**Train**
I followed Xiao Hua’s gaze, and we were at the mountainside, able to see the towering peaks on the opposite side of the valley. Since it used to be a forest farm, the trees nearby must have been logged once, and now only small trees of insufficient age have grown. But this mountain isn’t large and has no particular features. Soon, I spotted the mountain Xiao Hua mentioned.
It was behind the mountain right in front of me, far off in the distance, a large mountain concealed in clouds and mist, with visible white snow on its peak. This mountain appeared very far from us; as the saying goes, “a distant mountain exhausts the horse,” and if it looks so far away, the actual distance might be even more exaggerated. The shape of the mountain resembled a seal, which was why it caught Xiao Hua’s attention.
“Is this mountain in the same direction as the one we are going to?” If this mountain is near the Three Saints Snow Mountain or part of the same mountain range, its shape might not be a coincidence.
Xiao Hua took a photo of the mountain with her phone and asked Miao Xuedong what mountain it was. Miao Xuedong shook his head: “Young people nowadays look outward; who cares about the mountains at home? And mountains like this are everywhere here. You’d have to ask the old hunters, but I doubt they can be found now.”
What can change in ten years? Back then, when we entered such places, we could still find old hunters, often around 89 to over 90 years old, and could still visit some of them. Ten years later, I know that the so-called old hunters might no longer exist.
If we had time, we could spend a week walking in and getting closer to this mountain; we should be able to see it more clearly.
On the other side, the ground had already been dug up; the surface was scraped away, and after digging down more than a meter, fragments of wood began to appear, rotting wood chips mixed with soil. Although the wood had rotted and softened, digging it out was still quite difficult, as we occasionally encountered hard sections.
Soon, everyone was exhausted. We were already considered physically fit city dwellers, but pure physical labor exceeded our expectations.
We kept digging until it got dark, only managing to create a pit that looked quite shabby. Thinking back to when Emperor Qin Shi Huang had 700,000 people to dig a tomb, it was no small feat.
We called in another team, set up tents to sleep here, lit a campfire, and some people began sifting through the soil and wood like they were panning for gold.
After digging about six meters down, there was no more wood. We started digging sideways, and when dawn broke, someone shook me awake from my sleeping bag to show me what they had found.
Another arrowhead, still wet, likely just sifted out. I went outside to see it in the daylight, and it looked exactly like one from my grandfather’s ashes.
The entire forest farm had been dug up beyond recognition, and this arrowhead was found ten meters underground from the initial digging site. Along with it, many pine cones were unearthed, indicating the presence of larch trees.
“At least we know that these arrowheads were shot into tree trunks, and there are many larch trees. Based on the original forest’s larch population here, the area we need to search has been reduced by half; we could finish in just 200 years,” the fat man said. “From now on, I’ll practice Tai Chi every day to help you with 30 years of work. Let’s keep pushing through the remaining days!”
I shot him a glance and grabbed a handful of various pine cone shells and small stones. “If we could know the logging routes from back then, it would help narrow down the area.” If all else fails, we would have to go back the same way; I still vaguely remembered which path to take. But if that were the case, we would need to set off now, because once it snows, the terrain will change drastically and become indistinguishable.
“The railway,” Xiaohua suddenly said.
We turned to look at him. He continued, “All the logging routes in the forest farms follow the railway. The railway troops laid the tracks in front, and the construction teams followed behind to log the trees. All the wood was transported out by small trains.”
The small train here refers to the locomotives specifically designed for special transportation, which are much smaller than regular locomotives.
With a command from Kanjian, the crew dropped their tools and began searching for the tracks in the grass.
Before long, they found the tracks, which were already rusted, with the wooden sleepers still in place. The area was overgrown with weeds, but because it was gravel underneath, it was a bit sparser.
The tracks ran across the square and led into a dilapidated brick house that had no roof on one side. On the other side, they extended in the direction where Wang Meng had just run.
“What should we do?” Kanjian asked me.
I clicked my tongue and asked Xiaohua, “You’re wealthy and generous; do you know where we can buy a train?”
This piece was published on June 17, 2015.
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