On the way back, Jiang Kuan and I took a brother from the border guards of Ali Prefecture to visit relatives.

That brother was originally from Xinjiang, and the old people in the family were all veterans of the Construction Corps back then, and they were also considered to be from a military family.

Tortured by the strong ultraviolet rays and bitter cold winds on the plateau for two years, the brother's face was almost a snakeskin's virtue, full of patches of cuticles.

And on the edge of the plateau, in a relatively closed environment for a long time, the brother doesn't like to talk much. Except for Jiang Kuan and I handing him cigarettes and water, he would nod lightly and say thank you, and he hardly talked much along the way.

Jiang Kuan and I didn't force that brother.

After checking the car, Jiang Kuan and I pulled the brother and said let's have a meal together, right?

You see, we are all sitting in the car and eating dry food all the way, and a bird has long faded out of our mouths. Why don't you even get some noodles in this place?

The brother nodded silently and followed us into the low house.

It was a standard mom-and-pop shop, and the man was a stocky man in his forties, dressed in a greasy, old-fashioned army uniform. A pair of eyes are all cloudy yellow, and there is no trace of the vitality that a man in the prime of life should have.

On the contrary, the woman, wearing a pure white coat that few people on the plateau are willing to wear, and a pair of slender hands flying, a large plate of Xinjiang's specialty ramen appeared in front of us, fragrant and hot, making people suddenly appetizing.

And the man said, do you want anything else? A few live chickens and a rabbit have just been delivered here, and the cabbage was delivered last week, and it is still fresh. And a couple of tomatoes......

Jiang Kuan and I saw the brother's eyes lit up when he took the bus home to visit his relatives.

How difficult it is to eat fresh vegetables on the plateau is something that brothers who have served as soldiers on the plateau can know.

A truckload of fresh vegetables is delivered up the mountain, and half of it can be ruined by bumps on the way. Coupled with the influence of the cold climate, many dishes have become disgusting black when unloaded.

But this kind of dish can also make the brothers of the border guards as treasures, carefully boiled the soup, and each person shared a small bowl and tasted it carefully.

After all, there is still a taste of plants in the soup, and there is also a taste of earth, and I feel that what I am eating in my mouth is the vegetables that I have been used to eating since I was a child, not the kind of dehydrated dried vegetables that are older than the military masters.

That dehydrated dried vegetable tastes like eating hay!

I said to the man, let's have a stir-fried cabbage and a cold tomato, right?

Don't ask the brothers to go down with two chopsticks, and you can only see the bottom of the plate.

The man nodded, then turned and went back to the kitchen. In a matter of minutes, a plate of cold tomatoes sprinkled with a splash of sugar was placed in front of us.

Jiang Kuan and I said to the brother, brother, hurry up and eat. We usually eat too much of this in the base at the bottom of the mountain, and this is specially prepared for you to eat more......

I don't know how to describe the way that brother picks up vegetables?

That brother just looked at me and Jiang Kuan so crampedly, and then looked at the hostess who was cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks in the corner of the house......

Then, like a gluttonous child who wants to steal candy but is afraid that the adults will find out and be reprimanded, he lightningly picks up a piece of tomato from his plate and stuffs it into his mouth, swallowing it almost without chewing.

Again and again, the brother repeated the strange action.

Although the owner of the restaurant was explained, the portion of the two plates of fresh vegetables was still very small, but it took a few minutes for the brother to eat it all. Jiang Kuan and I beckoned the owner of the hotel to come over and settle the bill, so that we could leave early and arrive at the halfway station before dark.

The boss walked over without waking up and said that a pot of ramen for 50 yuan, a plate of cold tomatoes is counted as 100, and then the fried cabbage is counted as 100, a total of 250 yuan.

I almost hit the man on the head with the plate on the table!

We're eating gold, huh?

A few tomatoes, a cabbage, and a pot of noodles cost two hundred and five?

That's not how a black store is opened, right?

Really take us as two hundred and five?

I guess I saw a lot of my face and eyes after hearing the price, and the man said don't think it's strange.

A box of sixty tomatoes pulls up the mountain, and it would be good to have ten intact ones left, and I can't count this cost.

A basket of cabbage pulled up the mountain, except for a fist-sized cabbage that could be eaten, the others became black, and I can't count this money.

And the coal and coke were bought at a high price from the driver's car, and you know the price.

It's not easy for me to make this little money......

I looked at the middle-aged man, and I couldn't say anything.

The people who can open a store in such barren mountains and mountains are almost all retired soldiers or family members of Taoist workers. If you are not in a hurry, no one is happy to live in this kind of place where you come to do business once a month.

After all, if you stay on this plateau, especially in the high mountains, you will never be able to repair the damage to your internal organs.

They are also trading their lives for a living......

Jiang Kuan and I took out the money from our bodies, and then Jiang Kuan and I glared at each other and said in unison I didn't bring much money, do you have it?

Originally, we just came out to carry out an escort mission, and the equipment on our bodies was neatly packed, but the RMB was only a cigarette money......

At this time, the brother who had not spoken suddenly said Boss, I have money here.

The brother pulled open his rucksack and pulled out a plastic bag, and pulled out the money from the inside and out one by one. It's all tied with rubber bands, small stacks and small stacks.

Jiang Kuan and I can see that it is the allowance of a border guard soldier.

They received a stipend on the plateau, but never had the opportunity to spend it.

Every month, when necessary personal belongings are retrieved from the supply truck, the secretary will naturally withhold the cost of shopping from the allowance.

Then, those allowances were thrown away in the personal belongings compartment of the brothers, like useless pieces of waste paper.

When we arrived at the bus station at the bottom of the mountain, the brother took money out of the plastic bag again to buy a ticket.

I still took out all the money at once, and very slowly selected a few bills and handed them to the window, and then stood outside the station and waited for the car to come out.

He didn't look at us or say thank you.

He kept his head down, not glancing at the world he hadn't seen for a long time.

He is like a poplar that grows alone in the Gobi.

Despite being strong, but forever lonely......