When I was in the second year of the army, it was about May, and at noon one day, the sun was shining brightly and it was already hot, and the fellow of the same year, who was on a lunch break and was standing guard in the position, woke me up and said that someone was looking for me, and the mysterious mystery refused to reveal too much, but just urged me to go with him quickly.

At the gate of the position, next to the watchtower, there are several young figures, dressed in local clothes, plainly dressed, without the exaggerated trendiness of local youth, slightly humble, polite, compared with us, it seems to be a little weak.

One of them was of medium stature, a little thin, and when he saw me from afar, he had already called out his name, and he was shouting in a country voice, and time and space seemed to be shuttling back to the bathing school, back to the field path, and was strolling through it, and the same voice and the same name sounded many times.

There were tears in my eyes, and I deliberately held back so that they didn't flow out, I immediately responded to the market, and couldn't help but hug me fiercely, so junior high school classmates, obviously didn't expect me to be so excited, and I was a little at a loss for a while.

When I was in junior high school, his test scores were about the same as mine, and he was also short, so he often invited him to walk outside the campus to memorize and review, during which he would often remind me not to play and memorize.

At that time, there were too many things that needed to be memorized by rote, not to mention English words, biology, politics, no skills, all the content of three years had to be memorized, and what was more difficult was the language, who was the author, which year was born and which year died, and now I think about it.

After the junior high school entrance examination, he entered the first middle school, but I entered the third middle school, and I have never been in touch since, and I never thought of meeting under such circumstances.

Perhaps it can only be said that it is the will of God, a few of their college classmates, walking around the neighborhood together in the afternoon, actually walked to our position, met the sentry, chatted a few words, and found that it was a county, and then asked which township they to, and then asked me.

No wonder I, a fellow soldier of the same year, behaved so mysteriously and secretly, it was too much of a coincidence, and he was equally excited to see people from his hometown in a distant country.

It has been three years since I graduated from high school, this junior high school classmate, now a junior student, studying in the third branch of Zhejiang University, this branch is about two miles away from our company, many people in the company like to play football, after entering the second year of the army, the management is relatively relaxed, and I have followed there many times to play football.

It's close at hand, but I haven't had the chance to see each other, if it's not such a coincidence, I may miss it for a lifetime. However, after being admitted to the military academy, he also graduated soon after, and the letter mentioned that he would no longer study, and he would go to the south to break through, and there was no news from him since.

After more than a year of monotonous and boring life in the army, during this period of time, I was not very resolute in my idea of taking the military academy examination, and even had some thoughts of leaving the army as soon as possible, believing that I had endured the hardships of the recruit company, and that I could survive no matter how big the setbacks were, and that I could overcome the great difficulties I encountered.

I haven't dared to tell my family about this idea, but in the correspondence, I have mentioned it many times with my cousin and a few good classmates.

Knowing that this classmate is in the third division, we have more contact in the future, and it is really a gentleman's friendship as light as water, we have never eaten together, nor have we gone out to play together, every time I go to the university to find him, and the most time is at night, because at this time, you only need to ask the class president for leave.

Feelings continue to sublimate in such a bland exchange, and the studious college students I have seen are not as rumored to be, they enter the safe when they enter the university, and they just don't fail classes every day as long as they don't fail the course.

At night, every classroom is brightly lit, crowded with students, one by one, they are reading with their heads down, silent, so quiet that they dare not speak loudly, they dare not move lightly, the highest hall of life, afraid that their vulgarity will affect its sacredness.

"There is Yan Ruyu in the book, and there is a golden house in the book", this is the emotion after entering the dormitory of such a classmate, there are four roommates living in a dormitory, an empty bed, his own bedside, a desk in the middle, and there are books everywhere.

From childhood to adulthood, the parents' admonition and teacher's teaching, all said that reading is the only way to be productive, at this time I saw that I had a narrow understanding, and I only knew that reading was a kind of pursuit, a kind of life exploration.

I thought that I had enough experience and rich experience, so I took the initiative to find a topic with them and wanted to talk about life, but I found that the expression that I thought was okay seemed so naïve in front of them, and it couldn't attract their attention and arouse their interest, let alone resonate and spark ideas.

At this time, I found that in my ten sentences, there are nine sentences of national scolding mantras, a little careless, a little relaxed, will automatically pop out, it is so vulgar, it can even be said to be so primitive, and finally, in most cases, it is silent, because there is no way to answer the words and not to interject at all, it can only be regarded as a kind of learning, listen with an open mind, do not see embarrassment, and have spiritual baptism.

That is culture, that is literacy, here I see the same people, there is a gap between time and space, progress and backwardness, civilization and primitive, elegant and vulgar, so obvious, all can be experienced.

Whenever they try to talk, several people will nod their heads politely in response, but they only nod their heads, and they don't see words, maybe they don't know how to speak, and their thoughts have an insurmountable barrier and can't communicate.

A humble gentleman can be as gentle as jade, I see the importance of cultural literacy, so that is the real humble gentleman, that moment touched the soul, there is a deep thought, whether you have knowledge accumulation, whether you have cultural literacy, or whether there is a realm of thought, whether there is a right and wrong three views of cognition.

I didn't want to take the military academy idea, and I also talked to this classmate, I don't remember how he answered, but since I contacted them, the idea of taking the military school has been extremely firm, the highest hall of life, and I have to step on it no matter what, otherwise the shortcomings of this life are not enough to make up for it.

With pressure there is motivation, I began to study hard, there is a small warehouse in the class, the company specially allowed me to read and review in it after the lights were out, during which I felt that the cultural foundation was not solid, and asked my father to send junior high school textbooks for all grades, my father was particularly attentive, and sent six thick blank notebooks at the same time.

I went to the Xinhua bookstore in the city to buy review materials for the military academy, and the ones that were not on the shelves of the year were bought first, and then I began to memorize them, and I copied them if I couldn't memorize them.

Once, in a letter to my father, I laughed at myself that if I had studied in school back then, I would have been so serious about taking the military school entrance examination now, and I would have been admitted to any university.

The time came to March 96, this was my third year as a soldier, according to the regulations of the army at that time, compulsory soldiers must serve for two years before they can apply for the military academy, I submitted an application to the company to take the military academy examination, the instructor was very careful, checked my age, just under the age of 23, let me work hard to seize this last opportunity.

This added to my sense of urgency, and if I didn't pass the exam this year, I wouldn't have the chance to take it again next year. Under the active recommendation of the company, the application for applying for the military academy was approved, and soon the brigade headquarters sent people to the battalion headquarters to organize the preliminary examination for the seedlings of the military academy.

The brigade headquarters sent a lieutenant to proctor, and the test took place next door to the recruit company's cafeteria, which was originally a classroom and club for the automobile company.

The lieutenant with a bachelor's degree, the same age as me, was directly admitted to the military academy from high school, and as opposed to being admitted from the soldiers of the army, one was called a "local student" and the other was called a "military student".

Compared with the "military students", the "local students" have higher academic qualifications, they generally graduate from the bachelor's degree, and the "military students" are mostly junior college or technical secondary school, a small number of them are undergraduates, and their academic performance is also more solid, such as the lieutenant who was invigilated in the exam, and his English has passed the sixth level.

There are still many "local students" like him, and it should be that after the resumption of the college entrance examination in '79, military academies and academies began to recruit cadets directly from among local high school graduates; when I was on active duty, the company commanders and instructors of the company to which I belonged were all "local students." Later, I kept encountering them, some of whom were superiors and some of whom were colleagues.

This lieutenant was very helpful to me, not only for this initial examination, but also for intensive revision in the teaching team, and he and five other "local students" who graduated from the same class served as our cultural instructors, guiding us to review and also being responsible for management.

They are all the same age, one or two of them are even younger than me, they have graduated from the military academy for four years, and I am still working hard to realize my college dream, such a gap makes people feel particularly depressed, there is a considerable sense of shame, if I can have another chance, I will definitely study hard since I was a child.

In this preliminary examination, a total of nine people from the whole battalion participated, and it can be seen that I am not the only soldier who has the dream of military school, some of whom are soldiers of the same year as me, and some of whom are fourth-year soldiers.

The nine people who participated in the preliminary examination in the recruit company, stationed in training, target shooting, and martial arts competitions basically knew each other, had exchanges before, and a few of them were very literate and were local key high school graduates who were a few points behind in the college entrance examination, and they were full of confidence in this preliminary examination.

The first subject of the first exam is politics, at this time I saw their confidence, when there was about half an hour left in the exam time, they handed in the papers, I was a little panicked, slow writing is my weakness, fortunately, the lieutenant who invigilated the exam did not urge, indicating that the time is enough, so I have been writing with my head bored.

Finally, I felt that someone was watching me write, and then I realized that the lieutenant who was invigilating closed the classroom door to prevent me from being disturbed after everyone else had handed in the papers, and then quietly watched me write answers and answer questions one by one.

Maybe I was able to give the answer basically and made a good impression on him, but I don't know if there was a timeout, until I finished the test paper and double-checked it several times before handing in the test paper, and the lieutenant never urged me in the process.

What I didn't expect was that in the next five exams, this instructor was like this every time, without urging or urging, after others handed in the papers, he closed the classroom door, and then walked to his side and quietly watched me answer the questions.

Poor students, who did not study hard history, maybe he is also a poor student, in my body, I saw the hard work and hardships, so there is such tolerance, and even in the English test, with the level of English level 6, I was reminded of one or two.

The dream of stepping into the highest hall of life, because of the lieutenant's tolerance, is clearer, personal efforts are derived from dreams, maybe this dream, he also had, maybe in my answer, he also felt this dream.

After the initial examination, I returned to the company with trepidation to wait for news, and it was about the end of March when the exciting news finally arrived, and it was only then that I realized that my efforts were so important and that the lieutenant's tolerance was so important.

Of the nine people in the battalion who participated in the preliminary examination, only two passed, one was me, the only one from the grassroots company, and the battalion scored first in the preliminary examination. One is an orderly in the battalion headquarters, and he takes the exam as a fourth-year soldier. Compared with our battalion, which has only two people, each battalion in Nanjing and Shanghai has seven or eight people.

At the beginning of the year, he was promoted to the teaching team and appointed as the deputy battalion captain, and the list had reached the teaching team.

The old company commander did not let go of the military line for long, the bell rang again, this time it was the instructor calling, not long after participating in the preliminary examination, he was also promoted, appointed as the deputy battalion officer of the cadre section of the brigade headquarters, the other end of the military line seemed to be able to see his smile, especially sincere, told me the results of the preliminary examination, ranked first in the battalion.

Soon after, I received a notice from the company headquarters, telling me to immediately pack my luggage, report to the battalion headquarters, and go to the teaching team to study together with the orderly at the battalion headquarters.

When I arrived at the battalion headquarters, the ticket had been purchased, and when I was waiting for departure, I was warmly welcomed by the veteran of the battalion cooking class, who was transferred from our company not long ago, and specially added two dishes to us, and gave me a pair of silver chopsticks before leaving, which was particularly careful and touching.

After lunch, the orderly soldier from the battalion headquarters, under the special arrangement of the battalion headquarters, rushed to Hangzhou Railway Station by jeep and stepped on the train to Shanghai, starting the sprint journey to the highest palace of life.