During dinner, Zhang Wei talked more, sharing some interesting stories about the neighborhood office.
When someone's dog went missing, the entire community helped to search, or when water leaked in an elderly person's home, everyone chipped in to repair it, and the atmosphere lightened significantly.
After dinner, Song Heping said he wanted to go for a walk by himself.
He wandered aimlessly through the old streets of the town.
The elementary school was still at its original site, but the buildings were newly constructed—a three-story teaching building, a rubber track, completely different from the red brick bungalow and dirt playground he remembered.
He stood outside the fence, watching the children run on the playground, recalling how he once played soccer there, breaking the classroom window, getting punished by the teacher, and receiving a beating from his father at home.
The middle school had moved to the new city, and the old site had been converted into a shopping mall.
