Until the Mountains Echo

Two-sentence summary:

The year I went to teach in a remote area, I took in a stray dog.

She saved many little dogs. He was just one of them.

[Blurb]

When Ji Zhu was a third-year university student teaching in a remote area, she met a boy in his third year of middle school.

His face was always bruised, beaten by the school bullies.

Later, Ji Zhu learned that the boy's surname was also Ji. He had a carelessly chosen name: Ji Chuyi.

He was born on the first day of the month, and his mother died on the first day of the month.

*

When Ji Zhu left the school, she gave her phone number to all the children she had helped.

Ji Chuyi memorized the number.

He didn't go to see her off. Alone, he sat on the dam where she had pulled him back from the brink of suicide when they first met, watching from afar as the black business car drove away.

Later, he skipped school and went to her city, where the police took him to the station during a raid on an illegal internet cafe.

When the police asked for his parents' number, he was silent for a long time before giving them the string of digits he had memorized.

When Ji Zhu arrived, weary from the journey and still wearing her pajamas, she frowned. "I didn't give you my number for this."

Ji Chuyi sat on a metal bench by the police station window and looked up at her.

She sighed. "Come on, Ji Chuyi. You're coming home with me."

A few additional notes:

The female lead is the male lead's benefactor. There is no romance before he goes to university.

Neither lead is perfect. Everyone grows little by little throughout the story, so give them time.

Updates at 9 p.m. after the story gets signed, six updates a week, with Mondays off.

Theme: Only after becoming independent are you qualified to talk about love.