Chapter 199: The Old Friend Has Gone West on a Crane
The spring grass is green before the wind, and the peach blossoms are red after the rain.
Before we knew it, the cold winter had passed and it is spring again in March.
On the big lychee tree at the entrance of the village, clusters of tiny buds as big as beans are poking out from the tender branches. The small goose yellow flowers decorate the treetops brilliantly. As bees and butterflies flutter, the ground is covered with floral snow.
The naughty cat nimbly jumped onto the litchi tree and climbed to the highest point in the blink of an eye, bending the newly sprouted tender branches, causing a rustling sound.
It looks up into the distance, wandering along the country road filled with the fragrance of flowers, the scenery is as beautiful as a picturesque.
"July!"
"Meow?"
"What are you doing up that tree? Come down now! You've been away from home all day!"
"Meow……"
"Come down!"
After another scolding, the cat, which had been lazy for a whole winter, quickly ran down from the litchi tree. Soon, it ran away somewhere to vent its endless energy.
Fang Wei, Cai Ling and A Sheng were about to go to school. It was already late March and school had already started for more than a month.
The bright morning light fell on the blue and white school uniforms of the three people, and also on the big lychee tree beside them. The spring breeze blew, and the branches and leaves swayed gently. Between the buzzing of bees, bursts of lychee flower fragrance wafted in.
"There are so many lychee flowers blooming this year. This must be the best year for the harvest."
Xu Cailing sighed, and suddenly her expression looked a little melancholy.
She looked down at the tree and saw that Mr. Li, who had moved his rattan chair to sit under the litchi tree to enjoy the cool air every day since she could remember, was no longer there.
Not to mention Cai Ling, even Fangwei and Asheng felt a little uncomfortable when they often passed by the village entrance.
It is the season when flowers are in full bloom, but my old friend has already passed away on a crane.
Mr. Li passed away on the night after the Lantern Festival. He passed away peacefully without causing any trouble to his family. He passed away quietly in a dream at the age of exactly 100.
Young boys and girls cannot imagine how long a hundred years is. For an ordinary person, a hundred years is such an eventful life.
Everyone in the village said it was a happy funeral, but no one reacted at the moment.
This is the first time that Cai Ling and A Sheng have experienced the death of someone close to them, including Fang Wei now.
It’s not like I’m really sad inside, it’s just a slight regret and sadness.
It even took a long time, one morning or evening, when I passed by the village entrance and found that Mr. Li was gone and I would never see him again, before I truly felt the reality of the incident.
Occasionally Xu Cailing would be in a daze, vaguely thinking about death, which was something she had never thought about before. Unfortunately, she was still young, and just like the flowers in full bloom in March, she didn't know what kind of fruit they would bear, she couldn't imagine what the end would be.
The departure of Master Li, who had accompanied them throughout their childhood, seemed to foreshadow the end of the childhood of the boys and girls. Even though Cai Ling had not figured out the topic of death, she felt that she had inexplicably grown a lot.
"Awei, how do you think we can live our lives meaningfully?"
Ah Sheng scratched his head, and also rarely thought about this kind of question, which seemed like he would never ask it.
"What do you think?" Fang Wei said with a smile.
"Successful and famous?" A Sheng said.
"Be famous in history?" Cai Ling said.
"Achieving success and fame, and being remembered in history, are nothing compared to living your life the way you like," Fang Wei said.
"Haha, I don't quite understand!"
Cai Ling and A Sheng naturally did not quite understand what Fang Wei had spent two lifetimes to realize. It could be said that this way of thinking had greatly changed Fang Wei's cognition. He still remembered the moment he had thought this matter through. The feeling at that moment was very wonderful. It was as if his mind had been pulled out of a cage, quietly and eternally rotating with the earth, seeing the spring flowers and winter snow.
The luckiest thing in life is not to awaken as early as possible, but to realize the right wisdom at the right age.
Fang Wei didn't expect Cai Ling and A Sheng to understand as much as he did. Instead of thinking too much, it would be better for him to bend down and do those small things that he already understood, to have a real collision with the world, to grow and accumulate experience slowly.
"Let's go, we're going to class. Zhiyi might have waited too long and thought we ran away first."
Fang Wei stepped on the pedal and rode in front.
"gogo~" Cailing and Asheng also withdrew their gazes, got on their bikes and followed with a laugh.
……
Entering the second semester of the third year of junior high school, the approaching high school entrance examination has also made the study workload heavier.
Starting from this semester, the third grade students will no longer have two days off a week and will have to go to school every Saturday.
"Ah?! Didn't we have two days off in the third year of junior high school?"
"It was the past. Starting from your class, we will only have one day off per week!"
"Ah~~! We are indeed the most unlucky class!"
"Hey, hey, hey, the high school entrance exam is coming up soon, so think more about how to improve your grades!"
This is true. As the veritable 'top class' of Baitan Middle School, the learning atmosphere of Class 2 is much better than that of other classes. Even during the breaks on weekdays, if there is nothing else to do, most of the students sit in their seats to review.
There are more textbooks piled on the desks. In addition to the new textbooks for the third year of junior high school, everyone also brought their textbooks for the first and second years of junior high school and would flip through them when they have nothing to do.
Liu Zhiyi had a lot of books, filling up the entire table. She usually liked to read on the table, so she looked like she was buried in the pile of books. When Cai Ling and the others called her from afar, the girl raised her head from the pile of books, revealing her big blinking eyes.
Seeing that she brought so many books, Fang Wei stopped bringing any and just read her first and second grade textbooks.
Even though Fang Wei always ranked first in every exam, when it came to notes on textbooks, Liu Zhiyi's were the most complete. Each neatly arranged and delicate little character was written carefully, which was particularly pleasing to the eye.
Fang Wei did not bring his first and second grade textbooks, so his desk was much emptier than Liu Zhiyi's. He generously suggested that the girl could pile the books she couldn't put away onto his desk, but Liu Zhiyi was reluctant because she liked the feeling of being buried in piles of books.
The seats will be changed every semester, and this semester is no exception. This seat change will be the final one.
Liu Zhiyi was still sitting in the corner, but it was the corner against the wall in the first group, while Fang Wei was sitting in the middle, and on his other side was Xu Cailing from the second group.
Xu Cailing was very happy. They had been separated for a whole semester last semester and now they were finally sitting together again. They would sit together like this until they graduated from junior high school!
There were a lot of books piled up on her seat, not to block the teacher's view so she could doze off or play, but Cai Ling had studied hard! However, she was more relaxed than most of her classmates. As long as she didn't fail the high school entrance exam, she would be able to get into the first middle school.
Sometimes during such busy exam preparations, classmates also need some entertainment.
Du Peipei bought the latest issue of "Mengya". After receiving the magazine, the first thing she did was to turn to the column of "Nanfeng" to read her novel "Chasing Summer" which had been serialized for several months.
In October last year, Liu Zhiyi's debut novel was successfully accepted. It began serialization in December last year, with 20,000 words submitted for each issue. It has been serialized for four months now.
After having her own small column, the girl's royalties also increased rapidly, reaching 120 yuan per thousand words. In addition, it was a long serial novel, and she planned to write 300,000 words. Her monthly royalties became stable, and the little treasury in her pocket became fatter!
If you calculate it all, after the entire novel is serialized, you can earn more than 30,000 yuan in royalties! It's like a small wealthy woman!
With the current serialization progress, the novel is getting better and better. Many literary young girls like Pepe leave messages to the magazine urging for updates. The pen name "Nanfeng" is definitely not unfamiliar to many loyal readers of "Mengya".
"Ah, how come I finished reading 20,000 words in such a short time? Are there really 20,000 words?..."
"Let me see, let me see!"
Xu Cailing took the magazine from Pepe and began to read it with great interest. She giggled as she read and glanced in the direction of Liu Zhiyi from time to time, making Zhiyi feel embarrassed.
It was always like this. When classmates passed around magazines, especially when they were reading her articles or novels, Liu Zhiyi couldn't help but secretly observe their reactions and comments. Perhaps no one had expected that they could get so close to the author?! She even knew the author's comments on them the first time!
When thinking about this, Liu Zhiyi couldn't help but feel secretly happy. On the one hand, she was carefully covering her own vest, while on the other hand, she was brazenly going deep into the crowd. This feeling of everyone being in the know while she was in the dark was really great! !
"How is it, Cailing? Doesn't it look good? Zhou Min and Xu Wanwan were childhood sweethearts, but they were in a cold war for four years and didn't see each other for three years. Xu Wanwan even really hated Zhou Min for a year, but Zhou Min's obsession with Xu Wanwan never changed. He always trusted Xu Wanwan. It was obvious that the two were about to meet! They were about to meet! But why did they break up here!!"
Du Peipei, who usually has a stable mood, became unusually anxious. For the first time in his life, he felt the abomination of the person who broke the chapter, and he looked like he wanted to kill the author with his own hands.
Xu Cailing was startled and asked hurriedly, "Pepe, if, if the author appeared in front of you, what would you do to her?"
"I, I...then don't force me to beg her to update, wuuuu..."
"...??"
At least be tougher!
On the other side, Liu Zhiyi, who was branded as a "bookbreaker", covered his face with a book and couldn't help but giggle.
"Nanfeng must have some manuscripts saved. Why doesn't she post more? If I knew where she lived, I would definitely read all of her saved manuscripts."
"Cough cough..."
Fang Wei, who was caught in the middle, also felt good.
After all, he not only knew where the author lived and her first and last name, but he had also secretly read all her manuscripts!
(End of this chapter)
