On the night of the yurt stay, people ate late into the night. Because the people in Hecheng were going to return the next day, the counterpart unit arranged to hold a farewell party that night. People sang and danced, and laughter spread far away, as if the entire Pearl Lake and the whole grassland were immersed in joy.

Although Wu Dao was also infected by this joyful atmosphere, he never liked to be lively and could not dance, so at first he just sat in the corner of the yurt, acting as a bystander, and did not participate in the dancing. He Hua came up to him and said:

"Wu Dao, you see how happy everyone is, why don't you dance together? Come and dance with us! ”

"I can't jump." Wu Dao said.

"It doesn't matter if you can't jump, you can jump as much as you want, and besides, I can be your master and teach you to jump."

Wu Dao was still a little hesitant, but He Hua grabbed his hand and pulled him up and said:

"Come on, let's jump together."

Wu Dao was pulled up by He Hua, so he had to join the ranks of dancing, this was the first time he danced in his life. He didn't expect that he would be so happy, when he forgot all his sorrows and troubles, as if the whole complicated world had nothing to do with him.

People partyed until the second half of the night before going back to bed.

Despite going to bed late the day before, Wu Dao woke up early the next morning. After a simple wash, he put on warm clothes and came to the Pearl Lake alone, watching the sun rise little by little from the sky. He hoped that time could go more slowly, and it was better to stop, so that he could spend a few more moments with the pure and magnificent Pearl Lake, and also have the opportunity to say a few more words to the innocent and lively He Hua, but the time still came soon to return.

The people in the yurt gradually got up, and Wu Dao also returned to the yurt. He Hua got up very late, and when he came out to wash, he happened to see Wu Dao returning from the lake, so he said to him:

"I slept so late last night, why did you wake up so early this morning? Are you reluctant to be here, if you can't, then it's better to stay. ”

Wu Dao wanted to say, "I can't bear this place, and I can't bear you." But he could not say that, but said:

"I've been sleeping badly, and if I sleep too late at night, it's hard to fall back asleep. When I wake up in the morning, I go to the lake to watch the sunrise when I have nothing to do. ”

"Then why don't you ask me to watch the sunrise together? Watching the sunrise by the Pearl Lake is the most beautiful. ”

"How can I call you, you're a girl. Besides, you were still dreaming at that time, how could I wake you up. Wu Dao said with a smile.

"Hahaha, you are really a top student in a key university, I only taught you to dance, but I didn't expect you to steal my ability to tell jokes."

Both laughed.

After breakfast, the people of Qicheng County embarked on the journey back.

He Hua and his colleagues sent Wu Dao and them to the airport, and prepared a large box of souvenirs for each of them as gifts.

Walking into the airport hall, Wu Dao turned back from time to time, looking at He Hua who was gradually moving away, and he suddenly thought of the "vain eyebrows" in "Dream of Red Mansions": "One is Langyuan Immortal, and the other is beautiful and flawless." If you say that there is no fate, you will meet him again in this life; If it is said that there is a strange fate, how can the mind end up empty? "For himself, what flowers are just the moon in the water and the flowers in the mirror after all.

After returning to Qicheng, Wu Dao returned home with the gifts he had taken back from the northwest. With a gift, the Wu family was naturally very happy. Everyone tasted the specialties of the Northwest, and they all said that they were better than the things in Qicheng. After eating, Wu He, Wu Yang, and Li Mei asked Wu Dao about his journey to the northwest and what he had seen and heard in the northwest for a few days, and Wu Dao said:

"We set off from the county early in the morning and took a five-hour flight to reach the airport in the northwest, stopping in Xi'an for dozens of minutes. The northwest was so large that it took us another eight hours to get there. ”

"How much does it cost to go back and forth by plane and car?" Wu Yang said.

"There may be more than 5,000 for one person." Wu Dao said.

"It's more than 5,000 for one person, how many people have you been there?" Wu Yang said.

"There were eight people in our town." Wu Dao said.

"If it's calculated at 5,000, you eight people will be 40,000 yuan for a round trip! If you spend your own money, who can afford it! Wu Yang said.

"Who are the eight people who went?" Wu He said.

"There is the secretary, the mayor, the two deputy mayors, the office director, the organization officer, the finance director, and me." Wu Dao said.

"Didn't anyone go to the county?" Wu He said.

"The county leaders also went to more than a dozen people, and the secretary and the county magistrate all went." Wu Dao said.

"Have you seen the secretary and the county magistrate?" Wu He said.

"See." Wu Dao said.

"Did you talk to them?" Wu He said.

"I didn't say it." Wu Dao said.

"You should talk to them." Wu He said.

Wu Dao wanted to say, "I'm just a small cadre in the town who has no position and no power, how can I have the opportunity to talk to the big leaders in the county?" But seeing Wu He's joyful face, he couldn't say anything, so he had to choose silence.

"Where is better in the northwest and here?" Li Mei said.

"The sky in the northwest is very blue, the water is clear, the sun is shining, the air is much better than ours, and you can see the stars at night. I remember when I was in elementary school, we had such a good environment here. Now, the environment in Qicheng County is far worse than in the northwest, there are smoking factories everywhere, even if it is a sunny day, the sky is also gray, not a single star can be seen at night, the water in the river is also polluted, and there is not a single fish. Wu Dao said.

"What's the use of a good environment, and you don't eat or drink, you have to be able to earn money, and the people there are poor, right?" Wu Yang said.

"The people there are not poor, they eat beef and mutton every day, their bodies are stronger than our people here, and the clothes they wear are not bad. I stayed there for a few days, eating mutton, beef, and horse meat every day, and drinking good wine. Wu Dao said.

"You spend the public's money, of course, you eat and drink, and the people eat like this every day?" Wu Yang said.

"The common people also eat better than the people here, and I heard that they also eat beef and mutton every day." Wu Dao said.

"No wonder they want us to help, they eat and drink all the money, and don't want to save money, it's no wonder that they can live a good life!" Wu Yang said.

"I think the people there are better off, we're all too frugal." Wu Dao said.

"Is it okay not to be frugal? You don't want to think about it, you have been in school for so many years, where does the annual tuition come from, and if you are not thrifty, where does the money come from? If you eat beef and mutton every day, you won't have a penny left for a year, what else will you go to school! Wu Yang said.

Wu Dao also wanted to refute his father, saying that their concept was too conservative, but he thought that his parents had suffered too much in order to provide for his schooling, and he was now working, but to say that they were not right, it was indeed a bit cruel, and their thrift was a habit caused by long-term poverty, and it was impossible to change. Thinking of this, he didn't say anything more.

"The people there are savage, aren't they?" Li Mei said again.

"The people there are not savage, they are very hospitable, and the people of the minority will sing songs to welcome us. It's just that they are a little too enthusiastic and keep letting us drink, which is more powerful than the people in Qicheng County who persuade us to drink. Wu Dao said.

"The people there are just backward, I don't think the environment is good, otherwise why didn't you go for a few days and it would have turned dark?" Li Mei said.

"Has it gone dark? Maybe it's too sunny and too windy. Wu Dao said.

"I'll just say that the northwest is not good, when you graduated last year, you still wanted to go to the northwest to teach, thank you for not letting you go." Wu Yang said.

"It's not as good as our Qicheng County." Wu He said.

Wu Dao didn't know how the three elders came to the conclusion that the northwest was bad, he didn't want to argue about anything, he knew that no matter how beautiful he portrayed the northwest, his family would only say that Qicheng was better than there, because this is home, for them, the northwest was just a strange place out of reach, and it didn't even exist in this world at all. He could only sigh to himself, he couldn't stay in the northwest to live.

Although Wu He said that Qicheng County was the best, he still went outside and talked about Wu Dao's flight to the northwest, and deliberately emphasized that he took a plane with the secretary and the county magistrate. There are only a handful of people who have taken a plane in Xiaohuangzhuang, only one person has been to the northwest, and the secretary and the county magistrate have taken the same plane as no one else, in Wu He's view, these are the glory of the Wu family, he likes to hear the people in the village say "your grandson is really capable", that taste is more beautiful than praising himself.

After going to work, Wu Dao wrote an email to Zhao Wu and Jing Like about what he had seen and heard in the northwest. Zhao Wu replied:

"I envy that simple and happy life, but I don't want to live like that, at least not yet. Because we still have intellectual responsibilities to bear, and there are still many things waiting for us to do. In the future, when we are no longer bound by this world, we may be able to go to the northwest to herd sheep and horses together. ”

Jing Like replied:

"The simplest life is the smartest life. There were so many idyllic poets in ancient China, and there were many similar literati in the West, didn't they pursue this simple and happy way of life? ”

After returning to Qicheng, Wu Dao often thought of He Hua, and dreamed of her for a few nights. When I looked at the photo I took with He Hua, I suddenly felt something, and I remembered the love monk Su Manshu, so I wrote a poem behind the photo:

There are many adventures in life, and Su Manshu is often cherished.

When you go, you are muddy, and you sit on the pearl of the day.

The pearl is in the high mountains, and the mountains are high and there is no way.

How to get out of the sky and marry the grass with you.

He compiled the poem into a text message and wanted to send it to He Hua, but stopped when it was time to send it. He Hua is naïve, but after all, he is also a literary major, and it is not difficult to understand the emotions behind this poem. He didn't want He Hua to know that he liked her, he didn't want to cause any harm to this angelic girl, all he could do was to bury that feeling in his heart.