Chapter 34 30 Crash, crash, crash

"The war correspondent's fate is in his own hands. He can bet it on this horse or that, or withdraw it at the last moment." —Robert Capa Before leaving, Shi Song, a fellow qigong master at Peking University, gave me a divination, saying that my trip to the Gulf was not serious, but there were frequent car accidents.This calculation terrified my friend Yumi Hirashima, a junior sister from the Chinese Department and a Japanese student studying abroad. She specially asked her younger brother to find a small toad from Japan for me to hang on my body, because the Japanese toad pronounces "Kailu", which is the same as "" Go home" is pronounced the same.

The first time I was hit by a car was in Jerusalem, Israel. The damage was not serious, only the right door of the taxi was smashed.I saw that the hexagram was very good, and I only sat in the back row of the car from now on, and I always fastened my seat belt. Xiao Lu from the Economic Counselor's Office of the Cyprus Embassy is a 75th grader from Peking University. He is very righteous and has good driving skills.When I changed planes and applied for a visa in Cyprus, he was obliged to help me. The highway from Paphos to Nicosia couldn't be better. Xiaolu drove the embassy's Volvo-740GL, which is said to be the most crash-resistant car in the world.Xiao Lu is familiar with the road, but I can't always get used to the British road that keeps on the left.The three huge rocks on the sea in the distance are the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.But because of the heavy rain, I couldn't see anything clearly.Seeing that we were still 20 miles away from Nicosia, and we were about to get home, unexpectedly, a small pink Ford got out of the slant, and got on the fast lane without turning on the turn signal.We were going at least 95 mph, and we were right on Ford Jr.'s ass.

I couldn’t get rid of the following scene for several years in a row: it seemed to be in slow motion in front of my eyes, the little red car was spinning and sliding to the front right in the heavy rain, sweeping away 12 center isolation piles, and the sundries in the car flew It was all over the sky, Xiao Lu braked and stopped in the middle of the road. I couldn't figure out how I flew out of the back seat, broke the cushion of the front pillow, and hit Lu on the neck.The Minister of Transport of Cyprus, who happened to pass by here, witnessed the whole process and immediately notified the Chinese embassy with his wireless phone.The police immediately ruled that the responsibility lies entirely with the little red car.But my left arm and Xiaolu's neck couldn't move freely.

The third crash was in Iraq.At that time, we heard that the U.S. military had arrived in Zhahu and was building a refugee camp, so we started gearing up. Because the distance was too long, several people had to take turns to drive.Chief Lao Zhu is the most skilled. From 5:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., he runs all night roads without lights, and dangers abound.As usual, I sat in the back row and strapped myself tightly to the seat. It is estimated that our new Mercedes-260 will not fail to hit others, unless someone hits our ass, then I will be miserable.Because there are 200 liters of spare gasoline in the trunk, I have to turn into a roast duck when it catches fire.

It was dawn and the road was ready. Lao Zhu handed over the steering wheel to Jiang Yaping, an English-language reporter for Xinhua News Agency in Cairo. Jiang claimed to have two years of driving experience.At that time, Lao Zhu mistakenly thought that all young people had the same driving skills as me. In fact, I found out when I went to work in Cairo after the war. At that time, only 6 of the 14 cars in the branch had a driver's license, and those with a driver's license could not drive much faster than walking. .This is because the only dangerous livelihood for Chinese abroad is driving, so the branch leaders do not open the "car ban" for learning to drive, so as to avoid taking responsibility for accidents.Before I opened up a big Jeep, no one had ever dared to drive a long distance alone.I also committed the crime of "violating the system" in a feudal society that is big enough to beheaded.

The front view is very good, the speed of the big Mercedes-Benz with automatic shifting reaches 130 in the blink of an eye, and the electronic sound of the speedometer emits a beautiful beeping sound.Just in the blink of an eye, there was only a "baa", and a few groups of black things jumped over the windshield of the Mercedes-Benz and roared past our heads.The car body shook suddenly, and the seat belt made my heart beat wildly. Stop and take a look, silly!It turns out that the Mercedes-Benz, which stands out from the group of cars, has all the facial features on its front face, and only a turn signal remains in the left front corner.The cooling system was completely crashed and jammed in the engine.The car body was full of smelly sheep blood and minced meat.A hundred meters away, two dead sheep were lying on the road, and several wounded sheep were fleeing. Old Zhu was so angry that he scolded Cairo for sending a trash.

Lao Zhu told me that the highest temperature in summer in the Iraqi desert can reach more than 80 degrees.I said it was impossible and offered to make a bet with him.I believe it all today. The endless sea of ​​sand was steaming under the scorching sun, shining golden light, as if there were 100,000 suns revolving around me from 360 angles, and it was hard to tell which side was the earth and which side was the sky.Under the scorching sun, the asphalt road looks like a dried hairtail, glowing with death.It didn't feel hot just now with the air conditioner turned on, but now everything is here.

There is no place to hide under the scorching sun. Seeing that the liquid crystal thermometer in the Mercedes-Benz-260 has jumped to 60°C, it is still rising steadily.They even stopped a few small cars, but they said they couldn't drag this big Mercedes.Yesterday I was proud that our car has six cylinders, but today I hate why it is not a "flying pigeon", you can ride it and go. Finally a big trailer arrived. I put on my photography vest and imitated the standard traffic police posture, with my left hand straight up and my right arm slightly waving to the left.The big car actually stopped.Old Zhu praised me for my good eyesight, and I couldn't help but get excited again: "It's charm."

When the tow truck driver heard that we were Chinese, he was willing to help.But after rummaging through the whole car, I only found a ten-foot-long rope, which at least connected our Mercedes-260 with his behemoth. The siren sounded for a long time, and we finally trembled on the road.But because the rope was too short, we had to slam on the brakes as soon as the taillights of the big car in front came on, for fear of adding to the already ugly front.In this way, there was still danger, and two knots were tied on the long rope after three drags and two drags. The speed of the car can only be maintained at around 60 kilometers, and the air in the car finally circulates again.However, all the hot air blowing towards our face, the liquid crystal thermometer stagnated when it dropped to 55°C, and the body could no longer sweat.My thick fine hair stood upright like dry wood.I don't know if it's steamed or baked.We were half asleep, but the two-hour journey from Mansour to Baghdad took five and a half hours. We were almost like crows that had passed through nirvana, our bodies shriveled and only a wandering spirit remained.When I saw Ambassador Zheng in Baghdad, I could only say "water".