Many years later, we are still us

In the year of graduation, you booked a flight to Beijing for a connecting flight. I pushed the suitcase, held your arm, and finally delivered it to the newly built gate of the school.

Seeing that the moment of separation was getting closer and closer, we hugged each other and cried, regardless of the strange looks in the eyes of our junior brothers and sisters, we just couldn't control the tears in our eyes.

Yesterday we were still complaining about the school’s harsh management and saying we wanted to see the outside world, but when it came time to say goodbye, our eyes were so red and they refused to leave, reluctant to say goodbye. .

You waved to me in the taxi, and the moment the car started, you said loudly to me with tears in your eyes: "Boy, you will come to Hainan to see me in the future!"

I choked with sobs and nodded, saying: "Okay, I will definitely go to Hainan to see you."

At that time, we thought it would come soon in the future. But who knows, that farewell really confirmed the saying that many of us may never have the chance to see each other again after graduation.

Fortunately, we are not among those many people. But this will not come as soon as we imagined.

In this way, we each returned to our hometown.

Looking for a job, changing jobs, encountering workplace crises, bad bosses, unfair treatment... These are things that no one tells or teaches in school. We all experience them individually, and we stumble along with our heads broken. Grow slowly.

Later, we began to take the initiative to learn and recharge, and continued to struggle in the big classroom of society. Until she gets married and has children, and becomes a wife and mother.

Society has given us more identities and labels. We are no longer just the second or fifth child we used to be. We no longer only care about studying for exams, the new dishes in the faculty canteen, and the sea, land and air barbecues on the Youth Road. , candied haws in front of the Governor's Palace.

We each met more people and things, made new friends, ate, drank, chatted and laughed with others.

But I will still miss each other very much.

I miss the four wonderful years we spent together, I miss Qianxi Chestnut on Shuangsheng Street, I miss Classroom 119 of No. 1 Teaching School, and the heavy snow that didn’t stop for half a month.

Deep down in my heart, I have always been longing to get out of the trivial matters and have a trip and get together just for us.

There are always reasons of one kind or another to extend the agreed time indefinitely.

The trip to Hainan has become an obsession that has been on my mind for many years.

Finally, after spending nearly a month dealing with the trivial matters at hand, I got on a plane to Hainan last weekend.

Go to a twelve-year-old appointment.

Haikou, Meilan Airport, three o'clock in the afternoon.

After experiencing delayed takeoffs, typhoon warnings, and bad convective weather when the plane landed, finally, I dragged my suitcase and baby to meet you twelve years later.

People were coming and going at the noisy airport exit. I raised my slightly short-sighted eyes and searched for you in the crowd. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice, "Laoer, Laoer, here, here...".

In an instant, more than ten years and a distance of more than a thousand kilometers seemed to have never passed by us. I quickly stepped forward, waved vigorously through the railing, and shouted loudly: "Lao Wu Lao Wu..."

Yes, you still call me Lao Er, and I still call you Lao Wu, just like that. Years ago.

We hugged tightly among the crowds of people at the airport. The days are like a slow-motion movie, and it seems like we have returned to June 12 years ago, when we said goodbye at the school gate.

The joy of reunion makes people smile from the corners of their eyes.

Although time has left its mark on us to a greater or lesser extent, you are no longer the Hainanese girl who had acne and couldn’t adapt to the local environment, and I am not the one who spoke broken Mandarin for the first time. A silly girl from far away from Hubei. The only thing that remains unchanged is the sincere smile and the joy from the heart.

The first time I met Lao Wu was on the first night of reporting at school.

There are more than 100 people in the class, with a total of 30 girls.

Because I booked my train ticket late, I became the last girl in the class to arrive.

In this way, we were allocated bed 302.

When I carried my big bag and walked into the dormitory, which was prettier and cleaner than any room I had ever seen before, I heard a girl with a distinct southern accent say to me: "Only the last one is left. There is a bed, you can sleep there, we are facing each other.”

I smiled shyly and said thank you.

That night, the six of us were sorted according to age. I am the second child and you are the fifth child. In fact, I am only a month older than you.

From now on, everyone will call me Lao Er, and I will naturally call you Lao Wu. This nickname has continued for four years in college until now.

You are kind-hearted and very enthusiastic towards people, and we are very compatible. Because we are from the north and the south, among the six of us, we are the only ones from the south.

We all love rice porridge, we all love to eat rice, and we all love the fried rice noodles with shredded pork at the Southern Rice Noodle Restaurant at the side entrance of the school. We train together in the military, we go to class together, we even sit side by side in the queue.

In the 400-meter obstacle course that year, I failed to meet the standard twice in the pre-test. You said: "Second brother, let me help you run on the day of the exam. The instructor is not strict. We are almost the same height. He can't tell the difference if we don't tell him."

More than a month later, on the weekend morning , you would accompany me to the obstacle course in the back playground to train. Our knees and arms were bruised and swollen from the fall, which lasted a semester. You joked that the cyan color was different and very beautiful. We all passed the final test.

It snowed heavily that year, and the coldness of the northern winter penetrated deep into my bones. The classmates were all ordering cotton-padded jackets. You saw that I hadn’t signed up, so they took the initiative to tell me: “Second brother, it’s too cold in the north in the winter. We can’t live without cotton-padded jackets. I’ll sign up and pay for you today.”

Me In silence, I felt that the warmth of these words was enough to withstand the cold of minus twenty degrees. That thick cotton-padded jacket has accompanied me through four years of winter, as warm as the warm sunshine in spring.

When preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination, you would take me to the computer room of the school at the beginning of every month and say: "Second brother, please help me recharge your meal card. You bought exam materials yesterday. The food must be delicious, otherwise I won’t have the energy to study!”

On Christmas Day that year, I studied day and night in the library and finally fell ill with a fever. The dormitory was empty. On a cold winter day, I looked at the wooden board on top of the bed and felt that the road ahead was meaningless and I wanted to give up.

You saw me through the ajar door of the dormitory, opened the door and asked anxiously: "Second brother, what's wrong with you? You look so bad, are you sick?"

Who is there? On a night when others were partying, you stayed by my side, cooked me a pot of fragrant porridge and brought it to my bed. You also warned me, "If you are sick, sleep well and eat well. Don't go to self-study."

Did you know that the encouragement and warmth brought by that bowl of white porridge gave me endless motivation and courage, giving me the strength to continue on in that cold and hopeless winter? See A glimmer of light.

In the days when you called me "Second Brother" countless times, we got along day and night, spending more than a thousand days and nights, and we were not better than relatives. This true love is as strong as ever in the familiar voice of you calling for my dick again when I meet you again twelve years later.

In just a few days of travel, we can’t finish talking about each other’s experiences over the years.

We are still sitting on the same bed as before, talking until early in the morning, talking about family, children, career, the green years in the past, the helplessness of our parents’ short and trivial life, and the dreams we had back then and what we have to fight for now. Goal, tell two children about the glory of that year.

In a few days, you arranged the trip in advance, took me to the most delicious local restaurant, and drove for two hours just to taste what you said was the most authentic afternoon tea. You have said countless times: "Boss, you know, the stuff in this store I want to take you to is really great, I must take you there."

I smiled and looked at it As you are so busy, I watch you arrange your itinerary, from one place to the next, taking me to see the most beautiful scenery in Hainan, and to eat at the most famous and delicious restaurants in small towns everywhere.

Before I went, you asked me what I wanted to see most in Hainan, and I said see the sea. And this time, in all the hotels we stayed in, we opened the windows and could see the blue sky and sea. Walking barefoot on the beach, the sea water caressed our feet, which was as warm and stable as a mother's hug.

You said that the best scenery in Hainan is not the scenic spots, but the sunrise and sunset on the mountains and the lush natural scenery. Finally, I saw the majesty and shock of the rising sun amid the lush greenery half-way up the mountainside, filled with smoke. You want to show me the most beautiful scenery in Hainan in your eyes, but you keep complaining, saying that the time is too short, why don't you stay for two more days.

I feel all your thoughtful hospitality and small details. You take a picture of me and say: "Boy, you are so happy when you smile."

Yes, I am really happy.

I have always considered this fateful encounter to be my greatest luck. You guys in bed 302 are all noble people sent to me by God. You have allowed me to meet a group of lovely and warm people in the most wonderful time.

The friendship of those years, the road we walked together, the old times we experienced together, and the tears we shed together have become the most precious friendship that I will never forget in my life.

How nice to meet you!

Years later, we are still who we are, so great!