Past events in Beicheng

A night of heavy snow hindered Anna's itinerary. When she arrived in St. Petersburg from Moscow, it was already a day later than expected. She stood outside the train station, stamping her feet anxiously, looking a little panicked at the passing vehicles.

"Student Anna, your expression is really exaggerated. Don't think too much about my grandpa. He has a weird temper like a wild wolf or other wild beasts."

Anna looked at Ilya helplessly: "Don't talk about your grandfather like that, your EQ is so low that I don't even want to talk to you."

Ilya shrugged his shoulders: "It's not that I'm alarmist. During the Soviet Union, he drove away more than 20 nurses. He only answered my dad's phone, but he just yelled at him on the phone. I said, you When you get there, don’t even take out your luggage, I don’t think you can survive this winter vacation, so just stay for three days and leave.”

"Can it be more annoying than you?"

"Whatever you want," Ilya rolled his eyes: "but remember, you don't touch anything in his house, he doesn't allow anything to be moved, especially his study, you will die if you enter it .”

In the afternoon, the long-distance bus finally sent the two of them to their destination. The road was very muddy and the snow was very slippery to step on.The winter on the outskirts of Green City is very quiet, almost hardly populated.Before Anna reached the door of the villa, she had already fallen three times. She shook off the muddy water on her clothes and was about to ring the doorbell.

"Wait!" Ilya covered the doorbell: "I'll take you here, press it after I'm gone!"

Anna looked at this guy in surprise, and saw that he really ran back to the main road with one foot deep and one shallow foot, and left by himself: "Ah! My God! This bastard!"

She had no choice but to lift the luggage by herself and was about to ring the doorbell again. When she raised her hand, she hesitated for a moment—what kind of person is the other party?He is an officer who has experienced World War II, and he was the former secretary of the Moscow Cultural Association. Could he be the strange old man that Ilya said?

The door opened just like that suddenly, and a tall old man appeared in front of him.

"Hi, miss, are you lost?"

Anna was a little embarrassed. She remembered that she was covered in mud and water and looked embarrassed.

"Come in, dear, you're frozen."

The old man's body seemed to be still strong, and he even took part of the luggage from her.

"You, I'm sorry, this is my letter of introduction. I'm the volunteer who came to take care of you. You can call me Anna." Anna stood in this ancient villa, which was much warmer than she imagined, at least Not as bad as Elijah described.

"Hi, Miss Anna, I'm going to get you a cup of tea." The old man poured water from his samovar: "Will you drink black tea or green tea."

"Black tea," Anna took the teacup. The temperature in the room finally made her feel a little more relaxed: "Your hearing is really good, and you actually found me right outside the door."

The old man seemed to be silent for a moment, but then smiled: "Maybe I'm used to it, I'm always afraid that someone will knock on the door, but I won't be able to hear it."

"Mr. Braginsky, I'm a medical student, Ilya's classmate, Ilya is excellent, he's in brain surgery, I'm in clinical practice, well, I'm from Moscow." Anna was thinking about the topic cautiously .

Elijah?Ivan thought about it, he seemed to have seen him at Anya's funeral, of course, he was still a child at that time, but now he seems to be a college student.

"He is the same as you, his eyes are purple." Anna looked into the eyes of the old man, and she found that his eyes were still bright.

"Call me Ivan. Thank you for taking care of me. There are very few people here in winter. I hope you will not be too bored. Is it okay to live downstairs? You seem to have a lot of luggage." Ivan took her to the At the door of the room: "No one has lived in it for many years, but it is very warm. You can put your luggage first, and you can take a rest. I have something to organize, so I will go to work first."

The old man closed the door and went out.Anna lay on the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt that there must be something wrong with Ilya's head, because she didn't feel that the old man brought her any discomfort. On the contrary, he was personable, polite, and amiable.

Ivan was sitting in front of the desk, arranging his books, and then he saw the college student volunteer coming out with a photo frame in his hand.

"What's the matter? Miss, did you see something you were interested in?" Ivan smiled at her.

"Is this a photo of you when you were young? My God! You are so handsome!" Anna pointed to the photo frame in her hand.

Ivan looked carefully: "No, this is not me, this is my father, you see, he has black hair, and his uniform is from World War I."

World War I?It's an old term.Anna put the photo frame on the table: "What are you arranging?"

"Notes from my youth."

"Is this your medal?"

"Yes, but I have a lot of medals, and this is not the best. Take a look if you like it. It's time for me to cook. I'm sorry, I can only cook red cabbage soup." Ivan put the medals on The box was handed to her, and she walked out of the study.

Anna never thought of asking a 94-year-old man to cook for her, but the old man smiled and pressed her on the chair: "Take a break, miss, I am very strong, sometimes I feel that my body has forgotten to age , I'm glad you're here, because I might be able to eat something else. But for the first meal, let me treat you, it's not bad."

The soup tasted very good. Anna felt that her situation was far from what she had imagined. Lying in the warm blanket, she took out her mobile phone and sent a message to Ilya. After a long time, she did not receive a reply. She shook her head. The mobile phone only noticed that the signal here is really bad!

She had no choice but to get up from the bed again, thinking of trying again in the living room.

"Aren't you asleep yet?"

When passing by the study, she found that the old man was still sitting there.

"Ah, I'm packing some things."

"Whose photo is this?" Anna pointed to the photo frame in his hand and asked, "This is a foreigner?"

"Chinese." Ivan handed her the frame.

Ah, Anna thought, looking like a star.

"Many girls like him." Ivan laughed teasingly.

"A lot of girls liked you when you were young." Anna also joked with him.

"No, no," Ivan pointed to the photo frame, and then to himself: "No one likes me, all the girls like him."

Anna glanced at the photo again, the Chinese person's smile is heartwarming, who is he?Why did he look at this old photo with that kind of eyes?

Ivan took the photo and put it back on the desktop: "Go to sleep, Anna, I have to sleep too, accompany me to get a haircut tomorrow, or my hair will grow as long as his." Ivan pointed out He pointed to the photo on the table and walked out.

"Ding dong."

Anna finally received a text message from Ilya: "Then you stay longer, just let me take over your study room, bring me some St. Petersburg sausages when you come back, don't come back, I'm going to bed."

The idiot!Anna deleted the text message and almost threw her phone into the Baltic Sea!She bit her lip, put the phone that was about to run out of power back on the bedside table, and taunted Ilya a hundred times before falling asleep.

The next morning, the two of them went out. It was still dark and the road was muddy, and the town was half an hour away.Ivan stretched out his hand to hold her: "Don't worry, I'm familiar with it. After all, I've lived here for almost ten years."

This time Anna didn't fall down, and they finally reached the small town smoothly. The barber shop in the town just opened, and the boss was stunned when he saw Ivan.

"Cut it short," said Ivan, taking off his hat.

"Oh, good." The boss ran over in fear.

Anna sat aside and picked up a magazine. Looking at the old man in the mirror, he seemed to be able to see his appearance when he was young. He was very similar to Ilya, but his temperament was completely different.

After paying, Ivan touched his head: "I think it's much better now, what do you think?"

Anna nodded: "Very handsome."

"Handsome?"

"Handsome? I said a new word."

"It's okay, I accept your compliment."

Anna took the initiative to reach out and took his arm: "When I'm with you, it feels like communicating with a nobleman."

Is Russia no longer shy away from talking about the nobility?

Ivan put on his hat and picked up his cane: "My mother is a professor of German at Moscow University. She and her father are indeed nobles."

Their lunch was settled in the restaurant in the small town, and the owner of the restaurant also looked terrified when he saw Ivan.

"What's wrong?" Ivan looked into the eyes of the boss: "Your hands are shaking more than mine."

"No, no, it's just you, you seem to have changed a bit." The boss closed his mouth while talking.

Ivan nodded: "My changes didn't prevent you from serving the food, did they?"

"No, no." The boss fled from the table.

Anna quietly came over: "They seem to be afraid of you."

Ivan raised his eyebrows: "Yes, they are all afraid of me."

When he returned home, Ivan was a little more satisfied with himself in the mirror, and he walked back to the desk, ready to continue organizing his things.After working for a while, he saw Anna looking at him, so he simply put down the things in his hand and sat down with a cup of tea: "Honey, I know you have questions, if you want to ask, just ask."

Anna blushed a little, but she still spoke: "Who is this?"

"His name is Wang Yao. In the winter of [-], he came to Leningrad from China to study. We shared a dormitory."

"roommate?"

Ivan thought for a moment: "Lover."

"Ah..." Anna was a little surprised, she looked at the photo again: "You mean, that kind of lover?"

"I'm sorry to upset you."

"No, no," Anna waved her hands again and again: "I didn't mean that, Mr. Ivan, maybe you were prejudiced against homosexuality at that time, but medicine has confirmed that this is not a disease, it is normal! I am a doctor! You believe me !"

"..."

"Believe me, gays can get married in many places now!"

"I don't believe you, I'm just a little surprised, maybe I've been confined in this place for too long." Ivan looked at the person in the photo: "I didn't even know the disintegration of the Soviet Union."

"May I take a look at this photo again?" Anna became more curious about the Chinese.

"Look, I accompanied him in a photo studio on Nevsky Prospekt. He went to pick it up alone. I didn't see it until many years later."

"Do you... live in the same dormitory?"

Seeing her expression, Ivan suddenly burst out laughing: "No, no, little girl, you are thinking wrongly, nothing happened to us." Speaking of this, Ivan suddenly felt a little sour: "It's not right to say that. , alas, it's a short story, but it's too long, and nothing happened to us, but everything that should have happened has happened."

This is a chatterbox that has been dusty for a long time, and it seemed to be unstoppable when it was suddenly opened. Ivan just talked like this, starting from the first time they met: "You know, in fact, I I never thought of falling in love with an oriental person. When I saw him for the first time, I thought it was a girl. He just stood there so quietly. I was in a hurry to go to the library. I didn’t expect to see him more One glance."

"But that's how I fell in love with him! You know, I met a partner after I joined the army. His name is Torres. He is a good guy, a very nice guy, but his personality is a little bit unbearable for me. He takes care of me. Things are more verbose than a woman, although he is kind. After Torres left that day, I didn't know who gave me the wine, so I thought I was drunk, and then you know? Wait for me When I ran upstairs and was in a hurry to go to the toilet, I saw him happily fixing the heating! While fixing the heating, he told me kindly: because I mixed water into your wine!" Ivan imitated The expression on Wang Yao's face.

Anna laughed out loud.

"He is an interesting person," Ivan commented: "He gives people an inexplicable sense of security. When he comes into your sight, you can't help but want to follow him. Ah, he was sitting at this table at the time Going to school, without looking up, I looked at him and wondered, would he like me? Would he like men? How can I know if he likes men? I don’t think I will ever get the insight.”

"But I think he already knew my feelings for him." Ivan looked at the empty seat opposite him: "I loved him so passionately at that time, I was willing to be thrown into prison because of it, ah , At that time, this person was going to jail. Sometimes I would complain, what was he afraid of?"

"I'm afraid you'll be thrown into prison."

"I used to think so too, but it's not just that." Ivan opened the drawer and closed it again: "He cared about his country, he cared about his people, he didn't dare to look forward to happiness, because he had promised his own Everything is dedicated to them, so he cannot allow himself to break his promise. When China was founded in [-], I was happier than everyone else, maybe even happier than the Chinese. I think his motherland is still there, and he Finally, you don’t have to worry about whether you won’t be able to see his motherland for the last time, right?”

"Then, you separated like this? Has he returned to China?"

Ivan smiled: "No, if it wasn't for the war, maybe he would have returned home, but who knows? The war came like this. Before going to the front line, I made a special trip to tell him to let him leave. But he didn't. After that...nor, you're too young to know about that war, he had 1 reasons to leave and he didn't leave."

"Because...he loves you."

"His feelings are too obscure and heavy," Ivan sighed: "...But the more I got to know him later, you have to know, in that era, how many people would choose to stay for their lover? He Do you think that giving without expecting anything in return can make his depressed mind feel better?"

Anna felt that the topic was starting to become depressing.

"Many times, we must have thought that each other was dead, but many times, we met miraculously again. Sometimes I think, this is the power of love, we will not be separated, as long as we love each other, we will eventually come together It's just that I don't know that in the East with a long history, they have long understood that there will be many Meng Jiangnus in this world, and no matter how deeply they love, they will not reach a happy ending."

Ivan looked at the dark sky in the distance, and he began to recall his search for so many years, Leningrad, Moscow, the entire Soviet Union, to China, to Germany, to all the places he thought it was possible to find him.He started to talk about his father, his mother, his sister, about Andre, about Researcher Qu and Qu Yizhou.

"This story is too short, but it is too long. We have only been together for two years, but I have been looking for him for nearly 70 years. I once hated him, hated fate, feared all day long, and dared not To touch the memories of the past, I once went crazy, once wanted to commit suicide, I stood up countless times, and was knocked down countless times, until now." Ivan took out the piece of paper with his name on it: "I finally Understand, in fact, time, space, and nothing can change the simplicity of one thing, he loves me deeply, and I love him deeply, this has never changed."

"Anna, are you okay?"

"Anna, don't cry, this is not a sad story."