(Novel)Those happy days

My hometown is an ordinary small town in the south. It has neither the prosperity of a big city nor the elegance that a Jiangnan water town should have. It stands so obscurely, just like my obscure life.

But I have always loved this small town with no bright spots, because my happiest and most carefree days were spent with this small town and my three childhood sweethearts. .

Daihan is the oldest among us. He looks like a good brother and takes good care of us. He is a musical genius, plays the guitar well and can write songs.

Wen Qian is only one month younger than Dai Han, but he is nothing like his older brother. He has a lot of clever ideas and loves to cause trouble. He often wrote crooked poems and posted them on the door of his teacher's office, and he often got into fights with his classmates. For this reason, he was often beaten by his father.

Ye Xin is the same age as me. She is a lively and outgoing girl who loves to laugh. She is our pistachio. Compared with her, I seem much quieter and silent. Wen Qian often laughed at me for being as quiet as a cat. It was thanks to him that all my classmates started calling me "Mao Mao". The four of us went to the same school from kindergarten to high school, and we are closer than brothers and sisters.

When we were in junior high school, somehow we fell madly in love with Feier, buying every album and listening to every song. The education I received since childhood has prevented me from doing anything that violates discipline. Only in music can I have the conditions to be unbridled, and can I freely express my youth and release my nature.

At noon on the day Dai Han and Wen Qian successfully entered high school, we sneaked out to celebrate and drank a little wine. The four of them were a little drunk and were afraid that their parents would find out, so they went to the park to spend time.

The sunshine that afternoon was very good, the sky was incredibly blue, and large clouds were floating in the blue sky like cotton candy. We lay head to head on the lawn, no one said anything, and the surroundings were so quiet that it seemed like we were the only ones left in the world. Since that day, I have never seen such a beautiful blue sky or such beautiful white clouds.

I started singing under the influence of alcohol, singing Fei'er's songs, one after another.

I don’t know which song I was singing, but Dai Han suddenly said: "Maomao, your voice is very similar to Faye."

I smiled: "Thank you."

p>

"Really, Maomao, your voice is very good, you can be a singer." Dai Han sat up half-supported, and I saw the sunlight refracted in my pupils through his deep black eyes. inside.

"Singer?" I laughed again, "I never thought about it."

"But your voice is really suitable for being a singer." Dai Han refused. I don't know if it's because of alcohol, but he's rarely this stubborn.

"Even if I want to be one, I have no chance."

"Let's form a band!" Wen Qian said suddenly, "Just like Fei'er, the four of us."

"Okay, okay!" Ye Xin immediately clapped her hands in agreement.

"Hey, you are not serious..." I got up, feeling a little dizzy.

Wen Qian interrupted me: "I can be the drummer. Ye Xin can play the piano and is suitable as a keyboard player. Dai Han plays the guitar. Maomao, you will be the lead singer."

Dai Han added: "We can write our own songs. I will compose the music and Maomao will write the lyrics. Your writing is as good as your voice."

My head finally stopped feeling dizzy. I found out that they really weren't joking.

"What's the name of the band?" Ye Xin asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Maomao wants to think about something."

I thought about it seriously, and a word popped into my mind unexpectedly: "Let's call it... Xiaoyao."

Promise Band was founded in a hurry by four bold middle school students, driven by sunshine and alcohol.

Looking back many years later, I suddenly realized that naming the band "Xiaoyao" was actually a reflection of my heart. The days I spent with Xiaoyao were the only free and unfettered time I had in twenty years.

The formation of the band was not too difficult, at least the instruments and people were ready-made. Dai Han gave me a pen specifically for writing lyrics, which is very beautiful. To be honest, Dai Han is exaggerating. My writing is not that outstanding, but Dai Han is really a genius. Every song he writes is touching and touches the deepest part of the soul.

Xiaoyao’s first official performance was at the school’s New Year’s Day party. The spotlight burned every nerve in me, and my legs under the beautiful princess dress kept shaking.

"Maomao, come on!" Dai Han's voice came from behind. I turned around and saw the firm and trusting eyes of the three of them.

"Maomao, you are the best singer!" Ye Xin's gentle smile gave me great encouragement. With gentle pressure from your fingertips, the beautiful piano sound breaks the silence first, followed closely by the guitar and gentle drum beats, blending into the warmest melody. This is the first song that Dai Han and I collaborated on - "Waiting for the Snowy Day". I closed my eyes and sang the first word softly, as if I was on a winter night and saw the crystal snowflakes dancing, turning my thoughts into pure colors.

"...Waiting for the snowy days, will I have your gentle company?" When the song ended, the audience was silent for three seconds, and suddenly burst into warm applause. Children in the south rarely see snowflakes. This song, which seems to be waiting for snow, but is actually waiting for happiness, touched everyone's hearts.

Xiaoyao became famous in one fell swoop. Soon, the small town's art troupe invited us to perform for the Yandi Festival next year.

At that time, Ye Xin and I were preparing for the high school entrance examination, but we secretly trained in the school activity room without telling our parents. We sang songs for a while, wrote homework for a while, and chatted for a while. There always seemed to be endless things to say. So many years later, when we sat together again, and there was only endless silence except for the lingering cigarettes, I looked at the familiar faces across from me, recalling the chattering scene back then, and could only sigh sadly in my heart that things have changed.

We wrote more and more songs. Now it seems that they were just childish words, but at the time, the slightly sloppy pencil writing carried our full happiness.

On the Yandi Festival, our new song, "A Corner of the City" once again achieved great success, and Xiaoyao's fame spread throughout the small town.

That day, it was raining heavily in the small town. We sang over and over again in the rain, and the atmosphere was finally lifted. The audience, who were originally wearing raincoats and shrinking from the cold, began to sing along with our beat. Hum the melody. There were no stage lights, no glow sticks, or even sunny weather, but that day was destined to become an important day that we cannot forget in our lives. This scene became an eternal dream for me. Later, I dreamed back to that rainy stage many times, with uncontrollable emotions surging in my heart. When I woke up, I was left with only overwhelming sadness.

After Yandi Festival, still in that familiar park, we bought beer and cake to celebrate the first anniversary of Xiaoyao.

"What will happen to us in the future?" I asked.

"Of course we will continue our activities!" Ye Xin said with a smile, "Maybe one day a record company will sign us away."

"Will Xiaoyao exist forever? ?” I don’t know why I asked that at that time.

"Yes," Dai Han looked at me and said seriously, "Mao Mao, you will be our forever lead singer."

Wen Qian said longingly: "Mao Mao Cat, you should take the Chinese major and write more moving lyrics. Then we will release an album and hold a concert, and Xiaoyao will become a legend in the music world!"

"Xiaoyao will always be there!" Ye Xin raised his hand! beer.

"Be happy forever!"

I laughed. At that time, I believed so firmly in what they said about eternity, and believed that all my dreams would come true.

How far is forever? But in the blink of an eye, all the promises and vows became short-lived.

The summer of eighteen is a very special season for me. That year, the weather was always cloudy and sunny. Sometimes there was a scorching sun in the sky, and sometimes there were thunderstorms. Our moods, like the changing weather, have ups and downs in the long summer.

That year was the third anniversary of Xiaoyao’s establishment.

That year, Dai Han, who had just finished his freshman year, went to study in the United States as an exchange student because of his excellent grades.

That year, Wen Qian, who was expelled from the university for fighting in a group, finally decided to follow his relatives to do business in Guangzhou.

That year, Ye Xin performed poorly in the college entrance examination and only passed into a junior college.

That year, my grades flew below the cut-off mark, and I narrowly missed being admitted to the Chinese Department of Beijing C University.

From then on, we were separated from each other.

Xiaoyao, just like when it was founded in a hurry, it was disbanded in a hurry, without even saying goodbye. The dream Xiaoyao gave me was shattered overnight.

C’s days are regular and monotonous, so peaceful that it makes people feel frightened.

I wrote in my blog: "...Beijing is a very prosperous metropolis. There are many novel things here that I have never seen before, amusement parks that I have never played in, and ancient buildings that I have never seen. , I have never eaten Western food. However, I can’t really fall in love with it. I never belong here. Many mornings, I will wake up inexplicably, thinking of the drizzle in the small town, and everything in the small town..."

Dai Han left a message below: "Mao Mao, we all need to move forward."

When I wake up in the early morning, I will get up and write lyrics, but I will never compose music. I stubbornly believe that no song composed by Dai Han is complete. The happiness of cats alone is incomplete.

Those thoughts that came to me in the early morning were scattered in the corners of the dormitory, and soon fell into dust.

It took me a long time to understand that the reason I didn’t like Beijing was because there was no freedom here.

On the day of my twentieth birthday, Wen Qian and Ye Xin came to Beijing to celebrate my birthday. When I saw them at the West Railway Station, I felt that my breathing was about to stop.

Wen Qian looked like a small boss, wearing a suit that was not high-end, his leather shoes were polished, and he had a small leather bag under his arm. He has put on a lot of weight and is only one year older than me but has a beer belly. Ye Xin, who followed him, had dyed yellow hair and heavy makeup. Her black tights and red hip-covering skirt made her look like a thirty-year-old secular woman.

Ye Xin walked towards me on her ten-centimetre-high boots, making a "thump, thump, thump" sound, hitting my heart heavily with every blow.

She gave me a hug that was both familiar and unfamiliar, then took two steps back, looked at me, and smiled: "Straight black hair, casual shirt, no perm, no makeup, no hair." Piercing your ears, Maomao, are you pretending to be a pure goddess?"

Wen Qian also smiled, lit a cigarette and said, "Student girl."

I pulled out one. A stiff smile. Ye Xin has probably forgotten how beautiful she looks without makeup. I suddenly missed her beautiful figure in the past wearing loose sportswear and running around on the playground.

Wen Qian led us into a high-end restaurant in a familiar manner. He has been to Beijing several times to discuss business and is more familiar with this metropolis than I am.

"Maomao, how are you doing now?" Ye Xin asked me.

"It's okay, how about you?"

"Me?" Ye Xin laughed, and I saw the skin of the inferior foundation on her face, "Maomao, I Let me tell you, I now feel that the saying "It is better to marry well than to study well" is not true at all. What is the use of women studying so much? People will only care about whether you are beautiful, who will care about your academic qualifications? It is better to find a rich man to marry while you are still young, and you will have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of your life."

I was dumbfounded.

"Ye Xin, don't be a bad kid," Wen Qian chuckled, "Maomao, don't pay attention to her, she just hooked up with a rich second generation. By the way, this is your first Ten boyfriends?"

"Go to hell!" Ye Xin punched him, "Maomao, do you have a boyfriend now? How about I introduce you to one?" /p>

"No, no! No need to ..." I quickly waved my hand and refused, and my tongue was like a knot.

"That's right. No one I know is worthy of a college student like you." There was no emotion in Ye Xin's words.

"I...I didn't mean that..." I didn't know what to say. After a while, I finally got up the courage to ask, "Do you...remember Xiaoyao?"

Ye Xin had no reaction, but Wen Qian was stunned: "Mao Mao, that is all in the past."

"But I have never forgotten."

"Mao Mao , you have to be realistic, we will eventually grow up, let those unrealistic fantasies of childhood go away." Wen Qian lit another cigarette, "You must not have guessed that I can negotiate a deal now. How much money can I make, what kind of band, how can I make money by doing business? I will be a big boss in a few years."

I stopped talking.

It turns out that all the good things are just fantasy and unrealistic.

Dai Han’s birthday call came at the end of the day. I told him about the changes in Wen Qian and Ye Xin.

"Mao Mao, you are a girl living in a fairy tale."

I was silent.

"Maomao, Wen Qian is right, you have to live a more realistic life. We will always have our own lives. It is not worth sacrificing everything for a band..." Dai Han There was a noise over there.

I asked: "What's wrong?"

"I'm going to class."

"Then you go." I held up my phone and waited. He hangs up.

There was no sound of the phone hanging up coming from the receiver. I didn’t know if Dai Han was expecting me to say something.

"Daihan..." I couldn't help but call out, but the answer was a busy signal that I shouldn't have hung up at this time.

"Daihan," I shed tears, "Actually, I have never expected Xiaoyao to stand on the stage of the world. What I can't let go of is you..."

The pointer slowly pointed to zero, jumping to a new day. The mobile phone in my hand slipped to the ground silently.

The joy of the past no longer exists; the vows of the past have been broken and drifting in the wind; the friends of the past have gradually drifted away; the beautiful memories of the past have completely become memories.

I don’t know how to be happy again without the happy cat?