When Ma Weiguo returned home, it was already early in the morning. He quietly pushed open the door and crept inside. The furnishings of the house are not much different from when he left, and everything is still so familiar. Ma Jianshe and his clothes were lying on the sofa, deaf to the sound of Ma's mother urging him to rest all night, insisting on waiting for Ma Weiguo to come home, but now he can't stay up and fall asleep. Mother Ma touched the food on the table over and over again, the food had been heated several times, and she was afraid that it would be cold again.

Ma Weiguo's slight footsteps still woke Ma Jianshe up, and sat up from the sofa suddenly, and Ma's mother also turned around suddenly, looking at her son, who had changed greatly and was almost unrecognizable—in nine years, he had turned an ignorant teenager into an adult with a vicissitudes of life and a complicated expression. Ma Weiguo was stunned at the door, and Ma Jianshe and Ma Mu looked at him crampedly.

With a "bang", Ma Weiguo's bag fell to the ground, and the sound was particularly loud in the silent room, hitting everyone's hearts. Mother Ma covered her mouth, tears gushing out; The muscles on Ma Jianjian's cheeks twitched, and his eyes were clouded with a layer of mist. He slowly got up from the couch and said, "Let's eat!" So he went to the table and lifted the veil that was fastened to it. Ma's mother wiped away her tears, pulled Ma Weiguo to the dining table, and said happily: "Weiguo, your father has to wait for you to come back for dinner, it's been hot a few times, and the taste is gone." Let's take two bites! ”

Ma Weiguo looked at the still steaming meal, looked at the rapidly aging parents, tears slid down his cheeks and dripped down the dining table. After rubbing with Sihua and Tietou a few times in succession, Ma Weiguo's stomach was full and he couldn't stuff anything anymore, but he still ate a few bites of food and drank a cup of wine with his father.

After eating, Ma's mother was busy cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks, Ma Weiguo and his father Ma Jianshe sat side by side on the sofa, no one spoke, Ma Weiguo still maintained a straight sitting posture in prison, and the habit that lasted for nine years really couldn't be changed for a while. Ma Jianshe looked for a cigarette from the deflated cigarette box a little crampedly, and finally found one, he hesitated, but still handed the cigarette to Ma Weiguo. Ma Weiguo was stunned for a moment, hurriedly took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to his father, took his father's cigarette and put it down to light it for his father first. The two men were smoking cigarettes and didn't know what to say. After smoking a cigarette, Ma Weiguo said, "Great, you should go to bed early." ”

Walking into his bedroom, Ma Weiguo found that his room was still the same as when he left, as if he had never left at all, and everything was like yesterday. Ma Weiguo slowly stroked everything he was once familiar with, and saw that his harmonica was still on the quilt. He sat down on the edge of the bed, picked up the harmonica, and tried to play it, but hesitated for a while and finally gave up.

At noon the next day, Tietou came to Ma Weiguo and accompanied him to the places where they had left their footprints to see the vicissitudes of this small city. Sihua had already returned to Beijing first because of an emergency, and when he left, he took a message to Ma Weiguo and asked Ma Weiguo to go to Beijing to find him.

Ma Weiguo walked on the once familiar streets, and unlike the bustling business districts, these streets and alleys hidden in secluded corners of the city still retain their original appearance, seemingly forgotten and thrown away by the fast-moving city. It is like an old man sitting in the doorway, quietly watching those fashionably dressed and energetic young people hustle, flowing, and changing in front of him, but he is as lonely and old as a fossil. Perhaps one day, these fossils, these forensics of the city's past, will be hastily dismantled, and then there will be nothing left that carries people's memories. Ma Weiguo touched the mottled brick wall that had been beaten by the wind and rain as he walked, rubbing a layer of dark red brick foam on his hands, and his heart was infinitely sad.

There was a child playing with a remote-controlled car in the alley, and several children were chasing him from behind. When passing under the bed of Yang Duoduo's house, Ma Weiguo involuntarily glanced up at the window, which had already changed owners, and the thick curtains covered the window tightly. The sound of breaking glass sounded in Ma Weiguo's ears, and the beautiful figure seemed to be shaking in front of the window again, "Where is she now?" How are you doing? Ma Weiguo's heart ached. Yang Duoduo's appearance made his dull youth bright and colorful, leaving him too many sour or good memories, although Yang Duoduo did not love him, he paid too heavy a price for Yang Duoduo, but Ma Weiguo did not regret it, but attributed it all to the arrangement of fate.

Everything is fate,

Everything is a cloud of smoke,

Everything is the beginning of no ending,

Everything is a fleeting pursuit,

All joy is not smiling,

There are no tears in all suffering,

All language is repetitive,

All interactions are first encounters,

All love is in my heart,

All the past is in a dream,

All hope carries a commentary,

All faith is groaning,

There is a moment of tranquility in all outbreaks,

All death has a long echo.

Ma Weiguo recited Beidao's "Everything" affectionately and melancholy, and his voice was slightly tragic. This is a kind of emotion, this is a kind of memorial, a feeling of no result in the memorial, a memorial to the youth that has passed.

When Ma Weiguo fell silent, the iron head beside him whispered, "Don't think about it, it's all over, let's go!" "There were two tired figures left in the alley.

The Starlight Porcelain Factory has irretrievably declined, things are wrong, cold and deserted, and it looks distressing. Tietou stood in front of the empty factory building, and said to himself: "In the past few years, the joint-stock reform in the factory has not been successful, and the factory of tens of thousands of people has disappeared if it is gone......

Ma Weiguo muttered: "What a big change! ”

Tietou was a little sentimental: "The world is changing too fast, my head is stupid and can't keep up." ”

The two of them walked into the school gate of the children's school and looked at the playground and the teaching building that were once rippling with laughter. There weren't many students in the school anymore, and today was the weekend, so it was even more deserted. Ma Weiguo saw a person sitting under the flagpole in the school playground from a distance, and involuntarily walked over. When he got closer, Ma Weiguo felt that this person looked a little familiar. He was wearing a shiny and shiny torn clothes that hadn't been washed for a long time, his body curled up in a ball, the corners of his mouth kept flowing disgusting, and he smiled at Ma Weiguo, "hehe", and he was still holding a deflated basketball in his arms, hugging it tightly, as if he was afraid of being taken away.

Tietou looked at Ma Weiguo's puzzled eyes and reminded: "Sha Wei! Do you remember? Ma Weiguo was stunned, if it weren't for the iron head reminder, he wouldn't have recognized this stupid man who was stinky, messy with grass-like hair glued together and smirked at himself was the handsome and fit, invincible Sha Wei on the basketball court back then, and he didn't feel good in his heart. Tietou also said with emotion: "I was stupid by the four bricks, and I lived far away, but I sat here for half a day every day, rain or shine." Although Sha Wei was stupid, the best and proudest memories of his life remained in his subconscious, making him nostalgic for this place, the basketball court where he once sweated and won countless applause and the favor of countless women, including Yang Duoduo.

Ma Weiguo squatted down in front of Sha Wei, held his dirty fingernails full of mud, and said sincerely: "I'm sorry! "Young ignorance blinded him and caused so much damage to people, but the big mistake has been made, and everything is irreparable.

Ma Weiguo took the basketball from Sha Wei's arm, Sha Wei didn't resist, in order to defend this basketball, he had been beaten countless times by those naughty teenagers who bullied fools, leaving a lot of scars on his body caused by punches, kicks, and turning his head. But today he seemed to feel Ma Weiguo's friendliness and kindness, and willingly handed over his only treasure and only memory to Ma Weiguo.

Ma Weiguo suddenly couldn't control his emotions, picked up the basketball, put it to his mouth, and blew vigorously into the air eye, blowing...... The iron head twisted his face, unable to bear to look at this scene.

At night, Ma Weiguo lay on his bed, looking at the empty ceiling with his eyes open, unable to sleep. Ma Jianjian's intense, constant coughing came from next door; Ma Weiguo's mother suffered from severe tinnitus a few years ago, and two bees "buzzed" in her ears every day. Ma Weiguo felt that he could no longer stay like this and rely on his elderly parents to support himself, and it was time for him to repay them.

Ma Weiguo's sister, Ma Hongmei, came from the countryside to see her younger brother who had just been released from prison. Mao Mao, who has been in elementary school, sits at the dining table, always secretly looking at Ma Weiguo with curious eyes. Ma Hongmei knocked Maomao's head with chopsticks, "Eat well!" ”

Ma Weiguo lowered his head to eat, and a sentence came out of his mouth: "I want to go out and find something to do." ”

Ma Hongmei asked, "Then where are you going?" ”

Ma Mu interjected in surprise: "Leaving again?" ”

Ma Weiguo nodded, swallowed the food in his mouth, and said firmly: "Go to Beijing to have a look, Sihua said that there is money all over there, and there is a big opportunity!" ”

Ma Jianshe and Ma Mu didn't speak, they knew that their son had already made up his mind.

Ma Hongmei hesitated and asked, "If you are not familiar with life, is it okay?" ”

"The world is all foreign to me, so what's the difference?" Ma Weiguo thought for a while and said, "Isn't there still the Four Modernizations over there!" ”

After being silent for a while, Ma Hongmei said decisively: "You can go with confidence!" My parents have me to take care of them! ”

Mao Mao became excited, "I'm going to Beijing too!" As a result, he hit his mother again.

Ma Weiguo glanced at Mao Mao lovingly, "When my uncle makes money, I will pick up Mao Mao and your mother, grandparents and grandparents to go to Beijing to play!" In Maomao's cheers, Ma Weiguo glanced at Ma Hongmei gratefully. The tempering of life made Ma Hongmei stronger and more assertive, and Ma Weiguo suddenly realized that in this world, only relatives can give him unreserved and most powerful support.