Life in siheyuan era

A gust of cold wind blew, causing Zhou Zhiyuan, hanging on the ice cliff, to sway violently.

He gripped the handle of his ice axe tightly with his left hand, his crampons firmly planted in the thick ice, struggling to steady himself.

This ice cliff was located at an altitude of over 8,700 meters on Peak Z, with only a little over a hundred meters remaining to reach the summit.

He tried to steady himself, taking a light breath, and felt that there was not much oxygen left in his oxygen mask. He swung his ice axe again, and with a 'crack,' the axe bit into the steep ice wall. Grasping the handle, he continued to climb upwards.

As a squad leader of the Highland Special Operations Detachment, Zhou Zhiyuan was ordered to lead five soldiers to escort the Peak Z climbing team up the mountain from the north slope.

Having climbed to an altitude of over 8,500 meters, the climbing team of over fifty people had suffered heavy losses, with casualties and frostbite... his five comrades were also lying in the tents.

It was a little after five in the afternoon, and with four climbers continuing to ascend to the highest peak, Zhou Zhiyuan was to escort them to the summit, closely following the four climbers, inching upwards. In over four hours, they had only climbed two hundred meters.

With a hundred meters left to the summit, Zhou Zhiyuan rested, gripping the handle of his ice axe, and looked up. In the darkness, he could only make out four blurry figures.

He needed to catch up with them. He swung his ice axe, embedding it into the ice cliff, grasped the handle, and struggled upwards, gaining another foot in height, steadying himself and exhaling lightly.

But at that moment, he suddenly felt his crampons shift slightly, and a whirlwind spiraled up from beneath him, 'grabbing' him, wrapping around him and spinning him away, dropping him into an ice crevice.

In an instant, he was stuck in the ice crevice, unable to move. After struggling for a while, exhausted, he fell into a daze.

"I can't fall asleep..." Zhou Zhiyuan desperately reminded himself, knowing that the price of falling asleep would be becoming an ice sculpture.

At this moment, he needed to activate his brain cells, but the only thing he could think of was his parents and his older brother. Three kind faces rose in his mind: his loving father, his strict mother, and his affectionate brother, all hoping for him to return home.

He would be retiring in a month. Walking through the door, his mother would make him a large bowl of steaming noodles, topped with two poached eggs.

His mother would always tell him to eat a mouthful of noodles before eating the two poached eggs. Noodles were 1, and adding two poached eggs made it 100. Every morning on the day of his final exams, his mother would make him a large bowl of noodles with two poached eggs.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Zhiyuan retained his last shred of consciousness, "I can't fall asleep."

......

Zhou Zhiyuan officially retired. The new squad leader stood in front of him, firmly extending both hands, a pair of large eyes emitting a resolute gleam, telling him through those tiger eyes, "Old squad leader, rest assured."

He hesitated, looking at those firm eyes, then looking down at the rifle in front of his chest, reluctantly taking off the rifle, gently stroking it for a moment, finally gritting his teeth, and holding the rifle with both hands, handing it to the new squad leader.

Taking off his cap badge and collar insignia, Zhou Zhiyuan turned to look at his comrades who were seeing him off. They were reluctant to part, but he had to smile and wave to them.

But the moment he turned his head, tears streamed down his face. He raised his hand to wipe his eyes, opened the car door, and boarded the military truck transporting grain.

He left the plateau without looking back, heading straight to his home in SY, walking through the door covered in dust, and immediately saw the smiling faces of his parents and older brother.

His mother, Lin Shurong, gently placed a large bowl of steaming noodles on the kang table, not forgetting to instruct, "Eat a mouthful of noodles first, then eat the eggs."

He had never scored a hundred points on a test, but his mother never gave up on her expectations for him.

His father, Zhou Dehou, walked into the room carrying a plate of SC kimchi. The sour cowpeas and cucumbers were his favorite dishes.

His older brother, Zhou Zhining, sat to the side, teasing, "Eat slowly, I won't fight you for it."

He had returned home, was assigned to the office of the SY Machine Tool Factory, learned to write official documents and publicity reports, and started earning wages from 33 yuan.

Fifteen years later, with the Reform and Opening Up, the thirty-four-year-old became the director of the SY Machine Tool Factory office.

In the 1980s, he was transferred to work in a government department, serving as the section chief of a department.

At this time, his high school diploma was outdated. In his forties, he participated in the National Self-Study Examination, obtaining a junior college diploma in three years, but he had to face the severe reality of younger cadres being promoted.

Entering the new era of the twenty-first century, after finally working his way up to the position of a full section chief, he retired, taking home a monthly pension of over a thousand yuan to live out his retirement.

Reading books, taking walks, growing flowers, and practicing Tai Chi were his daily life. In the evening, he would watch TV. The TV series "Full House of Happiness" evoked his memories.

He liked the ending of the show, a group of old people living in a courtyard, taking care of each other, the lively atmosphere making him envious.

After watching the finale, he remembered something. His grandson, who worked in another city, had specifically called to tell him that the meteor shower tonight would be very beautiful.

He got up, walked to the window, opened the curtains, and looked at the night sky. Suddenly, a flash of silver light streaked past, like a sharp sword cutting through the sky, the night sky splitting apart, revealing a flash of cyan light.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Zhiyuan was slightly stunned, and then saw a ray of sunlight shine down.

"Sunlight?" He muttered in confusion, slowly opening his eyes, and suddenly saw a white light shining, quickly closing them. After a while, he slowly opened a slit, looking left and right, and found that cracks were appearing on both sides of the ice crevice.

He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, surprisingly finding that there was still oxygen in his oxygen mask.

Holding his breath, he struggled to move his arms, and with a 'pop' sound, one arm broke free from the confines of the ice crevice.

Breaking free from the ice crevice, he stood in the snow, looking at the vast expanse of white, and looked up to see only the blue sky.

The emptiness around him made him uneasy. Remembering the tornado, he hurried to slide down the mountain. With a 'crack,' the final strike of the ice axe stabilized his sliding body.

Looking left and right, he found that he had chosen the right direction. Those four figures were the four climbers.

The four climbers successfully reached the summit of Peak Z, planting the national flag on the world's highest peak for the first time.

......

"Zhiyuan, the expansion of the Capital Iron and Steel Plant has been completed, and a large number of skilled workers are needed. Dad has been selected, and your brother is a Grade One fitter, and he has also been hired."

"The whole family will move to the Capital to live. Your mother doesn't want to go. She is a tailor and has no use in an iron and steel plant, but the organization's arrangements must be obeyed......"

Looking at this family letter, Zhou Zhiyuan was puzzled. He hadn't retired, but his whole family was moving to the Capital?

Returning from Peak Z, Zhou Zhiyuan made a decision, not to follow the old path in his dream.

The Highland Self-Defense Counterattack War would break out in two years. Whether to fulfill his military duty or to win the final honor, he chose to stay and submitted an "Application for Extension of Service" to his superiors. It was approved that day, but he learned the news three months later.

He was puzzled, not knowing if the dream was true or false.

While he was pondering, a hearty voice came from his ear, "Zhiyuan, what are you thinking about?"

The new platoon leader, Shen Lanbo, walked over, took the letter and looked at it, smiling, "You are also from the Capital. If we have the chance, we can go home together."

Shen Lanbo was from the Capital, graduated from the NJ Military Academy, and came to the first platoon a month ago to serve as the platoon leader, while he was the first squad leader.

The two got along very well. Shen Lanbo liked to read books, and he also liked to read books. Shen Lanbo valued the training of combat skills, and he had been training desperately as early as two months ago, also motivating the entire squad.

He was preparing to participate in the Self-Defense Counterattack War, but he didn't want to sacrifice on the battlefield.

Returning from Peak Z, he found a way to calm his mind, and his combat skills quickly broke through.

He was a fighting king and a sharpshooter, both a squad leader and an instructor, leading the soldiers of the first squad to work hard to practice the skills to kill the enemy.

The training results of the first squad made Shen Lanbo happy, but he wanted to improve the combat effectiveness of the entire platoon even more. He folded the letter and put it in his upper pocket, and said in a deep voice, "The overall combat effectiveness of the third squad has not been improved. Let's go take a look."

But Zhou Zhiyuan didn't want to go. He was the first squad leader, reminding Shen Lanbo, "If I go to the third squad, it will make Li Wu resentful."

Li Wu was the third squad leader, extremely strong, and his wrestling skills were superb. He was the wrestling king of the entire army.

Zhou Zhiyuan couldn't beat him in wrestling, and he was often made dizzy by his throws.

In terms of fists and feet, Li Wu couldn't beat him, and he was often beaten black and blue.

The two hadn't been idle in the past two years, often dueling privately. Zhou Zhiyuan worked hard to practice wrestling, and Li Wu worked hard to practice fists and feet, but the result was still the same.

But the trip to Peak Z changed Zhou Zhiyuan, and the two actually wrestled to a draw.

So Li Wu concluded, "This guy got guidance from a master."

Everyone nodded in agreement, "This guy's change is indeed very big."

Zhou Zhiyuan was enlightened. He, who had always been straightforward, learned flexible and adaptable methods, and also became Shen Lanbo's good assistant. The platoon's large-scale military training was carried out vigorously, becoming a sharp knife platoon in the Highland Self-Defense Counterattack War.

They went from luring the enemy deep while fighting and retreating, to charging all the way out of the border during the counterattack, stopping only fifty miles away from the enemy's capital.

But in the final battle, Shen Lanbo was seriously injured, and Zhou Zhiyuan's right hand was crippled.