My bicycle has been missing for the past two days. I have felt restless, unable to enjoy a meal or a cup of tea. I searched early in the morning, at noon, and again in the evening. I searched everywhere, circling that little garage and the campus again and again, to no avail. This bicycle has been with me for two years. I know it so well now. Whether I ride a scooter or a shared bicycle, something always feels unfamiliar. A borrowed ride never quite fits. “It is the time you have spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.” After two years, I cannot do without it.
It was well past midnight. Watching a video on my computer, I felt full of guilt. I remembered something from the Bible that I had read as a child: “The Lord Jesus is the good shepherd. He does not wish to lose a single sheep. He would leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness to look for that one, searching through every hardship until he finds it, then joyfully carrying it home on his shoulders.” I went downstairs to search again. After retracing what might have happened, over and over, I finally found it in a corner of the Biyi garage. How can I describe that feeling? I touched the saddle, and my anxious heart finally came to rest. I swung myself onto the bicycle. With nothing else on my mind, I rode around campus, feeling the wind, enjoying the moon.
My world had come back. The vast campus was empty. Even in the heat of summer, there was a little coolness in the midnight air. The wheels kept turning. Lights, buildings, asphalt—the scenery flew backwards. I loved this feeling. I loved everything before me. The uncertainty about the future, the unease about life, the doubts about myself—all cleared away. Wherever the future takes me, whether Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen or Hangzhou, or Xinjiang, Tibet, Sichuan or Yunnan, as long as I am on wheels, the road leads forward.
What is love? With you, the world feels safe. Without you, the world feels frightening. — Someone who loves freedom
