◎Chapter 20 The Covenant of Life and Death

The two single beds in the room were merged, two pairs of slippers were placed in front of the bed, two tea jars were placed on the cabinet, two toothbrushes were placed in the tea jars, two equally broken desks against the wall, two chairs, two towels hung from the wire in the corner, and two cabinets next to it...... Everything comes in pairs, everything is the same, the same old, the same rags.

On the wall are black-and-white photos of two people when they were soldiers, yellowed, one is Teacher Qin and the other is Teacher Tao.

Out of a woman's intuition, a sensitivity to love, Su Mei realized that there were two men who had lived in this shabby house for twenty years.

Professor Liang: "Where is Mr. Tao, he didn't leave, did he?" ”

Bao beheaded: "You didn't kill anyone, and you shouldn't shield him." ”

Draw Dragon: "Tell us, it's not an interrogation now, just to talk to you." ”

Su Mei: "You are ...... Homosexual? ”

Teacher Qin lowered his head, and silence was also an answer.

He held back tears of mixed emotions and closed his eyes, as if he had returned to the old days.

He saw a small village, and a few children were knocking on the iron bucket under the willow tree at the entrance of the village, and the children asked him: Brother Qin Tian, where are you going?

Teacher Qin's name is Qin Tian, he wears a big red flower on his chest, and replied: Be a soldier and defend your family and country.

That year, at the age of eighteen, he joined the army, which coincided with the "self-defense counterattack against Vietnam", and he was reorganized from the army unit to the airborne division. During the Battle of the Two Mountains from 1984 to 1989, Qin Tian experienced more than 100 battles of all sizes, and witnessed countless comrades-in-arms spilling their blood on the frontline land. That land must be full of wild flowers now, and the merciful Mother Earth will always embrace her children.

In 1986, he ate steamed buns in a rainstorm.

In 1987, he nibbled on steamed buns in a strong wind.

In 1988, one man left him with the only remaining buns and steamed buns.

Every airborne soldier has heard the saying: paratroopers are born surrounded!

He wanted to jump into a large field of rape flowers, but when he first landed on the enemy's position, the winter night had already come, and he was at an altitude of 2,000 meters, the north wind was blowing one by one, and the barbed wire of the enemy's position was shining with a cold light, and everything pointed and upward was greeting him.

At that time, a flock of sparrows flew under his feet!

In the "self-defense and counterattack war against Vietnam," the air force rarely participated in the war, and only conducted a few actual battles of the airborne troops in the later stages of the war in order to gain military experience. It was Qin Tian's first time to parachute at night, and the improvised paratroopers would shout to each other as they jumped down through the darkness, and he heard a name: Tao Yuanliang. When the parachute light came on, he jumped and jumped into the darkness with a whistling voice, perhaps a kind of providence, and he was entangled with the paratrooper named Tao Yuanliang.

The intertwining of the two parachutes is a very dangerous aerial special situation in parachuting, and if measures are not taken in time, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Tao Yuanliang gestured and shouted: "You are inserted in my umbrella, you fly first, leave me alone." ”

Qin Tian pulled the handle of the parachute, the main umbrella was instantly detached, and then forcefully pulled the spare umbrella on his chest.

At this time, the height was less than five hundred meters, Qin Tian was very worried about whether Tao Yuanliang could land safely, fortunately Tao Yuanliang also flew off the main umbrella at the last moment and opened the backup umbrella.

However, as soon as they landed, the two of them were surrounded by enemies. The task at that time was to destroy the enemy's transportation hubs and communication facilities, so they were only equipped with light weapons, Qin Tian was wounded, and they were chased by the enemy into the ruins of a village and took refuge in a gasoline barrel for three days.

Qin Tian and Tao Yuanliang knew the cruelty of war, and if they were captured alive by the enemy, they would be made into scarecrows and planted on the border line.

After eating the only food they have, it is an exaggeration to say that the two of them can only survive on the mushrooms that grow out of their hair.

During the three days of life and death, because of the small space in the gasoline barrel, the two people had to spend it in a posture of hugging each other.

A forbidden love has long been destined in the dark.

We have no way of knowing what the two of them thought and said during those three days, if it is not a blasphemy of love, it should be said that they fell in love with each other, and they did not even know it.

Three days later, Tao Yuanliang risked his life to cross the line of fire and carry Qin Tian, who was dying of injury and hunger, back to his own hospital.

Three years later, the two had been discharged from the army, Qin Tian returned to his hometown to become a volunteer teacher, Tao Yuanliang opened a motorcycle repair shop, and they were separated from each other and wrote many, many letters.

How many years does it take to open a door between two men?

In those letters, what subtle euphemisms were there, and what thrilling contents were there?

How many clouds do you need to penetrate with one hand and how much courage does it take to hold the other?

Some people in other places give, and chrysanthemums in other places are yellow.

Neither of them married, and one day, the students suddenly found out that Mr. Qin was wearing linen and filial piety for no reason, and no one knew the reason - Tao Yuanliang's parents died in a car accident. After a few days, the students had an additional teacher: Mr. Tao.

The two men moved into this somewhat broken room, mending the cracks and holes, and from then on, it was twenty years.

Teacher Qin and Teacher Tao planted peaches together, weeded together, ate together, and walked in the mountains together.

This is a mountain village where peach blossoms are in full bloom.

This is a drizzly mountain village.

This is a mountain village where chrysanthemums are in full bloom.

This is a mountain village covered with snow.

It's their hideaway. As if overnight, the spring breeze polished the emerald green of the mountain, and the two people guarded the peace of their hearts, their happiness was like the faint light gathered by fireflies in the wilderness, and no one knew about the wind and rain. Yellow flowers are swaying everywhere, purple flowers are all over the mountains, red flowers are undulating with the hills, flowing water-like life, quietly watching the flowers bloom and fall.

In spring, the peach blossoms are abundant, and the small boats on the shore are also piled with petals, and they carry a boat of petals to fish in the middle of the lake.

In summer, the lake is a beautiful jade with a quiet green color, and the water lilies walk on the surface of the lake.

In autumn, wild pigeons fly over the chrysanthemums, clinging to the blue sky, and flying towards the clouds, and they go to the market below the mountain to sell peaches.

In winter, they build snowmen with their students and lead their dogs to catch hares in the birch forests of the mountains.

How many years have passed, the peach blossoms bloom every year, and the demolition forces them to choose between cruelty and cruelty. There was no sadness, no wind, and the wildflowers were silent in the quiet grass. Vietnam veterans are more resistant than the villagers, and Mr. Tao cannot tolerate the destruction of their homes. The weak Teacher Qin thought of suicide, and he even prepared the last supper, and his suggestion was: after eating, hang yourself together.

Mr. Tao chose a desperate approach, and the two quarreled for the first time in their lives, and in the end, Mr. Qin compromised. Mr. Tao made a plan to kill, he disguised himself as a pretense of going home, and also thought of using the flute and the sound of the flute to exchange messages, and anyone who has been a soldier knows how to convey a message of safety or danger in a simple way.

Teacher Qin said: "I will play the flute for you every day, if I don't play it one day, it means that I have been arrested, but I will not say anything." ”

Teacher Tao said, "I'm going to kill that Section Chief Yang first." ”

Teacher Qin said, "Why did you kill him first?" ”

Teacher Tao said, "Who told him to look so much like you?" ”

Teacher Qin said, "And then? ”

Teacher Tao said: "Kill the developer again, Township Chief Wu...... Until they stop. ”

Section Chief Yang is obsessed with chess, and Rotten Keting was built according to his ideas. That night, after drinking with the developer, Township Chief Wu and others in Peach Blossom Villa, he walked alone to the rotten Keting not far away to study the endgame, and a person came over to play chess with him, and he recognized this person as Mr. Tao.

He didn't want to get down, but Mr. Tao showed his knife, and he wanted to run, but he knew that Mr. Tao was a Vietnam War veteran.

Section Chief Yang took a bold step, he thought that Mr. Tao was also a person who loved to play chess, and used coercion to learn chess skills, but he would never have thought that Mr. Tao would kill him with only three steps and kill him with only one knife.

The fur man did not stop the demolition process, so Mr. Tao killed the developer again. He entered the developer's room through the window with a bag, claiming to have brought an excavated plate, and the developer had a penchant for collecting artifacts and had seen a lot of sneaky antiquities sellers, so he was not surprised.

When opened, there was straw in the bag, and there was only a knife in the straw.

Mr. Tao covered the developer's mouth with one hand, and put a sharp blade on his neck with the other, forcing the developer to open the safe.

Mr. Tao was not clever in disposing of the corpse, he left the developer's body in the room and put the body of Section Chief Yang into the ranger's hut. The rangers hung the body from a tree at the entrance of the village as a purely accidental act of anger. If I had to find one reason, it would be that the rangers have one thing in common with Mr. Tao and the villagers - they have the same hatred for violent demolitions.

Mr. Qin was arrested, and a scabbard was found in his room, which, after a technical inquest, matched the murder weapon that killed the victim. The police also confirmed through the surveillance video of the city railway station that Mr. Qin lied, he did not send Mr. Tao to the station that day, he went to the station alone, just to fake the illusion that Mr. Tao was returning home and that he was not at the scene of the crime. After handcuffing him, he patted him on the shoulder, perhaps out of respect for a Vietnam veteran.

Teacher Qin resisted the interrogation with silence, he bit off one of his tongues and did not answer any questions.

The police in Wuling County carried out control and interception work to prevent the criminal suspect Tao from escaping. Centered on Taoyuan Village Primary School, a search operation was launched, but the surrounding rolling mountains were Mr. Tao's hiding place, and it was not easy to track down and arrest a Vietnam War veteran. Two days passed, and the police found no trace of Mr. Tao.

On the third day, a person walked into the Taoyuan Township Police Station.

A police officer asked him what was wrong.

The man replied: "Turn yourself in!" ”

The case ended with the murderer turning himself in, and Mr. Tao alone bore all the guilt, claiming that Mr. Qin did not know, and Mr. Qin had to release him because he did not say a word from beginning to end, and the police could not convict him. The next day, the special case team left Wuling County, and on the way to the provincial airport, the propaganda officer called and said two things:

1. Teacher Qin committed suicide and hanged himself on the peach tree in Taoyuan Village Primary School, and he left his last words, hoping to be buried with Teacher Tao.

Second, the young and middle-aged villagers of Taoyuan Village cut down all the peach trees on the surrounding mountains in a few days, and the development progress of the Taohuayuan Scenic Area was forced to be interrupted because there were no peach trees.

Professor Liang: "What a paradise! ”

Painting Dragon: "How do I think, Mr. Tao's name is very familiar. ”

Bao Chop: "Tao Yuanliang." ”

Su Mei: "Tao Yuanming, the character Yuanliang, Mr. Wuliu ......"

What a great irony is it to have a peach blossom source without a peach tree, on the empty mountain, there is only one peach tree left in the primary school, and the villagers only leave such a peach tree, what does it mean, is it to let it look at the suffering of the world, is it to let it silently feel the suffering of farmers for generations?

Or to let a pair of weary butterflies rest on the petals of spring blooms?