him “big brother,” it sounded wrong to him no matter how he heard it. He regretted his words and desperately wanted to take them back.
“Who's your big brother!” Lu Xiao protested angrily.
Lin Tingxia looked at him, confused and innocent.
Faced with the oblivious Lin Tingxia, Lu Xiao suddenly blushed, though he kept protesting. “Don't call me that anymore!”
A fake goody-two-shoes x a genuine, straightforward girl
*
Short story
2026.06.30
Theme: Genuine affection is everywhere
