The root of learning tastes bitter, and the fruit of learning tastes sweet.

- Maonan proverb

One evening in early August, Mr. Shen Jianqiang's lover went to the 15th Company to visit his younger brother, and by the way, he brought Niu Mulin's university admission letter from the 181st Regiment Middle School.

Niu Mulin hurriedly tore open the white envelope and pulled out an admission notice: Haha, he got his wish and was admitted to Lanzhou University, a key university of his choice!

There is also an attachment at the back of the admission letter, which is a map of the extreme surroundings of Lanzhou University.

Niu Mulin saw that the map clearly marked the Dongfanghong Cinema, Lanchaichang Club and other theaters near the university, and said happily: "Now I can watch a movie beautifully!" ”

"Niu Mulin was admitted to university." This good news spread to all companies of the 3rd Battalion that night. The employees gave a thumbs up and praised: "It's really a golden phoenix flying out of the chicken nest!" Finally, a college student has come out of our company! Niu Mulin is still a return doll, and he should be rewarded with a sheep! ”

Niu Wanshan was even more overjoyed to see that his son had been admitted to a prestigious university and that the university was in his hometown, and he couldn't close his mouth for several days.

At that time, the society was in a closed state, and transportation was very backward. The following companies did not even have a shuttle bus to the battalion headquarters and the regimental headquarters.

Niu Wanshan volunteered to ride his son to the regiment headquarters on a bicycle. While riding on the land of Caussy Su and Baribagai, he and Niu Mulin put forward the attention and requirements for his son in life and life.

At the 181st regiment headquarters, Niu Mulin and the first two classmates who were admitted to the university at the same school, Luan Xinjiang and Hu Xinhua, converged. They boarded a tractor with desks and went to Beitun, the headquarters of the 10th Agricultural Division, where they could take a long-distance shuttle bus to Urumqi.

Hu Xinhua is a girl and was taken care of by the driver and sat in the cab. Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang sat in the open-air car body, squeezed in the middle of the gap between the desks.

The tractor let out a "sudden" cry of joy and jolted forward on the vast and barren Gobi Desert. Underneath the wheels is an easy dirt road. Where the tractor walked, a puff of dust was raised, enveloping the originally clear blue sky.

Hometown is getting farther and farther away from them in the hazy dust.

At this time, Niu Mulin's ears faintly sounded the gripping melody of the song "Hometown Love". 19 years ago, Niu Mulin fell to the ground in the singing of the flower drum opera performed by Li Guyi. 19 years later, Niu Mulin is moving into the future in Li Guyi's soulful pop songs. Is this what people often call fate?

In the sincere and melodious music, Niu Mulin's heart was surging, and he was full of beautiful longing for the distant university, the distant Lanzhou and his own future.

Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang were admitted to the Chinese Department of Lanzhou University together. Hu Xinhua was admitted to a university in Xi'an. The three of them chose to take a direct train to Zhengzhou in Urumqi. In this way, the two of them can accompany Hu Xinhua all the way to Lanzhou.

This is the second time Niu Mulin has taken the train, and it is also the second time to go to the mainland. If the first time is to be a guest, then this time it is to be a resident and host. Because he has a hukou in his pocket.

The train galloped across the vast land of Xinjiang towards the east where the sun was rising.

At noon, the sweet voice of the announcer came from the train's loudspeaker: "Hello passengers. Now the food truck will serve you lunch. For lunch, there are varieties of lo mein, jajanjan noodles, ......"

After Niu Mulin heard the announcement, he put his hand into the pocket of his close-fitting clothes to look for change, and prepared to buy a bowl of noodles to eat. Before leaving the house, Gong Lamei told him: "You put the money in the pocket of your close-fitting clothes, and then seal the pocket with a pin." So that the thief will not be able to find out. ”

The waiter in the dining car came to the car with the food and continued to repeat the content of the announcement: "Hello passengers. Now the food truck will serve you lunch. For lunch, there are varieties of lo mein, jajanjan noodles, ......"

Luan Xinjiang stretched his neck, threw his head on the top of the dining cabinet, observed it carefully, and then sniffed seriously with his nose for a while, and suddenly said loudly to Niu Mulin as if he had discovered a new continent: "There is something in the noodles." You can't eat it! ”

Niu Mulin had no choice but to put away the change, fumbled for a piece of dry naan from his travel bag, and served it as lunch with boiled water.

Although he gnawed on the dry sacs along the way, Niu Mulin's heart still felt extremely happy. First, I am about to go to the university I have longed for to study. Second, the radio of the train broadcast the news of the nationwide crackdown on the underworld and evil forces in society. In particular, the second point made him feel particularly gratified: the bad guys who did evil were finally going to be punished. We hope that our campus will be safe and quiet from now on.

After 48 hours of running, the train finally arrived in Lanzhou at 4 a.m. on the third day.

Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang said goodbye to Hu Xinhua and walked off the train with their luggage. They walked out of the station with the flow of people, and saw that the square in front of the station was brightly lit, and several colorful flags with the name of the university on them fluttered in the wind. Lanzhou University's banner is larger and more eye-catching than other universities.

They walked towards the flag of Lanzhou University flying high.

They were received by a college student in a beige jacket. He told Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang: "I am Yang Bo, the president of the student union of the Chinese department, and I am also from Xinjiang. ”

Niu Mulin's eyes suddenly brightened when he heard Yang Bo's introduction. He suddenly had a strong sense of security.

Yang Bo took them to pick up their checked luggage, then got into a minivan and drove less than 5 minutes to Lanzhou University. Yang Bo arranged for them to rest in a spare dormitory and told them to go to the school gate tomorrow morning to go through the formalities of registration for new students.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang got up. They found the bathroom in the building, quickly washed their faces, and then ran downstairs, intending to take a closer look at Lanzhou University.

The predecessor of Lanzhou University was founded in 1909 during the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, which was the symbol of the beginning of modern higher education in Gansu Province and opened a precedent for higher education in Northwest China. In 1928, the Gansu School of Law and Politics was expanded into Lanzhou Sun Yat-sen University. In 1945, it was named National Lanzhou University.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lanzhou University was identified as one of the 14 comprehensive key universities in the country. Under the guidance of the strategic goals of "developing the great northwest" and "establishing a strategic rear", it has become a university with an important strategic position in the national higher education pattern, shouldering the historical responsibility of cultivating high-level specialized personnel and developing science, technology and culture for the country, especially the western region.

Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang happily walked in the vibrant campus. They saw that surrounded by green trees, flowers and grass, and a beautiful and elegant environment. The campus is like a cultural park that exudes the charm of books and ink.

They stood at the main entrance of the school on Tianshui Road, looking up at the solemn and quiet old liberal arts building with excitement.

The walls of the old liberal arts building are made of gray bricks, and the roof is covered with layers of tiles. This made them curious about the building. Due to the drought and lack of rain in Xinjiang, the roofs of many buildings are flat, which can also be used to dry grain and dried fruits. Even in areas where there is a lot of rain, the roof is at best built in a triangle with a gentle slope, and it is never covered with tiles.

They walked in a clockwise direction along the campus road, towards the wooded north side of the campus. They saw the Physics Building and the Chemistry Building standing in the greenery on the left side of the road. One of the most important reasons why Lanzhou University is famous in the country and even in the world is that the faculty of the Department of Physics and the Department of Chemistry are strong and fruitful.

Walk to the end of the road on the north side and turn right to the south, and you can see a Soviet-style building on the left that is both exquisite and calm - the library of Lanzhou University. It is said that the collection of books in it is several million volumes, and it is also among the best in domestic universities.

The open space on the east side of the library is a huge athletics and soccer field.

From the library, continue south and turn right, and on the left is a white skyscraper, the New Liberal Arts Building. The new liberal arts building is 7 storeys tall and has four shiny elevators. At that time, it was a magnificent high-rise building that made a generation of teachers and students of Lanzhou University proud.

Continuing westward, on the left side of the road is the school's auditorium, cafeteria, and student dormitories.

On the right side of the road is always lush woods and flowering planters

The campus road, which resembles a circular running track in a sports field, is centered around the woods, encircling the campus.

Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang finally arrived at the center of the campus, a circular pool hidden in the woods. In the center of the pond is a pile of rocks. The weeping willows around the pond are clinging, the green pines are upright, and the forest is as deep as the sea.

They met many strange students on campus. Although they don't know each other, when they see them, they nod their heads like Japanese people greet each other in a TV series. This made Niu Mulin and Luan Xinjiang feel very cordial.

After completing the registration procedures, the new students of the 83rd grade of the Chinese Department came from all over the country, and there were obvious differences in language, living habits and even ideological concepts. They formed a long line under the command of the young homeroom teacher and came to a meeting in a large stepped classroom in the old liberal arts building.

The class teacher told everyone: "There are a total of 101 students in the 83rd grade of our Chinese department. In order to facilitate management, it is now divided into two classes, Class A and Class B, and classes and activities will still be held together in the future. ”

Luan Xinjiang was assigned to Class A. Niu Mulin was assigned to Class B. Niu Mulin later learned that he was the only minority among the 101 students in Class 83, a veritable minority.

Next is the entrance education.

The energetic new students visited the campus of Lanzhou University, and then took a bus to the Hualinshan Martyrs Cemetery located outside the Xiguan Gate to pay tribute to the revolutionary martyrs buried here and receive patriotic ideological education.

Niu Mulin stood in the procession, looking up at the towering Hualin Mountain and the Monument to the Revolutionary Martyrs with reverence. At this moment, he did not know that this was once the battlefield where the rebel army of the Su 43 of the Salur people fought bloodily with the Hui people and the Qing army, nor did he know that this was once the battlefield where his grandfather Ibrahim's younger brother Niu Zhanhai fought desperately with the Chinese People's Liberation Army that liberated Lanzhou.

In the 34th year after the smoke of the war in 1949 gradually dissipated, the people of the Niu family came to Hualin Mountain again. However, he did not come to pay tribute to the achievements of the regiment commander's grandfather in persisting in opposing liberation, but to pay tribute to the regiment commander's grandfather's enemy, the Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers who died gloriously.

History is so peculiar and abrupt that it often takes a striking turn at a particular moment.

After dinner, the school organized new students to come to the Yellow River Theater to watch the famous dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain". Created on the world-famous Silk Road and Dunhuang murals, this dance drama celebrates the glorious artistic images of painters Zhang and Kabuki Yingniang, and depicts their joys and sorrows, as well as their pure friendship with the Iranian merchant Inus. "Silk Road Flower Rain" draws on the strengths of folk songs and dances from all over the world, and integrates various dance art forms such as neon dress and feather dance, Indian dance, black turban dance, Iranian horse bell dance, Iranian wine dance, Turkish dance, plate dance and Xinjiang dance, forming a large-scale dance drama with exquisite shapes, diverse dance types, novel and unique, and wonderful and wonderful.

Niu Mulin once saw the stills of "Silk Road Flower Rain" in newspapers and magazines, and now watching the performance with his own eyes, he still feels dazzled and dizzying, and admires the artistic talent of the choreographer and actor from the bottom of his heart. While enjoying the wonderful performance, he secretly made up his mind: I must create such excellent works in the future.

Niu Mulin lives in Room 509 of the No. 6 student dormitory building. There are a total of 8 students living in the same dormitory. They are from Shaanxi, Hebei, Sichuan, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan and Xinjiang.

The students from Tiannan and Haibei had just stepped into the threshold of the university, and they couldn't calm down when they were excited, and they couldn't sleep in bed at night, so they began to introduce and praise their hometowns in turn.

Niu Mulin introduced himself to the Hui and from Xinjiang.

Wang Dahai, from the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi, exclaimed loudly: "Ah, are you a Huihui? Our old people there all said it was terrible to go back to people. If a child is disobedient, and the adult scares him that he has come back, the child will be so frightened that he will immediately become honest. ”

Niu Mulin smiled and asked, "Why is it terrible to return to people?" Do you look terrible at me? ”

Wang Dahai replied: "I heard that in history, Hui people killed people when they rebelled. You look like a weak scholar, what's so scary! ”

Yan Weidong, who slept on the top bunk of the cow wood, asked: "Prisoners from all over the country have been sent to Xinjiang, which gives people the feeling that Xinjiang is like a big prison. Tell me what's going on? ”

Niu Mulin patiently explained: "Xinjiang has a vast land area, accounting for one-sixth of the country, and there are many deserts. The state set up prisons in the desert to prevent prisoners from escaping. Besides, the prisons in Xinjiang are full of bad people from your mainland. ”

Seven mainland students were not happy, and they counted the remoteness and bitter cold of Xinjiang together, thinking that the most beautiful place was still their hometown.

Formal university studies began.

Niu Mulin will study subjects such as "Ancient Chinese", "Modern Chinese", "Introduction to Literature", and Chinese and foreign ancient and modern literature. He is determined to study hard and become a great writer like Lu Xun and Guo Moruo in the future.

English is a common basic course. Students from the Department of Chinese attend classes in the same large classroom as students from the Department of History, Philosophy, and Geography. During recess, Niu Mulin would chat with classmates from other departments who were in big classes, asking each other where they were from, what interesting news they had, and so on.

He met several classmates in the big class. Among them were 3 ethnic minority students and 1 Han Chinese student. One is Nathan, a Mongolian student from Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu Province. One is Ma Xiaoping, a Dongxiang student from Lanzhou City. One is Han Jishou, a Salar student from Xunhua Salar Autonomous County in Qinghai Province. The other is Gong Xiaoli, a Han student from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

Niu Mulin learned that Nathan was from Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, so he asked curiously: "Sunan County is Yugur Autonomous County, how are you Mongolian?" ”

Nathan replied with a smile: "Sunan is indeed a Yugur Autonomous County, but there is also a Baiyin Mongolian Autonomous Township. There are many Mongolian ethnic groups living in the township. ”

Ma Xiaoping asked next to him, "How did you get there?" ”

Nathan replied, "My ancestors used to live in Outer Mongolia, and they were first the captain of the guard of Genghis Khan's youngest son, Tuolei. By the time of my grandfather's generation, my grandfather was the head of a tribe. In 1912, there was a revolution in Outer Mongolia. Fearing the repression of the revolutionary party, Grandpa fled south with the people of the tribe, and finally fled to Sunan at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, where he settled. ”

Han Jishou jokingly said: "You Mongolians are really a people on horseback, running around the world. You see, now China, Mongolia, and the Soviet Union have you Mongols, and it seems that the Hazaras in Afghanistan are also the remnants of your Mongols. ”

Nathan retorted, "Hey, who are you talking about?" You Salar are running all over the world. If your ancestors had been in Central Asia well, where would you Salar be in China today? ”

Ma Xiaoping also interjected with a smile: "The ancestors of our Dongxiang people also immigrated from Central Asia, adding a new nation to China. ”

Gong Xiaoli joined the conversation with great interest: "You are all descendants of migratory peoples. I'm a native of Nanjing. ”

Nathan joked: "If you stay in Lanzhou after graduating from college in the future, you will become an immigrant." ”

Gong Xiaoli said: "I'm alone, what are I doing in Lanzhou? ”

Nathan quipped, "You can marry a Gansu man." ”

Gong Xiaoli asked violently: "Do you dare to marry you?" ”

The others smiled and said, "Nathan, say it, dare to ask for it!" ”

Nathan blushed and made an excuse to slip away.

Niu Mulin turned to Ma Xiaoping and asked, "I heard that your father is a famous poet and painter in the country?" ”

Ma Xiaoping proudly replied, "Yes." The old man still writes a poem every week and paints a picture every day. ”

Niu Mulin said: "I heard my father say that Ma Yumin's younger brother Ma Yuliang is a famous poet and painter in Gansu, I don't know if you know him?" ”

Ma Xiaoping replied with a smile: "Of course I know." Ma Yuliang is my father! ”

Such a coincidence? Niu Mulin's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't help but sigh that the world that human beings have is vast and large, sometimes crowded and small, sometimes as small as a small village next to a house.

Who would have imagined that more than 760 years later, Niu Mulin, the descendant of Ali of the Salta, Ma Xiaoping, the descendant of Abbas, Nathan, the descendant of Badr, the Mongol, Han Jishou, the descendant of Hassan, the Salur, and Gong Xiaoli, the descendant of Gong Huaizhou, would gather in a classroom at Lanzhou University?