一

The night was very nice, the early summer wind was caressing the camphor trees in the community garden, the moon was bright, the street lights were dim, the square dancers had also retreated, and the surroundings were quiet. , only the shadows of the trees showed off their whirling figures in the dim light.

Arjun put out the cigarette butt that had burned to the filter, stood up and left the slightly cool marble bench, and threw his numb body into the shadow of the dark trees. He wanted to walk through the grove in the community garden and onto the street.

The streets are completely different from those in the community. The flashing neon lights compete to show off their charming eyes. There are pedestrians in a hurry, old couples strolling hand in hand, or young lovers who are intimate, all talking to Ajun. As they passed each other, everyone had their own thoughts, and no one noticed Ajun's presence.

Arjun stopped his steps on the overpass crossing the street. The speeding traffic passed under his feet, with dazzling yellow on the left and dazzling red on the right. Arjun took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. The red cigarette butt flickered in the river of light, and the light blue smoke confused his thoughts.

"At that time, we had an unpolluted morning and a ticking second hand, but we couldn't keep a single dusk..." He was a wandering singer playing the guitar.

Damn it! Who the hell sings this song? Arjun was cursing in his mind, but his body refused to obey and moved along with the singing.

At the south end of the overpass, there is a young man in his twenties, wearing a white cultural shirt and jeans, holding an acoustic guitar in his arms. Under his slightly curly hair, a pair of tightly closed eyes show an intoxicated look. look like. Arjun stopped three meters away from the young man and watched the young man's intoxication.

You are young, you know what nostalgia is, and you can sing so affectionately! Arjun looked down upon the young man's age, but could not resist the impact of the hoarse singing voice.

For Arjun, this song is poison.

Tonight is the day of the twenty-year reunion of classmates. Ajun was originally very excited, but when he heard that Afang from far south also came to attend the party, he hesitated.

Ah Fang has been buried in my heart for twenty years. I have never forgotten it for a moment, but I never dared to mention her name. It was Ah Jun’s youth, a beautiful but somewhat sour memory...

2

"Ajun! Someone is looking for her! She is a beauty!" Aqing told Ajun that Ajun was coming down from the stage of the campus singer competition when Afang came to see him.

A bouquet of flowers was thrown into the corner of the background.

"Ajun!"

"Why is it you? Aren't you in City C? Why are you here in my school?" Ah Fang's arrival made Ajun feel very much. Unexpectedly, they were the best classmates in high school.

"Why, can't you come?" A Fang stood in front of A Jun, wearing a white down jacket, with a playful smile on her round face.

"Come...can...why not?" Ajun was a little slurred because of the accident. He really didn't expect that Afang would come to the school to find her. City C to city X is hundreds of kilometers away. road.

"I promised you to come to City C to see the maple leaves in the fall, but now it's winter. If you don't come to see me, why don't you allow me to come to see you?"

Yes, A Fang once told A Jun in a letter that the maple leaves in City C are particularly beautiful in autumn, covering the mountains and plains, as bright as red clouds.

"I...sigh...I'm not good. Aren't you busy? I'm busy arranging the program for the school singer competition?" In fact, Ajun also wanted to see the Maple Leaf, but on C City Road Far from it, for a child from a working-class family like Arjun, traveling around during college can only be a luxury. Ajun knew that he was in the wrong, so he had to use the matter in front of him to excuse himself.

"Hypocrisy! Are you arranging programs for such a long time in autumn?"

"Oh... arranging programs... alas... let's not talk about this, there are too many people here. "More, let's go for a walk on campus!" Ah Jun knew that he couldn't talk to Ah Fang, so he changed the topic.

"I listen to you. What else can I do when I get to you?"

The campus is extremely quiet at night, with only the faint sound of music and cheers coming from the amphitheater in the distance. It was heard that most students had gone to watch the campus singing competition.

The small restaurants on campus are not closed yet, and the barbecue stalls are still smoking, but Ajun doesn’t want to hand over half a month’s living expenses to the bosses.

Ajun and Afang walked around and around the cinder track in the campus playground. The moon was very good, and the white moonlight shone on the playground, turning the barren loess football field and the brown cinders into the background. The runway was covered with a light layer of hoarfrost.

"You sing very well, so many girls give you flowers, you must be very beautiful in your heart, right?" A Fang said quietly, looking at the pair of shadows stretched by the moonlight.

"No, those girls, alas! They only know how to scream, how can they know what I am singing?" As Ajun walked, he kicked a stone under his feet far away.

"Hmph! Stinky! Hypocritical!"

"No way! I really don't care about those girls!"

" Then you were so happy when you sang, and when the girls presented you with flowers, you hugged them? "

"Hugging... isn't that necessary for stage performance? Could it be that when they presented flowers, I just wanted to express my disgust? Just throw the flowers on the ground?"

"That's not necessary, it's just that your intoxicated look shows your inner satisfaction!"

"Am I intoxicated? , I was intoxicated. It was when I was singing that I thought of that rainy afternoon. I thought of the sound of raindrops rustling on the leaves outside the classroom. That was when I thought of the lyrics you passed to me and you blushed when you were discovered by the math teacher. The face, and..."

Ajun remembered that in high school, he and Afang both loved singing. Together they collected a lot of decals of Hong Kong and Taiwan singers, and also copied many Hong Kong and Taiwan songs in their notebooks. Song lyrics. Later, they all tried to write some lyrics of their own. Today, what Ajun sings is the song they both wrote together at that time.

"Okay, stop talking..."

"Why, isn't the song "Youth in the Rainy Season" I sang today written by our ***? ?" Ajun stopped and grabbed Afang's hand, feeling a little excited.

"Let go!" Ah Fang tried to break free, but Ah Jun held on tightly.

"I came all the way to see you, and you still exert so much force. You want to hurt me!" Afang said angrily.

"Oh, no, no! I'm sorry!" Arjun quickly let go of his hand and said, "You are tired too, let's not leave, let's go and sit on the stage for a while!"

"I've been tired for a long time, but now I'm saying, I'm really stupid!" A Fang turned around and walked quickly to the stands.

"You were waiting for me and you said you were tired and walked so fast!" Ah Jun grunted while chasing Ah Fang behind.

The stands in the playground were deserted, with no one around.

"Ajun, I'm a little cold!" Afang tightened his down jacket.

"Here, put on my cotton-padded jacket!" Ajun took off his cotton-padded jacket and put it on Afang.

"What about you, aren't you cold?"

"Me, I have thick skin and am not afraid of the cold. You are the eldest lady, so I can't freeze you!"

"How about let's go together!" A Fang moved her body towards A Jun, put half of her cotton-padded jacket on A Jun's body, and leaned closely against A Jun.

Arjun moved his body outward.

Afang hugged Ajun and leaned his face on Ajun's shoulder.

Ajun still wanted to hide away, but Afang hugged him tighter. Arjun stared at the round face under the moonlight, his heart pounding.

…

March

Jiangnan in June has entered the rainy season. The sky seems to have broken a hole, and the rain keeps dripping. non-stop.

After returning from school, Arjun has been sitting in front of the window looking at the banana leaves that have been washed shiny by the rain.

For several days, there were gray skies, bright white rain, and green banana leaves. Time seemed to have stopped in the rain.

Ajun does not regret that he chose to return to his hometown, L City, because this is his home and his parents are here. As the only son in the family, his parents lived frugally and suffered a lot in order for him to go to college. It was a lot of hardship, but now that he has graduated, he feels that it is right to return to his parents. He has found a relatively stable job, which he feels is good, even though many of his classmates have gone to S city in the south.

"Ajun, Afang is here!"

When Ajun heard his mother's shout outside the door, he jumped up from his chair and rushed to the door. Afang, who was wearing a floral dress, was already standing at the door of his room.

"Ah Jun, the rain has stopped outside. You and Ah Fang can go for a walk outside!" Mother was very familiar with Ah Fang and knew what Ah Jun was thinking.

"Ajun, let's go for a walk!" Afang also felt that it might be difficult to say some things in front of Ajun's mother at Ajun's home.

…

The streets were very clean after the rain, and the black asphalt road was shiny, reflecting the gray sky and A Fang’s floral skirt.

"Arjun, aren't you going to the south?"

"I won't go, the south is too far, and I'm afraid no one will take care of me if I go home!" Arjun didn't dare to look up. Ah Fang's face, he knew that Ah Fang had already found a copywriting job for a multinational company in the south and would be leaving tomorrow.

"If you don't go, what will I do?" A Fang's voice was a bit sad.

"Go ahead. Your father finally asked someone to find you this good job. Don't let him down!" Arjun's words were filled with bitterness and resentment.

"Then I'll ask my dad to find you a job in the south, and we'll be together!" A Fang stopped and grabbed A Jun's hand.

Ajun broke away from Afang and said angrily: "No, that's your dad, I don't need it!"

"But..."

"No buts! You are the big boss, you have business in the south, you have many friends, and you have a lot of connections, but that's your dad. My parents are both ordinary workers. I'd better stay in my hometown!" Ah Jun didn't want to hear what Ah Jun said. Fang mentioned the relationship between them again. Although he cherished this relationship very much, he knew that with his current ability, he couldn't grasp it.

"But if you stay in your hometown, you have no future. Even if the job you find is relatively stable, with just that little salary, you may remain poor for the rest of your life!"

"Poor Just be poor. I am a poor person. Unlike you, we are not from the same family!" Poverty is the topic that Ajun doesn't want to talk about. Growing up, he has never spent money lavishly. He knows , every penny in the family was earned with the sweat of his parents. Although he also envied those rich classmates, he knew that envy could not change anything. His parents have spent their whole life studying for him, and he will never leave his parents for money.

"You...why are you like this?" A Fang did not expect that A Jun would really say this, and sparkling tears flowed from the corners of his eyes.

"That's how I am, let's go, let's break up, I won't go to the south!" Ajun didn't dare to look at Afang's face, turned his head away, and shouted loudly.

I don’t know when it started to rain again. The drizzle wet A Fang’s face and also wet A Jun’s heart.

Ajun ran away quickly without waiting for Ahfang to say anything else, leaving Ahfang alone in the rain. ?