??

  After a brief but important discussion, the three of us unanimously decided to temporarily keep the matter about this painting from Yuan Xiaobai after it gets out. The reason is that whoever sees such a thing cant help but have wild thoughts.

  After passing the fox statue, there is a staircase behind it. The stairs are narrow and steep, just enough for one person to pass through with their head bowed. The stairs spiral up and down, making us feel uneasy. Fortunately, Zhang Wenbin had the habit of carrying matches, which helped us in the dark cave.

  When I heard the sound of "gurgling" water flowing by my ear, I knew we had come out, but I didnt expect it to be here.

  A waterfall wall blocks our view, and we dont know how high the waterfall is or where we are now. The water flow outside is very rapid, and I cant even hold my hand out for a second. At this point, we actually have no choice.

  "Jump?" The fat man turned around and looked at us, his eyes burning with a fervent gaze that seemed to say he was ready to sacrifice himself for the revolution at any moment.

  "You jump, I jump."

  Behind the fat man, I was the second to rush out of that waterfall. At that moment when I fell into the water, I felt like my internal organs were going to shatter. The huge impact made my chest feel like it had been slammed by a concrete slab, and there was separation between my ribs and muscles. When I struggled to float up from the bottom of the water, for the first time, I felt that being alive is really good.

  The three of us crawled up the shore one after another like drowned dogs, the setting sun still had some warmth left, we gazed at the waterfall in front of us with a bitter smile and some helplessness.

  Everything has returned to the starting point, which is exactly where we entered the mountain to fight tigers that day. Here, our campsite. Looking at the towering waterfall and the scattered rocks in front of me, I have to say that life is really tough for each and every one of us.

  The descent was relatively smooth, this place is a forbidden land for all the wild people, but it was repeatedly visited by us three little rascals as if it were our own vegetable garden. As agreed, at the village entrance, Yuan Xiaobai hid in that riverside mill house, and the four of them reunited smoothly. By the fields, there were people returning home from work one after another, I saw Miao Lan and a young man from the village holding hands for a moment, her face was very red...

  "Farewell, fellow villagers!" The fatty hid in the window of the mill and waved his hand at the people far away.

  Cha Wenbin munched on the rations that Yuan Xiaobai had prepared for us, gazing at the ruins in the village. He looked at us and said, "Are you sure you want to leave?"

  "Come on! This place doesnt belong to us."

  Then he asked a sentence: "Where are we going?" This sentence made us four fall into silence again.

  Yes, in those years, once we escaped from the village, it was very likely that we would not have a place to stay for the next night. If someone in the village discovered our escape and reported it to the authorities, who knows what kind of label they would put on us?

  The fat man said: "Its better to go anywhere than here, dont you want to go home?"

  Who wouldnt want to? However, we are runaways without an introduction letter, so we cant stay in hotels, buy tickets or take buses, and at any time and place, there is a possibility of being caught. Here is the Northeast, thousands of miles away from my hometown Zhejiang, I dont know what kind of fate awaits us next.

  Lets go, this is the only choice without a choice. Three men and one woman, each with a cloth bag of personal belongings, and ten cold buns per person. In total, we had fifteen yuan left, three men took 3.5 yuan each, leaving the rest to Yuan Xiaobai, we just wanted to survive.

  It only took one night for us to reach the platform where Old Miao was waiting for us. We were on the run, and any rustling of leaves would startle our nerves. We knew that behind us, there were rows of militiamen holding hunting guns and muzzle-loaders, and several familiar hunting dogs were searching for us along the only mountain road leading in and out of the village.

  The railway, this is our only hope!

  It is said that there will be a train passing through this line every week, but its not certain which day. The main purpose of this train is to transport timber from the original forest in Northeast China out of the mountains, and occasionally also carry some passengers who need to travel. This station was built when the logging team was cutting down trees here years ago.

  One side of the platform was a ditch with water, which was about half a person deep this season. In the north, March and April were still quite cold, and when the wind blew, it made a loud noise, especially since there was ice on the edge of the ditch. The four of us huddled together to resist the chill and fear, and heaven may have been looking out for us, as half an hour later a train came "chugging" towards us.

  Its not just Old Hong of the Railway Guerrilla who can hijack trains, we can too. The green steam locomotive is running on a curved track, and I seem to see those pursuers coming out in the distance.

  I gazed out of the window at the grass that had already started to turn green, closed my eyes and silently muttered to myself: "Goodbye, its really goodbye."

  The train has passed Shanhai Pass, which means we have left the Northeast. In the past, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty were killed from here to the Forbidden City, and we also chose to get off at this point. As we move forward, there will be more checkpoints, and our chances of being exposed will increase.

  Fatso said he was going back to his hometown in Sichuan, no matter what, thats always home. I and Cha Wenbin would definitely go back to Zhejiang. Xiao Bai chose to head south with us, she is from Shanghai. The four of us went to a photo studio, took some pictures, and left our addresses so the owner could mail them out, it was also a chance encounter. With the remaining money, Fatso went to the black market again to exchange for some grain coupons, found a small noodle shop. This is the first time I drank alcohol in my life, white wine, very strong, I dont know if the water in my eyes were tears of separation or bitter from being choked up.

  Before leaving, Cha Wenbin repeatedly warned him that if he encountered anything, he must not be impulsive. The fat man bid farewell and grabbed a train bound for Shaanxi, which was a coal truck. He crawled into the coal heap.

  There were many cars heading south, especially to Shanghai. We had to take a freight train because we were undocumented migrants. After dark, the three of us and a cat squeezed into a cargo container filled with wood, no one said another word, everyone was uncertain about where they would end up.

  All along the way, there were slogans of the Cultural Revolution everywhere, and red guards could be seen waving colorful flags in their hands. This year was the last madness of the Cultural Revolution, and it was also the peak they were about to reach.

  For Yuan Xiaobai in Shanghai, we were powerless. Getting off the bus was another farewell. Before leaving, I thought about it several times, but still didnt give her that gift. Perhaps this goodbye is forever, keeping it as a memory. The prosperity here has nothing to do with us, Cha Wenbin and I belong to western Zhejiang. Here, we gave all our money to Yuan Xiaobai, this is the city, wanting to live is much harder than in rural areas.

  From the mouth of Huangpu River, we transported goods for a man for free for five days. The condition was that he would go upstream along the river when he returned because I knew my hometown was at the source of this Huangpu River: Xitiao Creek.

  Leaving my hometown for half a year, its right in front of me, but Cha Wenbin and I are like thieves. Home is just a stones throw away, but no one dares to return, those people with red armbands must have received the telegram long ago. Night has fallen, from afar, I sneak a peek, the door is closed, with a seal on it. Cha Wenbin and I agreed to go to Lion Mountain, which is the highest peak in all of western Zhejiang, after liberation, it was once a collective forest farm, there are houses, water, only these years have long been abandoned.

  The days living on Lion Mountain are monotonous, from the top of the mountain here, you can see the entire Hongcun village far away, which familys chimney is smoking, which woman is beating her child again, and which day the villagers are watching movies together. Every day, we just guard, guarding our own "home" to see if there are any signs of human presence.

  Like this, we dont know whats happening in the outside world and when the two of us will be hiding. Fortunately, there is no shortage of food in this forest, wild vegetables, game, and I also planted some corn myself. After all, I have been to the countryside to study, so I can take care of myself and live a comfortable life.

  I remember it was a day in July, the daytime clouds were mixed with a bit of black, and upon closer inspection, there was even a hint of red. The clouds were wavy and covered the entire sky. At night, the sky was again full of stars. During the day, when Wenbin was cooling off in front of the broken house, he said that todays weather seemed a bit off. This guy would always look at the stars whenever it was cloudless. Anyway, he was really boring, and I could only play with myself.

  That night was exceptionally sultry, I couldnt sleep no matter how hard I tried in the house, so I took a palm-leaf fan and leaned against the big stone by his side to take a nap.

  I was sleeping drowsily and didnt know what time it was, when he suddenly came over and pushed me awake from my dream, and said to me in a sudden burst: "Xiao Yi, something might be up."

  Just as I was about to fall asleep, I was sleeping soundly and responded vaguely: "Hey, dont worry in this old forest, the Red Guards wont come up."

  "Not you, get up and look." He pulled me up from the stone and dragged me to an open space facing the sky, saying: "Look at that, do you see? That star is the Zhongtian Ziwu Beiji Emperor, recently there are faint signs of dimness."

  In my eyes, the stars in the sky are all the same, whats the difference: "So many stars, how do I know which one, isnt everyone just like you, a little rascal since childhood."

  "Look! That one, the reddish-colored one, its surroundings... you see, its the one that has a shooting star streaking across it." As he spoke, a shooting star happened to streak across the sky in the northern part of the horizon, which allowed me to see it too.

  "Meteor shower, whats the big deal? Its a common thing in summer."

  "I counted it again, this is already the eighth one, each of them has gone through the same trajectory. I always feel like something big is going to happen tonight."

  "I said to Cha Ye, its already this late, I reckon itll be dawn soon, youre not sleeping but I want to sleep, take your time counting, Im leaving." I went back to that big rock again and fell asleep in a short while.

  That night was indeed ominous, originally in the woods during summer nights mosquitoes were everywhere, but I slept naked outside and didnt see a single mosquito. Also, that night the woods were unusually lively, all the birds from dusk till dawn didnt perch on trees, they just circled in the air all night. The mice that usually hide when seeing people were also unusually many, I killed seven in the kitchen alone, the dogs in the village below barked non-stop all night.