Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

After not having been here for a few days, the flood in Wasserbilich receded much faster than Dong Qiangqiang had expected. Although the water level in some places was above the ankles, it was much better than last Friday. The water was no longer as turbid as mud, and the road surface and traps under the water could be basically seen. The streets were occupied by orderly stacked sandbags of uniform specifications, warning signs of different sizes, ice cream cones, and all kinds of biological and domestic garbage mixed together without any sense of boundaries.

Most of the shops had staff cleaning up the rubbish, while a few shops were still in a mess inside and out and deserted, but there were no furtive people outside of these shops approaching to take a look.

There was no law and order force on the streets.

Dong Qiangqiang slowed down the car as much as possible to avoid splashing dirty water on others from the wheels, and also to avoid hitting garbage that was suddenly pushed over by the water flow.

Experienced drivers are generally good at remembering directions, and he was no exception. He quickly found the bookstore that impressed him.

Sitting in the driver's seat, he clearly saw that all the broken glass in the bookstore had been cleared away, leaving only the helpless window frames. Three generations of shop assistants were scattered in every corner of the store, and a striking notice in black and white was posted on the windowless main door: Temporarily suspended.

He parked the car on the slope, pulled the handbrake, turned off the engine and got out of the car. He ignored the notice and walked into the bookstore. He was looking for someone to ask. Seeing this, a young female clerk stopped what she was doing and took the initiative to greet him. She blocked Dong Qiangqiang's way and politely refused him, "Hello, sir. Our store is closed today. Please come back in a few days."

Dong Qiangqiang nodded slightly and replied with a smile: "Hello, who is in charge here?"

The young female clerk was confused and asked with a glare, "What can I do for you?"

"I'm here to return a book." Dong Qiangqiang took off his backpack and took out a book wrapped in newspaper. He explained as he flipped open the newspaper, "I found this outside the store last Friday. It rushed in front of me."

"Returning the book?" The female clerk glanced at the ancient book in Dong Qiangqiang's hand with a confused look on her face. She immediately recognized it as a treasure from her own bookstore and immediately turned to a middle-aged woman standing next to the bookshelf and shouted, "Manager, someone is looking for you."

The woman who was called looked up and waved gently to the female clerk. The female clerk glanced at the book again and turned around to do her own thing.

The woman tread on the water and walked to Dong Qiangqiang. She thought Dong Qiangqiang was here to buy books. After a closer look, she found that Dong Qiangqiang was not a regular customer of the store. She raised her hand to take off her glasses and asked kindly, "Hello, I am the bookstore manager. What can I do for you?"

Dong Qiangqiang handed the book to the other party and explained the whole story in a few words.

The woman obviously didn't expect the purpose of Dong Qiangqiang's entry into the store. She quickly reacted and thanked Dong Qiangqiang. Other shop assistants who heard a few words gathered around her. In the blink of an eye, Dong Qiangqiang was stared at by eyes of different colors. The shop assistants surrounded him as if they were afraid that he would run away.

The bookstore manager explained half complaining and half helplessly: the sudden flood caused inestimable losses to this century-old store: because the bookstore is low-lying, the bicycles rushed into the alley by the flood easily broke through the window, and the water flow that broke through the window pushed down the wooden ladder next to the bookshelf with speed. The fallen ladder became the first domino, not only taking down the books on the bookshelf, but also knocking down the bookshelf next to it. Hundreds of ancient books escaped overnight. These ancient books are either counted in single digits or only one copy, all of which are extremely valuable. The bookstore has taken sufficient anti-theft measures, but the anti-theft system is powerless against floods. Even if some rare books are insured, the value of many books can no longer be measured in money. The bookstore suffered heavy losses after this disaster. Only the book sent back by Dong Qiangqiang has returned to the store like a drifting bottle, and all the others have been lost in the world.

No one present expected that a foreigner would come all the way to return a book. The shop assistants looked at each other in bewilderment. The girl who first spoke to Dong Qiangqiang looked at Dong Qiangqiang's smooth young face and suddenly asked, "Japanese?"

"Chinese." Dong Qiangqiang straightened his back.

"Thank you, Chinese." The bookstore manager extended his hand.

Dong Qiangqiang politely and quickly shook hands with the other party, then said goodbye. Just as he was about to leave, he heard the bookstore manager's voice from behind: "Please wait a moment." "Anything else?"

The bookstore manager quickly exchanged a few words with the staff. What he spoke was neither German nor French. Dong Qiangqiang guessed it was Luxembourgish. When he was wondering, he heard the bookstore manager say again: "Sir, to express our gratitude to you, we would like to..."

Dong Qiangqiang had a flash of inspiration: Are you going to give me the only book?
"I'll give you a discount card. Different books have different discounts. Your spending amount will be converted into points. The discount card and points are valid forever. You can use the points to buy books. When you accumulate to a certain amount, the discount will be even greater. All members of your family can use it, and you can pass it on to your next generation."

Dong Qiangqiang thought: Well, you guys are good at business, can you pass this stuff on? You don't have the books I need, if you have economics or finance, that would be enough. Besides, the original price of the books is so expensive, even after the discount, it won't be much cheaper. Even if I have the income, how many books can I afford?

"Ah? No, no." He instinctively declined the offer. He had never considered charging the other party before. The things belonged to them and he was just returning them to the original owner. But the people in the bookstore didn't think so. Under the insistence of the other party, Dong Qiangqiang had to accept the discount card. After thanking everyone, he hurried to the next destination.

Dong Qiangqiang originally thought that the village where Josefina's family lived would be similar to Wasserbillig, with garbage everywhere, messy ground and piles of vehicles. But the closer he drove to the village, the more surprised Dong Qiangqiang was to find that the disaster situation around the village seemed to have become more serious than when he left last week.

On the railway embankment near the village, there were piles of car wreckage that had not appeared when he last left. Driving further ahead, a car was stuck upside down in the filthy river. There was much more garbage in the river than on the shore, which seriously blocked the river. The air was filled with the mixed smell of unburned gasoline and mold. There were rescue boats and staff working hard to clear the river. Curious children sat on the fence on the shore, staring at the staff's mechanical movements to clear the river in silence. Several torn bridges led him to the entrance of the village. The sewage on the road was far less clean than that of Wasserbilich. The cars in the parking lot that were not swept away by the water were mostly buried in mud. What shocked him among the many houses was the collapsed houses. What surprised him even more was that the brewery was vaguely among them. The most eye-catching thing is a restaurant. One layer of window glass has disappeared. Large and small tree roots wrapped with rags of various colors are stuck in the window frames. The gray wall pieces used to decorate the exterior facade are falling off sporadically, which is extremely ugly. Several letters on the restaurant sign have been poked out by the proud branches extending from the tree roots.

Ruins. Complete ruins.

The car slowly drove into the village. He saw the empty eyes of the pedestrians passing by the car. Many people still had shock on their faces, which were expressions of trauma.

There are many water pipes laid flat on the road, sucking water greedily. On the river bank, there are several water pipes as thick as elephant legs, holding their heads high and draining water into the river.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

There were obviously more excavators, tractors, bulldozers and trucks than he had seen in Wasserbillig. The iron army they formed was doing its job, digging, clearing and demolishing all obstacles in an orderly manner.

A group of people in black suits stood above an excavator that was working shovel by shovel at the broken bank of the river. Some of them were pointing at the river, some were talking loudly towards the collapsed houses, and some were muttering to themselves towards several wineries not far away. Outside the crowd, photographers with various cameras and lenses were walking around, and white light flashed past Dong Qiangqiang's eyes from time to time.

He remembered what the landlord said. It looked like this group of people came to inspect, but he didn't know whether they really wanted to control the flood or to accumulate political capital. He was too lazy to watch the fun, so he drove carefully to Josephina's house.

When the car passed by the crowd of people in suits, he moved closer to the crowd and glanced into the crowd intentionally or unintentionally. He felt that a face in the middle looked more and more familiar. After thinking for a few seconds, he was surprised to find that the person surrounded by the crowd was the congressman who asked him questions at the China Week. This surprised him a little.

According to the Germans' normal way of meeting, he should have made an appointment with little Josefina's father in advance to meet her. Otherwise, he would most likely be disappointed if he showed up so abruptly. However, he didn't expect to come back the day he rescued little Josefina, so he didn't leave any contact information for the other party.

The car was only two blocks away from Josefina's house. Dong Qiangqiang paid special attention. The broken doors and windows of Josefina's house had not been repaired yet. There was a one-meter-high garbage pile in front of the door. There was no bulldozer or car in sight, and he didn't know whether her father was at home.

He rang the doorbell, and it was Josefina's mother who answered the door. After recognizing the visitor as Dong Qiangqiang and listening to his purpose, the woman did not let him in, but pointed out the location of the village winery and her husband's phone number, and asked him to go to the winery to find Josefina's father. It was only a few hundred meters away. Dong Qiangqiang thanked her and drove slowly towards the winery. (End of this chapter)