Adventures in Heaven (novel) Zhang Baotong

We walked along the rugged and steep cliff to a sunny stream at the bottom of the cliff, and we saw vines with thick green leaves leaning against the branches of the cliff and hanging a large patch. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info pointed to the fruit hidden in the leaves and shouted to me. I carefully turned the leaves of the vine and looked inside, and found that there was not much fruit left, and it was very high above the ground, so it was difficult to pick, because the vine grew on the edge of the cliff, and if I didn't do it well, I would fall into the deep stream of the cliff below. Now I know how difficult it is to find food in this pristine mountain forest.

Hi picked two larger fruits and gave me one. We sat down on the floor and ate with a savoury taste. I think it's simply the sweetest and most beautiful food I've ever tasted. I ate the fruit in a few bites, but my appetite seemed to be stimulated by a delicious taste, and I seemed to be even more hungry than before. I couldn't help but stand up and go pick a few more. However, I did not dare to reach out and pick it. I know that there is not much fruit left, and that I must use it sparingly and plannedly.

After eating the fruit, we looked at the fruit on the vine for a long time, and then began to get up and go back. We could have picked some more fruit to take home for lunch in the afternoon, but Hi didn't, and I think he was probably worried that once the fruit was plucked from the vine branches, it would be eaten by us very quickly. Since my stomach was still empty, I felt weak and dizzy when I walked back, and I wanted to lie down on the spot and take a big nap. To be honest, the scenery in the mountains is indeed beautiful, with a kind of deep and quiet that is far away, but for a hungry man, it is not as uplifting and exciting as a fruit. And it's not the hardest day yet, what will happen when there is no more fruit left? In this way, living in the desert and uninhabited primeval forests, looking for food is the most basic work and the most important way of survival in a day's life. Only when you walk in the endless mountains and forests and you can't find anything to satisfy your hunger all day long, you think of what an unforgivable sin it must be to casually dump large bowls of steamed buns and rice into the sewage tank of the cafeteria during your college years.

In this harsh living environment, food is the foundation of life, and all means are not considered cruel in order to ingest food. The truth in the forest couldn't be simpler, it's the jungle. Man seems to have reverted to the primitive instinct of animals: to live to eat, to live to eat. For a hungry person, those lofty spiritual ideas and human ideals are far less precious and tangible than a small piece of food. I have seen in Animal World the hungry wolf wailing sadly in the empty night, and the lion panting feebly in the scorching grass looking at the sand dunes in the distance. I think I can best understand the embarrassment and helplessness of survival now. The sun was shining brightly, but the hunger in the stomach increased the desire for food. It seems that every minute is a tenacious test of life.

Hungry, I felt my eyes pop out quickly, like an eagle looking for its prey, strifing around with agility and concentration. The fruit on that vine was almost finished, and every time it was picked, it was life-threatening. So, a great fear and worry is quietly coming towards us. What if we can't find a new source of food before we finish picking the last fruit?

We cannot rest our hopes of survival on what little fruit is left. We have to find a way to find new foods. After the rain that day, we picked a lot of big and fresh mushrooms in the forest. The next afternoon, we killed a very long poisonous snake on the hill. On the third day, we plugged up a small ditch, blocked the hole with a net made of tree branches, drained the water in it, and fished a large bunch of fish. However, such good things don't happen every day.

Whenever we got food, Hi would dance with me to make a fire and cook it in that crockpot. When the food was cooked, we shouted as if we were celebrating a major holiday, and then we slept to our heart's content. Most of the day, however, we sit in silence in each corner, looking sadly at the fading sun, not knowing where tomorrow's breakfast will be.

That day, Hi changed the medicine for my wound again, and then went up to a cliff and sat silently until it was dark. I think he must be worrying about tomorrow's food again. Indeed, as the weather and seasons change, food has become scarcer and harder to find. It is to be expected that it will not be long before we face a terrible hunger in which we will no longer be able to find food.

The next morning, he poured all the food we had left into a crockpot, and when it was cooked, he gave me one for breakfast and the other in a few large leaves. Then, he led me deep into the forest. The forest is getting deeper and deeper, and it seems that there will never be an end. Due to the high humidity in the forest, many towering giant trees have fallen down due to the decay of the wet tide, and lie in the forest horizontally. It's inconvenient to walk. I walked after him, but I didn't know where I was going. Finally, we came to a river that was tens of meters wide.

He asked me to help carry the trunks of two trees in the forest, which were not too big, but had fallen off because of decay, to the river, and tied the trunks firmly together with many thin branches, and put them in the water. Then he handed me the bag of food and a very long little trunk. I thought he was going to take me to the other side of the river in search of food, but I didn't want him to push the trees into the water, and the trees left the shore and drifted slowly into the river. I thought he would jump from the shore to the tree, but he didn't mean to jump up, but looked at me with a sad and confused expression, and pointed to me with his hand on the other side. I knew right away that he was saying goodbye to me.

I understood that he wanted me to live alone on the other side of the river, but why didn't he go with me? Maybe it's because there's not a lot of food on the other side of the river, so you can only enjoy it alone. I shook the tree a few times, then slowly gained my footing, and quickly took off the down suit and threw it at him. for all I can give him is this garment. He took the down jacket, put it on his body, and sat cross-legged on the ground by the river, watching me paddle slowly toward the other side.

When he reached the other side, when he turned back, he was no longer there. I stood by the river for a long time, hoping to catch one last glimpse of him, but the forest was silent, and the sun had risen overhead. I looked up to the sky with a sad sigh and walked deeper into the forest with the bag of food. As soon as I reached the top of a slope, I heard a roar of "Hey, Hi" from the other side of the river, and the tone seemed to be shouted hoarsely in a mournful voice, and people listened to it, and tears could not help but pour out of it. I want to say goodbye, I wonder if I will ever see this honest and kind benefactor and friend again.

(Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotion" documentary, short prose, life essays and short stories, and is uploading the life essay "The Good Times of the Old Days")