I look at the steam in the pot, and we all think about our own things.
The repeatedly defeated Yaoma has recovered, and the repeatedly defeated Bula is playing outside our circle with him. Their hearts are filled with a vague passion for battle, so their game becomes like this: Bean loudly gives them verbal drum beats, while Yaoma playing Bula's Hanyang rifle in all apparent seriousness. Bula blackens a piece under his nose, and holding Yaoma's bayonet which can pretend to be Japanese Katana.
Clang, clang. Bula shoots again and again, and Yaoma falls down again and again.
Yi quietly returns to our circle, he has always been so quiet like a ghost. I glance at him listlessly, lower my head, and then raise my head, looking at him in amazement. Yi is looked at by me with embarrassment. He is different from before, with several small medals hanging on his chest.
"This… What kind of thing is this?" I ask, staring at those surreal and absurd things here and now.
Yi tries to be as quiet and humble as possible, although he also knows that my voice has already caught the attention of all the guys except for those who are performing martial arts. "The Second Class Scholarship Medal is awarded to the person with the best academic exam results; the Second Class Medal of the Brilliant Light is awarded for special academic skills; the Officer Training Corps Commemorative Medal is awarded for… participate the training corps will get this."
I begin to suppress laughter in his sincere introduction, and Kang Ya simply bursts out laughing: "Exam?"
I also mock Yi: "Achievements in learning?"
Kang Ya continues to ask: "So you would get that by getting an A grade?"
"No. It needs..." Yi stops speaking and looks at us. No matter how dull he is, he knows what we mean now. Yi's face and his ears are red, and he stops speaking. He bends down until we can no longer see the medals on his chest.
Vet Hao stands out to cover for Yi: "Come on, Kang Ya, why don't you write down your own surname for me? You even laugh at people taking exams. Fanla, Why don't you believe anything?"
I choke back my laugh and say: "I didn't say I don't believe it."
"That's true. To be honest, you don't even believe 'don't believe'." The old man glances at me.
The words are tough, so we stop talking. Yi hunches while Yaoma, Bula and Bean stay in hubbub. Yi secretly touches his few small metal pieces which were mocked.
The pork and cabbage in the clear water of the pot begin to boil.
Yi is stimulated by Bula. He is always so timid but looking forward and eager to be strong and passionate. Heaven and earth are furnaces, yin and yang are charcoal, and creatures are workers. Some of us are constantly boiling and passionate.
Two cars rush over at a speed that is difficult to see in this bleak world, and the people in the car have already jumped off when the brakes are only halfway pressed. The shouts of "fall in! Fall in!" immediately echo inside and outside the shelter. The shouts are from young officers Zhang Lixian, He Shuguang, Yu Zhi, and Li Bing, who had just jumped out of the cars. They are not neat due to the smoke of gunpowder and dust, but felt like freshly sharpened blades from heads to toes. That is a completely different spiritual temperament from the military trash in the shelter. It should be described as severe rather than neat.
They are fully armed, almost without wearing flat caps, but wearing a mix of German M35, British M1917, and even Japanese steel helmets. The Mauser 96C is almost their standard equipment, and in terms of complete back gear and carrier holsters, it is definitely not used like the bandits. There are several people carrying machetes with leather covers, and their workmanship can be considered exquisite among the similar ones used in the war. The firearms they are carrying seem a bit too heavy: Zhongzheng rifles (Chiang Kai-shek rifles), Thomson (magazine) submachine guns, ZB26 machine guns, and the like, not for war, but for the conscription of Yu Xiaoqing. Their attire is close to hasty, while their fighting equipment tends to be sophisticated — not to match all of this, there is an accordion in the back seat of the car where He Shuguang jumped off.
The head of the shelter station is dressed in military coat but underwear when he gets out of his place to see what had happened. He is immediately whipped by Zhang Lixian with a horsewhip, then he is busy wearing pants handed over by a woman under the whip.
His gramophone is still singing loudly, "Spring is coming, full of greenery. The girl is embroidering mandarin ducks under the window. Suddenly, a heartless stick hit separates the ducks…"
Regimental commander, Colonel Yu Xiaoqing frowns and still sits in the car, just like the "heartless stick" in the song. His subordinates completely rectify the outside of the shelter station within a few seconds, but he doesn't think it is enough. In his heart, he couldn't stand the strange combination of consolidating the military and those decadent voices, so he moves the corner of his mouth and says: "He Shuguang!"
He Shuguang, in his twenties, is supposed to be a handsome guy, but he has a pair of near-sighted glasses on his nose. However, that doesn't stop him from being fierce, although it is a bit too affected — he pulls out his machete from his back and rushes towards the courtyard, with the head of the shelter huddles nearby. After a burst of smashing and falling sounds comes from the courtyard, the world becomes quiet.
Yu Xiaoqing gets out of the car, and unlike his subordinates who pile themselves up into an arsenal, he only hangs a Colt pistol which is definitely not a decoration and a Zhongzheng sword which is definitely a decoration on his waist. You would think that the most lethal weapon is not these weapons, but this guy himself. He stands like a long gun and can kill people at any time. His subordinates also seem to be able to stab people to death. He Shuguang and Yu Zhi remain loyal guards of Yu Xiaoqing, while Zhang Lixian and Li Bing do not need orders and have already rolled towards the courtyard where we are curled up.