On July 25, 1986, Huang Lihua received an admission notice from Shanghai Jiaotong University, which was Huang Lihua's second choice for the college entrance examination, and the first choice was the English Department of Wuhan University, but unfortunately the score was 5 points worse. When Huang Lihua handed the admission notice to her father, who came back from work in the evening, her father looked at Huang Lihua who was excited and didn't speak for a long time. At night, my father, who had always been silent, finally opened his mouth at the dinner table,

"Lihua, I know that going to college is your wish, it is your dream, but you look at the current situation of our family, it is very reluctant to provide for you to graduate from high school, if you go to college for another 4 years, where will I get you tuition and living expenses? Besides, what's the use of reading so many books? You are already an 18-year-old girl, and it is better than anything else to find a good in-law in two years!"

"Dad, but I want to keep studying!"

"Lihua, your mother already owed a lot of debts when she saw a doctor, and I finally repaid this debt, do you still want me to lend you money to study? Don't forget that you also have a younger brother, he also wants to study, and he will marry a daughter-in-law in the future, can I not save two dollars for him? Don't be too selfish for yourself as a sister!"

Hearing her father's words on this, Huang Lihua knew that she couldn't go to college, but she was unwilling, angry, and depressed all night like ants eating away at Huang Lihua's internal organs, making her toss and turn and unable to sleep, and it was difficult to breathe smoothly as if she was pressing a boulder on her chest. Looking at the university notice in her hand, Huang Lihua pondered and looked for all opportunities to go to college.

On this day, Huang Lihua really couldn't think of any other way, so she picked up the university admission notice and came to Jihong Middle School to find the homeroom teacher Teacher Zeng, Teacher Zeng was her only lifeline, just like when her mother just died, Teacher Zeng did her father's work and let herself continue to complete the high school course, I hope that this time Teacher Zeng can still persuade my father to let him go to Shanghai to study at university.

Teacher Zeng had long known that Huang Lihua had been admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University, but she didn't think that Huang Lihua's father would not let her go to college, so she came to Huang Lihua's home with Huang Lihua and talked with her father for more than 3 hours.

"It's okay, your father promised to let you go to Shanghai to study, work hard, don't live up to everyone's expectations of you!"

As soon as she heard this, Huang Lihua knelt down in front of Teacher Zeng, and the strings that had been tight for more than a week were finally loosened, and Huang Lihua couldn't help but cry.

"Thank you! Teacher Zeng, thank you very much! I will definitely redouble my efforts!"

When Teacher Zeng walked away, Huang Lihua entered the house and found that her father was carefully looking at a ring in his hand.

"Dad, where did this come from?

"I really didn't expect your mother to say that your teacher Zeng was the daughter of a Kuomintang officer, and she suffered a lot during the Cultural Revolution, I still don't believe it, but now I believe it, this kind of bracelet like us can't be taken out by a poor family!"

"Why did Mr. Zeng give us a bracelet?"

"Why? It's not because you want to go to college, I told her that our family has no money, and we still owe a lot of debts, how can you study! She said that you are the only girl from Jihong Middle School who has been admitted to the university this year, and she has been admitted to the famous Shanghai Jiaotong University, which is an honor that no one else can dream of, don't let me ruin your good future. I said that no matter how good I am in the exam, it is useless, no money is no money, and I can't be asked to smash the pot and sell iron, and I will not eat or drink to provide for you, a college student! So your teacher Zeng took out this bracelet and said that it would be no problem to sell this bracelet for your tuition for four years. You Teacher Zeng is such a good person, I don't want to live or die, she said that she lent it to me, and she will pay her back after Lihua succeeds in her studies and earns money. When she said this, I had no choice but to accept it. However, Lihua, I said ugly things before, I can only pay you a tuition, and you have to find your own way to live and die!"

"Okay, okay, no problem!"

Huang Lihua sold a summer of soda in the summer of 86 and earned 38 yuan, with the tuition fee given by her father Huang Lihua began a difficult road to study, three years ago and Hu Bo, Song Limei, Li Liling sat by the river to discuss the topic of what to do when you grow up, and I thought of it from time to time, when I felt that the place where the Taotao River flows into the East China Sea is Shanghai, what a mysterious place, I would never dream that I would go there to study!

Now things are wrong, Li Liling dropped out of school in the second year and got married hastily because of a big belly, Hu Bo already has a boyfriend, I heard that it is a bus driver who works with her, and after having a boyfriend, Hu Bo rarely comes to play with herself, she has her own small world. Song Limei, who was not admitted to college after graduating from high school, did not stay at home for long before being introduced to Wuhan by relatives, and heard that she worked as a room attendant in a star-rated hotel in Wuhan, and her monthly salary could be more than 80 yuan, which is quite enviable.

As you grow older, the friends around you unconsciously lose the intimacy of childhood, one by one inadvertently disappear from the stage of your life without a trace, just like taking a train with no end, some people get on the train and some people get off, in a specific period of time the people you know are people who are on the same trip as you, and when they get off the bus after they arrive at the destination, there will be new people on the bus and you continue to walk, if you are lucky, someone will accompany you for a long time, unfortunately occasionally you will be alone and unaccompanied, even if someone gets off the train, you should not be discouraged, because there will always be new passengers in front of you to accompany you to continue the following trip。

On the first day of arriving in Shanghai with luggage, as soon as she walked out of the Shanghai Railway Station, Huang Lihua was deeply attracted by the modern atmosphere in front of her because of the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, Western architecture, cathedrals, small alleys, Huangpu River, Suzhou Creek, these scenes that have only been seen in movies and television are close in front of her, like a dream, as if you have come to heaven.

In the mid-80s, when the whole country was gradually recovering, Shanghai, China's once most prosperous city, was gradually waking up from its slumber, and there was a thriving scene everywhere. The beautiful Shanghai makes Huang Lihua feel like opening a window, opening a door, and suddenly opening her eyes, the spacious road, the busy traffic, the Huangpu River, the Bund, and the dazzling array of Nanjing West Road, which form a sharp contrast with the dilapidated scene of her hometown, strongly stimulates Huang Lihua.

Huang Lihua in addition to completing the heavy study in addition to the most important thing is to use his spare time to earn his own living expenses with his own hands, at first in a restaurant next to the bazaar two intersections from the school to help wash dishes, and later as a waiter, selling cosmetics on Nanjing Road, cleaning rooms in the hotel, helping the people selling clothes in the market to see the stalls and sell clothes, and later wholesale some cheap autumn clothes with classmates, shorts and stalls, in short, Huang Lihua will never let go of any opportunity to make money.

Unconsciously, three years have passed, and Huang Lihua, who came to Shanghai from a remote town, is slim and beautiful in the experience of life and study. In the summer vacation of the junior year, Huang Lihua did not return to his hometown in Hubei in order to earn living expenses for the new school year, and his father married a big girl who had just come out of the countryside to join relatives through the introduction of his colleagues in the unit, and formed a new family. Because of her father's remarriage, Huang Lihua's nostalgia for that home has completely disappeared.

In the summer of 1989, a classmate in the same dormitory as Huang Lihua found a temporary job as a tutor, and on the first day of work, his hometown called to say that his mother was sick and asked her to go back, and the classmate introduced this temporary job to Huang Lihua.

The next day, Huang Lihua found a three-story old house on Yongfu Road according to the address written by her classmates. Huang Lihua came to this old town for the first time since arriving in Shanghai, walking along the rows of old houses with uniform architectural styles, and the French plane trees on both sides of the road are lush and green. is in her prime, and Huang Lihua, who is in the mood for love, seems to be walking in an old movie with mottled light and shadow and dark fragrance. Looking at the door number that was consistent with the note, Huang Lihua was extremely excited to knock on a red lacquered wooden door in front of her that seemed to be full of historical vicissitudes, fantasizing about what kind of family lived behind such a wooden door.