On May 12, 2008, Wenchuan earthquake of magnitude 8.0 occurred, and aftershocks of magnitude 6.5 to 7.0 occurred in Shaanxi and Gansu.
That day, Luo Qiqi, who was in San Francisco, drove to work as usual, arrived at the office 30 minutes earlier, drank milk, and sent and received emails on the Internet. Suddenly, she saw the news of the Wenchuan earthquake, clicked in shock, and confirmed this. authenticity of the message.
After a few minutes of numbness in her brain, she suddenly realized that Sichuan borders Shaanxi. If such a big earthquake occurs in Sichuan, Shaanxi will definitely be affected. It was the early morning of Chinese time. She called her home, but no one answered. She changed her father's cell phone, but no one answered. She changed her mother's cell phone, but no one answered. She changed her sister's cell phone, but no one answered.
Qi Qi called her parents over and over again, and her hands began to tremble amid the unanswered calls.
Chinese colleague Xiaoling's parents are in Chengdu. When the phone couldn't get through, she lay on her desk and cried.
All morning, Luo Qiqi didn't do anything, just made phone calls and refreshed the web page again and again, but the earthquake had just happened, and even the magnitude of the earthquake was not really determined, and there were very few reports on the Internet. In order to understand the impact on Shaanxi Province, she found a map of China, used a ruler to measure the distance between Xi'an and Wenchuan, and calculated the actual spatial distance according to the scale. She also called an alumnus of MIT who studies crustal movement and asked him about the transmission of earthquakes. the second-order law of diminishing returns. By the time she got off work, she had become half an earthquake expert.
In the evening, the phone finally got through. Dad said, "Everyone is fine, the house is fine, just a few pieces of the ceiling fell off, and the TV was smashed a little out of shape. Don't worry, Yuan Yuan has been with us all the time."
Qi Qi asked her relatives one by one, confirmed everyone's safety, and gave her sister a thousand warnings.
Just as she was about to hang up, her sister said, "You can call me on my cell phone in ten minutes. I have something to tell you."
Ten minutes later, Luo Qiqi called her sister's phone: "What's the matter?"
"Sister, do you count how many years you haven't been back to China? You went to the United States, not the moon! After the earthquake yesterday afternoon, we didn't dare to sleep in the house, we slept in the street all night, and my parents kept talking about you. Even the President of the United States wants to go home to visit his parents, right? You are so busy that you don't even have time to go home? I know you gave your family a lot of money, the house where my parents live, and the car I drive is yours Money, if it weren't for you, my parents and I might still be in the 1970s-style bungalow, but do you know that my father has liver cirrhosis? Did you accompany my mother to the hospital? If we were at the epicenter, would you ever think about it? You won't be able to see us anymore..." Luo Yuanyuan burst into tears, 50% fear of life and death, and 50% empathy for the tragic earthquake.
Luo Qiqi didn't say a word. After a long time, she said, "I will arrange a vacation as soon as possible and go back to China."
Luo Yuanyuan laughed while crying: "It's almost the same, my parents will definitely be very happy."
Although I have decided to take a vacation, I can't say that I can leave when I go to work. When Luo Qiqi has everything arranged, it is already September.
All the Chinese returning home were carrying large and small bags, but she only brought a medium-sized suitcase. It took more than ten hours to fly from San Francisco to Beijing.
Luo Qiqi thought in a trance that more than ten hours was only a quarter of the time it took to travel to Beijing by train. It turns out that the Pacific Ocean is not that far away.
At Xi'an Airport, I picked up my luggage, walked out, and heard someone shouting: "Sister, sister."
A beautifully dressed woman kept waving at her.
I haven't seen each other for four years, and it's a little strange, but when my sister hugged her, the familiarity from blood came back in an instant.
Yuanyuan is still the same as before, she likes to talk. While driving, she kept talking, asking about things in the United States, rambled about domestic life, and said cheerfully: "Oh, by the way, that day my colleagues and I went to the tax office to do business, and those civil servants were not as beautiful as peach and plum. But he was absolutely cold. Then suddenly a person appeared. I didn't know him, but he knew me. He said 'is your sister Luo Qiqi', and I said 'yes', and he asked his colleagues to help us make things smooth. We I want to thank him, people say, 'It's a small effort, your sister and I are old classmates', I used to tell my colleagues that you have been outstanding since childhood, but my colleagues still don't believe it, they always say I'm bragging. ."
Luo Qiqi pretended to be tired and closed her eyes. Has she been an outstanding person since she was a child? Is it her memory that is too good, or is it that others are too forgetful
The car was parked downstairs, Qi Qi didn't have the familiar feeling of coming home, and she didn't even know what floor the house was on. Like a guest, she let Yuan Yuan lead her.
The food prepared by my mother was surprisingly rich, and it seemed that she would make up for what Luo Qiqi had not eaten in four years.
Luo Qiqi is only responsible for eating, not talking. But the dinner table with Luo Yuanyuan is never deserted. She talks and laughs, compares and draws, sometimes talks about the leader's appearance, and sometimes talks about colleagues' gossip, which makes the whole family laugh and laugh.
While eating, her mother said tentatively, "Qiqi, if you meet the right person, be more attentive to yourself. No matter how successful a girl is in her career, she must start a family. You have to be an example to your sister, otherwise she Always confidently say, 'My sister doesn't have a boyfriend either'."
Yuan Yuan frowned toward Qi Qi, and said in a low voice that everyone at the table could hear: "You are still smart, staying abroad, you can't hear these nagging at all, next time you nagging me urgently. Now, I'll go to join you."
Mom and Dad laughed: "Just like you, you barely passed the Level 4 exam three times in college, and you still go abroad?"
"Good Chinese, why do you need to take the English test? If you fail the test, you won't be allowed to graduate, crazy! Why haven't you seen a British college student take the Chinese test?"
"Then you don't speak English, your professional grades..."
"You say it again, say I won't eat anymore!"
Yuanyuan stared arrogantly, and her parents immediately surrendered as before: "Actually, there is no need to test English, and it is rarely used in normal times. Those who use it should take the test."
Luo Qiqi listened with a smile, enjoying this little happiness.
After dinner, Yuanyuan led Qiqi to visit her bedroom.
The house was bought after Luo Qiqi went abroad. She paid more than 400,000 yuan, and her parents paid for the decoration cost. Because this bedroom is reserved for Qi Qi, and no one has ever used it. The desk, bed, and bookcase are all new. There is no memory of any time. Only the books on the bookshelf look familiar.
Qi Qi took "A Dream of Red Mansions", sat on the edge of the bed, and flipped through it. In the 1979 edition, the paper has turned a little yellow, and it is hard to believe that this book is actually thirty years old.
Yuanyuan said as if asking for credit: "How is it? I'll help you keep your baby intact." She opened the door under the bookcase, "The sealed box with your autograph is here, I've never opened it."
Qi Qi stared at the box silently, Yuan Yuan smiled and said, "You have a good rest, and when you have a good rest, I will accompany you to eat all over the streets and alleys."
Qi Qi took out the box, but did not open it, just rubbed the signature on the box with her fingers. The signatures were written in her senior year of high school, when she was seventeen. After so many years, in fact, even she herself couldn't remember what was inside.
She sat silently for a while, stuffing the box back into the bookcase beside the bed.
After taking a bath, Luo Qiqi sent an email to Shen Yuanzhe, Yang Jun, and Lin still. They were her only surviving friends from high school, lost touch since she left the country, and she wasn't quite sure if the emails were still working.
She was obviously very tired, but maybe because of the jet lag, maybe because the box carrying the past was next to the pillow, she tossed and turned and couldn't sleep well.
The next morning, she was brushing her teeth when the phone rang.
"Qiqi, your phone number."
She hurriedly spit out the mouthwash, ran over, and picked up the phone: "Hello?"
"Luo Qiqi, your voice has changed a lot."
This way of speaking can't be the steady Shen Yuanzhe, "Yang Jun, are you..." She looked down at the caller ID, "You work in Beijing?"
"Yeah, what about you? Is your return to China temporary or long-term?"
"Temporarily, but the vacation is quite long, one month."
"When will I go back, will I pass through Beijing? When Lin Yiran and I meet together, I always mention you, a ruthless bastard, thinking how enviable our triangular relationship was back then!"
"That's good. When I go back to Beijing, you invite us to dinner."
"Sure, as long as you come, I will accompany you to eat anything."
"It seems that you are rich now."
"Damn, no matter how rich you are, you won't dare to compare yourself with the dollar earners."
"Come on, the dollar is depreciating, don't you know? Do you have a girlfriend? Has it come to a conclusion with Tong Yunzhu?"
Yang Jun just smiled and didn't answer. After a while, he said, "I don't have a girlfriend yet."
"Classmate, listen to my advice. Don't hang yourself from a tree. You are still learning computers. Don't you know that important files should be backed up?"
Yang Jun asked calmly, "Classmate, what about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"
Luo Qiqi said angrily: "Not yet."
Yang Jun laughed loudly: "Lin still is married, and the child is almost a year old. She is a girl, especially like her, she is completely a little still."
"That's great. I approve her to bring her family to our triangular relationship banquet."
"Okay! It's not you who paid anyway. By the way, what do you want to do when you return to China this time? Have you thought about going back to your hometown?"
"It's mainly to accompany my parents, and I haven't thought about anything else."
"Alas! You have just returned, and you are still full of revolutionary romantic feelings. When you live with your parents under the same roof for two weeks, you will know what it is like to be a class enemy. I have already summarized my relationship with my parents. , absolutely fragrant and smelly."
Luo Qiqi just laughed and didn't speak.
Yang Jun said: "I hung up the phone first. All my contact information has been sent to your mailbox. If you have anything, you can find me at any time. We are friends who grew up together. You have to be polite to me. get angry."
"I see."
"Give your mother the phone, and I'll say hello to Auntie."
Luo Qiqi handed the phone to her mother, heard her happy laughter, and repeated, "Oh, don't you have a girlfriend yet?"
Luo Qiqi shook her head and smiled, and continued to brush her teeth and wash her face.
After living at home for two consecutive weeks, Luo Qiqi began to understand Yang Jun's theory.
She and her parents have not yet become class enemies, but they are obviously not as important as when they first came back. Mom began to dance in the park again, and Dad often ran to find chess friends, but he stopped holding her to ask questions.
Luo Yuanyuan is still loyal, and still tries to make time to accompany her sister, but it is estimated that the last time of patience is reached: "Sister, when will you return to the United States?"
Luo Qiqi smiled: "I will leave Xi'an next week."
"go to Beijing?"
"No, go back to where we grew up first, then go to Beijing to meet classmates, and then go back to San Francisco."
A week later, Luo Qiqi successfully completed the mission of visiting relatives and left Xi'an with the farewell of his parents and sisters.
After a two-hour flight, Luo Qiqi arrived at her destination.
As soon as I walked out of the airport, the heat wave hit me, at least 2°C higher than Xi'an. The wind was strong and her hair was blown away. Luo Qiqi kept looking left and right as she walked. Like the tourists around her, she couldn't tell that she had lived in this city for ten years.
Sitting in the taxi, Luo Qiqi looked out of the car window with a dazed expression. The changes on both sides of the road were so great that she couldn't find the kindness that she was familiar with.
The taxi driver asked her, "Miss, are you visiting? What attractions are you interested in?"
"No." After a pause, she added, "I grew up here when I was a kid."
The driver originally wanted to sell the tour charter business, but he didn't expect to look away. When he met a local, he smiled and said, "It's been a long time since you looked like this, haven't you?"
"ten years."
"Ouch! That's long enough!"
"Yeah!" was a long time.
When we arrived at the hotel, it was already dark.
After Luo Qiqi took a bath, she tossed and turned on the bed and couldn't fall asleep.
Back in the city, she was a little dazed all the way, and she was faintly excited.
Since she couldn't sleep, she simply got up, stood on the terrace, and looked at the blurred lights of the city, but couldn't see which light was her home.
After so many years, this place still touches her heart.
Freud, the master of psychology, believed that all behaviors of a person are affected by childhood experiences, so all cause and effect must be traced back to the beginning of life...