At the edge of the swamp, Li Zhuang bent down to pick up the rifle and water bottle that Zhang Erwa had finally thrown over and put them on his shoulders.
Looking at the place where Zhang Erwa sank again, he picked up the wooden stick belonging to Zhang Erwa floating on the water, tore off a small piece of rag from the hem of his shirt and tied it to it, and then inserted it in
The edge of the swamp.
"You...you keep your distance and walk behind me."
As Li Zhuang spoke, he had already poked the wooden stick in his hand into the mud to find a safe path. At the same time, he said, "Comrade Wei Ran, if I am also glorious, you are... I have forgotten
, you are not from the cooking class.
Comrade Wei Ran, if I am honored, it will be up to you to take the little lama and Nurse Ji out of the grassland alive. If you also die, Nurse Ji, it will be up to you to take the little lama out of the grassland. He..."
Li Zhuang glanced at the little lama who was also in tears, "He is still a commoner, so... at least let him live."
"yes!"
Wei Ran and Nurse Ji responded to this desperate order in unison, and at the same time raised their hands in a particularly formal salute, which was regarded as a commitment.
A second or two later, the little lama, who obviously didn't understand, wiped away his tears and raised his hands to salute, and said "Shi!"
Looking at each other with a difficult smile, Li Zhuang also raised his hand to respond to the military salute. Then he took advantage of Wei Ran to use a pole to hook back the bamboo basket that was about to sink, and took advantage of Nurse Ji to pick up the last bundle of bamboo baskets floating on the water.
When bundling firewood, I took the first step, the second step, and the third step bravely and resolutely.
"You take the little lama and walk behind me."
After Wei Ran finished speaking, he picked up the bamboo basket soaked in the water again and followed Li Zhuang with a wooden stick.
Under the threat of death that could be swallowed up at any time, the remaining four people left the small highland behind them step by step, leaving squad leader Zhang Erwa who stayed there forever.
From morning to noon, from noon to evening, everyone remained silent, but no one stopped. There was no place around where they could stop and rest, so that they could leave the cold mud and rest their hair, which had already been soaked.
Wrinkled, numb feet.
"Nurse Ji, please give each person a piece of dried meat."
Li Zhuang paused and said, "Then light the oil lamp and let's continue walking until we can't walk anymore or we find a place where we can rest."
"good"
Nurse Ji, who was walking at the end, simply responded, and Li Zhuang, who was walking at the front, finally stopped temporarily.
After a moment of waiting, the little lama skillfully lit the oil lamp with a fire sickle. The oil lamp was also passed to Wei Ran's hand along with the two pieces of dried meat. He bit one piece of dried meat in his mouth, and Wei Ran took the oil lamp and the other piece of dried meat.
He handed it to Li Zhuang in front of him.
Under the dim yellow oil lamp, he could clearly see that there were still unstoppable tears falling from the corners of Li Zhuang's eyes.
"Li...Monitor Li"
Nurse Ji at the end of the team said, "Should I give you the whistle?"
"No"
While Li Zhuang took the oil lamp and dried meat, he replied without thinking, "Put it together with the squad leader's things."
"That's fine..."
Nurse Ji sighed slightly, took out the glass medicine bottle left by Squad Leader Liu from her bag, threw the whistle in, and carefully screwed on the bottle cap.
At the same time, Li Zhuang also passed a kettle to Wei Ran, "Take a sip, the second baby left it."
After a slight hesitation, Wei Ran, who had already finished the fish soup in his kettle, took the kettle and took a sip, then handed it to the little lama behind him.
The latter also took a sip and handed it to Nurse Ji who had just collected the medicine bottle.
As the kettle was passed round after round, everyone took steps again with the help of the swaying lights, walking forward one foot deeper and one foot shallower.
Gradually, stars lit up in the night sky, and you could even see the dazzling Milky Way without looking up.
Although the night sky is beautiful, the people who are busy on their way have no intention to appreciate it. In fact, they need the relatively brighter moonlight.
But God did not grant their wish. Not long after they had passed, even the starry sky was covered by dark clouds, and a chilly wind blew in front of them.
He raised the oil lamp a little higher with the wooden stick in his hand. Wherever he looked, neither Li Zhuang at the front nor the others behind him could see any location above the water that was suitable for camping. The brightness of the oil lamp
It's too low, and it doesn't focus the light at all, so you can't see very far.
“Take a few more steps while it’s not raining!”
Li Zhuang made a decisive decision, "Whenever the rain comes down, we will stop it!"
"good!"
Wei Ran and Nurse Ji agreed to his decision one after another, and the little lama also shouted "No!" like a parrot.
However, this time they had only walked for less than ten minutes when huge raindrops fell, which hurt their bodies extremely.
"Hail again!"
While Li Zhuang was talking, he had already hidden the oil lamp under his bamboo hat and shouted, "It's right here! Take out the oilcloth quickly!"
Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately put down the pole and took out the oilcloth as quickly as possible and unfolded it.
In order to prevent the deadly hail, they first stacked three blankets on the three bamboo baskets arranged in a zigzag shape, pressed them down with poles and wooden sticks, and then covered them with oilcloths.
The only good thing at this time is that the water in this meadow only covered my ankles.
The bamboo hats worn by everyone became the last layer of protection and the support of the "tent".
In the small space between the three bamboo baskets, the little lama squatting in the middle held an oil lamp high. The hands of the other three people were all holding on to the bamboo baskets and oilcloths.
Amidst the frightening beating sound, hailstones as big as quail eggs fell from above their heads, and soon a layer of freezing ice was spread around everyone.
Picking up a hailstone and stuffing it into his mouth, Li Zhuang chewed it loudly and said happily, "I heard from the instructor before that in a big city like Shanghai, in summer,
There are ice creams for sale, and they are very sweet. I guess the ice cream tastes like ice cream when it is dipped in sugar."
"No!"
Nurse Ji, who was once a landowner's lady, also picked up a hailstone, stuffed it into her mouth and chewed it, "This is even more delicious than ice cream!"
“It would be great if I could speak Chinese”
The little lama also murmured in Zang language, and at the same time passed his hand through the gap between Wei Ran and Li Zhuang, pointed at the hail outside, and shouted "comrade" in his mouth.
"You can't eat this"
Nurse Ji hurriedly said before Wei Ran and Li Zhuang, then stepped on the oilcloth with her foot, opened the lunch box in her satchel with one hand, took out two pieces of charcoal from it and handed it to the little lama.
"I don't have diarrhea anymore"
The little lama muttered something in Zang language, but still took the charcoal and threw it into his mouth and started chewing it.
"Do you think we can have decent ice cream in the future?"
Li Zhuang looked at the hail falling outside and asked to himself, "I have never seen what ice cream looks like."
"I ate before"
Nurse Ji said, "It's so sweet that it turns bitter and dyes the tongue like orange peel. But it's so comforting to eat one in the dog days of summer. From now on, if people can eat sorbet during the dog days of summer, it would be great."
What a day."
"If I can get out alive, I must buy a piece of ice cream to try."
Li Zhuang paused and asked rather uneasily, "Nurse Ji, is the ice cream expensive?"
"It's not expensive, but it's not cheap either." Nurse Ji said, "The ice cream I had at that time cost 20 cents a piece, and it was orange flavored."
"Two cents?!"
Li Zhuang exclaimed, "Good boy! Is it five cents more than our daily food expenses?"
"Can't"
Nurse Ji said, "There are more expensive ones. I heard from my dad... I heard that in big cities like Shanghai, there are ice creams that cost fifty cents a piece."
"This is incredible!"
Li Zhuang looked at the hail outside and sighed, "If ordinary people can eat ice cream in the future, what a magical day it will be... Comrade Wei Ran, what about you? Have you ever eaten ice cream?"
Faced with Li Zhuang's question, Wei Ran also picked up a piece of hailstone and threw it into his mouth. He chewed it loudly and replied, "I have eaten it. I have eaten a lot of flavors."
"Is there also orange flavor?" Nurse Ji asked.
"Yes, but more than that"
Wei Ran looked outside in a daze and replied in a daze, "There are orange flavors, yogurt flavors, cantaloupe flavors, strawberry flavors, chocolate flavors, vanilla flavors, and...
..”
"What is chocolate? What is vanilla?" Nurse Ji, who obviously comes from a landlord's family, asked blankly.
"What is a cantaloupe?" Li Zhuang asked a question that "lacked even more common sense".
"Cantaloupe is..."
Wei Ran racked his brains and thought about it, then said with a smile, "It tastes almost like eating apples and cucumbers together."
"Where's the chocolate?"
“Chocolate is bitter”
"Is it the same as bitter melon?" Li Zhuang asked, "I don't like to eat bitter melon."
"Absolutely," Wei Ran replied more and more at a loss, "It's not that bitter, but it's definitely bitter."
"What about vanilla? What does vanilla taste like?" Nurse Ji also asked, and at the same time, she and Li Zhuang swallowed in unison.
"Vanilla is..."
Wei Ran swallowed the ice residue in his mouth, thought for a while, and finally could only tell a lie that they could understand, "It actually tastes like osmanthus."
"That smells so good..." Nurse Ji couldn't help but muttered, "I like osmanthus. When I used to eat glutinous rice balls, I always liked to sprinkle some osmanthus on it."
"Yes...really?" Wei Ran was startled, "You guys also like to sprinkle sweet-scented osmanthus in glutinous rice balls?"
"Is it the same at your place?" Nurse Ji asked back.
"I..."
Wei Ran took a deep breath and said, "I am a friend from Sichuan and likes to eat glutinous rice balls sprinkled with sweet-scented osmanthus."
“I want to try cantaloupe, chocolate and osmanthus-flavored sorbet in the future.”
Li Zhuang murmured to himself, and then asked suspiciously, as if he had discovered a loophole, "Wei Ran, where did you eat so much ice cream? Didn't you say it's not convenient for you to drink water?"
"I used to move goods for a capitalist selling ice cream."
A new lie popped up in Wei Ran's mouth, "Why don't you just eat what you want while he's not paying attention?"
As soon as he said this, Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji laughed together, and asked him what other flavors of sorbet he had eaten, which kind of sorbet was the most delicious, and which kind of sorbet was the most expensive.
Only the little lama among them, holding an oil lamp, murmured sadly in Zang language, "What happy things are you talking about? If only I could speak Chinese..."
