A Piece of Paper, a Beacon Fire

Cold. The cold that penetrates the bone marrow is like countless needles piercing the skin and flesh, and then burrowing through the bones. Lin Feng woke up from the cold. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a gray sky, with leaden clouds so low that they seemed to be pressing down on his face. Then came the shaky vision, and every bump made the wooden shackle on his neck hit his collarbone hard - it hurt, it hurt like a burning pain. "Are you awake?" A hoarse voice came from the side, "I thought you couldn't survive the cold wind and cold last night." Lin Feng turned his head with difficulty. The speaker was an old prisoner in his fifties. The scars crisscrossing his face were like cracked earth. Half of his left ear was missing, but his eyes were unusually calm. He was also wearing shackles, and his feet dragged the heavy iron chains, dragging two deep ditches in the mud of the official road. Memories came flooding back. No, it's two memories. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.