Chapter 7 - The Great Glacier (1/2)
Chapter 7 - The Great Glacier
I stood up straight and mimicked the tone of the squad leader’s voice in my reply. “No thank you, no thank you. Why does it have to be me again? It should be La Mu Cuo, that kid’s turn. After all, equality is the principle of society.”
The second squad leader said, “Little Hu, my comrade, why do you always have something weird to say? I told you not to mimic me. Besides, I am the squad leader. If I say you may speak, then you speak. There’s no need for all this talk of absolute egalitarianism.”
I looked at my other comrades around me. They were all sitting there waiting for me to speak with a serious face. That little kid even stuck his tongue out at me when the squad leader wasn’t paying attention. These little grains were too unloyal. Now I could only find a way out of this situation by myself. “Reporting to squad leader. What is the topic of our discussion today? If you don’t tell us, how are we going to talk?”
Just then, the instructor walked over here. Instructor Li Jian was about thirty years old, mediumly built and was a very refined person. He was a senior soldier with more than ten years of experience and treated his officers well, without any arrogance. He walked over and said, “I see that my comrades are having a meeting? Don’t mind me joining too.”
The second squad leader hurriedly bowed to the instructor. The instructor just waved at him and told him to carry on. He didn’t want to disrupt their discussions.
The second squad leader had a very low standard. He got extremely fl.u.s.tered with the instructor around and was at lost for words. Perhaps he thought that singing would be easier so he told the other soldiers, “My comrades, let us sing a revolutionary song to boost our morale and rekindle our fighting spirit. What say you?”
“Swell!” The soldiers replied in unison. The instructor who was listening from the sideline was so amused that he almost bursted out laughing. However, he quickly concealed it with a few fake coughs.
The second squad leader however didn’t see what was so amusing about it. He raised both of his arms solemnly, and gestured as how an orchestra conductor would. “My comrades, I shall take the lead. Er ya ma Erlang Mountain, ready, sing.”
“Er ya ma Erlang Mountain. Even if you are extremely tall, the People’s Liberation Army men are strong as iron. If they have decided to charge, do not fear howling wind nor the snow. The road to Tibet is to be repaired.” The snow was getting heavy. The singing voices of the soldiers reverberated across the snowy skies of the Kunlun Mountain range. It wasn’t certain if it was the flying snow of the boundless mountain ranges that set off power and grandeur of the military song, or it was the singing voices of the soldiers that adorned the desolated silence of the Kunlun Mountain Range. For a moment, even a few engineers inside the other tent were attracted by the singing voices and had forgotten about their alt.i.tude sickness. Thoughts surged in their mind while they stared off into the distance of endless mountain peaks.
The instructor made a speech to everyone in the end. “I am the same as everyone. This is my first time visiting the Kunlun Mountains. The condition here is indeed very harsh, and the environment is extremely vile. What we are currently facing is the most grim ordeal. But my fellow brothers, we are not an ordinary troop. We are even given the t.i.tle of ‘Adventurous Heroes Squad’. This honor is built on the life and blood of our seniors of the Sixth Squad. We must not let this flag be tainted at all costs. For Chairman Mao of the Party Central Committee to a.s.sign such a glorious duty to us signified the great trust he has in us, the Sixth Squad. We must perform. Show him that we are not afraid of the hards.h.i.+ps and are fearless, and complete this mission perfectly like the soldiers of revolution we are. Comrades, do you all have the determination?”
“Yes!” We replied in unison.
The instructor nodded his head in satisfaction and continued. “We rest early today. We shall cross the great glacier tomorrow. Make your preparations in advance. That’s all. You are dismissed.”
The third morning after entering the mountains, the squad had arrived at the big frozen river. Legend has it that there was a low-lying small basin around here. Our destination was that basin. Due to the fact that this was a cla.s.sified mission, we were not allowed to engage any local guides to lead us there (actually no one knew the way). So we could only blindly find the way to our destination with just a map for military use that was crudely made.
The Great Glacier was made up of three sections, with a big difference in elevation for each section. The slopes were extremely precipitous. The highest point was over 6,000 metres above sea level, blanketed by snow that never melted. The ice of a slippery trail that reflected like a mirror stretched a long was as thick as a hundred metres. The lowest section had a lower elevation than the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.**
Before we left, an engineer had warned everyone to not make too much noise when marching at the foot of the glacier. Otherwise it could cause an avalanche on the mountain’s summit and we would be buried alive down there.
No one even dared to gasp. However, an incident still occurred during the journey. While we were travelling from the glacier to the mountain valley, an engineer from Beijing lost his footing and fell down the glacier. We found his mangled up dead body at the oasis located at the foot of the glacier. A female geologist, Luo Ning, who was also his co-worker of the same unit, couldn’t help but to sob loudly at the terrible sight.
Another expert geologist with the surname w.a.n.g hurriedly covered her mouth with his hands. “Don’t sob noisily,” he whispered.
Luo Ning buried her face into w.a.n.g Gong’s chest as she sobbed painfully. The instructor took his hat off to bid a silent farewell to the remains of his comrade. Soon after that, Little Kid and I gathered his corpse in a bag and buried him. This engineer had only been with us for less than three days. I had only known that he was from Beijing. He had pa.s.sed away silently just like this before I even got the chance to know his name.
Big Guy digged the soil with a military shovel. After a few scoops, a big blue fireball that was the size of a basketball, suddenly flew out from the pit he had just dug. It hovered in midair for two seconds before suddenly it charged towards the crowd. The members of the squad hastily dodged it.
The fireball landed on the ground. Its blue flame gradually extinguished. It turned out that it was a small weird-looking ladybug. Its entire body was like a transparent red crystal and its wings were also sparkling and translucent. Its translucent innards could vaguely be seen through its transparent carapace. It was as if a faint flame was flowing within it, and gave off a mysterious strangeness.
We all looked at each other, and wondered what was this bug. But no one seemed to have a clue. It was probably a species that had yet been discovered. w.a.n.g Gong went closer to it curiously and adjusted his thick gla.s.ses that sat on the bridge of his nose. He excitedly picked up the ladybug that was as red as crimson flame with two fingers for a closer examination. However, his fingers were ignited by a blue coloured flame the moment they came into contact with the ladybug. The raging flames instantly swallowed his body whole.
w.a.n.g Gong’s entire body was engulfed by the blue flames. A layer of blisters showed up on his skin in an instant but they were immediately burnt. The gla.s.ses sitting on his nose bridge was deformed from the heat and fell onto the ground. He was also struggling and twisting on the floor in pain.