After the college entrance examination, in addition to waiting for the exam results, I began to dream about Jiang Sheng all night long.

I dreamed that when he first appeared in Sanlitun, he was still a child in a small suit, his hair was combed shiny, and he was holding his mother's hand with a frightened expression, and his eyes were avoiding the onlookers of the villagers in Sanlitun.

He is well-behaved and sensible and never causes trouble, but he is stubborn like a calf, and when he eats, he will deliberately please me, serve me food, put the meat that his mother has given him into my bowl, and then squint and smile at me, his eyes will narrow into a slit, and it looks like a crescent moon.

I will also coquettishly say to Jiang Sheng, stinky brother, I have become fat.

Jiang Sheng would get up earlier than me every day, and he, a child who was accustomed to a prosperous life, suddenly came to Sanlitun to get in touch with a new environment, change his way of life, accept backward customs, and mingle with a bunch of children who were smeared like mud monkeys, and no one ever asked him if he was really happy.

I saw the wind chimes hanging from the plane trees at the head of the village, the abandoned stone figures on the hill to the west, the wild grass that no one had stepped on on the north slope, and the bones of the ice and mud in the river to the east.

On the first day of the new year when Lao Jiang went home, Jiang Sheng pulled me to the back of the yard to kowtow to Lao Jiang, he and Xiao Wu were the only children in the village who could say happy words, Lao Jiang loved Jiang Sheng as his own, and he couldn't wait to give Jiang Sheng the best everything.

Jiang Sheng likes snowy weather as much as I do, and he sometimes hears a capillary, textured scream in his ears in the winter wind, and the sound of stepping on the snow, like a cracked silk.

He would often take my hand and walk in the fields, going to or after school, and sometimes seeing a flock of geese migrating south with the flock in the orange-red dusk, I felt that I was a kite, led by Jiang Sheng, afraid that one day I would lose my direction as soon as he let go.

Jiang Sheng's yellowed old photo was placed on the table and I don't know who secretly took it, he was always so popular wherever he was, and everyone loved him.

I kept repeating a dream that he walked in front of me, looking back at me from time to time, holding a paper windmill in my hand, giggling all the time, following him all the way, I couldn't see him clearly in the fog, only saw him through the alleys, through the green and clean stone slabs, leading to the bright world.

There is also the lone sail of the deep sea, swinging leisurely at the bottom of the water, meekly nestled on the silt, and the floating bubbles are like the cry of small beasts.

The white mud ground swept out of the sky, there were shallow ruts left a few days ago, Jiang Sheng in the streamer turned his head, he was wearing a clean white shirt, looking at me because I couldn't continue to play with mud and muttering, the stars in his eyes were shining, showing a faint and warm smile, and the hair that was sticking to my cheeks was pulled back, calling my name, Jiang Rong.

I suddenly faintly heard Jiang Sheng calling me, let me save him, and I saw him fall into the pitch-black abyss, like a mine.

I woke up screaming, and Xiao Wu asked in the night, "Jiang Rong, are you having nightmares again?" ”

"I saw Jiang Sheng." As I spoke, I got dressed and rushed out the door with a flashlight.

"Where do you go in the middle of the night?" Xiao Wu shouted, got up and followed me.

I ran all the way from the north slope behind Tunzi to the abandoned coal mine, and walked towards the bottomless mine, Xiao Wu grabbed me from behind, and he said: "Jiang Rong, you dreamed of him, Jiang Sheng will not be here." ”

I insisted on going to the mine, Xiao Wu had to pull me over, I used a flashlight to shine under the mine, and found that the mine had been washed by the rain and the wooden beams collapsed and buried, Xiao Wu pulled me back, like walking with a corpse.

I said, "I want to go to Jiang Sheng." ”

Xiao Wu said: "You don't know where he is. ”

I said: "I read in the newspaper that the fighting has shifted to Shangganling. ”

Xiao Wu said: "Jiang Rong, the battle in Shangganling has long passed a year, and there is no war there now, and now during the peace negotiations, it won't be long before Jiang Sheng will come back, if he hasn't come back after the college entrance examination results, I'll go with you to find Jiang Sheng, okay?" ”

I nodded and went home with Xiao Wu.

The test results of that year were not released for more than a month due to natural disasters and man-made disasters, and when we returned to school in mid-July, the school asked us to return to school again after a week, and Xiao Wu stayed with me all day long during that time until July 27, when the peace negotiations ended, the peace agreement to resist US aggression and aid Korea was signed, and the volunteers who were sent to the battlefield began to return one after another.

At that time, Beiping East Railway Station could be reached by walking through Dongzhi Gate for half an hour, I was so excited that I didn't sleep all night, got up early the next day, and went to the East Railway Station with Xiao Wu to pick up Jiang Sheng.

When the train carrying the volunteers arrived at the station, the first person to get out of the door of the train I was in was an unrecognizable young man, I stared at him for a long time, smiled at him, he smiled at me, and then squeezed into the crowd with my bags on my back.

I saw a mole in his ear, and the way he walked was very different from Jiang Sheng's, so I was relieved.

Many of the relatives of the soldiers who came to greet them wept when they saw the volunteers get out of the car, some of them were lame, some of them had no hands, and some of their ears were blown off, but most of them were intact, except for some scars on their faces and necks.

The volunteers on a train quickly got off the train and were picked up, and Xiao Wu and I shuttled through the crowd shouting Jiang Sheng's name.

Xiao Wu said: "I asked just now, the train for the volunteers to return home has been running twice a day in the past few days, and one is in the evening. ”

I nodded and said, "Just now I saw someone holding a sign with a name written on it, and people on the train can see it at a glance, so let's go write one." ”

Xiao Wu answered, took me to breakfast first, and we visited a few shops around the train station to know that there were special brands that sold this kind of brand.

I wrote Jiang Sheng's name, and when Xiao Wu saw that I kept yawning, he led me to the station platform and asked me to sleep on his lap for a while.

I slept until noon, Xiao Wu saw me wake up, asked me if I was hungry, I shook my head, sat up, Xiao Wu said: "There is another bus that comes in the evening, why don't we come back in the evening?" ”

I shook my head, and sat in the shadows on the steps, surrounded by a noisy crowd, and I quickly fell asleep again, waking up a few times, and each time I felt that Jiang Sheng had woken me up.

When the train arrived at the station in the evening, I asked Xiao Wu to try to hold the sign with Jiang Sheng written on it as high as possible, the little five people were tall and big, standing in the crowd and standing out from the crowd, holding the sign at this time, as long as Jiang Sheng got off the car, he could see it without walking a few steps.

But what is disappointing is that Jiang Sheng is not on this train.

That night, I didn't give up, standing on the platform and watching the moonlight fall, looking at the traffic not far away, then I turned back to Xiao Wu and said, "It seems that it's not today, there are still two days of trains, let's go back." ”

I don't know if Xiao Wu can hear the loss in my tone, but Xiao Wu didn't say anything, just nodded, and calmly left the East Station with me and returned to Sanlitun.

The next day, Xiao Wu and I still went to the East Railway Station early to wait for the volunteers to return home, and Jiang Sheng was still not seen from morning to night, and my heart became more and more excited, I heard that tomorrow would be the last wave of volunteers to return from the front line.

For the first time, I dressed myself well, brushed my hair, and applied my mother's alabaster to my face, and asked my mother to help me smooth out the folds in my clothes.

I don't know where Hu Xiaomeng and Xi'er and others from Liyuan heard the news and also came to the East Railway Station, and they saw Xiao Wu with Jiang Sheng in his hand and came forward to greet us.

Today's Hu Xiaomeng and Xi'er are already well-known Peking Opera masters in Beiping City, both of them wear hats and press the brim very low, as if they are afraid that others will recognize them.

Jiang Sheng also wrote to Hu Xiaomeng in the first year of the war, Hu Xiaomeng said that Jiang Sheng was a medical soldier in the army at first, sometimes he did not fight, in order to ease the atmosphere of the army, he would take the lead in singing, Jiang Sheng was the most capable of turning heels in the army, and his popularity was also very good, and his comrades-in-arms were very protective of him.

When the last train came in the evening, all of us crowded to the front and shouted Jiang Sheng's name, and then Hu Xiaomeng and Xi'er left the station in a rickshaw one after another, and Xiao Wu stayed by my side until the people on the platform dispersed, and some family members of the soldiers cried with their clothes and relics, and were pulled out of the station.

Xiao Wu went to the side to greet a People's Liberation Army guarding the platform and asked him if there was still a car for the volunteers to return home, and the man shook his head and said that this was the last train.

Xiao Wu was stunned, and was just about to leave, but the man stopped Xiao Wu again, saying that there was more than one battlefield, and this time only a few regiments of troops came, and some of them were still stationed in other places, and it was impossible to come back all at once.

Three years ago, Wang Wei and Jiang Sheng went out together, but when I arrived at Wang Wei's house with Xiao Wu, I only saw Wang Wei's elderly father squatting in the yard smoking, in front of him, there was a set of military uniforms, as well as Wang Wei's badge.

Xiao Wu and I hurried back to Sanlitun, when a man in military uniform happened to come out of the house, I glanced at him and ran into the door, my mother was holding a tattered military uniform and crying and shivering, and she was holding a revolutionary martyr's certificate in her hand.

The squad leader of the first squad of the third company of the 818 unit of the Volunteer Army, Jiang Sheng.