Chapter 5
The group of seven men and three women who were climbing the mountain were all children from the same village and were very familiar with each other.
Qiu Li's appearance was inexplicable. Later, during a chat, it was learned that Lin Youdong belonged to the "You" generation, and Qiu Li's mother was surnamed Lin in the village. Therefore, according to the generational order, Qiu Li was Lin Youdong's maternal uncle.
This winter vacation, Lin Youdong's great-grandmother celebrated her birthday, and the whole family came back, so Qiu Li also came back with her mother to pay her respects.
Among these people, Lin Youdong and the second brother are elementary school students, you and Qiu Li are junior high school students, and the remaining girls are in sixth grade and third or fourth grade, and they are all a little shy in front of Qiu Li.
You followed behind the group. Lin Youdong distributed some things to everyone. When it was your turn, your second brother said, "Give Nanfei his things, I'll help him carry them."
Lin Youdong chuckled, walked past his second brother, and blocked your way: "It's not heavy, and he can't just do nothing, so why did he come here?"
Lin Youdong is just a primary school student. Recently, because you keep pressuring your second brother to do his homework, he has no one to play with and is very unhappy. He has picked fights with you several times. That big white goose that likes to chase you is the one he brought to scare you.
You didn't want the elementary school kids to laugh at you, so you tugged at your scarf and reached out to take it. But the person next to you was faster and took the bag of potatoes from Lin Youdong's hand. He also had several other things on him, and he took the girls' things as well, showing his manly spirit.
Lin Youdong's treacherous face instantly turned into a fawning one, and he eagerly sidled up to her, saying, "Qiu Li, Qiu Li, let me help you carry it."
The elementary school kids who were with them also volunteered.
"Brother Qiu, let me help you carry it. I'm strong."
"Let me do it, Brother Qiu, you can take a break."
"Brother Qiu."
"..."
"It's only a few steps, let's hurry up," Qiu Li said with a frown. His left profile was that of a cool guy, and his right profile was that of a man. He had the kind of aura that would make elementary school kids think, "Wow, our boss is awesome." You looked at your second brother and Lin Youdong, as well as a bunch of elementary school kids with uncontrollable starry-eyed admiration, and felt very heartbroken and confused.
It doesn't weigh much in total...
The precocious genius Nanfei was first in all his studies, but at this moment he was no match for the delinquent teenager riding a motorcycle.
Moreover, before Qiu Li appeared, these little kids wouldn't call you "brother" with snotty noses, and they never invited you to play together.
You felt stifled, turned your face away, and secretly kicked a snowflake, refusing to admit that you also had childish vanity.
The girls didn't have to carry anything, so they were happy to climb up hand in hand, chatting and laughing.
You were the only boy empty-handed, but you didn't find a chance to grab anything, and you soon reached the halfway point.
As noon approached, the snow not only did not stop, but instead grew heavier, with large, fluffy snowflakes falling in abundance.
The elementary school students cheered excitedly. You rubbed your flushed cheeks and looked down from the mountainside. Thousands of peaks and valleys were covered in silver, and the crisscrossing fields and villages were also a pure white expanse, making it impossible to distinguish the location of the houses.
You exhale a breath of warm air, and snowflakes land on your eyelashes, blurring your vision.
Because they needed to start a fire halfway up the mountain, everyone went to find firewood. Second Brother and Lin Youdong ran off and disappeared. The girls stayed behind to watch over the things. The boys didn't call you, so you put your hands in your pockets and followed the footprints into the pine forest.
squeak--
Splash—
You instinctively look up and get hit in the face by snow.
"Wow!"
You frantically pat the snow down when a laugh drifts overhead. You step back a few paces and look up to see Qiu Li taking off her gloves and climbing a pine tree covered in snow. The branches are laden with snow, and under the pressure of the climb, large flakes fall off.
He squatted on a pine branch, glanced down at you, took out a small knife from the side pocket of his pants, and silently began sawing.
"Stand back a bit."
Seeing that you weren't moving, he reminded you, his face expressionless and unenthusiastic, as if he wasn't the one chasing you on the motorcycle.
You weren't used to being around these kinds of people, so you put your hands in your pockets and walked into the pine forest. After walking for a while, you ran into your second brother and Lin Youdong. They were dragging a bunch of dry, yellow pine branches, which were excellent fuel.
They helped drag the branches back to where they started the fire, where a simple little shed had been erected. Qiu Li used sawn-off green pine branches to cover the top to shield them from the snow. The girls loved the design and were already preparing to play house.
When starting a fire, several elementary school students bent over, forming a windbreak.
The girl huddled in the small shed, and after the initial shock wore off, she clearly felt cold.
But halfway up the mountain, the snow was heavy and the wind was cold. Lin Youdong didn't have a lighter with him, but a box of matches. The paper next to the matches was accidentally wet.
As a result, it became even more difficult to start a fire. Lin Youdong and several other boys tried several times, but all ended in failure. There was only a little bit of paper left to wipe, and the last two pieces of paper were placed on Qiu Li.
You huddle together with them, initially thinking "I don't care," but gradually become infected by their emotions, nervously staring at the match, watching the fingers sliding it, using your body to firmly block the howling cold wind, hoping that it will burst into orange flames in the next second.
The first wipe passed over the paper, and a wisp of gray smoke rose up.
fail.
The second attempt ended in the same mistake, leaving the little kids looking disappointed. Qiu Li turned her finger and quickly wiped it with the remaining red lint.
Snap—
"oh!"
A match lights up a tiny flame, and you instinctively cheer along with the little kids.
Qiu Li's tense expression relaxed a little, and she quickly stuffed the flame into the soft tinder she had rolled out. The orange-red flame crackled and popped as it ignited.
After warming their hands by the fire, the chicken-catching team immediately started climbing. You followed behind your second brother, and Lin Youdong glanced at you several times, his lips twitching, and whispered in your ear while putting his arm around your second brother's shoulder.
The second brother looked troubled. After listening, he walked over and scratched his head: "Nanfei, it's freezing up here. Why don't you wait for us here? We'll come back as soon as we catch a pheasant."
Lin Youdong sniffed: "There's nothing fun up there, so you shouldn't go. Otherwise, your brother will have to carry you down."
You used to be able to sense the hostility and dislike of the other children around you. You understood that no one liked playing with the "other people's children" that parents talked about, and you never thought about fitting in anyway.
But today you came out together, climbed halfway up the mountain together, and made a fire together, but they still don't like you. They never intended to take you along. Your second brother only brought you along because he thought that taking you along would get you released by your aunt.
"Southward flight..."
"I'm not going."
You interrupted your second brother halfway through his sentence. You saw your own expression reflected in his eyes: stubborn, understanding, indifferent, and completely used to Lin Youdong's ways.
"Then it's settled."
Lin Youdong beamed, as if he was afraid you'd change your mind and come along. He pulled his second brother along, and a group of people surrounded Qiu Li, making a ruckus as they went up the mountain. You couldn't quite describe the feeling in your heart, and you turned and walked towards the small shed.
They collected a lot of firewood. You squatted in front of the fire and threw the pieces in one by one. The flames roared, and the white ash from the fire was blown by the wind and splashed all over your face.
The older girls were playing cat's cradle and pretending to be house with the younger girls. You weren't interested in your dad and grandpa playing the snowman, so they pouted and stopped calling you.
You sat there for a while, bored, and muttered to yourself.
An older girl asks you, "Nanfei, what are you talking about?"
You turned around, expressionless: "Want to recite together?"
Girl: "...No."
After what seemed like an eternity, your legs started to feel numb, and your second brother and the others still hadn't come down from the mountain.
You were poking at the fire when a gust of wind blew by, and scalding sparks landed on the white goose.
The once docile goose, scalded by the sparks, suddenly became alert, squawking and darting about. In a few moments, it flew off the paddy field ridge and disappeared, leaving you and a few girls dumbfounded.
Girl: "It ran away."
You: "I saw it."
...
Why did Lin Youdong bring the goose? You trudged through the snow, panting, searching for the big white goose.
As the only boy left in the team, you felt obligated to go out and look for the goose, but after the big white goose pounced down, it completely disappeared.
You followed the calls of geese and entered a pine forest. The towering pine branches blocked your view, and you unknowingly wandered further and further away from the forest. By the time you realized you didn't know where you were, there was hardly anyone around.
You're not familiar with this mountain; you only visited it once in the summer, and you didn't even go to the same place.
You tried shouting for a while, but only the echoes reverberated through the empty woods.
The empty pine forest stretches endlessly, seemingly leading out from any point, yet also seemingly only leading deeper into the forest.
The snow-covered landscape was utterly silent, save for the howling wind. Ghostly figures seemed to roam the woods, and a chilling, indescribable dread permeated the stillness.
You looked around blankly, picked up a pine branch from the ground, and clutched it in your hand.
"Second Brother."
You walk while shouting at the top of your lungs.
Birds flap their wings, snowflakes flutter down.
Between heaven and earth lies a desolate wasteland, and no one answers you.
The sky seemed to be getting darker and darker.
Your nerves are on edge, your inner unease is growing, and even the slightest sound can make your lips lose color and your jaw clench.
Later on, you dared not walk any further, and leaned against a big tree, shivering from the cold.
"elder brother!"
"Lin Jiangjun!"
"Big brother!"
There were strange bird calls in the woods, chirping and rustling. Something was approaching, so you covered your ears and opened your eyes wide.
Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.
There are no ghosts or monsters in the world.
There won't be anything else in the forest; tigers and leopards are just things adults tell children.
Gaa—
Suddenly a crow cawed.
You hugged your knees, burst into tears, and sang between sobs, "We...we are the successors of communism..."
"Inherit...inherit the glorious traditions of our revolutionary predecessors..."
"...Love...love the motherland, love the people..."
"The bright red scarf fluttered on my chest... Waaah..."
"...not afraid of sobs...not afraid of difficulties...not afraid of enemies..."
"Study diligently and fight resolutely..."
You cried so loudly, so very loudly, that overwhelming fear and grievance poured out from your throat, your ears filled with your own sobs. You cried until you were hoarse, forgetting all your fear, to the point that you didn't even react when someone called your name.
"Southward flight?"
Your eyes were brimming with tears, and your speech was slurred.
The person who found you leaned against a tree trunk, bent over and panting heavily. You were crying uncontrollably, and he watched you cry without moving. After a while, the louder you cried, the louder he laughed.
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