red moscow

Chapter 2686

Sokov looked in the direction Victoria pointed, and sure enough, there was an orange gable-roofed wooden house in the clearing in the woods ahead. The house was surrounded by a wooden wall more than one meter high.

"That's my great-grandmother's country house," Victoria explained. "It was painted in such bright colors so that it would stand out and be visible from a distance."

When Sokov drove to the suburbs in the past, he had seen a lot of wooden houses in the forest, with the exterior walls painted in various colors, which looked very inconsistent. He was quite surprised at the time and wondered why the Russians did this. Now, after hearing what Victoria said, he suddenly realized that they painted the houses in such bright colors to make their houses more eye-catching so that he would not be unable to find his house when he came on vacation.

The car stopped at the wooden fence gate. Victoria pushed open the door and went forward to unlock it.

There was a chain on the door, and a lock on it, but after two years of exposure to the sun and rain, the lock had become rusty, and Victoria inserted the key and twisted it for a long time, but couldn't open the lock.

Sokov opened the car door and walked over, asking, "Why, the door lock won't open?"

Victoria shook her head and said, "The lock is already rusted. It seems we can only smash it." Then she looked at the ground nearby to see if she could find any stones, but there was nothing on the ground except weeds.

Sokov turned around and walked to the back of the car, opened the trunk, took out the jack rod, returned to the door, and said to Victoria: "Let me pry the lock open." As he said that, he inserted the rod between the lock body and the lock beam, pried it hard, and the lock opened.

"Misha, you are amazing." Victoria pushed the door open and said to Sokov, "Drive the car into the yard."

Sokov first helped Victoria push open the door on the other side, then ran back and drove the car into the spacious yard.

Maybe it had been years since anyone had come here, and even the cement floor was covered with ankle-deep weeds. Victoria just took a look and then said, "Let's go inside first, and we'll deal with the weeds later."

Although the lock of the door was rusty, it could still be opened.

As soon as he entered the house, Sokov felt a musty smell coming towards him. He fanned his nose with his hands to dispel the unpleasant musty smell.

The furniture in the room was covered with white cloth. Victoria stepped forward and gently lifted the cloth on the sofa to prevent dust from flying: "Misha, please sit down!"

After Sokov sat down, Elizabeth cleaned the house and said apologetically, "Misha, this is how houses in the countryside are. Because no one lives there for a long time, every time you come back, you have to clean it up for a while. Please sit down for a while, I'll go boil some water and make some tea."

Sokov thought that he came here today just to help Lida get the medal, so he should just take the things and leave, so why would he drink tea?

Just as he was about to say something, he saw Victoria walking out with the electric kettle. He thought about whether he should help her do something, so he followed her out.

Coming out of the house, Sokov saw Victoria coming to a low gabled wooden building and bending over to look inside.

"Vika, what are you looking at?"

Hearing Sokov's voice, Victoria stood up straight, turned her head and said, "Let me see if there are any fallen leaves or something in the well."

"Ah, this is a well?" Sokov asked curiously, "You even built a small house specifically for the well?"

"We use groundwater. If we don't build a house on top of the well, we're afraid that when there's a strong wind, leaves or other dirt will be blown into the well."

After filling the kettle with water, Victoria returned to the room, plugged in the electricity, and began to find tea leaves and wash teacups. Sokov wanted to help, but she waved her hand and said, "You are a guest, how can I let you do it?"

After finally waiting for the water to boil and the tea to be brewed, Victoria sat down next to Sokov and started chatting.

"Misha, I have always had a question in my mind." Victoria looked at Sokov and asked, "Do you really have memories of your past life?"

"Yes." Sokov said calmly, "Didn't your great-grandmother believe that I was her former superior, General Sokov?"

"I always feel that she may have mistaken someone because she was not in a clear state of mind." Victoria said: "If there is such a thing as reincarnation or memories of past lives, it should be a Russian. How could it be a foreigner like you?"

Victoria's question left Sokov silent.

After a long while, he began to speak: "I don't know the specific reason. I only know that when I woke up one morning, I suddenly had a lot of memories that didn't belong to me in my mind. Even Russian, which I had never been good at, became fluent. I spoke Russian as authentically as a real Russian."

"That's quite strange." Victoria said thoughtfully, "I read a news report in the newspaper before. An old man in a certain country suddenly learned to speak several languages ​​after he became seriously ill. You know, he had never left his country, so why did he speak so many languages? Even the doctors couldn't explain it clearly."

"Vika, we came here today to help Lida get the medal and certificate." Sokov was in a hurry to return to the city and didn't want to sit here and chat, so he reminded the other party: "Shouldn't we find the things first?"

Victoria looked at her watch and said, "Wait another half an hour."

"Wait another half an hour?" Sokov asked puzzledly: "Why?"

"My great-grandmother's medals and certificates of honor are all stored in the basement." Victoria explained to Sokov, "No one has been in the basement for several years. If you go in rashly, you may get into an accident due to lack of oxygen. When I boiled water just now, I turned on the ventilation system in the basement. When the time is right, we can go to the basement."

Sokov knew that in a poorly ventilated place like the basement, if no one went in and out for a long time, it would be easy to suffer from hypoxia, and it would be easy to get into trouble if he went in rashly. Therefore, he stopped urging her, and continued to chat with Victoria while drinking tea, waiting for the moment to enter the basement.

"Misha, are you married?" Victoria suddenly asked. "No."

"Do you have a girlfriend?" After asking this question, Victoria did not wait for Sokov to speak, and shook her head and said, "I shouldn't ask this question. I saw a girl following you home two days ago. They behaved very intimately. She must be your girlfriend."

"We are good friends, I guess." Sokov knew that Victoria was talking about Anna, and replied, "Maybe one day she will meet the right person and leave me."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Victoria looked at her watch again and said, "It's about time. Let's go down."

Sokov agreed and was about to go out, but was stopped by Victoria: "Misha, where are you going?"

"Isn't the entrance to the basement outside?" Sokov knew the style of this house. The entrance to the basement was on the side near the main door.

Victoria shook her head and said, "You're talking about a normal basement. My great-grandmother's basement was indoors."

She took Sokov to the stairs, opened a wooden door, and revealed a long staircase. She said, "When my great-grandmother built this basement, she was worried that a nuclear attack would come too quickly. Leaving the room and going to the basement outside would definitely take a lot of time, so she built the entrance to the basement indoors."

Sokov asked in confusion: "I don't understand. Even if it takes less than a minute to run from indoors to the basement outside, why do we have to build the entrance to the basement indoors?"

"It's okay in the summer, as you can run outside when you hear the noise," Victoria explained. "But in the winter, the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is too big, and there's snow outside the door. When you hear the alarm and run outside, you have to avoid falling, and you might catch a cold if you don't have time to put on clothes. So after much thought, my great-grandmother decided to choose an indoor entrance to the basement."

"Lida is very thoughtful." Sokov said as he followed Victoria into the basement.

This corridor, built with reinforced concrete, is only wide enough for one person to pass through and is only about 1.5 meters high. When Sokov and his companion walked, they had to bend over to avoid accidentally hitting the top of the corridor.

There was an incandescent lamp every few meters at the top of the corridor, so that Sokov, who was visiting here for the first time, could see the road clearly. Although there was some dust on the ground, there was no messy debris. It only needed a simple cleanup and it should be able to continue to be used.

At the end of the corridor was a large iron door with a hand wheel. Victoria tried to move it twice but it didn't budge, so she turned to Sokov and said, "Misha, help me."

The two men each grabbed a part of the handwheel and exerted force at the same time. After rotating it dozens of times, the iron door was opened.

As Sokov followed Victoria into the iron gate, he said, "Vika, you should apply some lubricating oil on the screw rod of the handwheel to prevent it from rusting and being unable to open in the future."

After entering the iron gate, Sokov immediately felt that the road ahead became brighter. Not only had the width of the corridor increased to allow three people to walk side by side, but the height also increased to about three meters. The oppressive feeling outside was completely gone.

After walking a dozen meters forward, Sokov saw a room on the right. The door of the room was not closed, so he stood at the door and looked inside. He saw a dozen dark green wooden boxes stacked against the corner.

Seeing that Sokov was interested in the things in the house, Victoria quickly explained to him, "The boxes contain various canned foods and compressed biscuits. If the real doomsday comes, we can rely on these foods to survive. Originally, the house was full of them, but because many of them were past their expiration date, we were worried that eating them would affect our health, so we threw them all away."

Sokov knew that canned food had two terms, the best-before date and the shelf life. The best-before date refers to the period from production to expiration. Even if you eat it after the expiration date, it is not a big problem. However, the shelf life is different. Once the shelf life is exceeded, those things must be thrown away. If you insist on eating them, it will have an adverse effect on your health.

As the two continued to walk forward, Victoria introduced Sokov: "These two adjacent rooms belong to me and my parents. It's a pity that they don't have the opportunity to stay here. Also, this is the toilet and bathroom, with a matching sewage system."

"When I came in just now, I didn't see any place to store water." Sokov remembered that when he built underground fortifications in Mamayev Kurgan, he specially prepared many iron barrels to store water for the soldiers, so he specifically mentioned: "If there is no water, I'm afraid you won't be able to hold on for long in the basement."

"There must be water." Victoria took Sokov to another room: "Do you see these pipes and faucets? Just turn on the faucet, and clean groundwater will flow out." Perhaps to demonstrate to Sokov, she even turned on the faucet.

After turning on the faucet, there was a rustling sound at first, and then a stream of dark brown rusty water flowed out. After flowing for a while, the water became clear. Victoria smiled and said, "Misha, you see, we have enough water here. As long as the food is not finished, we can stay here for a long time."

Finally, they came to Lida's old room. The furnishings in the room were simple. In addition to a bed, there was only a bookcase and a writing desk, plus two armchairs. "Misha, this is the room where my great-grandmother lived."

Victoria opened the drawer and took out a wooden box. After opening it, she could see various medals on the red silk cloth. She lifted a corner of the red silk cloth to reveal a yellowed document underneath, which should be the so-called certificate of honor.

"This is Lida's medal and certificate, right?"

"Yes, these are the things." Victoria said with emotion: "When she was in good health, she would come here every year before Victory Day, hang all her medals on her chest, and then go to Red Square or Victory Square to participate in the parade. In recent years, as her old friends passed away one after another, her health condition has been getting worse year by year, so these medals have been placed here and have not been hung out for display for a long time."

Before Sokov could finish, Victoria closed the box, took out two photo albums from the drawer, opened them and said to Sokov: "Misha, these are the photo albums that my great-grandmother treasured. Take a look and see if there are any people you know in them."

Sokov took one of the photo albums and looked through it carefully.

Looking at the yellowed photos and the familiar faces on them, Sokov couldn't help feeling a lot of emotions. He never expected that after returning to the modern era, he could still see photos of his former comrades.

He quickly flipped through the two photo albums, but didn't find a single photo of himself. He curiously asked Victoria, "Vika, why don't you see any photos of me in my past life in your great-grandmother's photo album?"

"Because the only photo you have is already in a frame in the living room by your great-grandmother," Victoria said, "of course you can't see it here."

"It's getting late." Although there were ventilation fans here, Sokov still felt a little stuffy. He picked up the box containing the medals, tucked the two photo albums under his armpits, and said to Victoria, "Let's go back."

"Let's go back to the house upstairs first," Victoria said. "I'll check to see if there's anything else I need to bring back for my great-grandmother."