Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

The cable coiled on the floor of the attic like a snake was about two fingers wide. Dong Qiangqiang bent down and picked it up from the ground. He shook it, and the dust attached to the rope fell quietly. The rope was about ten meters long, more than enough to save people.

He was worried that the rope would become soft and deteriorate after being left in the attic for too long without maintenance, so he grabbed a section and pulled hard. It was much stronger than he expected, so it seemed that either it had not been there for too long or the attic was still relatively dry.

After leaving a length of about three meters, he began to wrap the rope around his body, tying a loose knot as he went along. When he felt it was almost done, he neatly tied a swastika knot to finish it off.

Soon he would stand on the roof to pick up the little girl and take her back to the house. If anyone accidentally fell, the rope would have to bear a great tension and must not loosen or come apart. Among the knotting techniques he had mastered, there was no more suitable one than the swastika knot.

He learned the knot-tying method in a rock climbing class in college. When he was learning it, he didn't know when else he would use it besides rock climbing. He didn't expect it to come in handy today.

Having never tried it before, he nervously pulled on it a few times after tying the knot, making sure it wouldn't loosen before walking towards the wooden pillar in the attic.

There were five wooden pillars in the attic. He chose the thickest one and tied the other end of the rope to it. He wrapped it around twice and tied a knot. He didn't feel completely secure until the knot was full.

As he walked towards the window holding the rope, he inadvertently caught a glimpse of a brown wooden toolbox in the corner. The box was quite large, and thinking that there might be some useful tools inside, he walked over.

In addition to various hardware tools, the toolbox contained miscellaneous items such as coarse cloth strips, tape, nails, electric drills, and at the bottom were a few sets of clean work clothes. There was nothing special. He was a little disappointed and was about to close the lid when he suddenly thought of something. He reached out and picked up the coarse cloth strips, and quickly wrapped them around his shoes. He then tore off several large pieces of tape and stuck them to the soles and uppers, rubbing them back and forth on the ground until he could feel the resistance of the soles of his shoes before he closed the lid with satisfaction.

He stood in front of the window, took a few deep breaths, shouted "Come on" to himself twice, stepped onto the window, held the window frame tightly with both hands, and carefully moved his feet and body out of the window.

The wind outside the attic was blowing hard, but the rain seemed a little weak and could not keep up with the situation.

The Martin boots tied with cloth strips and taped stood firmly on the slippery roof, without any slippery feeling, just as Dong Qiangqiang expected.

There is a height of nearly seven meters from the roof to the ground. Dong Qiangqiang is not afraid of many things, but unfortunately, fear of heights is not one of them. Although there is the roof on his right and his lower body is stable, he always feels that there is emptiness around him and he has an lingering feeling of helplessness. He tells himself that only by looking straight ahead can he concentrate, but his peripheral vision always unconsciously jumps over the edge of the eaves and falls into the brown water.

Seeing Dong Qiangqiang standing outside the window fully armed and silent, Josephina did not show any surprise on her face, but just stared at him silently with her big watery eyes. This kind of gaze made Dong Qiangqiang feel uneasy, and made him feel that he was mature beyond his age. He secretly encouraged himself, reminding himself that if he didn't hurry up, it would be more difficult when the rain got heavier.

His jacket was soaked through by rain and river water. After he stood on the roof, he felt a sudden bone-chilling chill. The advantage of wet clothes was that no matter how strong the wind was, it could not blow them up. In addition, the rope wrapped around his waist saved him from the fear of being blown off. However, if he stood up straight, he still swayed from side to side, so he had to lower his body and move forward inch by inch.

When he squatted down, he noticed that every few tiles beside him, there would be a ten-centimeter-long black blunt hook sticking out from under the tiles. The dripping rain made the tiles glow with a metallic luster similar to the blunt hook, so he couldn't see such details clearly when he was downstairs. He couldn't figure out the purpose of these blunt hooks for a while, but soon realized that these hooks and the rotten tree roots in the river were the same thing to him: a perfect tool for leverage.

He shifted his center of gravity toward the roof and placed his hand on the tiles, which felt cool and slippery. He gradually moved his hand closer and grabbed the blunt hook nearest to him and gently pulled it twice. After he had a clear understanding of the firmness of the blunt hook, he dared to grab the blunt hook and move forward slowly, then grabbed the next one and moved on again.

Dong Qiangqiang could imagine that his movements must be as slow as an old man with blurry eyes sewing under dim light, but his method was inefficient but effective: he avoided the uncontrolled looking down and got to the girl's side.

He didn't rush to get the girl up. Instead, he took the rope he had reserved and quickly wrapped it around the girl several times. Although Josefina didn't seem to weigh much, Dong Qiangqiang still tied two swastika knots, just in case the wind was strong or the child slipped and something went wrong, more knots would provide more protection.

If this action was done on flat ground, he could do it very quickly, but they were both on the roof, so he didn't dare to be careless. After tying the knot, he confirmed it repeatedly like he had obsessive-compulsive disorder. After he changed from a squatting position to lying diagonally on the tiles, he let the girl get up.

He half-lying back, holding Josefina's arm with his right hand, and with his left hand, he wrapped the rope around several times and held it firmly in his palm, and told her not to look down, but to first move over her legs and feet, and then imitate his movements of grabbing the blunt hook and walk towards the window.

The girl did as she was told obediently. Dong Qiangqiang's heart was in his throat and he couldn't tell whether it was rain or sweat on his hands. When the girl passed Dong Qiangqiang, he hurriedly replaced his right hand with his left hand to grab her arm until she also squatted down and grabbed the blunt hook.

After about thirty minutes, the two returned to the attic one after the other, both safe and sound.

Finally, there was no danger.

Dong Qiangqiang didn't bother to help the girl untie the knots on her body. He lay flat on the ground and gasped for breath. He was surprised that he was so nervous, but he was too lazy to ask more questions. After seven or eight minutes, he finally thought of the question: "Josefina, what are those hooks on the roof used for?" Josefina hadn't untied a single swastika knot at this time. When she heard Dong Qiangqiang's curiosity, she showed a child's smile and two big buck teeth: "My father uses them to hang solar panels."

"What about the solar panels?" Dong Qiangqiang, who had recovered, helped her untie the knot. "Did they get washed away by the flood?"

“Dad said the hooks have to be put up first and the solar panels won’t be installed until September.”

"Well, those hooks helped us a lot. You can ask your father to thank them later."

"Uncle, you said you would take me to find my mother, so where should we look for her?" Josephine asked, blinking her big eyes and staring at Dong Qiangqiang's face innocently.

"Well, go back to your room and change into warmer clothes, preferably rainproof ones, and then your uncle will take you to look for them. By the way, you'd better eat something before you look for your parents, so you don't get hungry on the way. All the bakeries are closed. If you don't eat enough, you won't have anything to eat when you get hungry later."

"The food is in the kitchen, so wait for me to change and take you there."

The attic and the second floor were not soaked in water. Watching the little girl skipping away from the attic as if nothing had happened, Dong Qiangqiang thought that people who knew nothing were the happiest.

The wet clothes were very uncomfortable on his body, and he wanted to change into dry clothes. He looked back at the work clothes next to the wooden box, hesitated for two seconds, and still did not change.

Doll quickly changed her clothes and came out with a doll in her hands. She took Dong Qiangqiang's hand and went down to the first floor where the stairs were not flooded and sat down.

"Just before I went upstairs, I saw a rat this long floating out of the kitchen," Dong Qiangqiang gestured at the length of the rat, "I'm afraid the food in the kitchen can no longer be eaten."

"Mom put all the food in the refrigerator. Can a mouse open the refrigerator?" the doll asked in a baby voice.

"That can't be possible." Dong Qiangqiang tilted his head and saw the refrigerator proudly standing in the water and the refrigerator door intact and closed. "Since the mice didn't eat it, I'll go get all the food. Don't move here. I'll be back soon."

He waded through the water to the refrigerator and opened the double-door refrigerator. There was all kinds of food inside, including bread of different lengths, various sausages, ham, jam, various cheeses, and two small cakes.

His eyes drifted towards the cabinet next to the refrigerator, which contained different types of liquor, mostly wine, but of course there was also his favorite whiskey behind the bottles.

Finally seeing what he had been talking about for a long time, Dong Qiangqiang felt his body instantly warmed up. He took all the food in the refrigerator, including the whiskey, to the stairs to eat with the doll. He only ate bread with jam and drank a few sips of wine, leaving the rest for the doll.

After consuming carbohydrates and alcohol, Dong Qiangqiang finally felt like he had returned to his senses.

"Josephina, uncle ate your mother's bread and jam, and drank your father's wine. This is the money I want to give to thank your parents for their hospitality. I've put it here. You can tell your parents later." Dong Qiangqiang opened the glass door of the cupboard, waved the wet banknotes at Josephina, and put them in the cupboard.

The doll nodded as if she understood, and continued to eat with her head down. It was obvious that she was also very hungry.

While the two of them were eating, the sky outside the window darkened rapidly.

After all, the little girl's appetite was limited. Seeing that the girl could not eat anymore, Dong Qiangqiang found a hard canvas bag in the house, threw all the things into it, slung it over his body, then bent down, picked up Josefina, and waded through the water towards the gate.

Before he got close to the door, he saw through the broken window two strong white lights shooting from a distance onto the water in front of the window, and at the same time the sound of a whistle was heard.

Is there a ship coming? (End of this chapter)