Two
(Old Deaf, Magu, Radar, Ayao)
A patrol boat sped toward Sanqin Island, and the seagulls at the tail flew over.
Criminals, lunatics. Coast Guard radar scolded. He drove the boat to the blast table. "Tribute" to the "Excellency" behind him - Ayao who takes the pursuit of fame and freedom as the whole of his life. He is the chief photojournalist of the Global Bird World Institute. In addition, there is a self-taught laurel crown - "Napoleon's Eye of Thought". At this point, he was struggling to fight seasickness with his "great thoughts" and almost threw out half his stomach. Each time I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, I caught a glimpse of the humpback whale that silently flashed past in the deep water of the boat. Just "Radar, your uncle's!" With a shout, he rolled over into the boat and closed his great eyes.
"Medals, medals!" He hummed.
Radar ignored it, increased its horsepower, and let the boat gallop on the surface of the sea. He liked this feeling of clarity of heaven and earth and clear heart and body: the air currents that made his clothes whistling. The water droplets turned into scattered bullets and shot countless ponychia in the face. The ship cut a wedge-shaped opening at sea and shot like a sharp arrow into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The continental shelf was behind it. There are also black-faced spoonbills and three-toed gulls flying in the sweet and fishy water vapor. Flying fish splash like mercury on the surface of the sea. Rolling clouds piled up the Buddha's hands again. He found a chaotic world without people, and the beauty was suffocating.
Man is nature's ugliest intruder.
To Ah Yao, an old friend, he was both disgusted and liked. In the face of his cold eyes of power and wealth, he sometimes even gave birth to many inferiority. Ah Yao has a pure heart but is light and despicable. He scolded the government for being corrupt; the peasants were short-sighted; the Greek and Roman cultures were the cultures of killing. He also said that the only role of land for Chinese farmers at present is to dig latrines and bury dead people. Prostitutes are the most revolutionary. People, at all, are birds. What radar can't tolerate the most is that when he goes to his office, he will "bang" to open the door, and then rummage through the boxes and cabinets to find the tea tieguanyin.
The boat was speeding, and the spoonbills made a bell-like chirp.
Hearing the birds, Ayao woke up suddenly, grabbed the camera and quickly captured the bird's raider.
"How did it come, it should be in the rainforest at this time." Ayao zooms in on the focal length, and the flag ring is clearly marked - UA70M432. Birds were released two days ago by the Somali Migratory Bird Centre.
"Radar." Ah Yao shouted, "This bird can fight clouds, what's going on?" ”
"How do I know!"
"You're the Coast Guard."
"I'm in charge of people, not birds."
"Birds are people."
"Ayao, you're crazy!"
"You're even more crazy, and you don't want a wife except to become a detachment leader!"
A word hit the key point of the radar, he quickly slowed down, and Ayao was thrown to the front warehouse. His mother died in childbirth when she gave birth to him, and she lost her father at the age of six. It was the "Qin Xianglian on the epaulettes"," the song, who the family fed him up. The song raised flowers, his father beat iron, and his mother made honey, and he carved an official road from Xuanshui Bay for him. When the master's daughter stood naked in front of him, her white porcelain carcass glowing with mastery and aggression in the affairs of men and women, he remembered the lingering mule and horse smell on Sakako. At that moment, he understood that he could not go back. Even fifteen years ago Songzi drowned and died. Even if the grave of Songzi's orphan daughter bears the still wind of time, she lies across a hundred kilometers away, on the sunny slope of Xuanshuiwan Elementary School, and the grave head is swirling with a swarm of gold leaf all year round.
The patrol boat stopped, the radar standing against the wind, bowing its head and touching the gun. The waves rhythmically lapping at the hull.
Ah Yao was alone with the camera, thinking about the solemn military salute of Old Tang before leaving. He glanced at radar's sad backbone, apologized slightly, but did not ease, sat in the boat, folded his hands, silently prayed for the birds, and recalled the many mysteries of the ten days from the Bering Strait to Bohai Bay.
He loved all birds, even a sparrow.
Five years ago, he was in Brazil marveling at the unique way the blue-necked crane has sex. The mobile phone jumped out of the news of "burning birds" in Yunnan Bird Hanging Mountain. He did the "greatest feat" of his life, riding thousands of miles to the Bird Hanging Mountain. In his drunken words, he "stole one of the bird seller's ears." He firmly believes that man is changed by birds, and the title of his doctoral dissertation is: "Birds, the Ancestors of Mankind." In the defense of the thesis, he reasoned with the strange reasoning of the eloquent; the fiery heat of the poet; and the momentum of Qin Shi Huang sweeping through Liuhe, and expounded his views to the examiner who had long been stunned. The results are predictable. The tutor was thus humiliated, and the old professor bit down on three pen heads, giving this up-and-down, black and thin disciple's thesis, only one sentence of comment: Human beings absolutely believe in Your Blood, Crow! He was furious and wanted to make the professor cry, but then he was complacent and excited for a long time that he could recognize his ancestors and return to the sect.
Every three years, Ayao would come to Bohai Bay once in early spring to carry out routine filming and ring work. After the imagery and data collection are completed, they are sent to the Institute, which then synthesizes the global data link to form a report and submits it to the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency for UNEP sealing. In addition to this routine, he was secretly conducting a study that could defeat Darwin—the search for the real first bird of mankind.
In April, migratory birds migrate. Three of the world's eight major migratory bird migration routes run through China. One of them starts in Central Asia, crosses the Indus, over Mount Everest, through Tibet, Qinghai, Liaoning, and in mid-May flies to the Pigeon's Nest Wetland, located twenty nautical miles west of Sanqin Island. After a few months of stay, the golden autumn season flew north and embarked on the way home, completing the migration closed loop. The four seasons of the year repeat repeat the same for thousands of years. When he had photographed three routes in Asia and Africa in a decade, the greatness of nature's creation made him almost insane: nine thousand species of birds, totaling hundreds of billions, covering the blue planet. Among them, about 60 billion migratory birds gather into a torrent of birds twice a year, rushing on a fixed migration line between the earth and the troposphere, dragging children and daughters, breaking through clouds and fog, with high heads, and starry nights without fear of life and death.
Ayo is also a bird, and ten days ago he was still headquartered in the Aleutian Islands in the United States.
The once-in-five Global Bird Photography Contest features a dinner party in the Gothic building of the headquarters. Launched a campaign with the theme of "Bird Trail" to collect images and fossils from bird lovers and government agencies around the world. That night, in the hall created by chandeliers, the crisp sound of crystal cups, and melodious piano music, he had the honor to meet Ms. Heya, an ornithologist from Hang Seng Co., Ltd. in Japan; Mr. Jack, the famous vice president of the Moore Bird Charity Foundation in the United States; Speedlow, deputy director of the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency, poet, singer, naturalist, celebrity, all gathered together. Ah Yao enjoyed the evening, wearing a tuxedo and a snow-white bow tie, and greeted the guests with great elegance in different languages. But when Catherine II, a supporter of bird protection, was present at the climax of the banquet, in the distance, inadvertently and politely raising a glass to him, he made a gesture that he had bragged about for many years: he winked at the noble princess.
"Ayao, hurry up to me!"
"Uncle Tang, I can't afford to be a celebrity, you let me enjoy the scenery for a while, okay?"
"Immediately, immediately!"
Ayao hurriedly hung up the phone, and he was in awe of the ornithologist. It's not because his daughter, Tang Candy, who already got his green card, is his boss. Rather, it is because he is compared to the old deaf man: the straight old deaf man is a whale shark skeleton that is ridiculed by fishermen. But he was like a lion, squinting out two brownish yellow blades aiming into the distance.
When Ah Yao walked into Old Tang's residence, Tang Guozhong, the bomber of the HK909 test ship, was in the dark light of the study. The huge oval window around the wall displays specimens of various birds, with bright feathers, and is ready to come out in the light and shadow. He had his back to the door, his left arm hanging down, something in his hand, and the green tendons on his forehead looming. Hearing Ah Yao come in, he did not turn around and threw a small box sealed in lead to Ah Yao.
"What is this?" Ayao asked.
"The greatest shame of my life!" Old Don said.
"You mean Zhu Zi?"
"That's the scum!"
Ah Yao heard the old deaf man say that old Tang and Zhu Zi had a deep "vendetta", but did not say what kind of vendetta it was. Old Tang had never mentioned Zhu Zi in his life. Today he offered to come forward, which surprised Ah Yao very much. He quickly calmed down from the excitement of the banquet and sat down on the couch. Old Tang bent down in the dark light and took out a newspaper from the bookcase, walked over and sat down diagonally opposite Ayao. A barb-like nose pierced obliquely, and his face was filled with a characteristic calm and coldness formed after a long period of resentment. Ah Yao's heart trembled as he watched. This feeling is like lying at the mouth of an ancient well and looking at the black water inside. Old Tang handed the newspaper to Ayao. It was the "People's Liberation Army Daily" in 1978, with a front-page headline, a big bold headline - breaking through the technical barriers of sonar, and the three generals laughed proudly at Haijiang. It comes with a large-size photo: Old Tang, Zhu Zi, and Old Deaf Are Receiving Commendations from the Central Military Commission, with the Great Hall of the People in the background. Yellowed newspapers have a heavy sense of age.
"Uncle Tang, this is the highest honor of a soldier." Ah Yao looked at the newspaper and looked at the medal.
"It's a trickster who cheated out of the state."
"You mean..."
"Yes." Old Tang said, "Zhu Zi forged the torpedo test report to the Central Military Commission. ”
Ah Yao seemed to be shocked by an electric shock and shook his body. He didn't expect that the torpedo would explode again thirty years later. I am reminded of the biggest disaster in naval history in 1978 , the explosion of a large-class guided-missile destroyer of the Guangzhou Brigade. The explosion sent the commander of the base and other responsible persons to prison one after another. If the "Four-Five Torpedo Incident" is really as Old Tang said, the three of them will also have the same fate as them, and even the guilt will be heavier, because they deceived the country, and history will never forget it.
"The past is over." Ayao stood still.
"I can't get over it." Old Tang said, "We are fugitives in the history of the Chinese Navy. ”
"Then you can tell the truth to the country."
"I have repeatedly stated in writing to the Central Military Commission, and the Central Military Commission believes that Zhu Zi's report is accurate. Many times without results, I came to the United States with my daughter to do bird research. ”
"What about the old deaf?"
"The old deaf man has been stopping me, and he believes Zhu Zi."
"Yes. Uncle Tang, he had been waiting for that bird for thirty years. Is there really this bird? ”
"Only Zhu Zi knows this."
"Do you think it really is?"
"Scammers can sometimes tell the truth."
After saying this, Old Don stood up. "I'm old and can't go back in person. I heard that Zhu Zi was also dying. My only wish is to ask you to return home and give the medal to the colonel, who is the hero. ”
Tang Guozhong gave a military salute in the direction of facing the motherland. The solemn Sense of Forced Ah Yao also stood up, trying to make an effort to salute a military salute, but let go of a fart.
The Aleutian Islands divide the North Pacific from the Bering Strait. Ferries shuttle between the islands and reefs, occasionally seeing whales or the triangular dorsal fins exposed by Russian nuclear submarines. Ayau stood on the deck, surrounded by The British, the Dutch, and the Germans arguing about current politics or nature. They are carefully defending the interests of their own country. Ah Yao saw Tang Guozhong in the sea fog again, the military salute to the motherland at the northern end of the earth. He found that he, who was bent on creating fame, also had a strong national complex. But he did not understand why the elite, represented by Tang Candy, was so indifferent to the country.
“whale fall.” An American navigator pointed to an island and reef and said to Ayao.
"Mm-hmm." Ayao responded, and he understood that there had once been a whale fall there. "When a whale falls, all things live." Ayao burst into tears.
Tang Guozhong is the whale that falls, with the maintenance of honor and loyalty to the country to complete the deepest farewell to time. Even after death, the sea is nourished with spiritual power. So is the old deaf head. But the Zhu Zi, whom he had never met, was a wolf hiding in the forest. After Ah Yao thought about offering the medal to the colonel, he immediately went to Xuanshui Bay to meet him, and when he saw him, he could have a gun next to him. As with the bird dealer, "secretly gave a bullet to his heart as a meet and greet gift." ”
The gun reached out and held against his head, and he opened his eyes busily, and the radar was staring at him fiercely, "If you dare to mention the song in front of me again, mention Xuanshui Bay, you are a whale falling!" ”
Ah Yao slowly stood up, lit a cigarette, and swallowed the cigarette into the barrel of the gun.
