He has traveled this road countless times.
He had climbed that mountain countless times.
Many nearby villagers knew him, and they knew he was looking for his son as soon as they saw him coming. His constant questioning over the past five years annoyed many people, but some elderly people were moved by it. At the foot of the mountain there is a lonely old man named Fan, who eats and sleeps alone. He is over eighty years old, has no children, and only has a small shabby house. Every time Liang Zhe went, Lao Fan would prepare some food for Liang Zhe, and sometimes he would have a few glasses of wine with Liang Zhe. The most common thing Lao Fan said to Liang Zhe was: You will find your son. Lao Fan said so categorically that Liang Zhe's heart surged when he heard it.
Liang Zhe drove his wife from the underworld for four hours to the mountain.
He bought a shovel, a rope, sea salt, a bucket, a meter stick, spray paint, a flashlight, and a filter. He contacted a water transportation company and bought a box of water. The truck could only deliver the water halfway up the mountain. He hired several more The local villagers asked them to carry buckets of water to the top of the mountain and pour it into the spare water tank. It was already afternoon when everything was done.
The traces left by five years on the mountain are very slight. The small forest is still there. Due to the soil, no one has taken care of it and fertilized it. The trees have not grown much over the years and are not much taller than they were five years ago. The grove is about fifty meters in diameter. He tied ropes to two trees in the center of the grove and connected it to a filter with a mesh the size of a rice grain. He placed a square leather bucket under the filter. The bucket was filled with water and the filter The central area sinks into the water.
A simple gravel filter device is completed.
In five years, due to weather and human factors, the soil in the grove will not increase by more than 20 centimeters. Since the volume of most earrings is not smaller than a grain of rice, put the excavated soil into the filter first, screen out the debris smaller than the size of the grain of rice, and put the remaining things into another bucket soaked in salt water. The density of water can greatly reduce the workload by sieving out objects with a density different from that of stones and then manually screening them.
This is what the wife came up with, and the two made improvements after discussing it on the road.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Liang Zhe officially started his digging plan.
Taking the center of the grove as the center of the circle, he used a meter ruler and spray paint to draw thirty concentric circles in the grove, with a spacing of half a meter, and the digging depth was between ten and twenty centimeters.
When he dug out the first shovelful of soil, his anxiety suddenly disappeared. He dug half a circle in one breath, replaced the water, returned the soil to its original position, put the filtered debris into salt water, and continued digging. After one lap, he was exhausted. The irregular work and rest in the past five years had greatly weakened his physical fitness. But the dawn of hope slowly rose under the shovel. The excitement brought the limit of physical fitness. He only rested for a few days. Minutes later, they started digging again.
When a curious hiker came to check it out, he explained that he was digging soil for the woods.
Several young people camping wanted to help shovel, but he drove them away. He didn't trust anyone.
Before he knew it, the sun was setting and the night was closing. He had only dug three times. The farther out, the wider the scope and the more difficult it became. His wife sent a text to remind him: It’s dark and he can’t see clearly, so it’s easy to miss. Come back tomorrow.
He dug for another half an hour before he stopped. He poured out all the debris in the salt water and placed it on a black mat. He used a flashlight to illuminate it and lay on the ground. He inspected carefully and found nothing like earrings. He packed up the pile of sundries and waited for inspection tomorrow, then packed up the utensils and went down the mountain.
He went to Lao Fan's small shabby house.
The skinny old Fan, who had lost all his teeth, made a stir-fried cauliflower bacon for him. There was surprisingly much bacon.
"You will find your son." Old Fan looked at him with cloudy eyes and said as always.
Liang Zhe chewed the bacon, drank the wine in the glass, and nodded towards Lao Fan.
Liang Zhe slept in the car, which was parked in Lao Fan's yard. In the past five years, he had not slept as soundly as he did tonight. He slept until eight in the morning. When he woke up, his whole body ached and he looked out the window. The sun was shining brightly, and it felt like a world away. My wife sent a text: You talked a lot in your sleep last night and even laughed. What were you dreaming about?
Liang Zhe recalled his dream last night, and the smile spread on his face along with the sunshine: "I dreamed that we found our son. He is much taller than five years ago, almost 1.6 meters. I was holding him and talking hard."
After a long time, my wife sent a text: I will definitely do it.
Liang Zhe ate the breakfast prepared by Lao Fan for him, which was a bowl of millet porridge and two steamed buns. Before leaving, Lao Fan gave him three more steamed buns and a pack of pickles. He went up the mountain and continued his digging plan under the gaze of the fiery red sun.
After digging three times in the morning, he still found nothing. He was not discouraged. He had decided that even if he finished digging and found nothing, he would dig again until he found it.
During lunch, Liang Zhe leaned against the tree trunk and asked his wife: "Is there any difference between that side and this side?"
My wife sent a text: It’s like being abandoned by the world, no one can see me, I’m transparent.
Liang Zhe took a bite of the steamed bun and said, "Are you the only one over there?"
The wife sent a text: I have never met anyone else of the same kind, and I don’t know if others will be like this after they die.
Liang Zhe glanced around. In the past two days, he had been observing the surroundings and saw no suspicious persons. He knew that the transmission range of airdrop was very short and point-to-many. If someone played a prank, the other party could connect to his wife. He He was able to connect to the other party, but his airdrop contact was always empty. From this, he was even more convinced that it was his wife. He sighed and said: "I didn't expect that people would be like this after death."
My wife sent a text: Everyone thought that death was a relief, but in fact it was not. With the memories of life, watching the relatives around you sad because of your death, but unable to provide help, it was more painful and lonely than before death.
Liang Zhe thought for a while: "If you were given another chance, would you commit suicide again?
After a long time, the wife replied: Yes.
Liang Zhe kept stuffing steamed buns into his mouth, his eyes were slightly red.
His wife asked him: Do you blame me?
Liang Zhe smiled bitterly: "A little, but I can understand you. No matter what, our goal has not changed."
The wife sent a text: Yes, we all want to find our son, but I can’t hold on while he is alive.
Liang Zhe swallowed the steamed bun hard, his cheeks turned red from holding it in. He raised his head and looked directly at the sun. The dazzling light made his eyes glow with black light. He gritted his teeth, with a tough look on his tired face: "We must find it back." .”
Liang Zhe rested for half an hour and then started digging again.
When he dug the eighth circle, he broke out in sweat and felt dizzy. He sat in front of the filter, covered in muddy water, and put the sieved debris into the salt water with trembling hands, then replaced the salt water, and The things after secondary screening were spread out on the black cloth, lying on the ground, resting and checking at the same time.
When he saw the earring among the pile of debris, he couldn't help but let out a scream. His heart beat rapidly. He pressed his cheek against the black cloth, carefully twisted it out with two fingers, and rinsed it in salt water. Then he washed it away, wiped away the mud with his clothes, and held it up in the sun for observation. It was an amber earring, about the size of a pinky finger, light blue, with two letters on the pendant chain: LO. His hands were trembling and his whole body was trembling. He suddenly burst into laughter. His face turned red and he bent over. He laughed so hard that his heart ached and tears flowed from his eyes. He shouted to the sky: "I really found it, I really found it... did you see it, wife?"
My wife sent a text: I saw it!
Then, my wife sent another text: I seem to have seen this earring somewhere. Please look in my mobile phone album to see if anyone wore this kind of earring on my son’s seventh birthday.
Liang Zhe put the earrings away first, and then looked through his wife's mobile phone album. In the photo of his son's seventh birthday, he found the same earrings, which he put on He Ranran's ears, one on each ear.
Liang Zhe felt excited: "It's He Ranran!"
The wife sent a text: I remembered it. He Ranran said at that time that this was Pang Yi’s birthday gift to her. It cost a lot of money. She liked it very much. It was the first time she wore it that day, but why did it appear on Feng Yuan’s behalf? .
Liang Zhe clenched his fists: "No matter what, we found physical evidence, I'm going to find Feng Yuan right now!"
His wife sent a text: Looking for Feng Yuan would be easy to alert the snake. We need more evidence, so we should look for Pang Yi first.
Liang Zhe quickly packed up his utensils, drove all the way, and returned to the city as night fell.
When he walked into a cafe near the community, the dried mud on his clothes fell to the ground.
