Forever No.1

"How is she better than me?"

"She's not as good as you in everything."

"Then you are still with that woman?"

"At least I am a man in front of her, a man who is admired? Needed."

The boy who came home after school held the fifth-grade Mandarin textbook in one hand, and reached for the electric bell next to the gate with the other, but silently put down the hand that was about to ring the bell after hearing the voice from inside, and covered his ears with both hands, thinking With this action, he could not hear the sound of the quarrel, but the sharp sound kept piercing through his eardrums, allowing him to clearly hear everything that happened in the house.

He doesn't understand what "an affair" means, but he only knows that his father spends less and less time at home, and his mother hides from him and cries more and more times. The house that was originally full of laughter is only left with alienation and indifference.

Suddenly, the door was pushed open, and the person who came out of the house happened to see the boy standing outside the door. The boy took a few steps back unconsciously, with fear in his eyes.

"Even you despise me, don't you?"

The man made a self-deprecating statement, but he forgot that a ten-year-old child would have any thoughts of looking up or down. He took one last look at the child and left the place that had no value in his heart and no need to be nostalgic.

Inside the open door, the boy saw his always strong mother sitting on the sofa in the living room covering her face and crying. He didn't know how to comfort his mother, so he closed the door gently, turned around and walked back to the school he was most familiar with.

***

In the corridor next to the classroom, there are desks and chairs waiting to be replaced. On the steps at the end of the corridor, a boy hugs his knees and cries secretly.

"Hey! What's the matter with you? Are you hurt? Are you all right?"

Suddenly, a strange voice came from the front, and a boy of mixed race from Taiwan and Japan in a black shirt walked up to the steps, curiously asking the boy who was still in school after school.

"..."

After the boy raised his head and glanced at the other party, he buried his face in his arms again, allowing the tears to leave traces wet with tears on the light blue shirt sleeves.

"Here you are." The little boy took out a handkerchief from his trousers pocket and sat beside the boy, tugged at the hem of his clothes, and handed the handkerchief to him: "Don't cry, tears and snot are all glued together, it's ugly."

"none of your business."

The weeping man didn't take the handkerchief, but stubbornly wiped away his tears with his sleeve. "Why are you crying?"

"My father doesn't want me and my mother anymore."

Ten years old, although he still doesn't understand many things, he knows the meaning of the word "divorce".

A classmate who is a single-parent family said that divorce means that father and mother will be separated, and children can only choose to stay with father?Still with mom?

However, the whole family cannot live happily as before.

"But you still have a mother, unlike me..." The little boy looked down at the handkerchief he was always holding in his palm, and said earnestly, "My mother has gone to be an angel!"

"What does it mean to be an angel?"

The little boy patted his little friend on the shoulder and said comforting words like an adult: "It means that you can still see your father and mother, but no matter how sad or sad I am, my mother will never come back."

Looking at the sad expression, the boy finally took the white handkerchief from the opponent's hand, and wiped away the snot and tears stuck on his face.

"Otherwise, it's fine. I'll give you my father. Anyway, it's not good for me to be with him."

"How can anyone give their father to others casually."

The little boy listened to the other party's rebuttal, and nodded in agreement: "That's right, otherwise I will give myself to you, and if you have any unhappy things, come to me, and I will rely on you!"

"Pfft."

The boy who was crying with snot and tears all over his face was amused to laugh. The little boy looked at the little friend who finally showed a smile, and said in a childlike way: "It's good to laugh. My father said that it is better to smile than to cry." Make yourself stronger, because if you cry, you will cry alone, but if you smile, the whole world will smile with you."

"Smile together...?"

The boy listened to the words he didn't quite understand, and looked at the person sitting next to him wonderingly.

"Shu Yi, where are you?"

The two children were talking, when the sound of looking for someone suddenly came from a distance.

"I am here!"

The little boy stood up, patted the sand on his buttocks, walked down the steps, and ran towards the direction of the sound.Suddenly, he stopped, turned his head to look at the boy who was still sitting there, showed a big smile, and said, "Come to me if you want to cry, and I will help you. Oh yes, my name is Zhou Shuyi, from the fifth grade of Sanqiao Elementary School." How about you, class one?"

The little boy standing in the backlight with his back to the setting sun looks like an angel in a picture book, warm and kind.

The boy looked at the person standing in the sun and replied with red eyes, "My name is Gao Shide."

Zhou Shuyi nodded and smiled at the friend he just met: "Gao Shide, nice to meet you, I'll go home first!"

After speaking, he waved to Gao Shide before turning around and leaving.

The person sitting on the steps looked at the receding figure in a daze...

***

12 years later

In the dressing room, Zhou Shuyi stood in front of the mirror, adjusted his swimming trunks and swimming cap, took off the necklace hanging on his chest and kissed the pendant under the chain, and put it in the locker with care, closed the locker, and confidently looked at the picture in the mirror. Own.

My dad often told me that "failure is a matter of course, and success is a man." He used this attitude to chase from Japan to Taiwan, and finally chased my mother to be his wife.

Fang Zhengwen, I'm sorry, I want to get out of the order before you. As long as I get No.1 in the freshmen PK competition of the swimming club today, I will confess to the girl I have been in love with for many years.

"TODAYISMYDAY! If I get No.1 today, I will ───"

The unfinished words were replaced by a confident smile.

In this game, he is bound to win.

Jiang Yuxin, wait to accept the confession!

Together before graduation, they will become the campus couple envied by everyone.

There is a conspicuous banner at the entrance of the swimming pool on campus, and the banner with white characters on a blue background reads the words "Freshmen join the club to inherit the PK competition".

"Senior! Senior! Senior!"

"Zhou Shuyi! Zhou Shuyi! Zhou Shuyi!"

The person wearing the blue towel just stepped into the competition field, immediately causing screams and cheers, and naturally stood on the diving platform in the center, like a superstar who always stands in the C position, envious and adored by the surrounding I have long been used to it.

His eyes scanned the viewing area at the end of the swimming pool until he saw a familiar and beautiful face. Zhou Shuyi's cool face finally raised an arc of joy. girl, smile.

By the swimming pool, Liu Bingwei, who is in charge of hosting this competition, is a fourth-year student of the law department. Seeing that his friend, who is called a school grass, is so popular, he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth and picked up the microphone to speak.

"The welcome match between the veterans of the swimming team and the freshmen is about to begin. Seniors of the swimming club, please use your strongest strength to sprint!"

"come on! Come on!"

In the auditorium, Jiang Yuxin circled her hands into microphones and yelled at the diving area.Zhou Shuyi, who fell in love with Jiang Yuxin and planned to confess to her after the game, naturally thought that the girl was cheering for him, so he winked at her from the air and responded with a handsome smile.

Also standing on the diving platform, Fang Zhengwen, who was a childhood sweetheart with Jiang Yuxin and Zhou Shuyi, nodded to the excited girl and smiled shyly.

Liu Bingwei raised his gun and shouted into the microphone: "Get ready!"

The contestants uniformly made the preparatory actions before entering the water, and suddenly there was a loud roar from the crowd.

"Gao Shide! I love you!"

The sudden fangirl confession not only made the students sitting in the auditorium burst into laughter, even Zhou Shuyi, who was standing on the diving platform, turned his head in surprise because of this sentence, and stared at the contestant who was three channels away from him.

"Gao Shide! Why are you here... woo!"

Seeing someone standing on the diving platform for the competition, Zhou Shuyi straightened up suddenly, but because of too much force, his center of gravity was unstable, his feet slipped, and he fell into the competition-only swimming pool before he could finish his sentence.

Whoa!

Following the splashing water, Zhou Shuyi fell into the water unattractively. He wanted to surface immediately, but he didn't expect that as soon as his toes stepped on the bottom of the pool, he felt severe pain in the muscles of his right calf, and he had to bend over. Use your fingers to pinch the cramped area of ​​your lower body to relieve pain.

By the swimming pool, the audience who couldn't wait for the owner of the swimming club to surface thought it was a pre-arranged bridge, so they all stretched their necks and waited for the next surprise. Liu Bingwei, who hosted the event, also joked to Shen The general at the bottom of the pool shouted.

"Zhou Shuyi, it's too shameful for you to attract everyone's attention in this way!"

Even Jiang Yuxin, who was sitting in the auditorium, muttered to herself with question marks all over her face: "Couldn't that guy just be unable to dive out because he's too embarrassing?"

Only Fang Zhengwen, who was standing on the platform, frowned, stared at his friend curled up, and said:

"It doesn't seem right."

Whoa!

The sound of jumping into the swimming pool sounded again, and when everyone was talking, Gao Shide, who was also a player, jumped into the swimming pool and swam towards Zhou Shuyi, who had cramp in his calf.

When Zhou Shuyi saw that it was his deadly enemy who came to the rescue, he angrily pushed away his grasped arm, but Gao Shide hugged his waist forcefully and kicked the water to swim to the surface.

"Cough, cough, cough."

Zhou Shuyi, who came out of the water, coughed and glared at the person who was holding him and swimming towards the ladder. He couldn't help but think of the past, gritted his teeth and OS in his heart:

No wonder some people say: Frustration is the enemy of life; failure is the stone in life.

And the stone that always stood in front of him, making him unable to be proud anymore, obstructing the eyes and making people uncomfortable, is called——Gao? Shi? De!

***

Elementary School Auditorium

"Congratulations to Zhou Shuyi for being awarded No.1 in the whole school. Everyone applauds and encourages. Congratulations to Zhou Shuyi."

On the podium, Zhou Shuyi, a sixth-grade elementary school student, smiled and took the certificate of honor from the principal. The dean, who was standing on the right side of the podium, hurried over and said a few words to the principal in a low voice.

An embarrassing expression gradually appeared on the principal's face, he took away the certificate Zhou Shuyi was holding, confirmed the name on the certificate again, and nodded to the dean.So the director of teaching affairs asked another boy to exchange places with Zhou Shuyi to receive the award, and let him stand at the head of the line.

The principal raised the microphone again, and said to the teachers, students and parents who came to watch the ceremony:

"Sorry, I misread the kid's name just now. The No.1 student in the school this time is Gao Shide. Let's congratulate Gao with the warmest applause. Congratulations."

Clap clap clap clap!

Thunderous applause sounded from the bottom of the podium. Zhou Shuyi, who was forced to switch positions, stared unwillingly at the surrounded by halo and applause.

From that day on, Gao Shide was like an inescapable follower, from elementary school to junior high school? From junior high school to high school? Regardless of academic performance? Art competitions? Speech competitions? , he is "Wannian No.2", and he will always be severely suppressed by the name "Gao Shide" on the list, and he can't stand up no matter what.

So he vowed that one day, he would get rid of the shameful title of No.2 in Wannian, come to a beautiful and dazzling reversal, step on Gao Shide's pride, and regain his No.1 throne, because...

"What I hate most is being ─ ─ ─ pressed? Under? Underneath!"

***

Just after being rescued from the bottom of the pool and back to the swimming pool, 22-year-old Zhou Shuyi pushed away Gao Shide who was massaging his calf, gritted his teeth and glared at the guy who had the same appearance as the kid in his memory, dragging his cramp right leg, Angrily fled the venue of the game.