Burning Moscow

Chapter 1646 wedding

As soon as it was dark, I was awakened by the violent knock on the door.

“Who is it?” I would not be polite to someone who came to disturb my dream so early. I said viciously at the door: “Who is outside?”

“Lida, open the door quickly!” As I shouted, the knock on the door outside became more rapid, accompanied by shouts.

I listened attentively for a moment, and then I realized that the people calling me outside were Nina and Ulanova. I quickly opened the quilt and jumped off the bed, wearing my underwear barefoot, rushed to the door, and slammed the door open.

I saw Nina and Ulanova standing at the door. Strangely, they were not wearing military uniforms, but plain clothes. Seeing me standing at the door, the two opened their arms and came forward to give me a warm hug.

After letting go of the two, I closed the door. When I was sitting on the edge of the bed, bending over and putting on my boots, I asked them curiously: “How do you know that I live here?”

“It was the duty officer who told us,” Nina explained to me with a smile: “We also live in this building, and the duty officer and we happen to be in the same room. She came back from get off work this morning and said there was one of us. The general I knew lived in, and I guessed it might be you. When I asked the name, it was really you, so I came with Ulanova.”

I sat up straight, looked at the two men in casual clothes and asked, “I saw you before, all in military uniforms. Why do you think of wearing casual clothes today? Are you planning to go out shopping?”

“Not shopping, but to attend the wedding.”

“Participating in the wedding?!” I heard Nina say so, and I couldn’t help but look at the two of them carefully, but unfortunately, I didn’t see any sign of being a bride today, so I tentatively Ask: “Which of you is getting married, or is it going to attend someone else’s wedding?”

“Of course it is to attend someone else’s wedding.” Ulanova said hurriedly: “You have seen the groom, the second lieutenant in charge of the women’s health company.”

I quickly recalled the situation in my mind when I went to the Women’s Health Company. I immediately remembered the ensign who was on duty outside the church, and asked carefully: “Is that Ensign Berlikai?”

“That’s right, it’s him.” Ulanova nodded and said, “Lida, you have a good memory, but you still remember his name.”

“Lida, would you like to go with us?” Ulanova asked hurriedly: “Today’s wedding must be very lively. It would be a shame if you don’t go.”

To be honest, I want to go to this wedding, but I looked at my military uniform on the back of my bedside chair, and said with a little embarrassment: “You don’t want me to wear military uniforms to the wedding. I’m worried. Sometimes it will frighten the guests.”

“This is easy to handle. I still have extra casual clothes in my room. Lida, your figure is about the same as mine. I will get you clothes now.” Ulanova finished speaking, opened the door and ran out.

Nina shook her head, got up and closed the door, and turned to me and said, “Lida, Ulanova is such a character, I hope you don’t take it off.”

“No,” I got up and walked towards the bathroom, and said at the same time: “I don’t deal with her a day or two. I know her personality very well.”

When I came out of the bathroom to wash, Ulanova had come back with casual clothes. Putting it on the body, it turned out to be just right. Ulanova urged me again and again: “Well, Lida, let’s go out now!”

We came downstairs and saw three jeeps parked outside the building. Seeing the three of us coming out, the driver of the car finally came out and shouted at us: “Hey, I said three girls, you guys should move faster. We are going to grab the bride.”

Grab the bride? When I heard the driver say this, I couldn’t help but curiously asked Nina: “How to grab the bride? Did our group rush into the bride’s house and **** her away from her parents?”

“You’ll know wherever you go,” Nina didn’t mean to sell the child, but she didn’t understand: “The brides are Ukrainians, and I don’t know much about their wedding customs.”

The welcoming convoy left Lublin from the east of the city, and after driving for more than ten minutes, it came to a small village. Nina turned her head and said to me: “The bride lives in this village, and the groom will bring his best man to call the door later.”

Our car was parked on a shaigu field, and the two cars in front hula la la and come down to handsome guys No. 7 or 8 and I lost my eyes. I don’t know which one is the main character today.

We followed the groom and the best man and came to a wooden house not far away. The groom stopped and lined up in a neat row, singing toward the wooden house. As the singing sounded, the closed wooden door opened halfway, and a few young girls with long braids could be seen squeezing in the door. According to my experience, they were either the bride’s sisters or the best friends.

After the two sides met their eyes, the passionate antiphonal competition began. Since they all sang in Ukrainian, I couldn’t understand a single sentence, so I had to brainstorm it myself.

(Man: “Little rabbit, behave, open the door, Shuyu is going in…”

Woman: “If you can’t open it, you can’t open it, you can’t open it. Shu is a badass, you can’t open it…”)

After singing for a while, a best man approached the door, affixed his body to the wooden wall, and muttered to the girl furthest outside, perhaps blending. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the girl to completely open the door, sing loudly with her back against the door, and occasionally glance at the best man from the corner of her eye.

Seeing the door open, I thought the bridegroom would rush in desperately, but he was still standing there. But another best man walked up and strode into the wooden house, talking to the group of girls who were singing.

Just when I saw the confusion, I suddenly saw a window of the wooden house open, and a young girl in a white wedding dress with a wreath on her head crawled out of the window. The groom finally moved at this time. He rushed to the window and stretched out his hands to hug the girl from the window.

Seeing that the bride had been snatched by the groom, the bride’s parents, who had not been seen, walked out of the house. They stood in front of everyone, with the singing of the girls, saying goodbye and blessing to their daughters. I saw the bride walk to her parents in tears, and embraced and kissed them while receiving their blessings.

After finishing these ceremonies, the bride and groom, surrounded by everyone, came to the small church in the village, where they received the blessing of the priest. I thought it was Poland, and the priest of the church must be Catholic. Who knew that when I asked Nina, I knew that most of the people in this village were Ukrainians and believed in the Orthodox Church.

I sat on the chairs in the last row of the church with Nina and Ulanova, listening to the elderly priest, blessing and preaching to the new couple. I don’t know if people become very nagging when they are getting older. The priest has spoken on stage for more than an hour, and I heard drowsy, but most people listened with relish.

After finally completing this set of procedures, a pair of newlyweds came to the open space in front of the church, and began to dance under the crowd of onlookers. The best men who came with us all wore suits, while the local men wore shirts and trousers with waistcoats on the outside. On the other hand, women wear a short woolen skirt over a tight petticoat with various patterns on top of the petticoat; the upper body wears a sleeveless top in deep red, green or blue velvet, and a part of the front of the coat is crossed; the feet wear Red boots, some also wear a few strings of colorful beads or necklaces around their necks, which look very ethnic.

After the dance, we went back to the bride’s house, and many guests packed the room. The groom and the bride sit by the window, and in front of them there is a small round table spread on a white tablecloth. After another lively and tedious ceremony, amidst the singing of the girls, a beautiful big cake was placed on the round table.

With the cake on the table, it means that the noon wedding banquet officially begins. The banquet was placed on the open space at the door of the bride’s house. Around the three long tables, the guests were full of guests who came to the wedding. I looked at the table carefully, except for the empty plate, there were only a few huge bread rolls.

Seeing these things, I couldn’t help but curl my lips secretly, saying that I would invite us to eat these at the wedding banquet, which is too shabby. But when thinking like this, I forgot that I came empty-handed, let alone a gift, not even a gift.

But I soon realized that I was wrong. A dozen old ladies walked over each with an aluminum pot and put them on the table. Nina took the napkin on the table and spread it out and spread it on my knees. At the same time, she explained to me: “According to Ukrainian custom, when eating, the napkin should be spread on both knees, not around the neck. ; After the meal is over, the napkin is placed on the table.”

The marriage dishes are still quite rich. The first is hot soup. In addition to the common red cabbage soup, there are also cabbage soup and potato soup; the second is fish, meat, poultry and the like, both boiled and roasted. , The taste is not bad; the third course is fruit and dessert. I drank vodka, kvass, beer, coffee and tea.

But what is strange is that since the hot soup was put on the table, all the bread that was on the table was removed. I asked Nina curiously: “What’s the matter?”

“The bread is eaten before the first course.” When Nina answered my question, she glanced at the small half of bread in my hand. “So the bread will be removed as soon as the dishes are on the table.”

I looked around, seeing that no one was paying attention, I quickly stuffed the rest of the bread into my mouth, so that no one would see it, and would say that I am a turtle. After I tried to swallow the bread, I asked in a low voice, “Nina, is the wedding over like this?”

“End?” Nina did not speak, but Ulanova, who was sitting on the other side of me, said, “It’s still early, there are still several important ceremonies that have not been carried out.”

I heard that there are important ceremonies, I did not continue to ask, but tried hard to think about the difference between today’s wedding and the wedding I have seen. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally remembered that the bride seemed to have the meaning of throwing a flower ball toward the back and let the unmarried sisters grab it. Thinking of this, I stared at the bride sitting at the other end of the long table, and muttered to myself: I didn’t seem to see the bouquet in her hand.

After everyone had finished this rich marriage, I saw that many young girls got up, followed behind the bride, and walked into the bride’s house. Nina watched me staring at the girls, and then smiled and asked me: “An important ceremony is about to be held in the house, do you want to go in and take a look?”

“Let’s go!” At this wedding today, I have never seen a lot of customs, so when I heard that there was an important ceremony, I wanted to see the excitement.

After the three of us walked into the room, we saw the bride sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by a group of young girls, singing to her Ukrainian songs that I could not understand. An old lady took off the wreath and veil on top of her head and began to help her re-knit the twist braid.

When the bride’s braids were woven, she stood up and walked forward without a word. At this time, the girls who had been singing around her suddenly cheered, and then scrambled to sit in the position the bride had just done. When a beautiful girl got on the ground first, the others scattered one after another, looking at her with envy. The bride standing on the side stepped forward and sent her sincere blessings.

Seeing this scene, I suddenly understood that the Ukrainian custom of grabbing a stool should be equivalent to throwing a flower ball in later generations. The girl who snatched the stool was the next one who was about to become the bride. No wonder her sisters cast envious glances at her, and the bride also offered her the most sincere blessings.

I touched Nina and Ulanova lightly and motioned for them to go out with me. After the three of us came to the house again, I tentatively asked: “This important wedding ceremony is all over, right?”

“Where,” I didn’t expect Ulanova to say with her fingers after listening to my words: “There is still one of the most important rituals that has not been carried out.”

The most important ceremony? When I heard Ulanova say this, my eyes widened, and I said that I would not let the bride and bridegroom perform Dunlun in public. That was too exaggerated.

“Look, the bridegroom is here!” Nina suddenly whispered, “The most important ceremony is about to begin.”

I watched the bridegroom come by, surrounded by a few best men, and stopped five or six steps away from the door. And the bride, accompanied by the sisters, walked to the door. The bride and groom were not far from each other, looking at each other affectionately, neither spoke nor took the initiative to take a step forward.

Just when I wanted to ask what was going on, the groom finally moved. He walked a few steps forward, bent over to pick up an object by the door, stepped over the threshold and walked into the house. I could see clearly that what the bridegroom was holding was a bright axe. I couldn’t help but shudder. I wondered what the bridegroom was going to do with the axe. Is it going to kill the bride?

With the help of the old lady, the bride slowly knelt down in front of the door, then bent down and put one side of her face on the threshold, while the old lady straightened her braid and placed it on the threshold. On, slowly retreated to the side.

Seeing the bridegroom walking forward step by step, while raising the dazzling axe in his hand high above his head, my heart couldn’t help but raise my throat. Looking around, I saw that the surrounding guests looked at everything about to be born with solemn expressions, and no one spoke. I was worried that the bridegroom would be unfavorable to the bride, so he instinctively touched his waist, only to feel empty, and then I remembered that I was dressed in casual clothes today and did not bring weapons at all.

Unexpectedly, after the bridegroom walked to the bride’s side, he actually knelt on one knee beside the bride. He raised his head and glanced at the guests standing outside, closed his eyes and drew a cross on his chest, raised the axe with his right hand, and then slammed it down. After hearing a dull sound, I saw the axe cut off the twist braid resting on the threshold. When I figured out that the groom used an axe just to cut off the bride’s head, the stone hanging in my heart finally fell to the ground.

The groom put down his axe, stepped across the threshold and walked out, into the crowd, staring at the bride who was still lying on the threshold like everyone else. At this time, the old lady appeared again, first picked up the chopped braid, got up and placed it on a small confession table by the door, and then leaned over to help the bride up.

The bride is still kneeling before the threshold. After tidying up her head, the old lady took out a beautiful headscarf and put it on the bride’s head amidst a group of middle-aged and elderly women’s blessing songs. Change ritual.

Although there will be grand celebrations next, I think this is an area that has just been regained after all. If you stay too late, something unexpected may happen, so I urged Nina and Ulanova to return overnight. In the city.

On the way home, Ulanova said with emotion: “Maybe this time next year, we can still go to the small village to celebrate the birth of a small life. Too many people have died in this war. ”

Ulanova’s words caused a question in my heart. If I had an accident in this time and space, would I really die, or should I travel back to the time and space that belonged to me?

Nina saw me thinking about me and couldn’t help but ask: “Lida, what are you thinking?”

“Do you know where the soul will go after a person dies?”

“Does that still need to be said,” Nina said casually, “either going to heaven or going to hell. It all depends on what you did while alive. Lida, why did you suddenly remember to ask about this.”

“Nina, Ulanova, I want to ask you.” I think if I don’t express the doubts in my heart, I guess I will definitely lose sleep tonight: “If the soul of a person can be reincarnated, in a few decades, I will Another image appears in front of you, can you still recognize me?”

“Don’t worry, Lida.” Ulanova said with a grin: “No matter what you become, we can recognize you. Even if you don’t recognize you for a while, as long as you mention the wedding we were attending today, I think no matter how much you change, we can recognize you.”

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