The Farewell Dinner of Master Brother

  In May, Qingzhou's weather has already warmed up. Birds start chirping at noon as if they're going to work. This picturesque medium-sized city has been experiencing worsening climate in recent years. Winters are getting colder and summers hotter. Spring, however, is getting shorter and shorter, as if the cold winter just ended two weeks ago, and then suddenly skipped spring and entered the scorching summer season.

  Jiang Zhan had just walked out of the institute's gate when his pager on his waist suddenly beeped. He took it off, glanced at it, straddled his old bicycle and sped away in a cloud of dust.

  Outside the institute is a steep slope, which has a great reputation in the campus. It is said that many infatuated men imagine the famous scene of hitting someone with their bicycle and getting to know a beauty, rushing down from here at high speed. Among those who really hit, 7 out of 10 are men, and 2 are dinosaurs. If you're lucky enough to bump into an average-looking girl, congratulations! If she doesn't slap you in the face and let her boyfriend beat you up instead.

  Jiang Zhihan is a relatively cautious person, from childhood to adulthood he has always been the kind of person with an average height, ordinary appearance, and above-average grades, who doesn't talk much (except in front of familiar friends). If you had to describe him with two words, it would be "ordinary". It's harder to pick him out in a crowd than to climb to heaven. When his parents' friends want to praise him, they usually can't think of anything else to say except that this child is honest and down-to-earth. His teachers most often use the word "stable" to describe him.

  But in reality, Jiang Zhihan is a somewhat arrogant person. Among his friends and classmates, there are really not many people who he thinks are smarter or more talented than him. Although he was born into an ordinary family and had been labeled as "honest" since childhood, he went to university in a steady and unremarkable way, never being the kind of outstanding figure, but deep down inside, he has a lot of unknown self-confidence - whatever those guys can do, I can also do!

  Jiang Zhihan's cautiousness was reflected in the small details of his life - for example, when going down this 20-degree slope, he usually gently squeezed the brakes to keep his speed from getting too fast. But today, he let go of the brakes and let the old second-hand Phoenix bike beneath him rush down freely, with the wind blowing past him, the trees on both sides of the road quickly receding into the distance, and for a moment, he almost felt as if he wasn't riding a Phoenix, but driving a Ferrari.

  Finally, after staying in this campus for 7 years, it's time to say goodbye. People are not old yet, but they have already started reminiscing about the past, just because it's the season of farewell.

  The campus in May is ordinary for most people, but it has a special flavor for graduates.

  Graduate students who graduated in the spring have already completed their defenses, and some have left, while others are still lingering to deal with some trivial matters. Undergraduate graduates will soon start defending, but for most people, it's just a formality. Work has basically been settled, and those who took the postgraduate entrance exam already know the results, leaving only one final ceremony.

  In May, campuses are filled with all sorts of farewell activities. And for us Chinese people, there is no activity that surpasses... eating.

  The host of the dinner was a PhD from the institute named Shen Cheng. Shen Cheng is already 34 years old and has been working for several years before pursuing his PhD. His graduation can be said to have gone through many difficulties, and he spent seven and a half years in the institute before finally getting this certificate. It's worth mentioning that Jiang Zhihan helped Shen Cheng a lot with his graduation, even putting in some effort to contact him about work. Therefore, although they are not in the same research group, the two have a deep friendship.

  After asking the waiter, I pushed open the door of room 7 and heard someone singing a song, it was the new song of the popular singer, "Hand in Hand Looking at Each Other with Tears in Our Eyes, Suddenly We Have Nothing to Say".

  "I'm Kao, who's been annoying people. Ten big shots are sitting here, singing this," Jiang Zihan said with a smile and scolded. Those parents and friends who praised him for being honest would probably be shocked to see this. The experience of the past two and a half years in the research institute, especially after starting his own business, doing projects, had slowly transformed Jiang Zihan. Although he couldn't be said to have mastered the art of socializing, he was able to handle social situations and banter with friends with ease and naturalness.

  The singer, nicknamed Lin Pao. He didn't resist this nickname at all, and over time, everyone often forgot what his real name was. Among the seven people sitting in the house, apart from Lin Pao and Jiang Zhihan, were the host and his junior fellow from the research group.

  Lin Pang exists because of Shen Cheng's graduation and job search. Lin Pang is another person who made a great effort, his contribution is probably much greater than Jiang Zhihan's. Lin Pang is one year junior to Jiang Zhihan, he is a junior fellow under the same supervisor. He basically came to the graduate school just for the sake of getting a diploma, and later on aimed at administrative work in government agencies.

  At first, Jiang Zihan couldn't help but feel a little repelled by Lin Pang's mixed background as his junior brother. It was difficult to work with him on projects, and many things had to be done by himself. However, Jiang Zihan is considered to have a good temper, and after graduating from college, he became more and more understanding of human relationships. Plus, his supervisor gave him some advice, so he took good care of Lin Pang all along. Even the paper that Lin needed to publish for his master's degree was written 80% by Jiang himself, with Lin as a co-author.

  But in this matter of Shen City, Jiang Zihan re-recognized his younger martial brother, not only for the power of his family's connections, but also because he felt that this person had a bit of a heroic spirit and a kind heart, and was considered a friend worth befriending. As a result, the friendship between the two became even deeper, and they could often joke around without reserve.

  There were four cold dishes on the table, stir-fried screw threads, boiled edamame, mixed cucumber and salted fish, which are considered classic four cold dishes for student gatherings. Under the table was naturally a case of beer. Nowadays, new students who have just entered school (especially after expansion), seem to have better family backgrounds, more expensive handbags, but for Jiang Zhihan's generation of students, the four cold dishes and low-quality beer are also an eternal and warm memory of their student days.

  Shen Cheng smiled and said, "First, let's have some cold dishes and drink a little wine to warm up. The hot dishes haven't arrived yet, just wait for you and Sun Yue." Sun Yue was a graduate student in the next two sessions, and that year the institute recruited 16 people, only one of whom was a girl. This ratio is said to be comparable only to the mathematics department and the theoretical physics department. Everyone jokingly called her "a touch of red" behind her back, meaning "a touch of red in a sea of green".

  Jiang Zhan apologized, "The boss is holding a meeting and can drag it out for as long as he wants. We're just substitute workers, what can we do? No excuse for being late, I'll punish myself with a drink." In this day and age, everyone calls them "boss" instead of "teacher", "professor", or "mentor".

  After the most enthusiastic toast and drinking game, Sun Yue called to say that he had something on in the afternoon and couldn't make it. So the hot dishes started coming out one after another, the wine started flowing, and the brothers' familiar games also began. Eight big men in a private room were performing a play that had been repeated countless times this season: drinking farewell wine.

  Wine is the catalyst for conversation. This is absolutely true. After half a case of beer, men seem to turn into women or old people, and family gossip and trivial matters keep pouring out of their mouths. Jiang Zhihan sat there, sometimes seeming a bit distracted, as if he was floating outside his body watching a play, every sentence seemingly coming from afar and echoing off his body.

  Two juniors, Zhang Zhang and Sun Yue, are gossiping. It is said that three men are competing for this point of red, one is a doctoral student in the department, one is a master's degree student at the same level, it is said that they have been classmates since middle school, and have not changed their minds so far. There is also a newcomer who is said to be from the computer science department and has started doing projects with several hundred thousand yuan in hand.

  Jiang Zhihan looked down on this gossiping guy from the bottom of his heart. It's okay for girls to occasionally chat about some gossip, but for a man in his twenties to understand all the causes and effects, and to talk about them with great interest, it's really more like a neighborhood committee's auntie than a young man.

  University life can be really lonely at times. Jiang Zihan sighed in his heart, but his mind wandered elsewhere. He thought back to when he and Shen Cheng went from acquaintances to close friends, which was also through some pretty boring things - playing games. From "Three Kingdoms" to racing games to "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", whether it was cooperative or competitive play, their revolutionary friendship sprouted and grew in online multiplayer mode. For a period of time, the two often rode their bikes for 10 minutes to eat at the off-campus cafeteria, chatting idly after meals about unimportant things, but Jiang Zihan slowly felt a strong connection. Although Jiang Zihan wasn't the type to pour his heart out to someone about his ideals and worries, occasionally having some melancholic emotions that he mostly kept to himself. But having a friend sit down and casually chat about some things was also a great feeling.

  It was during this casual conversation that Shen Cheng talked about his situation. In the second year after entering the research institute, his supervisor went to the Chinese Academy of Sciences for promotion, but still retained the qualification to supervise doctoral students at the school, which was a win-win situation for both parties. His supervising teacher was still under that person, but in reality, the relationship had been transferred to another new and sharp doctoral supervisor.

  This postdoctoral fellow, who is under 40 years old, values economic returns the most. He has started his own company outside and has shifted his research topics to database intelligent control, abandoning fundamental research in his major field. Shen Cheng's work experience and professional foundation are still solid, but because he entered university very early, when he started reading for his Ph.D., he was completely unfamiliar with computer-related things, far less knowledgeable than his much younger fellow students. Therefore, it is inevitable that he is not valued by this postdoctoral fellow. Those who cannot make money for him are basically outside his scope of consideration. The research topic has been delayed for more than three years before the opening, and then it has been slow to progress.

  Shen Cheng is getting older, and his sharpness has slowly worn off. His studies are not going well, and at one point he fell into the habit of playing video games all night to pass the time and alleviate his frustration. It was also during this period that he truly got to know Jiang Zhihan.

  Later, a new doctoral supervisor came to the institute. Jiang Zhihan helped him with a small project for a month and happened to know that he was also having a hard time finding Ph.D. students when he first arrived. Moreover, his National Natural Science Foundation project matched Shen Cheng's strengths and work experience very well, so he played matchmaker for both parties.

  Shen Cheng was still hesitant at first, after all, it had been 4 years and the thesis had already started, but in the end he finally made up his mind to jump over, and indeed, it took less than three years to settle the graduation. For this matter, Shen Cheng was deeply grateful to Jiang Zihan in his heart, and felt that Jiang Zihan was a capable person, and if there was an opportunity, he would not be a mediocre person.

  Later, due to Shen Cheng's poor mathematical foundation, Jiang Zhihan helped him polish his paper and made significant contributions. Coincidentally, Lin Pang was pulled in by Lin. Within a short period of time, he was able to publish papers in top academic journals, thanks to his parents' connections. Even later, Shen Cheng's work also benefited from his efforts.

  Jiang Zihan felt a bit strange, why did he feel nostalgic for the past few days and sometimes felt like he was standing outside his body looking at himself? Was he still stuck in the unfinished love affair between humans and ghosts? He gathered his thoughts and realized that Zhang Zhang was still chattering away about gossip, so he couldn't help but interrupt and say, "Zhang Shidi, I'll give you four sentences:"

  Where is there no lovely grass at the horizon?

  The rabbit does not eat the grass at the edge of its nest.

  The quality is also poor

  Why look for it far away when it is near at hand?

  Lin Pang led the way, imitating the leader's tone and saying, "Comrades, we need to look further ahead. Qingzhou Normal University and Qingzhou Medical College are waiting for us to comfort them." The table erupted in laughter, and the topic was thus concluded.

  A meal, eating and drinking while chatting and bragging, sat for three hours. After getting drunk and full, everyone got up to pay the bill and went out to the parking lot, of course, it was a bicycle parking lot. Shen Cheng and Jiang Zihan were left behind, only then did they have the opportunity to discuss their travel plans.

  Jiang Zhan asked, "Have you booked your train ticket?"

  Shen said it was on Tuesday afternoon.

  Jiang Zhihan is a bit regretful and may not be able to see you off, as he has to go on a business trip to Shanghai-Nanjing on Monday and won't be back for at least three days.

  Shen Cheng had a lot to drink and was getting emotional, he hugged Jiang Zhihan's shoulders and said, whether or not to send him off is just a matter of formality. After being in Qingda for so many years, the friends who are truly willing to help and can actually help are all you. Lin Pang is quite righteous, but to be honest, when he helps me, it's also because he sees your face, you've helped him a lot in the project group and never quibble with him, he doesn't say it out loud but he remembers it in his heart. You try your best to help me without asking for anything in return, he looks at you highly and thinks you're a person who is righteous and has a future. As for me, this time I'm going back to find a university that's not well-known to be a lecturer, slowly working towards becoming an associate professor or something, and forget about being a doctoral supervisor. Firstly, it's close to my parents, they're old and need to be taken care of, secondly, the work is relatively stable, although the opportunities are not as good as here, but the pressure of pulling projects and money is also much less. I just want to be an university teacher with a clear conscience, teach students well, and give them a few good lessons. I have self-awareness, my abilities are limited and I've wasted time, now going out is just for stability. And you? You're still young, and capable, your future prospects we all don't know, but I believe you will achieve great things.

  Jiang Zihan smiled and said, "Although I'm a few years younger than you, I'm no longer a naive young man. Those unrealistic fantasies from my youth have long since dissipated. Now it's good that I've found a decent job, mixed with white-collar workers, and strive to make progress. I pray that someone will grant me a virtuous and not too ugly wife, and then spend the rest of my life as a husband, children, and a warm family."

  Shen Cheng said with a slightly unclear tone, I'm rooting for you. Don't underestimate yourself, your future is bright ahead. The place I went to, not to mention other things, the air is fresh, the environment is good, and it's not crowded either. When you have time, come take a look sometime.

  Jiang Zhan patted his shoulder, now what era is it, the great man's words have all come true, the sky moat has become a thoroughfare. Wherever you go, it's just a matter of hours, and it's very convenient to contact each other by phone, email, MSN in daily life. As for coming to slaughter you, that opportunity is greatly available. You don't need to worry about me not coming, I'm afraid you'll worry about me coming too many times.

  Two people arrived at the parking lot, each unlocking and getting into their own cars. Shen Cheng said, "I'm going to make a trip outside of school, so let's part ways here." After hesitating for a moment, he suddenly said, "I've never told you before, mainly because I thought it was too boring. When I applied for my Ph.D., it was for the sake of my girlfriend at the time. Although I was a technical backbone in the factory, without a strong academic background, she thought that if things continued like this, my future would be bleak, so she strongly advised me to take a leave of absence and pursue further studies. Thinking back to those years, having a Ph.D. was such a sacred title! Who would have thought that I wouldn't live up to expectations and end up stuck here for seven years? Seven years, just gained a piece of paper, but lost a lot of hair. Seven years, what a waste, haha, masters are walking all over the streets, while Ph.D.s are not as good as dogs.

  Jiang Zihan knew that Shen Cheng had drunk a bit too much and was feeling somewhat melancholic, so he didn't say anything extra to encourage or comfort him. He just patted his shoulder firmly and said solemnly, "Big Brother, take care of yourself."

  "Lost your composure, you too, take care of yourself."

  The two of them waved goodbye and rode their bikes in opposite directions.

  The wine was blown away by a gust of wind and surged up. Jiang Zihan, who was riding in the carriage, suddenly recited loudly:

  A bosom friend at home

  Neighbors at the ends of the earth

  Inaction on a divergent path

  Sisters share a handkerchief

  Several people on the side of the road turned their heads and looked at him as if he were a madman, but Jiang Zihan was not afraid, and instead spoke even louder.

  The old man talks about his youthful madness

  The left wheel turns blue, the right rein pulls yellow, a thousand horses gallop over the flat ridge.

  The words behind suddenly got stuck and couldn't remember what they were. Several passersby burst out laughing, such nerves are common in the campus at farewell time.

  In the distant girls' dormitory, a gentle and lingering old song floated in from afar, singing softly, asking what love is in this world, making people promise to be together for life and death.

  Jiang Zhihan's enthusiasm suddenly dissipated, and he muttered under his breath, "The Empress really likes to follow the trend of elegance." But in his heart, he slowly felt a sense of inexplicable melancholy.