Shen Shu

The trajectory of some things is always unexpected by individuals.

For example, I accidentally heard the news of traffic control from the radio, unexpectedly found that a certain road was blocked because of congestion, unexpectedly remembered that I had enough food and a change of clothes at home, and unexpectedly heard "In short, the wind and rain will be heavy. Everyone try not to go out of the house" notice.

All right.Although this is all an accidental superposition, it can be regarded as an agreement with the direction I want to go.

At this moment, facing Zhou Tong who was sitting in his apartment very naturally, Shao Zixun deeply realized the necessity of mental construction.If possible, I hope that it will not be under the influence of objective factors such as typhoons, but more naturally and step by step——

Now is not the time to think about such meaningless questions.While countless thoughts were running wildly in his heart, what he actually had to face was the materials in the kitchen refrigerator. "What do you want to eat? There's not much you can do here, so let me know if you have any taboos."

Through the walls, doors and windows, the sound of rain that can be heard inside the house is dull.Mixed with the sound of the TV, Zhou Tong had the same illusion as when he was at the bottom of the well, being held in a quiet time.The returned things were placed on the table, with several layers of newspapers underneath.There was an advertisement after the news on the TV, of course he didn't want to watch the advertisement, but just let it play like this, as if these voices could allow him to confirm his location.

"Do whatever you want, I'm not picky eaters anyway." He paused, stood up, and walked towards the kitchen hesitantly.When he reached the door, he asked with a slow look: "...do you want me to help?"

Shao Zixun had just put on his apron, and was reaching out for the seasoning powder on the cabinet.Hearing that Zhou Tong offered to help, he was unavoidably surprised and delighted.As the host, he suppressed his excitement and said very politely: "No need, I will do it myself."

"But you look like you really want me to help."

Speechless.

In the end, it turned into two people working together in the kitchen to prepare a simple dinner.

Shao Zixun's house is not small, and the kitchen is spacious, but at this moment, from his point of view, two big men are busy in the kitchen utensils, coupled with the surging heat when cooking starts, it looks extremely cramped.

Both of them have an extraordinary eating speed that has been trained for many years in the school cafeteria.Shao Zixun packed the bowls and plates into the sink, and when he came out wiping his hands with a towel, he saw Zhou Tong, who was wearing gloves, carefully unwrapping the greased paper bag layer by layer, trying to take out the contents.He also sat beside him, witnessing the process of a mystery being slowly solved together.

Consistent with common sense, the patterns on the several layers of oil paper wrapped inside are relatively well preserved.Blue patterns on a white background, flowing lines, like a fine blue flower spread on paper.

"The umbrella surface of the oil-paper umbrella?" Zhou Tong thought for a while, turned his face to look at Shao Zixun and said, as if he was going to check the answer with him.

Shao Zixun didn't answer right away, but stared at the patterns on the oiled paper while stroking his chin, pondered for a while, then responded briefly, and added: "I always feel like I've seen something like this somewhere... well, that's not the point. Let's see what's inside."

After the wrapped oil paper is removed, what emerges looks a little ordinary, but the years themselves are enough to price it—priceless.

"notebook?"

It doesn't look too special except for being a bit worn out.There are marks similar to the school badge on the hard cover, but most of them are defaced, and the original appearance can no longer be seen clearly.Zhou Tong carefully opened the blank page at the back, seeing that the inner pages were still intact, he was reluctantly relieved.

"Do you want to see what's inside?" Shao Zixun said softly, as if the notebook itself was the third person in the room.Zhou Tong also hesitated when he heard it, and tentatively turned to the title page, but heaved a long sigh with unknown meaning.

"There is no name written on the title page. But it can be known that it was given by someone as a graduation gift in [-]." He looked into Shao Zixun's eyes. "We accidentally took someone else's cultural relic—oh, it may also be a relic. —Bring it back."

Shao Zixun felt his heart skip a beat.

Zhou Tong did not have too many scruples. After confirming that the diary was preserved under the protection of oil paper for 70 years and could be flipped through, he rearranged his gloves and prepared to start flipping through the diary as if reading another part of his life. "If not, we'll get in touch with the cultural relics and send it over when the rain stops."

Shao Zixun agreed, and couldn't help smiling when he saw the rare interest on Zhou Tong's face.Of course, Zhou Tong, who was concentrating on observing this thing, did not notice the joy that the other person around him felt for him.

Although the title page says "given to the 24th year of the Republic of China", the date of the first diary is already the 26th year of the Republic of China.Judging from the content, the owner of the diary seems to regard his determination to go to the battlefield as the beginning of a period of time.

"Is this person still alive?" Shao Zixun said to himself when their heads were almost squeezed together to read the diary.

Zhou Tong still took this as a question and answered: "Even after the Anti-Japanese War, it is rare to see people alive today. If it is a veteran who is still alive, it is very easy to find the owner."

——But this probability is too small after all.

They thought so together, and kept silent together.

Most of the fonts are square and strong, exuding a kind of vigor.The vernacular-based writing method is also closer to modern habits, so that the two former science students readers do not have too many obstacles in understanding.When I wrote the first diary, the author probably hadn't been on the front line, but I could smell the soldier's temperament in the bones from the lines.

After a few lines of words and nearly 70 years, the desperate wailing and remaining prayers that echoed in the roaring artillery fire seem to be still echoing, scorching the bloodthirsty of how many people's century-old foundations in the ancient city and burning countless lives The flames almost scalded the retina.What they read comes from the account of a young man, and what this young man hears and hears is separated from the hustle and bustle of newspapers and radio stations, the fear and anxiety surging in the refugee tide, and the sound of the tires of military vehicles between the ruts on the road in the middle of the night.

This is already the case for the picture recounted by the second time, not to mention the crueler reality that has been removed from the tears.

This article is not long, but it can be seen that the author's anger is extraordinary.The characters occupy two lines high, don't care about the calligraphy structure, from the block letters that barely control the anger to the cursive script at the end.

Then it was December 26th in the [-]th year of the Republic of China.

The only two surviving readers in the world immediately understood a lot.

"The Japanese army entered Nanjing City on December 1937, 12."

"The massacre of prisoners of war and civilians...the time lag in the spread of information...well, that's the right extrapolation."

——A young man who graduated in 1935 (should be a university), probably as early as 1932, he had planned to drop out of school and join the army. This plan may have been shelved due to various reasons such as family resistance; after the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, he made up his mind Determined to leave his hometown and embark on the battlefield.Combining various signs and intuition, the author of the diary—since the name has not yet appeared, can be referred to as Generation X for the time being—probably has a good family background, a good education, and progressive thinking; the plan to join the army has been delayed for five years, it seems that the family and other aspects There is a lot of resistance, and it is almost impossible to find a way to leave home. Maybe the parents still have a certain influence and are extremely strict with the family.

This is the preliminary judgment they jointly came to.

Immediately afterwards, Shao Zixun added one more point based on his own association: with such a family background and education environment, as long as the personality is not weird, there should be many friends of the same age, and naturally there will be no shortage of graduation gifts like notebooks.If the author X had the habit of keeping diaries before, and this is just one of them, then especially use this one to start writing what happened during this period. This diary—or the notebook itself before being regarded as a diary also has different meaning.

Going forward, the person who gave this notebook as a friend of X has a special meaning to him. It is very likely that he is a rare person who supports him in making this choice, and even joins the army on the front line.

Although Zhou Tong felt that this idea required too many assumptions to support it, and it was unlikely to be established, he still silently wrote down this inference.

"If it were me, I would definitely go to the front line." Zhou Tong said firmly.

"I will too. It's not because I have to follow everyone else, but I must go."