Chapter Seventy-Three: Class Reunion

Early the next morning, I suddenly received a call from Xiaoyi. He said there would be a high school reunion at noon, set for a Brazilian barbecue restaurant on East Street. I thought about bringing Lele along, but she gently declined, saying she wasn't feeling well.

Though I felt a little disappointed, I didn’t want to insist—especially after Lele had given me such a fright last night. Besides, she hadn’t been in our class during our senior year, so it didn’t really matter to her whether she went or not.

I left the house alone, and as soon as I reached the restaurant, I spotted several familiar faces.

“Xiaobei, why didn’t you bring your wife along?” Xiaolei was the first to come over, grinning mischievously.

“She’s not feeling well, so I didn’t ask her to come,” I replied, scratching my head.

After finishing our preparatory course, Xiaolei had chosen to study law at the new campus, which was pretty far from mine. As a result, we hadn’t kept in touch much.

Xiaolei stuck out her tongue playfully, then turned back to chat with her group of girlfriends.

“Xiaobei, you’re here!” No sooner had I finished with Xiaolei than Xiaoyi came over. He looked just the same as ever. Since I’d missed the last few gatherings, it had been more than two years since we’d seen each other, and we were both excited to reunite. We gave each other a heartfelt hug.

“I heard from Haozi that you’ve started playing basketball again?” Xiaoyi patted my shoulder with a smile.

“Yeah, just for fun, really,” I replied, shrugging slightly.

“You’ve improved, not bad! Got time to play at the Normal University gym sometime?” he asked tentatively.

“Sure thing! By the way, where are Yehui and the others? Didn’t they come?” I glanced around but didn’t see the old basketball crew.

“They’re all upstairs! Let’s go up and chat!” Xiaoyi—ever the leader—threw his arm around my shoulders, and we made our way upstairs, joking as we went.

As soon as we walked in, I saw that the two long tables in the center of the restaurant were already surrounded by classmates. Out of more than forty people in our class, over half had shown up—a rare turn-out. As Xiaoyi and I entered, everyone stood up to greet us, and the casual “hi” of old days had become warm handshakes and enthusiastic hugs.

“Xiaobei, you’re such a celebrity! You’ve missed so many reunions! We all agreed that if you skipped this one, we were going to storm your house and drag you out!” Sun Chao came swaggering over, booming with laughter.

“I’ve just been busy,” I replied, though that was only an excuse. The truth was, I’d been avoiding Mei, who had been my girlfriend once. Even though so much time had passed, things were still a bit awkward.

“Busy, my foot! Busy making babies with Lele at home, more like…” Sun Chao had never cared about decorum, and his loud voice instantly drew every eye in the room, leaving me thoroughly embarrassed.

“Ahem!” Xiaoyi, the boss as always, realized things were about to get out of hand and quickly coughed to signal Sun Chao to stop.

Sun Chao caught on, ducked his head, and sheepishly returned to his seat.

Fortunately, Mei hadn’t come today, sparing me another awkward encounter. I sat at Yehui’s table and noticed Liu Han and Lin Qi were missing as well. The group split into clusters, chatting about everything under the sun, gossip inevitably coming up. From the lively chatter, I learned that our homeroom teacher was several months pregnant.

After a bit, when almost everyone had arrived, someone shouted, “Let’s eat!”

Immediately, everyone grabbed their plates and rushed the buffet like a swarm of locusts. The restaurant was clever—the buffet was stocked with cheap, filling food. It all looked tasty, but I only picked up a few pieces of fruit and a small plate of sides, wanting to save room for the barbecue.

On my way back, I spotted Cheng Shuai—the class heartthrob—just coming in and looking around for us. I led him over.

“Guess who’s here!” I clapped my hands loudly.

Everyone turned at once at the sound of my voice.

“Hey, didn’t you go to Japan? Why are you back so soon?” people asked, almost in unison.

Cheng Shuai blinked and flashed the signature smile that had charmed so many girls. “That’s a secret!”

At that, we all had the same thought: to kick him right back to that island.

There was an empty seat next to me, so Cheng Shuai sat down. Then I noticed that Zhao Wenyu, sitting across from me, had a huge plate of fried rice noodles piled high, with another plate loaded with an assortment of other foods.

Did he really take a sample of everything from the buffet?

“Hey, Zhao Wenyu, why’d you pile up so much cheap stuff? When the barbecue comes, how will you have room?” I laughed so hard I nearly cried.

“What? There’s barbecue? No way…” Zhao Wenyu’s jaw dropped in shock.

I pointed to the words printed on the tableware and explained, mock-serious, “What rock have you been living under? It’s right there—Brazilian Barbecue, see? It’s even in the name of the place!”

Zhao Wenyu looked pained—if you didn’t finish your food, you’d be fined, and anything taken to the table couldn’t be returned. Such is fate—can’t blame the government for that.

Soon, the waiters came over with skewers of barbecued meat—steak, duck breast, lamb, beef tongue, you name it. But there wasn’t much, so each person only got a taste.

Poor Zhao Wenyu had to keep working through his mountain of food, only able to eye the fragrant barbecue longingly.

The meal flew by as we ate and chatted, and in no time it was already three o’clock.

“Let’s go to karaoke!” Yehui suggested, and everyone agreed. Xiaoyi collected the money and paid at the counter.

After leaving the restaurant, some people had to go, but about a dozen of us stayed for karaoke. After saying goodbye to the others, we split into three taxis and headed straight for “Mile Star,” the self-serve KTV under the Bayi Overpass.

After a day of lively fun, it was finally time to part ways. Everyone felt a little reluctant to leave. Looking back, what has passed is time, but our feelings remain unchanged.

May our youth be without regrets.

(Chapter revised on September 23, 2010)