round spring

In 2003, in the special season of that year, I wandered in long and short dreams every day. In my dreams, there were stars, flowers, birch forests, and Brother Chun...

——An Yuan's Diary

For the next two years, An Yuan would go back every year, staying for less than half a month each time, but deliberately avoided Shen Xing's spring, winter and summer vacations.

There were a few more messages in their respective mobile phones, but they were still just wishes for holidays or birthdays.

An Guoqing was released from prison in June 2002. An Yuan, Jiang Lan and Grandpa Shen went to pick him up that day. The birch forest is full of green.

The information about An Yuan and Shen Xingchun gradually increased after another new year, because of the special spring of that year, SARS in 2003.

Grandma watched the news on TV every day, domestic news and international news. During the day, she called Shen Xingchun in Beijing, and at night she estimated the time and then called An Yuan in Washington.

An Yuan's reply to Shen Xingchun was linked to the last one sent by Shen Xingchun more than three months ago: Xiaoyuan, 20 years old, happy birthday!

An Yuan sent Shen Xingchun a message in April: "Brother Chun, you are safe."

After that, they would send each other a text message every day. Although there was a thirteen-hour time difference, it didn't hinder anything. The two of them would just say something to each other in the text message, as long as they could receive a reply from the other party.

An Yuan told Shen Xingchun about the weather in Washington in the morning, the school lunch at noon, and the homeless man he met on the way home alone a few days ago. He would often take some photos and send them to Shen Xingchun, the wild cats on the roadside, the classroom windows. A tree, my own desk, and a group photo with my classmates.

Shen Xingchun sat on the edge of the bed in the dormitory, flipping through the text messages he had sent with An Yuan.

An Yuan: "Brother, it's raining in Washington today."

Shen Xingchun: "Beijing is sunny now."

An Yuan: "There are a lot of classes recently."

Shen Xingchun has already studied for the second time, and replied: "I also stayed in the laboratory for a week, tired."

An Yuan often complained to Shen Xingchun about Washington's food. He didn't like western food. Although Jiang Lan's accommodation was near his school, he didn't go back to eat every day. During dinner, he told Shen Xingchun that he wanted to eat grandma's cooking. red bean paste buns.

After An Yuan finished posting, she also sent a picture to Shen Xingchun. He has no class today, and An Guoqing made him dinner.

"There is no class break today. I went home for dinner. Dad cooks. The dishes he cooks are delicious, but he can't make bean paste buns, and neither can my mother."

After An Yuan sent the photos, he sat on the dining chair, holding chopsticks in one hand and cell phone in the other. After waiting for a long time, Shen Xingchun didn't reply. He kept flipping through the messages, reading each word word by word. SMS.

An Guoqing, who was sitting next to An Yuan, noticed that An Yuan was staring at his phone in a daze, and gave him a piece of braised pork. Taking this opportunity, he tilted his neck and looked at his phone vigorously, urging him, "Little Yuaner, eat a piece of meat."

An Yuan glanced at An Guoqing from the corner of his eye, put his phone on the table, pushed An Guoqing's arm with a smile, and turned to look at him, "Comrade Guoqing, why are you still peeking at someone's phone?"

An Guoqing sat up straight with a smile, and asked him: "Who does Xiao Yuaner read text messages? So serious, is she in love? Or was it a text message sent to you by a little girl?"

"I don't have a date, and it's not a text message from a girl." An Yuan picked up the chopsticks, picked up the bowl and continued to eat, and added slowly, "It's a text message from my brother."

"A text message from Dachun?" An Guoqing asked.

An Yuan gave a "hmm" and nodded, "It's Brother Chun."

When Jiang Lan heard this, she looked up at An Yuan, noticed that the corners of An Yuan's mouth were still curled up while eating, coughed lightly, and asked, "Xiao Yuan'er, do you usually keep in touch with your brother?"

An Yuan thought for a while, if counting the previous few years, they had almost no contact, but if counting the constant daily text messages in the recent period, it seems that there are quite a lot, he finally compromised and said: "It's okay. "

An Guoqing was still talking next to him, "In the two years since you first came to Washington, during the spring and winter vacations, you often visited me by yourself and brought messages to your grandparents, but he always asked me about your situation and whether you wrote a letter through me. At that time, I thought something was wrong with you two, but now I see that you two are doing well."

Jiang Lan saw that An Yuan was distracted, and that he was eating more and more slowly. He touched An Guoqing's leg with the tip of his shoe under the table, signaled him to stop talking, put down his chopsticks, and said to An Guoqing, "I'm full." , eat quickly, there is an emergency meeting to be held later."

An Guoqing picked up the bowl and quickly took two mouthfuls of rice. After eating, he put down his chopsticks and stood up, followed Jiang Lan out the door.

After An Guoqing was released from prison, he came to Washington with An Yuan. During the years when Jiang Lan went abroad, he had been working hard alone. After a long time, An Yuan saw that they were both single. Finally, under his intentional arrangement, An Guoqing In the past two years, he has been helping Jiang Lan with some company matters.

An Yuan watched An Guoqing and Jiang Lan go out one after the other, and then turned to look at the phone that was upside down on the dining table, but Shen Xingchun still didn't reply.

Shen Xingchun's school was closed in mid-April. He entered two words into his phone, thinking of replying to An Yuan's message, but Wen Le pulled him up by the arm.

Wen Le pulled Shen Xingchun to stand in the middle of the dormitory, looked him up and down and said, "Come on, let me see, this body is really handsome."

After Wen Le finished speaking, he pulled Shen Xingchun's red vest with the volunteer logo on it, and the name of the school was printed on the vest.

"Just a vest." Shen Xingchun said.

"I mean the guy in the volunteer vest is handsome," Wen Le gave him a thumbs up, "It's really handsome."

Shen Xingchun was thinking about replying to An Yuan's message, but without saying a word to Wen Le, he turned around to get the mobile phone beside the bed, but Wen Le grabbed his arm again.

Wen Le dragged Shen Xingchun to the middle of the dormitory again, picked up the camera from the desk next to him and hung it around his neck, shook it left and right to find an angle, and waved to Shen Xingchun, "Dachun, you stand in the middle, I will Let’s take a photo with you as a souvenir.”

Shen Xingchun raised his hand to cover his face, and said with a smile: "No need to shoot, keep it, keep it, don't keep it."

Wen Le held the camera in his hand and faced Shen Xingchun for a long time. Shen Xingchun kept covering his face with his hands. He usually didn't like to take pictures and was not used to facing the camera.

Wen Le couldn't take a picture of his face, so he had to put down the camera, "This red vest is so pretty, it would be a pity not to take pictures."

"No shoot, no shoot." Shen Xingchun waved his hand.

"If you don't want to take pictures, don't take pictures," Wen Le had to put away the camera, and then handed the watering can with disinfectant on the table to Shen Xingchun, "You spray it in the dormitory, and I'll fetch two jugs of water."

Shen Xingchun took the watering can and sprayed it inside and out, as well as the balcony and corridor.

When Wen Le came back from fetching water, Shen Xingchun had just washed his hands and had already put on a mask on his face. Seeing that he was back, he took his mobile phone and went out, "You called me just now, I'll go get busy first."

Wen Le raised his finger and pointed to his mask, "Wear the mask well, don't take it off."

"No picking." Shen Xingchun said while walking.

As soon as he walked to the door and opened it, Wen Le called him behind him, "Hey, Dachun, turn around."

When Shen Xingchun turned his head, Wen Le raised the camera to point at Shen Xingchun, pressed the button with his finger, there was a "click", the lights flashed, and the picture was frozen.

An Yuan slept very late at night. In the past few years, his sleep quality has not been good. Most of the time, he couldn't fall asleep. Even when he fell asleep, he always dreamed. It was almost a little late, and he just came out of the bathroom after taking a shower.

As soon as he opened the bathroom door, he heard the phone on the desk vibrate, it was a text message.

He walked over to pick up the phone, thought it was a message from Shen Xingchun, but found out that it was Wen Le, and Wen Le sent him a MMS photo.

There was another vibration, and Wenle sent another message: Xiaoyuaner, look at your brother, a school volunteer, so handsome.

An Yuanxin said, of course my brother is handsome, he has always been so handsome.

An Yuan said it was easy in his heart, but his fingers were a little unsteady when he opened the MMS, and he clicked it several times before he opened it.

The photos sent by Wen Le are very clear. Shen Xingchun is wearing a red volunteer cap on his head, and the hair on both sides of the exposed sideburns is still very short. He wears a gray long-sleeved shirt and a red volunteer vest. One hand was still on the doorknob, and a white mask was on his face, covering most of his face, only a pair of eyes were exposed, and he was a little dazed looking at the camera. A few rays of sunlight shone in his eyes, long And bright.

An Yuan sat at the desk, stared at the photo for a long, long time, then sat on the edge of the bed, watched it while lying on the bed, rubbed his fingers back and forth on the screen from time to time, and said to himself, Brother Chun has lost weight.

Just when An Yuan was in a daze and was about to fall asleep holding the phone, the phone vibrated in his chest.

An Yuan felt a numbness in his chest while he was half asleep and half awake. He held the phone in front of his eyes and squinted at it. When he saw clearly that the name in the note was "Brother Chun", he woke up completely. He got up and sat on the bed, rubbed his eyes and clicked on the text message.

When An Yuan read the text message, he thought he was dreaming. He closed the phone and turned it on again. After repeating it many times, he stared at the words on it for a long time. Finally, he confirmed that it was not a dream. It was indeed a text message from Shen Xingchun. Shen Xingchun replied to him. It was the last message he sent.

"Xiao Yuan'er, if SARS is over in winter, come back during the Chinese New Year and ask grandma to make you bean paste buns."