The shrill wind, ghosts and wolves howled, and I couldn't feel the warmth at all.
The cold gun barrel seemed to be stuck to the skin, but my hands were already black from the cold and I couldn't feel it, so I didn't feel the pain.
…
"Shoot!" The old man saw Li Shaoan in a daze and became a little anxious.
Li Shaoan was not in a daze. He was hesitating, his index finger pressed on the trigger and he refused to shoot.
Finally, the roe deer noticed the popularity, ran away, and soon disappeared into the vast sea of trees in the Greater Khingan Mountains.
"Oh! Why did you let it run away?" The old man was very angry.
Li Shaoan felt a little aggrieved... Especially when his grandfather handed him the shotgun and asked him to hunt by himself, he realized that it was not as easy as he thought.
Especially the silly roe deer. It had obviously seen their grandfather and grandson very early, but it came closer curiously, staring with its big black eyes, as if it was very curious.
"You're just like your father! It's useless!" The old man scolded people without mercy.
Li Shaoan trembled and almost cried out of grievance.
When the old man saw it, he scolded you even more fiercely, "You're such a bear for crying! You know how to cry! Damn it...why didn't you feel sorry for this beast when you ate venison last night? Ah? We must starve to death, you
Are you satisfied?"
Li Shaoan really started crying now. How old was he? He had just graduated from elementary school and was sent to the mountains by his mother to follow his grandfather, saying that he wanted to get rid of his bad temper in the city.
At first, Li Shaoan's father firmly disagreed, and Li Shaoan was also particularly afraid of meeting his grandfather who lived in the mountains, but in the end, his strong mother sent him here.
It was snowing heavily that day, and the car drove away when it arrived at the entrance of the village, leaving Li Shaoan standing at the end of the village by himself, freezing until he shivered before being seen, otherwise he might have frozen to death there.
"I'm sorry...Grandpa..." Li Shaoan said while crying.
The old man glared at him and said, "Don't try this with me, it's useless! If you cry again, I will beat you until your skin is bruised!"
Li Shaoan immediately stopped crying, but the grievance stuck in his throat made him even more uncomfortable. After a while, his face turned red and turned purple.
The old man pretended not to see it. He grabbed Li Shaoan's sleeve and led him deeper into the forest.
The snow crunched under my feet, and the sky began to get darker.
…
That night, they failed to catch spores.
When he got home, the old man found something to eat, drank wine and went to sleep, without paying any attention to Li Shaoan.
The child who was only over ten years old suffered from the cold and aggrieved in such a cold place. Now he couldn't eat enough, his head began to feel dizzy, and his body was shivering with chills.
That night, Li Shaoan didn't know how he survived.
When it was bright and bright the next day, Li Shaoan woke up and found himself lying on the hot kang with a towel on his head.
She turned her head and saw a girl staring at her with a smile.
The girl's eyes are so beautiful, just like the roe deer in the mountains, as pure as the starless night sky.
"Hee hee!" When the girl saw Li Shaoan woke up, she got out of bed with a smile, then opened the door and shouted, "Mom! Mom! He's awake!"
"Are you awake?" came the woman's response from outside the house. The voice sounded familiar, and Li Shaoan remembered that it was she who found him at the entrance of the village, but he didn't expect to save him again this time.
When the woman entered the room, Li Shaoan was struggling to get up.
"Hey, hey! Your fever hasn't gone away yet! Just lie down first!"
After Li Shaoan groaned with a dry mouth, he felt that all the strength in his body was drained, and he lay down again.
"Are you hungry?"
Li Shaoan pursed his lips, not daring to speak, but his eyes revealed longing, and his stomach was growling.
When the little girl heard it, she covered her mouth and let out a "hee hee" laugh, as clear and crisp as the little birds flying back to the woods in spring.
"Auntie, go and make you some hot porridge and some hot steamed buns, eh?"
Li Shaoan's eyes were red. He tried hard to see the woman's face clearly, but his eyes were blurred by tears.
"Um……"
…
After lying on the bed for another half day, Li Shaoan was able to force himself to get off the ground and walk around on his own.
It's not that he is too weak, but that the weather is too cold.
The little girl stayed with him all the time and found him a small stool for him to sit in the yard and bask in the sun, saying that the sweating sickness would be cured by the sun.
After sitting down under the sun, Li Shaoan soon felt warm and comfortable all over his body.
But as soon as I squinted my eyes and enjoyed it for a while, a bloody smell filled the air from the wall.
At the same time, Li Shaoan also heard a scream!
The sound was very scary, but it was not made by a human... but by the "animal" the old man called it.
Li Shaoan's little face turned pale, but the little girl said happily, "Brother, did Grandpa Li catch another roe deer?"
Li Shaoan didn't know, but the voice was probably correct, but he wasn't happy at all.
The little girl continued, "It's great! This way we have meat to eat again!"
Li Shaoan grinned, and he suddenly remembered what his grandfather said... He couldn't bear to shoot... When he was eating meat, he didn't think about how the roe deer died... This made Li Shaoan feel like a very hypocritical person.
But Li Shaoan was still very young at that time, and he didn't have such a delicate mind. He just felt strange in his heart and his face felt hot. He didn't know whether it was because the fever had not completely gone away or because he felt ashamed.
After sitting in the yard for a while, Li Shaoan thought about going home.
The little girl was a little reluctant. She said that few people usually played with her and hoped that Li Shaoan would stay longer.
Li Shaoan actually didn't talk to her much, so she felt a little strange, but in the end he chose to stay.
As soon as we sat back down, the old man pushed open the door of the girl's house with half a roe deer on his back.
That scene was something Li Shaoan would never forget for the rest of his life.
An old man in his 70s was shirtless at noon at more than ten degrees below zero, with blood on his beard and hair. He was holding a bloody half-packed roe deer on his shoulder. You can imagine the visual impact this brought to Li Shaoan.
.
But his attention was not on his grandfather's strong body, but on the body of the roe deer he was carrying on his shoulders.
It was obviously just the most common thing, and people in the mountains were accustomed to these beasts, but Li Shaoan always felt that those eyes were still looking at it, with kindness and curiosity.
Just at this time, the girl excitedly grabbed Li Shaoan's arm. When Li Shaoan turned around and saw the girl's eyes, he was filled with fear and started to retching.
After the old man saw it, his face darkened and he said coldly, "Girl, where is your mother?"
The girl was frightened by Li Shaoan's sudden vomiting. She patted Li Shaoan's back and replied, "Ah? Um... My mother, my mother went to town to buy things. She should be back in a while!"
"Oh...then I've put this roe deer on the table for you. You can go back and ask your mother to chop it up again and separate it, ah?"
The girl was very happy and didn't care about Li Shao'an. She ran over and said, "Yeah! Thank you, Grandpa Li!"
The old man smiled, then walked into the yard and stood in front of Li Shaoan and said, "What, you want me to carry you back?"
Li Shaoan trembled, stood up slowly and said, "No... no need."
The old man looked even more unhappy when he saw Li Shaoan like this. He grabbed Li Shaoan by the collar and dragged him out.
The girl originally wanted to stop him, but when she saw the old man's fierce look, she was too frightened to speak.
…
In the evening, the meat was stewed in the pot. The old man was leaning on the pot and smoking a cigarette. Li Shaoan sat a little further away. He originally wanted to do his homework, but the lights in the room were too dim, and he was not sick yet.
It was so thorough that I held the pen without moving it.
After a while, the meat came out of the pot. The old man skillfully took out a small basin to put the meat in, and then took out a hot steamed bun.
"Eat."
The things were placed in front of Li Shaoan, who was already swallowing his saliva.
But the smell of blood kept causing trouble in Li Shaoan's nose.
It was clearly a delicacy that almost bit off Li Shaoan's tongue when he first came here a few days ago, but now it always reminds Li Shaoan of some scenes that should not have occurred to him at his age.
The old man didn't care much about what Li Shaoan thought. He also served a piece with bones, then took out the white wine from the oil barrel, poured a bowl of it, took two sips, and said with a satisfied smile, "Ah! Come on! Come on, hurry up."
Eat! Don’t let it get cold!”
Li Shaoan quietly pushed the meat away, picked up the steamed bun and took a bite.
The old man was stunned, and then his face turned cold, "What's wrong, isn't this meat undercooked?"
Li Shaoan shook his head and ate the steamed buns silently.
The old man put down his chopsticks and said with a laugh, "Why are you so like your coward father! Ah? Did I, Li Wenyuan, commit evil in my previous life or something? You won't eat the roe deer I caught alive with a rope at night.
?”
Li Shaoan shook his head again, "No...Grandpa...I...I just feel..."
"What do you think? Huh?"
"I just feel...these roe deer are so pitiful...they don't even know to be afraid of us...but we..."
"Snapped!"
Before Li Shaoan finished speaking, he received a solid slap on the face.
The slap was so sharp that Li Shaoan was stunned.
"What pity? What pity?! Ah? What are you talking about to me? Ah?"
I don't know if he was aroused by this sentence, or if the more well-behaved children are, they are more likely to lose control once they are pushed into a hurry.
Li Shaoan suddenly overturned the small table and shouted, "I just don't want to eat it! The meat is stained with blood! It's disgusting to look at! That roe deer is so pitiful! Why do we have to kill it! Ah?!"
The old man was shocked. He looked at the overturned bowl on the ground and the meat covered with grass ash. After being stunned for a moment, he nodded and said three times "Okay!"
Then...
"Ah!! Ah!!!!"
The screams during the day came from the wall again, but this time it was not the roe deer that screamed, but Li Shaoan.
It doesn't matter if a teenage child is whipped with a whip, even if he wears thick clothes.
Li Shaoan ran around the house holding his buttocks, and the old man followed and beat him, beating and scolding you again and again: "You little brat! I told you to waste food! I told you to waste food! Look, I won't beat you to death!~! You
Don’t run!!!”
"Ah!~~~~Grandpa! Stop hitting me!!! It hurts! Ah~~~~!!!" Li Shaoan cried while running.
Soon the neighbors gathered around and started knocking on the door, especially the aunt next door.
"Lao Li! Lao Li!!!! What's wrong with you! Are you out of your mind again! Ah?! I'm going to call the police if you do this again!! Do you hear me?!"
However, the old man didn't pay attention to the people outside at all. The whip rose and fell, and the clothes Li Shaoan was wearing were whipped into bunches.
By the time someone outside opened the door and entered the house, Li Shaoan was already lying in the corner motionless.
But the old man didn't seem to be relieved yet. He was holding his whip tightly and his chest was heaving.
When the aunt next door ran over and picked up Li Shaoan, she found that the child was no longer alive.
"Wa'er? Wa'er?!!! Don't scare Auntie, eh? Wa'er? Say something?!"
"What happened? What happened? He won't be beaten to death, will he?"
"Ouch! Old Li! Why are you so tough! That's your grandson!"
The old man was stunned for a moment, then pushed away the crowd, squeezed in, picked up Li Shaoan, and ran out. Although he was older, no one could stop him.
It was snowing outside, but the figures of the grandfather and grandson were walking further and further away.
…
This time, Li Shaoan did walk away from the door of hell. But after he woke up, when he heard that his grandfather's right hand was frozen and then amputated, he couldn't hate this man at all. He even felt that he was too much.
Too bad of a bastard.
He had long heard from his mother that his grandfather was a veteran who participated in the War of Liberation and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. He was a fighting hero who saved several lives from the dead by relying on mud and snow.
But that year, when the old man returned to his hometown from the Korean War, he found that his parents and wife had starved to death in the mountains.
Since then, he has never left the Greater Khingan Mountains or this forest and snowfield.
Now the veteran's hand is gone, and the gun hidden at home has been searched. I heard that he may be investigated by the public security agency... Li Shaoan suddenly feels that he is really a bastard. Not only did he fail to learn even a little bit from his grandfather,
His blood energy actually chilled his old man's heart.
But that year, Li Shaoan, who was just twelve years old, was so scared that he kept hiding in the hospital, not daring to speak, and pretending to be stupid when anyone came.
until……
…
"Shaoan! Shaoan!"
The other party came towards him and called Li Shao'an twice, but Li Shao'an ignored him. It was not until the other party stood in front of him that he looked up and saw clearly.
"Tiger boy? Huh?! Why are you back?"
Hu Zai is Hu Benkang’s nickname. He was born in the year of Tiger and his surname was Hu, so he got such a nickname.
Hu Benkang laughed, "Didn't I hear that there is a difficult case recently? The organization sent me back to assist you!"
Li Shaoan was happy when he heard this. He had hoped to have a familiar helper, at least a native northerner.
However, because this mission involves international aspects, the investigators who initially participated in the investigation were all southern investigators from Guangdong. They were really not used to the Northeast. Two of them fell ill just after arriving, and they are still here.
Lying in the hospital.
"Really? That's great! I feel relieved when you are here!" Li Shaoan was very happy.
The same goes for Hu Benkang. They are from the same batch. From the beginning they didn't like each other, but now they are close to each other. It can be said that they are better than real brothers even if they are not real brothers.
…
A few days later, they packed up and set off, only to receive news that someone had entered the Greater Khingan Mountains. How to find them in the vast sea of snow.
"Is the news reliable?" Hu Benkang asked.
Wu Xiaoli, a staff member of the "Reliable" Intelligence Section, nodded solemnly, "This is a photo taken by the investigation team. The last time they were seen was in Guyuan Village, Songling District."
"Guyuan Village?" Li Shaoan was startled.
Hu Benkang looked up at Li Shaoan. He knew that place was special to Li Shaoan...
"Well, they drove an off-road vehicle into the village, then asked a fellow villager for directions and then entered the forest from the back of the village."
"Tsk...is there a road in the forest?" When Hu Benkang said this, he secretly glanced at Li Shaoan. Li Shaoan had already taken out his phone and started to contact the forward investigation team.
"Yes, there is a small road, but you cannot drive an off-road vehicle into it. You can only use a snowmobile or hike, but no matter what, the place is very difficult to walk. Our reconnaissance team followed it for a long time, and the result..." Wu Xiaoli said this
Somewhat embarrassing.
"Lost?" Hu Benkang frowned.
"Well... they seem to have noticed our people for a long time, and we are worried about being ambushed by them... so..."
Hu Benkang understood. He nodded and said to Wu Xiaoli, "Okay, thank you for your hard work. Leave it to us next."
Wu Xiaoli left, and Li Shaoan also entered the house.
"How's it going? Have you contacted the old man?"
Li Shaoan shook his head, "No one answered the phone."
"Tsk... let's not delay, and get ready to go down into the mountain." Hu Benkang said and was about to call someone, but Li Shaoan stopped him and said, "Wait, what Wu Xiaoli said just now reminded me, if they had noticed us long ago
, then this trip into the mountain is most likely an ambush for us, and it may be in danger if we follow them rashly."
Hu Benkang smiled and said, "What? You, who grew up in a mountain village, are afraid of these foreigners?"
"I'm not afraid...I'm worried..."
"Okay, I will take the lead this time. You know, I have also been a scout. I will definitely clear the way for you!"
After receiving such a guarantee, Li Shaoan could not say anything else.
They set off in the evening and arrived at Guyuan Town at around nine o'clock in the evening.
The trains rumbled on the railway, and the snow fell heavier and heavier.
Li Shaoan suggested waiting for the snow to stop before setting off, but Hu Benkang disagreed. He said, "They just hope that the heavy snow will cover all their tracks, so that they will never be found again!"
"But this is too dangerous! We don't have enough personnel!"
"Bad weather affects everyone the same. It's hard for us, and it's hard for them too. We'll see who is more familiar with this place then!" Hu Benkang said as he greeted the people to get in the car and start driving to Guyuan Village.
Li Shaoan felt uneasy for a while on the way. He just received a call from his grandfather. Over the years, the relationship between the two has become much better, but they rarely contact each other. The old man still speaks so straightforwardly.
Li Shaoan asked him how he was doing, and then checked to see if anyone had passed through the village.
The old man said he didn't see anyone entering the mountain, but there were fires on the top of the mountain at night, which looked a little unusual.
At that time, Li Shaoan decided that it must be those bastards, so he told the old man, "Don't go anywhere at home! It's snowy and windy outside! You must take care of yourself!"