Chapter 30 Spring Swallows
After taking out the letter, Song Yuanchao couldn't wait to look at the address. When he saw that the letter was from Anton, Song Yuanchao, who had been extremely excited just now, couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Some time ago, Song Yuanchao sent a total of three letters, which were sent to Andong, Jinling and the capital respectively. Among them, the reply from Jinling was the fastest, and Song Yuanchao received it a few days ago.
According to the distance , Song Yuanchao originally thought that today's letter would come from the capital, but who would have thought that it was sent by Anton. He only replied to two of the three letters, but he never saw the letter that he was most looking forward to. This made Song Yuanchao very disappointed.
After opening the letter, Song Yuanchao read the contents carefully, then found some letter paper and wrote a reply. After finishing writing, Song Yuanchao put the reply into the envelope and sealed it, his eyes couldn't help but look to the side.
Next to the photo of himself and his parents, there was a new photo frame, which contained a photo of four people.
In this group photo, Song Yuanchao is standing with two men and two women. Song Yuanchao is standing second from the right. On his right is a man about his age, who is putting his arm on his shoulder affectionately.
On his left were two young girls, one of whom was a young girl with pigtails. She and her short-haired companion held hands and smiled at the camera. Everyone in the photo was wearing old blue-grey coarse cloth clothes, with their trouser legs rolled up high and Liberation shoes on their feet. From their backs, one could vaguely see a field of crops that had just been harvested...
This photo occupies a very important place in Song Yuanchao's heart. In his previous life, before Song Yuanchao passed away, it was this photo that accompanied him to the end of his life.
And now, the group photo in front of him is no longer the yellowed old photo from his previous life. Although it is in black and white, it still appears very clear.
Picking up the photo, Song Yuanchao gently stroked it with his fingers, his fingertips lingering on the girl with pigtails.
"Why don't you reply to me? Yan Zi, are you doing well now?" Song Yuanchao asked softly, as if he was confiding and complaining to the most important person in his heart.
His eyes couldn't help but become red, and his heart was filled with immense longing.
Of the four people in the photo, except Song Yuanchao, the young man with his arm around his shoulder is Qin Zhengguo, the girl with short hair is Ying Caixia, and the remaining young girl with pigtails and the sweetest smile is Lin Yan.
The three of them, including Song Yuanchao, were best friends during their educated youth era. Qin Zhengguo went to the countryside in almost the same batch as Song Yuanchao, Ying Caixia went in the third year, and Lin Yan went later, in the fourth year.
During the difficult years in the Northwest, the four of them supported and encouraged each other and went through those extremely difficult days together, and at the same time they forged a deep friendship with each other.
Lin Yan is the youngest among the four. Song Yuanchao takes great care of her. He not only helps her work in the fields, but also often does things for her within his ability.
As time went by, Song Yuanchao and Lin Yan developed feelings for each other, but due to the harsh local conditions and their identities as educated youth, their feelings were controlled by their own reason and they did not take the last step.
According to later generations, the relationship between Song Yuanchao and Lin Yan had reached the level of being more than lovers but less than friends, and the two were only one step away from breaking the last layer of window paper.
If nothing had changed, perhaps Song Yuanchao and Lin Yan would have ended up together, but suddenly the policy changed and the country reopened the college entrance examination at the end of 1977, giving all the educated youth hope.
Song Yuanchao had discussed the college entrance examination with Principal Zhou before. According to Song Yuanchao, he was unable to take the college entrance examination due to the remote location and some other reasons.
But the fact is not so. There was a limit on the number of places available for the college entrance examination for educated youth at that time. Song Yuanchao and his colleagues were not given many places in the entire team of educated youth there. There were too many places for too few people and it was impossible to meet the needs of everyone.
Song Yuanchao was qualified at the time, but due to limited quotas, he took the initiative to make concessions in order to ensure Lin Yan's opportunity. At the same time, he spent a huge amount of money to help Lin Yan with tutoring, and finally allowed Lin Yan to take the college entrance examination for the first time and successfully obtained the admission notice of Imperial University of Peking.
Song Yuanchao still remembers the day when Lin Yan received the admission letter. That day, Lin Yan burst into tears in his arms. Those were tears of joy, tears of happiness, and also tears of reluctance to leave.
Gently wiping away the tears of his beloved woman, Song Yuanchao smiled as he comforted and encouraged her, and silently prepared her luggage for her.
On the day he saw her off, Song Yuanchao walked her very far, from the village to the brigade, from the brigade to the commune, and from the commune to the region... until he watched Lin Yan board the train to the capital. The moment the train left the platform, Song Yuanchao could not control his emotions. He ran behind the train and waved goodbye to Lin Yan. Unconsciously, his tears were scattered into the air with the wind blowing on his face.
He returned to his residence in a depressed mood, looking at the empty house. Lin Yan's scent seemed to still linger in the air, as if she was still there. As long as he turned around, Lin Yan's figure would appear at his door, looking at him with a smile as usual.
Not long after Lin Yan left, Song Yuanchao fell seriously ill. The illness was so severe that Song Yuanchao almost died. Thanks to the careful care of Qin Zhengguo and Ying Caixia, he slowly recovered.
It was because of this serious illness that Song Yuanchao failed in his second college entrance examination last year, and completely gave up the idea of continuing to take the college entrance examination.
This is the deepest secret in Song Yuanchao's heart. In his previous life, no one knew about it except a few people involved. Even Song Yuanchao's ex-wife didn't know about it. It was buried in Song Yuanchao's heart until he passed away.
In his previous life, Song Yuanchao failed to get into university , and after returning to Shanghai, he had to work hard to make a living. Song Yuanchao felt that he could not give Lin Yan the beautiful life she imagined. In addition, Lin Yan had graduated from the Imperial University at that time and had a very good and respectable job. In comparison, Song Yuanchao was just an ordinary worker, and a temporary worker at that.
Due to the gap in status and the inconvenience of transportation and communication at the time, Song Yuanchao took the initiative to give up this relationship , thus personally burying the most profound beauty left by his youth.
Afterwards, Song Yuanchao didn't want to disturb Lin Yan's life and took the initiative to cut off contact with her. As time went by, he and Lin Yan had no contact anymore. It was only many years later that he learned from a former educated youth that Lin Yan had gone abroad in the mid-1980s, and no one knew about her situation since then.
But throughout Song Yuanchao's life, his longing for Lin Yan never disappeared, he just hid this feeling deeply.
Staring at Lin Yan in the photo, Song Yuanchao hummed the nursery rhyme he had sung to Lin Yan before: "Little swallow... wearing flowery clothes ... coming here every spring..." Suddenly, her clear and cheerful laughter like a silver bell came to his ears. Song Yuanchao wiped his blurry eyes and found that he had burst into tears without realizing it.
After putting the photos away, Song Yuanchao continued to write a letter to Lin Yan. After finishing, he put the two letters into the mailbox at the intersection. Looking at the mailbox, Song Yuanchao said to Lin Yan silently in his heart: "Please reply quickly and don't let me worry, even if it's just a few words. Winter is over, spring is here, and the little swallow is going home too. My dear swallow! Do you know that I have been waiting for you?"
