This research narratively explores a veteran teacher's emotions and identities in varied teacher communities within and outside a rural school in China. Based on interviews, the teacher's one-year reflective narratives and conversational records with members of an online teacher community, this research constructs and reconstructs how varied 'teacher knowledge communities' outside the teacher's school influence the teacher's feelings and the meanings he attributed to his experiences, which contributes to the teacher's living his 'best-loved self', personally and professionally, in a test-oriented and professionally challenging landscape. The connections between teacher knowledge community, teacher development and retention are also discussed.