Chapter 316 Who are you planning to take first? (Bug fix): You only have one hour.

The dawn in Moscow was a cold, metallic gray, like the iron ore at the Kuznetsk steel plant or the dusty production line at the ZIL truck factory.

Hope and weariness seemed to become the same thing in that instant.

The armored car, too, sped towards hope amidst the weariness of dawn.

Ivanov looked at the fog outside the window, pursed his lips, and remained silent.

Wang Xiao reached out and placed her hand on the back of his hand, earnestly praising him, "Ivanov, you're so handsome."

The person being praised grinned, knowing exactly how pathetic he looked.

His shirt was soaked with machine oil, emitting a strange smell, and still had white salt crystals formed from dried sweat. He knew exactly how stinky he was without anyone telling him.

So his smile failed to materialize: "I thought you were going to say it was suffocating."

Wang Xiao's smile deepened. She sniffed hard, her face full of confusion: "Does it smell bad? I can't smell it."

Ivanov finally laughed, and laugh lines appeared at the corners of his eyes.

Wang Xiao reached out and touched the corner of his eye, saying softly, "Take a nap."

Ivanov shook his head, rubbed his forehead against Wang Xiao's hand, and looked out the car window at the dawn.

Fog filled the air, obscuring the road ahead; even car headlights couldn't illuminate the world.

As the car drove from the city to the suburbs, past the forest, the fog became even thicker.

The concentration camp, which had finally begun to take shape, was shrouded in thick fog, like it was wrapped in a shroud.

Tall barbed wire surrounded the entire camp, with sharp barbs hanging from the wires, gleaming coldly in the dim fog.

The car lights outside the camp flashed, and Yura poked her head out, waving to Ivanov and calling out loudly, "It's alright, I just went in and checked, there's nothing wrong."

Seriously, this group of people who were arrested are incredibly lucky.

It wasn't winter or a rainy day. The prefab houses, built with cheap wood and thin sheet metal, no matter how big the gaps were, couldn't let in cold wind or raindrops. Apart from the mosquitoes being so numerous that they could carry a person away, they were not unbearable at all.

Ivanov nodded to him as a thank you.

Although he believes this is the most basic thing government officials should do.

But with the current government, even the laws are just empty words. What hope can the Russians possibly have for them?

The car door opened, and Punoning stepped out of the passenger seat like a beast in the night.

His hygiene habits and his dentist are really good; he has a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. "Ivan, shouldn't you apologize to me?"

Ivanov's gaze, however, bypassed him and turned to the sentry post of the temporary concentration camp.

There, Sheriff Boris leaned against the rusty iron gate, smoking listlessly, without making a move.

Ivanov stepped forward and calmly handed over the warrant: "Sir, please release the prisoners."

Boris snorted coldly, his gaze sharp as an awl, seemingly capable of piercing two holes in the warrant. He waved the warrant, then turned and roared at the young policeman, "Aren't you going to open the door?"

The young policeman, who was being scapegoated, could only swallow his anger and quickly ran off to carry out the order.

The heavy iron gate creaked loudly, grating on one's eardrums.

For those who were captured and sent to concentration camps, it was like heavenly music.

As one merchant after another stepped out of the large iron gate and lined up in the open space in front of it, the commotion inside grew louder and louder.

Under the dim light, behind the window, countless hands were waving, shouting, and pleading.

"Help us! Help us!"

There was Chinese, Russian, English, and other languages ​​that Wang Xiao couldn't understand at all.

But even if the latter remained silent, their desperate struggles spoke volumes about their feelings.

Please let us out, please let us out!

Looking at those hands, Ivanov thought of the cover of Dante's Divine Comedy that he had read when he was a boy.

He couldn't remember what was written on those terrifyingly long hands, but he would always remember those hands that stretched out from hell, hands that screamed with pain and despair from every pore.

According to God, those who go to hell are all sinners.

So, what crime have those people imprisoned in the Moscow concentration camps at this very moment committed?

Just because they're not from Moscow?

As if heretics were inherently sinful?

The lights in the prefab house were off, and the hand behind the window was swallowed by the darkness.

But people still didn't give up, and continued to cry out, "Save us, please, save us!"

Inside, there were angry shouts from men, pleading cries from women, terrified cries from children, and people loudly reciting the Bible, accompanied by threats and shouts from the police.

Wang Xiao turned her head away, pretending she hadn't heard anything.

Her and Ivanov's goal was to bring the merchants from the container market back.

She was not a savior; she turned a blind eye to domestic internment camps, let alone concentration camps in Moscow.

She didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

More and more merchants emerged from behind the iron gate, and they were all excited to see the market owner.

Someone else was loudly boasting to those around them: "I told you we should have paid more. Look, the rent at the container market is high, but it's safe, the boss is capable, and has connections everywhere. Look at them—"

He turned his head and gloated at the people in the prefab house, "Now look what's happened, these guys will be kicked out soon."

Wang Xiao's face instantly darkened, and he roared, "Shut up! Keep quiet!"

Sheriff Boris finished his cigarette, lit a second one, and finally decided to come out of his guard post.

He glanced at the sea of ​​heads on the open ground, a sinister smile spreading across his face. His gaze swept coldly over the crowd, finally settling on Wang Xiao and Ivanov: "Alright, as ordered by our great mayor, you may now begin selecting your people."

Wang Xiao instantly became alert: "What do you mean?"

"It means—"

He pointed with the finger holding a cigarette at the bus that Wang Xiao and his group had brought, "Take as many people as this bus can fit."

The chill of dawn seeped into one's pores, causing one to involuntarily shiver.

Ivanov stared into his eyes and said, word by word, "Sir, can't you understand the mayor's order?"

Sheriff Boris grinned, revealing his beast-like fangs: "Of course I understand. The mayor's order is directed at me, but I'm off duty in an hour. My colleagues haven't received any orders from him."

Yura had already gotten out of the car, and with a frown, she took a step forward: "Hey! Sheriff Boris, please don't cause any trouble."

However, the sheriff didn't give him any face: "Sir, you are not my superior, please don't interfere with our work."

He turned to look at Wang Xiao and Ivanov, a cruel smile spreading across his face, as if he were playing some amusing game. "Hurry up. It takes an hour to drive from here to the container market. And we—"

He pointed to himself and the armed police behind him, "We can avoid arresting people at the container market, but we still need to send away any out-of-towners on the street."

When a scholar encounters a soldier, reason is useless.

A disheveled Yura had no choice but to compromise: "Hey! Ivanov, hurry up and take the men away. You can come and pick up the rest when Boris is on duty tonight."

Boris's smile held a deeper malice; unchecked power can turn people into devils, who take pleasure in manipulating others with malice.

He shook his head, revealing an exaggerated expression: "Oh, then please wait patiently. I'll be heading to the airport in an hour; summer is vacation season. We'll talk about the rest after I return from my vacation."

He raised his hand and glanced at his watch. "Oh no, not an hour, ladies and gentlemen, you only have 55 minutes left."

Sheriff Boris turned around and shouted to the merchants waiting to board the bus, "Let's all wait and see who gets on Noah's Ark!"

The merchants, who were initially confused, suddenly realized what was happening and began to scramble for the items.

"Me! Me! Mr. Wang, I rented the biggest shop and the biggest house!"

"Проведитенас,мыжерусские!"

In the blink of an eye, their verbal exchanges turned into mutual attacks, and then, almost instantly, chaos erupted in the open space as they began wildly swinging their fists, trying to knock down the others so they could get into the car.

Boris leaned against the barbed wire, sneer, and continued smoking.

In the flickering light of his cigarette, he saw people of different races wrestling together, cursing each other in Russian, Chechen, and Chinese.

Some people bit off each other's earrings, some held broken glass to their throats, and many more hands were scratching at the barbed wire, just like the pigs he had seen clinging to the truck sideboards at the slaughterhouse the day before yesterday.

None of the police paid any attention to the chaos.

Isn't appreciating such farces a good way to relax during their tiring and boring work?

With a loud "bang".

Ivanov pointed his smoking gun at the sky, his face expressionless. "Don't move! Don't move at all!"

The crowd was stunned and stopped attacking each other.

Sheriff Boris looked at the gun in his hand and sneered, "Sir, illegal possession of a firearm is enough for you to come with us."

Yura, sweating profusely, frantically pushed Punonin's shoulder: "What are you standing there for? Speak up!"

That damned Boris is clearly insane. The only person present who can keep him in check is Major General Punonin, a tax police officer who also belongs to the violent apparatus.

But Punonin remained unmoved, coldly uttering a sentence colder than the dew at dawn: "I'm not being presumptuous. If he really needed it, why didn't he come and beg me?"

Yura snapped, "Why are you throwing a tantrum at a time like this? Do you have to make yourselves a laughingstock in front of outsiders?"

Sheriff Boris chuckled, "Oh, how amusing."

He said with great interest, "I really can't wait to find out whether our Mr. Ivanov will go to the mayor to complain or come to beg our Major General."

The crowd, startled by the gunshot, began to stir again as they waited in vain for further instructions.

Yura had to run to Ivanov's side, grab his arm, and plead, "Hey! Ivanov, just say something nice. It's nothing, he's Punonin, our big brother."

From childhood to adulthood, how many sweet words have they said to Punoning?

Whenever they hoped he would cover for them and protect them, they would call him "Papa Punonin" without any problem.

"No need!"

Wang Xiao clapped his hands vigorously.

As her applause subsided, rows of car lights illuminated behind her.

Like a shining red star in the night.

That's a ZIL truck, the famous ZIL-131 truck. A military truck representing the steel torrent, the ZIL truck is the jewel in the crown of Soviet industry.

One truck after another stopped. When the last truck came to a stop, an elderly man with gray hair jumped off the lead truck and shouted loudly in Ivanov's direction: "Test driver Anton Lukakin reports that the no-load test run went smoothly."

Ivanov nodded: "Very good, then continue with the full-load test."

He pointed to the densely packed merchants, "Them, everyone get on the bus. If the test goes smoothly when fully loaded—"

Wang Xiao picked up where he left off: "If there's no problem with the vehicle, we'll buy it from the container market."

She smiled at the driver. "Sir, please leave the truck at the container market. I've already placed an order with the truck manufacturer."

The test driver, who was over fifty years old, almost burst into tears.

Good heavens, these fifty-three trucks were ordered by the military when the Soviet Union was still in existence.

But then the Soviet Union was gone, and the order never came to fruition. The cars were built but could only be stored in a warehouse, waiting to rust away day by day.

He originally thought that these military vehicles would only be worthless scrap metal and could be sold for a pittance.

Unexpectedly, he would live to see the day when the car was put on the road.

When he received the phone call instructing him to immediately call his old friends to drive out, he couldn't believe his ears.

He responded loudly, "Roger!"

As soon as the old man waved his hand, the merchants who realized what was happening hurriedly ran towards the car.

Wang Xiao shouted, "Line up! The elderly and children go first!"

The rioting crowd quickly formed a long queue and boarded the bus one after another.

Ivanov raised his voice: "Everyone, all of you, we will take you away. There are no differences in race, ethnicity, or region. In the container market, everyone is equal."

The previously anxious crowd finally calmed down. Some people even turned their heads away, unable to look in the direction where he and Wang Xiao were standing.

Boris let out a cold laugh, and like a child who hadn't finished a game, he shouted irritably, "Close the door!"

Even if the sky begins to lighten, the world of the concentration camp should still be pitch black.

A Chechen man rushed out from under the door, pleading loudly, "Please, my wife is about to give birth."

The woman following behind him was already lying on the ground, her belly protruding, showing a painful expression.

Sheriff Boris remained unmoved, coldly retorting, "Sorry, we're not doctors, we can't control women giving birth."

Yura, unable to contain herself any longer, rushed forward: "I know you're not doctors, but you should take her to the hospital right now!"

In the lingering fog, Sheriff Boris looked at Yura with raised eyebrows as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world: "I'll say it again, sir, you are not my superior, please do not interfere with our work."

Yura was going crazy: "No matter who I am, she's a woman about to give birth! You can't just ignore her! Get out of the way—"

He shoved Sheriff Boris, saying, "If you won't take it, I will!"

The sheriff shoved him aside: "Sir, I have not received any orders to let her leave the concentration camp."

Yura roared, "Are you just going to stand by and watch? She's bleeding! She'll die! Two lives lost, the mother and the child will both die!"

The woman's skirt was covered in blood. In the dim light, it looked like puddles of stains, stains of Moscow.

Boris's heart was colder and harder than steel, yet he still managed to slowly smoke, making a reluctant concession: "You can call the doctor over and go in to help her, but she can't leave."

Yura was going crazy: "Where am I supposed to find a doctor now?"

Besides, even if a doctor were found, which doctor would be willing to go into a concentration camp to deliver a baby for a pregnant woman?

Wang Xiao felt someone behind her. She turned around and saw a middle-aged woman looking at her anxiously: "Um, Ms. Wang, are the women inside about to give birth? I can't understand what they're saying."

Someone behind them shouted in Chinese, "Cao Xiufen, what are you standing there for? Get on the bus quickly!"

"Oh, you go first, someone's having a baby, I...I'll go check it out."

After turning to answer her companion, she turned to Wang Xiao and asked, "Can I go see her? When I was sent down to the countryside, I was a barefoot doctor and delivered babies for fifteen years before I returned to the city."

Wang Xiao didn't know what to do either.

From a rational point of view, she shouldn't have interfered; she and Ivanov should have led the merchants away as soon as possible.

But she couldn't possibly watch a woman give birth, bleed so much, and die without doing anything in return.

So by the time she realized what was happening, she had already instinctively led her people to the entrance of the concentration camp: "Sir, there is a doctor here."

Boris's eyes were bloodshot; one accident after another had caused his bloodlust to swell wildly, to the point of near unbearable rage.

He looked at the woman in front of him with malice: "Really? Doctor, aren't you afraid that you'll never come out after going in?"

The former barefoot doctor asked blankly, "Boss Wang, what is he saying?"

Wang Xiao stared at Boris expressionlessly and replied in Chinese, word by word, "It's nothing. I'll stay with you. I'll go in with you and come out with you."

Lyuba translated her words into Russian, and Ivanov stepped forward: "I'll go in with you."

Yura quickly followed, saying, "I'll go with you."

As he spoke, he forcibly grabbed Punoning's arm.

Cao Xiufang, unable to understand the gibberish Russian, rushed inside and immediately touched the dark-skinned Chechen pregnant woman's belly, anxiously saying, "It's too late, she's probably about to give birth. Quickly find a room and carry her inside. A maternity bag, is there one?"

The answer is obviously no.

The temporary concentration camp was originally an abandoned military camp, so how could there be production packages inside?

Thankfully, Wang Xiao and Ivanov had a first-aid kit in their car, containing disinfectant and other supplies that could be used temporarily.

In this situation, Cao Xiufang, who came from a barefoot doctor background, was clearly more suited to the job than doctors from regular hospitals.

Because during her career as a barefoot doctor, she had long been accustomed to the lack of equipment and medicine, and having to find whatever was available to fill in the gaps.

Compared to her, Wang Xiao is simply an idiot.

Poor Mr. Wang has never had a child, nor has he ever seen a child be born.

The documentary "Life and Death" doesn't exude such a strong smell of blood.

Because Cao Xiufen couldn't speak Russian, Wang Xiao had to step forward to assist her, forcing himself to witness the bloody scene.

Outside, chaos reigned. Upon receiving the order, Yura shouted and yelled for people to boil water.

Although he didn't understand why he needed to boil water at this time.

Ivanov ran around, rummaging through the car for chocolate biscuits and drinks to give to the pregnant woman to replenish her energy.

Damn concentration camp, they haven't even given them a drop of water since they were imprisoned here.

It was only after the pregnant woman finished her drink, ate some cookies and chocolate, and regained her strength that the labor could continue.

When Wang Xiao saw the child's head, he trembled all over and didn't have the courage to continue looking.

It was terrifying. She couldn't feel the joy of new life; she only felt that her pregnant body was being torn in two to let the baby out.

vomit!

Wang Xiao covered her mouth and ran out; she simply couldn't bear the overwhelming nausea and fear.

Ivanov was startled and reached out to pat her back: "What's wrong, Your Majesty? What happened?"

This is a restricted area for delivery personnel; men are not permitted to enter.

He only heard various cries and screams outside, which made him feel terrified.

"It's terrifying," Wang Xiao stammered, "Giving birth is absolutely terrifying."

Ivanov patted her back haphazardly to help her catch her breath, and without thinking, he replied, "It's alright, it's alright, we won't have children, we won't have children."

Punonin glanced at the Eastern woman with disgust. How selfish she was.

Are soldiers not going to the battlefield and women not having children because of fear?

That's incredibly selfish.

Yura, covered in sweat, came to fetch hot water. Seeing Wang Xiao standing outside the door, she exclaimed in surprise, "Why are you out? Have you finished giving birth?"

Ivanov snapped at him impatiently, "Why don't you go in? Do you think it's comfortable inside?"

Yura was speechless: "I can go in, though!"

From inside came the barefoot doctor's voice: "Hey, Mr. Wang, come in quickly!"

What could the unlucky Wang Xiao do? She could only grit her teeth, carry the hot water, and continue to assist the barefoot doctor inside the house.

Fortunately, the baby had already come down when she ran away, and cried loudly.

What a lively little thing! Although it's as ugly as a mischievous monkey, it moves its arms and legs around and cries loudly, showing that it's a little thing with a strong will to live.

Since there was no blanket, Wang Xiao contributed a spare dress from her car to wrap the little one up.

Cao Xiufang held the baby, showed her to the new mother, and then took her to the door to show the other adults: "Okay, it's a lively little girl. Don't be upset, in this situation, the little girl has a higher chance of surviving."

In reality, few people outside can understand what she's saying, but she doesn't care; she's just going through the motions.

She took the baby back and let the baby nurse to help with the contractions.

What else can we do? There's not even any oxytocin here.

She was powerless to help if postpartum hemorrhage occurred.

The delivery room returned to silence, with only the sound of the newborn suckling at its mother's breast.

Sheriff Boris came over and told them to leave.

Cao Xiufen said anxiously, "She just gave birth, it's dangerous. Someone needs to watch over her."

But the police officer's patience had run out, and he directly threatened: "If you don't leave, my colleague will come to take over, and none of you will be able to leave."

Wang Xiao dared not cause any further trouble and quickly led Cao Xiufen outside.

As they walked out of the barracks and approached the barbed wire fence, a loud whistle came from behind them.

Everyone turned their heads—

Behind the iron bars, the crowd—Russians, Chechens, Armenians, Chinese, and others whose specific ethnicities they couldn't even identify—were all clapping enthusiastically.

Some people even stretched their hands out of the window and gave them a thumbs up.

The sun rose above the horizon, the thick fog melted away, and the earth was bathed in light.

In this world, who, except for the devil, wouldn't be happy for the birth of new life?

————————

[Let me see] Years ago, when Ajin was still an intern, she interned in the delivery room. There was a rule at the time that fathers could be present during childbirth. After three months of this policy, several fathers were terrified, some even collapsing to the floor in shock. Later, the hospital canceled the policy. [Cracks]