War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1501 Hail and Ice Cream

"let's go"

At the edge of the swamp, Li Zhuang bent down, picked up the rifle and water bottle that Zhang Erwa had thrown to him at the end, 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 a small piece of rag from the hem of his shirt and tied it to it, and then stuck it on the edge of the mud.

"You guys. You guys keep your distance and walk behind me."

As Li Zhuang spoke, he had already poked the wooden stick in his hand into the mud, looking for a safe path, and said, "Comrade Wei Ran, if I am also honored, you will be... I forgot that you are not from the kitchen team.

Comrade Wei Ran, if I also die gloriously, you will take the little lama and Nurse Ji out of the grassland alive. If you also die, Nurse Ji, you will take the little lama out of the grassland, he..."

Li Zhuang glanced at the little lama who was also in tears, "He is still an ordinary citizen, so...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 to salute in an extremely formal manner, as a sign of their commitment.

A second or two later, the little lama, who obviously didn't understand, also wiped his tears and raised his hand to salute, and the word "Shi!" also popped out of his mouth.

They smiled at each other with difficulty, and Li Zhuang also raised his hand to respond with a military salute. Then, while Wei Ran was using a carrying pole to hook back the bamboo basket that was about to sink, and while Nurse Ji was picking up the last bundle of firewood floating on the water, he bravely and firmly took the first step, the second step, and the third step.

"You walk behind me with the little lama"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he picked up the bamboo basket soaked in water again, and followed Li Zhuang with the help of a wooden stick.

Under the threat of death that could swallow them up at any time, the only four remaining people step by step left the small hill behind them, leaving squad leader Zhang Erwa who would stay there forever.

From morning to noon, and from noon to evening, everyone remained silent, but no one stopped. There was no place around where they could stop and rest, where they could leave the cold mud and rest their feet that had already been soaked and become wrinkled and numb.

"Nurse Ji, give everyone a piece of jerky."

Li Zhuang paused, "Then light the oil lamp, and keep walking until we can't walk anymore, or find a place to rest."

"it is good"

Nurse Ji, who was walking at the end, simply agreed, and Li Zhuang, who was walking in the front, finally stopped temporarily.

After a short wait, the little lama skillfully lit the oil lamp with a flint. The oil lamp was passed to Wei Ran along with two pieces of dried meat. He bit a piece of dried meat in his mouth and passed the oil lamp and the other piece of dried meat to Li Zhuang in front of him.

Under the dim oil lamp, he clearly saw that tears were still falling from the corners of Li Zhuang's eyes.

"Squad Leader Li Li"

Nurse Ji at the end of the line said, "Should I give you the whistle?"

"no need"

Li Zhuang took the oil lamp and the dried meat and answered 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 the cap on.

At the same time, Li Zhuang also passed a kettle to Wei Ran, "Take a sip, this is what Erwa left for you."

After a slight hesitation, Wei Ran, who had already finished drinking up the fish soup in his kettle, 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 put away the medicine bottle.

As the kettle was passed around, everyone took another step under the swaying light, moving forward with one deep step and one shallow step.

Gradually, stars lit up in the night sky, and you could even see the brilliant Milky Way without even looking up.

Although the night sky was beautiful, the people who were busy on their way had no time to appreciate it. In fact, they needed relatively brighter moonlight.

But the evil God just didn't fulfill their wish. Before they had walked for long, even the starry sky was covered by dark clouds, and a cold wind blew in their faces that made them shiver.

He used the wooden stick in his hand to raise the oil lamp a little higher. As far as he could see, neither Li Zhuang in the front nor the others behind him could see any place above the water suitable for camping. The brightness of the oil lamp was too low, and it did not focus at all, so he could not see very far.

"Take a few more steps before it rains!"

Li Zhuang made a decisive decision, "When the rain starts, we will stop!"

"it is good!"

Wei Ran and Nurse Ji responded to his decision one after another, and the little lama also parroted and shouted "No!"

However, this time, they had only walked for less than ten minutes when raindrops as big as beans began to fall, and the raindrops were particularly painful when they hit their bodies.

"Hail again!"

As Li Zhuang spoke, he had already hidden the oil lamp under his bamboo hat and shouted, "Right here! Hurry up and take out the oilcloth!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately put down the carrying pole and took out the oilcloth and unfolded it as quickly as possible.

In order to prevent the deadly hail, they first stacked three blankets on three bamboo baskets arranged in a triangular shape, pressed them down with shoulder poles and wooden sticks, and then covered them with oilcloth.

The only thing to be thankful for at this time was that the water in the meadow only submerged the ankles.

The bamboo hats worn by everyone became the last layer of protection and also served as support for the "tent".

In the narrow space between the three bamboo baskets, the young lama squatted in the middle, holding up the oil lamp. The other three people's hands were all tightly grasping the bamboo baskets and oilcloth.

Amid the terrifying banging sounds, hailstones as big as quail eggs fell from overhead, and soon a layer of freezing icicles formed around everyone.

Li Zhuang picked up a hailstone and put it in his mouth. While chewing it, it made a loud crunching sound and he said with a smile, "I heard from my instructor before that in big cities like Shanghai, they sell sweet ice cream in the summer. I guess the hailstones would taste like ice cream if they were dipped in sugar." "That's right!"

Nurse Ji, who used to be a daughter of a landlord, also picked up a hailstone and put it in her mouth, chewing it, "This is even better than ice cream!"

“It would be nice if I could speak Chinese.”

The little lama also muttered something in Zang language, and at the same time, he put his hand through the gap between Wei Ran and Li Zhuang, pointed at the hail outside, and shouted "Comrade".

“You can’t eat this.”

Nurse Ji spoke before Wei Ran and Li Zhuang, then she stepped on the oilcloth with her foot, opened the lunch box in her shoulder bag with one hand, took out two pieces of charcoal from it and handed them to the little lama.

“I don’t have diarrhea anymore”

The little lama muttered something in Zang language, but still took the charcoal, put it in his mouth and started chewing.

"Do you think we can have decent ice cream in the future?"

Li Zhuang looked at the hailstones falling outside and asked to himself, "I've never seen what ice cream looks like."

“I have eaten it”

Nurse Ji said, "It's so sweet that it tastes bitter, and it dyes my tongue the color of orange peel. But it's really comfortable to eat a piece of it during the dog days of summer. It would be such a wonderful life if people could eat ice cream during the dog days of summer in the future."

"If I can get out of this alive, I must buy a piece of ice cream to try."

Li Zhuang paused, and asked rather nervously, "Nurse Ji, is the ice cream expensive?"

"It's not expensive, but it's not cheap either." Nurse Ji said, "The ice cream I ate at that time was 20 cents a piece, and it was orange flavored."

"Two cents?!"

Li Zhuang exclaimed, "Wow! It's five cents more expensive than our daily food expenses."

"Can't"

Nurse Ji said, "There are more expensive ones. I heard from my father that in big cities like Shanghai, there are ice creams that cost 50 cents a piece."

“It’s terrible!”

Li Zhuang sighed as he looked at the hail outside, "If ordinary people can eat ice cream in the future, that would be a heavenly life. Comrade Wei Ran, what about you? Have you ever eaten ice cream?"

In response to Li Zhuang's question, Wei Ran also picked up a piece of hailstone and put it into his mouth, chewing it while answering, "I have eaten it. I have eaten many flavors."

"Is there orange flavor too?" Nurse Ji asked.

"Yes, more than that."

Wei Ran stared outside in a daze, and answered blankly, "There are orange flavors, yogurt flavors, cantaloupe flavors, strawberry flavors, chocolate flavors, vanilla flavors, and..."

"What is chocolate? What is vanilla?" Nurse Ji, who clearly came from a landlord family, asked blankly.

"What is Hami melon?" Li Zhuang asked a question that "lacked common sense even more."

“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."

"What about chocolate?"

“Chocolate is bitter”

"Is it the same as bitter melon?" Li Zhuang asked, "I don't like bitter melon."

"About the same," Wei Ran replied more and more helplessly, "It's not that bitter, but it is indeed bitter."

"What about vanilla? What does vanilla smell like?" Nurse Ji asked, and at the same time, she and Li Zhuang swallowed at the same time.

“Vanilla is”

Wei Ran swallowed the ice in his mouth, thought about it, and finally could only tell a lie that they could understand, "Actually, it tastes like osmanthus."

"That must be so fragrant," Nurse Ji couldn't help but mutter, "I love osmanthus. When I ate glutinous rice balls before, I always liked to sprinkle some osmanthus on them."

"Really?" Wei Ran was stunned. "Do you also like to sprinkle osmanthus flowers on the glutinous rice balls?"

"Is it the same in your place?" Nurse Ji asked back.

"I"

Wei Ran took a deep breath and said, "A friend of mine from Sichuan really likes to eat glutinous rice balls sprinkled with osmanthus flowers."

“I want to try cantaloupe, chocolate, and osmanthus flavored sorbet in the future.”

Li Zhuang muttered to himself, and then as if he had discovered a loophole, he asked suspiciously, "Wei Ran, where did you get so many ice creams? Didn't you say that it's inconvenient to get water where you are?"

“I used to move goods for capitalists who sold ice cream.”

A new lie came out of Wei Ran's mouth, "While he's not paying attention, you can eat whatever you want, right?"

As soon as he said this, Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji laughed in unison and asked him what other flavors of ice cream he had eaten, which one was the most delicious, and which one was the most expensive.

Only the little lama holding an oil lamp among them was muttering sadly in Zang language, "What happy things are you talking about? I wish I could speak Chinese."