Tribute to Brother Kai's Youth

June 1, 2024, Hangzhou. A regular meeting was interrupted by a phone call - Lao Ba was gone. The eighth brother Gong Wei, a young man from Shanghai who dragged his black travel bag into dormitory 208 in 1998, was diagnosed with lung cancer more than a year ago and finally passed away quietly. I called my brothers one by one: the eldest brother in Daqing, the second brother in Dalian, the fourth brother in Beijing, the fifth brother who stayed in school... Each time I called one of them, it was like a knife in my heart. I looked up the photo of eight people at the school gate when school started, and I wrote "Reminiscences of Eighth Brother" - the eighth brother who let me blow the fan, quietly put money in the bookcase, and said "Come to Shanghai, you don't need to bring anything with you" and gave me all the confidence to venture into the world. I wrote this book for three purposes: to commemorate the times - we squeezed through the green train, used the BP machine, and watched the video hall, and now sit in our respective office buildings, remembering ourselves twenty years ago; to commemorate the youth - in the four years of 208, we had nothing and were not afraid of anything; to commemorate Lao Ba - the money will be spent and the name will be forgotten, but at least these words can prove that we have been here, that Lao Ba has been here, and that our youth has been here. This book was written from the autumn of 1998.