“
Yesterday it could be my elderly relatives, today it could be my parents, siblings, or husbands, tomorrow it could be my children and offspring. But then what can be done, we grew up in this place, this is the fate I have to accept.
—This is the 625th story of the National Stories Project—
One
I was in undergraduate school in 2014.
At that time, the college announced that there would be Russian foreign teachers personally introduced by our dean to teach at the school recently, and everyone should be ready to greet them.
At that time, when I was in college, I had infinite curiosity about foreigners, after all, I saw very little. At that time, our original Russian foreign teachers could not come to the school due to visa reasons, and the online rendering of Russia has put a veil of mystery on the Russians, so we are excited to hear that the new foreign teachers are coming.
But in a class at the head of the department, he talked about the foreign teachers who were going to work. He said that the new foreign teachers are Ukrainians rather than Russians, so in the process of getting along with her, we must pay attention to words and deeds and measures.
My classmates and I looked at each other and felt a little incredible.
Shortly thereafter, when the foreign teacher who taught us English at the time was lecturing in class, he seemed to be talking about Xingtou, and he mentioned our upcoming foreign teacher and said: "Your new foreign teacher seems to have come to China to escape the war, and your dean seems to have some personal relations with her when he is studying abroad." ”
His words aroused our curiosity, and we asked questions for a long time, but the English teacher was no longer willing to say more, and this matter was quickly forgotten by us.
Soon, though, I met the legendary new foreign teacher.
The dean was pleased to announce that the shy woman on the stage was named Ольга, and said that she would be the teacher of our profession, which was a great honor for our profession. Because she is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Luhansk State Pedagogical University, she has presided over and participated in the compilation of many well-known authoritative publications in Russian-speaking countries.
I looked at the lady standing next to the dean with a gentle smile, and some couldn't believe my eyes. She was completely different from the professor I remembered. I didn't expect someone with a reputation like her to dress very "plainly". She was wearing a yellow sweater dress that had been washed and faded, and the shoes on her feet were peeled off. She stood on the podium and spoke, introducing herself humorously.
Hearing her self-report, I learned that she was ethnic Russian in Ukraine.
In the days that followed, she apologized to us several times in class, only because she was dressed very inappropriately when she met us. We've said many times that it's okay, but she always shakes her head. It wasn't until much later, after I met more Ukrainian teachers and students after studying abroad, that I understood why she was so embarrassed.
Ольга's lesson was very interesting, she didn't finish the text and words like other teachers, let's just read it a few times. She explains words and roots word by word, deepening our memories of words.
The most memorable one was when she was lecturing on a text about peace.
She repeated the word "мир" (peace) and then told us that peace is really something precious.
When she said this, her face was confused, but it was quickly replaced by gentleness. Because she saw her son waving at her outside the classroom door.
Ольга came to our school with her husband and son, and it is said that the school was only willing to accept Ольга, for which our department head also had a big quarrel with the leaders.
Domestic schools rarely introduce foreign churches to drag their families and mouths. When we asked, she did not shy away from it, and she explained the reason in class. Their city is in eastern Ukraine, where there are often small-scale conflicts, and since the Crimean events have escalated year after year, some of the people who have taken advantage of the chaos have also swarmed like Pandora's box of unbanned bans.
But that's not why she eventually decided to leave her homeland for China, and many things she has become accustomed to after experiencing the turmoil of the 90s. What led her to make up her mind to come to China was that some outlaws had already put the hand of evil on her son. Those people tried to pull her son into the illegal organization on her way out of school, and her son vowed to die, so his legs were crushed.
As she spoke, she tried to restrain herself, but she still couldn't control her trembling voice. She stood quietly on the podium, always smiling for the first time with cracks and residual hatred on her face.
I also learned later that Luhansk is located in the Donbass region, a place of perennial conflict.
Although her son was rescued with all his strength and saved his leg, he could no longer walk like a normal person, and he needed a long rest period, but even so, when he fully recovered, he would become a cripple and be permanently disabled.
Her son, whom I have met, is a very lively 14-year-old boy named Alek. In his spare time, Ольга sometimes pushed him in a wheelchair for walks around our school, and he cheered us excitedly when he saw us, and greeted us warmly with the crappy Chinese he had learned in Chinese class.
Once I met Alek in the little garden of the school. His father pushed him in the garden to see the flowers. After seeing me, he greeted me happily again. It was during small talk that I learned that Alek's father was actually a professor of geology, teaching at another university in Luhansk.
I inexplicably asked Alek's father why he didn't work as a foreign teacher like Ольга, and he looked at me and smiled, gently pointed at Alek and said, "Because of him, I want to take care of him." ”
Alec still looked at the butterflies in the distance as if he hadn't heard our conversation, while I caught a glimpse of the muscles in his face trembling slightly.
Seeming to sense Alec's emotions, his father quickly diverged from the stubble, "I'm not doing nothing. The director x of your institute helped me find a job in maintaining the pool, and I went to work when Alec went to Chinese class, and I could swim often at work, which was much more comfortable than Ольга as a teacher and took students! ”
He laughed out loud as he spoke.
Alec seemed to be infected by his father's laughter, the father and son whispered in their ears, and then laughed together, Alec laughed and muttered something, and then said excitedly to me: "Таня (my Russian name) I want to be a pilot in the future!" What about you? ”
I was confused by his sudden questioning, and before I could say anything, his father rushed to say, "Your legs can't be pilots."
Alec was stunned and laughed, "Then I am the first crippled pilot in history, and I will make history!" Haha..."
I looked at him, a little wanting to laugh and cry.
The days passed, and when we became more familiar, Ольга decided to quit his job and return to Ukraine on Christmas Eve in December of the following year. As she said goodbye to us, she gave all the students she taught a small gift and a tablet with blessings and greetings written in hand.
Ольга gave us chocolate | when we left Courtesy of the author
I once asked her why she wanted to return to China, and she hugged me and said, "That's my country, and my students." No matter what, I will not abandon her. ”
Eastern Ukraine, where the Ольга home was located at the time, was still experiencing unrest, with artillery fire, killings and deaths not being evacuated.
Two
In the foreign teacher who came with Ольга, there was also a female teacher named Анна.
She was a student of Ольга, whose home was in Crimea, where she settled after her PhD in Luhansk.
Анна is very different from Ольга. Her dress has always been so flamboyant that the secretary of our hospital, who has always been very serious, rarely praised after the home meeting, "Teacher Анна is really like a movie star." ”
Анна is not only like a movie star, but also a lot like a Russian. Like a Russian, she does not smile and is very popular, but she is not like the other Russian foreign teachers in our school, she rarely has contact with people except during class time, and Ольга seems to be her only friend in China, and she only interacts with the Ольга family.
At that time, in order to improve our grades, the college encouraged us to have more contact with foreign teachers in their spare time and use Russian for dialogue and chat. When choosing foreign teachers, the college found that many people chose Ольга and other foreign teachers, but no one chose Анна. In order to balance the choice, but also to reduce the pressure of other foreign teachers, the academy distributed a part of the people to Анна, and among that small group of people, there was me, the unlucky egg.
At that time, my Russian spoken language was very bad, first, because I was embarrassed, and second, I was afraid of opening my mouth to say the wrong thing and being ridiculed by my classmates and teachers. So when Анна told us to go out that weekend, I was always around her to reduce my presence, thinking about getting through the confusion.
But she didn't give me that chance.
She took us through the city's top sights and buildings that day. She would ask us questions in Russian when we got there, and if we were wrong, or if we were bad and didn't meet her expectations, she would teach us word for word how to speak In Russian in these places and correct our pronunciation.
Even in the face of me with poor oral speech, she was not impatient or angry. She encouraged me to express myself bravely, to say what I want in my heart, and not to be afraid.
She looked me in the eye carefully, and even after 8 years, I still remember that I still remember the sentence Это достопримечательность и и памятниики (which is a follow-up monument) and the complete passage she taught me.
I saw her smile for the first time.
After that exercise, she seemed to remember me, often asking me questions in class, and I was gradually overcoming my shyness, and in a short period of time, my spoken language improved by leaps and bounds.
After a few months of such days, Анна proposed her resignation to the Academy without warning, her contract had not yet expired, and unilateral termination of the contract may face compensation, but she insisted on doing so.
The person in charge of the hospital also couldn't make up his mind and went to the dean, who found Ольга, and under the explanation of Ольга, everyone understood what had happened - Анна's husband was killed in the Crimea.
As a widow, she needs to return to China to deal with the aftermath for her husband.
I suddenly understood why she had been carrying a sense of alienation and sadness.
Before she left, the College organized us to visit her. Her face was devoid of the delicate makeup and elaborate dress decorations of the past, replaced by numbness. She sat on the couch like a delicate but easily broken puppet, looking at us woodenly, saying thank you in a stylized manner.
We didn't stay long and left very quickly. She was shrouded in sadness, and as soon as she approached her, she wanted to cry.
I didn't expect to see her again.
After graduating from my undergraduate degree, I chose to study in Russia, and at an international exchange meeting, I saw her photo and name on the conference invitation list.
She has gained a lot more weight, and her face is still wearing delicate makeup, but it is difficult to hide the traces of age.
During the break, I found the opportunity to walk up to her and greet her and ask if she remembered me. To my surprise, after a brief moment of confusion, she looked surprised and exclaimed my Russian name. I didn't expect her to remember me. She happily gave me a big hug and then we went to the school café together.
We talked a lot in the café, from this meeting to the topics we studied, from the topics to the current life, and from life to ourselves. I asked cautiously, trying not to mention her private life, but I didn't expect that she seemed to see through my mind and turned the topic to my deceased husband.
She picked up the coffee on the table and calmly told me the story of her and her husband's journey from meeting and falling in love to entering into marriage. Very ordinary encounters, very natural love, but did not expect that one day war would break out.
Her husband was called to the battlefield, and before leaving, he repeatedly told her that if he had the opportunity to leave Ukraine, he would stay abroad for a while, and then come back to reunite when the situation had stabilized.
I just didn't expect that parting was a farewell.
"There is not a single Ukrainian who has not lost a loved one in the war. Yesterday it could be my elderly relatives, today it could be my parents, siblings, or husbands, tomorrow it could be my children and offspring. But then what can be done, we grew up in this place, this is the fate I have to accept. In Ukraine, many people need to endure such a fate. ”
She put down the coffee in her hand and smiled softly in front of me, as if fate had never hurt her.
I wanted to say something, but in the end I didn't say anything. I suddenly realized that language was so powerless that it could not appease anyone who had been hurt by fate.
Three
Shortly after Ольга left, several new foreign teachers came to the school, one of whom was a Ukrainian foreign teacher named Вера who was assigned to our grade group and took us the basic course of Russian at the university.
At that time, our classmates often joked together, although the university learned Russian, but most of the time we were taught by foreign teachers from Ukraine, we simply learned Ukrainian.
Вера teacher is different from Ольга, Анна, she is not like a Russian or a Ukrainian, she is very smiling, she does not have a teacher's shelf. In her forties, she often played with us after class, let us teach her Chinese, but in class she was very strict, punishing us for writing homework without mercy, and often making us love and hate her.
After many foreigners come to China, it is difficult to adapt to the domestic eating habits in a short period of time. But Вера is different. She loves rice, especially pasta, and often goes to the bakery to buy bread. Unlike other foreign teachers, she rarely looks at the price, but instead she often looks at the price, always buying discounted bread and jam that is processed on time, although her salary is much higher than that of other teachers.
She was the least dressed russian teacher I had ever seen. Both Russians and Ukrainians have commonalities in many places due to the history of former Soviet republics, such as dressing up when meeting others, and most women wear delicate makeup on their faces.
But Вера never did, and there were never traces of foundation and lipstick on her face. The clothes are those sets all year round, worn very untrimmed, and the backpack has been raw and she is reluctant to change.
But she had a strange habit. She would buy a lot of things on a regular basis and send them back to Ukraine, and I had accompanied her to the post office once, and when mailing items, in the face of the staggering international postal costs, she did not blink an eye when she paid, which made me think that Вера in the bakery was not alone.
And what she sent back to Ukraine was also amazing. She didn't send valuables, but some food and toys. I had asked her, but she laughed and diverged from the topic.
In this way, Вера took us all the way to college graduation.
Before we graduated, she signed a new contract with the school.
At the graduation ceremony, she repeatedly thanked the school, saying that if the school did not admit her to China, she might be undergoing a local war in Luhansk in the Wudong region and running for her life.
At that time, I reacted with hindsight, and it turned out that the so-called "war refugees" in my impression were not far away from me, and they were probably around me.
Before leaving school, Вера invited us to dinner. At the dinner table, Вера drank some wine, and a classmate took advantage of her excitement to ask the question we had always been curious about, "Teacher, who did you send to Ukraine?" ”
The noisy voice masked the question of the classmate, everyone thought that Вера did not hear, and was preparing to change the subject, but her eyes looked straight at the classmate.
"For the kids." As if alcohol had stimulated her senses, she first began to explain the courier she had sent, "Some for my brother's children, some for others." ”
As if to see our doubts, she sighed leisurely, "You are lucky that you have not experienced war. But war is very cruel, the consequences are also chronic, at first you will worry about losing your life, and later you will lament why you do not die quickly in the war. People had a difficult life after the war, adults had a hard time, let alone children? My brother is dead, his son is still there, and I have to feed him. He was miserable, he had lost his dad forever. But he still has at least me, and his mother, but the other children, not even these, I can only do my best..."
She didn't go on.
After that day, Вера was still the Вера we had known before, but we were all graduating with a little more respect for her.
6 years have passed, and many memories have begun to blur. But I still remember Вера playing a clip from the movie Брестская Крепость (Chinese translated as Brest Fortress), which tells the story of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union in World War II.
In that clip, there are children with guns with a strong face, children sitting on the ground crying, children with fear on their faces but waiting for death... And she stood on the stage with red eyes, but only dared to quietly wipe away tears behind her back to cover up her sadness.
The way she wiped away her tears has always been engraved in my heart and cannot be forgotten.
Postscript
On February 24, 2022, Russia conducted military activities in the Donbass region of Ukraine. The Luhansk region became a war zone as part of the Donbass region.
Вера was still in China, and when she contacted her, she said that everything was okay for her family at the moment, but she didn't know where the future would go.
I sent messages to Ольга and Анна, but unfortunately I have not received any reply from them so far.
I asked about the latest situation of Ольга on the 22nd | Courtesy of the author
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, and may they be safe.
(Excerpt from the WeChat public account national story plan, Li Ran/text)