Xiao Lin went to school to pick up his academic report alone, while most of his schoolmates were accompanied by their parents.

Nine-year-old Lin (a pseudonym), whose divorced parents had been working away from Sige Village in Wangjiang County of east China’s Anhui Province for years, looked a bit disappointed with his scores.

Lin’s mother phoned home that night, saying she would not be home for the Lunar New Year, the second year Lin was not going to see her. Lin was silent during supper, staring into the distance.

No one realized the boy was planning to end his life. He killed himself in the toilet that night, just days away from Spring Festival. He left no note.

Lin was one of China’s vast number of “left-behind” migrant children. His father leftthe village for work less than 30 days after Lin was born.

“Left-behind” children are usually taken care of by grandparents or other relatives and their number is approaching 100 million.

Lin’s mother also became a migrant worker when she and her husband divorced two years ago. The boy was transferred to an elementary school near his step-father’s home village in Anhui Province. He was then transferred back half a year later to the school he originally attended.

Lin’s parents never went to school to pick up his academic reports with him, nor had they ever attended parents’ meetings, enhancing his insecurity, according to Yang Qinglin, the school’s headmaster.

“He was more well-behaved than his schoolmates, because he knew no one was going to defend him if he caused trouble at school,”