How nice you still alive!

When I was in first grade in elementaryschool, I was living with my grandparents in a small town in northeasternChina. At that time, the living expense was extremely low in that small towncompared to living expense in big cities such as Beijing. I remember that mygrandma gave me fifty cents every day for me to buy some snacks during school.Fifty cents was the average amount of money that parents would give to theirchildren at that time. There was a day that my grandpa won a lot of money byplaying Majiang with his neighbors. Majiang is a kind of traditional game inChina and requires four people to play. He was so happy about that and he gaveme five Yuan, which equals five hundred cents, and allowed me to buy whatever Iwanted. I hold the money tightly because I couldn』t believe that my grandpajust gave me such a large amount of money suddenly. This five Yuan was not justa piece of paper to me but it could bring a lot of snacks, toys, and posters ofmy favorite movie actor, and it could even make all my classmates very jealous.

On the nextday, I put the bill into my backpack carefully. I was singing and running onthe way to my school. I was smiling to everyone I saw on the street.

「I am a super-rich kid now」 I thought. 「I amgoing to buy a huge bag of chips and eat it in the classroom, I may considersharing some with my classmates if they beg me for it.」

However, after I went to the restroom betweenclasses, I couldn』t find that money anymore. My treasure and all the fun thingsI wanted was just lost! I realized that I was not a rich kid anymore! When Irealized that I cried for the rest of the class.

There was a kid called Xiaowei sitting nextto me during that semester. After I cried, he kept comforting me so that hedidn』t even pay attention on the lecture. It was extremely unexpected to dothat in my school. No teacher would be happy for a student not paying attentionon his or her lecture. He told me that he saw a higher-grade student waspicking in my backpack. I asked him to identify that person, but he told methat he couldn』t remember clearly. Therefore, I had to bear the fact that Ilost that five Yuan.

After this, Xiaowei and I became best friendsuntil we went to different middle schools. I thought he was the only oneunderstood me and was nice to me. We spent all days together either hung outfor fun or play video games. Xiaowei』s parents were running a small recyclingbusiness. Unlike America, people didn』t do recycling when I was a kid. All therecyclable things would be thrown into the trash can. Those people who did recyclingbusiness would look for the recyclable stuffs out of the garbage treatmentplant and sell them to make money. This was the dirtiest and minimal payed jobat that time, therefore this occupation was not respected by others in China. Accordingto this situation, I was Xiaowei』s only friend during elementary school for sixyears.

******

Long after, there was a chance I metZhangzhang, another classmate in my elementary school, we talked a lot ofthings happened during elementary school and recalled so much fun.

「I remember you always play with Xiaoweiwhen we were young. How could you possibly do that? Don』t you know that no onewould like to play with that recycling boy?」 Zhangzhang said.

「Xiaowei is not a recycling boy! He is mybest friend!」 I was not happy about Zhangzhang』s judgement about Xiaowei. So, Itold him this story about my five yuan and how Xiaowei comforted me at thattime.

When I finished my story, Zhangzhang lookedat me like I was an idiot.

「How could you be so stupid?」 he said. 「It』sobvious that Xiaowei was the person who stole your money. That higher-gradestudent he claimed he saw must be his lie to cover him!」

I was shocked at what he said to me. When Ithought backward of that day I lost the five Yuan in classroom. I recalled thedifference of Xiaowei』s words and his expressions on his face. Finally I agreedwith what Zhangzhang said. I was deceived. I don』t think a seven years old boystealing and cheating was unforgiveable, and I won』t judge him by moralstandards. However, I felt so hurt because I thought I was betrayed by Xiaowei.Sometimes I appreciated the loss of that money because I got a real friend atthat day, but it turned out that was a fraud.

I tried to find him in many ways. That takesme a long time. After graduated from elementary school, I lost contact withmost of classmates, including Xiaowei. Zhangzhang and I called all classmatesone by one asked for information about Xiaowei. Finally, we found someone mayknow about Xiaowei. So we called.

「Why do you ask about him? He already died.Don』t you know he died in a car accident after our graduation?」 He kepttalking, but I couldn』t hear him clearly. Suddenly, all the memories aboutXiaowei appeared in my mind. Things that I forgot long time also appearedclearly. Even some trivial little things showed up for example there was a daywe ate ice cream outside of school. He was really good about telling jokes.Sometimes he would share with me something interesting that he found in hisparents』 recycling place. Xiaowei was actually a good person, I really think so.Although he stole my money and lied to me, he still was my best friend at thattime. To speak of truth, I like him. Now I hear his death in the phone, I wasreally sad about it.

******

Two yearsago, one of my elementary classmates organized a reunion party for our class. Iwas running late. The room was full of people when I arrived. There was a lotof people that I wasn』t familiar with. People just changed. Some of them I sawI could recognize only a part that I still remember. I could see the changesfrom kids to adults. That is amazing to see someone sitting there with fancydress and seem to be pretty professional, but the same people in my mind is theten years old damn kid with dirty school uniform. I was looking around in theroom and tried to recall the name of each person. Suddenly, I heard someone yellingmy name and said, 「Shuran! Long time no see!」

I turned tothis person and I saw someone I didn』t expect to see there. I was frozen forten seconds at least. 「Xiaowei! I thought you were dead! They told me youdied!」

I couldn』t control myself and shouted back to him.

Everyone started laughing in the room,Zhangzhang was the most exaggerated one. He laughed but also looked ingrievance. 「What』s wrong did I do; I don』t even know who made up this story.How could you all believed in that?」 He said.

Now, yousee, my best friend didn』t die.

At thatnight, we talked lots of things. We talked his parents』 recycling place; howdid his father become rich; his first love in elementary school; and why there』sno one likes our math teacher, etc. We almost talked through everything that weexperienced together. Nonetheless, I didn』t mention that five yuan. Nothingseemed to be a problem compared to life and death. Why should I take this smallthing and make people unhappy at this moment? Now I see Xiaowei sit next to metalking and drinking. Nothing else really matters to me. I hope he stays safe,and that is enough.

However, my story didn』t stop here.

At the end of the reunion party, Xiaoweistarted this conversation.

「Do you remember you have lost five yuan inclassroom?」 Xiaowei asked me.

I nodded slowly, 「Was that you?」 I askedcarefully.

「Truly, that』s not me!」 He waved his handquickly. 「That was the higher-grade student who stole your money, I didn』t lieto you!」

I felt so guilty about suspecting Xiaowei.

「But that higher-grade student is my cousin」He continued, 「I saw you had money but I dared not to take it. So I told mycousin and I got some snacks from him.」

At this moment, there are thousands ofthoughts came cross my mind, but finally they all became two words.

「Fuck! You!」

We laughed.