National Tide 1980.

From a man's perspective, it is often difficult to fully understand friendship between women and the meaning of "best friends".

Xiao Tao's feelings are actually very normal. Even though he and Liu Mei are both doing this for Sang Jing's sake, they are in different positions and have different thinking patterns, so there will still be many conflicts and misunderstandings between them.

This is nothing. You have to know that decades later, the stories that often circulate on the Internet, such as "my best friend stole my boyfriend", "my best friend reported me for procrastinating in submitting the civil service exam paper", "my best friend became the third party who destroyed my family", etc., have made the word "best friend" covered with too much dust and no longer pure and beautiful.

To the extent that "best friend" has even become a derogatory term and is becoming less and less popular!

But are besties really those ominous creatures that everyone should stay away from?

Actually, it’s not true, because those who do these things are not true best friends.

It’s just that some women don’t know how to judge people and mistakenly and unilaterally regard an untrustworthy person as their best friend.

It’s just that some people are too easily deceived by others’ active approach and confession. They are born to be credulous and overestimate their status and importance in other people’s hearts.

The "fake best friends" of these people are actually the same as men's "bad friends" in nature!

In fact, true “best friends” are of course harmless.

It is still a simple, beautiful, intimate relationship between girls that supports and helps each other.

For example, girls like Qu Xiao and Shi Kaili.

Although the two of them did not grow up together, they were just friends who met in the modeling team.

But years of mutual support and help have made them closer than family members emotionally, at work, and in life.

Especially in the past few years of living and working together in France, they have become increasingly close.

The two of them trained together, performed on stage together, shot magazines together, and vacationed together.

They live together, eat together, drive the same car, even have the same agent, and their salaries are settled together.

In the French fashion world, almost every fashion brand that needs Asian models has now heard that if they want to get one of them to work for them, they must use two of them together.

After noticing that this pair of models were from mainland China and had already gained some fame in France, newspapers also called them the "Oriental Duo," which shows how close their relationship was.

The two of them even had no time to date because they were so busy with each other every day, which led many people in the circle to misunderstand their relationship and certain aspects of their orientation.

But this does have an advantage. At least they have less trouble being harassed by the opposite sex in their lives.

Originally, it stood to reason that even with Pierre Cardin's care and protection, even with Ning Weimin's request to Saint Laurent to take care of the girl from mainland China.

But in this era, beautiful oriental girls are too rare in the European fashion circle.

Oriental beauties like them are like fragrant flowers, and many lustful men can't help but try to tease and seduce them.

But these two conservative girls from mainland China, because they have such a good relationship that they are inseparable and depend on each other, magically blocked out all the messy things.

They are like having a transparent protective shield and have been living in a relatively pure space, uncontaminated by the worldly world, for several years.

It was not until one day in mid-September 1988 that they were forced to separate because of a sudden bad news.

Unexpectedly, a call came from Beijing, and Qu Xiao's father told Qu Xiao over the international long-distance call that her mother's cancer had relapsed and she had been hospitalized again.

Moreover, the disease is very serious. According to the doctor, the situation is already somewhat dangerous, so Qu Xiao needs to return to Beijing as soon as possible.

You know, Qu Xiao originally thought that her mother's illness had been cured through surgery in Japan.

She never dreamed that such a recurrence would happen again a few years later?

It is said that a hemp rope will break at the thinnest part, and misfortune will only find the unfortunate. Qu Xiao now truly believed this statement.

When I thought of my mother lying on the sickbed in the Beijing hospital, enduring the pain, calling my name in her heart, and hoping that I would go back soon.

Qu Xiao felt a heart-wrenching sorrow.

Especially when she suddenly realized that her mother might have been unwell for a long time, but did not want to interfere with her career, so she kept it from her, she felt even more strongly guilty.

Needless to say, she has been crying uncontrollably since she learned the news. She is so sad and in so much pain.

I had no idea what to do. I was on the verge of collapse. My brain was a complete mess and my thoughts were a tangled mess.

Fortunately, Shi Kaili was by her side.

Fortunately, the little stone that was only willful before has grown up. After having been out there, she has become a sensible girl who can take care of others.

In the end, not only did Shi Kaili help Qu Xiao pack her luggage when she returned to China, she also booked the plane ticket for her.

This time, Shi Kaili even took out 150,000 francs from her savings and gave them to Qu Xiao, asking her to take it back for emergency use and to pay for her mother's medical treatment.

Even among sisters in this world, not all of them can do this.

If a person can have such a best friend in his life, it is better than having thousands of casual acquaintances.

So before parting, standing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, both Shi Kaili who was seeing her off and Qu Xiao who was about to board the plane, held each other's hands while trying to hold back their tears, reluctant to leave.

Not to mention the sympathy and gratitude in my heart, just the fact that we have been together like sisters for many years makes it hard to part one day.

"Xiaoxiao, Xiaoxiao, you have to be strong. Your family is waiting for you. Your aunt needs you. You must not collapse."

"Yeah." Qu Xiao responded softly.

She raised her head. She usually didn't wear much makeup, but she looked pale and haggard.

This made Shi Kaili's heart tighten and she felt a dull pain. "You must remember to eat. And take a rest. You will be tired when you go back. Promise me that you will never cry day and night like this again."

"I agree. Thank you." Qu Xiao forced a smile and said, "For so long, I have always been the one causing you trouble. It seems like we have switched places. You are the elder sister and I am the younger sister. I am obviously older than you, and you are at a great disadvantage..."

"You're so silly, don't say that. You've taken care of me a lot. If it weren't for you, I would have died of pneumonia last winter when I was taking pictures of the snow scene..." Shi Kaili also praised Qu Xiao's kindness, "Promise me that you'll call me as soon as you get to Beijing. Okay, so I can rest assured..."

"Okay, I'll call you at the airport when I get off the plane..."

"Don't be so crazy about your aunt's illness. The tests in the Beijing hospital may not be accurate. You should do more tests. If you go to Union Hospital, contact my dad. He has acquaintances. If Union Hospital doesn't work and other hospitals in Beijing can't treat it, come to France. The hospitals here are of higher quality. I will help you contact the hospitals here. You have to believe that there will always be a way..."

Shi Kaili used all the words she could think of to comfort her good friend.

"Okay, I understand." Qu Xiao sobbed and said, "Little Stone, I will miss you."

"Do you miss me?" Shi Kaili's eyes were filled with tears again.

"I want to..." Qu Xiao choked up. "It's been so long, I'm used to it. What should I do without you by my side?"

"Me too." After saying that, Shi Kaili slowly pulled her hand back and stared at Qu Xiao intently.

Suddenly, she opened her arms and took the initiative to hug Qu Xiao. When Qu Xiao's head fell on her shoulder, neither of them could control their emotions any longer.

Just like that, the two tall and slim girls suddenly burst into tears like two children, hugging their heads in public.

This kind of scene is rare even in French airports.

Because no matter how good the French are at expressing their emotions and how outgoing they are, few of them cry so heart-wrenchingly when they part.

I think this may be because the French understand what love is, but do not know that friendship can be sublimated to this level.

So no matter how many people are coming and going in the busy environment of the airport, it attracts many people to stop and look at it with curiosity and inquiry.

The two girls with tears in their eyes didn't care at all.

Who cares about this?

They certainly don't care anyway.

Watch it if you like.

It's embarrassing, so be it.

There is only one thing they care about now.

It's just that everyone wants to vent out the excitement and emotion that is filling their hearts.

In this situation, crying! This seemingly embarrassing act seems to be the only way to properly express what they want to say but can't find the right words to say.

Yes, their friendship and feelings are natural and unpretentious.

Just as what Wang Guozhen, the last Misty Poet who has just become popular in Beijing, wanted to express in his work "Love Life" - people do not love life because it is beautiful, but because they love it, they will naturally discover the beauty in the process.

…………

Qu Xiao's mother was once saved from illness by Ning Weimin.

He felt gratified by this, thinking that he had done a good thing and changed the misfortune of Qu Xiao's family.

He would never have thought that today, the disease would come back to take its toll on him.

If he knew about this, he would definitely do his best to help Qu Xiao again, there is no doubt about it.

But unfortunately, there is no if, and Ning Weimin really knows nothing about Qu Xiao’s current predicament.

The responsibility of being a husband and the joy of becoming a father had long since extinguished his desire to have affairs, and he had completely cut off contact with Qu Xiao.

This is out of both a sense of responsibility to one's family and a conscience.

He was unwilling to be driven by desire and bully a good girl like Qu Xiao, which would also hurt his wife.

But to be honest, even if he didn't know what happened to Qu Xiao, Ning Weimin was still unhappy, if for no other reason than because he was at the Seoul Olympics.

Frankly speaking, Ning Weimin has never had a good impression of South Korea.

Not only because he had seen the Koreans get angry when they were drunk and disliked those boy bands that were neither male nor female and looked like sissy, but also because he learned about the shamelessness and meanness of the Koreans through various international sports events.

But even so, Ning Weimin did not expect that as early as 1988, South Korea had already blatantly cheated in international competitions. Its shamelessness was far beyond what it is today, and it was shameless across the country. Even he felt that the South Korea he knew seemed to have made progress compared to what it is now.

Because in various sports competitions in South Korea, the South Korean officials not only dare to bribe referees to blow unfair whistles, but also blatantly play shady games.

In order to give their own athletes an advantage, Seoul citizens actually ran in groups to the places where foreign athletes live, shouting and making noise, attempting to disturb the foreign athletes' rest. Such despicable behavior is unique in the world.

That’s not all. Even foreign athletes coming to Seoul to compete don’t dare take Seoul taxis, because once they get on the taxi they will definitely not be able to arrive at the competition venue on time.

In addition to the fact that the entire country of South Korea is trying every means to make things difficult for athletes from various countries, the South Korean government also uses the Olympics as a political stage to curry favor with the United States.

In the diving competition, our Chinese athlete Xiong Ni clearly had an absolute advantage, but the referee simply ignored the mistakes in the American athlete's movements and gave an outrageously high score, giving the gold medal to the American athlete, staging a wonderful show of fatherly love and filial piety.

That’s not all. When it came to the badminton competition, our players once again tasted the shady dealings.

Badminton is a sport that is very sensitive to air flow. In any professional badminton court, efforts will be made to eliminate any air flow interference over the court.

But the talented South Koreans actually came up with the trick of turning up the air conditioner's wind speed. After our player hit the ball, they suddenly turned up the wind speed, making the badminton fly neither high nor far.

It has to be said that when it comes to cheating, Koreans are indeed world leaders.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics was called the darkest Olympics, and the then IOC President Samaranch called these Olympics a great shame in his career. In the end, our powerful Olympic athletes only won five gold medals.

In short, as the host country of the Seoul Olympics, South Korea's shamelessness shocked the whole world.

It is difficult to understand what kind of international image they want to convey to the world.

Judging from the large-scale shady dealings and blatant cheating, it seems that these guys just want to win and have no regard for what the outside world thinks of them.

Even Ning Weimin, a time traveler, had no way to change anything. The only thing he could do was to comfort and encourage the Olympic athletes who had suffered setbacks in this expedition.

It was also decided to increase bonuses for the silver and bronze medal winners and their coaching teams.

In his opinion, it was not war's fault, but the enemy's rogue skills were fully utilized. They were shameless and invincible.

But then again, not all Koreans are so shameless.

Ning Weimin's father-in-law Han Yingming was one of the minority. After Ning Weimin returned to Japan, the father-in-law and son-in-law sat together and chatted, and they tacitly did not talk about the Olympics, as if nothing had happened.

The reason is simple. It is embarrassing for Ning Weimin to denounce South Korea's national inferiority in front of his father-in-law.

Han Yingming couldn't face his son-in-law and had to bow his head and apologize for his compatriot's shamelessness.

So it’s better to ignore it. At least one thing is enough to prove the consistency of their thoughts, that is, no matter what, family stability comes first.

But even so, when the whole family sat together for dinner, Han Yingming still grabbed the bottle and took the initiative to pour wine for Ning Weimin, saying, "I'm so sorry to trouble you."

This is a treatment that exceeds normal status from both Japanese and Korean etiquette, and is very rare.

The last time this happened was at the first family dinner after Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko's wedding, where they were entrusting their daughter to their care.

And this time, Ning Weimin had a special feeling.

He felt that in addition to Qingzi's entrustment of the upcoming birth, Han Yingming seemed to feel a little ashamed of South Korea's poor performance in the Olympics. (End of this chapter)