Period novel | Younger love interest | Half campus, half urban | Reunion
A cold-faced younger woman vs. a gentle older woman
Breaking free and becoming a butterfly
Her family was on the verge of bankruptcy and could only afford to send one person abroad.
Yun Sui gave the opportunity to her younger sister, then packed her bags without a second thought and returned to her hometown, a place in the middle of nowhere.
Songyun Town stank, its houses were dilapidated, and its dirt roads were a mess. Even the school barely had any desks or chairs that weren't broken.
Her grandparents were harsh and foul-tempered, and they didn't want her around.
The children in her class were willful and mean, looking down on her.
Malice surged in like a tide, and she was ostracized as a "fancy city girl."
Yun Sui didn't care. Every day, she still wore designer clothes, sat on a three-legged stool, and memorized vocabulary and studied geometry against a mud wall.
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The homeroom teacher had made the rickety stool.
She was a slight woman who worked as a clerk. Holding a hammer thicker than her arm, she pounded at the nails again and again.
That temperament was no match for the unruly students.
But Li Leyin had gone to university in the city.
In the countryside, people with an education were highly respected.
Parents pressed sturdy branches into her hands and told her, "A strict teacher produces outstanding students. Teacher Li, don't be afraid to beat my kid! As long as he studies hard, you can hit him however you like. It's fine!"
Li Leyin, of course, wouldn't take them. Every time, she urged them not to use corporal punishment.
Yun Sui thought Li Leyin must have a happy family life.
Until one day, she saw Li Leyin being beaten by her husband, pinned down in the dirt.
Only then did she realize that her life wasn't happy at all.
But by then it was too late. Yun Sui was about to leave to study abroad.
Before she left, she bought Li Leyin a skirt that cost a hundred yuan and tucked five thousand yuan in cash inside the gift box.
She thought the money would be enough to free Li Leyin from the mud of her life.
After that, she never heard from her again.
[Quick Notes]
1. There is no romantic development during the teacher-student relationship.
2. A period novel set around 1990. The exact timeline is undecided.
3. No male character is portrayed positively.
4. The title was inspired by the song "Seventeen."
5. Blurb written on July 25, 2025.
6. Both are each other's first and only, happy ending. No further explanation.
Theme: Everyone can let the beauty of life bloom.
