As I strolled through the quiet fields, the stillness reminded me of days gone by.
I could not help sighing at how quickly time had passed. I was already a middle school student. These days, I rarely felt inclined to look back, but I did so anyway. Those bygone years were truly worth cherishing, because they were already gone.
The path
When I was little, I always took the same path to school. It was a narrow mountain trail, overgrown with weeds on both sides, rarely traveled, and so quiet it was frightening. I went to school with Fangfang, the girl next door. Later, we met another girl who was a little younger than us. The three of us held hands as we walked to school and back home together, and Fangfang and I became her "bodyguards." With our laughter and cheerful chatter, that quiet path was no longer so quiet. I was only six or seven then.
By then, I no longer saw Fangfang, and the little girl had moved away after spending less than a month with us. I could no longer remember her name or how old she was. She was probably about my younger brother's age by then! Even what she looked like had grown hazy in my memory.
Father, mother
The hardships of life had left my parents with plenty of gray hair, even though they were only just past fifty. They had had me late in life, so I was still young.
My father was usually a man of few words, but whenever I came home or left for school, he talked so much it was hard to believe he was the same person. In middle school, I was always arguing with him. I could not stand his temper, because whenever my mother did