Twenty-nine, Spring Festival (2)

  The annual New Year's celebration is a traditional activity of the research institute. On the first and second days of the Lunar New Year, various units set up award-winning games and activities in dozens of classrooms on the first floor of the school building and in the large playground in between, for employees and their families to come and have fun. The prizes range from pencils, erasers, notebooks to thermoses, pressure cookers and other daily necessities. Of course, people don't just come here to win prizes, but mainly to gather together, have fun and enjoy themselves.

  Although the games are just common activities such as ring toss, darts, fishing, and riddles, they are often added with audio-visual effects by the elites of each department, making them seem quite technically impressive. For example, Sun Yumin's fourth room is researching superconductors, and their game is to connect two specified points on a chaotic circuit diagram. After connecting, a small train will come out on the background stage and perform a show of climbing mountains and passing through tunnels.

  In short, the game was still very interesting. Classmates were scattered while playing. When Lin Fanghua went to play laser flying disc, he found that the other side of the queue was Chen Jian.

  This game was produced by the newly established Fourth Research Institute. The flying saucer is a circular model that flies slowly on a background board 10 meters away. The player holds a "laser generator" and aims at the small red target in the center of the circle with the emitted red laser beam. If it can be successfully kept in place for 5 seconds while moving with the flying saucer, the broadcast will report "destroying one flying saucer". If the hand shakes during this time and cannot keep it for 5 seconds, it is considered a failure. A total of three shots are fired, and different rewards are given based on the number of hits.

  Lin Fanghua and Chen Jian, after all, had received training, their hands were relatively stable, both of them easily hit the target three times. The staff member gave them prizes while saying: "You two are really impressive, no one has been able to hit the target three times this morning!"

  Lin Fanghua thanked him while asking: "Uncle, is the laser weapon you're researching something that can be used to shoot down planes like this?"

  The man's face changed slightly, and then he smiled again: "Kid, just play, don't ask too much!"

  Lin Fanghua felt depressed being called a little kid, shrugged and turned around to leave.

  After walking a few steps, Chen Jian followed up from behind and whispered: "Hey, you've been fooled! Didn't you hear that the dorm is one of our most strictly confidential places? Their laser weapons can also be casually eavesdropped on?"

  Lin Fanghua rolled her eyes: "Geez, what I asked isn't even a core secret!"

  "In short, don't ask about secrets that shouldn't be known..."

  "Fang Hua interrupted: 'Secrets that shouldn't be said aren't said, secrets that shouldn't be seen aren't seen. Alright, I've also signed the confidentiality agreement!'"

  "It's enough to know!"

  Lin Fanghua sighed: "Alas, everyone on Earth knows!"

  This sentence, which has not yet become popular, is spoken by Lin Fanghua in Northeastern dialect, and suddenly makes Chen Jian laugh. He says with a smile: "Ah, Lin Fanghua classmate, I found that you have changed a lot in half a year!"

  "What's this all about?"

  "Hmm, you're more cheerful than before and your words are more interesting. Anyway, you've become more fun!"

  Lin Fanghua remained silent for a moment before saying, "What about the me from back then?"

  "In the past, you had good grades but didn't like to talk much. You only hung out with a few girls in class and the boys didn't really understand you. Look, we've been neighbors for so long and rarely spoke, I didn't know much about you either, let alone other boys? Some boys even thought you were aloof! But now I know everyone misunderstood you, if you had been this lively back then, people wouldn't have misjudged you!"

  Lin Fanghua thought for a moment, and still felt that her former self lacked confidence and was so shy and introverted! Now she may not have made much progress in other areas, but she has made significant progress in terms of confidence.

  Lin Fanghua asked again: "Do all boys like lively and cheerful girls?"

  "Hehe, it's just that lively girls are easier to get close to and understand! Actually, many boys still like gentle and quiet girls. I think as long as one is natural and not pretentious, that's good!"

  Two people walked and talked, both very relaxed, chatting freely like old friends about their views on life, society, and the future. They even discussed the Gulf War that was raging in Iraq at the time, and later explored international trends. Chen Jian discovered Lin Fanghua's extensive knowledge and understanding of military politics, which didn't seem to match a medical student, and he admired her greatly.

  He said sincerely: "You know my grades weren't great before junior high, and you were always at the top of the class. My mom would scold me at home, telling me to take you as a role model and learn from you well! But I didn't think much of you, thinking you were just a bookworm who only knew how to study. Now I realize, I was really wrong. You even know so many things about the military, how could you be a bookworm?"

  Lin Fanghua shook her head repeatedly, feeling secretly ashamed: wasn't it because she had the advantage of information brought by rebirth? However, after this conversation, she felt that the past feelings towards Chen Jian had completely disappeared. She really didn't know how she could have liked him before, now he was completely transparent in her eyes, and she could see right through him. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with this, it's just that this sunny youth would no longer make her feel heart-pounding feelings. It seemed that unrequited love without contact or understanding couldn't be considered true love after all.

  Not long after, the two of them reunited with their classmates who had wandered off. A girl suggested taking a photo together, so Fang Hua went back home to fetch her camera, and everyone ran to the small garden in front of the auditorium to take pictures in front of the plum blossom tree.

  During the remaining days of the Spring Festival holiday, the internal TV station in our institute showed Hong Kong drama "Chung Seung Wan Siu" every day. This is also a major feature of the spare-time life of this isolated research institute. Located deep in the mountains, in an era without satellite TV, the TV signal here was not good, and the programs on CCTV were not very rich either. Therefore, our institute set up an antenna on the highest peak of the surrounding mountains to build its own TV station, which broadcasts videos every holiday from afternoon to evening.

  Lin Fanghua has been watching a lot of Hong Kong TV dramas since she was young, such as Zheng Shaoqiu's "Chu Liu Xiang", Chow Yun-fat's "The Bund", Cecilia Yip's "Police Woman", Michelle Reis' "The Legend of the Condor Hero", Feng Bao Bao's "Wu Zetian", Felix Wong's "The Underdog Knight", Leslie Cheung's "All About Love" and so on. These Hong Kong stars and their works have accompanied her growth, and have become a permanent beautiful memory in her soul.

  At this time during the holidays, with nothing to do, I re-watched the classic performances of Wong Yue and Wan Zhi-Lun, still feeling great. Meanwhile, young people in the dormitory have started singing Danny Chan's "What a Life" again.

  On Saturday, February 23rd, a week after the Spring Festival, Lin Fanghua returned to school with her brother. Who made their winter vacation start early? As a result, they couldn't spend the Lantern Festival at home.