I find myself looking back at my college life and thinking about the wonderful things that had happened. I've decided to write them down so that one day, years from now, when I reread them the memories will come back.
When I was nineteen years old, before and after going to college, I was so young that I was interested in beautiful girls, just like any other teenager. Luowai made an advertisement in a famous magazine for middle school students. In the magazine was a beautiful girl reading in the college garden. Absorbed in that beauty, I chose Luowai as my future college and went there to study foreign languages.
The Political Commissar of our Company was a tall man, whose family name is Bai, who is from Inner Mongolia and still working in our college now. He was very kind to his fellow-townsmen, but excessively strict with and cold to the others.
There were about thirty-five girls in our company. To tell the truth, they were pretty indeed. Company Commanders ordered them to have their hair cut. Many of them cried loudly.
"If I had known this, I wouldn't have come!" they shouted.
But it was too late. The barbers cut their hair without any mercy. They hated the barbers to the core.
So did we the boys. After haircut we found ourselves much uglier than we had been. What's really annoying was that we had to cut hair once every two weeks.
One day I caught a cold and went to see a doctor.
"Which grade are you in?" asked the doctor.
"The first year of college…" I answered.
"Don't mention college," said the doctor. "The next time you come here, say you are in Grade one. Don't mention college. Because there are no pupils here. All are college students. Can you remember this?"
Without their permission I couldn't get any medicine. There was no choice but to agree.
"Yes, I can." I said. This was the first lesson the military academy taught me.
On another occasion I was on duty in our dormitory. I received a phone call from Commissar Bai. He ordered me to send him his shaver, which he left in the dormitory. Out of breath, I ran a kilometer to his house. The minute he took the shaver from my hand, he slammed the door behind him. Standing out in the cold, I felt not like a student, nor a soldier, but a complete foolish pig.
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After one month's drill we took part in the National Day Parade. Although we tried our best, no award had been achieved. The Company Commanders didn't scold us as "damn you" as usual, but as "his mother'sX". On hearing that, our pride of going to a military academy disappeared at once. One cadet from Jilin province, decided to drop out. Privately we called the four Commanders carpers. Another cadet from Xinjiang was very bad and behaved like a cadre, we called him the fifth Commander. He went to school in Henan province, but in order to have a better result, he took part in the entrance examination in Xinjiang, where the required scores were much lower than those in Henan.
At last the drill ended and the study began. All the teachers were knowledgeable and warmhearted except our executive teacher. It's a pity that I have forgotten her name. As you know, some letters in foreign languages are very hard to pronounce. Whenever we had trouble with our pronunciation, she always let us stand in front of all other students. She would make a face in disgust when we made mistakes. She was young and beautiful. But for the first time in my life I didn't fall in love with a beautiful woman. Luckily she got pregnant. Several months later Mr. Yu Chunwu took the place of her. Mr. Yu treated us like his family members. All of us liked him.
It is their duty for every cadet in military academies to stay and guard the camp during holidays. In the second year I fulfilled my duty. So did another student, one of my friends at that time. His family name was Xiao. We both liked playing basketball. We had a good time. At the end of the holiday Xiao said he wanted to clean the Commanders' bedroom and the teachers' office building. Not knowing why he was so warmhearted, I helped him to do that. While we were cleaning, a service clerk came in and saw us. Xiao talked with him happily. They had got to know each other before that. The clerk thanked Xiao because it had been his duty to clean the office building.
The next day the new semester started. Seeing the bedroom was clean and hearing that the teachers' building was cleaned, the Commanders were very delighted. They praised Xiao as our example and called him living Lei Feng.
The Commanders invited him into their office and talked with him for a long time. I also looked forward to being praised for my taking part in. I thought maybe Xiao would have mentioned me to the Commanders. But it never happened.
After that, Xiao was really treated as living Lei Feng. Class one invited him to make a speech as an honor. After half an hour he came back, excited. We asked him about the speech.
"This gang of bad guys," he said, "They asked me some questions difficult to answer.
"What questions?" we asked.
"For example," he said. "They asked if I really wanted to be Lei Feng, and whether I had secret purpose in my action or not. I couldn't answer."
From then on, Xiao cleaned the Commanders' bedroom every day. No matter how busy he was, he never complained. Time flew. The old Political Commissar, on whom Xiao counted, left our company when we were juniors. And the new one came.
The new instructor was Li Jianxiong, whom we called Brother Xiong. Before that I had known him. It was one day when I played basketball. I was knocked over by a classmate and I fell down on to the ground lying on my chest. My right knee was scraped by the hard cement floor and bled. A tall and handsome man came over and watched the wound carefully. With a comforting laughter he said, "No problem, it'll heal in a week."
That man was Brother Xiong. I recognized him as soon as he came into our dormitory. One day I mentioned that basketball match to him. He thought about it and laughed loudly. "It was you!" he said. He smoked, but he had a set of white teeth. All the students said that he looked like a famous actor called Zhang Fengyi.
When we were in the senior year, Xiao wanted to join the Party. But the number of people allowed to join was small. Furthermore, Brother Xiong didn't like him. Some students thought it was unfair. They expressed their sympathetic feelings towards him by playing a drama. In the end Xiao succeeded in his attempt. But he treated us, his classmates, colder and colder.
Before graduation orders were given about where for us to go to work after graduation. Brother Xiong said that everyone should go back where they came from. He knew some boys and girls were in love with each other, but it was in a military academy. All the couples said goodbye to each other overnight. The Fifth Commander wanted to stay in. Brother Xiong didn't agree. All of us applauded and laughed with satisfaction.
I was from Shangdong. Xiao was from Hebei. We were not in any competition with one another. Brother Xiong decided that I should go to Zhejiang and Xiao should go to Jilin. To my great surprise, Xiao was not satisfied with such an order. It was not with the order about himself. It was with the order about me. He went to Brother Xiong's office and suggested that I should go to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Brother Xiong was angry with his advice. He didn't follow it.
I never had the chance to thank Brother Xiong for that because it was a long time after that when I heard the story from others. Brother Xiong himself never told me. I thanked him in my heart. Not only I but also many others thanked him. He was the fairest Commander of all.
It has been eighteen years since my graduation. A lot of changes happened during this period. It is said that Xiao changed a lot. Since he came to his new unit he hasn't done any extra work except his own duty. He doesn't get along well with his co-workers. No one knows why. Now we are in the same Wechat group. He never speaks except when he asks us to vote for his daughter when she takes part in some competition.
All the time I have been having a question to ask Xiao. Why was he so opposed to me that year? I really want to know. Did I do anything that hurt him? Until today I haven't asked because I'm not a sweet pea myself. Maybe I really hurt him somewhere sometime. Maybe I hurt many others, I just didn't know.
All the cadets in one company should be united like a family. Why do I have to tell these stories? Because our Alma Mater is still alive. Because the new students are still studying there. They are longing for warmth and love. I don't want thatkind of hurt to happen again.
There are also some sweet memories. One is about my pretty deskmate. One snowy night I went to visit my respectable teacher with her. We walked on the snow. It sounded like music. Another is about Wang Feng. One day I hurt my toe when playing football. My classmate Wang Feng let me lie on his broad back and carried me to the clinic. The clinic was about 1,500 meters far from the football field. He walked heavily. Every step gave me a lot of warmth. I can still feel it today.
（王敬涛外语）
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