Nostalgia Zhang Baotong 2018.11.29

I'll leave after tomorrow, and I'd love to see her again before I leave. But she was hiding so far away. Originally, I wanted to find Xu Chunxiang to clarify the matter, and then go to Honghua Middle School to say goodbye to the teachers in junior high school. I was able to get into university, and they did a lot for me, so they were my mentors. I would like to express my gratitude to them. However, because I didn't see Xu Chunxiang, I felt very upset and frustrated. In desperation, I decided to go to Xinghua Village to find Huang Shaomin. I want Huang Shaomin to bring my heart to Xu Chunxiang, because she and Xu Chunxiang are best friends.

Xinghua Village is on the edge of the Luo River, and after walking along the river embankment for about 20 minutes, you will come to Huang Shaomin's house. She happened to be at home, but there were many relatives in the house, and the house seemed to be very messy. Because it was difficult to talk in the house, Huang Meiying took me to a pine forest behind the house. The sun was still a little hot in the morning, but there was a pleasant breeze on the edge of the pine forest. We sat on the grass at the edge of the forest and chatted while looking at the scenery by the river.

Huang Shaomin was not admitted to university this time, and was going to go to the county to help his brother work and sell clothes. I asked her why she didn't take any more tuition and took the exam again next year. She said that she was more than 20 points behind in the college entrance examination this time, and she may not be sure to take the college entrance examination again next year. Then, I told her about Xu Chunxiang. She said that Xu Chunxiang came here a few days ago, and her eyes were swollen from crying. I asked her how your eyes were swollen like this. She cried and said she only now understands that she and you are not cars running on the same road. From now on, you are a college student with a bright future, and she is still a farmer. So, she has to be separated from you.

Hearing this, I said to Huang Shaomin that she was thinking too much and too complicated. I like her not because of who she is, but because of her qualities. However, I can't tell her these words directly, I can only ask her to convey them to Xu Chunxiang. As soon as I graduated from university, I wanted to go back to my alma mater to teach. I've already told the principal of Honghua Middle School about this. He was also looking forward to my return to my alma mater.

But Huang Shaomin smiled and said, don't say that Xu Chunxiang doesn't believe it, even I won't believe it. I was amazed and asked, why don't you believe it? She said that you will be a serious college graduate in the future, do you think this rural middle school in Honghua can accommodate you? I said why can't I tolerate it? She said that Honghua Middle School is getting worse and worse, and the teachers in this school are trying to find a way to transfer to the county seat. Besides, you are an ambitious person and cannot be satisfied with just being a secondary school teacher.

I said that I took the normal exam, and my major is also a normal teacher, so what can I do if I don't teach? Huang Shaomin still shook his head. I assured her, don't worry, I will never lie to you, you just said to Xu Chunxiang, I will never change my mind. Huang Shaomin said okay, I hope you can do what you say.

After breaking up with Huang Shaomin, I still went to Honghua Middle School. This is a township-run middle school with a primary school on one side and a junior high school on the other. But there are not many students in the junior high school, only three or four hundred. Because the quality of the high school entrance examination is not as good as that of the county middle school and Chengguan Middle School, many students who study better have transferred to the county seat. As a result, the school is becoming more and more dilapidated. In fact, I also knew that it was very difficult to run a township middle school, but the county invested all the money in the county middle school, and the township finally trained a good teacher, and he was quickly transferred. Therefore, the results of the high school entrance examination in the township have not been able to catch up with the middle school in the county. This is also something that cannot be helped, because people have to go to higher places, and water has to flow to lower places.

But I am still very grateful to the teachers in the township, who sent batches of peasant children to the county high school under very difficult conditions, so that many of them were admitted to universities. I'm one of them. So, I am deeply grateful to them and would like to see them again when I leave my hometown and say thank you to them.

Unfortunately, it was the weekend and the teachers were all home. I just met Mr. Luo, who teaches English. Because he is a young man, he has just graduated from Yueyang Normal College, he is not married, and his family lives in Yingtian, which is far away from the county seat, and he must take a shuttle bus in the county seat when he goes home. Actually, he barely taught me, and only took a few classes for our class temporarily. So, they are not too familiar with each other. I sat in Mr. Luo's dormitory for a while, and after saying a few words, I asked him to say hello to all the teachers on my behalf and express my gratitude. Then, I left.

At this time, the sun is past midday, and the early autumn in the south is still a little hot, but the mountain breeze blows from the fields and woods on the side of the road, which makes people feel a little cool. On the way home, I stopped by a classmate from junior high school. His name is Xing Kaibin, and he is not only my best friend, but also my savior. In the summer of the second year of junior high school, the students in the class gathered together in the woods on the edge of the Luo River, and in the afternoon, the weather was very hot, and some students began to swim in the river. I don't know how to swim, so I just play in the shallow water by the river. However, by accident, he fell into a deep puddle. I was struggling in the deep puddle, but fortunately, Xing Kaibin swam from a distance, and when he saw me calling for help in the water, he quickly swam over, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the puddle to the shore.

However, he unfortunately failed in the high school entrance examination, and I was admitted to the county key middle school, and after that, we only met once or twice occasionally, and rarely chatted together. When I went to his house, I saw that his family was having lunch in the hall, and I thought it was a bad time. I asked my mother, auntie, what is Kaibin doing now? His mother said that Kaibin was working as a chef for a relative at Kaixiang Restaurant in Guangzhou. I asked him if he was doing well, and he was good, earning more than 3,000 yuan a month. Hearing this, I was taken aback, because my cousin worked in the county town to build for other people, and he could only earn more than 800 yuan a month. The is going to keep me to eat with them. I hurriedly waved my hand, saying that I was just passing by here and wanted to visit my old classmates. After a few words, I left immediately.

When I got home, my mother asked me where I had been, and I couldn't even remember eating. I said I had gone to the village and was leaving, so I could say hello to the teachers. My mother said, "I'm going to have a treat tomorrow, do you want to invite those teachers over?" I said no. Because we have a custom here, when people come to the banquet, they have to give money. I don't want the teachers to give me a part, and the teachers are very busy at the beginning of the school year, so time is precious. My mother warmed up the food for me, and I went into the kitchen to eat.

There are lots of pork and vegetables piled up in the kitchen. Apparently this is for tomorrow's banquet. I'm not used to this kind of local custom of eating and celebrating money. Originally, people in the countryside didn't have much money, but they still had to engage in this kind of extravagance tirelessly, so how could they not be poor? So, I said to my mother, don't do this, it's complicated, it's troublesome, and it's easy to spend money. But my mother said, you have been admitted to the university, and many people in the township have beaten gongs and drums and set off firecrackers for our family, sending congratulatory gifts and congratulating our family, and our family must thank others. I know I don't like it, but I can't change it. Fortunately, this kind of occasion is Zhang Luo by my parents, so I don't have to worry about it at all.

In the evening, when I was in bed, it occurred to me that I should invite a few of my best friends and classmates to attend, and we didn't usually have time to chat and meet together, so this time we could get together. So, I told my mother that I wanted to invite some friends to sit together, but I couldn't take their share. My mother said no problem, everything was as I wanted.

I started thinking about which classmates and friends to invite. I think of one or twenty people in a row, all of whom were my classmates in elementary and middle school, who played with me, studied with me, grew up with me, and gave me many happy and wonderful times. However, I haven't had much contact and communication for years, and some people don't know if they are still at home, but I know that there are at least seven or eight classmates who are still at home, just enough to fill a table.

Inviting my classmates to dinner has been a wish of mine for many years, but I am still a student, I have no money, and it is difficult to use my parents' money to save face, so I have never been able to get my wish. Now I'm leaving here to go to college. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to get together with my classmates.

However, this idea changed early the next morning. Because the students are far away, it is very unrealistic to notify them one by one. Moreover, none of my classmates were admitted to college, and most of them did not go to high school, so inviting them would make them feel that I was putting on a show, which would not only not make them happy, but would hurt their self-esteem. When I think about it, I have no choice but to give up, so that I don't have to go through so much trouble for myself.

When I got up, my parents had already started to work with a large group of villagers, some were wiping the table, some were setting up pots and stoves, some were washing vegetables and cutting meat, and some were boiling water and preparing tea. Since I was a child, I had only studied diligently, and I didn't know or be interested in all this, and I was upset when I saw so many people eating together, so I wanted to find a quiet place to escape. Moreover, in order to let me concentrate on my studies, my parents usually did not let me participate in everything at home. So, I thought about taking advantage of this time to go to Lawn Township, meet my beloved girl, and say goodbye again. I'm going to leave here early tomorrow morning, and it's not going to be easy to see each other again.

So, I really went to Lawn Township. I followed the path behind the tea mountain all the way south. The mountain paths bend after turn, and the slopes are one after the other. This mountain is very deep, and there are no people, so I walked in this mountain for an hour or two without seeing a single person. When I walked out of the mountain, it was nearly noon. On the other side of the hill is something I've never seen before. On the top and bottom of the ridge are patches of green and neat tea plantations, and you can't see the edge at a glance. People told me this was Lawn Township.

I inquired about the way to the second group of peach forest, and a young girl in her early twenties was passing by, so she took me to a village full of tangerine, pointed to a village on the side of the mountain that was blocked by trees and bamboo forests, and said to me, that it was the second group of peach forest. I followed a path into the village, and someone pointed to a half-old adobe house and told me that it was Xu Chunxiang's aunt's house.