North Facing Window

They all say that I am a left-behind child, but what I protect is a secret that no one knows. My parents took my sister to the distant Shenyang to fight for "our" home, but left me and a half-brother, a near-stranger, in this silent land in our hometown. My sister had all the companionship I longed for. My childhood began with counting the number of conversations I had with my grandma. Home has become a distant place that I can't go back to. When the burden of family suddenly fell on my shoulders, I realized that the price of "staying behind" was far heavier than loneliness.