Chapter 15: Entering the Mountains
The next morning, I woke up feeling really good. I fell asleep in the wooden house, smelling the pinewood, and I had a rare dreamless night.
As soon as we got up, the eldest brother’s wife warmly invited us to breakfast. We washed up briefly, and without any further ado, we sat down and began to eat voraciously. The corn porridge was cooked to perfection, and the pancakes were sweeter the more you chewed them. Dipped in the thick soup from the pork and vermicelli stew from the day before, accompanied by the green onions with the fermented soybean paste, I once again ate myself full.
When I arrived in the Northeast, I found that my appetite was surprisingly good, even though it wasn’t the spicy flavor I was used to.
After breakfast, I realized that neither Zhang nor my brother-in-law were in the house, so I asked my brother-in-law’s wife, “Sister, where did my brother-in-law and Zhang go?”
“Oh, they went to get something from the forest ranger, Lao Yuan. You can wait here. Lao Zhang said he would help you organize your things when he came back. You can’t carry all those things up the mountain in this weather.” The sister warmly greeted us.
She said that we would have to wait. After less than half an hour, it was almost 8 o’clock in the morning. Old Zhang and Big Brother, along with a young man, came back with a cart. Old Zhang had a cloth-wrapped object on his back and a bag of things hanging from his waist.
After entering the house and exchanging pleasantries for a while, Old Zhang began to organize his things. I only then realized that the cloth-wrapped object was a single-barrel hunting rifle. The entire rifle was shiny and looked well-maintained.
When the bag at his waist was opened, it was found to contain brass bullets, some iron sand, and several packets of gunpowder, as well as other things that I didn’t recognize at all. Old Zhang handed the bag to his older brother and said, “Brother, I’m going to trouble you to help me load some of these ammunition. Load 50 of them, that should be enough for a few days. I’ll do the rest myself.”
After saying this, Old Zhang asked us to bring several large bags of luggage, saying that he wanted to help us organize some things that we could really use on the mountain in the winter.
I found it interesting to watch the older brother help Zhang fill the ammunition. It turned out that the brass bullets were shells used to hold the “medicine.” The bottom of the bullet shell was filled with gunpowder, and then a layer of paper was placed on top. Then iron sand was added, and it was compacted. Then another layer of paper was placed on top. It was simple to say, but it was quite complicated to do. The older brother filled the “medicine” while filling the shells with gunpowder, he told us, “There are certain rules for hunting guns and bullets. You can’t use a machine gun and expect to be more effective than us. The filling of the gunpowder is also very important. You can’t have too much or too little gunpowder. Too much will cause the gun to explode. And there must be less iron sand. In fact, the power is not great. Less is better. The bullets that are shot out have no power. These are all experiences.”
Lao Zhang took us to a large amount of food, and some of the scraps were cleaned out, leaving some of the items we had, down to just flashlights, fire sticks, snow shovels, ice picks, steel cones, water bottles, a tent, clothing, a small amount of compressed biscuits, and a pot.
“The rope must be left behind,” said Chengxin to Lao Zhang. It was a long rope, which actually took up a lot of space, but Chengxin insisted. I saw Wu Laogui winking at Chengxin, and I knew it was Wu Laogui’s idea.
In fact, it’s not like we’re going to climb Mount Everest, so why do we need to bring such a long rope? I had doubts in my heart, but I didn’t ask any more.
Old Zhang didn’t say much, just said, “Then bring it. After all, going into the mountains is a matter of living off the land. Bring as little as possible. Going into the mountains is a physically demanding thing.”
We nodded, and of course it is better to listen to the professionals on these matters.
After the luggage was streamlined, the four of us had to carry our luggage on our backs and shoulders, but now we only had one bag each, and it wasn’t heavy. We changed into professional clothing for entering the snow mountain, and we felt much more relaxed.
Lao Zhang had his own set of clothes, which had been accumulated over many years of experience. They were the clothes that people in the mountains should wear, but he couldn’t resist Chengxin’s persuasion and changed into the same clothes as us. To be honest, the development of modern technology is something you can’t underestimate. These specialized clothes are lightweight and warm. Lao Zhang was very satisfied with them, which says it all.
After all this, the eldest brother loaded the special bullets into the bag and handed them to Zhang. Zhang hung the bullets on the belt loops of his pants, which was very convenient. After he put on the shotgun, we set off.
When we say we are leaving, we are actually getting into the horse-drawn carriage driven by Big Brother’s son. From here to the mountain there is a road, and in order to save time, we can drive the carriage up.
The road is a wide dirt road. On this cold and freezing day, the road is covered with snow and a thin layer of ice has formed on the road surface, but the carriage runs steadily.
It took us about an hour to reach the foot of the mountain, where the forest was already dense. I couldn’t recognize the specific trees, but there were always pines. In the winter, the branches and leaves were covered in a layer of silver, and the low shrubs on the ground were also white and dazzling.
In the distance, you can also see layers of mist. The old forest that you can see as far as the eye can see looks mysterious, beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The son of the eldest brother is a passionate young man. He was afraid that we would be bored on the way, so he told us all about the trees and grass in the forest at the foot of the mountain. He spoke with great pride, and from time to time he would say, “This is amazing, you know? It’s so precious.”
We found it interesting and didn’t find the time difficult to pass. Moreover, the scenery in the mountains was endless. However, the carriage only drove for an hour and then reached the end. At the end of the road was a small path, where the carriage could not go any further.
The young man stopped the carriage, jumped out and said to us, “I don’t know how far Uncle Zhang wants to take you, but this ridge, the one next to it, and that one, are places where our people still go to often. Going further in is a little dangerous for some of our mountain people, and there are places that are hard to explain. If you are here to experience the life in the mountains, see the scenery, take a few turns in the places I mentioned, go hunting, and refresh yourself, then you can go home. Don’t go to other places. I’m not trying to scare you, but some places are so dangerous that even the most experienced old mountain visitors can’t get out.
The young man’s words were not very polite, and there was a hint of warning in them, but his heart was good. He was also worried about us. I, Ruoxue, and Chengxin all smiled and said nothing. Old Zhang scolded him, “Get lost. Your parents are waiting for you to go home for dinner. Don’t you know what to do in the mountains? Don’t worry.”
The young man was not angry, and said to Zhang, “Uncle Zhang, I’m leaving now? By the way, there is a shack on this mountain. It was built by our village for hunting. Now you go into the mountains, walk faster, and you can still get to the shack, boil some hot water, and eat some hot food.”
“I know that already. Go back, hurry up.” Old Zhang urged him, and the young man smiled sheepishly, scratching his head, and drove the cart away.
At this time, Old Zhang called on us to put on our equipment, then walked in front of us, leading us into the mountains.
On the way, Old Zhang was silent and asked us not to talk as much as possible. Not because of anything else, but just to save some energy, he just reminded us that if possible, it would be best not to spend the night in the wild. Spending the night in the old forest is not a pleasant thing. There are many things in the old forest that have become spirits. Who knows if they will go crazy and come to this mountain range where human activity is frequent.
I knew nothing about the old forest, so I just followed Zhang’s lead.
But the freezing cold mountain was not what I had imagined. The snow-covered road was very difficult to walk on, and the thin snow was slippery, and the deep snow was sinking. Compared to the mountains and forests in other places, the mountain roads in this old forest were very physically demanding.
I thought I was in good shape, but after less than two hours of walking, I couldn’t help but pant slightly. I knew that I had a good foundation from my childhood training, so I never thought that climbing a mountain would be difficult.
I was already like this, so Chengxin and Ruoxue were even worse. Ruoxue was a girl after all, and she was even more weak. I simply took over Ruoxue’s package and took Ruoxue’s hand: “I’ll walk with you to save some energy.”
Xue’s expression didn’t change much, just a soft “hmm,” and Chengxin smiled and didn’t say anything. Old Zhang turned his head and said, panting, “Young man, you have good stamina, stronger than an old mountain man like me.”
The old ghost Wu, who was floating around us, put his hands in his sleeves and made a shivering gesture, saying, “It’s cold. Why haven’t we arrived yet? I’m tired of floating. I’m old. I’m old.”