My next door neighbors were moving away, I was told. I sat in the doorway watching them pack. Through the open door I could see their odds and ends（零碎东西）falling all over the place. I don't like moving. It is like pulling up a tree by the roots. I had that experience myself a couple of years before when my family moved along with my father's institute from inland to the coastal area.

Fortunately we moved as a community. So after some confusion（混乱）and adjustment（调整）, everything fell back into place again. I played with my old friends. Soon we got so used to our new surroundings that we seemed no longer aware of the change.

It was not until I started school a year later that I began to learn about the world outside our residential area（住宅区）. My school was an unpleasant place with low buildings amidst vast tracts（空地）of field with villages scattered（分布）here and there. My schoolmates were a bunch of noisy kids who had no shoes on. When I went home at the end of my first school day, I suddenly felt such a strong attachment to those concrete constructions（混凝土建筑）, which rose solitarily（寂寞地）above the horizon that I ran until I was in their arms again. I then came to understand what the older children meant by “we” and “they” and why adults always warned us not to wander（游荡）far from home.

Now I heard Aunt Wang's loud voice on top of all the confusion in the flat next door. She was head of the family and a very good housewife. She could make all kinds of tasty pickles（咸菜）and cut clothes as fashionable as those sold in town. But my sister whispered to me the other day that Aunt Wang and her family were country folks（乡巴佬）and were unpopular with “our” people. My sister was sorry to tell me this, for she loved the trousers Aunt Wang had made for her.

Now Uncle Fan showed himself at the door with a large bowl of noodles red with chili sauce（辣椒酱）. The very sight of it made my mouth water. He was about to squat down（蹲下）at the threshold（门槛）when his wife called his name. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he smiled at me and sat back on his stool（凳子）.

Soon it would be four in the afternoon, time for girls to go out to play. But I knew their daughter Lili was not coming to join us today. She was one of those who jumped high and ran fast. As usual she beat a good many of us in a school game last Monday.

Then there was a dispute（争吵）over the regulations, the losing side accusing（指责）the winning side of cheating. As the dispute turned increasingly hot and bitter, Lili became the target of criticism. Some of the older girls fell in a violent rage（暴怒）and openly mentioned her family's “humble”（低劣的）origin. They said she was one of “them” who had disguised（伪装）herself to be one of “us.” Then even the girls on her side, who were a minute before arguing at the top of their voices, became dumb and left her. Lili was isolated（孤立的）. Anger deformed her features（扭曲了容貌）, and tears came to her eyes. All my friends, my sister, and her friends were on the opposite side. I felt a number of times her eyes were fixed on me, burning with frightening contempt（蔑视）. I hated myself, but I failed to utter（说出）a word. She never spoke to me after that.

A truck loaded with their possessions（财物）was parked in front of our building. Lili, Aunt Wang, and Uncle Fan came out with the last few pieces of furniture. As I watched from the window, tears stole down my cheeks. I knew that Lili would soon walk out of my life.