I have a friend, his name is Sang. We live in the same dormitory at University A. Sang studies economics and I study Chinese.
Until a few months ago we didn’t even bother to talk to each other but now we are as close as friends on the battlefield.
The reason was simple: Sang had a crush on a girl who studied in the same department as me. He said that the first time he saw Le, he knew that for the rest of his life, other than her, he would never be able to look back at another girl.
Cheesy right? I greeted it with a look of disdain when he said it with a straight face.
Overall, these two people are too different. Le is the beauty queen of my department, slim figure, pretty face, when she smiles, her dimples appear very charming, pretty and also good at studying. In contrast, Sang, from top to bottom, is only honest and simple.
“Forget it, man, she’s very valuable, dozens of guys are lining up after her, you’ve just joined that army.”
He just bowed his head and said nothing. I couldn’t tell what his emotions were but I knew I had misspoken.
“I say that so you can give up early and avoid sadness.”
“I know”
It was not until the following week that I saw Sang running from the pouring rain with wet feet to dry feet that I was shocked. I only asked him a few questions about his umbrella, but he just mumbled that it was gone.
Later, when she met Le again in the rain like that day, she was holding an umbrella with the same pattern as Sang’s lost umbrella. The pattern had faded but still looked very durable, the person who kept it must have treasured it very much.
“She said I was poor!”
“She said I’m not as rich as her new boyfriend!”
That night I just kept quiet and said nothing. I myself could not have guessed that Le was such a materialistic person. Sang was depressed for a month, but he got better and returned to his normal life.
One day, after a stressful exam period, we made an appointment to go out for a drink. On the way, we met Le and her boyfriend. When the boyfriend raised his hand to hit her, Sang ran over to stop him. After that day, Le broke up with her boyfriend. Rumors that she was dating someone else just for money spread on the school forum. Le became depressed. From then on, I rarely saw her at school.
“Haha! Serves her right, who told her to like gold digging, now she’ll be taught a lesson!”
Sang was drunk like a drunkard, he kept drinking bottle after bottle. His face was red, his breath smelled strongly of alcohol.
“Stop drinking, you’ve had too much.”
“It’s okay, I’ll pay, today is a happy day. We can go home or not.”
It stayed like that until it collapsed on the table, crying. It sobbed, tears and snot streaming down its face. It grumbled:
“She…She’s a damn woman, a gold digger. But…why do I keep liking her?”
“You bastard, why don’t you let me go?”
I wasted time hand washing a shirt because his tears and snot were all over it when I tried to drag him back to the dorm. After that day, I rarely saw him, and I didn’t know what Sang was doing that made him so busy.
A few weeks later, I learned two shocking news. First, Le’s family went bankrupt and was deeply in debt. The debt collectors did not spare anyone. Le’s family had to live in poverty and did not have enough food to eat. It was estimated that the debt was up to billions of dong. Second news… Sang had gone smuggling all the way to the border, causing a huge commotion and was being hunted down.
That afternoon, the police came to my school to work with the school, the dormitory was also searched, I had to go through a stressful interview. In the evening, I followed the small road to the grocery store near the school to buy a box of instant noodles to eat for the day.
Suddenly I saw a familiar figure. It was Sang! I quickly ran in front of him and without hesitation, raised my fist and punched him right in the face. In my 20 years of life, I had never punched anyone straight in the face like that. Thinking back, it still feels refreshing.
“You still know how to come back!?”
I growled, showing my anger.
“Ouch, you hit me hard, you crazy guy.”
“Who told you to do that? You lack money? Why didn’t you tell me?”
My eyes were stinging. It was the first time in my 20 years of life that I had said something so touching. Sang was silent, and after a while he took a bag of money from his pocket. I was stunned.
“Please give it to Le for me, I can only collect this much.” Then he stuffed a bag of money into my hand.
“You…”
Holding the bag of money, my hands trembled. Have you ever met anyone who is willing to smuggle for you? Have you ever met anyone who says they hate you but still loves you? Have you ever met anyone who still thinks of you before reaching the end of the road? Le is so lucky to have met Sang.
The next day, Sang turned himself in. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison because he turned himself in, so his sentence was reduced to 23 years. That was also the day I first talked to Le.
She became thinner, her face was no longer white and smooth but gradually darkened. Her once slender hands were now dry and rough.
Poverty can change a person’s life. The days when you are happy and prosperous are your success in taking the quality of life from others. People always compete for each other’s percentage of happiness. When you are hungry and miserable, there are people who are rich and prosperous. On the contrary, when you are full and warm, there are unfortunate people out there struggling to make a living.
Seeing the money on the table, Le cried. That day, we talked a lot. Mostly about Sang. Le regretted, Le was tormented, she blamed herself for causing the future of a man who loved her with all his heart and soul to end up in a dead end.
It was a light rain, I went to pick up Sang on the day he was released from prison. Standing in front of the prison gate, the image of a couple standing together, reluctantly, under an umbrella made me unable to take my eyes off. It was still Sang’s umbrella, which had faded over the years. Le had told me about that night when Sang gave her the umbrella while he ran in the pouring rain.
Perhaps when you make mistakes and stumble, you hide, go astray and lose your way, somewhere in this world there is still someone who welcomes you with the most tolerant and gentle heart.