go the same way

Li Pei listened, and felt that every word of Li Yan's speech was like the sound of a drum, vibrating and resounding through his heart.

The red eyes finally couldn't contain the tears anymore, they dripped straight, which made Li Yan panic for a while, and said helplessly: "Why are you still the same as when you were a child, crying whenever you want, your brother, I can't see this."

As he said this, he curled up his fingers and wiped his brother's face, only to wipe away the traces of tears, but because the movements were so gentle, they brushed over the mountains in Li Pei's heart.

"Brother," Li Pei closed his eyes, "Thank you, really thank you."

After explaining the situation to the homeowner, Jiang Weiping and the aunt were the two who walked around frequently.Nie Xunqiu took the key, but did not set foot in those two doors, but stayed in the hotel for three days, during which time he walked around the city.

He has also lived here for a long time, but he still feels strange when he walks on the asphalt road. He has never thought that this place is so popular. The sound, the barbecue shed that was only built at night, and the beer that toasted to each other contained the joy and frustration of countless people.

Nie Xunqiu first went to climb the mountain.

He went very early, the morning light was twilight, and even the air in the quiet mountain trail was even cooler, and he could smell a faint scent of wintersweet flowers.It was in full bloom in the cold weather, Nie Xunqiu thought, this kind of fragrance could not be called weak, because it was too pure and could not suppress the blood and sin wrapped around him.

In the hidden place halfway up the mountain, there is a temple with relatively strong incense.There are no pilgrims visiting in the early morning, and the pale-faced monks are dressed in robes, holding a sorghum broom, and bowing to remove the dust on the ground.Seeing someone passing by in front of the temple, he stopped what he was doing and saluted with one hand.

Nie Xunqiu didn't believe in gods and Buddhas, but he still invited three pillars of fragrance. He didn't recite silently in his heart, and the Buddha probably didn't want to listen to his wish.

Overlooking from the top of the mountain, there are evergreen trees and dead leaves everywhere.He saw the wintersweet with small yellow flowers scattered among them, and only then did he know that the breeze can carry the fragrance from such a long distance.

Coming down from the mountain, the sky finally began to clear up, and the blue was so rich, like a color that could not be found in the palette.

He went to the aquarium.Through the layers of glass, you can see groups of tropical fish swimming against the white sand, jellyfish under colorful lights, cross-necked black swans, and African penguins standing and resting.

When he put his hand on the glass of the tunnel, an adult seal swam towards him. It was the first time that Nie Xunqiu saw the appearance of this creature clearly.The eyes are big, round, black, and the eyes are gentle and friendly. He thought that such creatures should not be confined to such a boring and single route. They belong to the vast and vast ocean.

Nie Xunqiu booked a flight back to the U.S. and checked out of the room after he couldn't finish visiting the corners of the city in a few days.On the day of leaving, Jiang Weiping got the news and took time to see him off at the airport.

She said: "I will still recommend you, Dr. Nie, to various hospitals in the next year's meeting, and keep in touch by phone or email."

Nie Xunqiu did not refuse, nor did he agree.He knew that he should give Dr. Jiang an accurate answer, so as not to let her enthusiasm fail, but there were many changes in work and life, and he was used to not talking too much.

He returned to Baltimore, a seaport city where he had lived for more than ten years, where tens of thousands of tons of ocean-going ships could dock at the port.He always felt that the city was still a bit decadent and decayed, with dense churches and faded old buildings.A thin layer of ice had formed in the inner harbor, freezing the small boats. The seabirds lightly landed on the masts, and then spread their wings with a gust of wind, sweeping an arc in the air.

Nie Xunqiu's residence is not big, his previous job salary was very good, enough for him to buy a spacious house.But because he was away from the area for a long time, the overvalued house would bring a lot of tax problems. He didn't want to add so much extra expenses, so he only bought a small one.

It may be considered crude in the eyes of high-income people, but it is enough to live alone.There is hot water, sound insulation is good, and the light is sufficient, which can make the room warm and dry without smelling moisture.There are two stoves in the kitchen, which are enough for him to work at the same time in a limited time and prepare a quick dinner.There is no independent study room in the house, and the unvisited guest room is occupied by thousands of pages of medical books. The brown desk is facing the window, and it is full of sorted and sorted documents. An empty small flower pot is surrounded. The plants inside have been transplanted to the lawn outside.

On that uninteresting table, there was, unusually, a rib.

It was the first rib of an Angolan girl who was born with a deformity of the chest wall that affected her heart and lungs when she was treated.Nie Xunqiu followed that operation. He remembered that the girl had big eyes and thick eyelashes, and she didn't cry when the anesthetic was injected, which made his usual little stories useless.The operation removed one of her ribs, and when he recorded the signs, he found that the child came to life and returned the removed bone to her.

The child was a little shy, and smiled at him immediately, and said to him, doctor, I give it to you, thank you.

Because of poverty and the shortage of local medical resources, the treatment was postponed until very late. The girl had nothing to give it as a thank you gift, so she could only dispose of this bone timidly and gave it to this very gentle man. doctor.

When she walked out of the resident hospital in good health, the little girl hugged Nie Xunqiu and solemnly expressed her hope in his ear that she wanted to become a doctor like him.

Far from a peaceful country, drinking water that needs to be repeatedly purified and boiled, the same meals, and doing the heaviest work in the most difficult environment, Nie Xunqiu has aged several years in the wind and sun, and his shoulders and neck Very stiff.These winds and rains are mixed, because such a promise that may never be fulfilled, all subsides and vanishes into nothingness.

For the first time, he felt that his life was "given", like being reborn for the third time.Nie Xunqiu harvested the rib, took it across the ocean, and returned to the United States.

He sat down at that desk, kept a glass of clean water at hand, and from dawn to sunset, except for necessary walking and eating, he hardly left the room.He is reading and studying, and he also wants to pass the Chinese medical examination.

When you can't stop thinking about it, just let it go once, sit on a thick stack of books, look at the dead trees outside the window, and the birds flying by in a row.

Dull, he remained motionless for a whole day.

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, January 1 is New Year's Eve, a real family reunion, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

There are not many Chinese people in Baltimore, so you can’t find the slightest feeling of Chinese New Year. Nie Xunqiu doesn’t pay much attention to this kind of festival—he has no blood relatives, and his home is just a place to live, and he can’t wait for travelers to come back.

But that day he still closed the book and went to buy flour and ground pork. The cabbage was a little hard to find. He went to many supermarkets to pick one at a very high price.

Kneading noodles and chopping stuffing, when Nie Xunqiu was almost done with the preparations, he received a call.

The cost of overseas calls is quite high, and Jiang Weiping didn't say too many polite words: "Doctor Nie, Happy New Year."

With a time difference of thirteen hours, China has entered a new year.

He knew that it was impossible to receive a call from Li Pei, and he was not disappointed. He was still a little happy when he heard someone wish him such a blessing: "You too, happy new year."

After hanging up the phone, Nie Xunqiu went into the kitchen again, washed his hands, dried them, sprinkled a little flour to prevent them from sticking, and rolled out the small particles with a rolling pin. With familiar movements, the result was a neat circle.He remembered the New Year with Li Pei at that time, Xiao Pei is a person who pays great attention to the sense of ritual in life, every important day, he will spare time to celebrate or commemorate.

In the past, on Li Yan's death day, he would spare a whole day to stand in front of his monument, with the snow soaking his shoe tips.

In their first New Year's Eve, Cun He had just arrived in China and didn't know how to make dumplings yet, so what he ate was a pack of quick-frozen dumplings bought before the supermarket closed.He didn't eat fresh ones until he learned Cun He in the second year.

After that, Li Pei would come over every year to join in the fun, taking the rolled skin and the prepared stuffing, and making a mess of shapes, making a mess of cooking, Li Pei always wrinkled his nose, and put the tattered stuffing in distaste. He picked up the dumplings for him, and he silently scooped up all the broken dumplings into a bowl and ate them one by one.When he ate the last one, his teeth were bitten, and the taste of metal spread in his mouth. He frowned and spat it out, only to find that it was a coin.

Li Pei put down his chopsticks and clapped his hands twice to express his congratulations: "Wow, it seems that you are going to get rich this year."

They ate all the dumplings and found no second coin.

Because Li Pei only stuffed one dumpling into the pile of weirdly shaped dumplings he made, and the final result of the quality problem is that they all fell into Cun He's bowl.

Turn random events into inevitable events.

This is his oblique, somewhat awkward blessing.

After Nie Xunqiu cooked the dumplings, he poured out a small dish of vinegar, which is how he learned from Li Pei.He turned on the TV that he hadn't watched for a long time, and the hip-hop program of the local station was playing on the opened channel. He changed the channel impatiently, and cut to a talk show with laughter.

In the past, they would watch the Spring Festival Gala at this time, turn off the TV when the show gradually became only songs and dances, make|make love on the sofa, and exchange muddy breaths with each other to welcome the New Year.

After realizing that he lost Li Pei, every detail in his life seemed to be closely related to him.

Before he knew it, the bowl was already empty, leaving only a little soup at the bottom of the bowl. Nie Xunqiu put the bowls, chopsticks and small plates into the sink, where there was never any unused tableware, and it was the same this time. He washed it very clean, then walked to the window, pressed his head against the glass lightly, and breathed a little white mist on the window.

Nie Xunqiu stretched out his finger and drew a few strokes on that area. When he left the glass, the glass became transparent again.

It was a blooming gorgeous firework, like in the night sky, stayed for a few seconds, and then disappeared in a flash.

He was a little tired, so he simply turned off the TV, leaned on the sofa, fell asleep in a daze, and had a dream about the past.

Suddenly, he was awakened by the ringing of his mobile phone.

He picked up the phone in the dark, and the other party's voice was very pleasant.

"Doctor Nie, did you have a good holiday? We are going to a new place next."