When the wine was half drunk, Leonid took the initiative: "Comrades, let's dance." After saying that, without waiting for anyone to express their opinions, he picked up Vera, who was sitting next to him, and walked around in the open space in the living room. Make a circle. Victor first got up and changed the record on the gramophone, and then he hugged another young girl and started dancing.
Sokov had not danced for many years, so when he saw Leonid and the others dancing, he did not want to participate. But when Yakov also stood up and hugged a girl and started dancing, the remaining girl named Galka stood up and walked to Sokov, stretched out her hand and said proactively: "Comrade Major, can I please Would you like a dance?”
Seeing that the girl took the initiative to invite him, Sokov replied in a panic: "Of course, of course, I am very happy." After saying that, he stood up and reached out to grab Galka's hand and danced with her.
As soon as he started, Sokov, who was already unfamiliar with the dance steps, accidentally stepped on Galka. Sokov quickly apologized to Galka and tried to let go of him. Unexpectedly, Galka held Sokov tightly and said with a smile on his face: "Comrade Major, it seems that you haven't danced for a long time?"
"Yes, yes," Sokov, who was holding Garka in his arms, explained with an awkward expression: "I haven't danced for almost ten years, so the dance steps are a bit unfamiliar, please forgive me."
Hearing what Sokov said, Galka couldn't help but chuckle, and then said: "Major, I see you are only in your early twenties, how could it be that you haven't danced for more than ten years? Could it be that you haven't danced since you learned to walk?" Dance?" After she said this, she saw an embarrassed expression on Sokov's face, and hurriedly added, "If you don't mind, you can call me 'you', don't always 'You', 'you', sounds particularly awkward."
This is a familiar girl. After Sokov made a conclusion for her in his mind, he then asked: "Galka, where do you work?"
"I'm at the cinema." Galka said enthusiastically: "Comrade Major, do you like watching movies? Recently the cinema has shown several movies starring Valentina Serova. If you are not in a hurry to leave Ninono If it’s Fugorod, we can go and have a look.”
Valentina Serova? ! When he heard this familiar name, Sokov couldn't help but trembled. He thought that this person was the movie star with whom Rokossovsky had an affair. Now Rokossovsky has been in the hospital for a short time, but I don't know if the two of them have known each other. When I return to Moscow this time, I can go find out.
"Major Sokov," Galka saw Sokov in a daze and quickly patted him on the shoulder twice to help him recover from his absent-minded state: "Are you okay?"
"It's okay, it's okay." Sokov shook his head and apologized to Galka, "I just thought of something else, so I was a little distracted. I heard that Serova is a very famous actress. The movies she starred in must be very exciting. When I have free time another day, I will go to the cinema. I hope you can watch a movie together. "
Galka said with joy on his face: "Comrade Major, this is great. There happen to be two movies tomorrow afternoon. If you have time, let's do it tomorrow afternoon."
"Comrades," Leonid, who was walking a little unsteadily, danced a few laps, let go of his partner, pulled out a pistol from his waist, and said to Yakov and Sokov, "The dance has begun. That’s it, now we should go practice shooting.”
When they heard Leonid's proposal to go shooting, Yakov and Victor's reactions were normal, but Sokov was frightened and broke into a cold sweat. He remembered that during the Battle of Stalingrad, Leonid was sent to a military court for accidentally killing his colleague while drunk while shooting. He also drank a lot today. If something unexpected happened while shooting, he and Yakov would be full and walk away.
Thinking of this, he quickly let go of Galka and said to Leonid: "Leonid, you are drunk, you should go to bed early." After saying these two words, he turned to look at Yakov said, "Yakov, look at how drunk Leonid is. What if something unexpected happens during target shooting?"
"Misha, what's wrong with you?" Leonid came over and put his arm around Sokov's shoulders, dangled the pistol in front of him and said, "Don't you believe in my marksmanship?"
Seeing Leonid's gun dangling in front of him, all the hairs on Sokov's body stood up. He was deeply afraid that the other party would accidentally fire, and his life depended on it. He hurriedly pushed Leonid's hand away and said seriously: "Leonid, I think this is not your first day using weapons. You should know very well that the muzzle of the gun cannot be pointed at people..."
Hearing what Sokov said, Leonid let go of his arm on his shoulders, took a step back, and said with a smile: "Misha, you are too courageous. Let me tell you, the gun in this gun There are no bullets at all. If you are unlucky, I will try it for you." After saying that, he put the muzzle of the gun against his temple, as if he was ready to pull the trigger at any time.
"No!" The moment he pulled the trigger, Sokov suddenly lifted Leonid's wrist upwards. He heard a "pop" sound, and a bullet flew out of the barrel of the gun. A small hole was made in the tapestry on the wall.
The sound of gunfire shocked everyone. There was no sound in the room except the music from the gramophone. Leonid's drunkenness was also awakened by the sound of gunshots. After staring at his pistol for a while, he asked Victor angrily: "Victor, what is going on? Why is my gun firing?" Loaded?"
"I, I don't know." The bullet almost grazed Victor's ear and hit the wall, so after hearing Leonid's question, Victor replied in a panic: "Maybe Your gun was loaded."
Seeing Victor standing there in a daze, Yakov quickly walked to the gramophone and removed the needle from the record. After the room returned to calm, he said to Leonid: "Leonid, please take care of yourself." Think about it, is your gun loaded?"
Leonid put the pistol on the table and said with a wry smile: "Yakov, I just drank a little too much. As for whether it was loaded or not, I don't remember at all."
When Yakov and Leonid were discussing whether the pistol was loaded, Sokov was sweating coldly on the sidelines. He thought to himself: It's so suspenseful. Fortunately, Leonid didn't pull the trigger when he pointed the gun at himself. Trigger, otherwise I would have gone to see Marx at this moment.
Yakov picked up the pistol on the table, handed it to Leonid, and said to him: "Put the gun away, be careful not to misfire." After saying that, he raised his wrist and looked at his watch with a serious expression. Said, "It's getting late, Misha and I are leaving."
If it were normal times, Leonid might try his best to save him, but just now he almost blew his head off with a gun, and he couldn't say anything to save him. He reached out to Sokov with a touch that I will always remember. "
When Sokov heard what Leonid said, he just looked at it lightly, then stretched out his hand to shake his hand and said: "You're welcome, it's just a small effort."
After Yakov and Sokov came out of the building, they walked silently towards the place they had agreed with the driver. After walking for a while, Yakov suddenly said: "Misha, thank you so much just now. If it weren't for you, Leonid's life would probably be in danger."
"It doesn't matter, it's just a simple effort. We are all friends, so there is no need to say such polite words." Sokov thought that the house he just went to was quite large, so he asked curiously: "Yakov, where are we drinking? , is it Leonid’s own house?”
"No, his house is in Kuibyshev." Yakov shook his head and said, "The house just now should belong to the wingman pilot Lieutenant Victor. The two of them just arrived here from Kuibyshev for business. So it’s not surprising to invite friends there for dinner.”
The two arrived at the agreed upon location, but since the appointed time had not yet arrived, there was no trace of the driver. When no one was around, Yakov took out his cigarette case, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. He gestured to Sokov again, and when he waved his hand to refuse, he stuffed the cigarette case back into his pocket. inside.
Yakov lit the cigarette, took a puff, and said, "Misha, if something happens to Leonid today, I'm afraid it will be a huge blow to Uncle Khrushchev..."
Sokov completely agreed with Yakov's statement. In the posts he read in later generations, he repeatedly mentioned that after Leonid, who defected to the German army, was captured by a secret team sent by the Soviet army, Khrushchev tried to save his son from death. , and even went to Stalin himself to plead for mercy, but still failed to save his son's life. Later, when he came to power, everyone who participated in the trial of his son suffered bad luck.
Yakov threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his toes, looked at Sokov and said: "Misha, when the time is right, I will tell Uncle Khrushchev personally about this matter, and I believe he will definitely respond to it." You look at it differently."
After Sokov waited for Yakov to finish speaking, he said: "Yakov, although I saved Leonid's life today, no one can guarantee that similar situations will not happen again in the future. I can save him once." , but couldn’t save him a second time.”
Hearing what Sokov said, Yakov said hesitantly: "Misha, you are worrying too much. I think after what happened today, I can definitely teach Leonid a lesson, and I believe he will not do things again in the future." So reckless.”
Sokov wanted to say something in his heart: The country is easy to change but the nature is hard to change. But as soon as the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back alive. He could only echo Yakov: "I hope so."
"Misha, what are your next plans?" Yakov did not want to keep the topic around Leonid, so he took the initiative to change the topic and asked: "Are you planning to stay in Moscow or go back to the front line? ?”
"I think the front line is more suitable for me." Sokov said: "After this mission is completed, I will apply to return to the front line immediately." Thinking of a nurse named Anne waiting at home in Moscow Himself, he added, "When can we return to Moscow?"
"We need to wait for notification from our superiors." Yakov said to Sokov: "The purpose of our superiors sending us to Nizhny Novgorod this time is, firstly, to improve the propulsion system of new rockets; secondly, to develop A new rifle suitable for fielding in the army. Although the new rifle has been taken shape and will be fielded in the army in the near future, we still have a lot of testing to do before that to improve those deficiencies."
As the two were talking, no one noticed that the jeep from the engine factory had appeared at the street intersection and was heading towards where the two were standing. The driver had nothing to do, so he drove out for a walk an hour in advance. Unexpectedly, when he was still a few hundred meters away from the agreed place, he saw two officers standing there chatting. He took a closer look and saw that the two officers were the people he wanted to pick up, so he accelerated his car and rushed over.
After the driver parked the car, he got out of the car and walked to the right side of the car. He opened the rear door and said respectfully to the two of them: "Comrade commanders, please get in the car."
After both of them got into the car, the driver turned around and asked politely: "Comrade commanders, where should we go next?"
According to Yakov's original idea, he also wanted to take Sokov around the city and let him see the beautiful night view of Nizhny Novgorod. But after Leonid's incident, he immediately lost interest. When he heard the driver's question, he said angrily: "There is no place to go, you'd better take us back to the guest house."
Returning to the guest house and passing by the duty room, Sokov suddenly stopped. He bent down and asked the waiter sitting inside: "Comrade waiter, can the phone here be connected to Moscow?"
"No, Comrade Major." The waiter shook his head and said, "The phone here can only make calls within the city. If you want to make long-distance calls, you can only go to the post office."
When the waiter mentioned the post and telecommunications office, Sokov couldn't help but shake his head secretly, because he knew very well that the phone signal in the post and telecommunications office was so poor that sometimes the same words had to be repeated several times before the other party could barely hear them. For Sokov, who is accustomed to using mobile phones in later generations, he would rather not make this call than suffer that foreign crime.
The waiter saw Sokov shaking his head slightly, but still asked politely: "Comrade Major, is there anything else you need my help with?"
"No, Comrade Waiter, I just wanted to ask, thank you!" After Sokov said, he followed Yakov up the stairs.
