As noon approached, the thick fog in the forest completely dissipated. Correspondingly, the sound of firefights from the front lines was much clearer than before.
But under the ruins of the castle, the children, led by Heike and the restless Host, lived a regular life as before.
Watching Sophie and Qi Qi, who had drunk a lot of wine, supporting each other into the room on the left side of the church, Wei Ran gently knocked on the door. "The door is not locked." Dominic spoke from inside.
Helped open the door.
"Nadia is gone?" Wei Ran asked before entering the door.
"I left a long time ago," Dominic replied with an embarrassed look on his face. As he spoke, he glanced in the direction of Sophie's room.
"Sophie drank too much. She doesn't know anything." Wei Ran said while suppressing a smile.
"You really helped me a lot!"
A relaxed smile immediately appeared on Dominic's originally worried face. He had no idea that right next door, two drunk girls were hiding by the door and eavesdropping on his conversation with Wei Ran.
"So you two didn't do anything in my bed?"
Wei Ran asked reluctantly. Of course he was reluctant. How could a man in his twenties have the heart to be curious about the nonsense between these idiots? But he couldn't bear it and the two girls next door insisted on letting him
Must ask.
Of course, Sophie and Qiqi were not really gossiping. They were just worried that the girl named Nadia would get pregnant. Obviously, in such an environment, it would be difficult for a pregnant woman of fifteen or sixteen to survive.
"of course not!"
Dominic's face turned red and he said, "Victor! What are you thinking! How could we do something like that!"
"Oh—" Wei Ran deliberately made a long note to stimulate the other party, "You really didn't do anything?"
"I really didn't do anything!" After Dominic finished speaking, he quickly ran towards the basement.
"I hope not," Wei Ran muttered to himself, walked into the room and closed the door.
Glancing at the charcoal fire that had been extinguished by the sand, he could only put the wooden box in his hand back to its original position and relight the noisy oil stove as a heating tool.
Although he didn't drink at the dinner party in the cave just now, and even the kettle with the wine became Sophie's personal property, he couldn't bear the thought that he followed Sophie like a hawk last night, so it would be good to catch up on some sleep at this time.
- After all, he wanted to see if Sophie would still use the magnet phone to communicate with Captain Letts at night. Both expected and unexpected, on this night, Sophie indeed secretly communicated with Captain Letts in the dark.
I rushed to the forest on the side of the floodgate and answered the phone again.
However, that night, Sophie waited for more than two hours on the phone, but there was still no ring in the forest. Not only that, Wei Ran heard the buzzing sound made by her shaking the power handle on the phone again and again.
Unfortunately, neither she nor Wei Ran heard the response they wanted to hear.
At nearly one o'clock in the night, Sophie stood up staggeringly, used a rope to drag the box containing the phone to the tree again, then walked to the sluice and sat down, hugging her knees and curling up into a ball.
Wei Ran, who had been watching from a distance, sighed. After hesitating for a moment, he finally got up and walked to the other party's side, took off his cloak and helped him put it on his body.
"Thank you," Sophie, who had been trembling, said tremblingly. "What's wrong?" Wei Ran asked knowingly.
"My father may be in danger," Sophie said with a tearful voice, "I can't contact him."
"Would you like to...go to the other side and have a look?" Wei Ran asked tentatively. "Yes! Yes! Go to the other side and have a look!"
Sophie stood up as if she had just thought of it, but soon she sat down again holding on to the valve of the water gate, "No, no, we can't go through, what if..."
"Sophie, the Americans are very close to us now."
Wei Ran started to turn the cold valve as he spoke, "To be objective, I'm afraid the people over at the fortress have no intention of paying attention to us anymore, and..."
"And what?" Sophie asked, grabbing the valve wheel.
"Besides, I don't mind getting killed either
Two chained dogs." Wei Ran said, stuffing the British army's kettle filled with boiling water into the other's arms, "Keep warm."
He hurriedly took the kettle, and the warmth transmitted through the canvas cover made the 19-year-old girl shiver subconsciously. At the same time, Wei Ran continued to spin the roulette wheel.
As the cast-iron gate was slowly lifted, a raging column of water spurted out, crashing onto the moat surface covered with a thin layer of ice.
In less than ten seconds, as the accumulated river water in the waterway was emptied, the gushing water column turned into a small waterfall. Sophie glanced at Wei Ran who had loaded the submachine gun with bullets, and gritted her teeth.
He took out the square box flashlight in his pocket and followed Wei Ran into the cold waterway.
Along the way, Wei Ran noticed that Sophie had been observing the wires fixed in the corner above her head, and even almost slipped a few times because she accidentally stepped on small fish and shrimp in the water under her feet.
Deliberately slowing down and accompanying the other party to carefully check the phone lines along the way, Wei Ran also signaled Sophie, who was walking behind, to turn off the flashlight when approaching the mill.
In the quiet night, with the sound of running water, Wei Ran carefully moved to the bottom of the floor, carefully pulled the wooden block blocking the floor, then slowly pushed the floor away, and climbed up into the mill in the dark.
After careful inspection, Wei Ran whispered, "Come up here, don't turn on the flashlight."
Hearing this, Sophie immediately stretched out her upper body and let Wei Ran pull her up.
Before she could stand still, the girl turned her gaze to the hydraulic millstone not far away. However, after some groping, she became increasingly panicked.
"Victor, I. I need to go to the cabin."
Sophie said, having returned the kettle and cloak to Wei Ran, "Can you help me guard this place? I'll be back soon."
"Tell me what you are looking for." Wei Ran grabbed the other person's wrist while taking the kettle and cloak.
After a moment's hesitation, Sophie whispered, "If my father didn't leave a message for me on the millstone, then he must be in danger. If he wants to send me a message, he can do it here in the mill or in that wooden house."
The only choice."
"Get your weapons"
Wei Ran said, handing the submachine gun to the other party, "Can you use it? I've already loaded the bullet."
"If I can use it, I can use it." Sophie subconsciously took the submachine gun, "My father taught me how to use it, don't worry."
"You also have these magazines." Wei Ran took off the magazine bag and hung it around the opponent's neck.
"I'll be back soon, within an hour at most!" Sophie promised tremblingly.
"You wait at the second turn of the waterway."
Wei Ran whispered, "Put the animal trap at the first corner. When I come back, I will flash your flashlight three times in a row and then call Dominic's name. If I don't call Dominic,
Name, you run back immediately and close the floodgates."
"Can..."
"Stop wasting time, remember what I just said?" As Wei Ran spoke, he had already pushed the other person to the edge of the opened floor.
"Remember..." Sophie replied in a panic. After all, she was just a 19-year-old girl, and now was the time when she needed a backbone.
"Repeat it again." As Wei Ran spoke, he already motioned for the other person to sit on the floor and put his head into the waterway.
"Hide...hide behind the second corner, and set up the animal trap in front of the first corner." Sophie paused, and jumped into the waterway obediently under Wei Ran's push, "You will meet me when you come back.
First flash three times, then call Dominic's name. If... if..."
"If what I call is not Dominic's name, you should run back immediately and close the water gate." Wei Ran added as he covered the floor and put the cloak on himself. "You will come back, right?
?" Sophie asked with a cry. "Of course"
Wei Ran put away the kettle and replied matter-of-factly, "I will be back soon. If someone enters the water channel before me and
If you step on the animal trap, go back and close the floodgate immediately."
"There is a telephone in the hollow of the fallen pine tree east of the mill." Sophie pressed her hand on the crack in the floor, tilted her neck and whispered, "If, if I close the water gate, you just need to put the phone through the hollow of the tree.
phone line, then call me and I will open the floodgates immediately."
"Okay, it's settled." After Wei Ran said this, he stood up and walked out of the mill empty-handed.
Under the floor, Sophie waited until Wei Ran's back completely disappeared from sight, then turned around in panic, stepped on the cold river water, and walked towards the bend of the river in the dark.
In the forest outside the mill, Wei Ran also quickened his pace, trotting all the way to the wooden house in the forest that served as a supply point. At the same time, he was also paying attention to chain dogs or Americans who might be hiding in the surrounding forest. Fortunately, until he
I rushed to the wooden house and didn't encounter any two-legged animals at all.
Even when he cautiously walked to the wooden house, he saw boxes of ammunition supplies. And inside the wooden house, there were many trophies from the US military.
After closing the door and turning on the flashlight, Wei Ran carefully inspected the trophies in the wooden house, but found nothing special at all. Moreover, there were no clues left by Leitz in this small wooden house.
.
"Click"
Just when he was thinking about whether to search for the ammunition boxes outside, there was a banging sound outside the door.
Wei Ran lay down subconsciously and put away the flashlight. After listening for a moment, Wei Ran reached out and carefully opened the door to a gap as wide as a finger. With a little moonlight, he could vaguely see that the door was in the right position.
Lying quietly was a wooden stick.
"Is it Sophie?" A voice asked cautiously from the back door of a pine tree not far from the cabin.
"Who are you?" Wei Ran asked while hiding in the wooden house, and grabbed two silly MK2 grenades from a wooden box beside him.
"Are you Victor?"
The person behind the tree obviously recognized Wei Ran, "Brother Victor, is that you? I am Okan, Uncle Otto's orderly Okan. We met before, do you remember?"
"Jonas's brother?" Wei Ran indirectly confirmed his identity, "I haven't given him the can and compass you asked me to give him yet. I plan to give them to him on his birthday."
"Really Brother Victor?"
Before he finished speaking, Okan jumped out from behind the pine tree with an MP40 submachine gun, and his excited tone also sounded like he was crying.
"It's really me, why are you here?" Wei Ran also put the grenade back into the wooden box containing the loot, stood up and walked out of the wooden house, while secretly keeping an eye out for enemies that might be hiding around him.
"I came here secretly in the evening."
Okan rushed to Wei Ran and said in a panic, "This morning, Uncle Letz and Uncle Jens were caught by chain dogs. Uncle Otto asked me to wait here. He said
Sophie or you will definitely come here."
"Where's Uncle Otto?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice, "What else do you know?"
"Our position is lost"
Okan choked and said, "Otto...Uncle Otto is dead. He was shot in the stomach by an American machine gun. Now the Americans are not far from the fortress."
"Stop crying, now is not the time to cry." Wei Ran looked around cautiously and whispered, "Get out of here with me first."
"Where are we going?" Okan asked, trying to stop sobbing. "Just come with me."
As Wei Ran spoke, he pushed the other party's right shoulder and left the wooden house, circling in the direction of the mill.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Only when he was sure that no one was following him did he take Okan to the mill, lift up the floor and let him jump into the waterway.
"Where is this place?" Okan asked curiously. "Sh-"
Wei Ran made a silent gesture, and when he reached the first corner, under the former's horrified gaze, he carefully took out the huge animal trap from the waterway and released it.
It's ready to take a bite at any time.
Throwing the rusty animal clip with tetanus effect to Okan behind him, Wei Ran pressed against the damp wall, stuck out the head of the flashlight and flashed it three times in a row, and then asked softly, "Dominique
?are u there?"
"exist!"
Before he finished speaking, Sophie immediately responded, and then ran over on splashing water.
"Sister Sophie!"
"Okan!" Sophie immediately recognized the young man following Wei Ran, but immediately after, her expression changed and she asked nervously, "Okan, my father..."
Okan turned his head and glanced at Wei Ran. Seeing that the latter had no intention of speaking, he lowered his head and replied with difficulty, "He... He and Uncle Jens were both captured by those nasty chain dogs.
Already."
"Plop!"
The square box flashlight held in Sophie's hand spun and fell into the cold river water. Sophie's legs also went weak, and then Wei Ran, who had quick eyes and hands, supported her shoulders, so that she would not fall into the water.
inside.
"Let's go out first"
Wei Ran said before the girl's tears fell into the river, "Go out and close the floodgate first, and then discuss what to do."
"I want to go to the fort"
Sophie wiped the tears that were about to overflow from her eyes, and struggled to get away from Wei Ran's support as if she was nervous, "I want to go to the fortress to find my father!"
"Are you crazy?"
Wei Ran tightened his grip on the other party's wrist, "You can see Captain Leitz when you go to the fort? Or do you think you can take down the fort and rescue him with just the submachine gun in your hand?"
"I..."
"Let her go!" Qiqi's voice came from the darkness, "Brother Victor, let her go and let her go to the fortress."
Hearing this, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and then decisively let go of his hand. Sophie also left and walked towards the direction of the mill.
"Good luck to you, Sophie"
Qiqi bent down and picked up the flashlight from the bottom of the water, and said casually, "After the chain dog tortures you about the existence of this waterway and our existence, we will not resist and will be honest.
Hiding in the basement, waiting for the chain dogs to come and burn us with flamethrowers, just like the Jews we saw burned to death at the intersection last spring."
As Qiqi described, Sophie's steps became slower and slower, and finally she covered her mouth and tried not to cry, but at the same time she uncontrollably sank into the cold water.
"Stupid woman"
Qiqi murmured in a moderate voice, shook the cold river water accumulated in the flashlight and said, "Sophie, since my mother died, we don't have a doctor anymore. If you catch a cold, the only thing I can think of is
All I can do to help you is give you all the medicine we have."
Having said this, Qi Qi also walked up to Sophie, pulled her up, took away the submachine gun in her hand and gave it back to Wei Ran. While walking back, she said, "Brother Victor, I'd like to trouble you with the water gate."
Now, I’ll take her back first.”
"Don't worry," Wei Ran responded while looking at Okan who looked guilty.
"Do not blame you"
Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder, led him out of the waterway behind the two girls, and then closed the water gate himself.
"This is your birthday gift to your brother."
As Wei Ran led Okan to the ruins of the castle, he took out the two boxes of canned spiritual meat and the pocket watch-style compass he carried with him from his bag and gave them back to Okan, "You can give them to him yourself when the time comes.
.”
"Victor, Uncle Letts and..." "Leave this matter to us, you can keep it secret for now."
Wei Ran looked at Host standing waiting at the bridge, raised his chin and said, "That's Host, you go with him, he will arrange a place for you to stay later."
"Well, I know Host." Okan nodded, "We are from the same town."
"Have a good rest tonight and don't think about anything."
Wei Ran gave instructions again, and then
He patted Host on the shoulder and said, "O'Connell will leave it to you. Arrange a place for him to live and find him some food."
"good"
Host agreed without thinking, then lowered his voice and asked tentatively, "Victor, Sophie...is she okay?"
"It's okay, I stepped on a rainbow trout in the waterway and fell down."
Wei Ran made up a temporary excuse, waved his hand and said, "Bring Okan back quickly, and find him a pair of boots by the way, his boots are already soaked through.
"Okan, come with me." Hoster patted Okan on the shoulder and led him quickly towards the entrance of the basement.
It wasn't until he watched the backs of these two young men completely disappearing into the shadows that Wei Ran quickly followed the two girls walking towards the ruins of the church.
"I'll take her to change clothes first."
Qiqi said, pushed open the door, helped Sophie into the small room to the left of the icon, and locked the door before Wei Ran opened his mouth to respond. Wei Ran opened his mouth, turned around and walked to the next door, opened the door and looked
He glanced at Dominic who was still sleeping soundly, then closed the door and added a few pieces of firewood to the burning coals in the fireplace that he only dared to burn at night.
Kicking off his boots, Wei Ran sat on the wooden pillar beside the fireplace, warming himself while thinking about the current situation.
There is no doubt that as the American soldiers advance little by little, the ruins of this castle hidden in the forest will be discovered by the Americans sooner or later. What kind of situation will the girls and children under these ruins face by then?
But there's no way to predict it.
Just when he was thinking wildly, Qiqi opened the door and walked in.
Seeing Wei Ran pointing to the next door, the girl nodded and said softly, "Help her change her clothes. She just drank some wine and fell asleep."
"Don't you live in the basement?" Wei Ran asked curiously, "Why did you come up here?"
"I woke up when you opened the sluice and released the water."
Qiqi lit a cigarette and said, "My sleep is very light. It was difficult for me to continue sleeping due to such loud movements, so I followed you secretly. Brother Victor, what's going on now?"
"Both Captain Letz and Jens have been arrested." Wei Ran sighed and recounted in detail all the information he asked from Okan on the way back.
"We have to know if they are alive and still inside the fortress."
Qiqi frowned and said extremely calmly, "If they are still in the fortress, we might still have hope. If they are sent to Aachen, I'm afraid they will be in real trouble."
"What are you going to do?" Wei Ran asked calmly, looking at the young girl sitting next to him.
"I'll wait at the mill tomorrow."
Qi Qi, who had obviously made up her mind a long time ago, said, "Many people I know are fighting in this forest. As long as you are lucky, you can always meet someone you know well. By then, won't you know their situation?"
"I am coming too"
Before he finished speaking, Sophie, who was holding a coconut pot in her hand, opened the door and walked in. By the way, a cold wind mixed with the aroma of wine came.
"How many people do you know?" Qiqi said disdainfully, "Sophie, you should stay and be the cook. Someone must be responsible for cooking."
"Everyone who knows Dominic knows me, and everyone who knows my father also knows me." Sophie said stubbornly, "And Victor's cooking skills are also very good. He can be responsible for cooking for our friends."
or..."
"How many people do you know?"
The two girls said to Wei Ran in unison. Immediately afterwards, they couldn't help but laugh one after another. The slightly tense atmosphere before was relieved a lot.
"That `s a deal"
Sophie unscrewed the kettle that originally belonged to Wei Ran, poured out a glass of wine and took a sip, "Qiqi and I will wait at the mill tomorrow. Victor, you are responsible for cooking for the children."
"Can..."
Wei Ran, who originally wanted to say something, finally nodded, "Okay, I will be responsible for their food, but you must also pay attention to safety.
At the very least you should have weapons."
In any case, when "he was still an American soldier", when he followed Timov through the waterway, someone put a gun directly to the back of the head.
Thinking about it this way, the two girls would not be in any danger. Besides, although he didn't know when Timov would come, he at least knew what time of day it would be. The worst he could do was finish cooking and rush in early.
