Past events in Beicheng

Chapter 24

The smell of disinfectant is... very weak.

Mouth... very thirsty.

Ivan half-opened his eyes, he wasn't sure if he was in heaven or hell.A young woman's face came into the picture. She was holding a glass bottle filled with a transparent liquid and hung it on the iron rack beside it, replacing the previous empty bottle.

"Are you awake?"

"..."

"Comrade young officer, is your expression asking me if you are dead? I am honored to answer you, you are still alive."

"Lenin... Grad?"

"It counts, but it doesn't count. It's almost here to Mandroki. Let me take a look at your wound."

The nurse lifted the quilt and pressed on his incision: "You are lucky, the shrapnel didn't hurt the internal organs."

Mandroki is three hundred kilometers away from Leningrad, and Ivan is more concerned about how he got here and who sent him here.

"The person who sent you to the medical station is a foreigner. He was also injured, but it was a minor injury, which is different from yours." The nurse reached under his pillow and took a look: "He told us to give you this, Is there anything else?"

Ivan pinched the notebook, he felt his hands trembling: "No."

The nurse hurried off to attend to her next patient.

Ivan pulled out his other hand with difficulty, and stroked the dark red cowhide cover of the notebook.

"This notebook will last 100 years. The outer skin is specially tanned cowhide." Ivan smiled and murmured to himself, "It will never fade."

As soon as I opened the notebook, a photo fell out. The photo was in a dark brown tone. Although it was not the most popular color that year, it matched the human temperament in the picture best.His eyes are soft and quiet, looking at the camera is like looking at you in a photo, even if he doesn't smile, he doesn't feel serious, let alone he is smiling at you.

"That proud photographer on Nevsky Prospekt, he doesn't care about my dissatisfaction, and the walls of his studio are full of awards." Ivan picked up the photo and held it up in front of his eyes: "So you were like this that day."

This is not a single room. Another patient in the clinic turned his head and looked at the person talking to himself. He decided to express his protest before the other party completely disturbed him.

Suddenly, this man with a notebook and going crazy sat up on the bed!As if he saw something that surprised him, he covered his mouth and sat up like that, shaking the iron stand of the drip bottle!

"Oh my God, comrade, what are you crying about?"

Ivan ignored him, and he stared closely at the first page of the notebook, on which was his most familiar handwriting.

"Song of the Four Seasons"

The date is that summer, the song he sang to himself by the lake!The song of the scenery of the four seasons!Song of the Four Seasons!

He can't understand all the lyrics, but he seems to understand the meaning of the lyrics. In the oriental tunes, behind the scenery of the four seasons, he seems to have finally waited for the hope he longed for.

"Lie down, comrade! Don't sit up! Your wound will open!" The nurse ran back and pushed the patient back on the bed.

"Where is this person?" Ivan tugged on her sleeve.

"Who?"

"The man who gave you this notebook! Where is this man?"

"Who?" The nurse pressed his shoulder impatiently.

"The foreigner is the one who sent me to the medical station."

"It's time to go back to Leningrad, lie down, comrade, the doctor is busy, and I don't have time to sew up your wound again!"

"Leningrad." Ivan had to lie down because his wound was tearing.

He frowned and fought against the pain in his body. In this stinky ward, he didn't have any complaints or any displeasure. He even wanted to shout out loudly to express his sorrow, pain, and torture for so many years. To pent up feelings are shouted out.His silhouette in the blizzard, the night when he was lying on his shoulders, every day in his villa in Green City, he was in the fireworks of that Christmas.Memories that I dare not recall for so many years flooded my heart together, half happy, half wronged.

"No matter who it is, when she comes back, life and death will be everywhere after all." Said the bed on the other side coldly.

"It's different." Ivan turned his face away, letting tears drip onto the pillow.

"It's all the same," the man's words were full of sadness: "My dear, it's all the same."

Mandroki was not safe. After Lake Ladoga began to melt, the combat supplies and hospitals on this side began to retreat.The beginning of [-] was not smooth, the German army still insisted on holding on, and the news from other theaters was still tragic.Wang Yao didn't come to him, it was Andre who came to him.

"Captain transportation, you're recovering well." Andre stepped on the edge of the hospital bed, wanting to light a cigarette.

Ivan got off the bed and kicked him, and Andrei almost shook the cigarette away before he could dodge in time.

"Hey, can you withstand my punch now? If you can, you may listen to the news I bring."

"Say."

"To Kharkov, or to Moscow?"

"Why not stay in Leningrad, Marshal Zhukov is in Leningrad."

"There is no fuel, should I continue to be the captain of the transport team here?" Andre felt his fists were itching.

"You went to fight for it?"

"No, an order from the marshal."

"To Moscow."

"The battle in Moscow is about to end, I think it's better to go to Kharkov." Andre complained.

The development of the battle later made him grateful that he had listened to Ivan's words. A total of 24 Soviet troops were captured in Kharkov, and more than 1000 tanks were lost.Then came the choice of Rzhev-Sychevka and Stalingrad, the two still disagreed, but in the end Andrei followed Ivan to Stalingrad, when he complained about this damn choice at the command post At that time, Rzhev-Sychevka reported tragic casualties.

Stalingrad was not a good place either. They stayed in the dead from August [-] to February [-], which was not too far from the time when the Germans were driven out of the Soviet Union.

In August [-], as they were approaching Poland, news finally came from the rear that Leningrad had been completely released from the siege.

"More than 800 days!" Ivan walked out of the command post alone, looking back at his hometown.

He carried that notebook in his tightest pocket, from Leningrad to Moscow, from Moscow to Stalingrad, then from Stalingrad to Ukraine, and now to Poland.He sometimes imagines that he is dead, but now he is lucky and alive.

"We met again."

He was looking forward to victory, peace, and when they met again, he said this sentence to himself again. This reunion will be different from any previous one. He stretched his hand into his arms and touched the book. Notebook, he knew that this would be a new beginning, the meaning of all this was absolutely extraordinary, and just imagining it could drive him crazy.

In [-], the Soviet army finally entered Berlin.Andre danced with excitement, but unfortunately, he was hit in the calf by a stray bullet from a friendly army and was sent back to Moscow by plane.

By the time Ivan returned to Moscow to see him, a month had passed since Germany surrendered.

"You came back so late!!" Andrei was furious because Ivan missed the celebration of Victory Day.

"I went to Leningrad first."

Andre's feet were still wrapped in gauze, and he couldn't get out of bed, so he had to lower his anger: "Have you found your family yet?"

"I found it, all right, I just came to see you, I'm leaving."

"Where are you going? Isn't your transfer order in Moscow?"

"Yes, but I have to go back to Leningrad now." Ivan stood up and touched a cigarette in Andrei's coat: "Do you have a match?"

"You actually smoke." Andre took out a box of matches from the drawer of the bedside table with disdain and threw it over.

Ivan lit the cigarette and threw the match back: "You are limping."

"I'm not limping!" Andre growled, angrily throwing a pillow at the man's back.

Because he missed the Victory Day celebration, Ivan was unable to see the grand ceremony.Peace was long overdue, the war that lasted four years ended, and the war that killed 260 million people ended, but the joy was dampened by the worry of not being able to reunite with "him", which made him Disappointed.Sleeping at night without air-raid sirens sometimes feels surreal, whether in Moscow or Leningrad.

It was true that Andre was not limping, and although he was badly injured, he made a full recovery and returned to his job.After a year or so, he heard that Ivan himself had applied for a transfer to Leningrad, and he never saw him again.Until the calendar turned to [-], Ivan Ivanovich Braginsky, who had not appeared for many years, appeared.

Andre was very honored to be transferred to the intelligence committee. He liked the feeling of privilege, and the office here was grand enough and big enough.Ivan, who was sitting across from him, didn't change much, he couldn't tell if he was doing well, and his expression was still as cold as he was in [-].Andrei couldn't think of anything he would come to him for, at least if it was the other way around, he would never have made a special trip to Leningrad to see this slap in the face.

The secretary brought two cups of tea, then sat back at the desk beside him, and started typing.

"Do me a favor," Ivan said straight to the point: "I need the national death list."

Andre slammed the teacup onto the table, startling the secretary beside him.

"Go out first and close the door." Andre said to the young man beside him with a gloomy expression.

The young secretary hurriedly exited the room and closed the door.

"Why do you need a death list?"

Ivan took a document out of his bag and handed it to him.Andre didn't answer at all, and directly took pictures of the documents on the ground: "Damn! Braginsky! Are you still looking for him? You are such a pervert!"

Ivan picked up the documents from the ground: "I have checked the list of Leningrad in detail, there is no record of him, that professor, he took his family to the United States in [-], I can't do anything Get in touch with him. The factories don't have his records, the schools don't have his records, he's not on the death list, so I need national ones."

"He's dead!" Andrei yelled, "Don't you understand? He's dead! Forget about him! Ivan! You don't stay in Moscow, you go to Leningrad, damn it, you I have been obsessed with it for long enough, forget him, whether he is dead or not, forget him!"

"He won't die, he is not a person who makes promises easily, so as long as he promises, he won't die!"

"He's dead! What is the promise? Ah? Didn't I make a promise? Didn't the stray bullet hit my leg!? Who didn't promise to come back alive, and then, you saw, Leningrad was besieged More than 800 days! Even the rats in the sewer were eaten up in [-]! Why is he alive? How can he be alive?"

Andre didn't expect Ivan to get angry, so before he could escape, he was punched in the face.

Andre sat on the ground and spat out blood: "Yes, you haven't grown old yet, bah, damn it, you madman, don't you understand? You fell in love with a man? This is a pervert! You are a pervert! You ill!"

"I know I'm a pervert!" Ivan suddenly howled hysterically: "Yes, I'm a pervert! I'm sick! But what can I do? I love him, I just love him, no matter where he is, I will Get him out!"

"He! Dead! Dead!" Andre got up and clamped his collar: "I won't check for you! I'm going to send you to the hospital! Damn it! That damned Chinese!"

He felt Ivan's hand pinch behind him, and they wrestled, just as they had done all those years ago.I don't know how long it took, maybe a little longer than half an hour, Ivan got up from the ground first, wiped the blood off his face: "His name is Wang Yao, I'll see you in a week."

The office door opened and closed.

Andre was lying on the ground panting heavily, he felt his nose was bleeding out like a faucet, he got up and wanted to tear up the document or throw it out of the window directly, but he knew that everything was wrong It doesn't make sense, because he knows his name is Wang Yao, and he remembers that person's name is Wang Yao.

When the secretary came in, he was taken aback by the situation in the room. He straightened the leader's portrait in horror, and dared not speak when he saw the mess in the room.

"Call out all the death lists across the country, and arrange five people to check to see if there is such a person, and give me a reply within this week." Andre pressed the documents to him: "Now restore the office to its original state." Andre walked out holding his nose, just like the person just now.

When it was almost a week, Andre called Ivan's office ahead of time: "Hey, I checked, I called ahead because I don't want to see you, damn it."

"Say." Ivan didn't expect that he would receive a call ahead of time. He tapped the paper with a pen until the paper was full of ink.

"Damn it! No! Our people spent five days checking all the lists, damn it, including Siberia! No!"

Ivan breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard the other party drop the phone heavily.

[-] was a good year, Ivan thought as he slumped on his chair, Wang Yao was still alive, and his sister was getting married.

Anya is married!It was a bit of a surprise, and the whole family was ecstatic, like their doom had finally come to an end.Taking advantage of the short summer, Braginsky’s family organized a wedding. When Ivan rushed back to Moscow, the wound on his face had healed. He was wearing an officer’s uniform, sitting in the church, watching his father holding his sister into the auditorium.

After the dinner, Anya saw her father and her younger brother passing by each other without speaking, so she couldn't help sighing heavily.Seeing her sighing, her mother secretly came over to comfort her: "My dear, don't worry about these two men on your happy day, okay?"

Anya had no choice but to nod, and went in with her husband on her arm.

The home in Moscow really made Ivan feel strange. When he put his luggage in the locker, he felt as if he had come to a hotel.When he took off his dress, he accidentally touched the scar on his neck. This memory has been buried for too long, and he will only remember it when he returns to his home in Moscow.When he was 12, he kissed the boy in the picture book, and his father almost slit his throat for it.

He still remembers that album, blond hair, blue eyes, European pride.He took out his notebook from his pocket, took out his photo, and couldn't help laughing—black hair, black eyes, he didn't pay attention to you when he first saw you, and he took off your shirt without permission, damn it , what was I thinking at the time?Did you take you for a girl?When did I become obsessed with you?

He looked at this photo, the only photo, at the smile he left at that moment.

The wedding is over and the guests finally leave.There were only three people in the family now, and he heard his parents arguing in the next room.

"I don't want to see him, Elizabeth! He's a monster! Send him back to Leningrad!"

The father's voice was high, and he kept repeating the word "monster" over and over, but his mother didn't seem to understand, and the other was reluctant to explain.

Ivan lay down on the bed, put the photo on his chest, and from the quarrel next door, he began to assume that this was a wedding, his own wedding, the guests had already left, and he was lying next to him.

"It's great that you're alive," Ivan said to his photo.

Will you be pleasantly surprised when we meet again?