“还记得吗？”在庆祝南中母校五十周年的联欢会上，黄得胜对我说：“校钟是一块……”
是的，一块有着锈斑点点的汽车轮毂。它悬吊在校墙旁的棕榈下。
“当，当！”——每天传出嘹亮的声音，迎来朝阳，送走月亮。
“当，当！”——它指导着学子们做晨操、上下课、晚自习，快乐紧张地渡过每一天。
钟声伴着我们渡过了干湿两季；钟声带领我们敲开了知识的大门。
毕业那天，典礼就在校舍前临时搭盖的竹房里举行。棕叶盖顶竹作墙，这就是庄严的礼堂。李惠文代表灯塔班上台献诗，面对一百多位家长来宾。我们分散站在外面，像驿站连接驿站，把信息接力传送到校钟旁边。
“听啊，毕业的钟声在响，召唤我们走向人生的战场！”
我们用手势传递信息，站在校钟旁的吴卓光同学就扬起了手中的铁棒：“当！当！……”
从此，我们顶着钟声离开了母校，走向黎明。彼此天各一方，但那钟声依然萦绕在耳畔，永不消逝。
“Do you remember?” Huang Desheng said to me at the celebration marking the fiftieth anniversary of our alma mater, Nanyang Middle School. “The school bell was a piece of...”
Yes. A rust-spotted automobile wheel hub.
It hung beneath a palm tree beside the school wall.
“Dang, dang!”—every day its clear, ringing sound welcomed the morning sun and sent off the moon.
“Dang, dang!”—it guided the students through morning exercises, classes, dismissal, and evening study, carrying us through each happy, tightly scheduled day.
The bell accompanied us through the dry and rainy seasons. The bell led us to knock open the door of knowledge.
On graduation day, the ceremony was held in a temporary bamboo hall built in front of the school buildings. Palm leaves formed the roof, bamboo the walls. This was our solemn auditorium.
Li Huiwen went onstage to present a poem on behalf of our Lighthouse Class, facing more than one hundred parents and guests.
The rest of us were stationed outside at intervals, like one relay station after another, passing the message along until it reached the school bell.
“Listen—the graduation bell is ringing, calling us toward the battlefield of life!”
We passed the signal with hand gestures. Wu Zhuoguang, standing beside the school bell, raised the iron rod in his hand.
“Dang! Dang! ...”
From that moment on, we left our alma mater beneath the sound of the bell and walked toward the dawn.
We scattered to different corners of the world, but that bell still lingers in my ears and will never fade away.