Keeping the Heart of a Child Forever True

When I was in college, I lived in dire straits: I could not get three square meals a day and dressed shabbily. At my hardest, I had to borrow money just to get by. Back then I was determined to earn some money to improve my life, my family's finances, and lift my parents out of economic hardship, so I tried going into business selling telephones and phone cards. But due to insufficient social experience, it ended in failure, making matters financially worse: not only was I still too hard up to afford meals, I was also deeply in debt.

The capital was borrowed from classmates. One classmate very generously lent me seven hundred yuan. Only years later did I learn that he himself was not well off at the time. Although his family situation was slightly better than mine, it was actually also difficult. This classmate was from Jiangmen, Guangdong, and returned to his hometown after graduation. When I came to Foshan this time, I arranged to meet him, and he gladly took half a day to accompany me.

He looked much the same as in college; his appearance had not changed much. Although, like me, he is over forty, he still looks young. I am the same; people with simple minds seem to age with difficulty. All these years I have often thought of him, and he has always remembered me. But we rarely contact each other, because we are both calm and detached people who uphold the principle that "the friendship of gentlemen is as plain as water," and most of the time we forget each other in the wide world.

I borrowed money from him back then and paid him back only after some time. When I repaid him, I felt very guilty, because I had exceeded the repayment date I had promised. As soon as I had earned enough to pay back my classmates, I went straight back to school and tried to repay them double. It was not because I had made much money, but because I felt I had not kept my personal credit well and should make amends. Other classmates, unable to resist my insistence, accepted; only this old classmate firmly refused. I borrowed seven hundred, and no matter what I offered, he would only accept seven hundred back.

When I mentioned this old episode, he no longer remembered it at all. No wonder; events from over twenty years ago are rarely still remembered clearly. But for me, everything done by those who have shown me kindness I will remember for a lifetime. He is the kind of person who helps others without expecting repayment, and a deeply compassionate person who, even when not well-off himself, still eagerly helped me.

We were close at school and remained close after leaving. It is only after starting families and careers that we have rarely been in touch. At school we were kindred spirits who understood each other's hearts. We both came from poor children's backgrounds, both were sympathetic to others, sincere, and had an innocent, childlike heart. At this long-overdue reunion, I was gratified to see that, over forty, he remains as wholehearted as before, even more sincere than in the past. Having weathered the storms of life, the little vanity we had in adolescence is now entirely gone; what remains is that sincere heart returned to simplicity.

Talking with him was a great joy. In life we all more or less encounter things that do not go our way. Meeting and talking at length, laughing heartily together, made much of the sadness in our hearts fade. I even recorded the conversation; I think that once I am back in Beijing, whenever I feel unhappy, I can play it back, and hearing our laughter will dissolve the knots in my heart. The bond between two men is no less than that between a man and a woman; we may even understand each other better than our spouses do.

His upbringing and mine are very similar, and our personalities are essentially the same. We are both people with a strong sense of security and shared a dorm room in college. When I saw him and he saw me, it was as if we had seen another self in this world. We both lived frugally, yet never felt life was bitter. We both had self-sufficient, fulfilled hearts, happy even when alone and gentle when with others. Past and present, we fully understand each other; every word he speaks strikes a chord in me, and every word I speak is exactly what he wanted to say.

When there is even one such person in the world, we will never feel lonely. In the past, when we were together, we had not exchanged our growth stories; this conversation made up for that. Only after exchanging notes did we discover how similar our childhoods were: both abundantly loved by our parents, both raised in very difficult households, so that from childhood on we were kind, frugal, and hardworking.

We agree that the suffering endured when young is a fortune in life, because hardship tempered our tolerance for pain. Nowadays we rarely experience moments of suffering, and even when we encounter major setbacks, we recover faster than most. As we live on, we gradually let go of everything and are easily satisfied. Although many around us think we may live bitterly, we have never once felt ourselves to be suffering. Even in our hardest times, we could still view everything with optimism.

This is the greatest happiness and wealth in life, because this kind of joy cannot be taken away by anyone. We have a joy that does not depend on external people or things, but wells up endlessly from within, and we are both happy to help others. We are deeply grateful to our parents and teachers for laying such a strong spiritual foundation, so that amid life's storms we can always maintain a pure and joyful state of mind.

If in this world we had never met a single kindred spirit like this, that would be a great pity. But if there is even one such kindred spirit, all regrets vanish. When we are lonely, thinking of an old friend brings immense comfort; that is the role of a soulmate.

How wonderful life is! I cannot help but praise it.