Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Creak, creak, creak.
In the Siberian moonlight, the landscape was blanketed in snow. On the silver-clad village path, a tall and sturdy figure, Xu Li, carried an oversized axe that served both for exercise and work. With a cigarette clenched between his teeth, he approached an old wooden gate.
He knocked vigorously. "Uncle Youan! Aunt Janna! Are you awake yet?"
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!
"Come out quickly! That human who eats poop is here!!!"
A small mutt in the yard poked its head out and barked at the wooden door. To Xu Li's ears, it sounded somewhat irritating. Ever since he had eaten that fruit, his reputation among the village animals had plummeted. Especially among the cats and dogs, he had become a laughingstock. The culprits behind this were two foolish dogs, Da Hei and Xiao Hei!
Taking advantage of Anna loosening their collars while they played outside, they had maliciously slandered him in front of other cats and dogs in the village. Now, every cat or dog would think it was normal to eat poop—how disgusting!
"Here they come!"
Aunt Janna was not very tall, barely reaching five feet three inches. She was short and plump like a big auntie named Ci He. She opened the gate on tiptoe and hugged Xu Li's bent-over face, showering him with kisses on his cheeks. "Good boy!"
"Ha ha! Good morning, Aunt Janna!"
Xu Li cheerfully returned the gesture and deliberately leaned his oversized axe against the doghouse. The mutt glared at him with bared teeth. He teased Aunt Janna, "It's just you and Uncle Youan at home. We have wolves, bears, and even tigers around here. If we ever encounter those big guys, your mutt won't be much help. How about I take it away and bring you two Caucasian Shepherds instead?"
His words paired with his silly face scared the mutt so much that it tucked its tail between its legs and gently rubbed against Xu Li's calf in a clear display of submission. Aunt Janna lightly scolded him by patting his arm. "You silly boy, what nonsense are you talking about?"
As she spoke, she pulled him into their wooden house. In the living room, Uncle Youan was warming himself by the fire. In his youth, he had injured his left leg during battle; now that he was older, the pain had returned with winter's chill.
Aunt Janna wasn't in great health either; she had nearly lost her life during childbirth years ago but managed to pull through. However, her body was weak now—she often coughed and felt fatigued.
So during summer, Uncle Youan would chop wood to prepare for winter fires; if they ran short, they would ask neighbors for some.
Their children rarely came back home; they were all busy building their own families in the big city. The old couple didn't want to burden them further and simply endured their days in the village as best as they could.
"Try this."
Xu Li pulled several boxes of different brands of dog plaster from his coat pocket and waved them at Uncle Youan. "I just brought these back from Bratsk yesterday. Try them out to see which one works best; I'll buy more later."
"Thank you so much, Makarov."
Uncle Youan gratefully accepted the boxes while Xu Li sat beside him. He rolled up Uncle Youan's cotton pants and wool trousers to help him with his knee pain while asking Aunt Janna to fetch Uncle Youan's old razor to trim the hair around his knees.
Opening one of the boxes and checking the instructions inside, he took out a pungent plaster and peeled off its film before applying it across Uncle Youan's knee. Then he gently massaged it in. "Just wait a bit for the medicine to take effect; your leg won't hurt as much soon."
Jana gently wiped the corner of her eye as Youan pulled out a cigarette and stuffed one into his mouth, lighting it before lighting one for himself. "Damn it, we used to laugh at Andrei," he said. "How would he support two silly daughters when he got old? But your appearance made us all think that old Russian was just so lucky. If you were my son-in-law, I’d be able to wake up laughing from my dreams."
Xu Li exhaled a puff of smoke. "Haha, we may not be able to be in-laws, but we can still be neighbors. It's just a few steps away." He took a sip of tea to warm himself.
Aunt Janna brought over freshly brewed black tea, scooping a spoonful of honey that looked like lard and stirring it in before placing it on the iron plate above the fireplace. Xu Li nodded, "Auntie, don’t be so polite; this isn’t my first time here."
The elderly couple looked at him with affectionate smiles. Youan patted his arm. "Hey Makarov, I’ve always been curious—did you ever hate Old Anton? It was that old man who handed you over to Andrei."
"I’m grateful to him; I could never hate him," Xu Li replied, tilting his head and chuckling as he held the cigarette.
"Come on, if I really hated this place, I would have left long ago. How could I still be sitting here chatting with you?"
He tossed the cigarette butt into the fireplace. "Uncle, when you were in the army, did you ever fight in a war? My dad didn’t say anything when I asked him."
"We did! Many died," Youan sighed, taking small sips from the teacup Jana handed him. "We were so young back then; we heard the nonsense from above and volunteered to fight. Just think about it, kid."
"We were only as old as you are now when we started our training in the desert. After three months of training, Pushkin and I were assigned under Andrei."
At that time, Andrei had just graduated from military academy; he was our political commissar. That Maozi was truly fearless—whatever orders came from above, he followed without hesitation, charging forward with a pistol shouting 'Ura!'
He took the cigarette Xu Li offered and lit it, shaking his head with a bitter smile. "Fortuna favored him; he led us into battle twice and somehow didn’t die, returning home with us in the end."
Our unit was ambushed or targeted by snipers from above multiple times; we were decimated. After completing our mission, all we received was a worthless medal and some monetary rewards. But what about the families of those who died? How would they survive?
Xu Li gently massaged his knee while holding a cigarette. "What happened next? How did my dad retire?"
"Retire? What retirement?" Youan’s frustration flared up at this topic. "After we withdrew from the desert and returned home, the situation was dire domestically. Many police officers openly extorted money; they opened brothels, casinos, and ice rinks."
We were left with only a handful of people. Just a week after returning home for rest, we received orders to come here to continue developing Siberia and lighten the burden on our Motherland while retaining our unit.
His eyes reddened slightly as he extended his fingers in frustration. "We brought our wives and children along—there were only trucks for us. When we got off at Bratsk train station, we were shoved into trucks and taken to our current village."
Those bastards gave us shovels, picks, axes, saws, a big box of iron nails, and a truckload of weapons and ammunition. The food was pitiful—only two loaves of bread per person and a bag of potatoes.
This was all we received after fighting for our Motherland. Andrei wanted to negotiate for some supplies but got this response: 'The whole country is struggling right now; Comrade Andrei, what’s your awareness level?'
Youan let out a bitter laugh and shook his head with a sigh. Fortunately, they saw Andrei’s medals and didn’t want to make things too difficult for him; in the end, they allocated a truckload of potatoes and sweet potatoes along with some winter clothing and compensation of Rubles for each of us."
Andrei converted all the compensation funds into essential supplies. Once we brought everything here, we began digging and chopping down trees to build houses. With less than a month left before winter, it was impossible to construct homes for everyone.
So, we only built a large warehouse, which is now our Small Farm Storage. Nearly two hundred people were crammed inside. It wasn't too cold, but we were short on food. Every day we relied on Lava potatoes, and eventually, the children couldn't even relieve themselves properly. The men took up arms and ventured into the forest, hunting whatever they could find to survive the first winter.
As spring arrived the following year, aside from some children going to school, everyone else was busy digging foundations and chopping trees. Ji Da took the little ones along to cultivate the land and grow crops. Although we had no money and little to eat, working together and chatting each day was quite enjoyable.
After much effort, our small village was finally built. With the food we had and some saved coins, we bought over a dozen cows, pigs, and around a hundred sheep. The great Motherland was gone—can you believe that? Those damn politicians abandoned the Motherland!
Comment 0 Comment Count