Carnation and Sweet William

  The tank shook its body and fired a shell. The huge shock caused by the cannon fire almost threw Belo and Rania off the tank, they both grasped the handrail with all their might, staring blankly as their hats rolled down from the vehicle.

  The tank suddenly twisted its massive turret, trying to shake off the people on board. Belo grabbed the scorching gun barrel in a hurry, and with a "zz" sound, he felt a piercing pain as his left hand stuck to the barrel. A pungent smell of burnt flesh filled his nostrils, and his mind went blank. He yanked out his hand, leaving a piece of flesh forever stuck on the barrel.

  Rania was caught off guard, grabbing the handle tightly, her two feet dangling in the air. As the vehicle swayed, the turret suddenly stopped rotating, and her legs thudded against the armor plate. She shouted desperately towards Lyra not far away.

  Lida nimbly climbed up and down, trying to avoid the tank's frontal attack. When she ran forward, she hesitated, despite Renya's repeated shouts and scolding, she still stood there in a daze.

  A tankman emerged from the turret, raised a pistol to Lyda's head, and was shot dead by Schmonti, who followed behind. Lyda finally came to her senses, stepped forward, hugged Ranya's feet, put her down, and then both of them also brought down an air force lieutenant with one hand burned.

  A Soviet tank soldier with a bloody face rushed out of the slope, raised his pistol and aimed at Schmunte. The gun rang out, and the tank soldier fell to the ground. Schmunte and Renya turned back in surprise, seeing Lida's gun barrel emitting wisps of smoke, her whole body trembling, her voice stuttering: "I killed a Soviet soldier, I killed..."

  The leader of the first group of guards rushed over, with two machine guns still firing in front of the tank. A soldier raised a Molotov cocktail, and a burst of gunfire swept over, the Molotov cocktail exploded with a loud bang, he turned into a rolling ball of fire, the fireball became **, then became a charred corpse, slowly falling to the ground, the flames also died down.

  Seeing his comrades turned into charcoal, another soldier went mad and charged at the tank with a burning bottle. The tank's machine gun bullets whizzed past his ears without hitting him. He fiercely threw the burning bottle at the tank, which landed on the periscope of the vehicle.

  Now, even Miss Adelaide had come running with a gasoline-filled bottle, she hid in the sugar factory's conveyor belt, shaking and scratching a box of matches, but always due to lack of strength and excessive force, not only breaking the matchstick, but also scattering the entire box of matches on the ground. She could only pick it up from her feet again, and scratch the match again with no strength and great force, this time Miss Adelaide even bounced the empty matchbox out of her hand, so she rushed to retrieve the matchbox on the ground, and finally lit the cloth strip on the bottle mouth, but saw that the tank had run far away, a group of people followed behind, like a group of ants chasing after a cockroach.

  A familiar arm snatched the Molotov cocktail from her hand and tossed it into a nearby water tank. The prime minister pulled her back, running with her to behind the house before letting go of her hand, scolding her: "They're secret agents, what are you fighting them for?"

  Despite the scolding, Adelheid felt a warmth in her heart and wanted to say some words of gratitude to the Führer, but saw him holding binoculars, stomping his feet, and cursing: "The tank turned around, and the landmine on the track was thrown off again, damn it. Good——"

  He was called good because another soldier put a landmine on the track, and the tank moved forward with sparks for a distance before exploding loudly, spinning in place.

  Schmidt laboriously climbed up the tank, then kicked a few more rungs of the ladder, took over the hand grenade thrown by Rennia, and threw it into the tank from behind the dead tanker who was climbing at the hatch, then quickly escaped.

  With a dull thud, a puff of smoke emerged from the tank's hatch, the machine gun fell silent. Ranya pulled Lida to the cannon and ordered her to lift her up. After two attempts, she managed to stuff a grenade into the cannon. Lida heard her curse: "Damn it, this is a gift from my father for you."

  The grenade exploded at the tank's muzzle, the tank shell did not explode, but Renya was stunned by the huge shock and impact, and after falling from Lida's shoulder, she went limp on the ground and was carried into the command center.

  The tank was smoking all over, although it was still moving, it had become a huge harmless mad dog. Later, the fuel was exhausted, and the remaining crew members killed themselves.

  The fourth tank wandered aimlessly, crashing through walls, smashing houses, flattening buses, and killing pedestrians. It charged into the Saki Airfield, destroying the command tower, shooting down several planes, and firing off all its remaining shells and bullets before turning back. Finally, through binoculars, they saw the German army group's flag standing upright in the smoke, and accelerated towards the army headquarters.

  Rania was lying on Lida's lap, and Lida was feeding her water. Her eyes were slightly open, as if searching for something.

  The commander has arrived, she stretched out her hand, the commander took off his helmet and leaned his face over, letting her caress him, she murmured: "My commander, I am... my commander, I am going to die, do you... does it hurt your heart?"

  Li Deben wanted to shout loudly: Rania, you can't die, I can't live without you. But seeing so many people around him, he could only try his best to hold back the sorrow in his heart, and took the handkerchief handed over by Aidelide to wipe away the smoke dust on her face.

  "No, I don't want anyone else's handkerchief." Rania murmured, seemingly extremely exhausted.

  The head of state pulled out a handkerchief, and everything fell silent. Renya endured the head of state's clumsy wiping with a calm expression. The party secretary, Borman, watched as the head of state wiped the face of a Latvian girl, thinking to himself, "With so many German soldiers wounded, why is he being so attentive to a foreign girl?" Belo hung his bandaged left hand and exchanged a glance with Borman. Adelheid silently picked up the handkerchief that the head of state had carelessly discarded on the ground, feeling a pang in her heart; everyone was silent, even the air seemed to have come to a standstill.

  Li De said sadly: "I will apply for a second-class Iron Cross medal for you, no, first class."

  The silence and sorrow were disrupted by the sound of collapsing walls, that vagrant tank returned after wreaking havoc everywhere. Rania jumped up, grabbed a grenade and rushed to the door, cursing: "Damn bastards ruining my good dream, never-ending!"

  The tank had become impatient, and with two puffs of black smoke, it charged forward from the rear wall. The tank burst through the brick pillar, and mud, tiles, bricks, and wooden beams came crashing down. The deputy officer and the guard scrambled onto his body like lightning, gazing in terror at the steel giant growing larger and larger in the swirling dust.

  Li De was pressed down by three layers of people inside and three layers outside, dust and debris falling down with a rustling sound, he thought of death.

  In the war years, life was as fleeting as morning dew. Yesterday, I heard that Dr. Trot's plane had crashed and I couldn't help but think of the dangers that surrounded me. After the Soviet counterattack, he jokingly thought about his own death: He imagined the best scenario would be this: He stood tall on a mountain peak, with a pine tree behind him, the sky filled with red clouds, casting a hateful and disdainful glance at the enemy who was approaching with bowed heads and slow steps, before pulling the pin on his last hand grenade.

  He also shouted slogans and made serious analysis, but finally decided to give up shouting slogans. The enemy would not wait patiently for him to finish shouting slogans while doing nothing.

  He also thought of the worst way to die, being shot dead by the enemy in battle. He covered his chest with one hand and stretched out the other as far as possible, meaning he would not close his eyes in death, then fell down with a crash. After falling, he still had to struggle to turn over, unable to crawl like a dog eating dung, but instead with eyes wide open, gazing up at the blue sky, best of all if the sky was filled with thunder and lightning, with tragic music sounding.

  In any case, he could not have imagined such a miserable end: being crushed to death by the collapse of houses, being trampled to death by tanks, being suffocated to death by people piled on top of him, and at worst, being trapped between collapsed concrete slabs and wood, scratching his face raw in desperation, becoming a feast for rats, and after the rats finished, ants, and after the ants finished, microorganisms. Finally, comrades announced with deep sorrow at the memorial service: Our beloved leader was gloriously suffocated to death.

  "You're trembling." He jumped in surprise, for it was Miss Adelheid who was clinging to him, no wonder he had felt so soft.

  The pressure suddenly disappeared, the people above dispersed, and in front of him, it suddenly brightened up. The fresh air filled his lungs, and Li De felt dizzy, like someone who had just woken up from a nightmare, with both relief at having escaped the terror and hope for what was to come.

  The tank stopped thirty meters away from them, Rania tied the landmine to a wooden stick and inserted it directly between the two tracks of the tank, the explosion caused the roof to collapse, she was knocked down by something, then nothing was known.

  ……

  Rania slept for a day and a night, and Li De accompanied her for twenty-four hours. The next evening, she woke up to see the leader sitting in front of the bed dozing off. She smiled slightly, raised her hand to pinch his high nose, but heard a "don't move" from the foot of the bed. She found that there was a bottle hanging from her hand. The German nurse's shout awakened Li De, he lifted his head, looked at her with dark circles under his eyes, and grinned widely.

  The nurse changed her medicine bottle and asked Li De to take out the thermometer that was tucked under her armpit.

  Rania looked at the nurse leaving and turned her face: "Why did she let you take it?"

  Li De smiled and said: "You fell down yesterday, I thought you were pretending."

  "Go away! If I were dead, would you still think I'm pretending?" she scolded.

  "You won't die. I was thinking, if you hadn't taken out the tank, I wouldn't have had a chance to peel an apple for you." Rania only then noticed the apple in his hand, and on the peeled surface of the apple, there was a hint of blood.

  A commotion was heard outside, and the door was pushed open. It was Bowman, Rita, Miss Adelheid, and two adjutants. Belo had returned to his home country for treatment, and the Führer had dispatched a special plane. Yesterday, when tanks were sweeping the airport, the Bald Eagle special plane narrowly escaped disaster.

  Lida held a bunch of pink carnations, adding color to the white ward.

  Red carnations were placed on Rania's bedside table, and Rita apologized slightly: "Rania, I originally wanted to give you roses, but I couldn't find any, so I had to give you carnations instead. You know, these are usually given to young ladies."

  Borman said with a straight face: "In essence, she's not far from being a young lady, even though she saved us."

  Rania picked up the flower, sniffing it lovingly and gently rubbing it against her cheek: "I love carnations the most, they're a symbol of good health. By the way, will you give me a few?"

  Rania put the flowers on the quilt, counting them one by one with one hand, "Give me five flowers, representing no regrets. Thank you, when I recover, I'll also give some to you, okay?"

  Lida said with deep feeling. "I love lily of the valley most, in my hometown Kashan, it blooms everywhere in summer, people give it to their mothers."

  "Kashan." Li De's eyes floated with a dreamy haze once more, and he couldn't help but gaze deeply at Lida.