By the afternoon, the small team had removed thirteen mines. They had all been defused, laid out neatly in a row on the ground.

Song Ran squatted to one side taking photos. Seeing Li Zan arranging the mines into two rows, she asked, "Is there a difference?"

"These six are tripwire-activated, and these seven are pressure-activated."

Song Ran held up the microphone and asked, "What's pressure-activated?"

"They explode the moment you step on them."

"What about the ones in movies?"

"Movies?" He turned his head to look at her.

"In the movies, they always show that you have to lift your foot for it to explode after stepping on it."

"Those are release-activated," Li Zan said. "They generally appear in movies. They're almost never used in reality. They're all the kind that explode the moment you step on them. Who has time for melodrama?"

"Oh." She had a sudden realization.

In the past, when watching movies, she always wondered why landmines had such a huge bug, always allowing the protagonist to escape. So it was just a screenwriter's design.

Around four in the afternoon, the squad cleared a safe passage. The accompanying Dongguo soldiers set up a line by the passage as a marker and sent someone 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 dead tired. They walked back in silence, focused only on the road. The lightheartedness from the morning was gone, leaving only exhaustion.

The sky was cloudless, as blue as the sea; the sun was still scorching, beating down on the mountains and fields.

As they passed a hillside, the wheat fields covering the mountain were like a golden ocean. Song Ran had sharp eyes and spotted an old man with a sweat towel wrapped around his head, wearing ethnic clothing. His back was hunched, and he carried a burlap sack, walking slowly along a ridge between the fields.

The old man was skin and bones, but the burlap sack on his back was exceptionally bulky, like a fat little child, weighing him down and bending his back.

Song Ran turned on her camera, zoomed in the lens, and spoke softly into the microphone: "We've encountered a local old man on the road. He's carrying a large burlap sack, maybe... grain?"

Li Zan heard her, looked up, and saw the old man in his coarse cloth clothes and pants walking between the blue sky and the wheat fields, like an oil painting.

He squinted to get a better look and said, "It's grain. When we came by this morning, he was harvesting wheat in the field on the other side of the mountain."

Song Ran said, "It looks very heavy."

Li Zan suddenly asked, "Guess how many jin it is?"

Song Ran couldn't guess. "I don't know. ...Can you tell?"

Li Zan glanced at it again, thought for a moment, and said, "Eighty jin, I'd say."

Song Ran had no concept of weight. She smoothed the sweat-dampened strands of hair under her cap's brim and asked, "How heavy is eighty jin?"

He looked her up and down and said, "About as heavy as you."

"..." she said quietly, "I'm not that light. Besides, I don't think that sack is that heavy."

Captain Yang, who was nearby, chimed in, "I think it's heavier than you. Probably over a hundred jin."

So it turned out everyone had heard their conversation. As soon as Captain Yang spoke, the soldiers started a lively discussion, chattering among themselves:

"Don't be so dramatic. Fifty jin, maybe. It might be full of cotton."

"Bullshit, where would you find cotton here?"

"I think sixty or seventy jin is more like it."

"It's definitely ninety jin."

The clamorous discussion continued until the topic suddenly shifted.

"That old man can carry ninety jin? I bet even you couldn't carry that."

"I can't carry ninety jin? Believe it or not, I'll hoist you onto my shoulders right now."

Song Ran: "..."

Amidst the clamor, Li Zan said, "Why don't we go over and try carrying it?"

Everyone exchanged glances, eager to give it a try.

Captain Yang: "I think that's a good idea."

Song Ran: "..."

'Are these a bunch of elementary school students?'

Li Zan explained the idea to Yi Sang, the Dongguo soldier accompanying them. Unexpectedly, Yi Sang also showed great interest. He shouted something in the Dongguo language up the hillside, and the old man stopped.

The group of soldiers, beaming with delight, all jumped onto the hillside. They crossed the harvested wheat field, stepping on the calf-high stalks, laughing and joking as they ran up the mountain.

Song Ran's eyes were wide with astonishment. She raised her camera and ran after them.

The old man stood trembling on the ridge, looking a little panicked as the group of young soldiers swarmed toward him.

Yi Sang smiled and explained their intentions. Only then did the old man relax. He set down the large burlap sack from his back, panting as he took off his headscarf to wipe his sweat.

The burlap sack was as tall as a child and as wide as a well.

Captain Yang tried to lift it and put it back down. "Damn. This is fucking heavy. It's definitely ninety jin."

Li Zan grabbed the straps, hoisted the sack onto his back, hefted it, and said, "About right."

The others all took turns trying to carry it, as if they had come across some strange curiosity.

Li Zan said to Yi Sang, "Is the old gentleman over eighty?"

After asking, Yi Sang said, "Eighty-three."

Li Zan said, "The old gentleman is in good health, to be able to carry such heavy grain."

Yi Sang replied directly, "Ha, all farmers are like this. Forget grandfathers, even grandmothers can carry over a hundred jin. They've done hard labor their whole lives, they're used to it."

Li Zan looked at the old man's shrunken frame, gave a very faint smile, and asked again, "How many people are in his family?"

The old man raised his dry, rough hands, gesturing as he muttered under his breath.

Yi Sang translated, "Nine people. But his eldest son's family fled to a neighboring country. His youngest son became a soldier. At home, there are still his wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren."

"Does he still farm usually?"

"He does. But because of the war, a lot of the crops have been destroyed. From such a large plot of land, he only harvested this little bit of wheat. He doesn't know what they'll do after they finish eating it."

Li Zan pressed his lips together and said no more. He stood there for a moment. Noticing something in his peripheral vision, he turned his head and saw Song Ran filming. Not used to being on camera, he looked away a bit unnaturally, took a step back, and moved out of the shot.

Not far away, everyone was still cheerfully taking turns carrying the sack of grain.

Li Zan stood to one side, watching his comrades, and couldn't help but smile faintly.

Song Ran looked at his smiling profile, hesitating whether to film it. Just then, he turned his head and met her gaze.

The casual smile hadn't yet faded from his face. He said, "I was wrong just now. That sack is more than eighty jin."

She nodded. "Mm."

When the old man learned they were there to clear mines, he was very happy. He tremblingly took out a few crumpled cigarettes from his pocket and eagerly offered them to everyone. Judging by the cigarettes, they were probably scavenged from a battlefield—good stuff, likely treasured for a long time.

Captain Yang immediately waved his hand, refusing.

The old man couldn't understand them. His face crinkled into a smile as he continued to offer the cigarettes expectantly.

Captain Yang said to Yi Sang, "Tell him we don't want them."

But Yi Sang said, "Just take them. He'll be happier if you do."

So Captain Yang took one, and two or three other comrades also took one.

The last one was offered to Li Zan. Li Zan smiled. "Thank you, I don't smoke."

Yi Sang explained, and only then did the old man carefully tuck the last cigarette back into his pocket.

After their fun was over, they said goodbye to the old man.

The group of young soldiers in camouflage uniforms once again ran into the golden fields and down the hillside, swarming like spilled beans.

Li Zan was the last to leave. He patted the burlap sack on the old man's back and secretly stuffed ten US dollars into it. After doing so, he was about to jump down into the wheat field when he realized the little tail, Song Ran, was still following behind him.

Her expression was a little strange, and the camera in her hand had clearly recorded the last scene.