Luo Qi and I were born in the same year and month. He is one day younger than me. I was born on May 20th and he was born on May 21st. This distinguishes two zodiac signs with different personalities. I am a Taurus and he is a Gemini.
We are neighbors in Shanxi Mine, a row of bungalows with no property rights, linoleum roofs, running water, and electricity from the nearby foundry. He always likes to run to my house with a bowl to eat, and I also run to his house to play all day long. He has a TV at home and can watch "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". His three sisters are as good-looking as Huang Rong, and their names are very nice - Junxian, Junli, Junfang. Probably his parents were satisfied after having a son, so they chose the word "Qi".
My parents pay great attention to the relationship with his parents. We were both studying in Zidi Primary School. My books were always curled or had torn pages, and I often had to borrow old textbooks left by my three sisters. It's not easy for me to go, because my parents have to open their mouths and cause trouble for their parents. Luo Qi's books are well preserved, and I always suspect that he has never opened them at all, unlike my books that have been chewed. By the third grade, he always failed. His father was just as energetic as him, and he didn't rely on connections or find anyone. He went to school three more times before he was promoted to fourth grade. I was already in the first grade of junior high school.
We spend every holiday together. I don’t often go back to my house, so I squeeze in with him at his house. His family has two bedrooms and one living room, one for his parents and one for his three sisters. His single bed can only be placed on the narrow balcony. We were inseparable, but I had no idea how the magic of the extra three years had worked on him. I only know that after that, his ambition to become a writer was very firm. I think it's not difficult. He has three sisters and there is no shortage of good materials. He loves life and is proficient in playing cards, billiards, and swimming...and he either doesn't say anything, but does what he says, and never breaks his promise. .
The year I went to college, he graduated from junior high school and left campus forever. He was seventeen years old and fell in love with a girl named Ying'er from the family of the director of the prefabricated factory. Ying'er loves reading books and writers, which strengthens Luo Qi's determination to become a writer. Ying'er's mother often asks me to tutor her in English. Her parents were very at ease with us. In the middle of summer, we were left alone in the room, sitting on opposite sides of the desk at right angles. Before I go or when I first come in, she always has just finished washing her hair or is washing her hair. She is wearing a floral skirt, shaking her fragrant hair, tilting her head to look at me in the mottled light. Her clear eyes flashed darkly, which made me feel that Rozzi's liking for her was worthy of his happiness.
My university is 1,400 kilometers away from the mine. Yinger often writes to me, saying that Luo Qi went to Baotou and it was inconvenient to contact us more due to work. I have been thinking about him in my heart. When I was in my junior year, I talked to Ying'er on the phone, and she mentioned that he still had the desire to become a writer. After hanging up the phone, I felt a little disappointed. The friend who had been inseparable from me since childhood and shared secrets and dreams with me has not been in contact with me for so long. It is really sad to grow up. If he doesn't contact me, I won't contact him either. On September 29, I also had a girlfriend. I rarely communicated with Ying'er from then on, and there was no news from Luo Qi. When I got married, I didn't invite him. My aunt told me that his father said that the friend he was with in Baotou had a conflict with someone else, but fortunately he was fine. Ying'er also got married and became a teacher, teaching the Chinese language she had loved since she was a child.
Auntie said that when Luo Qi later returned to the mine from Baotou, he would often stand on the roadside opposite the bungalow where we lived with his hands hanging and look around. I felt sad in my heart, and there was an incomparable certainty that what he was looking at must be the window I often looked out of when I was tutoring Ying'er.
I have not been back to the mine for many years, and the dreams of my youth linger in my heart like a mystery. It’s my birthday again, and the friends I lost along the way roared into my heart like a train. I couldn't bear it anymore and called Ying'er. She said that Luo Qi was driving in a small car class and wrote a book manuscript between work and hard life. He did what he said, and my heart felt clear, at ease and relieved. This news is the best birthday gift I have ever received. The next day was May 21st, which was also his birthday.
We missed what we missed in the torrential rain of fate, and we also achieved what we wanted to achieve in the vicissitudes of growth, and fulfilled our dreams. (Zhang Xiaofei)
