After some renegotiation, the three decided to go back to their hometown to make money first, and then go to the mountainous area of Wang Yan's uncle's house. Now the three of them have no money or luggage, and the only package is Xiao Yao's schoolbag on his back, and he was going to come to the post office to withdraw money and load money.

In the big bag thrown in the hotel, in addition to three cold sheepskins, there are also some dry bread bought in Beijing and Tianjin* flowers that I have to endure the pain.

With no money to take the train and no idea where to go, the three decided to go back along the railroad where they came. In the evening when they were about to leave Hohhot, the three of them came to a knife-cut noodle restaurant by the railway.

The noodle shop is not big, it's just a small family-run noodle shop. There was a coal stove by the door in the corner of the house, and after asking the price, after learning that it was only one piece and two bowls, Xiao Yao clicked the money in his pocket, which was just enough for one bowl per person.

The master of the noodle shop is a bald middle-aged man, and after the three of them have decided to ask for it, he puts a clean white cloth on his head and puts the kneaded dough on top of the white cloth on his head.

Immediately, he picked up a knife in one hand, stood more than two meters away from the coal stove, and waved the knife in both hands at the dough on his head, and the shaved noodles, like snowflakes, curled and flew from the sides of his bald head and gathered into the open pot on the stove.

After shaving enough bowls, the bald head took off the dough on the top of his head, kneaded it a few more times to make it into a shape that was easy for him to cut with a knife, and put it on his head again.

His wife had already scooped up the first bowl of noodles that had been cooked, and shaved the noodles again with her bald head in front of the open pot, and the beautiful snowflakes flew again, which was wonderful. Xiao Yao, none of them went to eat first, and if it was three times, Xiao Yao and the three of them were dumbfounded.

Xiao Yao used long chopsticks to pick up the knife in the bowl and cut the noodles, which were wide and narrow, thick and thin, long and short. Almost all of them are exactly the same, impeccable.

"Masters, masters, real masters. ”

"yes, when I watched it, I was worried that he would shave his ears, it was too powerful. ”

While eating, the three of them kept praising each other. The boss only smiled honestly on the side, and modestly said that it was nothing, saying that this was his family's ancestor, and he relied on this craft to make a living. He also said that if they like to eat, they are welcome to come back often in the future.

"How much more?"

The owner of the noodle restaurant who said goodbye, as soon as he walked out of the small door of the noodle restaurant, Wang Yan asked impatiently.

"Six points, two two points, two one points, do you want it?"

Xiao Yao stretched out his hand and took out four silver coins, Wang Yan and Jin Ming were speechless, and they both sighed deeply. The three of them followed the railroad all the way south, and when it was dark, there was no one around, so they had to find a culvert, curl their bodies, and huddle together for the night.

In the middle of the night, they all woke up from freezing. But I didn't dare to walk around this night, so I had to warm up outside the culvert.

"Don't push too hard, it's almost good to warm up, you don't have anything to eat when you're hungry. ”

Xiao Yao saw that Wang Yan was practicing Black Tiger Boxing, and he was really afraid that he would overexert himself and speed up his hunger. Wang Yan was so little by Xiao Yao that he stopped moving, looked at Xiao Yao pitifully and said:

"We're just going to lie still and eat tomorrow, right?"

Hearing Wang Yan say this, Jin Ming also came around, waiting for Xiao Yao's answer.

"Don't count on me, if I had something to eat, I wouldn't have starved either of you. If I don't have anything to eat, I'll all starve. ”

On this first night of survival in the wild, the three of them tasted the cold of the north for the first time.

The sky gradually brightened, and the colorful morning glow reflected half of the sky. Once again, the three of them were awakened by the morning cold, opened their hazy sleepy eyes, and watched the sunlight shining into the culvert.

"Let's go, get up and walk for a while and it won't be cold. ”

The three of them endured hunger, did not wash their faces or brush their teeth, and walked briskly along the endless railway. There were no people, no passers-by, and on both sides of the almost desert railway, what greeted them was a bleak scene.

Everyone who lives wants to live with dignity and try to save their face. But these two things, in the face of hunger and cold, are often vulnerable.

How can the form of bending over and pouting the buttocks and hugging the shoulders for warmth win the respect of others, and where can there be a trace of majesty when the feet keep stomping on the ground and the trembling body.

Therefore, dignity is just a luxury in the eyes of the poor, and what the poor want is not dignity but food and clothing. Because dignity is only given by others, and people who can't afford food and clothing can't afford it.

When Jin Ming first found the leftover half of the fruit on the railway, he hesitated, and hunger forced him to reach out and pick it up, but for the sake of face, he stood aside and watched and didn't leave.

Xiao Yao and Wang Yan found him staring at the half-pulled fruit and didn't leave, and they both laughed at him for not being attracted to garbage. And two days later, they walked with all their eyes fixed on their feet, not sparing any food that everyone else had eaten and thrown from the train window.

In the past two days, except for the trains that whizzed past them from time to time, they did not encounter a single passerby or village, but fortunately, with the living road of picking up junk food, they did not starve to death.

The things you pick up will definitely be unpleasant to eat, and the so-called face has long been held in the back of your mind. In order to survive, the trio had no choice but to shout at the window and point to their mouths whenever a passenger train passed by, indicating that they were hungry and needed something to eat.

I don't know if others really heard or understood, maybe it was more of a coincidence, after they shouted, the train flashed by, sometimes throwing leftover bread or half-pulled fruit in front of them, anyway, they didn't pick up the whole untouched food.

"Hohhot's mutton shabu is really delicious, the fresh mutton, how can it be cut so thin, clamped with chopsticks, and it can be eaten in the hot pot, it is tender, fragrant and refreshing, and now if you can eat it again, it is worth dying." ”

Wang Yan, who ate the half-pulled apples and even the kernels, had a conjecture and recalled the meal of mutton shabu that he had just eaten in Hohhot.

"The roast duck in Beijing is also delicious, wrapped in Bo cakes, one bite at a time, it's so satisfying. ”

Wang Yan took the lead, and Jin Ming was not to be outdone. Picking up food just now, it was Wang Yan's turn to eat it, and the next one would be him, he swallowed his saliva while trying to find it on both sides of the railway.

After a few days, they have mastered the law, and between the two railroad tracks, there is only dung, and there is no food.

"Look, there's someone over there. ”

Xiao Yao exclaimed, pulling them back from their imagination to reality. The two followed Xiao Yao's fingers, at the end of the railway, deep into a cave, outside the cave, there were two people with guns on their backs, one on each side, on duty on both sides of the cave.

"Are you a soldier?

Wang Yan was puzzled when he saw it, why was he guarding a cave in such a deserted place?

"It doesn't matter if he stands guard or not, let's go and ask if they have anything to eat. ”

But after the three of them came forward to inquire, not only did they not have anything to eat, but they also did not let them go into the cave and continue along the railway.

Wang Yan and Jin Ming both explained for a long time, saying that he didn't know the way home when he left the railway, but the two soldiers standing guard just didn't let the three of them in.

If Xiao Yao hadn't been hungry for these days, his strength was almost exhausted, and he was afraid that they had guns, he really wanted to go up and knock them over to the ground and run into the hole.

Although it was difficult to communicate in the language, the three finally figured out that the reason why the soldiers did not let them enter the tunnel was because the tunnel was too narrow, and the strong air flow brought by the passing train would sweep the three of them under the car.

After a long day of explanation, a soldier left his post and pointed to a path up the hill and motioned for them to follow the path up the mountain.

Although the three of them were reluctant to leave the railway, a lifeline that could bring food, they were reluctant to do it now, and the soldiers were also for their safety, and their duty was to guard the tunnel entrance and prevent anyone from entering.

"Let's go up the mountain, and when we get to the mountain, we hear the sound of the train, and we'll go wherever we go. ”

During the negotiations with the soldiers, several passenger and freight trains came in and out, and they honked their horns before entering the tunnel. Xiao Yao thought that with this feature, they could also find where the railway was in the mountains.

When they went up the mountain, it was just cloudy, and the sky was full of thick dark clouds, and there was no ray of sunlight. They lost their way not long after they reached the mountain, and after a few more small hills, they could not even find the path they had just walked.

On the bare mountain, there is no grass, and there are large and small stones under your feet, and you will not see the road left by your predecessors. What Xiao Yao didn't expect was that the method he had thought of before going up the mountain would not work at all when he got to the mountain.

People who have not experienced it, relying on their own speculation and imagination, are often the source of tragedy. Xiao Yao's idea of listening to the train horn to identify the direction was correct, but that could only work within the scope of his original life.

When they came to the mountain, they heard the train whistle many times, but the echo in the mountain spread throughout the mountain, and some of the echoes were louder than the first song. Several times to find their way down, so that they completely lost their sense of direction.

What is even more tragic is that after they got lost, the sky that was already cloudy turned out to be drizzling, and at first they were very excited, because these days they have only picked up food, and have not drunk water once, and their lips are dry and cracked.

Anyway, there was nowhere to hide from the rain, so they all simply raised their heads and let the cool rain drip into their thirsty mouths. Although the light rain was not loud, after a long time, the three of them were also soaked.

The rain that fell on the mountains soon disappeared, and they did not have time to wait for the rain to enter their mouths, so they took off their soaked clothes and wrung water into their mouths.

"Let's go, we can't go on like this, this bare mountain, unobstructed, we have to find a shelter from the wind and rain, gonorrhea will be troublesome." ”

Looking at the dark clouds that were barely surging in the sky, Xiao Yao was very worried, it didn't matter if he was hungry and cold, but if anyone was sick, it would be a real annoyance.

"Where to go? There are barren mountains and mountains everywhere, and it's not the same everywhere? The mountains on the other side of my uncle's house are full of trees and weeds, and now is the growing season, so you can find a place to hide from the rain. Where this ghost doesn't lay eggs, even grass doesn't grow, it's too evil. ”

"Yes, we are just hungry, we can't find grass if we want to, and we can't gnaw on this stone if we want to eat it. ”

It was Jin Ming's turn to eat, but before they could find it, they were driven up the mountain, and he was the hungriest at this time. Although the two of them complained on their lips, they didn't stop at their feet. They didn't dare to stand still in the rain, and their cold bodies were reminding them that they should continue to climb the mountains and mountains aimlessly.