Chapter 338: Living with Difficulty

Advanced chapter join my patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/caleredhair you will get free chapter to read until chapter 350+

In a quiet house in London, the man of the house was holding a glass of milk and staring blankly at the bread on his plate. After a long whi

In a quiet house in London, the man of the house was holding a glass of milk and staring blankly at the bread on his plate. After a long while, he collected his thoughts, then looked at his wife, sighed, and complained, “Ever since the war with Germany started, even the bread has become so unpalatable.”

“You should be content. I hear those Germans have been eating black bread and margarine for a long time,” the housewife replied happily as she tidied up the kitchen stove.

“What kind of situation is this! War, war! There was a war when I was a child, and now there’s another war! Those damned Krauts are always looking for trouble!” The man put down his half-drunk glass of milk and picked up the newspaper to read the news.

She walked over and kissed the man’s forehead, saying softly, “Alright, alright! Don’t complain about these problems! You’re not His Majesty the King, so you don’t need to worry about such big matters. I’ll go and wake up those two little lazybones. It’s time for them to go to school.”

“Go ahead! I’m off to work now,” the man said with a nod.

“I love you, darling!” the woman said, her face blushing.

“I love you too, darling,” the man replied as he read the newspaper.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet shook. The man frowned and looked up, just in time to see the chandelier swaying, dropping a little dust.

“Darling! Watch the children! It seems to be an earthquake…” The man put down the newspaper in his hand, stood up, and suddenly heard the rumble of an explosion. He walked to the window, pushed it open, and looked at the street in the distance, where a cloud of black smoke was rising.

Then there was another faint tremor, and then a building not far away exploded, followed by a huge cloud of black smoke that shot into the air, billowing upwards and spreading with grey dust.

“Darling! What’s happening?” The housewife had returned to the kitchen, pulling their two children, who were under ten years old, with her. The two little ones had sleepy eyes, and one was giving a cute yawn.

“My God!” The man remembered the terrible things he had experienced in his childhood, so he quickly turned his head and shouted at his wife, “Get the children under the table! Quick! This is a bombing! It’s a German attack!”

Just as he finished speaking, a violent tremor came. The huge explosion seemed to be happening right next to them. The sound wave instantly shattered the glass, and the entire window fell to pieces, swaying in the blast wave. Many of the cups and plates in the kitchen fell to the floor, making a clattering sound and splashing sharp fragments. The choking dust was inhaled into his lungs, causing him to cough violently from the irritation, a truly painful experience.

The entire building seemed to be on the verge of collapse. The ceiling was shaking unsteadily. Following that, the chandelier crashed onto the dining table with a clatter, and then there was the violent sound of collapse and shattering. The man, while coughing, tried to wave away the dust that was blocking his vision with his hand. By the time he could see his surroundings again, his ears were still ringing.

“Darling! How are the children? Speak!” The man kicked aside a piece of broken glass at his feet and, bending over, quickly came to the side of the dining table and shouted at the people underneath. “Jack! Harry! How are you?”

Finally, his hearing had recovered a little, and he heard the heart-wrenching cries of his children. Only then did he feel relieved, and then he began to help his wife and two children crawl out from under the table.

“Is everyone alright? Is anyone hurt?” the man of the house asked loudly.

“Dad! I… I’m fine!” a little boy replied, looking sturdy and strong.

“Darling, I have a piece of broken glass in my arm! Other than that, I’m alright!” the man’s wife replied as she crawled out from under the table.

Of course, the other child did not speak. He was just crying in terror, but from his loud voice, it could be heard that he was not seriously hurt.

“Wooo… wooo…” At this time, the piercing sound of the air raid siren finally began to wail. And this belated warning seemed to be of no use now. But this man, named John, still helped his wife pull the broken glass from her arm and then, supporting her, led his children to prepare to leave this rickety building.

When they reached the door, they found that the main door of their house had already fallen to the ground, and the entire corridor was filled with rubble. It seemed impossible to get out from here. So they returned to the bedroom. Because they lived on the first floor, they could escape from the window of the bedroom from this building, which had become very dangerous due to the explosion.

Soon they were on the street, and only then did they realize how much serious damage the German planes had caused to London this time. On the street, a huge crater, ten meters in diameter, could be seen. It was still emitting heat. And this huge crater was only a dozen or so meters away from John’s building.

It was fortunate that John’s house was on the left side of the building, while the crater was on the right. So although the building where John’s house was located had already collapsed by a third, his family of four was still relatively unharmed.

Around the crater, apart from the broken road surface and rubble, there were also several bodies that had not yet grown cold. A middle-aged man was lying motionless on the ground. He was wearing a suit and a woolen overcoat, and a briefcase was thrown beside him. It seemed he would never be able to go to work again, because his two unclosed eyes had already lost their vitality.

John looked into the distance and could faintly see the German bomber formation flying farther and farther away. He saw countless black columns of smoke rising in the distance. The bombs dropped by the bombers had enveloped the whole of London in a light smoke tinged with sulfur.

“Make way, everyone! Make way! The fire engine is coming! The fire engine is coming!” someone shouted in the distance. John’s family also retreated to the side of the road. A car with the word “Fire” written on it stopped beside them. There were only four people in the car, and it was just an ordinary car, not a vehicle that could extinguish fires.

And the four people who got out of this car were not all firefighters. Two were British military officers, and it was clear that one of them had a rather high rank. They jumped out of the car and then scanned the scene.

“I’m sorry! Because there are too many places that need fire engines today, we really don’t have this many hands,” a leading British officer said, staring at the civilians. “We need a large number of hands now. As you can all see, there are still many people who may be alive and buried under the rubble. We need to rescue them as soon as possible.”

Some people, after hearing this, silently took a few steps back and slowly left. But more people stood where they were and did not move. They just watched, silently.

“I’ll help!” John glanced at his wife, and after his wife had nodded, he raised his right hand. “If you need volunteers, count me in!”

“Thank you!” The officer nodded gratefully. John’s action was a great help to him. At a time like this, for someone to take the lead would clearly set a very good example.

Sure enough, soon the people around began to sign up. Under the leadership of the two firefighters and the two officers, they began to use the tools they had collected from all over to clear the rubble. Sometimes, it is only when a disaster strikes that you can know who the true gentlemen are. The brilliance of humanity that comes from the bones is not something that can be shown by actions like paying the bill for a woman or pulling out a chair.

Soon, hundreds of people had joined in the work of saving their compatriots. Many used their fingers to dig through the rubble, desperately trying to save the property and lives in the ruins. What was strange was that the valuables that were found, such as jewelry boxes, were just piled up on the side of the road, yet no one went over to take them.

Humanity has many strengths, and the word “destruction” is definitely one of the skills that makes one proud. After hundreds of thousands of years of construction and accumulation, humanity only needs to use the weapons it has invented to bomb for a few seconds to turn it into a field of ruins. Ever since the genius invention of the nuclear weapon, humanity has discovered that the self-destruction of global civilization is a very simple matter.

The more than 200 tons of bombs dropped by the 44 German bombers in a dozen or so minutes had directly destroyed thousands of buildings in London. Even the ancient landmark of London, the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben), had been left with shell marks. A treasure of architectural art accumulated by mankind over nearly a thousand years could perhaps be wiped clean by a single accurate bomb in just two seconds.

“Thank you for your help just now,” the officer said, walking to John’s side during the midday break. He then smiled and had two soldiers put down some daily necessities, including bread and various food ingredients, as well as a lot of money and a roll of blankets. “These are some of the supplies distributed to the disaster victims. There are quite a few left over. They are all for you!”

As he spoke, he seemed to have remembered something. “Oh, that’s right! This blue armband is for you. You will be in charge of this block for the time being. Some soldiers will come to help in the afternoon…”

“May I ask, where are we to spend the night, now that we have lost our homes?” John asked with a frown, looking at his wife, who was squatting on the side of the road, boredly passing the time, and at his two children and a few other children who were playing beside his wife. These children were so carefree, as if all the troubles of the human world had nothing to do with them.

“I regret to say that up to now, the order to resettle you has not yet been given, so I don’t know how you will spend the night,” the officer said with a sigh. “It could be in an air-raid shelter, or it could be setting up tents or something on an open space in the suburbs…”

“No matter what, we still have to go on living,” John said helplessly.

“Yes, no matter what, we all have to go on living!” the officer nodded in agreement.