The sound of the bell that year, the fireworks that year

I was still in junior high school at that time, and I spent the whole day at school, either memorizing the words, or calculating the binary equation, speeding up the distance. The happiest moment of the day was when the school bell rang, like the first note of an ode to joy being played, and the whole school was in a frenzy with the music, flocking out in groups.

I was obsessed with comics for a while, and at that time I didn't have a cell phone, so my biggest hope was the sound of the school bell. Rushing home and opening the comic book hidden under my pillow was my motivation to trot home the whole time.

Whenever the bell rings for about half a minute, there are always a few people in the class who will pack up their school bags in advance, they will grab the strap of the school bag with both hands, let the thighs always get up for the first time to build up strength, keep the muscles of the whole body tense, do so only to wait to be able to use the fastest speed in the bag will be thrown on the shoulders to carry, and the first to rush out of the classroom, out of school.

Another evening, half a minute before the end of the school day, we were ready to charge, even if we noticed the teacher's gaze reminding us to pay attention, we stared at the table clock on the blackboard, watching the second hand run wild, the minute hand stroll, watching them a little closer to that moment.

"So the final step in this problem is ......" before the teacher had a chance to finish the last few sentences, that moment had arrived.

The school bell rang on time, the original silence of the school was suddenly restless, upstairs and downstairs are chaotic footsteps, tables and chairs to push the noise and laughter of classmates. This seems to be a small riot belonging to the youth, which is staged every day.

I instinctively picked up my bag at once, and along with a few others, rushed as fast as I could to the classroom door and to those wonderful comic books I had at home.

Just as I sprinted past the first row of desks and was one step away from the classroom door, something unexpected happened: I felt the bag behind me, swaying from the speed of my sprint, and felt a crash, and I heard the sound of things scattering to the ground and water bottles breaking.

I stopped in my tracks and turned around to look. On the ground were scattered books and pens, and next to them were broken glass crumbs.

Chen Qiuru was sitting there with an annoyed face.

I knocked over all of Chen Qiurui's things, including a glass of water.

Chen Qiuru is a girl I've known since elementary school, and is one of my few close friends.

At this moment, I did not hesitate, directly squatting down to help her pick up things, and be prepared to receive a taunt and clean up.

"It's okay, you go."

"Ugh?" I heard this and looked up in disbelief.

"Hmph, apologize for talking to me tomorrow," she still had that annoyed expression, yet with some cuteness, "Go home and read your manga first."

Probably she is so understanding, she knows what I am so anxious and excited about every day, and she knows that I will take responsibility for what I did wrong to the end.

I nodded out of the tacit understanding between best friends and turned around to continue my "revolution". After I left the classroom, behind me came the teacher's reprimand to the class: "Look at all of you, you know you are anxious to go home ......"

That night I did not look into the plot of the comic, full of her picking up things and sweeping the glass of the desolate figure.

The next day, I approached her directly before class and apologized.

"I'm sorry, how much is that water bottle, I'll pay you back."

"Hmph, that's what my family brought from outside, I can't buy it even if I pay for it." The way she tightened her brow made me feel as if things were serious.

"Then ...... this ......" I wasn't sure at that time how I could make up for my fault other than paying for it.

"How about this, the fireworks festival in two weeks, you accompany me to see it." Qiu Ru smiled and said, "Consider it your compensation to me."

The fireworks festival that Qiu Ru refers to is a tradition in our town.

It's about a day in mid-September when the people of the town need to celebrate in a big way. Every night on this day, most of the people would come out of their homes and gather in the streets, waiting for the dragon dance team to arrive. They would beat gongs and drums, shouting vigorously, waving a big dragon with a shiny body and parading through the streets.

The dragon is made of a well-made lantern stitched together, the body is separated, the dragon dance team technology is really great, when the street dance, really let the dragon alive, looks like a complete flying dragon. When this dragon wandered through every street in town, every intersection, there will be countless fireworks burning tail up into the night sky, a lot of blooms.

This day, according to the old folks in the family, is to seek a good fortune for this year's autumn, but can not stand the romance of fireworks, but many young people take it as belonging to the town's "Valentine's Day".

I didn't think much of this seemingly ambiguous request in junior high school, and agreed to it straight away, after all, I was guilty of it in the first place.

The school has an odd rule that boys and girls must be separated in physical education classes, and each class must form two squares. The school playground is walled on both sides and separated from the main road, a geographical condition that we used to play pranks.

Once boys of this age get together, they like to work together to come up with ideas and poke fun at others, and the boys in our school would poke fun at each other, and over time, a kind of "competition" was formed, today you poke fun at me, tomorrow I poke fun back. Of course, this competition is not win or lose, everyone is to have fun.

That day was the day of physical education class, a few of us older boys sneaked out of school when the teacher was not paying attention, walked down the road to the other side of the playground fence, each hand, holding three or four water balloons.

"Are you ready?" A young friend looked at us.

"Is it reliable?" I asked.

"Reliable, I have observed several times, the next class of boys every time behind this wall assembly."

At that moment, a resounding command came from the other side of the wall: "Gather!" It seemed to be the PE teacher of the next class.

We were all incredibly convinced that the target was at the other end of the wall.

"We'll give them a good taste of it this time." Another youngster said.

"Ready, three, two, one, throw!"

We threw the water balloons in our hands with force and watched as the colorful balls went over the wall, and there was a sound of water balloons bursting behind the wall, followed by the sound of fright.

But, to our surprise, all we heard were the screams of girls.

"What's going on? Didn't they say it was all boys?" I looked stunned.

"I don't know."

"Who is it! So unqualified!" The PE teacher's angry scolding came.

We were so scared that we turned our heads and ran.

We went back and found that the boys from the next class had been taken to another wall by the teacher, and now it was the girls from our class who were there.

I saw that among the group of girls who had been drenched, there was Qiu Rou.

I saw that her long hair was wet on her face, there were drops of water falling down her cheeks, and her clothes were mostly wet. She took a tissue and wiped her clothes with a helpless and angry face.

A few of us boys took the initiative to admit our mistakes, apologize and write reviews with the entire class of girls.

When the school bell rang, I didn't leave right away and ran to Qiu Rou, wanting to apologize to her in a personal and solemn way. Instead, all I saw was an angry expression and her back as she turned around and stopped paying attention to people.

"Oh no, I'm in trouble." I realized at that moment that I had really gotten into trouble.

Soon, it was the day of the fireworks festival, yet I hadn't received forgiveness from Qiu Rou, and I didn't even have the courage to go to her to talk to her during this time.

The evening of the fireworks festival, I still went out, I decided to go to Qiu Rou and once again sincerely apologize to her.

The time came around 7:00 p.m. The dragon dance starts around this time every year.

The town was already full of people converging on the streets and alleys, they were talking, words forming waves and tumbling through the crowd.

I searched for Qiu Rou on the street where I had made an appointment. I weaved through the crowd looking for her, and finally, on the other side of the street, I found the figure in the long blue dress.

I walked through the bustling crowd to her side and tapped her on the shoulder.

The little girl looked back, no surprise, no anger, just a smile with a crooked eye: "You're here?"

"Well, I'm here."

Seeing her smile, the word "sorry" on her lips did not come out. I just think it's inappropriate to say it at this time.

The two of us were standing side by side in the crowd, surrounded by the noise of people, everyone was craning their necks, looking in the same direction.

They are waiting, waiting for those shouts, waiting for that big flying dragon.

The night was getting deeper and deeper.

Finally, a resounding cry came from the distance: "Hey! Here comes the dragon!"

The words were like a blazing fire, boiling the whole street, people were noisy, excited, and even started crowding.

As the distance drew closer, the sound of firecrackers and gongs grew louder, and the shouts of the dragon dance team even overshadowed the noise of the crowd, and the street began to drift with the smoke and debris from the burning.

Qiu Ru and I were squeezed to the back of the crowd, not tall two people can only observe the street scene through the gaps in the crowd.

"Hey? Where do you want to go in high school?"

"What?" The noisy environment made it hard for me to hear anything.

"I said! Where do you want to go in high school!" Qiu Rou pulled her voice out.

"The city, I guess! My parents are there!"

"The city's first high school!"

"Yeah, I want to try out!"

"Then I'll go too!"

"Why are you going?"

"Because you'll be there!"

Even a more elusive head will throb when it hears these words.

The dragon came, the end of the crowd began to have a light, smoke and dust raised and spread more, the noisy gongs and drums overshadowed all the sound, smoke and dust haze the light on the dragon, I only saw the long body in the light and shadow between the shuttle, like a dream.

I looked at her, the corners of my eyes curved.

"Chen Qiulu! You look good when you smile!"

"Huh?"

Someone lit a fire, and fireworks rushed up into the night, colored dazzling light pouring down, glowing over the whole town.

Beneath the fireworks were the crowds and us, people enjoying the big soaring dragons and the gorgeous night sky.

And I stared in fascination at the girl in front of me, her cheeks colored, the color of fireworks, unusually sweet.