The first batch of those born in the 1980s are already 40... As a middle-aged girl born in the 1980s, my heart still shudders when I think of this. Where has the youth gone?

There are always people and things that can prove that youth does come. If you recognize the following person, you are undoubtedly born in the 1980s.

Yes, this is called the 201 phone card. Before there were mobile phones, using the 201 phone card to make landline calls could help us save some phone bills, so it was a necessity for students.

Do you remember? In the past, yellow hat phone booths could be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys. Phone booth + 201 phone card, that will be our mobile communication station. Sometimes when something urgent happens, I look around for a phone booth, but I find several broken ones. I finally find one, and there are a few people in line in front of me. The person on the phone seemed to be talking on the phone, and the person behind him was so anxious that he stamped his feet.

Next, I want to tell a story about the 201 phone card.

1

We have made an appointment that you will call my dormitory on time at 9 o'clock every Saturday night.

Whenever this happens, she will move a chair and sit down a few minutes early. Staring at the small phone, I felt nervous and expectant.

The student party at that time had living expenses of up to four to five hundred a month. Buy some phone cards, 20 or 30 yuan for long distance calls, 50 cents per minute. For 10 yuan, you can make local calls. Sometimes I have to spend several 30 yuan a month, which is really a big expense.

However, it is still fun to make or receive calls. Because it was him on the other end of the phone.

Although we are not in the same city, we can still feel our friendship through letters and phone calls. Yes, you read that right, it’s a letter that you write once a week. What can I say? Write down every bit of your life and your thoughts like a running account. However, writing letters cannot fully meet the needs of long-distance lovers, because they still want to hear the other person's voice.

Talking on the phone is our weekly ritual to maintain relationships. The phone calls are usually on time. If we don’t chat for 20 minutes and half an hour, how can we give up?

Occasionally, there are times when it is not on time. It's been 5 minutes since the scheduled time, why haven't you called yet? Did you forget? Or is there something else going on? Full of doubts, he crawled onto his bed, not wanting the girl in his dormitory to find out how disappointed he was.

After a while, a harsh phone rang. He got up at lightning speed and went down to answer the phone. It must be him. I only heard him say on the other end that he had forgotten about it after drinking with his friends. She was relieved, but she didn't say anything because she was afraid of disturbing others' sleep. If the phone cord was long enough, I would take the phone to the corridor, shivering from the cold, but feeling warm in my heart.

Half an hour flies by. The time is almost up, and the 201 phone card beeps. He said that if it breaks after a while, it will break, and go to bed quickly.

It was a snowy night in the city where he was. At the phone booth on the corner, he dialed her dormitory number. That was their sweetest moment.

2

Think about it, why are you with him? Maybe he thought the voice on the other end of the phone sounded nice. She is from the south, and the boys around her all speak poor Mandarin. There is no distinction between zhichish and zcs, nor between front and back nasal sounds. Occasionally, there is a standard Mandarin speaker who is a sissy.

Her former boyfriend was his classmate. Yes, you read that right, it's a bit like the plot of "Half Comedy" played by Happy Twist and Yao Suxi. The difference is that she and her ex-boyfriend never even held hands, and they lost to distance.

She still remembers that desperate moment, when the two arranged to meet under an overpass in the city center. After waiting for a long time, the "ex-boyfriend" did not show up. She took out her 201 phone card and frantically called his home, but no one answered. She kept fantasizing about him showing up at the last moment, walking up to her, and telling her it was a misunderstanding. Then, the "miracle" really happened. In a daze, he seemed to really flash for a moment and then disappear.

She stood in the middle of the overpass, looking around at the people coming and going. At that moment, she felt very lonely.

Then, she still refused to give up and had to give an explanation. After school started, this silly girl used the 201 phone card to make many calls to his dormitory. As expected, he was still not there. The person who answers the phone is usually a boy with a nice voice and standard Mandarin. He should be from the north.

Around 2000, it was still popular for us to write letters to netizens we didn’t know. I don’t know when she started writing letters to this boy from the north, and sometimes chatted on the phone. She gradually became less uncomfortable and no longer wanted an explanation.

Later, she and this northern boy broke through many obstacles and actually met. Although it's not what I imagined, the feeling is right. She told her best friend that she had a boyfriend. When she talked about this, she looked happy. This is what love looks like in the beginning.

3

When I was about to graduate from college, everyone had a mobile phone and no longer needed the 201 phone card. The story continues. After graduation, she went to his city and stayed there for five years. We have experienced many things together.

He took her to meet friends from Beijing and eat hot pot together in Donglaishun. She was very busy. Before eating hot pot, she took out the students' homework to correct. He is still the same, playful and cynical, but he still cares about her very much.

Sometimes he takes him home with him, and his parents will cook a lot of delicious food. Those few years established her taste in food and cultivated her interest in cooking.

The two of them had not bought a house at that time, so they went to his rental house on weekends. The year she first arrived, she discovered someone selling freshly picked walnuts on the street. Remove the green shell, and then remove the wrapping skin, and you will find tender walnuts, slightly sweet, and much more delicious than dry walnuts. Once, he spent a long time peeling out a lot of walnut kernels with his hands and gave them to her to eat.

Her health is not very good and she often catches colds and fevers. After getting off the late shift that night, he went to pick her up while she was still in the clinic getting a sling. The way back was not long and very dark, so he carried her back home step by step.

However, for some reasons, they quarreled more frequently. Not seeing his efforts to change the status quo, she gradually became disappointed and fell into endless worry, but he acted like nothing happened. Sometimes I feel like two people with such different backgrounds, how could they come together? What is left of the initial sweetness and happiness?

During the time of the breakup, two major things happened. One is that he encountered a family accident, which was sudden and a big blow. Another is that the Wenchuan earthquake occurred, and the city where they were located also felt the strong earthquake.

He was worried about her safety, so he drove to the school and took her to a nearby hotel. She stayed in the car most of the time so that she could easily escape if the earthquake happened again.

That year, she made a cruel decision and left the city, went to Beijing, and stopped entangled.

This is a story with no ending. The last memory is that despite the emotional ups and downs, she always remembered the feeling of being loved. Because there are too many details to support it, it makes love accessible and very three-dimensional.

During our college years, we saved hundreds of 201 phone cards. This is the evidence that love has been here.

Nowadays, in this era where you can send WeChat to each other at any time, is there still so much expected joy?