The encounter on the train

During his sophomore year, his life was like a messy palette - skipping classes, playing online games, drinking, and falling in love with girls from outside schools. It was busy, but none of it had anything to do with academics.

　　Decadent and unmotivated, it's not that he didn't wake up to himself, it's just that it's easy to plan and hard to execute well. He still plays an all-nighter now and then.

　　In the summer, he originally planned to catch up on his school work and then work a job, but his girlfriend invited him to join their classmates' holiday trip. He had no choice but to shelve his plans again and boarded the train to Xi'an.

　　In the summer, the train was overcrowded, and they only got two sleeper tickets. Everyone had to rotate to rest. The rest of them played poker in the hard-seat car and had a great time.

　　When the train stopped at his hometown. Looking out the window at the familiar scenery, listening to the strong native voice, there was a moment, he remembered his parents at home farming. Every time he called, they said everything was fine and told him not to worry. He then also really put his mind down and stopped thinking about ...... thinking about it, he was a little distracted until someone urged him to deal, and he was immersed in the game again.

　　At three in the morning, he and his girlfriend went to rest in the sleeper car with heavy drowsiness. There were too many people, the aisles were crowded with sleepy people, and there were many migrant-like people with their heads resting on woven bags, drifting off to sleep.

　　In the connection of a carriage, a small space, people are sitting or lying horizontally and vertically. He suddenly screamed out like a pinprick, only to see his father curled up in the corner, his back leaning against the package, slightly tilted face asleep.

　　The world is a big and sometimes small place, and he met his father here.

　　His father was also surprised to see him. He said he was going to work for a construction team in Zhengzhou, and that he had finished his farm work and was going out for a while. Looking at his father's wrinkled sweatshirt, unkempt hair, and dark, pale face, he knew that his father was pretending to be relaxed because he didn't want him to worry.

　　When his father asked him where he was going, he mumbled something about his trip. He encouraged him that young people should be like this, "read a thousand books, travel a thousand miles" well. Thinking about the red light homework, he dared not look his father in the eyes.

　　He persuaded his father not to go out to work again, but he said that he was used to working and could not stay idle. His father never told him about the hardships of life, and he seldom thought about his father's contribution. Now, on this overcrowded train, looking at his old man carrying his luggage and going out to work, he felt an unspeakable sourness in his heart.

　　That night, his father slept soundly in his sleeper berth. After sending his father off the train, he found himself with an extra 200 yuan in his pocket, two crumpled, sweat-stained bills that made him feel heavy and hot.

　　He suddenly lost his excitement about the trip. On that trip, his father's wrinkled face always loomed before his eyes.

　　When he returned from the scenic area, he got off the bus in the city where his father worked. The day was stiflingly hot like a big steamer, the heat was rolling in, and the air smelled of thirst.

　　At a construction site on the outskirts of the city, he met his busy father. The site had just been under construction, and the building had only been built one story high. In the roar of the machine, my father was stepping on the scaffolding built with wooden planks, clanking and tying the steel bars. Seeing him, my father hurriedly got down from the scaffolding and painfully scolded him for coming to the site in the heat of the day to do something. Looking at his father's soaked sweatshirt, the heat smoked black and red face, he only felt his throat blocked. I don't know if it's sweat or tears slipping down his face and into his mouth, salty and bitter.

　　As we were talking, a worker walked by. The father proudly introduced, this is my son who went to college. The worker also asked what he studied in school. The father replied loudly and looked at him sideways with a happy smile of relief.

　　He had mixed feelings in his heart, thinking about the two failed subjects, no place to be.

　　He stayed at the site for two days and realized that his father had left him the only money he had on the train that day, and now the living expenses were deducted from his wages. The weather was so hot, strong physical labor every day, and simple, rough meals is the whole content of his father's life. He bitterly persuaded his father to go home, and he stayed to do the work. My father was a bit angry: "I am doing crop work, this tiredness is nothing, which is where you study people to stay, you study hard, future success, better than anything."

　　Over the years, he became impatient, forgetting where he came from. Now, his father's sweat under the hot sun, drop by drop splashed in his heart, awakened his sleeping heart.

　　That summer was one of his most memorable vacations, and he felt suddenly much older and more mature. From then on, he took his path step by step and was a different person from his former mischievous self.

　　Years later, when he talked to his father, he would often mention that summer. Only, he didn't tell his father that without that encounter on the train, he didn't know how long he would have squandered his time.