50: The familiar world is disappearing

Inside the fire pit room, the burning flames crackled.

Tian Gangwu uncrossed his hands, resting them on his knees, and forced a bitter smile.

“The old woman next door to me is almost ninety this year. She said that when she was five or six, her father went to war. Then she waited and waited. Life became stable, she got married, had children, and became prosperous… but her father never returned, not even his earrings.”

“She also didn’t know where her father went. But she always smiled and told us that she knew this stable and peaceful life was a gift from her father.”

Zhao Jin couldn't hold back, tears welled up in her eyes.

“Tears are worthless now.”

“It was supposed to be peaceful and harmonious, but it made me cry a storm.”

“It’s good, I feel like I can briefly forgive this world.”

Tian Gangwu sighed softly, looking out the window, “But… I often wonder, when all those who waited for them are gone, who else will remember that those people wanted to go home?”

There was some silence in the fire pit room.

A few seconds later, Zhao Jin hugged her arms, trying to keep her tone light, “There’s still the family tree, and this land.”

Chen Fang also said, “At least they have returned to our shared hometown. And the place they shed blood to protect can also be considered their homeland.”

“Yes.” Tian Gangwu smiled with a mix of relief and helplessness, “But what I’m thinking about is memory. Sometimes I feel that disappearance is terrifying, but being forgotten is also a sad thing.”

The era of waiting for the corpse driving to bring loved ones back to their roots was slowly fading away.

With the construction of roads and the opening of traffic, the profession of corpse driving gradually disappeared, becoming a memory. The era of his youth was still vivid, but he was helplessly swept into the torrent of history.

He collected his thoughts, “So I am very grateful for our variety show. This is not polite talk but from the bottom of my heart.”

Tian Gangwu knew that Chen Fang had proposed the corpse driving topic, and he looked at him gratefully, “Because of this variety show, these memories can be preserved for a longer time.” As he spoke, he looked at the other two.

“Teacher Tian, you’re too kind, this is what a cultural program should do,” Zhao Jin echoed.

Tian Gangwu forced a smile, his heart still aching. He was talking about cultural memory, but from the heart, it should be the distress of middle-aged people about life, watching the familiar world disappear little by little, and he himself slowly getting older.

Seeing his troubled expression, Chen Fang comforted him, “Teacher Tian, please relax. Every era will go from reality to the memory of those who experienced it, to stories, and then to records. Our childhood is also like this.”

Tian Gangwu felt a little better.

Even though he was over fifty, he still couldn't help but feel a little relieved because “everyone is like this.”

Today’s topic was not the corpse driving, but the collision of cultures from different eras and inside and outside the mountains, so this was not off-topic. He asked with interest:

“Hmm? Teacher Chen, why do you say that?”

Chen Fang looked at the flickering flames, his tone soothing:

“People born a little later than you lit kerosene lamps, watched black and white televisions, read comic books, rode two-eight bicycles, and ate corn stalks as sugarcane.”

“A little later, they played hopscotch and threw beanbags, used pencils to make coin rubbings and poked erasers, blew colorful bubbles with ten-cent bubble gum, and folded ‘East, West, South, North’ in the classroom to choose their destiny.”

“And then there were slap bracelets, yo-yos, black and white game consoles, and finally, the inevitable mixed-up playdough…”

Chen Fang smiled faintly at Tian Gangwu, “Even if we are only in our 20s, the familiar world of our childhood is disappearing. You are not alone; every era is like this. I don't deny there will be sighs and sadness, I just want to say, this is life.”

Chen Fang looked at the flames again, sighing softly, “The wheels of history roll forward; it’s impossible to go back to the past, but when you realize the disillusionment, you still feel sad.”

Hearing this, everyone present felt a strange sensation, especially those born in the 80s. Memories and the people in those memories were leaving one by one, and the familiar world was disappearing. How could they not feel sad?

In the fire pit room, although Zhao Jin felt emotional, she didn't sigh deeply.

Seeing the others looking downcast, Zhao Jin propped her chin and glanced at Chen Fang.

It seemed her assessment of him was correct.

He was really good at comforting people.

Originally, only Teacher Tian was emo, but now everyone was sad.

Was he happy now?

Chen Fang was indeed happy as he heard the negative emotion values increasing rapidly.

No beating, and earning negative emotion values, awesome!

Just as the negative emotion values in his mind surged, the atmosphere in the live stream room became a bit low.

“Bro, I’m just watching a variety show, do you have to make me cry?”

“Life is so fragile, cherish the present.”

“You’re tempting me and making me cry at the same time, is the dish in the pot delicious?”

“Out with the old, in with the new. We have already experienced the world of the past; in the rest of our lives, let's experience the new world!”

While the live stream room was filled with emotion, the aroma of cured meat and radish in the fire pit grew stronger.

“Alright, it’s all done!” The village chief served the cured meat stewed with radish onto a plate, and the six dishes from the villagers’ group were also ready. “Let’s eat!”

…

After the director’s repeated admonitions, lunchtime passed very smoothly and peacefully. And there was no longer a situation where the live stream room was filled with wailing.

At 1 PM, after He Xing announced the daily tasks and the corpse driving ceremony and bonfire party to be held next Saturday, the 17th, the program team ended the live broadcast.

Chen Fang returned to his room, took a nap, then took out his computer and started typing furiously on “ghost blows out the light.”

On the other hand, during and after the live broadcast, the program team quickly bought trending topics and released funny clips from the show to increase its popularity.

In a female dormitory at a university in the Capital.

First-year student Qiu Xiaoyu was lying on her bed. On the poster on the wall next to her, Chen Fang’s smile was warm.

Although Chen Fang’s reputation had fallen, in college, her roommates didn’t mind her hobbies much, so his photos, posters, and records were still in place.

She clicked on a chat group named [Secret Support Team].

After Chen Fang’s reputation fell, loyal fans like her who firmly believed in his innocence were attacked by netizens online. Helping Chen Fang post clarifying evidence not only led to traffic restrictions but also private messages with insults.

Even the former fan groups fell apart.

It was a situation of both internal and external troubles.

Therefore, she and a small number of fans who firmly believed in Chen Fang’s innocence abandoned the original fan groups and formed this small group.

Qiu Xiaoyu quickly typed: “I had midterms last week, so I didn’t pay much attention to Chen Fang’s news. Today I scrolled through and found that he, he, he… how did he go from a loyal dog to a sharp-tongued person?”

Soon, replies from group members popped up in the chat:

“My heart aches.”

Qiu Xiaoyu quickly replied: “It’s just midterms, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

“I said my heart aches for Chen Fang! Who’s aching for you. *kicks flying.JPG*”

“He must have been stimulated too much in the past month to become like this. Like a hedgehog protecting himself.”

“Maybe he was always like this. The tricky ideas he used to fool Xie Yunxuan are not something an ordinary person could come up with. ૮ ˶ ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ˶ ა”

“Whether it’s the loyal dog persona given by Jiakang or the sharp-tongued one, it doesn’t matter. What I like is that he’s always been warm at heart! He’s also very warm since joining the adventures. He comforted Zhao Jin at the graveyard last time, and today he timely comforted the little girl and Teacher Tian.”

“Agreed, he’s always been very thoughtful.”

Qiu Xiaoyu stroked her chin, frowning slightly.

Are you sure he was comforting others today?