Man is an animal that will not be satisfied. If our ancestors had been content to ride on the back of a donkey and chant poetry, knocking on the donkey's stomach with their heels while comparing whether it was better for the monk to "push" or "knock" on the door, today's poets would not have taken a fast train from Hiroshima to Tsubakioka in 20 minutes. Land Rover's biggest wish was to come back to Japan again in this life. However, as soon as he got off the plane in Narita, he hoped that he would be allowed to visit Tsubakioka. Now that Tsubakioka has completed his visit, he is going back to Hiroshima. He was even more dissatisfied. There was a corner that was blank and heavy! Does the "blank" also have weight? Yes. Now he feels both "empty" and "sinking".

The employees of the factory are very friendly to this foreigner who has spent a difficult time here. Greet in a procession, flowers, toasts, visit the unrecognizable factory, machinery. A person in charge repeatedly apologized, saying that he also had a responsibility for letting him suffer here back then! In fact, this person had not yet entered the factory at that time, and he was still in elementary school at that time according to his age!

It's just that I haven't seen acquaintances, and I haven't seen the people I want to see. The dead are dead, and the scattered are scattered. I found two old workers who were in the factory at that time, not from the same department, and did not know each other. I didn't see anything to see. The whole city has been rebuilt. Except for the name, there are no nostalgic relics left.

After breaking up with the person who saw him off, the Land Rover still didn't want to enter the station. He was accompanied by a female student in the Chinese Department of Keio University named Shizuko Takahashi. She was first engaged in Japan-China friendship activities, and then went to school to learn Chinese, and she was nearly 30 years old, and she was more considerate than young girls. "There will be a bus to Hiroshima in two hours, so we can take another walk on the street," she said. There is no master to take care of, more freedom. ”

He gladly accepted the suggestion. Moreover, at this time he found the coordinates. The seven-story department store on the left, which was only a two-story wood-paneled house 35 years ago, is diagonally opposite the movie theater where neon advertisements are flashing to announce the performance of "Shadow Samurai", and it is still the former site of the low-rise and humble Toho Cinema. When I saw the words "Gaoqiao Hospital" written on a tower-like building in the distance, I remembered that there was originally a small hospital with a courtyard and several bungalows.

He led Shizuko past the walls of Takahashi Hospital and into a small street, where there were no high-rise buildings, but only two- and three-story houses, several offices of foreign clubs, two Chinese restaurants, and a shop specializing in local lacquerware. The houses are all new. Colorful plastic tiles, large glass doors and windows, and shiny veneer tiles form a modernist mosaic, which no longer has the style of the town of the past. However, there are still a few paper bouquets on the street trees and electric poles, which are left over from the cherry blossom festival, and they are already scattered and faded. And on these pale pink clouds, he saw the former Chungang.

"Sir," Shizuko said hurriedly with a smile, "You're walking so fast that you can't catch up, where are you going?" ”

The land rover did not stop, waved his hand and said, "Come, I will show you an interesting place!" ”

He walked out of the street and turned north, which was not interesting to him. It's a park, and the host accompanies him here for a while in the morning.

Shizuko Takahashi saw his confusion and said comfortingly: "Thirty-five years, there are few traces of the old days, and you remember the wrong place again, right?" ”

He shook his head, a wry smile.