Chapter Fourteen

  Our small team has entered the suburbs outside Zhen Da City, where houses are still sparse, but there is almost no human smoke. The most annoying thing is that it started raining, cutting off the already unheroic singing voice even more. In the rain, He Shu Guang's accordion stopped, but he angrily stared at the sky and refused to put on his mother's clothes.

  We still have to hold on and sing:

  "...Mechanized offensive, brave and calm, surprise attack initiative wisdom is vast,"

  "Liver and gallbladder shine together, unite and strengthen themselves, annihilate the enemy bandits, sing a triumphant song."

  Suddenly several thunderbolts came crashing down from the clouds, this was one part of the local climate's extreme mischief, its rainfall was completely illogical and disorderly. "Run!" "Run!" "We're going to get soaked!" We shouted strangely as we started running.

  "Halt!" "Return to your unit!" The four on the vehicle jumped down, chasing after us and shouting. The vehicle was also trying to block our way back.

  In front of us was a building: it was either a ruined temple or something else, anyway it was an abandoned building with nothing in it. We rushed in, shouting and making a racket, while He Shuguang directed the soldiers escorting us to seal the door, so we wouldn't have to worry about running wild.

  Then the rain started, and this rain was not just ordinary, it happened to be pouring down right next to the dilapidated temple. We gazed out in astonishment from the broken temple towards the direction we had escaped from, more than a hundred meters away was a patch of dryness and clear sky, while above our heads was a torrential downpour - this was another part of the local climate's wickedness.

  "My god!" he bellowed, startling us all. We wanted to rush to a sunny spot to avoid the rain. "Change places! Change places!" "This place is just as bad", we shouted back at the soldiers blocking our way.

  "He Shuguang shouted: 'It's right here!'"

  His soldiers cocked their guns with a loud click and shouted in unison: "It's here!" "Don't run around!"

  It's definitely hopeless now. We had no choice but to turn back, looking at this dilapidated temple that was soon drenched through and through. We too were soon soaked to the bone.

  Four pallbearers, three still blocking the door, He Shuguang scratched his head and stared blankly at the clear sky outside the pouring rain. The guy was still carrying a accordion on his back, he didn't play it anymore, but started to sneeze.

  Bao Bing held up the clothes and persuaded him: "Company Commander, put on your clothes."

  He Shuguang responded with a sneeze.

  We are crowded in this small space, stepping on each other's feet, because there aren't many places with roofs and they also have holes as big as a washbasin. We soon became drenched to the bone.

  Our escorts have all bowed their heads, slung their guns and looked up at the clear sky in the rain. He Shuguang finally put on his clothes, but sneezing is not something that can be ended by just putting on clothes.

  Kang Ya asked Ya Bing: "Is there anything to eat?"

  The soldier stared blankly at us, and we also clearly heard a low hum from his abdomen.

  "Company Commander, when are we going to receive our equipment?" Ah Yi asked.

  He Shuguang replied between sneezes: "I don't know."

  He also felt it was nothing, looked at us, then at the soldiers on guard, "Keep a good eye out. I'm going to find Captain Zhang."

  He got on the car in a sneeze, started the car in a sneeze, and was gone.

  We stood there, staring at each other in confusion, while the dragon laughed strangely among us, shivering with cold. He found a hole as big as a washbasin and took off his upper garment to start showering. He washed very carefully and said, "Who can help me scrub my back?" We burst out laughing. Soon we were no longer afraid of the dragon. He looked like the Bull Demon King, but he was actually a grass-eater. The fierce and terrifying dragon always had food to eat, while the grass-eating dragon would soon have a belly as empty as ours.

  "Want Ma, help me rub it."

  Don't even move a bit, "Go ahead and dream, you're the worst."

  "What's wrong? What's wrong with me?"

  The snake's butt emitted a sigh of a clever wife: "You say, the whole house is not wanted, but you're universal salvation! One throw and it's all gone!"

  The bean pancake nodded in agreement: "Uh-huh!"

  "Hmph! I'll lose my head if I lose, and I'll take off my pants if I lose!" said Mie Long.

  "Whose father are you?"

  The demon dragon laughed and said: "You are my old man, old man, help your son scratch his back."

  It was a bit too much, so I took the wet clothes and scrubbed him, while Miao Long shouted in comfort. It can't be denied that at first, there was a hint of revenge, but it quickly became entertainment - in the end, I really helped my son scrub his back as an old man.

  The local rain finally stopped. The soldiers who escorted us were sleeping outside the door.

  And most of us huddled together to keep warm in the dormitory. "Who has a fire?" Kang Yao asked sleepily, and lifted up a piece of wood that was dripping with water and waved it at him.

  I stood behind the temple, watching all this, while using a broken tile to scoop water and feed myself two sulfonamide tablets. I wrapped my clothes tightly, which were actually not warm at all, and looked at a collapsed short wall behind the temple.

  It is said that no further orders were received, so we lingered under the lotus flower head of the old heaven for the whole night. I have been in the army for four years and have retreated and reorganized more than a dozen times, but I have never seen such a hasty and rough reorganization. Without guns or food, even the assembly place was uncertain, and people were scattered and rushed towards a general direction. All this is not the victory we imagined.

  Hao Shouyi drew closer to me, his expression more troubled than mine, so much so that it was a little eerie.

  "Is your leg all right?" asked the old man.

  I gave him a glance, "Just say what you want to say, no need for anyone to ask."

  The old man hesitated and said: "I want to ask for leave to go back to the station and take a look. There are still eight seriously injured people there. Do you think they will agree?"

  Look at those sleepy guys in front of the temple gate. "What do you think? I think we can just add a rope and become strong men now."

  Hao Shouyi smiled wryly, "Can't you just give me some encouragement?"

  "What's the point of being angry? Look at that wall that has collapsed." I said with my arms crossed, pointing with my chin.

  Hao Shouyi understood what I meant and was startled, "That's desertion in the face of the enemy, a military crime."

  Yu Xiaoqiang finished and forgot about us. What law is this? 121 left and right, what's the law? With such a mess, you can't find the law, and the law can't find you." I looked at his hesitation and hit his weakness, "Or you Jehovah Buddha together to beg, beg someone with a good heart to bury your wounded soldiers, can give a name."

  The old man is really having a hard time now, as one of the civilians in military uniform among us, he has always been more obedient to the rules than we soldiers, "I'm afraid that as soon as I leave, you guys will also leave, I'm afraid of falling behind - who else do I know besides you?"

  "I'll go then," I said.

  The cow wasn't blown up, I got up, and the collapsed short wall was not an obstacle for me, a cripple, to step over. Hao Shouyi followed closely behind, but everyone was dozing off, no one paid attention to him.

  We have walked into the dry land that we have been craving for a night, and when I couldn't walk any further, the old man started to support me.

  The old man held onto my arm and said: "You know, when you're doing good deeds, you actually look quite pleasant to behold."

  "Stop bothering me. You don't even know what I'm doing." I shook off the old man's hand.

  The old man hesitated and looked at me without saying another word.

  "It's unnecessary to have guards and escorts, because we despise each other but depend on each other. The old man said who else do I know besides you? Of course, in this remote southern border, we outsiders are like blind men carrying cripples, dependent on each other. Dying in battle is better than starving to death, a group of people starving together is better than starving alone, fate has finally become equal."

  Zentan City is not far away, and we gaze at Zentan from afar.

  I and Hao veterinarian, you protect me, I protect you, lowering our heads and walking close to the street edge. Because Zhang Lixian also brought a team of reorganized soldiers who were clearly like us, passing by. The situation in the distance was obviously becoming more urgent, this team's pace was much more hurried than ours, while from the opposite alley, Li Bing led out a team that wasn't reorganized soldiers but original ones, they ran before the reorganized soldiers with earth-shaking momentum.

  The lazy Zen suddenly became filled with military significance.

  We saw the shelter from afar, and it seemed to be empty. The sentry at the gate was left with only one person. Yang Danzi stood at the entrance of the alley like me, took a few glances, then limped away in another direction with even less enthusiasm.

  I and Hao veterinarian chose to climb over the wall at the fork in the road, it took some effort to push Hao veterinarian onto the wall, then I glanced at the old man waiting on the wall and walked away with my hands clasped.

  Hao Shouyi was taken aback, "What? How did you...?"

  I said as I walked away: "I've already told you, don't you know what I'm going to do?"

  Hao Shouyi was sweating profusely on top, "Pull! You're fast..."

  "Good day, sir!" I salute a spot where the old man can't see.

  The old man was startled, and the finale was a loud thud on the other side of the wall. I listened for a while to the commotion over there, imagining an old man covering his waist and leaving with a grievance.

  I have no interest in the wounded soldier, I am destined to disappoint the old man. I must come back because Yu Xiaoqing said that when reorganizing the Sichuan Army Regiment, I felt possessed by a ghost, possessed by the dead brother of a little girl, and the deceased was also a lieutenant colonel of the Sichuan Army Regiment like me before his death. This feeling is very unpleasant.

  I hobbled through the alleys of Zenda, straining to recall the route I had taken. Often I had to search for remnants of something in the narrow corners of the alleys. A thief is unlikely to remember a maze-like alley he hastily escaped from three days ago, but this thief was clutching a bundle of flour noodles that kept dropping crumbs - I had read stories about following breadcrumbs home.

  I turned another corner, confirmed by a small patch of sweet potato powder, and as I rounded that corner, I was startled - a huge dog, the largest I had ever seen in my life, stood quietly there looking at me. A dog like this, at such close range, can only inspire a fear of being torn alive.

  That guy quickly determined that I was a non-threatening object, and his gaze became indifferent. He brushed past me - actually, I had almost stuck myself to the alley wall like paper - then disappeared into the alley with a dizzying high speed run.

  "Heaven and earth are blind! A dead dog becomes a soup!" I cursed with a lingering fear.

  Obviously it didn't change its cultivation, after comforting myself I continued searching for powder children.

  What is she doing? Tell her that Lieutenant Colonel Brother has gone to the other world? And then? I don't know. Haven't touched a woman for four years? I don't think this idea is particularly shameless, but does that mean I should risk military law to search for another woman who makes me happy? No. So I decided to be possessed by a ghost. I am not a firm atheist.

  Now my search is finally at an end, for in a corner of the alley I see several chickens pecking at food, and I can find no more noodles or earthworms or even ants.

  I stood there with my eyes wide open, staring at those chickens, and then it started raining, a thunderstorm, the chickens were running around frantically in the rain, the alleyway in front of me was quickly washed clean, a small stream was flowing rapidly along the edge of the alley, and my adventure journey ended here.

  I stood there calmly, relying on my family's profound learning to curse the heavens, "Die, sun, die, accumulated rain clouds, die, hot air currents, die, positive and negative charges, come down and smash me."

  They ignored me, I was just a fool drenched in the rainstorm. Then I saw the gate of our courtyard opened not far away from me. The first one to come out was our soft-bodied worm-like shelter stationmaster, with an umbrella held by another person covering his head. The umbrella holder came out, and the worm stationmaster completely disregarded the fact that the person holding the umbrella for him got soaked in the rainwater halfway, fumbling around the other's body uncomfortably for a moment without any emotion, just a male touching a female's body.

  So I quietly watched the worm crawl on Xiao Zui's body, who was completely unresistant, but this did not disturb Xiao Zui from closing the courtyard door and then using that umbrella to cover Zhang as he disappeared into the other end of the alley.

  So I quietly looked at a small wooden sign on the gate, and the sign had an eight trigrams drawn on it. I flipped it over to show only the wood grain side.

  There was a thief who stole something from someone and escaped in a hurry, but didn't notice the eight trigrams on the owner's door. When there are guests, it is flipped over to show its front side, and when there are no guests, it is flipped over to show its back side. In local customs, this represents an open secret: prostitution.

  I dragged myself away from here.