"Dear Sir,

At this moment, I am writing to you on the train from Hanoi to southern Yunnan.

In my last letter, I complained to you that the train we were on was so slow that it was suspicious that we could easily catch up on a slow bicycle beside the tracks. But after sitting for a long time, I realized that slow also has the benefit of slowness. We sat by the car window and watched the scenery along the way, like a slow motion in a movie, the large open rice fields slowly retreated under the sunny day, and the young children riding on the back of the buffalo and the farmers walking on the ridges of the fields slowly moved away.

Today the train passed through Hanoi and headed north into the tropical forest. Both sides of the tracks are covered with tall tropical trees, lush green, and as far as the eye can see, our train seems to be surrounded by green waves.

Zhong Hui said that tropical green is a monotonous color, everywhere is green and lush, there are no distinct four seasons, and it is boring to look at it for a long time. But I think there are countless variations in one color, emerald green, turquoise, pale green, mossy green...... The shades are by no means monotonous, but each one is green, and each one has such a vigorous vitality that I never get tired of looking at it. However, it seems that it is not easy to maintain such a calm and happy mood to see the scenery all the time.

There are many small pale yellow houses along the railway, most of which are French stations, and the train stops for a moment at each stop. I looked out the window and saw a well-dressed foreign gentleman getting off the train and entering the station with his luggage, and a group of ragged local children rushing up with fruit were brutally evicted by the station management who had rushed to hear the noise. Some students couldn't bear to see it, but if they had money in their hands, they asked those children to come and buy them a little tea and fruit, so as not to let them go home empty-handed.

In ancient times, Vietnam and South Vietnam were once vassal of China, and the two countries had wars, but there were also friendly exchanges for hundreds of years. I have heard that this ancient country has now become a colony of foreigners, and Westerners who claim to be from the civilized world are wreaking havoc here. As a visitor to a foreign country, I may not be able to do anything for the people here, but I sincerely hope that this country and its people will one day usher in true freedom and independence.

The tropical weather is hot and humid, and the journey seems to be too long with no end in sight. There was no other entertainment on the train, so students had to think to pass the time, and playing bridge and debating were the most common activities. Zhong Hui likes to be lively, I have met many friends, I don't play cards well, my tongue is not clever enough, I don't want to participate more, most of the time I hide in the seat to read books, look at the scenery, although it is boring, but a person is also very comfortable.

One sweltering afternoon, I don't know who suddenly proposed that everyone come and sing, and the atmosphere of the whole carriage came alive.

Once upon a time at my aunt's house, I would try to avoid such occasions. First, I don't want to be a clown in front of those people and show off my bad singing voice, and second, I don't like to listen to those glamorous voices. But now I love to listen to these students sing. A male student sang a Peking opera in reverse, which caused everyone to laugh, and a female student sang "Autumn Water Yiren", which won the applause of the whole carriage.

No matter whether the singing is good or not, everyone is very face-saving, and the applause is one after another. When the atmosphere was warm, someone suddenly sang 'My home is on the Songhua River in Northeast China', and the lively carriage suddenly cooled down, and the seats were silent. Most of the students present were in Guannei, but they all burst into tears after hearing this. I don't know why, I can't cry well, but fortunately, I don't stand out among my classmates.

Since the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, most of the country has fallen under the iron heel of the Japanese invaders, and they have been forced to leave their hometowns and travel thousands of miles south not only to study, but also to have a home and not to return.

But I think that the students at least still have a homeland that haunts their dreams, and after a hundred years, the leaves will return to their roots, and the soul will always have a direction that can never be forgotten, but where is my home? Every time I think about it, I feel stunned.

The younger half of my life has only been more than ten years, and I have been in many places, but I can get by everywhere, and there is no place where I can take root. Looking back now, it was only the days when I had just escaped from my aunt and lived with you in the alley that I felt a little at home.

At this point, you may be laughing at me for 'worrying about new words', but this is indeed my inner thoughts. I look forward to finding true peace in this new land in the next few years, and I hope that you can leave the land of right and wrong as soon as possible, come to the rear of the Southwest University, and come to this safe place.

Your forever student

Wen Jianning"

As soon as he finished writing the final payment on the letterhead, Wen Jianning's shoulder was suddenly slapped hard.

It was a short-haired female student who took her and invited her with a smile: "Jianning, don't sit here alone, let's play bridge together." ”

Wen Jianning smiled: "No, I didn't play my cards well, you can play." ”

She has never been keen on playing cards, and the other party is not reluctant, so she pulled Zhong Hui, who was debating with someone on the other side, to the front seat, where several students had gathered to play cards together.

In July last year, the Battle of Lugou Bridge broke out, and Pingjin fell one after another. The Ministry of Education issued an order to set up a joint university in Changsha composed of Tsinghua University and Nankai University. Teachers and students from major colleges and universities in Pingjin escaped from Pingjin one after another, and after a long journey, they went all the way south to join the school. However, not long after the resumption of classes, it was bombed by Japanese planes, and the university was forced to relocate again.

In just a few months, for various reasons, more than 600 students of the United Nations General Assembly left the United Nations University because they either threw their pen to paper or transferred back to their hometowns, and in the end, only more than 800 students went to Yunnan Province with the university in two ways.

One of the routes was a group of young teachers and boys who walked more than 1,000 miles to Yunnan Province, while the other frail students and girls took the same route as Wen Jianning and hers, taking a boat from Hong Kong to Vietnam, Nanhai and Fang, and then taking a train from Hanoi north across the border into Yunnan Province.

Soon after Wen Jianning and the others got on the boat that day, they met these classmates who were walking by sea. Everyone is a young student, and they are about to go to the same school, but they quickly get along with them after a few sentences.

Although he got along well with these classmates, the long-distance journey was not as completely harmonious as Wen Jianning wrote in his letter to Mr. Qi. The students on the bus came from all over the country, with different temperaments, thoughts and habits, and they were at the age of blood and strength. But fortunately, everyone's arguments are not out of selfishness, but out of patriotism, and there will be no resentment after the argument is over.

Not to mention the fact that even the greatest differences will be eliminated before the coming separation.

In the evening of the same day, Wen Jianning and some of her classmates had to get off at a place called Bisezhai first, and from there they transferred to a small train to Mengzi, while the other students continued to take the Yunnan-Vietnam train north to Kunming, and the two sides said goodbye.

Next, those of them who got off the train first, under the leadership of the teacher, transferred to the small train on Jasper Road and bumped all the way. The next day, near evening, the train let out a long whistle and slowly stopped on the narrow tracks.

They finally reached the end of the trip.

Mengzi is a small city very close to the border between Yunnan and Vietnam, and was opened as a commercial port during the Guangxu period, where the French had successively set up consulates, customs, banks, hospitals, etc. However, due to the collapse of the local economy, the bank collapsed, and the customs was moved to Kunming, leaving only many empty buildings that had been idle for a long time. During the relocation of the General Assembly, the local customs building was rented as a teaching building, and other surrounding buildings were used as school buildings and libraries.

Wen Jianning heard from students who knew about it that the school originally planned to move the entire school to Mengzi, but because the principals later found a new school building in Kunming, in addition to the Grammar School staying in Mengzi temporarily, the students of the school headquarters, the School of Science, and the College of Engineering were all placed in Kunming. When all the new buildings over there are completed next year, the Grammar School will move to join other colleges.

Their girls' dormitory is just east of the city, about five minutes from the customs house, and it is said that the local gentry heard that the school was moving to Mengzi, and deliberately vacated a small three-story building in their house for the students.

The small building was originally the residence of the female dependents of the big family, the courtyard is deep, the scenery is quiet and elegant, and a big banyan tree is planted in front of the building, which suddenly has to accommodate so many female students, and it is still crowded inside.

The dormitory is mostly six to eight people in a room, and Wen Jianning and her luck are not bad, and they were assigned to a six-person room. After discussing with the female classmates in the same dormitory, she and Zhong Hui lived in bunk beds. Zhong Hui chose the lower bunk, Wen Jianning put his luggage on the top bunk, and the two rolled up their sleeves first to clean the dormitory with the other female classmates in the same room, and then set up the bed and personal belongings.

When these are almost cleaned up, it is not early to get outside the building.

After a long journey, they were busy for a long time, and they were all tired and hungry. I went to the cafeteria and ate hastily, and I didn't bother to evaluate the food in the cafeteria.

Zhong Hui was the first to fall asleep in the dormitory.

The seats on the train made people sleep for a long time and her body was sore, and she had not been able to rest well during this time. In addition, she has been playing cards and playing with other classmates in the car all day these days, and she seems to be full of energy, but in fact, her body has long been tired, and now her excited nerves have finally settled down, even if the bed is very simple, she almost fell asleep with a pillow.

And Wen Jianning, who was on her top bunk, had some insomnia tonight.

She looked at the wall for a long time in the darkness alone, but she still didn't feel sleepy, so she turned over slightly, and the wooden bed made a creaking sound, which was particularly harsh and abrupt in the silence, so frightened that Wen Jianning suddenly maintained a posture and froze there, not daring to move easily.

After a while, the breathing of the other people in the dormitory gradually calmed down, and they were surprisingly quiet.

The night outside the window gradually deepened, and the shadow of the big banyan tree outside the building fell on the wall and ground of the dormitory. The wind outside the building whined in through the crack in the window at some point, like crying, Wen Jianning was terrified when he heard it, and suddenly heard a faint sigh from the bed opposite.

This is even more terrifying.

She subconsciously glanced over there, only to see the female classmate turn over and face the wall with her back to her.

The whining wind did not stop all night, and Wen Jianning was also upset when he heard it. It wasn't until dawn that she felt her eyelids grow heavy. However, he closed his eyes only for a moment, and was soon awakened by the noise in the dormitory.

Seeing that someone was already about to get up, she also hurriedly got up to clean up and woke up Zhong Hui in the lower bunk.

After the two hurriedly got up and washed briefly, they discussed going out to buy some daily necessities. In order to be lightweight, they didn't have much luggage, and some daily necessities had to be added.

Two other female classmates in the dormitory overheard their conversation, and one of them offered to go with them.

Zhong Hui is willing to make friends with his new classmates, and although the nearest street is close to the school building, they are newcomers after all, so it is better to go out together.

Wen Jianning naturally had no objections.

The female classmate who took the initiative to propose was named Zhang Tonghui, in the lower bunk of the bed opposite Wen Jianning and them, her home was in the countryside of northern Hebei, she looked capable, and her smile was simple and hearty, which made people feel very good.

Another female classmate next to her was named Ruan Wenyun, sleeping on the opposite bunk, and she was the one who Wen Jianning heard sighing last night. Her eyebrows and eyes are thin, her appearance is delicate and weak, but her temperament is very arrogant and cold, giving people a sense of being dustless. Listening to her self-introduction, she only said that she was a southerner, and nothing else was mentioned, but judging by her demeanor and temperament, the family conditions should not be bad.

In addition to the two of them, there was another classmate who washed up and did not return.

The girls were chatting with each other, intending to wait for the washer's classmate to come back and ask her if she would like to go with her.

As for the rest of the female classmates, she came in yesterday to look at the dormitory, and left without looking back, and she has not come back until now, thinking that she has gone out to find other accommodation because of the poor conditions of the dormitory.

Wen Jianning rubbed her eyes, she didn't sleep well, it would be a little unhealthy.

Zhong Hui next to him moved his sore shoulders and said casually: "I slept so heavily last night, but when I woke up, I still felt uncomfortable, and I blamed this wooden bed, it was too hard, and it was so loud when I moved." ”

Zhang Tonghui looked outside the door and whispered: "I saw it yesterday, and some students were assigned good beds, old-fashioned carved beds." I heard that it was provided by the owner of this house, but it is not much. ”

Ruan Wenyun sneered: "What does it have to do with us, we are just here to spend the night, it would be nice to have a place to sleep." ”

A female classmate came in outside the door, still holding a basin of water in her hand, and said with a smile: "Although we didn't get a good bed, it's not bad, and there are some worse than us." ”

The female classmate who spoke was named Feng Xin, and her accent seemed to be from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but she only said that she had studied in Shanghai since she was a child. Wen Jianning's heart moved, and he faintly remembered something.

After listening to Feng Xin's explanation, they realized that because the wooden bed was not enough, the school sent people to rush to work, and this time some students didn't even get a simple wooden bed, so they could only use a wooden box to make a bed and sleep on it.

A few girls listened with affection, and it was not easy to complain about anything

The people were not in a hurry to go to breakfast, but after tidying up a little, they went out together. There are not a few female classmates who go shopping in groups like them, and they almost don't even need to ask about the way, just follow the people.

There are several girls in the dormitory, Zhong Hui has always talked a lot, Zhang Tonghui is cheerful and talkative, Feng Xin is also a person who will not be cold, only Wen Jianning and Ruan Wenyun, two taciturn ones, are the listeners next to them. In fact, Wen Jianning had the heart to ask Ruan Wenyun next to her, if she hadn't slept well last night, but seeing that the other party looked cold and unwilling to be taken care of, she still closed her mouth with interest.

Mengzi is a small county town, with only a post office, a bank, and a few small shops and restaurants on the street. Everyone entered one of the small grocery stores, and there were already many classmates in front of the counter who had come to buy daily necessities like them.

There was a queue in front of them, and a few of them were waiting next to them, when a sudden female scream came from outside, startling everyone, and then they heard a quarrel from another shop a few paces away. A few classmates who couldn't wait behind them went out to see the situation, and out of the nature of joining in the fun, Wen Jianning and the others also followed.

When they arrived at the door of the store, everyone saw a somewhat familiar face.

- Coincidentally, isn't this the female classmate in their dormitory who has only met once?

(End of chapter)