Lovers (novella) Zhang Baotong

Early the next morning, the students all went to attend Guo Shuxian's wedding. In order not to let my classmates see me, I left school early in the morning and went to the train station to buy a ticket home. When I go home in the past, I always hold my books to study whenever I have time, but this time I don't want to do anything, let alone read and study. Originally, I wanted to count on reading books and studying to change my fate and pursue happiness, but I didn't get anything, Lin Yuqing married someone else, and Guo Shuxian also married someone else. I didn't get any of the two girls I loved. My mom and my brother thought I was a little out of the ordinary and asked me what was wrong. I told them that I wanted to be transferred back to Miluo and didn't want to stay in Xi'an.

They seemed very surprised, saying that Xi'an is a big city, and Miluo is a small county town, so why don't they want to stay in a big city and have to go back to a small county town? However, they have no idea how lonely I am to stay in Xi'an. I came to Xi'an Railway Station from the countryside, and because I was an intern in the first year, I didn't go home for two years. I haven't left home since I was a child, and even when I go to the countryside, it's only twenty or thirty miles away from home, and I have to go back once a month. However, I haven't been home for nearly two years since I came to Xi'an. At home, we eat rice three times a day, but in the two years I have been in Xi'an, I have not eaten rice once, corn cake and noodles every day, and I have never eaten fish and chicken. In Xi'an, I have no relatives, not even a classmate or friend, and no beloved lover. Therefore, when I go to work, I often look at the east side of the train and listen to the song "Honghu Water Waves Hitting the Waves" for the 114th train from Xi'an to Wuhan, and I think of the good times when I lived at home, my family and classmates, and the girl I loved, and tears can't help but well-up from my eyes.

I wanted to transfer back home, but I was just a worker at the time and it might have been difficult, but now that I've graduated from university, if I want to go back to my alma mater, they will welcome me. Because they are also very short of English teachers, in the past, our English teachers in middle school did not go to university, but only attended three months of English training after graduating from high school. My mother was moved when she saw my heavy heart, but my brother was in charge of the big things in our family. My brother thought about it for a long time, and said that you should go back and work hard for a while, and I would like to find a way to talk about it.

Because I was in a bad mood, I didn't want to stay at home, so I walked around. From the railway station to our Agency's family area, we have to pass through Lao Cai. Lao Cai is the most memorable place in my memory, and it is also the iconic street of my memory of Mira. When we first moved here from Nanping, Fujian, it was just a small town in Xiangyin County, and the streets of the town were this old street. The old street is only one or two hundred meters long and seven or eight meters wide, and is flanked by old two-story attics. In the middle of the street are two bluestone paved roads, and at the end of the road is the railway station. Every morning, the streets are lined with baskets and fish baskets from local farmers. Now, ten years later, Miluo has built a bustling street to the south, and this old street is like an abandoned and forgotten old man, looking more and more old and dilapidated, very deserted. However, I don't know why, but I often think about it. Here, I can zoom out the lens of thoughts and memories far, far, far, or close, very close. It made me feel that the past years were so peaceful, and the reality of the present was so depressing and unsettling.

Sometimes, I would also go to the Duxing Pavilion of Qu Zi Temple to sit for a while, thinking about the value and meaning of life with the posture of Tianwen. Qu Zi Temple, also known as Qu Yuan Temple, is located at the foot of the Jade Mountain on the bank of the Miluo River. Here happens to be a high mountain cliff, and the Duxing Pavilion stands on the edge of the cliff, condescending, and now there is a wide river surface and endless vision. Especially in the morning, the surface of the river is half shone with the sun, and half is obscured by the shadows of the clouds. It seems to be the two levels of yin and yang and the two colors of joy and sorrow. The cool breeze blows from the river, making people feel comfortable and refreshing. Standing on the Duxing Pavilion and looking at the river, a Qu Yuan-style worry and sorrow will arise spontaneously. Although the pheasants on the river are sliced, the white sails are dotted, and the river breeze blows slowly like a song, but what is surging in my heart is the world-weary pathos and sorrow?

It seems that people are desperately trying to earn money so that they can live a richer life. However, when money is earned and life is much richer, people are really happy? People don't seem to be happy, but worry more and deeper. Yes, if affluence removes worries, then the rich no longer have worries. But in fact, the rich and the poor, like the poor, have all kinds of long-term and near-term worries at all times.

In retrospect, in addition to Lin Yuqing and Guo Shuxian, I also had a lover, a country girl I loved when I was in the queue. Her name is Cui Yunxiu. She is an indescribably beautiful girl. It can be said that I have seen the most clear and beautiful girl in the whole Miluo Street. She is the announcer of the Brigade Department. Our production team is on the riverside of the Luojiang River, and the brigade headquarters is at the foot of the tea mountain, separated by a 50-meter slope. Farm work in the south is very hard, especially in the spring planting or double rush season, we all go to the field before dawn in the morning, and do not finish work until it gets dark in the evening. When the spring is inserted, it rains every day, and the sun is scorching when the double robbery is scorching. We soaked in the fields all day, bending over and planting and harvesting rice non-stop. In that kind of heavy toil, day after day, if a person does not have a sustenance and solace in his heart, it is difficult to persevere.

So, I fell in love with the most beautiful girl in the whole commune. There was no electric light in our production team, so I went to her radio studio every night, played the harmonica with her, listened to records, and told stories and chatted all over the world. However, I never confided my true feelings to her. I knew I was waiting for a job to be hired, and sooner or later I was going to get out of here. But she really loved me. Although we have never held hands or kissed, we both love each other so much that we miss each other very much if we don't see each other for a day. I think she must have known that I would leave here one day, but she still loved me deeply. For two months, I was transferred to help the exploration team from Wuhan to carry out surveying and mapping in the mountains, and the camp was ten miles away from the brigade headquarters, and it was all deep mountain paths. However, because I missed her and saw her, I often walked alone at night on the path of the mountains, where pheasants, foxes, and wild boars often appeared and fluttered on the roads and in the woods where I passed, and frightened my heart, but I could not help but want to see her. She would also come to the camp to see me after a while.