The three of them walked down the road.
Footprints were left on the soft red mud road.
The village was now deserted, with no one in sight.
Only children in plain clothes chased and played there.
Lin Hui and the others walked along the gravel road, and there was a rustling sound on the ground.
I walked across a small bridge paved with bluestones. I don’t know how many years it had been built and how many years it had gone through.
Moss had accumulated on the handrails.
The water gurgled under the bridge.
After crossing this bridge, the core area of the village lies ahead.
Lin Hui looked around and saw a small road on the left and right in front of him.
These houses are built one after another along the road leading into the mountains.
Most of these houses are made of accumulated stones and bricks, which are very local, but there are also some shadows of rural bungalows.
There are cement telephone poles two to three meters high on the roadside.
There are old wires hanging on it.
Seeing the slogans on the wall promoting family planning and prohibiting logging, the three of them all looked at each other and smiled.
Wang Yong touched his chin: "It's even more backward than my home. It's really in the mountains."
Chen Erhu shook his head: "I think the scenery here is pretty good, even better than ours. It would be great to live here."
Wang Yong rolled his eyes: "What a hammer! Look, it's nothing, not even a cement road."
He pointed around: "Look at every house, let alone the big pot, there is not even an old-fashioned antenna. At least we have a black and white TV at home."
"There are probably many families here who don't have many electrical appliances at home."
Lin Hui waved his hand: "Okay, stop talking nonsense, first find where the old squad leader's home is."
The three of them continued walking and happened to see an old woman washing clothes by the river.
The water in the river was clear, and the old woman was beating her clothes with a wooden stick.
Lin Hui took a deep breath, and his nose was filled with the fresh smell of river water.
He hurriedly walked over and said hello: "Old lady, do you know where Xu Da's family lives?"
"ah?"
The old woman chattered a lot, but no one understood her.
The three of them were filled with questions. Chen Erhu asked: "What did she say?"
Lin Hui: "It seems to be a dialect."
Wang Yong looked confident: "I'll tell her!"
He walked over with a smile and gestured at the old lady from top to bottom. The old lady was stunned.
"Get out of here!" Lin Hui pulled him aside: "Are you treating me as a deaf-mute? What kind of gestures are you making? Even I can't understand them, but they can understand them?"
"I come!"
The two of them looked at him seriously as he walked over. Lin Hui asked with a smile on his face: "Old lailai, we...we...the Si army is ganhUO..."
The two idiots were speechless: "Brother Hui, are you not as good as us?"
Lin Hui's mouth twitched and he noticed that the old lady was looking at him like she was an idiot.
He sighed helplessly: "Forget it, give up. I don't understand the language. Let's find a young man to ask."
Just in time to see a group of children running towards each other chasing each other, he quickly waved and shouted: "Little friends."
But the children just looked at them sideways, ignored them at all, and continued to play with themselves.
The three people immediately went up and surrounded them. A group of children looked at him in horror.
Wang Yong chuckled and said, "Little friend, don't be afraid."
The children all blinked and stared at them, as if they didn't understand.
Lin Hui frowned slightly: "Don't you understand either?"
Chen Erhu scratched his head: "Don't even the locals learn Mandarin?"
Wang Yong nodded and analyzed: "It is possible that these children have never been out of the mountains and have never been to school. It is normal for them not to know Mandarin."
Lin Hui looked at them with some sympathy: "Children in the mountains are really suffering. They don't even have the opportunity to go to school. Our country has too many areas to improve."
The two nodded: "Brother Hui, what should we do now? We can't teach them Mandarin on the spot, right?"
Lin Hui shook his head: "Forget it, we can only go door to door and ask. People here can't understand us, and we can't understand them."
Just as the two idiots were about to leave, Lin Hui shouted: "Wait a minute."
He took out a pack of chocolates from his bag: "These children are very pitiful. They may not have eaten these things. Let's share them with them. It's considered..."
"Chocolate!" a child suddenly exclaimed.
The other children immediately came over, excited and anxious: "It's Dove again! There's also white chocolate, this is delicious!"
Lin Hui and the other three were instantly dumbfounded.
Looking at them blankly: "Can you speak Mandarin?"
"Nonsense!" a child said angrily: "Are you fools? What age are you in, and there are still people who can't speak Mandarin?"
"Besides, we have a primary school here and we also study!"
The three of you have black hair on your head. You can speak Mandarin. Why didn’t you say it earlier!
Seeing a group of children looking expectantly at the chocolate in his hand.
Lin Hui's eyes twitched and he waved something in front of their eyes: "As long as you tell me where Xu Da's family is, I'll give these to you."
"Are you his enemies?" a child asked warily.
Lin Hui was speechless: "Look at my clothes, do I look like an enemy? We are comrades-in-arms."
A group of children blinked and looked at the three of them: "Are they really his comrades? Aren't they here to cause trouble for him?"
Lin Hui and the other three looked at each other and smiled bitterly. It seemed that they had mistakenly blamed these children.
The reason why they didn't speak was to protect Xu Da.
This kind of vigilance is the same as that of a little soldier during a war.
It is much better than those children in the city who grew up in honey pots and had no vigilance at all.
Lin Hui took out his ID, and the two idiots also hurriedly took out their ID: "Kids, take a good look, we are all serious soldiers."
"We came to see him because we were on vacation."
Several children stared at it, taking a closer look.
The leading child smiled and said: "Uncle, I'm sorry, we rarely have outsiders here. Xu Da's family is over there. However, Brother Xu is not at home now and has gone to work in the fields."
Another child pointed in one direction and said, "The field is over there. You have to climb over the hill in front of it, and it's behind the mountain."
Lin Hui smiled and said thank you, and then gave the chocolates to them.
The children didn't take it at all, and ran away with a smile: "Thank you, uncle, we have eaten the chocolate, you can keep it for yourself."
In the blink of an eye, a group of children ran away laughing.
"Little bastard." Wang Yong said with a smile.
Lin Hui looked at the backs of these children and sighed.
Children in the mountains are simple and honest. They don't take advantage of others or take other people's things.
Their kind hearts are the most precious thing in this mountain, and they are much cleaner than most adults.
"Let's go to the fields to find the old squad leader."
"okay."
The three of them climbed over the mountain in front of them in the direction just pointed out.
Go all the way to the back of the village and climb over a hill.
Soon I saw a large area of terraced fields at the foot of a mountain.
There are people working in every field.
Chen Erhu suddenly realized: "No wonder I didn't see anyone in the village just now, why are they all busy here?"
Lin Hui nodded: "This is the south. It's different from ours. They can plant three crops a year. Now is the harvest time, so they must be busy."
Everyone nodded and walked all the way down.
After walking for a while, everyone was stunned.
It's not easy to find Xu Da at once.
Almost all those working in the fields were wearing military uniforms.
But saying it is a military uniform is somewhat inaccurate.
Because some people are wearing physical training clothes, some are wearing summer clothes, and some are wearing autumn clothes.
In short, at a glance, there is green everywhere.
Lin Hui smiled slightly: "I finally understand why the old squad leader brought so many old clothes back in big and small bags when he left. Is it because he wanted to give a set to the villagers?"
Wang Yong and Er Hu looked at each other, somewhat ashamed.
They just want to go back and show off with military medals all over their bodies.
The other is to take the old military uniform back to show off to his father.
But Xu Da took the old clothes back to the hometown where he was born and raised, thinking of giving something back to his father and fellow villagers.
Although they are old clothes that no one wants, for the people in the mountains, they are precious thoughts and the most practical things.
Compared with Xu Da, their realm is really far behind.
"Three comrades." An old man walked over with a cow and asked with a smile: "Are you here to see Xu Da?"
The three of them nodded together, and Lin Hui asked: "Uncle, do you know where Xu Da is?"
"Here, look." The uncle said, "Isn't he the busiest person in the field?"
The three of them turned to look over together.
Sure enough, I saw a figure in a terraced field, busy quickly.
The movements are much faster than other busy people.
The old man chuckled and said, "Dazi is so kind. Not only did he give us a lot of things when he came back, but he also helped with all the farm work in the village."
"If there are only old people in the house and no young and middle-aged people, he will do all the work."
"Your army is really good at cultivating talents."
The old man laughed and led the cow away.
The three of them turned their heads to look at the hard-working figure in the distance, facing the loess with their backs to the sky, and their eyes were inexplicably moist.
Xu Da had a hard enough time in the army.
He has a straighter mind and is older, so his physical fitness is worse than others.
To get to where he is today, he has worked harder than anyone else.
He was originally supposed to go home and rest during the holiday, but he didn't expect that he would still be so busy after he came back.
This labor intensity is no worse than training in the army.
The three of them looked at each other, then took a deep breath and ran towards him together: "Old monitor!"
