Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Family Letter

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  After another two days of intense training at Monasterburg, our group boarded a truck and rushed to the outskirts of Cherbourg, entering the headquarters of Colonel Rom, where we met up with him.

  "Wahaha, my Konti, you're finally back!" As soon as I entered the door, Colonel Rom gave me a warm Western-style hug.

  "Yes, sir, I'm back!" I said.

  Rome looked at me deeply again, pulled me to sit on the sofa, lit a cigar, and asked if I wanted to take a puff. I shook my head, and he didn't insist either. To be honest, I don't really like this stuff. Although it has a unique flavor when you smoke it, for soldiers, once they get hooked on this thing, it's not good news!

  "Konti, you've done an excellent job! You're the pride of our cavalrymen! These days, you've also earned me a lot of face!" Colonel Rom praised in front of his deputy officer, Johann.

  "This is all thanks to the commander's care, and it was only possible for us subordinates to achieve such results. For example, at Monastery Hill, if the commander hadn't sent over armored vehicles from elsewhere, I wouldn't have been able to hold out for so long!" I said with a mix of humility and flattery to Colonel Rom.

  Rom suddenly pointed at me and burst out laughing towards John: "I told you so! I knew our Condi hero would say that!"

  John said with a look of reverence: "Commander Rome, you're really something else. I didn't believe Lieutenant Conti would say that, and now it's exactly what you're saying!"

  I couldn't help but secretly smile to myself, and involuntarily looked over at John, only to see that he was still shamelessly flattering Colonel Rome, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being flattered, without showing any signs of discomfort. I turned my back on Colonel Rome and discreetly gave John a thumbs up, hinting that his verbal skills were impressive.

  If it were someone I didn't know well, I absolutely wouldn't have done that, because it's an easy way to offend people. What if he secretly sabotages me and makes my life miserable? But with John, I can be at ease. John indeed winked at me, implying "you're also coming, right?" in a provocative tone. I finally couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

  "Captain Konti, what's so funny?" Colonel Romm asked, unaware that John and I had been exchanging silent, puzzled glances.

  "My dear superior, I recall the scene of our first meeting!" I had no choice but to cover it up.

  "Yes, you haven't forgotten! I haven't either!" Colonel Romm sighed, "Lieutenant Konti, you've been transferred back here because we're going to have a big battle again!"

  "Xiebao?"

  "Right! Our objective is Cherbourg! That damned storm has blown our Omaha beach port facilities to smithereens, we need a bigger port to solve our supply problems!" Colonel Rommel said.

  "There are quite a few German troops there!" I said with concern.

  "That's right, although intelligence shows that the German troops guarding Cherbourg have three infantry divisions and one armored division, with more than 50,000 people. However, since we cut off their retreat route, they are already fish in a barrel! In this way, their will to fight must not be great, and it is very easy for the Allied forces of six divisions to annihilate them!" Colonel Rome said disapprovingly.

  "Yes! What is our mission then?"

  "It's simple, our cavalry will assist the infantry and armored units in besieging the German coastal artillery, eliminating their shore-based guns, allowing our USS Texas to get close to the coastline and pound the Germans with naval gunfire! Then we'll destroy the German command center! That's our mission!" Colonel Rom shrugged his shoulders, seemingly resigned.

  "This task isn't going to be so easy!" I frowned.

  "So I had to rush you back from Monsterville!"

  "When will you launch the attack?"

  "Take a look at the preparations of other troops! I'll tell you later!" Colonel Romm obviously knew, but my rank was not enough, so he pushed it away. "And there's some good news for you, your mother sent you a letter from home! John, bring Lieutenant Konti's letter here, yes, yes, yes, it's in the drawer on my left, no, no, it's in the middle drawer!"

  "Look, you have a respectable mother!" John found my family letter and handed it over to me with envy.

  What's going on with my family? What about my mom? That woman I've never met is sending letters to my home? I was stunned!

  "Look at you, Lieutenant Conte. You apparently don't believe this is real, haha!" Colonel Rome laughed and teased me.

  "Thank you, my dear officer!" I took over this unusual family letter with a bewildered face.

  Rom saw me like this, thinking I was a bit excited, and smiled as he turned to John: "Hurry up and send Captain Conte back, let him experience the greatest maternal love in the world!"

  Thank you, Rome. John and I came outside, John looked at me with envy and said: "Kanti, no matter what, live well, everything is for your mother!

  "Thank you!" I said sincerely.

  "Thanks! By the way, do you know if there are any women around here? If not, I'll take you out to relax tonight." John said, putting his arm around my shoulder.

  "I don't have any money!" I said with a smile.

  "Turns out you're broke, that's not good! Might as well put it off for another day then!" John immediately let go, his face filled with disappointment.

  "Even if I don't have money, I'll borrow some, I won't let down my brother John!" John's behavior was really quite amusing.

  "You're something else! Alright, I'll come find you tonight! Don't think you can hide from me!" John didn't wait for me to say another word, immediately changed his expression, waved goodbye and left, even punching me once before he went.

  "Cut it out! As soon as the old man gets back, he'll drag me to a brothel!" I said with a resigned smile, rubbing my still slightly sore chest as I watched John walk away in high spirits.

  Back in my one-man tent, I held the "family letter" in my hand and hesitated for a long time before slowly pulling it out. The letter had been checked by the Allied security agency, so there was no seal on the envelope. Inside, there was a letter and a family photo. In the photo, an elderly couple stood with a sheepdog that I couldn't name, its tongue hanging out of its mouth as it looked at the camera.

  Although I knew in my heart that the couple in the photo was not my real parents, but just the parents of this flesh, perhaps because of blood ties, I carefully examined the couple in the photo for a while, and for some reason, I felt a deep sense of intimacy. I gently put the photo aside and finally opened the letter.

  My dearest Conti: How are you? Mom and Dad miss you so much, they worry about you every single moment! In their hearts, they can't wait for this damned war to end soon, so that they can see my Conti again.

  My child, do you still remember Billy? This kid also enlisted with you, and I heard he was fighting against the Japanese dwarfs. Just recently, his body was sent back. You know, his mother cried so sadly that all the people who went to mourn cried too, even your strong father cried. We are also afraid in our hearts, afraid of that moment.

  Let's not mention that, our Konti is a lucky person, your dad and I have been praying to God for you, He will bless us, bless our Konti to be fine. Dad and mom cried again, let's not talk about this, say something about family matters, the cows in our ranch are very good at producing milk, recently we sold one at a good price, I guess you're happy too. There's another thing I want to tell you, there's a girl in our town named Erica, maybe you know her, she's a great girl, just the other day, she asked about you, it seems like she has fallen in love with you, but our Konti also has good taste, Erica is indeed a beautiful girl, your dad and I are very satisfied. My Konti hopes that when you come back, you'll thank her properly, if you can bring her to our family, that would be great, dad and mom will be thrilled. Also, your beloved dog Pabo is being taken care of very well by us, but this guy always stays at the gate of our house, I guess he's also missing you, but don't worry about him, he's fine.

  Finally, Mom and Dad want to say that after defeating the Germans, you must come back early, we miss you! We really miss you! Although we all know that the battlefield is cruel, for the sake of Mom and Dad, you have to survive well! You must survive well! You must promise us! Because we love you! Love you!

  When I finished reading the letter, I cried. Tears fell like a broken thread, uncontrollably flowing down. I used to think that I was a very strong person, who had struggled through blood and fire many times without shedding a single tear. But this ordinary family letter moved me so much! It turned out that after removing those layers of hard shells, my heart was still so fragile, it would shatter with just a light touch.

  "Dad and mom!" I gently expressed the emotions that had been stored in my heart for a long time. Suddenly, I remembered an old Chinese saying: "There are only unfilial children, but no unloving parents." No matter who I am, based on this letter and these feelings, for this body, for these parents, I will live on. Having already lost one set of parents, the pain is unbearable, although the continuous battles didn't give me time to think about it, but I know that I can never go back. I don't want to wait until I lose my current happiness and affection, only to regret it in the future, the pain of wanting to be filial but having no parents around!

  "Hey Bao, I remember you!" I gently stroked the cute sheepdog in the photo, and as I looked at it, suddenly this sheepdog was running towards me happily, as if it missed me so much!

  Drowsy, I hugged the photos and this letter home, don't know how long I slept. I was woken up by a horn, it turned out to be John driving a military jeep in front of the door, for tonight's thing!

  "Damn it, can't even let people sleep!" I muttered as I walked out the door. Just before leaving, I had originally wanted to put the letter and photo under my pillow, but after thinking about it, I hid them in my own intimate underwear instead, feeling around until I was reassured before finally going out the door.