Continuing from the previous text, there is something that must be mentioned. One time, when "Lao Zai's" parents came to pick him up, the middle-aged man bore some resemblance to him, but his attire and hairstyle were all neat and tidy, forming a stark contrast with "Lao Zai." Perhaps it was due to the general dislike for "Lao Zai" among the classmates, but I believe not everyone rejected him. Firstly, he didn't like watching sports events or engaging in sports, so even if there were people who didn't discriminate against him, there weren't many who gathered around him.

At that time, a girl went over to ask him if that middle-aged man was his father. He succinctly replied yes, because I remembered that at a parent-teacher meeting, the homeroom teacher had once praised "Lao Zai" by name and asked if his mother was present, to which that lady replied she was his aunt. So I quietly asked "Lao Zai" if the person picking him up was his father or his uncle, and he quietly answered that this person was his uncle.

The next day, when I spoke with "Lao Zai" again, I asked why others asked if that man was his father, and he said yes~ But when I asked, he said it was his uncle. He explained that since elementary school, he had been accustomed to referring to his uncle as his father and his aunt as his mother~

After that, I became curious and asked where his parents were now. He said his mother was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in his hometown of Nanyang, Henan, and that years ago, his parents were busy with their careers. Starting from the third grade of elementary school, he was sent south to Guangzhou to live with his uncle, so his biological parents were rarely present during his upbringing. His entire childhood was almost like that of a left-behind child, and his only memory of his biological father was being held up as a child to touch the lamp on the ceiling... Later, during his elementary school years, his biological father suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, which his uncle mistakenly thought meant he had never seen his biological father.

He himself had lived in his uncle's house for many years and had never experienced dislike~ Although both his uncle and aunt were highly educated, one being an orthopedic professor at Sun Yat-sen Medical University and the other a plastic surgeon with many years of clinical experience, their personalities and temperaments did not match their education. They argued daily and even fought physically. Since he was not their biological child, they only took care of his schooling and living arrangements, and with their daughter marrying far away in Switzerland, any grievances between them were resolved on the spot, with no need for one to give way to create a harmonious atmosphere for the child. Once, when his aunt lost an argument, she directly bit his uncle's hand, and his uncle retaliated by grabbing her neck and clawing back, ultimately causing his aunt to flee in pain, hiding in the room and shouting loudly. So he always waited after school for his uncle or aunt to pick him up, wishing for traffic jams on the way; he even said that even if he lived right by the school gate, he would still want to return late.

"Lao Zai" indeed deserves sympathy for his experiences, but he does not understand how to repay kindness. Since basically no one in the class pays him any attention, he turns to me for help with anything, and I do my best to be the only person he can confide in.

I am not targeting him here; after all, he is not the only one in the world like this. Some people, once they are treated well, will become dependent on those who are kind to them~ Once, during a Chinese class, someone from the regular class asked to borrow a textbook from him, regardless of whether they knew each other or not, and he indeed lent it out. However, knowing that the teachers for the two classes were not the same, during that period we also had Chinese class, and he ended up without a book for class. While waiting for the teacher to arrive, I had to take him to the neighboring class. At that time, the class representative and the class monitor were organizing reading before class, and I interrupted to ask who had borrowed the textbook. The borrower came forward and said it was for that subject, so I had to say we were the same, and the textbook was returned~ Over time, he became dependent on me.

I suspect that person asked him to borrow the book in Cantonese, and since "Lao Zai" couldn't speak or spoke poorly, he didn't refuse or explain~ However, for no reason, we have all been studying for so many years, and he can't speak Mandarin, while every time he calls my house, he speaks in Cantonese to ask for someone, but his speech is not fluent and has a slight accent~ If he really can't understand, why can he score over 80 in physics and chemistry while I always hover between failing and passing? Moreover, the subject teacher teaches in Cantonese during the time when the leaders are inspecting the class~

Furthermore, after the graduation ceremony~ the principal informed the direct promotion students about the return date and the start of the school year, and the direct promotion students in the class were not among them, and I was not included~ He specifically asked me, and I bluntly said I didn't know.