Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Chapter 1096. August is a time of high skies and impetuous people

According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, despite the abundant rainfall in July, it was still the hottest summer on record in Germany since World War II. This may be related to the continuous exposure to the sun in early July. The media have predicted that the temperature in August may reach a new high.

Dong Qiangqiang learned from the news and his parents that with the last batch of SARS patients recovering and being discharged from hospital, China's battle against SARS was declared a victory.

The International Committee of the Red Cross awarded the highest honor in international nursing, the Nightingale Medal, to Ye Xin and ten other outstanding medical workers who left the hope of survival to patients and the risk of infection to themselves in the fight against SARS, and who were fearless and fulfilled their duties conscientiously. The award was presented in recognition of their noble sentiment of comparing their mortal bodies to those of gods, and they are considered to be well-deserved people's heroes.

According to statistics from relevant United Nations departments, the total global economic losses caused by SARS exceeded 50 billion US dollars, and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were hit hard to varying degrees by SARS, ranking first in the world in terms of losses.

The Chinese have always been a nation that is good at introspection and summarizing. Although we are still in the final stages of clearing up the problems left over from SARS, people have begun to reflect deeply on why SARS was so rampant in the early stages. And when people had a correct attitude towards the severity of SARS and the whole country united in fighting SARS, SARS did not seem to be as strong as expected.

Dong Qiangqiang saw from the videos of ordinary people being interviewed on domestic websites that the long-lost optimism has finally returned to the faces of people from all walks of life. Busy roads have become busy with traffic, commercial streets are crowded with people again, and construction sites have regained their former vitality, with all kinds of construction vehicles coming in and out, looking so happy.

The video ends at the side of the road outside a construction site. On a huge billboard, a black English word "NO" in oversized font is pressed heavily on the red English word "SARS", and below it is a line of large words: SARS will eventually fall, but the city spirit will live forever! A pedestrian standing on the side of the street is looking up at the billboard, with an intriguing expression on his face.

Dong's mother asked her son whether he would return home for a rest during the summer vacation since SARS was basically over. Dong Qiangqiang would start his exams in the second week of August, for a total of two weeks, with two exams per week. If he returned home in the third week, he could only stay in BJ for two weeks at most and would have to fly back again. Not to mention the waste of time and effort, the key point was that he had just been back once in March, not to mention that he still had to dig a pond. Moreover, once the landlord went out to travel, it would be his responsibility to take care of the yard, poultry, cats and dogs. In the end, he decided not to return home during the summer vacation. Dong's mother was quite disappointed after hearing this, but her son's decision was deeply appreciated and firmly supported by Dong's father. Dong's mother, who missed her son so much, did not want to argue with Dong's father who had just recovered from a serious illness, so she had to tell her son to be careful and wished him good luck in the exam, everything was well at home, and not to worry, and so on.

The day before the exam, the landlord, who could already speak a few simple Chinese sentences, packed his luggage and officially started his adventure journey to China. Because Dong Qiangqiang had to prepare for the exam, he could only drive the old man to the train station and watch him board the train to Frankfurt.

Before leaving, the landlord entrusted everything in the house to him. Dong Qiangqiang was worried, so he called Lao Bai to entrust him. Lao Bai was leading a tour group in Hungary. He told Dong Qiangqiang that someone from the domestic travel agency would pick him up at the airport and gave him the person's phone number. Only then did Dong Qiangqiang feel relieved.

When he pretended to casually ask why the tour guide quit the job for the second time, Lao Bai told him nonchalantly that SARS was history and tour guides needed to lead tours to make a living, and he was the client and had all kinds of tours on hand, so the tour guides had to listen to everything they said, and if the tour guide felt the money was too little, he could refuse the job, and everyone was an adult and no one could force anyone.

Dong Qiangqiang could tell that Lao Bai had no intention of restoring the tour guide hourly wage to the pre-SARS level. He knew that no one could persuade Lao Bai now, so he stopped talking and hung up the phone in a hurry.

In the early morning, when he finally finished reviewing and was about to wash up and rest, he received a call from the landlord. The old man was as excited and excited as a child on the phone: I finally arrived in China! It is much more developed than I imagined. It is just like the photos on the wall of the China Week exhibition. The sky is high and blue, the people are friendly and kind, the ground is clean and hygienic, and the supermarket has everything. But why don’t German TV stations broadcast these contents? Dong Qiangqiang couldn’t say that German TV stations always like to wear tinted glasses when looking at China. He could only change the subject and wish the old man a smooth journey.

At first glance, taking two exams a week may seem too relaxed, but because the professor does not mark the key points before the exam, every student has to review all the content learned in the semester, and the amount of review should not be underestimated. In Dong Qiangqiang's opinion, the pressure of taking two exams a week is not less than that of taking five exams a week when he graduated from the preparatory course, and the difficulty is even greater.

Before the first exam, Dong Qiangqiang suffered from insomnia, which was rare for him. He couldn't sleep even more after receiving a call from the landlord to report that he was safe. He simply spread out a piece of paper and a pen to write down the essay questions he had compiled. The more he wrote, the more excited he became. He was still not sleepy until three o'clock, but he dared not continue writing no matter what, for fear that he would fall asleep in the examination room during the exam the next day. He forced himself to climb into bed, but he still couldn't fall asleep while lying in bed. He stared at the ceiling in a daze. When it was almost four o'clock, the long-awaited sleepiness came over him.

After the first exam, Dong Qiangqiang felt neither difficult nor easy. After the second exam, he was still confused and had no feeling about the exam. He called home on the weekend and his parents asked about the exam, but he could only give a vague answer. He asked Du Lan and Zheng Chunhua what the reason might be, but they couldn't explain it either. They could only think it was pre-exam syndrome. It was not until the third exam that he finally found the long-lost feeling of preparing for the exam, but by then, half of the time had passed and there was only one exam left.

He also signed up for the last exam before the registration deadline. What surprised him was that the essay questions not only included the questions he prepared, but also a question similar to the old test paper he bought. The question stem was almost unchanged, only the numbers were adjusted. Dong Qiangqiang happily changed the standard answer that he knew so well and wrote it down exactly as it was. The moment he put down the pen, he felt so happy. For the first time, he was confident that he could get a high score. When he got home, he threw down his schoolbag and ran straight to his neighbor's house. When he used the shovel to dig a hole, he felt that the soil that he couldn't dig normally became particularly fresh and beautiful.

Tired of digging the pond, Dong Qiangqiang found something more fun.

Because he is very familiar with the way to the ridge, he would choose to take a flashlight, a dagger and a trekking pole, and then lead the "radar" and head straight to the top of the ridge when the night sky is clear.

Generally, although the mountain wind on the ridge is strong at this time, the feeling is still pleasant. Looking at the starry sky, he can shout and vent the pressure in his heart. The fields are empty and no one pays attention to his shouting, so naturally no one will call the police.

The "radar" that has been trapped for a day will usually become happier than him, running around like the wind, like an electric mouse that has just been equipped with new batteries.

If he could do well in every subject like today, he would only need to study hard for two years to graduate. Zheng Chunhua said that it took Germans about three to four years to study economics, so forget about all the exams, I just want to be fast.

The mountain wind carried his thoughts far away.