Once Young - CH 1.5

I don’t know if everyone has an ideal person in their hearts – like him (her), envy him (her), and want to be like him (her). I have, I wanted to be Qin Qian since I was a child.

Qin Qian is the most attractive little girl in our alley. She is beautiful, with big eyes, small red lips, and curled hair like a doll. Any girl standing next to her will become a foil. There were many times when Qin Qian and I were playing at the gate of the courtyard, and some adults came over and stretched out their long arms, went over my head, touched Qin Qian’s little head, and said with a smile, “Oh, Qian Qian is getting more and more prettier!” Those hands never patted my head, not even once.

My mother said that since I was a child, I was smug and always looked in the mirror. In fact, she didn’t know, I wasn’t intoxicated with my appearance. I was comparing how I looked different from Qin Qian. The eyes are longer than hers, the nose is bigger than hers, the eyebrows are thicker than hers, the lips are thicker than hers. Adults say that a woman’s face will change 18 times. I firmly believed that by the age of 18, I will definitely make a gorgeous transformation. At that time, I didn’t think of becoming of the Jade Girl or the national beauty girl. I thought, it would be great if I could become Qin Qian overnight. Of course, unfortunately, I have never been able to become like her in my life.

Qin Qian is very popular. Not only adults like her, but children also like to play with her. She is the king of the children in our compound. If everyone wants to get together to play something, they must call Qin Qian first. Skipping rope, kicking shuttlecock, playing hide-and-seek, kicking pot, eating peaches, throwing handkerchiefs, catching fish without a net, eagle catching chickens… She’s all good at it. At that time, before we jumped the rubber band, we had to divide the group. First, we selected two leaders, and then you get out of the clay pot and mud bowl, or choose someone with the back of your palm and the back of your hand. Qin Qian will always be our leader. The five hooks and five rolls jumping to the mao pit and Qian Qian are all very good. As long as you play with her, you can play for a long time without being replaced and stretched. So everyone expects her to pick themselves, staring at her eagerly, happy to be selected, and very depressed when she is not selected. And Qin Qian is very righteous, because we are from the same hospital, so she chooses me every time.

Qin Qian has a lot of advantages, but these are not the things that I envy the most. What I envy the most about her is that she and Xiaochuan were older and they went to school together.

On September 1, the day the school started, the yard was lively in the morning. Everyone knew that Qin Qian and He Xiaozhou were going to school, and they all greeted them cordially. Only Brother Wu Xinyuan and his family did not move. Since the accident of Brother Xin, their family seldom took the initiative to talk to the people in the courtyard. The door was always closed, and even in the hottest dog days, it was rarely opened for ventilation.

Aunt Yao handles everything and Qin Qian goes to school by herself. Uncle Qin is not in Beijing because he and Aunt Yao lost their jobs because of the birth of Qin Chuan. When Qin Chuan was less than a year old, Uncle Qin went to Guangdong to go to sea with his friends. He buys goods there, and sells a lot of gadgets, such as Lux soap, electronic watches, big flared pants, ladies bragi, all new and fashionable things. Aunt Yao is a tailor in Beijing. She is skilled and can make winter and summer clothes. She has made several small skirts for me. She also used new cotton to make me a whole set of padded jackets and trousers.

The dress that Qin Qian wore when she started school was made by Aunt Yao. Qin Qian looked like a doll from a fairy tale book. Brother Xiaochuan also wore new clothes and carried a new schoolbag that day. The two of them stood in the courtyard hand in hand, looking both happy and nervous.

Me, with braids, and Qin Chuan, who was snot-snoting, followed the adults and watched stupidly until they were sent out of the courtyard. Just when they stopped waiting, I suddenly had a thought : Brother Xiaochuan goes to school, so he can’t play with me every day!

So I grabbed my mother who was in a hurry to go to work and shouted loudly, “I want to go to school too!”

My mother said impatiently, “You’re still underage! Wait until next year to go with Qin Chuan!”

That was the first time I experienced the god of time. The secret is strong, no matter how hard I try to chase forward, one year is one year, and I will never catch up with Xiaochuan.  I turned my head dejectedly and looked at Qin Chuan who was squatting on the ground and pulling the cat’s tail. I felt even more sadness coming from it, and burst into tears with a “wow”.