Leaving this nameless island, the weather was fine again, the sun was so hot that people's faces were oily, just like yesterday, Lao Xing did not pity Wang Ling and Lao Pi, even the poet and that Zheng Jiuwu were also explained to stand on the deck together, only the girls received preferential treatment. After yesterday's bumps, although the adaptability has improved somewhat, people feel groggy after all, Lao Xing's boat is a diesel engine, and the black smoke is accompanied by the sound of the "da-da" motor, and there are seagulls around him soon.

"Birds," one of the girls named Gu Haili cried, "it's Haiyan, poet, look at Haiyan." ”

The bird was not afraid of people, and there were some small fish in Lao Xing's cabin, so she picked one up and wanted to tease the bird. Lao Xing saw this scene in the cab, his face suddenly darkened, and he shouted: "Put it down!" ”

The sound of the ship's sailing had already covered his shouts, and when Lao Xing rushed out, he saw a seagull leaning backwards and roaring towards Gu Haili like a rocket. Gu Haili was dumbfounded for a moment, and was stunned for a while before she realized that she was blinded by this sudden scene and burst into tears.

Lao Xing silently returned and took out a piece of white cloth and threw it to Li Xindao: "Tie it up for her, this bird is very fierce, don't provoke it again in the future." ”

How did Gu Haili know how powerful this was, and while crying, she kicked the cabin with her foot and said: "That book says how brave this Haiyan is, and the feelings of Gorky are all deceiving the feelings of socialist brothers and sisters, big liar!" ”

The poet hurriedly defended: "Gorky is not a liar, he didn't say that this bird doesn't bite, how can you think that it is praised for its bravery, how can it be afraid of you as a girl?" ”

Lao Xing glanced at him and said: "What do you know, it is as fierce as an eagle, and the chicks in our factory don't know how many are buried in its mouth every year." ”

Everything in the ocean is unknown, just like how beautiful the seagull once depicted in this book is also an out-and-out robber, this world is destined to be the weak and the strong, Wang Ling has experienced it very early.

Lao Xing's ship is still sailing, I don't know how far it has gone along the way, the sea is no more than the mainland, the only thing you can see is the constantly changing position of the sun in the sky, and there are countless various islands. The tedious voyage was finally over before dark, and from afar they saw an island with perhaps bright fires, and through the sea breeze, they could faintly hear the sounds of the crowd, and this was their destination, a populated island called "Xuanwu Island" by the locals.

Xuanwu Island, I don't know when it began to be inhabited here, before the liberation of the island is said to have more than 40 aborigines, they are far away from the mainland, the shape of the island is very similar to the appearance of the spirit animal "Xuanwu" in ancient Chinese mythology, which is a mixture of snakes and turtles. The people on the island are called chela, and the pier is at the head of the chela, and from this road there are stone steps, which look like they have been quite old, and there is a stone statue in the shape of a cobra on each side of the steps, about two people high, and many places have been broken.

Young people were drawn to the statue from the moment they set foot on the island, the snake's rope was lifelike, the realistic pattern and curved curve, and the wide flat neck made people think it was a real snake. It is especially rare that the snake still has a core in its mouth, and only half of the sharp fangs are still recognizable.

"The Japanese occupied this island back then," Lao Xing said to Wang Ling while helping them get off the boat: "Later, I taught the Americans to take it, and after liberation, it was taken over by the navy, and it is rich in the best quality sea fish and kelp, most of the people in our village are from Hainan and Guangxi, and we have heard of Nanniwan, we just want to take root in the frontier of the motherland and make our own efforts for the construction of New China. ”

There were a lot of people on the dock, these people enthusiastically helped them to take the salute, and these young people were very touched by the cold and warmth, it seems that the life here is not too difficult, and the next thing is to divide the household. When the educated youth first go down to the countryside, they need to cut the queue and divide the households, because the houses and basic living materials they need need a certain amount of time to be on duty, and usually each farmer's family is divided into several educated youths, and when the right opportunity is given to the educated youths to live independently. These arrangements, Lao Xing was already prepared on the way here, and he also received a temporary notice that Xuanwu Island was too far away from the mainland to transmit information at all, and usually every other week a ship would come to receive some limited information from the outside, and they would not be allowed to leave the island more than twice a year.

Because this sea area was very tense at that time, the United States in 1969 was unable to extricate itself from the quagmire of the Vietnam War, and the South China Sea was full of US planes and ships, and at that time, China, as a socialist camp, was carrying out all kinds of large-scale selfless assistance to Vietnam, also known as "resisting US aggression and aiding Vietnam".

Against this backdrop, the eyes of the world were focused on this part of Southeast Asia, and although the Americans had no intention of doing anything with us at that time, the fishermen working at sea had to be refreshed.

To their surprise, there was no detachment on this island, and after everyone had gone ashore, Lao Xing roughly introduced the young men to the inhabitants of the island, and then led them down the steps to their foothold.

The island is high in the middle and low on all sides, and the highest position is a very old lighthouse-like building, which Lao Xing said was left by previous people, who may have been Spanish or Dutch. There were many buildings on the island, most of them one-story huts made of stone and lime, and occasionally a few larger houses, but none of them had lights, and one of them had a crooked cross at the top, which was supposed to be a church.

As they passed by the tall black building, Wang Ling couldn't help but take a second look at it, the island was larger than they had imagined, and it took almost half an hour to walk from the pier to their temporary residence.

These are two adjacent stone houses, and the nearest house around them is also fifty meters away, Lao Xing pointed to this place and said: "This is specially prepared for you dolls in the city, one for men and one for women, and the water source is in a small puddle three hundred meters down the path in front." One pound of food per person per day, first deducted from the collective on the team, and then returned after earning the work points, the island lacks resources, kerosene lamps can be used less, you go to get familiar with it first, I live in this back mountain. ”

The direction Lao Xing pointed to was the place where the fishermen lived on the island, and most of these houses were built on the leeward side, huddled together in pairs of threes and threes, and there were steps in the middle of the path that connected them, and the whole village could hear each other's shouting at the door before. It seems that Lao Xing is really taking care of them, these two rooms are relatively independent, with tiredness and curiosity, the men and women began to salute each other, the smell of the sea has been somewhat familiar these days, and when they opened the wooden door, they found that the conditions were far harsher than they imagined.

As soon as I opened the door, I was dumbfounded, first of all, this house can be described as a house with four walls, this house was built along the smooth stone wall, so there are only three walls, the only furniture in the house is a broken but tightly tied with steel wire, there is a small depression in the corner of the room, and a tripod is supported with wood above the depression, and there is a black iron pot that has long been unseen, and next to the iron pot is a canvas bag with countless patches, and the old leather has turned it over, and there are some small bottles of rice and salt in it. The wall next to the recess was blackened by the fire, and the room had a "charming" salty and wet smell, and the ground to the east was relatively flat, with a thick layer of coconut leaves, and a layer of dried moss on top, which was their "bed"!

When the poet saw this, he collapsed on the spot, "Where is this where people live, abuse, this is simply abuse!" He roared as he rushed to the next door with his luggage, the girls were no better, the only thing more than them was a mirror covered with yellow stains, it seemed that Lao Xing took good care of them.

Although these educated youths have some problems with the composition of the family, where have they suffered such hardships since childhood, the young people are vigorous, and after a meal, Lao Pi immediately decided to go to Lao Xing to ask for an explanation.

Lao Xing's house is not far away, and the educated youths rushed to kill it, and happened to see Lao Xing holding a bowl at the door and eating something, several people threw their burdens to the ground, and Lao Pi said with a dark face: "Captain Torture, you are eating warm by yourself, but sending Chairman Mao's child to the ice cave, can there be people living in that place?" ”

"That's it!" The women have long been wronged, not to mention being "assigned" to such a ghost place, and they have to endure inhuman treatment.

This Lao Xing was not annoyed, but smiled and watched this group of educated youths crusade against themselves, and after half a salary, they saw that Lao Xing still looked like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water, but they didn't even have the strength to scold people in their hearts.