Friendship group portrait

Author: Lu Zhi (2011Level Foreign Languages College)

You are gnawing an apple in the cotton-wool sunshine of your dormitory, your hair is disheveled. I bought that apple.

You carry a washbasin full of dirty clothes to the laundry room downstairs to wash clothes, just like an old woman who has been struggling with firewood, rice, oil and salt for many years. There is something in that basin4Jeans for bed,1The bed coat and my gray sweater.

You go to your senior sister’s macroeconomics class, and I’m following you like a little kid.

You lie in bed and talk about the type of girls you like. I laugh at you and rush to tell you mine.

You said that your feet may never be able to do strenuous exercise again in the future. Everyone was silent.

You act cute in the camera, and we follow.

You sing with a hoarse voice, and I can’t help but sing along.

There was light in your eyes when you watched "Three Idiots".

You travel far.

You go play ball.

You didn't have breakfast.

You eat it for lunch1Quick5of rice.

You laugh, cry, choke, and remain silent.

You are happy, lost, angry, and decadent.

You, you.

If friendship is a verb. Then the subject of this verb must be you, and the object is me. Because I have always been a person who needs others to light me up.

Or maybe, growing up makes us all become objects. We will no longer express our emotions simply, with each word being sonorous and powerful. We thank you politely, choosing your words carefully. We are used to having reservations, and we are no longer as innocent as we used to be when we saw everything at a glance. We try to understand each other, and we get along cautiously and methodically. We all try to trust with shame because deep down we know that trusting completely is a sign of immaturity.

So, when I start writing with the word "you", I feel some inexplicable uneasiness in my heart. In the face of friendship, I am no longer what I thought I was back then.

Friend, I know you cannot forgive me, and you will not forgive yourself. We were thrown onto this deserted island in time and space, so we fell in love with each other in a rough and makeshift way. We see the ugliness and filth growing inside each other as we grow up, and we pity each other. Over time, it was gradually polished and hardened. Only in these instinctive behaviors that have nothing to do with the brain and only concern the heart, we can see the same appearance of each other in the years when we didn't know each other.

Hey, that’s it. Maybe we will say this after another season of lush green growth. We forgive each other and ourselves. Because when the torrent of time finally carries away the ugliness and filth, we will find that even if the road is no longer smooth, after turning a few corners and passing through several peaks, we have still arrived at the station together, walking together and supporting us all the way.

You smiled exaggeratedly, with a blush on your face, and you patted my shoulder hard.

You take pictures of the sunset on this meadow, and I take pictures of its morning sun.

You fill up the glass for me and tell me why you don’t clink glasses with me. If you don’t clink glasses with others, that’s called drinking.

You criticized me seriously, but after a while you couldn't help laughing.

You run up and help me straighten my collar.

Your camera is broken and you look distressed. I don't know how to comfort you.

You said I like this one. Then he said, you are too impetuous.

You are suddenly silent and in a daze in the corner. I secretly glance at you from the corner of my eye.

You fell asleep at your desk.

You stay up late with us.

You tell bad jokes.

You blow out the birthday candles.

You are drunk.

You wear a plaid shirt and you wear a navy blue skirt.

You dance and shout at the top of your lungs.

You, you.

I say, thank you for letting me stop wandering. I said, I hope it never ends.

Every time I tell myself not to be so pretentious, but I still can’t help it.

Express your love and attachment to each other without exaggeration, like clouds that sometimes gather and sometimes disperse. Don't ask deliberately, pay slowly, and be serious most of the time. It has its own vast space, but sometimes it also walks along narrow paths.

All emotions require no skills in the process of establishing and maintaining them. But such a comfortable and comfortable distance still makes everyone in it indulge in it for no reason.

Many things do not need to be advertised. Especially something like friendship, which itself has many beautiful words.

And falling in love with a feeling is like touching the carved patterns with your fingers, which coincides with some distant rhythm. Or maybe it’s a taste that travels through a long time and flows clearly into your blood.

So, let us continue to maintain such a light distance. I am careful not to praise friendship, for fear of scaring it away with naked praise. It is only through continuous action that you realize it. It's like, loving the same night, planting a melon vine under the moon and listening to the sound of its slow growth together. Just like, if you love the same sky, you will travel far together. Even if there is no hooking up, even if there is no cross talk, even if there is indifference, as long as we understand each other.

Nothing in the world lasts forever. So don't touch words like "forever". Getting on and off the train of friendship, taking a few gentle turns in time, maybe you and others are not what they used to be. Just forget about each other in the world. It’s just a stubborn hope that when we meet by chance one day, we can still smile at each other. Everyone feels a little happy in their hearts, just because we once participated in each other's lives so seriously.

Selected works from News Network’s “Reminiscences of Lost Time” solicitation event