In the spring of 1989, 22-year-old Ai Meili graduated from the provincial normal university and returned to her hometown and county to become an English teacher at Zhiqin Middle School. On the day the new school building was completed, she planted a magnolia tree on campus. The principal told her: "This tree is your root. Once it's rooted, don't pull it out."
She really didn't pull it out. In thirty-two years, she sent away thirteen graduates and taught more than two thousand students. Her hair changed from a big black braid to a gray ponytail, but the white magnolia tree bloomed every spring and was never absent.
In the fall of 2005, she met a boy named Cheng Lang in class. He was poor, thin, and had low self-esteem. His shoes were glued together with 502 glue. He drew a magnolia flower in his English textbook. She bent down to help him pick up the fallen pencil and said to him: "It's a good drawing." That moment changed his life.
Seven years later, Cheng Lang graduated from university, rejected the job in a translation company, and returned to Zhiqin Middle School to become an English teacher. He makes her a cup of hand-brewed coffee every morning and writes a poem on a sticky note. She didn't respond, and he didn't ask further questions. He is just there, like the magnolia tree.
She experienced the pain of losing her husband, experienced the shock of a student being accidentally electrocuted, was punished and transferred from her teaching position, and was brought back by a petition signed by students. He waited for twenty-four years. From the age of sixteen to forty, from a pair of unglued sneakers to a car that can protect you from wind and rain.
On the day she retired, she stood under the magnolia tree, held his hand and said, "The magnolia you planted in my heart has also bloomed."
The white magnolia blooms every year, and the spring breeze comes every year.
