Battle of the Rhine

The workers rumored that Michael had a bad-tempered girlfriend. At first, Michael tried to explain, but the result became darker and darker.Later, someone mentioned it maliciously, and he responded with a smile, "That's right, the graduates of the University of Munich, aren't they pretty good?"

The rumors are at least a quarter of the truth, after all Michael's head was indeed broken by the "Graduate of the University of Munich".The remaining three-quarters are purely penetrating. "Farmers in rural Arizona can't get European noblemen to be their girlfriends," Michael muttered while touching his military badge, "Fiennes, you're just an evil fool."

Saturday's violent row ended with Michael capitulating.He moved back from the hotel to the Quincy house and took on more chores.There are many old scars left on Quincy's two arms, which are shocking to look at, and they also exist on the body.Michael had never paid much attention to these tiny traces of pale pink before.

"How did you do it?" He rinsed the foam carefully with hot water. Quincy had three or four small scars on his chest. "Does it still hurt?"

"I..." Quincy muttered, "I don't know..."

Thank God the paper knife didn't get in between the ribs.Michael wrapped Quincy in a towel and wiped his hair and face like a child.In fact, he has never taken care of children.Mary was a healthy girl, and she didn't need his care. "I didn't do a bad job," thought Michael, "because it was my fault. It's called 'making it up.'"

Wrapped in a towel, Quincy collapsed on Michael's pillow and closed his eyes within a few minutes.He no longer went back to the third floor, but kept sharing half of Michael’s bed.He also no longer wears that set of pajamas. Michael got into the bed after taking a shower, and what greeted him was often a naked body exuding the smell of soap.

Sometimes they would turn off the lights and chat about trivial matters.Michael's blueprints, chattering minions, greasy screws and nasty weather.Quincy seldom mentioned anything about the factory, except for an occasional complaint about the fish in the Friday cafeteria.He doesn't like fish, it smells like earth.Because of Catholicism, fish is always on the Friday menu in German cafeterias.Michael hated that thing too, it had thorns and used to prick his tongue.

"Fish and cake," said Quincy softly. "Miracle! Haha."

No matter how Michael tried to persuade him, he just refused to go back to church.Quincy even horribly declared to be an atheist.But he was willing to go to the choir rehearsal with Michael, and sometimes, when there was no one to accompany him, he would sit silently in front of the piano.Michael thought that was a miracle. The way Quincy played the piano was solemn and sacred, which made him feel the power of God more than the stained glass collages in the church.But in the dead of night, he couldn't help blaspheming this power. Under the light, Quincy obediently spread his body, allowing him to vent his obscene desires.

"Does it hurt?" Michael sucked the nipple on Quincy's left side, biting it lightly with his teeth, "How does it feel?"

Quincy smiled, and pushed Michael's head with his hands. "Neither good nor bad," he said softly.

These days he's referring to "doing it" as "sex."Michael always felt that the term "sexual behavior" was cold and cold like a description in a biology textbook.Quincy didn't move much during the "sex" either, just lying there quietly like a crucifixion icon.Michael deeply suspected that the other party didn't feel any pleasure at all.

This may be a kind of "compensation", just like Michael gave Quincy one hundred and seven dollars and the leather bag full of candy. ——boiling milk, a kiss; helping to take a bath, stroking thighs and buttocks... only once in three or four days.If you break Michael's head, give him a blowjob.College students calculate every account clearly, and they will not miss a Finney.Michael lay next to Quincy, inexplicably remembering four dollars and sixty-five cents. "Great," he muttered, shaking Quincy's hand, more and more wistfully.

On the afternoon of the second Friday in December, Michael drove out to run errands.First, I met Oliver and three American soldiers at an intersection, and the four of them got into the jeep excitedly. A freckled kid shouted, "Wow, bro, did you do the painting yourself?"

"Yeah," said Michael, "or the neighbors would be worried."

"Never mind them!" said the freckled boy. "The Germans love to be startled. Let 'em worry!"

The five sang together, starting with "Lily Marlene":

"Before the barracks,

before the gate,

with a lamp,

Still lit up to this day,

We're going to meet there again.

Standing under that lamp,

As before, Lily Marlene,

As before, Lily Marlene—”

Then, they sang one of the most popular songs of the year:

"When I danced the Tennessee waltz with my darling,

Happened to meet an old friend of mine and introduced her to my sweetheart.

But when they dance,

Friends stole my sweetheart from me—"

Michael hummed along, he liked the melody of the song.A touch of blond hair caught the attention of several people as they drove through Marienplatz, and the freckled kid said, "Hey, look, there's a beautiful chick over there!"

"Fuck," Oliver whistled, "Old Mike, look!"

Michael stopped the car, glared at Oliver, "Shut your mouths, I know her." Then he rolled down the window amidst booing, "Charlie! Why are you here?"

Charlie had two feathers in her snazzy new hat. "Mike!" she was pleasantly surprised. "I'm going to see the school. I'm going to be a teacher after Christmas—"

"Come up, I'll see you off." Michael opened the car door and let Xia Li sit in the co-pilot.The four soldiers with hippie smiles immediately shut their mouths and greeted her one by one. "Is this your friend?" Xia Li noticed the uniforms of Oliver and others, "Ah, did you meet in America?"

"We are comrades-in-arms," ​​Oliver snapped in German, regardless of Michael's persistent winks, "Hi, miss. Michael is a good man, although he looks stupid, he is actually smart! In our alliance, no one is better than him. I will save money..."

"Don't talk nonsense," Michael said, "I don't have any money."

"Really, he is the richest, otherwise where would he get the money to buy a jeep?" Oliver said with a smile, apparently thinking of Charlie as Michael's girlfriend, "Believe me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with marrying him!"

Michael sent Xia Li to the gate of the school, which was an elementary school, and Xia Li said that this was her first job. "You guys can fucking talk nonsense," Michael pointed at Oliver with the middle finger, "Charlie is not my girlfriend!"

"Dude," the freckled boy yelled, "you didn't say it earlier! If you said it earlier, I would have gone to ask for her address!"

"I'm warning you, she already has a fiancé—to get married next fall." Michael drove the car onto the boulevard, and said angrily, "Don't make her mind."

"You're not the fiancé?" Oliver said. "Is it? Is it you?"

"It's not me, she's like my sister."

"Sister? Where did you know such a beautiful girl as your sister?"

Michael thought for a while, "She is the younger sister of 'King'."

Oliver was taken aback, "Huh? Really?"

"Really," said Michael, "they look alike, don't they?"

"Fuck, what did I say," Oliver sat back, and the other three soldiers looked at him curiously, "'King' is a prisoner we captured before, Second Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht, don't look at that kid looks like Man, fought like a lunatic, blew up a section of the embankment—but, Mike, you're still connected to the 'King'?"

"Ah."

"Well, you," sighed Oliver, "you're such a charmer to the Germans."