At 8:30 in the morning, Xu Xincheng arrived at the office, reflexively walked to the original desk, and after seeing the empty desktop, he realized that he had gone to the wrong place, he shook his head and smiled self-deprecatingly.

As every day before, he first walked to the window, pushed the glass window open to let fresh air into the office hall, and then he went to the general manager's office, pushed the three windows inside, and then he walked to his own office.

When he opened the glass door of the office and looked at the office of only 12 square meters, with no windows and white gray walls on three sides, his heart was full of relief and pride.

At the same time, in his mind, the past came back to him one by one.

--\\\

Born and raised in an 8th-tier city and from an ordinary family, he knew from a young age that he couldn't fight his father with those peers with superior backgrounds, he could only fight himself.

My father was originally a carpenter, and later was hired by the principal of a middle school to work as a handyman in the school, he did chores such as repairing tables and chairs, repairing electrical appliances, and helping in the school canteen every day.

My father smiled at everyone he saw, but his smile was not a flattering smile, but a polite, dignified smile.

Her mother was the school librarian, and she was diligent and attentive, and she kept the library in order.

Since he was three years old, his mother often took him to the library, and since he was a child, he has always been very sensible and always sat in the corner and read quietly, never affecting his mother's work.

He has loved to read books since he was a child, and for him, books are windows one after another, through which his vision goes beyond his 8th tier city and sees the outside world, and through these windows, he sees a vast world, a wonderful world.

---------

On his sixth birthday, early in the morning, his mother said she would give him two big surprises.

His mother took him by the hand and led him to the lobby of the library, where two huge paper maps had been ordered from out of town hung on the walls on the left and right sides of the lobby.

Looking at what seemed to him to be a huge map, he was deeply struck.

His mother led him to a map and said, "This is our country, the People's Republic of China." ”

Xiao Xincheng widened his eyes and asked very seriously, "Mom, can you see our house from here?"

The mother smiled and said, "I can't see it." ”

"Why can't you see it?"

His mother picked him up, came to the front of the map, pointed to a small dot without a place name on the map, and said: "Our city is here, our motherland is very big, very big, and our city is only a little bit compared to the motherland." And compared to our home and our city, it is only a little bit, of course, it is invisible. ”

Then his mother carried him to the map on the other side and said, "Look, this is a map of the world." You see, this place that looks like a big rooster is our motherland, although our motherland is very big, big, big, big, but compared to the world, it is also small, because the world is too big, big, big ”

Xiao Xincheng looked at the map and said to his mother very seriously: "Mom, when I grow up, I want to take a plane, fly into the world, fly into the world that is too big, too big, too big." I'm going to take my mom and dad with me. ”

///--

Later, Xu Xincheng realized that at that moment, he planted a seed in his heart, which was a seed to get out of the 8th-tier city, to see the outside world, to break into the vast world outside, and to let his parents let themselves live a better life.

However, that seed has always been buried deep in his heart, and it has never taken root and sprouted, and he has even forgotten that it exists.

It's 7 years.

--\\\

During the winter vacation of the first day of junior high school, his parents decided to take Xu Xincheng to Guangzhou to play and spend the Spring Festival there, so that he could experience and see the prosperity and beauty of the big city as a gift for his 13th birthday.

He was very happy and excited about it.

Although, in the news and TV dramas, he can often see the vastness of the outside world, and from books, he can also understand the excitement of the outside world, but since he was a child, he has never stepped out of that small city, never seen the outside world with his own eyes, and never experienced the colorful world outside, so he is full of beautiful longing and expectation for the journey he is about to embark on and the beautiful scenery of Guangzhou that he is about to see.

In order to save money, the parents chose to take the train and bought a ticket.

On the day of departure, the three of them had an early lunch at home and went out before 11 o'clock.

It was cold and windy outside, and it was snowing heavily, and it had been snowing for days, and according to their parents, it was the biggest snow they had ever seen in their lives.

The winter of that year was particularly cold, the coldest and coldest in his memory, and the longest and longest winter.

They struggled through the snow more than 30 centimeters thick, and it usually takes only half an hour to reach the station.

After getting on the bus, the bus struggled on the muddy road, and it took them more than three hours to reach the nearest train station, which was supposed to be a two-hour drive.

The three of them arrived at the waiting hall and thought that they would be able to board the train immediately, but they were told that due to bad weather, many sections of the road were broken down and all the trains were delayed.

It was the first time he had seen so many people crammed into such a small space, and it was a nightmare for him at a young age.

The waiting hall was crowded with people waiting for the bus, the cold iron seats, the cold tiled floor, the narrow aisles, and even the stinking toilet doors, all of them were crowded with people shivering from the cold, all with expressions of helplessness or anxiety or irritability or anger or pain on their faces.

The waiting hall is full of people and hustle and bustle, and you can hear shouting, complaining, insulting, and children's cries all the time......

All three of them arrived early and had seats, but after only a few moments, my father and mother gave up their seats to an elderly couple in their 60s, and the two of them sat against the wall on the tiled floor of the aisle.

He couldn't bear his mother to sit on the cold floor tiles, and hurriedly said that he would change seats with her, but his mother smiled and said that he didn't have to.

Xu Xincheng saw a young mother with a little girl of two or three years old, and he immediately gave up his seat to them, came to the aisle, and sat in the middle of his parents.

The moment he gave up his seat, his parents smiled and gave him approving glances, and he felt a warmth in his heart, the first warmth he had felt in the past few hours.

But as soon as he sat down on the cold, biting tile floor, that warmth was immediately washed away, replaced by cold, cold that penetrated deep into his bone marrow, and he shivered several times in a row.

His mother hurriedly hugged him tightly into her arms, and asked him distressedly if he was okay, and his father sat closer, surrounded by his parents, he felt a burst of warmth again, but the warmth did not last long.