The wind blows through the streets at six o'clock in the morning.
A quaint and neat study room in an old apartment with three bedrooms and one living room in the Faculty and Staff Building of Zhongda University.
When the sky turns white, the street lights outside the window are almost extinguished.
The old professor, who was nearly sixty years old, finally put down the thick stack of manuscripts in his hands.
After sitting for more than ten minutes, he raised his hand to take off his reading glasses, and his shoulders slowly collapsed while he was sitting upright.
He stroked his temples and sighed.
In the late winter morning, everything is silent.
There wasn't even a bird outside the window.
The professor carefully rearranged the pile of papers and put them into the document bag. Then he stood up and planned to go to the living room to get a glass of water.
After staying up all night, my steps were a little unsteady, but my expression was not tired.
He opened the door and found his equally elderly wife standing at the door with sleepy eyes and a worried look on her face.
"Old Shen, you should take it easy as you are getting older. You are just changing your homework. You can do it during the day. Why stay up all night? You need to change your stubborn temper."
Shen Jin nodded towards his wife, rarely refuting.
The professor, who has experienced hardships for most of his life and traveled to dozens of countries around the world, now has cloudy and bloodshot eyes and a bit of a lump in his throat: "Yes, I am too stubborn."
He murmured something that his wife couldn't quite understand.
"I just stayed up all night."
"My student, he has survived for several years."
*
Winter is getting more and more unruly.
There is cool wind and snow day and night.
Gu Jianian asked Chen Yu for a week's leave, and finally had time to prepare for the final exams of each subject.
I was busy with my thesis a while ago and inevitably fell behind in my review process, so I had to stay up a few more nights.
On the afternoon of the day before Christmas, she finally finished the last subject of ancient Chinese literature.
After handing in the paper, Gu Jianian breathed a sigh of relief and lay down for a while, his temples hurting like needles.
It does seem to be a bit much this time.
After spinning for two or three weeks, even a young body can no longer bear it.
Fortunately it's all over.
Gu Jianian didn't stand up until the teaching assistant finished counting the test papers and the students had left one after another.
She wrapped her cotton-padded jacket tightly around her body, narrowed her eyes and walked out of the teaching building.
The midday wind in winter picked up the dry leaves on the ground and rolled up the corners of her skirt and slightly wet hair.
After entering college, Gu Jianian wore skirts almost all spring, summer, autumn and winter, but the materials and styles were different. It was as if he wanted to make up for all the long skirt dreams he had when he was a bloated and rustic girl.
The wind was so strong that it seemed to blow people down.
Gu Jianian closed his eyes, stabilized his lopsided steps, and walked towards the bedroom through the snow on the ground, retracting his hands into his sleeves along the way.
Within a few minutes of walking, I lost all feeling in my toes in my shoes.
Although the winter temperature in Rishan is higher than that in Beilin, the feeling is not much better.
The air is filled with the humid water vapor belonging to the south, and the water vapor is also as cold as ice, trapping people from all directions - even the clothes, shoes and socks worn every day are wet and cold.
Some time ago, Men had been working on his thesis from early in the morning to late at night, and for the first time in his life, Gu Jianian's fingers developed ugly frostbite.
The wound hurt and itched, scabs formed when scratched, and one finger swelled to twice its size.
The wind poured in from the hem of the cotton-padded jacket, making my whole body feel chilly.