Cai Wei

【Seventeen】

It was another Spring Festival, and as always, I was drowsy leaning on Lin Ximing's shoulder. These days I lived an ordinary and comfortable life, except for the occasional air raid sirens, but it was still very peaceful.I like the people here, their days are ordinary but peaceful and beautiful. When walking on the road, I watched them walk past them briskly. Even though they were dressed in rags, their steps were still firm and confident. Know where you came from and where you are going.

I got sick at the end of last year, it’s nothing, my body will definitely get sick once or twice a year, it’s not uncommon to have a cough, a cold and a fever, and it’s not uncommon to lie on the bed with a fever and feel weak and just want to sleep, Lin Ximing and I have lived with me for so many years, and I have encountered such a disease 99 times, if not a hundred times.This time it was not that serious, but one day during an air raid a shell exploded not far from me, I had no time to dodge and took a breath of the raised dust, and that night I couldn’t stop coughing, and the deep part of my throat was so itchy. People are unbearable.

Lin Ximing didn't sleep at all that night. Although he told me that he slept for a while, he didn't know that I was so uncomfortable that I stayed up all night and didn't want to move. I just closed my eyes to rest, so I knew he was watching me all the time.

Then the next day, my throat became inflamed, and I could hardly make any sounds. I started to have a headache. When I moved my mind, I felt unbearable pain and dizziness as if someone had inserted a stick into it and stirred it violently.He started to have a fever in the middle of the night, and involuntarily searched for Lin Ximing, whose body temperature was slightly cold, and leaned into his arms.Feeling that he woke up in a blur, got up and soaked a cold towel in well water for me and applied it on my forehead. I was startled by the coolness and woke up a little, but my eyes could not be opened, struggling on the verge of coma and wakefulness, All I know is that he tucked up the quilt for me and took the time to change the towel.

Lin Ximing is quite experienced with my problem. Although there is not much medicine left, there is still a lot.My mind cleared up a lot, so I didn't want to lie on the bed wasting a day, but was ordered to rest by Lin Ximing.

I felt like laughing in my heart, how can a person who has been bedridden for two days lack sleep, just looking at his determined eyes, I didn't make a sound and tried to get up, and lay back under the quilt, but passed along Lin Ximing.

The dark circles under the eyes are all black. Shouldn't this be the one who needs rest the most?

I watched him struggle for a long time between resting for a while and going out to buy medicine for me. For the first time, I felt a little helpless. I put my hands on his eyes and said, "Go to sleep first."

I felt his eyelashes rub against my palm, and finally closed my eyes. After a while, his breathing became steady, and he fell into a deep sleep within a minute.I was bored and covered the quilt and put on my coat, and sat reading a book.

Although the fever subsided quickly that time, he continued to cough and cough intermittently for nearly two months. Lin Ximing asked a well-known old Chinese doctor in the local area to see him, and prescribed some Chinese herbal medicines to drink. It relieved the pain of coughing and pulling on the chest, but it didn't stop the cough.If one inhales the cold wind in winter, the change will be painful, and the coughing can't be stopped at all, as if it is about to tear the heart and lungs, and finally stops with water, and there is a bloody smell in the windpipe.

I was just in pain physically, but for Lin Ximing, it was pain in his heart.

As I expected, on New Year's Eve, I couldn't hold back and fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was already broad daylight.Lin Ximing and I lay on the bed and slept in a rather disfigured way. I lay my pillow on his stomach, and when I woke up, I could feel the rise and fall of his breathing.I was lying down, looking at the intersection of the ceiling and the wall where the cobwebs hung, thinking that I didn’t have to go to class today and I had nothing to do, but an ancient sentence involuntarily popped up in my mind.

"The face and the pillow are in the boat. If you don't know the east, you will be white."

Suddenly want to drink.

You don't need to think about it to know that Lin Ximing won't let me drink it.

worry.

When I was thinking about it in a mess, I noticed that the body under my head moved, and Lin Ximing woke up.I turned over and propped myself up and looked down at him, and said with a smile, "Happy New Year, I love you."

He looked at me in a daze, his reaction was cutely slow, it took him a while to understand what I meant, and he said with a smile, "I love you too, Happy New Year."

The two of us were idle in the school building and had nothing to do, so we picked up the books to prepare for get out of class, but found that there was a book that we read when we were studying, and now we can’t find it, so we thought about asking Lin Ximing to visit Mrs. This book, by the way, also went to accompany Mr. Chen.Mr. Chen has no children, and he sent his wife away when he was old, so it is good to talk with him.

We knocked on the door of Mr. Chen's house, the same small wooden house, the interior is simple but it can be regarded as a sparrow, although it is small, it has all internal organs.We paid New Year greetings to Mr. Chen and explained our intentions.There was no expression on Mr. Chen's face full of years and honing, but I noticed that his hand that closed the door was trembling slightly.

Mr. Chen heard that we wanted to borrow books, so he took the key of the library and was going to get the books.Lin Ximing hurriedly stopped us, saying that we were not in a hurry, but wanted to chat with Mr. Chen.He said that if he borrowed the book back so early, Chang Weihua would be so engrossed in watching him completely forget his existence all day long. In order to prevent this from happening on the first day of the new year, please ask Mr. Wait a while and go to pick up the borrowed books.

I wanted to laugh when I heard it, it really is true that this guy has so much dissatisfaction in his heart.

Lin Ximing asked Mr. Chen where the teapot was, and I persuaded Mr. Chen to sit down and let Lin Ximing boil water to make tea. Mr. Chen took a bag of peanuts, which seemed to be new year's purchases for the Spring Festival, and invited me to eat together.Holding the hot tea brewed by Lin Ximing, I chatted with Chen Lao in the mist.

It's just that talking about the topic after all, still can't get away from the current battle situation.

After the fall of Wuhan on October 1938, 10, the national government launched its final resistance in Chongqing.In order to block the resistance force from war weapons and resources, the Japanese army wanted to completely block the Yunnan-Burma Railway. This is why Japanese bombers bombed Kunming more and more times.

Every time this was mentioned, old Chen's cloudy and yellow eyes would brim with tears again, and his hoarse and aged voice babbled about those ancient books that were turned into fly ash and flames during the bombing.

I can't always erase the images of the Nankai bombing two years ago from my mind. Some images are impossible to forget, even if you don't remember them clearly on weekdays, those colors and sounds are blurred in the meeting. , even looks like a vague dream.

But it is always there, maybe it is such an ordinary New Year, an ordinary talk, can make you remember that memory clearly, and then you suddenly realize that every ounce of that memory , are engraved deep in your mind, extremely clear, cannot be erased, and there is nowhere to escape.

The only ancient civilization whose culture has not been interrupted for 5000 years is the Chinese civilization. A large part of the reason why the culture of the Chinese nation lasts for a long time is that China has used words to record history since ancient times.The ancient Egyptian civilization was also brilliant for a time, and after the country was destroyed, the culture also dissipated in the long river of history. The reason is also because of its sacrificial civilization. All knowledge is in the hands of the clergy. When the priest class is destroyed, no one can see it. Know those cuneiform characters, and those books that record the once glorious civilization become a piece of waste paper, which can be left anywhere at will.

Whether it was the bombing of Nankai in 1937, the air raid of the Temporary University in Changsha, or the carpet bombing of the Southwest Associated University, they were all aimed at the destruction of educational institutions. The Japanese army really knew that destroying a country is destroying a culture.But if you think about it the other way around, as long as the fire of Yixing culture is not extinguished, this country, this nation, will not perish.

Seeing me wandering, Lin Ximing picked up the conversation and chatted with Mr. Chen. When I came back to my senses, I happened to hear Mr. Chen lamenting that since Southwest Associated University opened in Kunming, many local children want to go to school. Enter such a university to study.Lin Ximing said that this is also one of the purposes of our school.

"It's just that going to school is too expensive. Many families can't afford their children to study..." Mr. Chen peeled off a peanut and ate it. It would be nice to have an inexpensive teaching material that can spread widely.”

I continued with a wry smile, "We don't have enough teaching materials for such a bombing by the Japanese army."

"That's right..." Mr. Chen lifted the lid of his teacup and took a sip of tea, "Fortunately, the library of the United Nations University has never been hit by a bomb. I hope to move those precious books into the air-raid shelter, even if It’s better to bury the book when it collapses than to be burned to ashes.”

After finishing speaking, Mr. Chen shook his head first, sighed, his missing teeth were leaking, and said, "Forget it, this is not a happy ending, but when will this war end?"

Holding the teacup in my hand, I gently blew on the surface of the water, and everything in the mist was blurred, "Who knows."

Lin Ximing sat next to me with his eyes down, wondering what he was thinking.

The three of them were silent, and suddenly there was a heavy silence in the small room. About two or three minutes later, Mr. Chen sighed again and said to us, "Hey, let's go, get the books for Professor Chang."