Rabindranath Tagore once said: "Live like a summer flower, die like an autumn leaf."
At that time, Qing Nuan could not understand Tagore's poems. She only thought they were beautiful but could not fathom their profound meaning.
But on that day, Qing Nuan understood in an instant - life encounters are a long journey, and she was awakened by a young man during such a journey, just like the warm song sang: "The journey is full of spring and thorns, as short as a startling, and as gorgeous as a summer flower."
From then on, the boy's arrival lit up her entire life.
1
In her third year of junior high school, Qingnuan's mother passed away and Qingnuan transferred to another school.
Dad took her on a train to J City. The train was an express train, swaying along the railway. There were strange passengers in the carriage and strange scenery outside the carriage.
The journey was long. Dad leaned against the window and soon fell asleep, snoring softly. Qing Nuan was bored and sat in a seat next to the aisle, flipping through the junior high school textbooks of her new school. As an introverted transfer student, she was a little nervous and didn't know how her grades would rank in the new class, which was a key middle school in J City.
Qing Nuan was flipping through an English book and memorizing words in her mind.
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the carriage, and a fair-skinned young man was running hurriedly in the middle of the aisle.
Qing Nuan followed the sound and turned her head like most passengers, looking back, and happened to meet the boy's lively brown eyes. The boy seemed to be looking for something, and when he looked at Qing Nuan, a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He ran towards Qing Nuan.
Qing Nuan was nervous and didn't know what was going on. The boy only had time to say "Help me" in a panic, and then he crawled under Qing Nuan's seat and hid.
Qing Nuan had completely lost interest in memorizing words. She lowered her head and asked in a low voice, "Hey, what are you doing?"
The young man put his finger to his lips and made a gesture to keep quiet: "Shh! I'll tell you in detail later. Someone is chasing me. Please help me hide it first. I'm hiding here. Please help me!"
After saying that, he squeezed deeper into his seat again, just like a young hero in trouble in a martial arts movie.
Qing Nuan subconsciously pulled her floral skirt tighter, and two shy blushes unconsciously appeared on her face.
Less than two minutes later, a middle-aged man in a respectable suit caught up with them. Along the way, he asked passengers on both sides of the aisle: "Have you seen a little boy? He looks like he's in junior high school. Is he new here?"
"Yes, yes, yes, run to the front!" People who watch the fun don't mind the big deal.
Soon, the middle-aged man came in front of Qing Nuan.
Qing Nuan's palms were almost sweaty.
"Little girl, there was a little boy about your age just now, did you see where he ran?"
At that moment, Qing Nuan suddenly recalled many news events in her mind, such as kidnapping cases on trains, abduction cases of teenagers and so on. Any one of them would make her break out in a cold sweat.
Qing Nuan thought that the fair-skinned boy was so pitiful that he was abducted and sold.
Thinking of this, she stretched out her hand, pointed forward casually, and said, "Here he ran..."
Well, now I am also a heroine who will help others when I see injustice.
After a while, until the footsteps of the middle-aged man had faded away, the young man slowly emerged from under the seat and grinned : "Thanks! Can I borrow your seat?"
Qing Nuan's father was still sleeping soundly. Qing Nuan was thin, so it was not a problem for her to vacate half of the seat.
So Qing Nuan shrank back, leaving half of the seat empty .
"you……"
Qing Nuan lowered her head, wanting to ask something.
The boy patted the dust off his trouser legs and said with a smile: "Cheng Ge, my name is Cheng Ge!"
Qing Nuan nodded and asked again, "Why did you run?" Still unable to suppress her inner curiosity, Qing Nuan turned her head and said, "Who is that? The uncle who kidnapped you? If there is any trouble, why not call the police?"
After hearing this, Cheng Ge's expression was shocked, but then he came to his senses and laughed so hard that his stomach hurt.
"Hahaha, the uncle who trafficked me? Why would you think that?"
"If not, why would he chase you? Why did you run?" Qing Nuan asked puzzledly.
"Haha, that's my dad! My dad is very fierce. His education on me was like fascism, very coercive. I couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to go back to my grandma's house, but he wouldn't let me, so I bought a ticket secretly. Now, he's chasing me. I don't want to stay with him for even a minute."
That uncle is his father?
Qing Nuan suddenly felt overwhelmed. She actually helped him do something bad!
Qing Nuan was a little depressed, so she simply stopped talking to him, opened her English textbook again, and started to "close her eyes and ears, and focus on memorizing words." But she was interrupted by Cheng Ge after she had memorized for a while.
"Your efficiency in memorizing words is very low. Why don't you learn from me?" Cheng Ge held up the book in his hand. The words "Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore" were written on the cover of the book. Below the words were a row of small English words, indicating that this was an English version of the work.
Qing Nuan shook her head. With her level of English, she was not able to understand this kind of work.
Cheng Ge continued to explain: "This English version of poetry is translated very well. You can copy it down when you have nothing to do. I often did this when I was learning English. Learning some sentences that you like is much more interesting than memorizing grammar by rote."
Qing Nuan nodded: "Well, it's a good idea, I will try it later."
"J City Experimental Middle School, isn't this our school?" Cheng Ge was surprised when he saw the address of the school on Qing Nuan's book, and stared at the cover again, "The first volume of the third grade, hey, we are in the same grade, which class are you in?"
Unfortunately, Qing Nuan didn't have time to answer Cheng Ge because Cheng Ge's father came back from the other end of the carriage.
"Cheng Ge, come back here! Stop running around on the train!" The uncle in the suit was probably mad at his son, his face full of anger.
Cheng Ge patted Qing Nuan's shoulder calmly and said, "Let's talk at school later. I'm leaving now!"
After saying that, he ran away again.
Qing Nuan couldn't help but think that he might hide under someone's seat again, which would be quite funny.
The game of chasing between Cheng Ge and his father began again.
Qing Nuan smiled helplessly. Just as she was about to continue memorizing words, she lowered her head and found a piece of paper at her feet with two lines of words written on it in black pen.
The handwriting is beautiful and handsome, and you can tell at first glance that it was written by a boy. It is unrestrained and uninhibited, just like the feeling Cheng Ge gives people.
One line in English and one line in Chinese.
English is: Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
The Chinese version is: Life is as gorgeous as summer flowers, and death is as quiet and beautiful as autumn leaves.
It was a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and it must have been dropped by Cheng Ge accidentally.
For some reason, the black handwriting suddenly touched Qing Nuan's emotions.
Qing Nuan turned around and searched around, trying to find the boy named Cheng Ge, but found that there was no trace of him in the carriage she was in.