Li Xiangdong looked back at the people in the wagon and realized he actually knew a few of the educated youth.
They were the young people who had sung and danced on the train. He had chatted with them a little along the way, so they could just about be considered acquaintances.
“Is this your wagon team?” Li Xiangdong walked over.
“Yeah! Didn’t expect to run into you here. Come on, get up here! Give me your luggage. Everyone, give him a hand!”
A few people reached out to take Li Xiangdong’s luggage and helped pull him up.
Once he climbed aboard, Li Xiangdong followed the young man he had been talking to and sat at the very back of the wagon bed.
The young man said to Li Xiangdong, “Hi, I’m Wang Yang. What’s your name? Are you going to Beiluo County too?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m going to Beiluo too. My name’s Li Xiangdong. Thanks!”
“Hey, no need to thank me. We’re all brothers from all over the country. Are you going there to visit relatives or because you’ve been Sent-Down to the Countryside?”
“I’m going there to stay with relatives. There really wasn’t enough food back home in Shandong, and I heard there’s plenty of land here, so I applied to come.”
“Oh, I see! Don’t worry, there’s lots of land and few people here, and the soil’s fertile. You’ll definitely have enough to eat. Come on, I’ll introduce everyone.”
Wang Yang introduced him to the people nearby. “Let me introduce you all. This is Li Xiangdong. He was on the same train as us, and he’s going to Beiluo County to stay with relatives. Some of you have seen him before, right?”
“Yeah, we’ve seen him! We saw him on the train.”
Wang Yang turned to Li Xiangdong again. “Comrade Li, let me introduce everyone. This is Liu Shengli, this is Sun Dajun, this is Shen Fang, and this is Yu Yourong… We’re all from Ice City.”
Wang Yang introduced everyone one by one. Li Xiangdong didn’t make much effort to remember their names, but Yu Yourong made quite an impression on him.
He couldn’t help it. Her name was so unusual that he couldn’t resist taking another couple of looks at her.
Sure enough, her figure lived up to her name.
After the introductions, Wang Yang asked, “By the way, Comrade Li, which village in Beiluo are you going to? Is it far from Xiangyang Farm, where we’re headed?”
“I don’t know either. This is my first time here. The village I’m going to is called Shuangjing Village. Do any of you know it?”
They all shook their heads. It was their first time here too; how could they possibly know the area?
“No worries. We’re all in Luobei County, so even if there’s some distance between us, it can’t be that far. Comrade Li, now that we know each other, come visit us at Xiangyang Farm when you get a chance!”
“Sure. And don’t call me Comrade Li; it sounds too formal. Just call me Li Xiangdong or Dongzi!”
“All right, then we won’t stand on ceremony. We’ll call you Dongzi!”
They were all seventeen- or eighteen-year-olds, and naturally weren’t the sort to hold grudges or keep their distance. After chatting for a while, they quickly got to know each other.
Their conversation made the journey less boring, and the two-plus hours passed in no time.
By the time they reached Beiluo County town, it was nearly noon. The wagon team dropped them off at the bus station in Beiluo County.
The remaining educated youth still had to report to the farm.
As they were leaving, Li Xiangdong told Wang Yang and the others, “Once I’m settled, I’ll come visit you at Xiangyang Farm. If you have time, you can come find me in Shuangjing Village too!”
“Sure, no problem. We’ll definitely come visit!”
After parting ways with them, Li Xiangdong shouldered his luggage and asked someone for directions to the Resettlement Office. He went there to complete the paperwork, and by the time he was done, it was already two or three in the afternoon.
Winter days were short. By three-thirty or four, it was already dark.
Shuangjing Village lay to the northwest of Beiluo County, more than thirty li away, in the foothills of the Lesser Khingan Mountains.
The Lesser Khingan Mountains were mostly low hills, with the highest elevation reaching only about a thousand meters. The mountains around Beiluo County were mostly two or three hundred meters high, while much of the surrounding terrain consisted of hills only thirty or forty meters high.
Walking there from the county town would take four or five hours for the more than thirty li. If the snow outside town was deeper, it might take even longer.
So there was no way he could make it that day. Reluctantly, he spent thirty cents to stay the night at a wagon inn.
Li Xiangdong set off for Shuangjing Village the next morning.
Before he left, the people at the wagon inn told him he should find a few people heading in the same direction, or flag down a horse cart along the way. It would be safer that way.
But Li Xiangdong was young and full of spirit. Thinking that nothing could happen in broad daylight, he paid no attention to their advice.
There were still quite a few people coming and going as he left the county town. But once he was out of town, the number of pedestrians dropped sharply. After walking for two or three hours, he was the only one on the road.
Li Xiangdong had indeed underestimated the depth of the snow and the cold outside town.
Even though it was daytime, the temperature could still drop below minus twenty degrees. A gust of wind could cut through even the thickest clothes, stinging his face like little knives.
Worse still was the snow on the ground. It came almost up to his knees, making it even harder to walk.
The journey should have taken four or five hours, but by the time it was almost dark, Li Xiangdong had covered only a little more than half the distance.
Still, Li Xiangdong wasn’t concerned. Any kid who grew up in a village had spent time wandering around outside at night or harvesting crops in the fields after dark.
He and a few of his friends had even gone to sleep in a cemetery to see who was the bravest.
He kept walking until night fell. Judging by his estimate, Shuangjing Village shouldn’t be far now.
He unconsciously quickened his pace. Just then, Li Xiangdong suddenly felt inexplicably cold.
It wasn’t the kind of cold that came from the weather. It was a chill that seemed to rise from within, making the hairs on his body stand on end.
He looked from the middle of the road into the woods on either side. Both were pitch-black, and he couldn’t see a thing.
But Li Xiangdong could clearly feel something in the woods watching him.
There was little need to guess. It was most likely a wolf.
At this time of year, most bears would already be hibernating, while tigers were so rare that seeing one would be like winning the lottery.
That left wolves as the most common animals in the Great Northern Wilderness.
Feeling that something was nearby, his heart skipped a beat, and he remembered the kind stranger’s warning back in the county town.
But it was too late to regret it now. All he could do was grit his teeth and keep going.
He looked at his bare hands, then hurried from the middle of the road to the side and snapped a branch as thick as an egg from a tree. He broke off the smaller twigs and made it into a club.
He hefted it in his hand to test its weight. It felt good enough, and he thought, ‘If those wolves come at me, I’ll fight them!’
There were wolves in the mountains back in his Shandong hometown too. He’d never seen or fought one himself, but he had heard the village elders explain how to fight wolves.
The most important thing was not to be afraid. The more afraid you were, the bolder the wolves became.
At that thought, he tightened his grip on the club and muttered into the darkness, ‘Damn it, if you’re not afraid to die, come on and try me. I could use some meat right about now!’