Spring came extremely late this year, already in mid-February, only three days away from the Spring Festival, and the air was still filled with a biting chill.
As usual, Huang Qin hurried into the office, shook off the wind and frost, and then skillfully brewed a cup of coffee.
After finishing his cup of coffee, he turned on his computer and squinted his eyes comfortably in his seat.
At this time, there was a noise behind him and someone walked in.
Huang Qin looked back and saw that it was his old partner Williams.
Williams' face turned red from the cold, he opened his mouth and let out a puff of white air, greeting him warmly.
"Good morning, Qin, you look great."
Huang Qin watched him take off his down jacket and sat down next to him. He couldn't help but said in surprise: "Dawei, you know it's the Spring Festival in a few days, right? Why didn't you go on vacation this year?"
Williams' eyes became a little dark and he whispered: "A relative of mine passed away recently. I can't attend his funeral. I'm in a bad mood and don't want to go on vacation for the time being."
Huang Qin suddenly showed a caring look and asked: "Then what are you going to do during the seven-day holiday? Are you going to stay in the dormitory?"
Williams nodded, looking a little melancholy: "Yes, I plan to come to work every day and turn grief into strength."
Seeing his sad look, Huang Qin couldn't help but feel worried and thought for a moment.
"How can you be here alone for the past seven days? Since you are in a bad mood, you should go and relax. Especially on such a festive day, you should feel the festive atmosphere."
"Well, how about you go home with me to celebrate the New Year?"
Williams looked at him in surprise, a little in disbelief, and spoke excitedly after a while.
"Qin, thank you for your concern. You are my best friend. I am very happy to go back with you. It is my honor to meet your family."
Huang Qin waved his hand carelessly and said, "It's okay. I'm going back alone anyway. The thing about having two children is that my home is in the countryside, which is a bit far away."
Williams happily took out his mobile phone: "Qin, you are such a good person. Please tell me how to buy tickets. By the way, I also want to buy some gifts for your family. You can't come empty-handed. It's rude."
"Haha, you are so polite. I still have tickets for this trip. You are so lucky. It may be someone else's refund."
Huang Qin guided Williams to buy high-speed rail tickets, then bought some New Year's goods and stuffed them in his suitcase.
Early the next morning, the two set out on their journey home.
The destination is a remote rural village in Nangui Province in the southwest, and it is said that it will take a day.
Sitting in the clean and bright car, Williams began to study the seats and other equipment with curiosity.
This was his first time riding a high-speed train. Looking at the speed displayed on the LED screen, he was so shocked that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear and let out bursts of exclamations.
"OMG, the speed is too fast. The speed is 364 kilometers per hour. It's too scary."
"This high-speed train is so clean. Wow, the carriage looks as new as the space station. I feel like I'm riding a rocket now. Amazing!"
"China is really too advanced, you know? I used to take the high-speed train in Eagle Country. It was our fastest train. From Xincun to Chicago, it is more than 700 kilometers and takes 22 hours."
"According to the speed of the China High-speed Railway, it only takes 2 hours to get there. It's really fast."
"This speed should be recorded, Qin, come and take a picture for me."
Huang Qin chuckled and took the phone calmly.
He liked the foreigner's appearance of having never seen the world, but he had seen too much and was a little numb.
In this way, Williams took a photo with the V sign under the speed sign in the car.
Soon, the train left the city and shuttled through the endless greenery, with residential houses and lakes dotted on both sides.
Williams took one look and quickly fell in love with the beauty.
"Qin," he grabbed Huang Qin's arm and shook it excitedly: "This scenery is so beautiful. Look at the small rivers and the tall buildings. They are like paintings. It's so amazing."
Huang Qin looked at his phone expressionlessly, unable to complain in his heart.
He had watched the scenery on this train for six years from the age of 18 to 24. He had long been accustomed to it, and it was really nothing to be surprised about.
In the south, there are scenery like this everywhere, no wonder.
Williams' full attention was attracted by the scenery outside the window, his face pressed against the glass window, watching everything greedily.
The train is moving quickly, and the scenery outside the window changes.
Williams watched it for several hours, and then he said with emotion: "I am so ashamed to think that the infrastructure of Eagle Country has lagged behind for so many years."
"Even the high-speed rail station is so well built, it feels like being in some science fiction movie, waiting for the spaceship to land."
Huang Qin showed a smile and asked: "Dawei, do you feel hungry? It's time for us to have lunch."
"That's right," Williams rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "Do you want to call the flight attendant? I just saw a trolley filled with food passing by."
Huang Qin shook his phone: "No, I'm not used to the food on the train. Let's order takeout. Do you want McDonald's, KFC, or Pizza Hut?"
Williams looked shocked and said: "What? Can you order takeout on the high-speed rail?"
"Yeah, I see you like fried chicken very much. Let's have a family meal." Huang Qin said while placing the order: "When we get to the next stop, the flight attendant will deliver it directly."
Half an hour later, when a full bucket of KFC appeared in front of him, Williams opened his mouth in surprise.
Apart from the word Amazing, he couldn't say anything else.
When the two of them had eaten and drank enough and were lying on the seats picking their teeth, Williams couldn't help shouting an English sentence while burping.
"China is the real future!"
After he said this, he turned to look at Huang Qin, repeated it again in Chinese seriously, and continued.
"This is what I say sincerely. China has changed so much. I have only been here for a year or two, and I have already felt it deeply."
"Even near the company, there have been great changes. I don't know what kind of chemical fertilizers were sprinkled on those buildings, and why they grew so fast."
"And I have lived in my hometown for more than 20 years. Apart from some new apartments, I can hardly see any changes. There are more and more cracks and potholes on the same highways, just more cars running on the road. The government With so much tax collected, there are no funds to repair or build new roads.”
"The old buildings in the city center are so outdated, at least 30 years behind here. The hotels near the airport are 30 or 40 years old, and there are no new ones. Only the city center has a new tallest building that has recently been completed, and that's Developers from the East invested in and built it.”
"But who is going to go downtown? There are so many homeless poor people, dirty streets, who is going to run there and risk getting robbed and attacked? At the same time, you can go anywhere here. In the heart of the city, you can shop, eat, go to the movies, and you know what, it's very, very safe."
"There are cameras everywhere, all shopping malls are open until 90 o'clock, the streets are brightly lit, there are 24-hour security guards in the community, and there are no homeless people or drug addicts wandering around with bottles of wine on the road. Even a little girl can There is no danger in walking alone at night.”
"Who dares to do this in a big city in Eagle Country? I wouldn't dare."
At this point, he finally stopped complaining and showed a wry smile on his face.
Huang Qin smiled calmly: "Thank you. In fact, we are just a developing country and there is still a long way to go in the future."
Williams was shocked again: "Qin, you are so shameless. You look at all this and you tell me this is what a developing country should be like? Is this much more developed than the Eagle Country?"
Huang Qin shook his head: "NoNoNo, if you go to my hometown, you will know that it is a very poor place, in the far southwest, far away from the bustling city."
He raised his head and seemed to be lost in memories: "I still remember that there was only one road in my hometown, which was very bad. Every year, the village organized young people to repair holes in the road. There was only one shuttle bus to the county seat. People in our village Every once in a while, I have to put on my best clothes and go shopping in the county town to kill the boring time."
"When I was a child, I only had a few clothes that I wore over and over again throughout the year. There was no TV at home, and there were frequent power outages. I could only read and study by lighting candles. It wasn't until I was eight or nine years old that I watched TV at a classmate's house."
He raised the corners of his mouth and showed a smile: "At that time, I saw the rocket launch on TV and saw the scientific researchers in white coats, and suddenly I had an impulse to be like them."
"Slowly, I learned that if I want to be that kind of person, I have to go to college. To go to college, I have to go to a middle school in the county. So I have to study hard now."
“Later on, the tone that I brought up in the first place supported me for more than ten years until now. Although I have not been able to become an aerospace scientist, I have finally put on a white coat, which can be considered a dream come true. "
He put his hand on his heart, and then slowly stretched it into the air, with a happy smile on his face.
"It is the grass that I have planted in my heart since childhood that can now grow into a tree."
Williams mused: "Actually, your hometown is not poor at all."
"Real poverty is not actually a lack of money. You can make money without money."
“Real poverty is the lack of access to see the world and get out.”
"The world is so big, but you can't see it; the world is so big, but you can't get out."
"This is real poverty."
"I have lived in a small country, and the people there are just like you when you were a child. They are trapped in a ravine and are called every day. It is very sad. But their sadness is not material poverty, but a lack of knowledge."
"People dare not imagine the outside world, let alone what it would be like to go out."
"It's not because they are lazy or sick, it's simply because they don't know what the outside world is like."
He looked at Huang Qin with deep meaning in his eyes: "If your hometown didn't have that road connecting the outside world, you wouldn't be able to see the outside world, and you wouldn't have the awareness that I want to do that, and you wouldn't realize that you can pass education through education. Come and change your destiny.”
"Qin, you are where you are today because you have a good and responsible country that gives you a channel to connect to the outside world."
Huang Qin was stunned for a moment. These words were like a bolt of lightning, clearing up many myths in his mind.
He murmured to himself: "I understand, I finally understand."
"Indeed, people cannot work hard for something that is unimaginable."
Williams patted him on the shoulder and said no more, seeming to be digesting what he had seen and heard along the way.
Huang Qin suddenly had a change of thought and asked curiously: "How did you end up in a small and impoverished country?"
Williams' eyes flickered and he didn't elaborate, but smiled to himself.
"In order to save the world, you know, typical Eagle Country people have a heroic dream of saving the world."
"Oh, you're a backpacker, right? It's really admirable that you can travel around the world at such a young age. I can't do that. I'm a typical small-town essayist. I have a very poor foundation. I have to work 100% to not fall behind." ." Huang Qin was filled with envy.
"But you are the right way. Just like Huaxia, you relied on your own efforts and accumulated a lot of experience. Not only did you catch up, you also left us behind."
Williams said meaningfully: "As for me, no matter how good my conditions were when I was a child, wouldn't I have to follow you now?"
After hearing this, Huang Qin became happy, patted his chest and said with a smile: "Dawei, you can rest assured that I have my brother to protect you."
After the seven-hour high-speed rail journey, the two took a taxi and drove on the national highway for an hour before arriving at the county seat before dark.
After getting out of the car, Williams looked at the bustling street scene and was shocked again.
"Is this the extremely poor countryside you're talking about?"
Huang Qin shook his head like a rattle: "No, this is the county town where I studied. After I went to college, my parents moved from the village and settled there. Now only my grandparents are in the village, and we only go back to visit the elderly during the Chinese New Year."
Williams breathed a sigh of relief. The bustling crowds and bustling streets in front of him would be too scary if all Chinese villages were so prosperous.
Huang Qin led the way in a familiar manner, and soon arrived at the door of a familiar home, where he started hammering on the security door.
"Dad, Mom, I'm back."
"Zai'er is back, hurry up and open the door!"
Following the messy footsteps, two weathered faces appeared at the door.
Huang Qin looked at his parents, his eyes heated up, and he suddenly had the illusion that they were a little older than the last time they met.
The Huang family was very happy to see Williams and stared at him up and down.
This was the first time for the old couple to see foreigners in real life, especially blue-eyed foreigners. They had only seen them on TV before, and they immediately felt very strange, just like seeing giant pandas in the zoo.
Williams is tall, with black hair, blue eyes, and three-dimensional facial features. He is very tough and stylish, and he is indeed eye-catching.
Fortunately, he is very fluent in Chinese and can understand some dialects, so there is no obstacle to communication.
The four of them had a great time chatting and rested very late.
The next day, Huang Qin took Williams around the county and felt very satisfied watching the other person making a fuss.
Although it is a small county town, no matter how small it is, it is well-equipped with all the necessary facilities, and many new buildings are quite modern. The streets are neat and clean, and trees are everywhere. Williams was amazed by it.
Not surprisingly, he once again complained about his motherland.
"Wow, there are actually hamburgers, chicken drumsticks, and a milk tea shop. The cinema also looks very grand."
"Everything is available in the supermarket, and everyone is happy. The smiles on people's faces are sincere, and they are very welcoming to me."
“The coffee shop is beautifully decorated and carefully designed, and the coffee tastes good.”
Williams walked out of an Internet celebrity-style cafe with a cup of coffee and sighed again.
"After walking around for a while, I'm already lost. Fortunately, you are here."
Huang Qin said impatiently: "You must have made too much fuss all the way. Eagle Country is also the world's number one developed country."
Williams took a sip of coffee and sighed: "Qin, you are so blessed that you don't know how to be blessed."
"Before I came to China, in the town where I studied at university, all the buildings looked the same 100 years ago and they will look the same 100 years later. After four years of staying there, the only change was that the store in front of the school put up a sign - Support Pay with Ali-Pay."
Huang Qin burst out laughing: "Hahaha, you Daying Pill."
"So, I said when I came here that China is the future."
Williams nodded with deep sympathy, then suddenly came over and asked, "Tell me, if I settle in China, will there be a chance for a green card?"
He licked his lips nervously: "I heard that it is difficult to get a green card. Many foreigners can't get it after staying for more than ten years. If I win a Nobel Prize, will it be easier?"
Huang Qin was stunned for a while, then shook his head seriously: "You shouldn't be able to win the Nobel Prize in Sanqing."
Williams was stunned and suddenly looked sad: "I didn't expect this, but what should I do? I don't really want to go back to Eagle Country."
Huang Qin's heart moved and he asked, "Do you have no relatives at home?"
"Yeah," Williams looked up at the sky and said melancholy: "I grew up with an alcoholic mother, and she never cared about me. But when I was 8 years old, I met him, a noble man in life. He lived in Across the street, he saw me playing Scrabble on the newspaper on the roadside and asked me if I read books and what I read."
"I said that I love reading and read everything, so we started chatting. Before leaving, he said that he had a lot of books at home. If you want to read, you can go and see him."
"From that day on, my life completely changed. He was a scientist, but his workplace was a bit special. From then on, he always looked after me and guided me. He even went to my graduation ceremony. Not my drunk mother."
"Without him, I might have become an alcoholic homeless man. It was him who made me become a biologist."
"He is the brightest light in my dark and muddy life. I am willing to do anything for him. This is why I am here."
"Unfortunately, I only received a call from his daughter at the end of last year. It turned out that he had passed away. I couldn't even rush to him to see him for the last time."
Williams lowered his head in shame and sadness: "Sooner or later, I will go back and lay a bouquet of flowers in front of his tomb to express my thoughts."
Huang Qin patted him on the shoulder and comforted him: "Don't worry, if you want to go back, you can take a long leave. Your postdoc will end this year. I will tell the boss to let him keep his position for you and make it official when you come back." Onboarding.”
Williams frowned and said absentmindedly: "Well, I'm thinking about it, but I haven't made up my mind yet."
"Then you have to make a decision quickly. Sanqing's treatment has always been very attractive, and this position won't last long."
Williams looked at him with confusion in his eyes: "But I don't know. I can't decide whether to go back to China or not."
After saying this, he suddenly held his head in pain.
Huang Qin was immediately startled, and quickly comforted him: "It's okay, take your time, it's just work, this is not a major event in life."
After a while of comforting, Williams' mood stabilized.
Then he quickly returned home.
