In the busy work of many villagers and Wei Ran, an outsider, the fire that ignited two wooden houses was finally put out. These villagers also carried all four or five villagers injured in the second round of explosions to the roadside.

At this moment, a truck with a red cross and a van also with a red cross opened about a hundred meters apart and drove into the village. They stopped with a creak and were extinguished.

next to the fire scene.

With a "crash", the door of the van was opened from the inside. A female doctor wearing a camouflage uniform, an unbuttoned white coat, and a helmet on her head was the first to get out.

come out.

Immediately after, four more girls dressed similarly and two men who looked to be in their thirties came out, carrying RPG launchers and tool boxes respectively.

"Is anyone hurt?"

The female doctor who came out first shouted with a trumpet and tweeter hanging on her waist, "Where are the wounded!"

"Marta is here! Come here quickly! Several people are injured!"

Someone in the crowd shouted in surprise, and the villagers who had just been putting out the fire also made a way to let out the wounded.

Upon seeing this, Wei Ran, who was about to take out the medical kit, looked at the female doctor who ran over quickly, quietly withdrew from the crowd, and ducked into Mr. Kudlik's house. Fortunately, the old man did not

Injuried.

“The kids are fine”

Wei Ran sat next to him on the red brick steps, took out the cigarette case and handed it to him, "Would you like one?"

“This couldn’t be better”

Kudlik took the cigarette case with a smile, took one out and held it in his mouth, letting Wei Yan use a lighter to light the cigarette for him.

"I haven't bought cigarettes in a long time"

Kudlik puffed and said, "The life here is so difficult. The money you spend to buy a pack of cigarettes is enough to buy bread for me and my children for a whole day."

Hearing this, Wei Ran also lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Mr. Kudlik, do you often suffer such attacks here?"

Mr. Kudlik sighed, "Recently, there have been wars on the front line. Those bastards will randomly attack surrounding villages to draw the attention of the front line. At the same time, they also want to see which village hides their enemies or prepares to supply supplies to the front line.

.”

"Are you really not considering moving the children to a relatively safe place?" Wei Yan asked again amid the swirling smoke.

Glancing warily at Wei Ran, who was shrouded in darkness in the light of his cell phone's flashlight, the old man finally shook his head, "No need, life here is difficult, but we can still survive."

"All right"

Wei Ran wisely suppressed his good intentions. He had already seen from the old man's vigilance at that moment that he did not believe in himself, and he indeed had no reason to believe in himself.

So what was the old man guarding against? Almost subconsciously, he thought of the two children.

This old man doesn’t think of himself as a human trafficker anymore, does he?

Wei Ran reacted belatedly, but soon he sighed secretly. In troubled times, human lives are like nothing, so it is understandable that this old man is so vigilant.

For him, it no longer matters what his father was like during his lifetime. How to protect the two children from growing up relatively safe is the top priority for him.

Although this place is close to the battlefield, with the help of the surrounding villagers, no matter how difficult it is, you can always survive.

I want this old man to put down his guard against Wei Ran, a stranger who suddenly appears, and hand over the fate of himself and his children to such a young man who may be temporarily blinded by love. How could this old man dare to bet on Wei Ran?

Wouldn't he sell his children for money?

In the slightly awkward silence, the only communication between the old and the young was the flickering red light of the cigarette butts.

Almost as soon as Wei Ran finished smoking the cigarette, Pyatov and his wife walked into the yard each carrying two rattan baskets. Behind the couple, Kudlik and others followed.

The old man is particularly worried about the little guy.

It wasn't until the old man carefully checked that the two children were okay that he breathed a sigh of relief and allowed Piatov's wife to lead the children away temporarily, and also allowed Wei Ran and Piatov to leave.

He helped him to the table and sat down again.

Putting the rechargeable desk lamp he brought in the middle of the table, Piatov first took out a few side dishes, chopped ribs, and red cabbage soup in a thermos bucket from the basket, and then took it out of his arms.

He opened a bottle of vodka and filled the three glasses he had brought with him.

"Dad, Victor, I'm just going to have a drink with you. I'm going to help Ivan's family later."

Piatov held the wine glass and said, "Although the fire in his house has been put out, there are still many things in the house that were not burned out and have not been moved out."

"How is his family doing?"

Father Kudlik also picked up his cup and clinked it with the other person and asked, "If there is no place to live, I should still be able to accommodate some people here."

"It's just that the roof of the house was burned and some people were injured."

Piatov and Wei Ran also touched each other and drank their gulps. They gritted their teeth and explained, "Those bastards dropped incendiary bombs just like before. They insisted on burning down all our villages and killing us all."

You can’t drive them away.”

"Go and do your work, and you should pay attention to your safety." After saying this, Mr. Kudlik sighed and drank all the wine in the glass.

"I'll ask you to take care of me, dad. I'll come back later." Piatov asked after waiting for Wei Ran to drink the wine in the glass.

"Don't worry," Wei Ran responded solemnly.

Watching Piatov leave, Mr. Kudlik refilled Wei Ran's and his own cups with wine and said, "Young man, why don't you tell me about my father? Piatov said you are a very good man."

Famous historian, how much do you know about my father?"

“Not too knowledgeable”

Wei Ran clinked glasses with the other party again, watching the cold light emitted by the small rechargeable desk lamp, drinking with the old man, while taking a look at the discovered piece of Epoxy "artwork" and the 12-star

Anti-tank gun barrel begins.

He carefully talked about Mr. Alexander's commission, all his "investigation" findings, the forest he had been to, the two abandoned guerrilla camps in the forest, the graves of Commissar Vinya and others, and

Those battle experiences he "surmised".

"So my father is still a fighting hero?" Kudlik picked up two pieces of sausage and threw them into his mouth, chewing them while asking with interest.

"certainly!"

Wei Ran replied matter-of-factly, "He is a well-deserved hero. The only regret is that he was not recorded in the file as a frontline political commissar of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division, but as a guerrilla and was awarded

of medals and honors.”

"It's not a pity"

Kudlik poured another small glass of wine, "When I was as young as you, the worship of heroes was very pure, no matter where the hero came from. Army, police, guerrillas

, and factories, those who receive honors will be loved and admired by everyone."

"You must have been a hero loved and admired by everyone at that time, right?"

Wei Ran asked while holding the wine glass, "I heard from Pyatov that you were once a coal miner who received the Order of Glory for Labor."

"I received the Second Class Labor Medal of Glory"

Mr. Kudlik seemed to be more than ten years younger and said proudly, "It was Comrade Minister of Mining who personally hung the medal on my chest at the commendation meeting in Donetsk. I was even published in the newspaper at that time.

Woolen cloth."

As he spoke, the old man knocked on the wooden box and said, "I still have that newspaper. Young man, do you want to read it?"

"certainly!"

Wei Ran put down his cup and nodded. He could tell that this old man must be very lonely. In this village, which is close to the front line and lives in fear every day, probably no one would be in the mood to listen to the memories of such an old man.

The ones he was most proud of.

After hearing this, Mr. Kudlik immediately put down his cup, took out the key again and opened the locked wooden box. After rummaging inside for a while, he took out a wooden photo frame, wiped it carefully with his sleeve and handed it to Wei Ran.

.

This photo frame contains a newspaper folded into a quarter size. The front page headline is a report on commending labor templates on May 1st Labor Day. There is also a picture on it that is not very clear.

photo.

"this is me"

Father Kudlik gently pointed to the young man on the right in the photo with the other end of his fork, and said brightly, "That was when I was 36 years old. In addition to the medal, the coal mine also rewarded me with a car.

car."

"Is it the one outside?" Wei Ran pointed to the top of his head.

"right"

Kudlik nodded and said proudly, "It is a reliable old comrade. Last spring, little Joniya had appendicitis, and I drove her to the hospital in the city in that car."

"You are also a reliable old comrade," Wei Ran said with a smile.

"In your place, do you still use the title "comrade"?

Kudlik picked up the wine glass again, clinked it with Wei Ran first, and then the pistol on the table, "We rarely have people here calling others that way."

“Definitely still using it”

Wei Ran picked up the cup and touched the pistol as well, "In our place, in very formal occasions, that is a more cohesive and equal title than Mr. or Ms."

“It used to be the same here”

Kudlik put down his glass with emotion, "Donetsk was so prosperous in the past. The coal miners all competed to do the hardest and most tiring work, and they all wanted to be model workers.

But look at now, haha! Everyone is busy fighting, but what is the difference between Russians and Ukolan people? Do Ukolan people have extra hands or do Russians have an extra leg? "

"Everyone is indeed the same." The person who said this was a female voice coming from the door, "but there are a lot of dirty things in the brains of the bad guys."

When Wei Ran turned around, he recognized at a glance that the person walking in from the outside was none other than Marta, who had been his translator for a few days during the recruitment process.
To be continued...