Liu Lingzhong's Selected Short Stories Serialized (1152)

Old Dreams to the North (5)

I also sat down on the rock, my calves and stomach were sore. The sky was shrouded in a thick, lead-gray cloud, low and low, tumbling so that the clouds almost landed on the rocky ground. A few scattered raindrops suddenly fell and stirred more clouds around the cave entrance. A bolt of lightning, as if an invisible giant hand had grabbed the canopy, became angry, tore to pieces, and Lei Gong's car rumbled from the canopy to the corner of the right hand of the stage after the canopy was opened, and then exploded in front of our eyes. As if the embankment suddenly burst, the water of the heavenly river was not blocked, and it could not be reversed and poured down.

"The guide cat actually likes to see Mu Tangjie appear the most."

"It will bring an option that the camp has never had before."

"Is the information reliable?" I lowered my voice and asked.

Chen Minggan and I spent most of our time in the guerrilla camp, and no matter how we enriched ourselves, we couldn't deceive our loneliness and unbearable hearts. I can't say, Chen Minggan is quite introverted, and he doesn't talk much. The guerrillas originally came from all over the world, from all walks of life, and their composition was very complex. Our personalities are undoubtedly too different from the others. In the gap between the war, when I had the opportunity, my partner and I went to the canyons, streams and caves around the camp to look for treasure, often taking into account both public and private interests. The excuse, of course, is that familiarity with the terrain is convenient for drawing up battle plans, and most of our comrades-in-arms are simple-minded and unlikely to arouse anyone's suspicion. In such a short life, our irritable adolescence is like an encounter and a war of attrition, and inadvertently, when I come back to my senses, I realize that I have been losing something, and I ask each other with my eyes, and it is not clear.

"Don't be so impatient all the time." I criticized him.

"Tian Sen, you can't feel my pressure."

"But the guerrilla fighters are all you and my brothers."

"Of course I know, I can be worthy of everyone in my heart."

Sometimes he would boldly go to the cat graveyard, although he was never able to find the sacrificial Sengoku Red Stone. In primeval forests or wastelands, or even caves, you will occasionally encounter Mutangj who has escaped from the green train. I realized that everyone's adolescent idol personality is very different, especially in special years. Chen Ming's fat guide cat is not so anxious, but every time he encounters it, he always comes and goes in a hurry, you don't know where to hide? Liu Yongtao raised the smallest guide cat, and rarely brought Mu Tangjie with him. Li Chengbing's personality is different, I found that he is more courageous than any bandit leader in the cover of the jungle, as if he does not pay attention to the battle that may break out at any time and place, and his guide cat can always provide the most accurate information. He got along with almost all the jungle guerrillas, and what I said to Chen Minggan with a smile was that the fight was hot. Li Chengbing did not develop the bad habit of getting himself drunk because of the bad environment, or getting angry at will when he encountered trouble and passing on the bad fault of others. He seemed to be polite and friendly to each of his men, and I had seen him go with hordes of his men to bathe in the deep mountains, valleys, streams, and pools, giggling and laughing through the gaps in the branches and tree trunks. Mu Tangjie even sat on the gray black or white stones not far from the shore to bask in the sun, and a small group of guide cats obediently lay at his feet and fell asleep. He was probably the fairest of the detachment commanders I met during the war years, and his personality was not depressing, and he had never seen Li Chengbing lose his temper at anyone. Probably because of the nervousness, many guerrilla fighters, including my treasure search partner, have distorted personalities and have their own reasons. And Li Chengbing can't see it.

"We all fight, fight, and realize our dreams in our own way, pursuing fairness, justice, and individual liberation."

"That's a challenge to power politics and conventions. To ensure that the information is reliable, the problem is that we can't guard against it. ”

"The troubles that come with all the challenges will also go wrong."

"And my best buddies, trying to overcome it."

"It feels a little crazy, it's very long-lasting quiet, and there's an inexplicable fear. I don't know where the danger is, and if there is a war, I will forget about it for a while. I want to shout. ”

"Maybe it's like this for the rest of your life." He said.

Chen Minggan admitted that he did have many shortcomings, and he was not convinced by the detachment leader at the same level, although he never named him. Including me deliberately praising Li Chengbing or Liu Yongtao in front of him, and perhaps praising other brave and fearless pioneers of his time, including Kamen Rider at the castle gate and the flying superman at the ball.

He would sometimes get angry and say, "Tian Sen, are you here to cooperate with me in the war, or are you here to provoke me to thorn me." ”

"You need to know your shortcomings." I replied.

Chen Minggan smiled. When we met a boy with a guitar on our backs hanging out in the jujube grove on the banks of the stream, sometimes wearing wooden shell masks and singing to ourselves, and dressed as the guide cat and Mu Tangjie, who were troubadours, we simply found a stone to sit next to and listened to him finish singing. Guide cats perform dancing. He sang: "I simply want to survive the war, maybe I feel the warmth of the sun, and my heart hopes for a moment of peace." My guide cat would not say yes, it woke up from its dream, pretended to be innocent in the midst of the fire, or became insane. Where to find a doctor who can cure it? Send me home. ”

To be on the safe side, and hoping to keep the singer Mutangjie in the guerrilla camp, the two of us decided to rush to the cat cemetery ahead of schedule.

"Oh, it's very hot in the jujube groves." I say.

"It's going to rain in a while." He said.

Chen Minggan always looked sad and exhausted.

"What kind of commander are you, so young, at best twenty-seven years old, but you don't want to fight, and you lose again and again."

"Tian Sen, I just want to say that you eat more salt than you eat."

"You're still unhappy, so you just slipped away."

"Don't wait for the guide cat to always sleep, you're too lazy."

"I don't want to accompany Mu Tangjie." He couldn't lift his spirits.

It was already half past ten in the morning, and the area around the cat cemetery at the bottom of the valley was open, and the sun was shining in, and suddenly it was hot. My treasure hunter took off his coat and put it in his bag. At this time, the stream became more and more turbulent, rushing and roaring, and it became more and more difficult for us to find the stones to settle on. After resting under the sour jujube tree at the entrance of a cave, he returned to the road, panting.

"Tian Sen, do you know this plant?" He asked.

It's not unusual at all, it's Coptis chinensis, which is particularly bitter when soaked in water.

"Yellow Lotus, who is more bitter than life." I replied.

"There is absolutely nothing in the world more miserable than life."

I recalled that when I was a child, we were originally relatives, and Chen Minggan's casual excuse may be to see my aunt, but he didn't take the initiative to tell me, and I couldn't ask anyway. He hurried from my aunt's yard to the courtyard where I lived with my mother, and perhaps he would take a breath in the moon doorway, and sit casually on a rock, and in the flower bed there were large golden pansies, and he seemed to like to be surrounded by the fragrance of flowers and the sun. Then he climbed up to my window and found that I had forgotten to close it. He probably didn't want my mom to know that he was coming, and he didn't have a mind about dealing with my mom if he met him.

"You just told Auntie." I whispered.

"Auntie agrees with me to play with you." He replied.

"Hear them say you're afraid to sleep alone at night?"

"Maybe it's a lack of security, who wants to hug me."

I didn't say let me hug you, because I'm afraid of the darkness too.

During my long years in the guerrilla camp, I often felt that Chen Minggan's luck was not as good as that of other detachment leaders.

I held my breath and arched into a position that looked like a dying shrimp. My chest was about to burst. I kept driving forward, and after Chen Ming broke off, it seemed that his patience was slowly losing time, and he asked me at every turn if Tian Sen still had a way?

"I have lacked love since I was a child, especially my father's love." He said.

"Equally lonely, I don't feel safe." I say.

"Even if no one mentioned it at the combat meeting, what should I do?"

"You can't wait even more, just get through it quietly."

"Neither of us had a good idea of that plan."

"When I was a child, I was bullied, and I was used to swallowing my anger."

Sometimes I can see him clearly, sometimes I can't see him at all, and I can only hear Chen Minggan stepping on the dead tree trunk through the air. Or, he kicked a rock on his toes and gurgled and made a noise. But I clearly heard the snoring of my partner who was looking for treasure, and the sound of heavy panting was always heavy. Sometimes I had to sit on the fern and wait for him.

"I deeply feel that the battle is not going well, and I have a lot of responsibility for myself."

"I was at fault, I didn't do my political and ideological work."

"So many times in the middle of the battle the problem was exposed. Fortunately, I should be content to meet such an excellent helper as you. ”

"After talking in the cat cemetery, you can release your old suspicions."

"How could it be so smooth!" He was skeptical.

"We'll be more vigilant next time." I think so.

"I hope so!" Chen Minggan is also a skeptic.

I observed that there were little insects in the fern bushes, in the damp soil next to the rocks, in the middle of the rubble and in the weeds, in the gaps of the rotting roots, there were also insects busy, perhaps, we saw that they were very busy, but in fact the insects themselves felt quite calm, and they were deftly burrowing in and out.

I also saw a huge southern jujube tree on the ground, covered with moss in several places, and even hanging stone pines. There are patches of stone ferns on the stones next to it. There is also a two-sided needle of the Rutaceae family, which is what we often call wild peppercorns, and I almost let the sharp thorns hang up, which scared Chen Minggan. When I saw small pieces of mushrooms, I knew the silk membrane fungus and the garlic-like small skin umbrella mushroom. A butterfly is fluttering when it comes in.

The two of us were about to walk to the mountain pass, and Chen Minggan still looked sullen. He wanted to forget about the big things that were discussed at the operational meeting.

"You just announced the war not long ago, and don't run around in between."

"I didn't think we were the first to be the ones with bad discipline."

"They'll just think you're going to see the terrain in person."

There was a sentry on the tree, and he took the initiative to greet the two of us.

"Detachment leader, are you busy?" The sentry said with a grin.

"I'm so bored that I want to go out and walk around." Chen Minggan said angrily at the sentry, as if he had provoked him.

"Look at the terrain nearby," I quickly explained hypocritically to the sentry. "Why are you so angry?" I asked.

"It's just that I saw the sentry inexplicably angry." He said.

The grass was knee-high, and we walked side by side towards the open north side.