Before the car stopped, the canteen owner opened the door and jumped out. As he walked, he took out a pack of white towers from his pocket, took out one and handed it to the old man sitting at the entrance of the alley, waiting for Chen Qi to take it.
To smoke, the middle-aged canteen owner immediately took out a disposable lighter and helpfully lit it.
Chen Qi, on the other hand, took the cigarette silently, took a sip next to the flames, and then pointed to Mazar next to him, but he didn't say anything at all. That thin face showed the traces of time.
Gully, and indescribable dullness.
The canteen owner seemed to be used to it. He sat down on the horse, pointed at Wei Ran who had just got off the car, and said in a loud voice, "Uncle Chen, that young man wants to buy your military medal...hehehe
!Why did you hit me!"
The canteen owner who had just settled down rolled and crawled a few meters away, but still couldn't escape being hit on the buttocks by the walking stick in Chen Qi's hand.
"You little bastard! Get out!" Chen Qi didn't wait for the tuck shop owner to stand firm, and the walking stick in his hand and the cigarette he had just lit flew over in circles.
"Old man! Old man!"
Wei Ran quickly ran over, picked up the walking stick and brought it to Chen Qi's side, ignoring the horse that the other party had already raised, "He's teasing you!"
Chen Qi stared at Wei Ran for a few seconds and asked in a cold tone, "Where did you come from again?"
"I..."
Wei Ran grinned and carefully wiped the cane with his T-shirt. Then he took the Maza from the other party and stuffed it under his butt to sit firmly. He ignored the canteen owner who was beaten instead of watching the fun and took it out of his pocket.
I bought a Chinese cigarette on the way, took out one and handed it to the other person, then helped light it, and then explained, "Old man, I am just a history student, and I want to ask you something."
"have no idea"
Chen Qi took a puff of cigarette and said with a facial expression, "I am just an old farmer, not a teacher."
"Do you know Zhao Shengli...?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.
As soon as the name was asked, the cigarette in Chen Qi's hand fell to the ground. But after a moment of silence, the old man bent down to pick up the cigarette, put it into his mouth again and took a sip. His tone was as cold as ever, "I don't know you."
, never heard of this name.”
Wei Ran opened his mouth, silently popped a cigarette and lit it, but he didn't ask anything. He just sat side by side with the old man who had fought side by side, smoking silently.
Not far away, the canteen owner wiped the dirt off his butt and walked over in a friendly manner. Just as he was about to say something, Chen Qi raised the cane in his hand and threw it away again.
"Hey! You old man!"
The canteen owner nimbly dodged the flying cane, then ran over to pick it up, and handed it to Chen Qi with a playful smile, "Is my brother at home?"
Chen Qi took the cane and finally gave it a light but not heavy blow on the middle-aged boss's ass. Then he said, "I'm at home. Go get some iced watermelons."
"I'll say hello to my brother first, and I'll bring it over here!"
The middle-aged boss, who had a cane on his butt, was not annoyed and walked into the alley with a playful smile.
Chen Qi didn't say anything else. He even pretended that Wei Ran didn't exist. He slowly smoked the cigarette in his hand and kept looking in the direction of the village entrance with his old eyes.
Wei Ran, who originally had a thousand words in his heart, fell silent, as if he was back in the trench where he was at the beginning, leaning against the wall, smoking and killing time.
Before the cigarette burned out, the middle-aged boss walked out quickly with a short, thin man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties.
"Brother, this young man plans to buy my uncle's military medal."
The middle-aged boss pointed at Wei Ran and said, his tone no longer as friendly as when they first met, replaced by a strong tone of caution.
"You two little bastards, stay here!"
Chen Qi knocked the walking stick in his hand on the red brick floor, "Kaixuan, let your wife prepare a table of dishes, Zhenzong, send the watermelon over quickly!"
"Ah? Hey! I'll send it over right away!" Before the young boss finished speaking, he had already run towards the canteen.
"Dad..." The man who came out of the alley looked at Chen Qi hesitantly, obviously wanting to remind him of something.
"It's okay, I'm not in Lao Hutu yet." Chen Qi waved his hand, "Go prepare the meal, we have guests at home."
Hearing this, the middle-aged man who seemed to be named Chen Kaixuan looked at Wei Ran again worriedly, then took out his mobile phone and took a photo of the license plate number of Wei Ran's car parked on the roadside, and then walked back.
Deep in the alley.
In such a short time, Wei Ran and Chen Qi's respective cigarettes had almost burned down to the filters.
"Have you eaten?" Chen Qi asked as he put out his cigarette butt.
"No...nothing"
Wei Ran responded with a smile on his face. Although his arrival seemed unwelcome, the reaction of the canteen owner who led the way to trick him and Chen Qi's son also made him feel relieved. In any case, they were very grateful to him.
Chen Qi's concern can still be seen.
“Let’s have a meal”
After Chen Qi finished speaking, he stood up with a cane in one hand and the wall with the other. Seeing this, Wei Ran stood up quickly and tried to support him.
"Need not"
Chen Qilue pushed Wei Ran away stubbornly, pointed at Ma Zha where the two of them were just sitting, and said, "Just help me carry them."
"good!"
Wei Ran simply let go of his hand, and after waiting for the other party to stand firm, he bent down to pick up the two mazaars made of wooden frames and bicycle tires, followed Chen Qi step by step, and walked slowly into the alley.
There are only two houses at the end of the alley. In the courtyard with the open door on the left, you can still hear the middle-aged man named Chen Kaixuan greeting his wife to cook.
Under the leadership of Chen Qi, Wei Ran walked into the yard on the right. This yard was not big in the northern countryside. At the far south was a long-abandoned pigsty, with two leafy trees in the middle.
Thick persimmon trees.
"Um..."
Wei Ran nodded and said almost to himself, "They are all buried in the Martyrs Cemetery in Dandong. After I visit Mr. Zhao Shengli, I plan to go there to see them."
"Go ahead..."
Chen Qi paused for a long time, looked at the persimmon tree outside the window, and said almost in a whisper, "I'm waiting for you, waiting every day, waiting for you to come to me and take away the military medals I have here. If you don't come again,
Yeah...I can't hold on for a few more days.
You...why don't you just...don't want to come back? What's so good about this shabby place, why don't you want to come back..."
"They are back." Wei Ran felt his chest was so tight that he could hardly breathe. "Old man, they are back. They have been back a long time ago."
"Can't come back"
Chen Qi sighed and murmured in a tearful tone, "On that mountain top, there were not even a single blade of grass growing except for stones. For eight days, for eight whole days, I was the only one who survived while retreating with victory on my back. They were all there.
Yes, it has always been there.
At night, as long as I close my eyes, I can see them. I shouted...shouted...my voice became hoarse and begged them to withdraw. Squad leader Lin didn't listen. He said he had to keep it.
Poshantou, why is he so stubborn?"
"They are back," Wei Ran said again, but his voice was much softer.
"Can't come back"
Chen Qi shook his head, "I have waited for them all my life, hoping for the stars and the moon. If they came back, they would have come to me long ago. I am also a soldier under his command. Why doesn't he want me anymore?"
"They..." Wei Ran stopped mid-sentence, "They... really can't come back..."
"I can't come back...I can't come back."
Chen Qi stood up tremblingly, left the room slowly with a cane, walked through the main room and went to the opposite room.
After a long time, he came back with a wooden photo frame. He carefully wiped the non-existent dust on the photo frame with his sleeve, pointed at the people in the black and white photo and introduced them one by one, "This is Squad Leader Sun, let's go."
Where is the old Red Army soldier who went through the Long March? If there was anything delicious to eat, he would always treat the wounded first. He himself served as the chief of staff and also served as the squad leader of the cooking class, but he was hungry every day.
This is Squad Leader Lin. He is amazing! He learned to speak new words in less than a year. He is also very courageous and dares to go into the American trenches and catch their tongues.
This! This is Zhao Shengli. This kid has never been in tune when he sings. His broken gong voice is even worse than mourning! But he runs so fast that even the American machine guns can’t keep up with him!"
Wiping the corner of his eyes, Chen Qi pointed to the two young soldiers in the group photo holding each other's shoulders and said, "Of these two people, the one sitting next to him is Da Li, and the one on the right is Xiao Gao. They are both from the south, and they are small.
Yes, he often pretends to be a soldier.
Although the two of them did not know how to speak new words, as long as they changed their clothes and used the dialect of their hometown, they still deceived the American soldiers like runaway donkeys and followed them to the ambush circle."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "This is you" Wei Ran said with certainty, pointing to Chen Qi in the group photo.
"How young you were back then..." Chen Qi rubbed the people in the photo, no one knew what he was thinking.
"Do you regret it?" Wei Ran couldn't help but ask.
"Why don't you regret it?"
Chen Qi sighed, "If it happens again, I will die on that broken mountain!"
"Old man, let's sing a song together?" Wei Ran suddenly suggested.
"Singing?" Chen Qi looked at Wei Ran.
"Just sing that song!"
Wei Ran suggested again, "I guess you must have often sang that song together at that time! You start the song and I will sing with you!"
Chen Qi was stunned for a moment. An uncontrollable smile gradually appeared on his old, serious, and even depressed face, "Then sing a song! Bravely! High-spirited! Cross the Yalu River! Prepare to sing -
!”
In the farmyard shrouded in the scorching summer heat, an old but in-tune voice, and a young but seriously out-of-tune voice sang the song that had already completed the battle mission over and over with great momentum.
At the entrance of the small courtyard, the owner of the canteen, Chen Qi's son, and daughter-in-law looked at each other with blank faces. For a moment, they didn't know whether to send the prepared meals in.
"Can Uncle Chen still sing?" the canteen owner asked in disbelief.
"Our father's singing is pretty good, not off-key at all." Chen Qi's daughter-in-law said in admiration, "How many years have I been married? But I have never heard this old man sing."
"Where did that young man come from?" Chen Qi's son, Chen Kaixuan, said doubtfully, "I thought he would be beaten to death by my father with a cane."
"Don't worry about where he comes from."
The canteen owner said nonchalantly, "This is the first time in my life that I heard my uncle sing."
Chen Qi's daughter-in-law shook her head in confusion, "Don't talk about singing. When Kaixuan and I got married, I never saw this old man smiling so happily."
"Don't talk about my dad yet."
Chen Qi's son couldn't help but grin, "What kind of nonsense did that kid sing? He didn't even adjust the punctuation."
"What do you care about what he sings?" Chen Qi's daughter-in-law rolled her eyes, "Let's go back first! Let's wait until the two of them have finished singing!"
"Kaixuan, I think you need to buy my uncle a karaoke set."
The owner of the canteen came up with a bad idea, "I guess the kind used by those old ladies doing square dancing would be suitable. This old man likes to sing..."
"If you want to buy something, you can buy it."
Chen Qi's son walked back with the food in hand, "I'm afraid he'll beat me with a cane. How many times have you come up with bad ideas and not let me get beaten? It doesn't matter whether you remember to eat or not. I still don't want to buy a cane."
Spend money."
"Let's go quickly. If you're too late, the cane will fly over your head."
Chen Qi's daughter-in-law urged, not bothering to take care of the two old brothers who were sleeping like dragons and phoenixes, and went back to their own yard.
Just like in the tunnel shrouded by US artillery more than half a century ago, Wei Ran, who was still young, and Chen Qi, who was no longer young, sang a song back and forth countless times until Wei Ran
His voice became hoarse, and it wasn't until Chen Qi's voice became hoarse that the two of them stopped one after another, then looked at each other, and both of them burst into hearty laughter.
"Young man, what's your last name?" Chen Qi asked with a smile on his face.
"Wei, the one who protects the home and the country."
"Your surname is Wei?"
Chen Qi thought about it for a while, and finally shook his head helplessly, "I thought your surname was Zhao and that you were the descendant of that boy Zhao Shengli. Your broken voice is exactly the same as his."
Wei Ran grinned, thinking that the other party was praising him. He picked up a watermelon and took a bite. While chewing, he asked vaguely, "Old man, how long has it been since you and Zhao Shengli saw each other?"
Chen Qi shook his head, "I haven't seen him since we came back from the war."
"I'm going to find him. Do you need me to bring him anything?" Wei Ran continued to ask.
"You...just ask him, do you still need me to find you a wife?" After Chen Qi finished speaking, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Okay! I'll definitely bring you the exact words!" Wei Ran promised, patting his chest.
"If you can find him..."
Chen Qi fell silent mid-sentence, stood up slowly, took out a plastic notebook from the cabinet, took out a Parker pen that looked very old, and wrote a series of phone numbers on it,
Then he tore it off and handed it to Wei Ran.
"Young man, if you can find him, call my son Kaixuan and tell him the address of Shengli and ask him to tell me."
After Chen Qi waited for Wei Ran to take the piece of paper with his mobile phone number written on it, he couldn't help but sigh. "My son Kaixuan was born in 1960. His name was given by Shengli in 1952.
, he said that I will definitely have a son, and if I have a son, it must be called Kaixuan. Suddenly, now this is the only name I have left."
"Old man, just wait for my call!"
Wei Ran glanced at the three people walking towards him with food in their hands outside the window, and said slightly faster, "I will definitely find Zhao Shengli for you!"
"OK!"
Chen Qi nodded noncommittally, "Let's go and eat. There isn't much good stuff in our rural areas. You are a kid who has come to the city at the first sight, so don't dislike it."
"Don't blame me for eating too much." Wei Ran picked up another watermelon as he spoke, and then followed Chen Qi out of the room.
Accompanied by Chen Qi, his son and daughter-in-law, and the owner of the canteen, everyone had a lively meal around a low table under the leafy persimmon tree.
At the dinner table, no matter how the three middle-aged men asked, neither Wei Ran nor Chen Qi mentioned anything related to that war.
After eating three large bowls of chewy braised noodles and drinking a large bottle of Coke as a substitute for alcohol, Wei Ran insisted on taking out the good cigarettes, wine and tea that Chen Guangling had bought in advance from the car and stuffed them in.
In the arms of Chen Qi's son.
After bidding farewell to the family, Wei Ran started the borrowed car, stepped on the accelerator and drove in the direction he came from.
In the wide rearview mirror, the old man standing on the roadside dropped the crutch in his hand, straightened his back that had been bent by years, and raised his right hand tremblingly to the height of his eyebrows.
After honking the horn gently, Wei Ran slowly stepped on the accelerator, trying to avoid the military salute that he was not qualified to bear.
Gradually, the old man who had been waiting for his comrades to return disappeared in the rearview mirror. Gradually, the ordinary small village also disappeared in the rearview mirror.
In the end, there was only a flat, straight country road with street trees growing on both sides.
"Next stop, it's time to go see Zhao Shengli."
Wei Ran murmured to himself, secretly guessing what kind of life the other party was leading. Was he just like the depressed Chen Qi, sitting at the entrance of the alley all day long, silently waiting for those things that would never come back to him?
Comrades who are not coming.
"He won't still say that my consciousness is low, right?"
Wei Ran couldn't help but laugh, and became more and more eager to ask Zhao Shengli in person for Chen Qi if he wanted to find a wife for him.
