High School Reunion

I got up early on May 5th. All previous gatherings had been missed, so today became my first meeting with high school classmates in over a year.

I put on my clothes, pants, and took a glance in the mirror, finding myself still looking the same as I did a year ago. Nothing had changed.

Then, I drank some water and headed out.

The familiar road, the familiar bus, and I still got off at Anzhen Bridge to wait for her.

She was late again, but this time I didn’t urge her. If she didn’t show up, I would leave.

Then she arrived.

We got on the bus, and as usual, I initiated conversations.

After getting off the bus, we arrived at the entrance of Shidu, which had already gone out of business. I recalled that we used to hang out inside a long time ago.

Then we came to that intersection again. I remembered that she once waited for me at this intersection, and we went to school together.

We walked past and met Gege.

Same old style, with his 28-inch bicycle, two sizes larger than him, still unchanged.

We chatted casually, and she said she needed to withdraw some money. I didn’t need to follow her anymore.

We met up with old classmates, Xiao Pangzi and Guai Li, who still looked the same.

Even their hairstyles hadn’t changed.

After a while, Malone, Lulu, and Huang Chao arrived.

Everyone exchanged greetings.

“Xiao Zhi”

I hadn’t heard this name in over a year.

Then, Jiao Jiao and Fei Fei arrived, followed by Xu Hao, Lin Huan, Su Wei, Shi Jia, and Da Tou.

There were also many classmates from the liberal arts class.

We stood at the school gate, chatting, and suddenly it felt like time had gone back to before the college entrance exams.

However, we had already spent a year in college.

I suddenly felt that this year could be completely ignored because I had re-entered that group, which had existed for three years.

Lin Huan suddenly said with deep feeling, “I remember when we first started high school, Liu Xinghua said that after we go to college, we will never find friendships like the ones we had in high school. Now, thinking about it, it’s really true. Being with college classmates is not the same as being with high school classmates; we can’t be as open and honest.”

I nodded in agreement.

However, I was originally a loner, so whether in high school or college, I was the same – I liked being alone. I just felt that high school had an extra bit of warmth, perhaps because we were younger then, and perhaps because we were all under the heavy pressure of the college entrance exams, so we needed companions.

More and more people arrived, and we went to eat.

At the dinner table, the conversation was still lively.

The eldest was still talking about those intellectual problems that only he found interesting, but now he was from Tsinghua University.

He kept asking us about our lives, and it felt like everything had just begun, like we had just finished the college entrance exams a few weeks ago.

By the way, the invincible kid who repeated a grade is now preparing for the college entrance exams again.

Maybe I can sleep at home, but he has to do homework. What kind of life is that?

I suddenly felt that I was really great back then, even though the results were not satisfactory.

Xu Hao continued to tease me, saying, “You wanted to go to Peking University, but why did you end up at an agricultural university?”

I was speechless. In the past, I would say, “Just watch, I’ll get over 620 on the next mock exam.”

Now, there are no more mock exams or college entrance exams. I can only admit that I’m an agricultural university student.

Then we continued chatting, and there were always topics to discuss.

After dinner, we went to Gege’s home.

In three years, I had been to his doorstep twice but never entered.

Finally, after going to college, I visited his home for the first time.

On the way, we talked about those who participated in the Olympiad, the top students in the experimental class, and those who were my targets or the ones I had lost to.

Another circle.

Listening to their stories, I felt like it was my own story.

We also talked about philosophy, school, and many trivial things.

Then we said our goodbyes.

Xu Hao and I went to a bookstore, Wangfujing Bookstore. I used to come here to buy competition materials, and now, looking at the college entrance exam section, there were still many exam papers and mock tests. I knew that even if I took the exam 10 more times, I would never be able to finish all the questions – although I did have such “ambitions” back then.

I bought an English teaching reference book and felt regretful that I still hadn’t learned much English.

Xu Hao and I walked back to school, passing by that familiar bus station. We didn’t care about time.

There were many people on Wangfujing Street. I had been there many times over the past three years – with her, with myself, with another her, and with him, him, and him.

Today was another time. I knew that life was like this – familiar yet strange, one time after another.

As I took the bus home, I suddenly felt like a high school student or a junior high school student on my way home.

Haha, I’ve already completed 1/4 of my college life, or maybe 3/4.

I really miss that indescribable high school life.