Chapter 16 Chapter fifteen

Under the starlight, the ruined Nuremberg is lonely, as if all the destruction happened a long time ago.Either destroyed by natural fires, or destroyed by earthquakes, or due to centuries of sun and rain, some parts have turned black like tar, as if the earth had once bled, and the agglomerated lava gathered into large barren hills. Lieb drove through the lot.He came to this ruin for the first time, and he felt very happy in his heart.When he arrived in the suburbs, he parked his car in front of a small, boxy white building, and there were several other buildings that were exactly the same as it.He hoped the professor was waiting for him right now.He was anxious to leave Nuremberg, wanting to get out of court as soon as possible.He had carefully and honestly written his testimony, ready to stand up to the guards and the warden.He meets several old friends, old cellmates, and shares their joy in the course of their long-awaited revenge.He was very surprised to find that he no longer liked to associate with his former friends, as if they had never suffered, as if everyone had participated in some dishonorable activities, and now they all felt deeply guilty. .He tried to explain: finding himself disconnected from people who knew each other and were in situations of humiliation, fear, and hopelessness together.It is the face associated with this life that truly represents it.He pressed the horn on the jeep, and a long sound broke the silence of the night.

The thin figure of the professor immediately appeared at the door of the room, and then walked towards the car.Leo.I felt a little awkward when I saw him, but he tried to be polite and said, "You visited your son, did you enjoy it?" "Yes, yes," the professor promised repeatedly, "very pleasant." He spoke respectfully, but listlessly.He looked sick, with dark circles under his eyes, bulging lower eyelids, almost bloodless lips, and pale skin. Leo drove slowly, talking with the professor.He was relieved by a light breeze.In a few moments he would be driving at full speed, and the night wind would be so strong that they would have to break off their conversation.Taking advantage of this moment, Leo held the steering wheel with his left hand, took out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket with his right hand, and handed one to the professor. The professor lit a match, covered his hands, and lit a cigarette for Leo, and then lit himself last one.After taking a few puffs of cigarettes, Leo said, "I know about your son. A friend of mine went to court last month to accuse him." Not a word.

"If I'd known about your son, I wouldn't have sent you here at all," said Leo sullenly, regretting that he should not have been sent back to Bremen. The professor was a little nervous and agitated, holding on to the outer edge of the car window, "I didn't want you to help me, I know it's not appropriate. But Mr. Middleton said that he explained everything to me, and you are very happy. understand." "When are they going to execute your son?" Leo asked very stiffly, feeling ashamed as soon as the words came out. "In a few weeks," replied the professor, the cigarette out of his hand, his hands clasped and twitching nervously. "This is the last time I'll see him." He sat upright, expecting Leo's sympathy, and hoping that Leo would stop asking.

Leo was silent.They have come to the open countryside.The buds of the weeds have just broken through the ground, and the trees have changed their green branches and added new leaves. They are spotless and give off a fresh breath.The car drove very slowly, Leo turned to the old man, and said slowly, "Let's just say your son, because he killed a German, the German court convicted him, and it didn't involve his work as a barracks guard. status. It's kind of ironic that you would never expect him to be killed by that damned Jew. A vengeance like that will never give you any comfort, it's a pity."

The professor looked down at his hands and said, "I don't think about it at all. To be honest, I'm a cultured person." "Your son deserves to die," said Leo. "He's a devil, and even a man ought to take his life. It's the devil's work. Do you know what he did? Hell! Nope. He, the world will be more peaceful. I say this out of a clean conscience. Do you know the bad things he did?" The hatred in his voice and in his heart made him stop the car impatiently by the side of the road, waiting for an answer. The professor didn't answer.But he only buried his head in his bosom, and shrank vigorously, as if he wanted to bury his head completely.His whole body trembled without making any sound, but his thin body kept swaying back and forth blindly.It seems that it is not under the direction of the brain at all.

As Leo waited for this to pass, when sympathy and pity had washed away his hatred, he repented, and the image of his own father came into his mind: tall and thin, with a shaved head.He came along the gravel path, Leo in military uniform.Unexpectedly, his father stopped suddenly and said, "What are you doing?" Leo remembered then, and still remembers: Very early, in school, he once played truant at the zoo. , caught by my father, he asked in the same tone, "What are you doing here?" It was here and now, and it was along this gravel path with white stones, surrounded by barbed wire endlessly.When the father said this, he was crying, bending over his son and crying. The red horizontal striped prison uniform unique to political prisoners covered the father's chest, while the child wore a green diagonal striped prison uniform to mark his race.Sitting in the jeep recalling the past, Leo could only now imagine his father's ordeal ten years ago, and contempt for the old man who was being punished for his father's suffering before his eyes.The man was well educated, knew right from wrong, was not afraid, cowardly, or incompetent, and yet he did not help his father.He eats well, sleeps in a warm, comfortable bed, he gets it all, and with an easy shrug of his shoulders, it's all over.Leo turned his eyes away and looked towards the green valley on the other side of the road, which gradually dimmed as night fell.He knew he couldn't stay in Germany any longer, he couldn't live with people like this, people who weren't even worth hating, who locked his youth in barbed wire, digitally branded his arms, killed him. The death of his father forced his mother to flee thousands of miles away in the middle of the night, depriving her of the brain coordination function that she depended on for survival.She finally died because she couldn't sleep, and couldn't sleep for a moment.

Now he lives in this country, at peace with the people of the country without fighting, sleeps with their daughters, gives their children chocolate bars, gives them cigarettes, takes them for rides in the countryside.Leo was humiliated, and all last sympathy for the old man was driven away.He drove forward at full speed, trying to get back to Bremen as quickly as possible.The professor took out a handkerchief and wiped his face, then sat there stiffly, stomping on the pedals with both feet.The car jolted on a bump.The old man tried his best to keep the balance of his body. From his uncoordinated adjustment movements, it can be seen that his body's functions have become rigid.

The morning light shone brightly on the farmhouse, and Leo parked his car in front of the coffee and fast food restaurant built by the Americans on the side of the road, and entered the store with the professor.The two were sitting at a long wooden table, beside which several military truck drivers were sleeping on the table with their heads resting on their arms. They drank their first cup of coffee without saying a word.But when Leo returned with a second cup of coffee and grabbed another handful of fritters, the professor spoke.He spoke slowly at first, but then he spoke faster and faster. He gulped down his coffee, and the hand holding the cup kept shaking.

"You don't know what it's like to be a father, Leo. Fathers are helpless. I know everything about my own son. He was on the Russian front when his mother was dying, and I did everything I could to get him He called back. But he was brave then, a hero, with many medals! He didn't want to come back at all. He wrote that his vacation was cancelled, and now he told me all about him without reservation, that he wanted to go to Paris , said he wanted to have a good time. He also explained to me that he had no sympathy for his mother, no love for her. From then on it went from bad to worse, and he started doing bad things. But, "the professor stopped , seemed puzzled, and then said even more excitedly: "But, what is the situation? Can a son not cry when his mother dies? He always does things naturally. He is like all boys. Maybe he's prettier, smarter, I've taught him to be generous, to share food with friends, to have faith in God. Me and his mother love him, they never spoiled him, he's a good son. Now, Even now, I still don't believe what he did, but he admits it all. He confesses it all to me." Tears welled up in his swollen eyes, "he told me all of this, last night he threw himself on the I cried in my arms, and he said, 'Daddy, I am willing to die, I am willing to die.' We talked about life together for a whole week. Last night he cried again like when he was a child." Professor Speaking of which came to an abrupt end.Leo noticed the expression of hatred and pity intertwined on the professor's face.

After a while, the professor went on, but this time his tone was quiet, rational and slightly apologetic, as if he had lost his composure in expressing his pain.He spoke rather slowly, "I looked back over our life together, and tried to find out the source of his crime. But I couldn't find it. To commit a crime for no reason, and to be a demon, is a terrible thing to think about. See, you even The cars stopped, and you called him a devil, Leo, indeed. Your son might become such a devil;" the professor smiled at this point, indicating that it was only a theoretical generalization.But the smile was so hideous on the pained face, the bloodless lips twisted so unnaturally that Leo had to look down at the coffee to avoid the deformed face.

It took the old man all his strength to force that smile, and his words grew sharper. "I'm speaking to you because you are the victim. My son and I, including me, are the ones who did something bad to you. How can I explain it? I say it was an accidental disaster, just like when I drove No intention to overwhelm you. No malice. My son has a high fever and is tormented as if he was living in a swamp, can you understand? I think he is innocent no matter what.” The professor cried loudly , shouting hysterically, "God, have pity on him. God, have pity on him!" A German soldier who was sleeping at his desk raised his head, "For God's sake, stop screaming, okay?" The professor fell silent. Leo said: "Sleep for a while before getting in the car, hey, let's have a cigarette." After smoking the cigarette, they fell asleep with their arms under their desks, and the professor immediately fell asleep, but Leo didn't. Leo stared up at the brown fried rolls scattered on the dirty table.In the messy tin tray, a puddle of black coffee reflected a few beams of dim yellow electric lights.Leo had no sympathy for the old man, he could not sympathize with him; his own pain ran through his blood like antibiotics.He now understands that it was because of him that his parents suffered and suffered so cruelly.In his drowsiness, he fell into a dream. He dreamed that countless villains were sentenced to death impartially.However, death, like a disease, spread to countless innocent people.There was no other remedy, and in the twilight he found a very effective remedy when he was not fully asleep-giving amnesia pills to friendly criminals whenever executions were executed.When the professor fell asleep completely, Leo dipped a thick steel needle in the black coffee, touched the faintly flickering golden light, put it into the glass tube filled with the black liquid, and finally lifted the professor's body The neck was pierced; the needle was inserted straight into the bone, and then the steel needle was completely buried in the back of the professor's neck.The professor turned to look at him with humility and gratitude. When they woke up, it was almost dawn, and they arrived in Bremen after a long time in a jeep.Along the way, the two remained silent, speaking only when necessary.After the car passed through the outskirts of Bremen, the afternoon sun gradually moved westward.Leo parked the car next to the building where the professor lived. Leo fired up to drown out the old man's urbane gratitude.The car drove away quickly.He was cold and tired and sleepless.He crossed the city of Bremen, passed the police station and the nursing home, turned a corner, drove into Kufustein Street, and drove slowly along the long tree-lined avenue.The sun and the gentle afternoon wind gave him strength.As he approached Mosca's house, he took his foot off the gas pedal; he lurched forward, slammed the brakes, and the Jeep lurched, one side on the street and the other on the pavement .He turned the steering wheel against the tree, braked the slow-moving jeep, and picked up a little speed, but before he could react, he hit the tree, the car bounced back immediately, and his head jerked backwards.He cursed and leaned back against the back.He lit a cigarette and honked the horn three times. The window opened quickly, and Helene did not appear, but Mrs. Saunders stuck her head out.She yelled down, "Mrs. Mosca was not at home and was taken to the hospital this morning. The baby was born prematurely." Leo stood up excitedly in the jeep. "Ah, is she all right?" "She's fine," Mrs. Saunders said. "It's a boy. All is well. Mr. Mosca is in the hospital now." Leo didn't answer, the car started with a bang, turned around and headed towards the city hospital.On the way he stopped at the officers' club, where he gave the German valet a pack of cigarettes and a bouquet of flowers in exchange.