White Olive Tree

Chapter 13

Chapter 13
By the afternoon, the squad discharged thirteen landmines.  All the fuzes were removed, and they were placed on the ground in a row.
Song Ran squatted to the side to take pictures. Seeing Li Zan arrange the landmines in two rows, he asked, "Is there any difference?"
"These six are tripping hairs, and these seven are pressing hairs."
Song Ran held up the radio microphone and asked, "What is hair suppression?"
  The Dongguo soldiers accompanying the team set up a line beside the passage to mark it, and sent people to the village to inform the locals.
Everyone packed up their instruments and tools and headed back.
After working in the field for a whole day, everyone was so tired that they just hurried on their way in silence.  All the relief I had in the morning was gone, only fatigue.
The sky was cloudless, as blue as the sea; the sun was still blazing, scorching the mountains and plains.
Passing a hillside, the wheat fields all over the mountain are like a sea of ​​gold.  With sharp eyes, Song Ran saw an old man wearing a sweat towel and wearing a national costume. He was walking slowly on the ridge of the field with his back bent and a sack on his back.
The old man was skinny, but the sack on his back was extraordinarily strong, like a fat man, bending him down.
Song Ran turned on the camera and pulled down the lens, and said softly into the radio microphone: "I met a local old man on the road. He was carrying a cloth bag. Maybe it was... food?"
After hearing this, Li Zan looked up. The old man in coarse clothes was walking in the wheat field under the blue sky, like an oil painting.
He squinted his eyes to make a distinction, and said, "It's grain. When he came here in the morning, he was harvesting wheat in the field on the other side of the mountain."
Song Ran said, "It looks heavy."
Li Zan suddenly asked: "Guess, how many catties?"
Song Ran couldn't figure it out: "I don't know.... Can you see it?"
Li Zan glanced again, thinking: "Eighty catties."
Song Ran had no idea about weight. She stroked her sweaty hair under the brim of her hat and asked, "How much does eighty catties weigh?"
He glanced at her from head to toe, and said, "It's almost as heavy as you."
"..." She whispered, "I'm not that light. Besides, I don't think that bag is that heavy."
Dui Yang interjected, "I think it's heavier than you, I'm afraid it's more than a hundred catties."
It turns out that everyone heard the conversation between these two people.  As soon as Dui Yang spoke, the soldiers started chatterboxes, and there were many discussions:
"How can it be so exaggerated? It's fifty catties, maybe there's cotton in there."
"Fart, how can there be cotton here?"
"I think it's about sixty or seventy catties."
"There must be ninety catties."
After discussing in a hurry, the topic suddenly changed.
"The old man can carry ninety catties? I don't think you can even carry it."
"I can't carry ninety catties? Believe it or not, I will carry you up now."
Song Ran: "..."
During the commotion, Li Zan said, "Why don't you go and memorize it."
Everyone exchanged glances, eager to try.
Team Yang: "I think it's okay."
Song Ran: "..."
This is a group of primary school students?
Li Zan expressed his point of view with Yi Sang, a soldier from the Eastern Kingdom who was traveling with him. Unexpectedly, Ethan also showed great interest unreliably.  .
A group of soldiers beamed with joy and jumped up the hillside one after another.  They crossed the harvested wheat fields, stepped on the calf-high stalks, and ran up the hill laughing.
Song Ran opened his eyes wide, raised his camera and followed them.
The old man stood on the ridge of the field, watching a group of young soldiers rushing towards him, feeling a little panicked.
Ethan smiled and explained the purpose of his visit, and the old man relaxed. He put down the big bag on his back, panted and took off his hood to wipe his sweat.
The sack is as tall as a child, and the well is thicker.
Dui Yang tried to hug it and then put it down: "I'll go. It's really heavy. Ninety catties is definitely there."
Li Zan pulled the strap rope, put the bag on his back, weighed it, and said, "Almost."
Others tried to recite it one after another, as if they saw something strange.
Li Zan said to Ethan: "Is the old man in his eighties?"
After Ethan asked, he said, "Eighty-three."
Li Zan said: "The old man has a strong body and can carry such a heavy grain."
Ethan replied directly: "Hey, farmers are like this. Don't talk about grandpas, old women can carry a hundred catties on their backs, and they have worked as coolies all their lives, so they are used to it."
Li Zan looked at the shrunken figure of the old man, smiled very lightly, and asked, "How many people are there in the family?"
The old man raised his withered and rough hands, gesticulating and rambling in a low voice.
Ethan translated: "There are nine people. But the eldest son's family has fled to a neighboring country. The younger son has joined the army. There is also an old woman, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren at home."
"Do you still farm the land?"
"I planted it. But because of the war, many crops were destroyed. It's such a big land, and I only harvested so much wheat. I don't know what to do after eating it."
Li Zan pursed her lips and did not speak.  He stood there for a while, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and looked back, Song Ran was filming.  He is not used to showing his face, so he turned his face away a little unnaturally, took a step back, and stepped out of the camera.
Not far away, everyone was still happily carrying the bag of rice.
Li Zan stood aside, looked at his comrades, and couldn't help smiling again.
Song Ran looked at his smiling side face, hesitating whether to take a picture of it, but when he turned around, he met her eyes.