Chapter 77 Uncle and Aunt
Lu Mingfei leaned on the hospital bed with his eyes slightly closed, trying to sort out his confused thoughts. His brain was now like a tangled mess, and he couldn't tell whether he was dreaming or returning to reality.
Just as he was lost in thought, the door of the ward was suddenly pushed open, accompanied by a sharp and loud voice, breaking the silence of the room.
"Lu Mingfei, you're awake!"
The voice had a familiar tone and hit Lu Mingfei's eardrums directly, making him frown instinctively. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a slightly plump middle-aged woman standing at the door, her face full of anxiety and impatience.
Next to her stood an older man who looked a little greasy, with a slightly bald head and beads of sweat glistening on his forehead. There was also a fat boy with acne all over his face standing behind them.
"Tante, Onkel?" Lu Mingfei looked at the people at the door and said uncertainly. A strange feeling surged in his heart. These people had appeared deep in his memory, but now they seemed so far away.
"Lu Mingfei, what are you talking about? Speak Chinese!" The middle-aged woman's voice exploded in the ward again, as if she was afraid that others couldn't hear it.
"Keep your voice down. This is in the hospital, and Mingfei has just been injured." The middle-aged man next to him hurriedly stepped forward and advised softly.
"Didn't the doctor say he just had a minor scratch on his head? Seeing how energetic he is, it's probably nothing serious." The middle-aged woman waved her hand and interrupted the man nonchalantly.
She walked straight to Lu Mingfei's bedside and rudely placed the thermos in her hand on the bedside table, making a dull "thump". As she opened the lid of the thermos, she muttered, "Hey, this is the pork rib soup I made for you this morning. Drink it while it's hot. Damn, the price of pork has gone up again. It's really unfair."
The hot steam from the thermos rose up, carrying with it a strong aroma of pork ribs, spreading in the cold ward. Lu Mingfei looked at the drifting white steam, but his heart was cold.
He had fantasized countless times about returning to such a daily life and feeling the care and warmth of his family, but now he felt that this warmth was separated from reality by a thick wall of ice and could not be truly touched.
"I don't know what was going on in your mind, kid. Have you watched too much cartoons? You even went to the cinema to confess your love to someone. Now you not only failed but also got hit by a car." The middle-aged woman's tone was full of disgust and blame.
"When the hospital called, I was so scared that I couldn't sleep well the whole night." She stretched out her hand and yawned loudly.
"Did that girl say when she would come? And is that ghost academy reliable? They just admitted Mingfei yesterday, but they sent someone to knock him over that same night." After putting down the thermos, she changed the subject and began to complain to the middle-aged man next to her.
"She should be here soon. I heard that the school will be responsible for the compensation. They seemed very sincere over the phone, and they even arranged a high-class ward for her." The middle-aged man answered cautiously.
"Hmph, if they don't pay a compensation of 100,000 or 80,000 yuan for this matter, I will not forgive them! Mingfei is stupid to begin with, what if he hurts his head again!" The middle-aged woman snorted coldly, her tone revealing determination, as if she was ready to ask for compensation.
At this time, there was a sound of hurried footsteps outside the door. The middle-aged woman's ears suddenly pricked up. She immediately walked to the door, stretched her neck to look outside. When she saw an old foreign man and several young people walking towards this side, her face instantly became serious, as if she was going to face a life-and-death battle next.
"Here they are! Let's go meet them. Mingze, keep an eye on your cousin!" She quickly called out to the middle-aged man beside her, and then walked outside aggressively.
"Mingfei, you know, your aunt has this kind of temper. She didn't sleep all night after receiving the call yesterday, so she is even more angry..." The middle-aged man looked at his wife's back as she left, looking a little embarrassed and helpless. He turned his head and whispered to Lu Mingfei, but before he finished speaking, his wife's roar came from outside the door again.
“Lu Gucheng, what are you dawdling about!”
"Coming, coming!" the middle-aged man responded quickly and then ran out of the door in a hurry, fearing that he would be affected by his wife's anger.
The ward regained its brief tranquility again. The air was still filled with the aroma of pork rib soup. Only the little fat boy with acne all over his face was still standing there.
He glanced at Lu Mingfei and whispered, "Hey, Lu Mingfei, you've really become famous this time. The whole school knows that you failed to confess your love and got hit by a car."
There was a hint of gloating in his words, and then he began to wait for Lu Mingfei's next reaction. However, Lu Mingfei just looked at him silently, with empty eyes, without any response.
Seeing that Lu Mingfei ignored him, the fat boy felt bored and shrugged his shoulders. He turned around and sat down on a chair nearby. He picked up the remote control and turned on the TV, trying to let the colors and sounds on the screen dispel the awkward atmosphere.
"It's worthy of being a high-end ward. It's even equipped with a TV." He said to himself.
The TV screen lit up, and the news host's standard Mandarin echoed in the ward, his voice clear and powerful.
"Defense Secretary Gates declared that China will not be able to build its own stealth fighter before 2020."
"Damn old man, sooner or later I'm going to pin him to the ground and beat him until he calls me daddy." The little fat boy listened to the news, curled his lips, and muttered with disdain, then pressed the remote control to switch to another channel.
A Korean drama called "You're Beautiful" began to play on the screen. This drama was very popular on campus and almost every girl was watching it. In order to get along with the girls in his class, the fat boy had to start cramming the drama even though he had no interest in the plots.
Lu Mingfei quietly watched the images on the screen, but his heart was blank. He couldn't be sure whether he had really returned to his original world, or whether all this was just a long and cruel dream he had in the trenches. He only knew that no matter how familiar this world was, he felt that he was no longer in tune with it.
He suddenly remembered the soldiers in the sanatorium in the Alps who were unwilling to go home. He once could not understand their choice, why they would rather stay on the battlefield than return to their families, but now he finally understood that the incomprehensible loneliness was more unbearable than any pain on the battlefield.
He still remembers asking a veteran why he didn't want to go home. The veteran's answer still echoes in his mind: "They don't understand what we have been through on the battlefield. They only complain that today's supplies are less and things in the market are more expensive."
Yes, these people will never know what he experienced on the battlefield. He had dreamed countless times in the trenches that he returned to his original world, longing to integrate into the familiar daily life again. But now when he really came back, he found that there seemed to be an uncrossable abyss between this world and him, and he wanted to escape from here so badly.
Just as Lu Mingfei was immersed in these complicated thoughts, the door of the ward was pushed open again. This time, a very beautiful woman came in. She was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and tight jeans. Her slender legs were perfectly outlined by the jeans.
She has waist-length fiery red hair, the strong color is particularly dazzling in the white ward. The woman has a lollipop in her mouth, exuding a casual and free and easy temperament.
"Little brother, can you help your sister buy a bottle of water?" The red-haired woman walked up to the little fat boy, tilted her head slightly, her tone containing a hint of temptation and coquettishness, but her eyes were like a cat examining its prey.
The fat boy was stunned by the beauty of the woman. He stared at her charming face and the body that was fully displayed by the tight jeans. His face flushed instantly and his nose was about to bleed. He quickly covered his nostrils, nodded awkwardly, and rushed out of the ward in a panic.
"Alas, I shouldn't have driven in high heels last night." The red-haired woman sighed, casually sat on the chair where the fat boy had just sat, and stretched her body. Her movements were lazy and charming. "By the way, why did you suddenly run out? I couldn't stop the car."
Lu Mingfei looked at the charming woman in front of him, and some vague memories seemed to be revived in his heart. He looked at the red-haired woman's face carefully, trying to find fragments related to her from the corner of his memory.
Finally, he remembered that it was this woman in front of him who instigated him to confess his love, and then stepped on the accelerator and knocked him into that hellish place.
"Nono?" Lu Mingfei asked in not very fluent Chinese. He hadn't spoken Chinese for a long time, and his pronunciation became stiff and unfamiliar. Even his tongue was resisting this long-lost language.
"Yes, it was me." Nuo Nuo raised her eyebrows and looked at Lu Mingfei's face. "Lu Mingfei, why are you talking like that now? Could it be that I really knocked you silly? Then your aunt's request for 100,000 is really not too much. Damn it, if the school knew that I knocked you silly, the principal would kill me!"
Although her tone was teasing, there was a hint of nervousness and uneasiness. Nuo Nuo obviously noticed that Lu Mingfei was different from before. The timid look in his eyes was gone, replaced by a deep sense of vicissitudes, a look that only people who have experienced countless life and death moments can have.
Lu Mingfei looked at Nuo Nuo, his inner emotions were complicated and difficult to describe. He had imagined countless times in his dreams how he would vent his resentment if he met the woman who pushed him into that world again. Would he beat her up or simply end her life?
But at this moment, when Nuonuo was really standing in front of him, he found that the hatred in his heart had dissipated with the passage of time, leaving only a deep fatigue. It was a kind of fatigue that went straight into the soul, as if the whole person's energy had been emptied, leaving only an empty shell. He just looked at Nuonuo, and the vicissitudes and fatigue in those eyes made Nuonuo tremble.
She felt that the person in front of her seemed to have become much stranger overnight, and was no longer the young and timid boy she knew.
"Lu Mingfei, what's wrong with you?" Nuo Nuo couldn't help but ask softly, with some caution in her tone.
How could the timid and wretched kid who looked like he was a weathered hero two days ago suddenly turn into a peerless hero who planned to retire to the mountains and no longer care about the troubles in the world in just one night?
Just when the atmosphere between the two became subtle and tense, the door of the ward was pushed open again. This time, a group of people rushed in, led by the uncle and aunt. Behind them followed a foreign old man with white hair, and next to them was a handsome man and a beautiful woman with outstanding Asian faces.
"Ming Fei, they agree to compensate you 100,000 yuan, but the prerequisite is that you agree to join their school." Aunt's voice was still loud, but this time there was a hint of joy in her tone. "Aunt will save this money for you first, and you can use it to find a wife when you graduate from college."
Her smile was full of pride and complacency, as if she had won a great victory.
"Yes, Mingfei, join our school." The foreign old man smiled and said slowly in Chinese with a thick accent, "Not only will you get the 36000 yuan compensation, we will also give you a scholarship of US dollars every year."
Hearing these words, Lu Mingfei's dusty memories were completely opened. He remembered that he seemed to have passed the interview of a top foreign university before he traveled through time, but he had not yet decided whether to go. He had planned to go if his confession failed, and not go if his confession was successful. This old man was the one who invited him to join in the first place, and his name seemed to be Professor Guderian.
But everything is different now. Going to college is like a distant and unfamiliar dream to him. Letting him enter the campus now is like throwing a Godzilla into a sheepfold. Can he still adapt to the campus life full of youthfulness?
Suddenly, Lu Mingfei's mind flashed with those comrades who had fought alongside him, Paul, Hill, and those long-gone faces. He was silent for a long time and finally asked in a low voice: "Who initiated the Second World War?"
Everyone around was stunned when they heard Lu Mingfei's question. They looked at each other, completely confused as to why Lu Mingfei suddenly asked such a question.
Finally, the white-haired foreign old man answered with some confusion: "Adolf Hill, what's wrong?"
When he heard the name, Lu Mingfei's heart sank. Did nothing change? Or did he travel to a parallel world?
"Then do you know a man named William Hans in World War I?" Lu Mingfei continued to ask, with a hint of urgency in his voice, wanting to get an answer immediately.
"The famous Prussian God of War, of course I know him." Nono took over the conversation with a hint of complacency in his tone, "During World War II, Hill even pulled him out as the spiritual totem that united the entire Prussia. What's wrong? Do you suddenly want to recall junior high school history?"
Lu Mingfei's heart sank to the bottom. When he heard the name "William Hans", he knew that he really changed history, because he had never heard of this name in history class before he traveled through time.
But why was Hill still the initiator of World War II? Didn't he warn Hill not to get involved in politics? Why did things still develop like this?
A feeling of powerlessness spread in Lu Mingfei's heart. He thought he could change something, perhaps stop the devastating war and save countless lives. But the reality told him cruelly that the wheel of history would not change because of one person's will, and the disasters he tried to avoid still happened in this world.
"I'm going to France and Prussia today." Lu Mingfei suddenly raised his head and looked at Guderian firmly, his voice calm and decisive, "Can you arrange it? If you can, I will join your school."
Now, the only thought in his mind was to find out whether he had left any traces in that era. Perhaps only in this way could he be sure that all his experiences were not illusions. He must know that that time full of blood and fire really existed and was not just a nightmare.
After hearing Lu Mingfei's words, everyone in the room was stunned. No one could understand why he suddenly made such a request, and no one knew why he insisted on going to France and Prussia.
But when Nuonuo looked at Lu Mingfei's deep eyes, she vaguely sensed the changes in his heart. An indescribable feeling of loneliness completely surrounded Lu Mingfei.
The day before, Nuonuo also noticed Lu Mingfei's loneliness. When she felt that loneliness, she just felt that Lu Mingfei was a little pitiful, like an abandoned puppy.
But now this feeling of loneliness has increased thousands of times. When Nuo Nuo felt this loneliness again, she felt suffocated, as if she had been abandoned by the world. This feeling made her feel cold in her heart, as if she was in an endless ice field with nothing around her, only the cold wind whistling past. This feeling was so terrible, so terrible that it made her tremble all over.
Guderian also realized the complexity of the situation. He hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Yes, our school has its own private jet, and we can help you with your passport and other things as soon as possible. However, our budget for this application is limited. If you want to go to Prussia and France, the 100,000 compensation may not be available."
"Lu Mingfei, why are you going to France and Prussia for no reason?" When my aunt heard that the 100,000 yuan compensation might not be available, she immediately became anxious and shouted anxiously, her voice raising by octaves.
"Why? You want to go play? That's 100,000 yuan!" Aunt's voice was full of confusion and worry. "How can you spend 100,000 yuan to go to France and Prussia? When your injury is healed, your uncle and aunt will personally take you abroad to play for two days, and then you can go to school obediently. You are still young, you should focus on your studies. After you get the scholarship, there is no place you can't go."
"Then arrange a plane. I hope it can take off today." Lu Mingfei's tone was still flat. He ignored his aunt's words, and his eyes revealed an indescribable fatigue and determination.
"Lu Mingfei, you little bastard are really going to go crazy! Don't you even listen to what your aunt says?" Seeing that Lu Mingfei ignored her advice, the aunt's anger finally broke out completely. She was so angry that she was shaking all over, her face flushed, and she glared at him angrily.
However, Lu Mingfei just looked at his aunt calmly. After meeting his gaze, his aunt's originally angry expression froze instantly. There was a fierce murderous look in her eyes, but they were terribly empty, as if they had lost their souls.
Seeing this, the uncle also felt that Lu Mingfei's change was a little unbelievable, but he still hurried forward to hold his aunt, and gently comforted her: "Wife, calm down, Mingfei is an adult after all, and the compensation was originally given to him, so just let him be."
With the persuasion of her uncle, her aunt recovered from her stiff state, but her heart was still shrouded in an inexplicable fear. However, she was actually frightened by Lu Mingfei's glance just now, which made the anger in her heart burn again.
"Okay, okay! Lu Mingfei, you've grown independent, haven't you? I've really raised you in vain! If you dare to go abroad today, never come back!" Aunt was so angry that she was shaking all over. After saying these words angrily, she suddenly picked up the thermos that was placed at the head of Lu Mingfei's bed and stormed out.
"Hey, wife, wait for me!" The uncle hurriedly chased after her, his steps hurried.
When they pushed open the door, they saw the fat boy Lu Mingze who had just returned from buying water. The fat boy was dragged away with the water in his arms, looking confused.
The ward fell silent again, and the atmosphere was filled with oppressive tension. Guderian looked at this scene with an embarrassment on his face. He looked at Lu Mingfei with some hesitation.
"Arrange the plane." Lu Mingfei's voice sounded again, still so calm, as if he no longer cared about everything in front of him.
He knew that he could never go back. From the moment he stepped onto the battlefield, he had lost the place he once called home.
Guderian nodded. Although he didn't understand what Lu Mingfei's obsession was, he could see that the boy in front of him could no longer integrate into normal life.
"Bloodline awakening?" Guderian muttered to himself, his voice so low that no one else could hear it.
"I have to catch a plane to BJ later, and Ye Sheng and Ya Ji have to go back to school, so only Nono can accompany you to France and Prussia." Guderian's voice was a little heavy. He turned his head and asked, "Nono, can you speak French and Prussian?"
"I know a little French and Prussian, but I'm not very proficient. If it's just traveling, I should be able to handle it." Nuo Nuo nodded and tried to stay calm, but she was still a little nervous. Although she looked strong, she felt a sense of inexplicable pressure facing Lu Mingfei, who had experienced some unknown changes.
"Mingfei, what do you think?" Guderian turned to Lu Mingfei again, asking inquiringly.
"It doesn't matter, as long as the plane can take off as soon as possible." Lu Mingfei closed his eyes calmly, as if trying to regain some spirit.
An endless tiredness swept over his whole body. He was looking forward to going to those two places, but he was afraid to face those possible traces. He didn't know what the result of this journey would bring, but he understood that only by witnessing it with his own eyes could he confirm his existence.
(End of this chapter)
