September 1990, Dongpei City, Jiangxi Province.

Jiefang Avenue is lined with colorful flags, which were supposed to be waved in the wind, but now they do not move. The rooftops of the houses on both sides of the street were full of people, the windowsills were full of people, the street trees were full of people, and the sidewalks were full of people standing where they could put their feet down. The airtight human wall made a roaring noise. In the air, helicopters are circling, and the vibration of the propellers is mixed with human voices, making it even more noisy.

The loudspeaker on the lamppost suddenly made a sharp sound. Accompanied by the song "Asian Heroes", the voice of the chief announcer of Dongpei Radio Station came out loud and echoed on the street:

“…… Today is Saturday, September 15, 1990. More than a month ago, at an altitude of 7,117 meters above sea level, in the Nianqing Tanggula Mountain, a 14-year-old Tibetan girl, Dawa Yangzong, held the flame high with both hands, opening the curtain of the torch relay of the 11th Beijing Asian Games. The torch relay is expected to cover 180,000 kilometers and the number of participants will be 170 million ......"

The torchbearers marched steadily along the white line drawn along the pavement, occasionally waving to the crowds on either side, drawing loud cheers. Everywhere they went, the crowd inside the cordon immediately surged outward. The policemen in charge of maintaining order were separated by one at a distance of three or five meters, sweating profusely to block the crowd that poured out.

At the end of Jiefang Street, the majestic Dongpei River is the newly completed Dongpei Bridge, with a modern cable-stayed design.

An actor dressed as a panda is dancing on the bridge. Throughout the nineties, there was no more famous animal image in the whole of China. It is the mascot of the Asian Games - panda Panpan.

Behind panda Panpan stood a group of kindergarten children. Everyone's little face was smeared with two red balls, and the center of the eyebrows was dipped in rouge with a rubber head. The little girl wore a bow made of pink crepe paper with a black hairpin on her head, and the little boy's paper bow tied under her neck to serve as a bow tie.

The children each have a little red flower in their hands and wave it up and down under the command of the teacher.

"Welcome, welcome! Put out the welcome mat! ”

In the neat array of red flowers, there is always a sense of rhythm that is different from the others, others go up and he goes down, others go down and he goes up, and he always steps in the gap of the slogan.

The teacher followed the red flower and dragged out a boy. The boy frowned and staggered out of the ranks.

"This kid is too high-tech. Your parents worked together to study you to hone the teacher's will, right? When it comes to the fourth warm welcome, you can understand the ground with one leg? If you can understand that, you order one. ”

The boy looked at the teacher blankly, and when he heard the question, he hurriedly nodded.

"It's not a nod, one leg to the ground!"

The boy was stunned for a moment, looked at the teacher ignorantly, and finally seemed to understand, and knelt down on his legs with a thud.

"Hey, my heart." The teacher covered his chest suddenly, turned his head and pointed his finger at his head, and compared with the person next to him, "Broken child...... Missing a string. ”

A few children who were practicing wielding little red flowers came over and coaxed: "Missing strings, missing strings!" ”

Amid the laughter of the crowd, the little boy named Ma Fei turned around, covered his ears, and stuck his head on the ground like an ostrich to hide.

Today is Ma Fei's sixth birthday.

Half an hour later, he would receive a great gift that no child on earth had ever seen. His life changed forever......

A female reporter struggled to separate the group of kindergarten children, stood next to panda Panpan, picked up a loudspeaker and shouted: "Next torchbearer!" Who saw the next torchbearer? ”

At the same time, this question also echoed in the mind of Lu Xiao, an office assistant of Dongpei Architectural Design Institute.

No, there was no time to echo at all. He had to find the man right away! Run to find it, as fast as you can!

Running is really a bit strenuous for the fat man Lu who is about 200 pounds, especially the dozens of pounds are still concentrated in the stomach, especially this belly is tightly wrapped in a brand-new three-piece suit.

Carrying a big bag in one hand, Lu Fatzi opened the door of the collective dormitory building with the other, and ran all the way through the dark corridor. He felt like his lungs were about to explode.

It's here, it's here!

With a "clang", he slammed open a dilapidated wooden door, slumped on the door and bared his teeth.

"Ancestor! Why are you still here? Come with me. ”

There was a man sitting at a table in the room, wearing only a white tank top and sports shorts, but he was full of energy. The orange light of the lamp reflected his swarthy face, which was unusually warm and bright.

He holds a paintbrush in his right hand and a near-finished globe in his left.

Outside the window, he sang "Asia's majestic wind roars", and he prudently wrote the word "Asia" on the globe, put down his pen, looked left and right, and showed a smug smile.

"I made it for my son with my own hands. It's so beautiful that I can't believe my eyes...... Do you know how long it has been since I've seen him for the completion of the bridge? ”

As he spoke, he gently looked up at the wall behind his desk. The height lines of the children are engraved on the walls - "eight months", "one year old", "two years old", "three years old", ......

Lu Fatzi easily took a breath, broke away from the wooden door and stood up: "Then do you know how many people are waiting at the head of the bridge?" Do you want to kill yourself? My torchbearer! ”

"What time is it just ......" Ma Haowen, an engineer of Dongpei Architectural Design Institute, picked up the alarm clock with a smile, looked at his watch again, and stood up suddenly and exclaimed, "When did it break?" Why didn't you remind me earlier? It's too much of a delay for you! He slammed the alarm clock, snatched the globe, and ran away.

Lu Fatzi had just regained his uprightness, and he was stunned by the speed of the wind, and it took him a long time to wake up and hurriedly follow.

The two of them walked out of the gate of the design institute and looked around - the street was definitely impassable, and they could only drill small alleys. On weekdays, the bustling alleys are empty, and all the people are blocked at the intersection of the alleys leading to the main street.

Fat Lu limped after Ma Haowen: "Clothes!" …… Mom, if it's blocked, you won't be able to get by. There are only eight minutes left. ”

"This way." Ma Haowen did not respond to the anxiety of his companions, looked left and right, chose a path and began to run wildly, taking the big bag containing the torchbearer's costume as he ran, and began to change clothes.

This side road is a back alley, and residents pile up drying racks and sundries on the side of the road. Torchbearer Ma Haowen knocked over five drying racks, two bicycles, three bamboo baskets of thermoses, and hurdled over a basket of eggs and two piles of half-briquettes.

Lu Fatzi, who was chasing after him, stumbled on the things he had overturned in front of him, harvested some women's underwear, silk scarves, cotton gloves and eggshells, and finally succeeded in sitting on the coal pile.

"Are you disabled?" Ma Haowen, who had already changed his clothes, rushed to Lu Fat, adjusted the headband, and pointed forward with his hand, "This side of the trail, plug it into the bridgehead ......"

At the end of the trail, there are thousands of heads. A short man was jumping straight behind the crowd, unable to see anything, so he could only turn around boredly, and suddenly saw two people running up, his eyes shining: "The torchbearer is here!" ”

Everyone stood on the side of the street with sore feet, and found nothing, and now they all turned back when they heard the rumors—but they caught a living person! The crowd shouted excitedly and rushed over, and the two couldn't help but be startled, and turned around and ran; The crowd chased after them in black, and the scene was spectacular.

In the alley next door, a boy leaned against the window with an unhappy face, and every few minutes he stood on tiptoe and looked out, only to hear the distant roar of the street, and to see nothing. Tired of it, he picked at the wooden thorns on the window frame and muttered resentfully: "But I just want to go out to see the torchbearers!" ”

Dad sat in an armchair reading the newspaper and sneered: "There are so many people outside, you can't see the torchbearer when you go out......"

Before the words fell, the father and son watched Ma Haowen and Lu Fatzi pass through the hall one after the other.

"Asia! Asia! Asia! Ma Haowen held the globe and walked like a fly.

The newspaper in Dad's hand fell to the ground: "Torchbearer...... Raised a ball? ”