War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1505 Chance Encounter

"A-choo! A-choo! A-choo!"

When he returned to the roadside, Wei Ran sneezed three loudly in a row before he even opened the car door.

"Who's talking about me?"

Wei Ran opened the car door and got in while muttering to himself. He took out a tissue and blew his nose vigorously. Then he began to wonder whether he should stop by the address provided in the metal notebook.

The address is indeed on the way. It happens to be located on the only way from Songpan to here, and it is only half an hour's drive from here.

The difference between going and not going is simply whether or not you step on the brakes when you pass by there.

  Let's just find a place to have a meal.

Wei Ran found a sufficient reason for himself, and without caring about the SUV that was still left here, he turned the domestic pickup truck around and drove back.

However, he had only turned it on for more than 20 minutes, but he keenly noticed that even though he had turned the heater up high enough, his body still did not warm up, but instead felt a little cold.

  You won't catch a cold, will you?

Wei Ran muttered something secretly and increased the speed of the car again amid the sound of sneezes one after another.

After driving for about half an hour, and seeing that he would reach the town where Jinseben provided the address in ten minutes, he noticed that there was a man in a monk's robe waving at him from a distance on the side of the road.

Subconsciously glancing at the rearview mirror and seeing that there was no other car behind him, Wei Ran gently stepped on the brakes and stopped next to the two people waving at him on the side of the road.

It was not until this time that he noticed that this was a woman who looked to be in her fifties. She was wearing a robe that looked very warm, and there was a yellow urea woven bag and a pickaxe at her feet.

Behind her, in the muddy grass on the side of the road, there was a Delica van with a mainland license plate. This old car, which was probably even older than Wei Ran, had a particularly ostentatious slogan posted on its body: "Youth has no price. Travel around China in five years!"

Next to the van, there was a man also wearing a Tibetan robe. He was driving a half-grown yak calf, trying to pull the van out.

Even though he thought he had good driving skills, Wei Ran found it hard to imagine how skilled the owner of the van was to be able to stick the van upside down in the mud with the front wheels almost hanging in the air.

He even thought seriously for a moment before pushing open the car door, wondering if he would be able to replicate the accident scene if it were him.

"Even if that scumbag Ji Ma comes, he can't achieve such an achievement." Wei Ran made a firm judgment in his heart as he pushed open the car door.

"Comrade, can you help me? Can you use your car to pull their car out?"

Before Wei Ran had time to get out of the car, the woman in her fifties asked hurriedly using the Chinese word "comrade" followed by a long paragraph of Tibetan.

"Let me help you!"

Wei Ran did not try to respond in Tibetan. While speaking in Chinese, he ran to the front of the car, pulled out the hook of the winch, ran down the roadbed, and handed it to the uncle in the Tibetan robe who also looked to be in his fifties.

"Thank you for your willingness to help, little comrade!"

The uncle in Tibetan robe, with mud all over his hands and body, took the trailer hook and spoke enthusiastically in Chinese with a strong accent.

"No, Achoo! Achoo!"

Wei Ran finished sneezing and waved his hands, "Nothing, no need to thank me! Just hang it up here, and I'll start pulling!"

"it is good!"

After the uncle in the Tibetan robe finished speaking, he stepped into the mud that almost submerged half of his calf and hung the trailer hook on the front trailer hook of the van.

"Dude! Thank you!"

In the van, a young man who looked younger than Wei Ran spoke loudly with gratitude.

"You are welcome!"

Wei Ran waved in response, and then saw that the uncle actually took off his robe and hung it on the trailer cable.

"Put it on quickly, or you'll catch a cold!"

Wei Ran called out loudly, but the old man waved his hand nonchalantly, and after leading the calf away, he waved his hand to signal Wei Ran to start pulling back.

Not daring to waste time, Wei Ran took out the remote control of the winch, hid aside and pressed the switch.

As the winch increased its power, the wire rope gradually tightened. The young driver in the van stepped on the accelerator and began to operate the vehicle. However, the uncle and the aunt in Tibetan robe had already walked around to the rear of the vehicle and stood in the cold mud to help push the vehicle.

With the cooperation of the three parties, the van was finally pulled out of the mud. It was not until this time that Wei Ran noticed that there was only a wheel hub left of the left rear tire of the car.

  This driving skill is really good.

Wei Ran smacked his lips and continued to operate the winch, pulling the car back to the road with some difficulty.

Without waiting for the two cars to shut down, the uncle who had been thrown out and was covered in mud picked up the robe on the wire rope and put it on, while the aunt led the half-grown calf to the side of the road and was busy putting the two yellow urea woven bags on the calf's back.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

The young driver who came out of the van said gratefully, holding two cans of Red Bull and a stack of red bills as a thank you gift.

  As for his face

Wei Ran couldn't help but want to laugh. This man was definitely bruised and battered at this moment. There was even an arc-shaped steering wheel mark on his forehead, dried blood on his nostrils, and even his lips had a cut the size of a grain of wheat.

The uncle in the Tibetan robe waved his hand to refuse such a gift without thinking, and instead took the initiative to shake hands with Wei Ran, "Little comrade, thank you for stopping to help."

"Don't you know each other?"

Wei Ran asked while shaking hands with the uncle. At the end, he couldn't help but cover his mouth with his hands and sneezed again. He was now extremely sure that he did have a cold.

"My car skidded and then had a flat tire."

The bruised young driver stuffed the thank-you gift in his hand to Wei Ran and explained, "I ran off the road and almost hit the uncle's yak."

"You choke!"

Wei Ran sneezed again, pinched his nose and asked, "Are you okay? I see you ah-sneezed!"

"I'm fine"

The young driver smiled and said, "By the way, my name is Zhang Yang, and I'm traveling around China by car."

With a twitch of his lips, before Wei Ran could introduce himself, Zhang Yang clasped his hands together and said, "Brother, I'll send you off soon, could you give me a hand?

It's snowing, could you help me take this uncle and aunt and their cows to the town ahead?"

Before Wei Ran could agree or refuse, Zhang Yang added, "Take this money and use it for car washes and gas. If it's not enough."

"Need not"

Before Wei Ran could speak, the old man immediately said in Chinese with an accent, "This place is not far from the town. We can just walk back by ourselves."

"what would you do?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already stuffed the stack of red bills in his hand back into the other party's hand, and walked around to the rear of the truck to open the tailgate of the cargo box and asked, although the cargo box was loaded with a lot of things, it should be no problem to put down the yak calf.

"There are two spare tires on the roof of my car."

Zhang Yang pointed to the van behind him and said, "I'll just stop here and take a rest today. I'll change the spare tire and come back tomorrow."

Before he could finish his words, the uncle who had put on his monk's robe again had already stepped on the bumper and removed the spare tire from the roof. It seemed that he was ready to "send the Buddha to the west".

"Let's change the spare tire together. We don't know when the snow will stop falling here. It's too dangerous to camp here."

Wei Ran said as he walked to the uncle's side, "Uncle, what's your name?"

"My last name is Jiang"

While busying himself, the uncle gave Wei Ran an answer that he never expected, "That's my wife Yangjin. She can speak very few words of Chinese."

"Last name is Jiang?"

Wei Ran came back to his senses and immediately said, "Uncle Jiang, take Aunt Yangjin to my car to warm up. You are all wet. I will help you change the spare tire."

"No, we're fine." Uncle Jiang said honestly with a bright smile that Wei Ran found increasingly familiar, "Don't get your car dirty."

"Why don't you go to my car and warm up?" Zhang Yang said quickly, and opened the door of the van.

"Bang!"

As the car door opened, a stool and a long pillow with a two-dimensional wife printed on it fell out of the car.

It was not until this time that Wei Ran noticed that the van with curtains drawn inside was actually a bed truck.

Grinning awkwardly, Zhang Yang quickly said, "Actually, there is a place to sit inside. Really, really, there is a place to sit."

"You might as well find them two clean towels."

As Wei Ran was talking, he had already helped Uncle Jiang, whom he had met by chance, to take the spare tire off the roof of the car. As for whether the other party was the "Jiang Xiangyang" he was looking for, he believed that even if he was not, they must know each other.

"Oh, yes, yes!" Zhang Yang reacted immediately, leaned his upper body into the car and began to rummage through the drawers.

"At least let Aunt Yangjin go to my car to warm up."

  Wei Ran said to Uncle Jiang, "Anyway, I'm going to go to the town ahead to find a place to wash my car, so it doesn't matter if it gets dirty. And later

Ah sneeze! Ah sneeze!

I'm also going to the town ahead to eat later, so it's just on the way."

"This"

Uncle Jiang hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and explained in Tibetan to Aunt Yangjin who was comforting the yak.

"Let's get that calf on board as well," Wei Ran pointed at the cargo box, "There's room for it anyway."

"When we get to town, come to my house for dinner." Uncle Jiang made an invitation that could not be refused.

“I have a big appetite”

Wei Ran said this in a joking tone before Zhang Yang, who was holding two new bath towels with the same cartoon wife printed on them, was about to speak.

"No matter how big your appetite is, I will definitely make sure you kids are well fed!"

Uncle Jiang laughed and said, but waved his hand again and did not take the towel from Zhang Yang, "Put it away quickly, don't make it dirty."

“Just take it.”

Zhang Yang said as he put one of the big bath towels around Uncle Jiang's neck. "Just think of it as a Hada offering to you. I can do the job of changing the spare tire myself."

As he spoke, he placed the second bath towel around the neck of Aunt Yangjin, who looked a little embarrassed.

At Wei Ran's suggestion and insistence, the three of them first let Aunt Yangjin get into the passenger seat of the pickup truck, then lifted the calf onto the cargo bed of the pickup truck, and finally helped Zhang Yang replace the spare tire on his broken bread.

Without wasting too much time, the two cars drove towards the town, one in front and one behind, each with their hazard lights on. At Uncle Jiang's suggestion, they parked the cars at the gate of a small white-walled courtyard on the side of the road.

Through the courtyard wall, he could still see the square, beautiful two-story building inside, the colorful prayer flags slanted on the roof, and the five-star red flag fluttering in the wind and snow on the flagpole in the middle of the roof.

Looking at the gate right in front of the car, there is a wooden sign hanging on one side with two lines of large characters "Xiangyang Red Herb Purchasing Station" written in Chinese and Zang, as well as the words "Jiang Xiangyang" in the corner and a mobile phone number that is exactly the same as the one provided in the metal notebook.

"Uncle, are you also running a herbal medicine business?" Wei Ran asked curiously, pointing at the wooden sign.

"Yes! I also grow a lot of herbs myself."

Uncle Jiang and his wife Aunt Yangjin opened the car door at the same time as he was talking. "Get out of the car and come to my house. I'll treat you to a meal."

Looking down at the tattoo on the base of his left hand, Wei Ran even began to wonder whether his living ancestor had secretly contributed to this coincidence.

But whether it was a coincidence or a deliberate arrangement by the metal book, he had no reason to refuse such a rare opportunity.

Together with Zhang Yang, who pushed the door and got out of the car, he helped the couple get the half-grown calf off the cargo bed. At the warm invitation of Uncle Jiang and his wife, the two walked into the doorway with the words "Home of Gloriousness" nailed on the lintel.

Before he could even walk any further inside, Wei Ran smelled a unique yet extremely familiar scent.

Following the smell, he looked over there, and saw a lot of the herb called "Zhuna" that he had eaten before hanging on the horizontal wire under the iron shed against the wall of the yard.

On the shelves in the shed, there are many sacks that emit a medicinal aroma.

While he was staring at the herbs in a daze, Aunt Yangjin had already untied the two snakeskin bags she had brought in and poured out two more piles of "Zhu Na" from them.

"Uncle Jiang, what kind of herb is this?"

Wei Ran pointed at the herbs hanging on the wire and asked, then couldn't help sneezing again.

"The black ones are Qianghuo, and the white ones are Duhuo. Boil them together and it is very effective in treating colds."

Uncle Jiang said as he stretched out his hand and broke off two whiskers from each of the two herbs and handed them to Wei Ran and Zhang Yang. "Notopterygium wilfordii is bitter and spicy, while Angelica dahurica is sweet. They are the most abundant herbs here besides pine cones."

I took the two whiskers and tasted them. As expected, the black one was bitter, spicy and had a strong taste, while the white one was sweet.

After tasting the new food, Uncle Jiang warmly invited Wei Ran and the others to continue walking inside, while saying, "I see you've been sneezing all the time. I'll make you a bowl of Qianghuo soup later. I guarantee you won't sneeze after you drink it."

"So, it's called Notopterygium wilfordii."

Wei Ran sipped the unique taste lingering in his mouth. Even the fifty-year-old uncle in front of him seemed to gradually overlap with the young lama in his memory.

After walking into the gate of the two-story building, the first thing Wei Ran saw was the portrait of Chairman Mao. Under the portrait was an altar, on which were not only offerings but also a colorful small incense burner with cone-shaped Tibetan incense burning.

"Sit anywhere!"

Uncle Jiang warmly invited Wei Ran and the others to sit on the sofa covered with a beautiful blanket, and shouted, "Lhamo! Lhamo! Bring a pot of butter tea!"

"Why--!"

In another room on the first floor, a young and pleasant female voice responded loudly, asking questions in Zang language such as "Why did you come back so soon? I didn't even hear any sound."

A moment later, a girl who looked to be about twenty-four or twenty-five came out from the next room carrying a big red kettle.

The girl's braids were adorned with all kinds of beautiful Tibetan silver ornaments, and she was wearing a beautiful Tibetan robe. On her slender neck, she also had a sky blue noise-cancelling headset and a sparkling bullet shell pendant.

"These are the two guys I met on the road, Wei Ran and Zhang Yang."

Uncle Jiang took off his robe stained with mud and water while introducing, "They drove me and your mother back, otherwise we would have walked in the snow for a long time."

After briefly introducing Wei Ran and the other man, Uncle Jiang said, "This is my daughter, Ramu. Her Chinese name is Jiang Maomao. You can just call her Ramu."

"Hello"

Ram greeted Wei Ran and Zhang Yang gracefully, then poured each of them a large bowl of hot butter tea, and thanked them for bringing her parents back.

While Zhang Yang was explaining what had actually happened with a slight stutter, Wei Ran was also looking around the room filled with the aroma of Tibetan incense and butter tea.

There are several photo frames on the right side of the portrait of Chairman Mao. In the frames are selfies of the girl named Ram, who appears to be on a university campus and on the grassland, photos of her wearing a military uniform and holding a gun, and photos of her wearing a big red flower, which seem to be taken at the airport.

In addition to her, there is also a photo of another young man who is also wearing a military uniform and a big red flower on his chest, raising his hand to salute beside a boundary marker.

There is also an old man sitting in this living room, taking a family photo with Uncle Jiang and his wife, Ram, and the young man in military uniform.

On the left side of the portrait, most of the frames there are various awards and certificates won by "Jiang Maomao", and in the front are two third-class military medals and two certificates of "four-have" excellent soldiers. There is also a second-class military medal and three party membership cards placed together.

In addition to "Jiang Maomao", another name written on the corresponding certificates under the two third-class military medals is "Jiang Zhuangzhuang".

  So this is a female veteran?

While Wei Ran was in a daze, Aunt Yangjin also walked in from the side, holding a large plate of yak jerky in her hand.

  So, do they know what the little lama went through? If so, how much do they know? And can they recognize the photo in the medicine bottle of squad leader Liu?

Most importantly, are they still in touch with the descendants of Captain Liu?

Before Wei Ran, who was distracted, could find the answer, Uncle Jiang brought him a bowl of familiar, but definitely not pleasant-smelling Qianghuo herbal soup, as well as a large plate of milk candy.