Chapter 2701 - 2675: Sacrifice

It’s so simple to send off a pair of young lovers.

After the two young people left happily dragging a suitcase and holding money, Gao Yang nodded to the lady of the house and whispered, "Go inside and clean up, quickly."

The lady looked at Gao Yang in a daze, then she went inside and started tidying up the messy bed. Gao Yang glanced at Yarebin and noticed the complex expression on his face.

Gao Yang entered the room and said to the lady who was making the bed, "No need to tidy up, take it away, take it all away, don’t come in unless I call you, thank you."

Rolling up the sheets and blankets, letting the lady take them away, Gao Yang went over to assist Yarebin, helping him into the room and to sit on a small sofa.

After inviting Yarebin to sit down, Gao Yang went to the doorway, whispered a few words into Joseph’s ear, and then casually closed the door.

Yarebin pointed to the old wooden bed without sheets and said softly, "I used to sleep there."

The bed was made of wood, with a very large wooden frame, looking somewhat clumsy, but the quality was genuinely good; after decades, it remained intact.

Yarebin trembled as he stood up, then he said softly, "This sofa is not mine, but this table I used to use. When I went to school, it was this table I used, placed right here. Where is my chair..."

Yarebin held onto the table, bent down, pulled out the drawer and looked inside, then a smile appeared on his face.

Holding onto the table, he stared out the window, lost in thought for a while. Then Yarebin turned around, opened the wardrobe door, glanced into the empty cabinet and smiled, "This cabinet is something I used before too, but back then, there was no television in my room. At that time, I didn’t even know what television was."

After speaking, Yarebin slowly walked back to the sofa, holding onto it and slowly sat down, then he said softly, "It’s not quite the same anymore, yet somehow familiar. This feeling is very strange."

Gao Yang said softly, "Teacher, do you want to, should you inquire about your family’s news..."

Yarebin shook his head and said, "I’m different from them. News about my family has always been sent to me. I have a sister who caught a cold the next winter after she got married, which developed into pneumonia, and then she passed away. My father died in 1974, from a stroke, and my mother died in 1976, of heart disease. My father and mother were both Georgians, from the same place as Stalin. I don’t know if there’s any family in Georgia, it wouldn’t make any difference, my father never returned. And here, those neighbors back then are probably all gone, of course, I don’t really remember them."

Yarebin sighed, waved his hand helplessly, and said softly, "I never attended their funerals. I suppose, before they died, they would have wanted to know if I was still alive."

Gao Yang took a deep breath, he wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Yarebin looked at the hesitant Gao Yang and smiled, "Are you wondering why I could receive news, could return home, but never contacted my family? Why I didn’t come back for their funerals, is that it?"

Gao Yang gently nodded.

Yarebin sighed, "The Black Demon is the highest level of confidentiality unit. Joining the Black Demon means disappearing from this world, as if you never existed at all. I was the captain of the Black Demon, I couldn’t be an exception, couldn’t have privileges. I couldn’t enjoy family warmth after turning all my subordinates into loners."

Gao Yang said softly, "What should I say? I think you are very great, but also very cruel."

Yarebin smiled, "It’s better not to say anything, it’s very normal, not worth being surprised about. Choosing this path means saying goodbye to a normal life. It’s like this all over the world. Some people willingly or unwillingly give everything for the country. Those great nations have more volunteers, or conversely, more people willing to give everything for the country. Naturally, that nation becomes strong. When no one is willing to give everything for a country, that country is nearing the end."

Gao Yang nodded, "I understand, I just find it hard to accept."

Yarebin laughed, "You’re too young, you don’t understand this, because you haven’t experienced what it’s like when a country is in peril. My father experienced it, and I did too. Although I only have a vague impression, the fear of war made me know what a strong Soviet Union meant. So even if I gave everything, even if I died, I would never betray the Soviet Union. Baskov didn’t experience these things, so he doesn’t understand what the disappearance of the Soviet Union means, so he chose to abandon the Soviet Union."

Yarebin looked out the window, watched the traffic on the street, and said softly, "It’s really very normal, really, it’s really very normal. Those young people growing up in peaceful times think the country’s strength is taken for granted, not knowing what sacrifices were made for the country’s strength. They cannot see it, so they think all these sacrifices do not exist and are not important. They slander their own country recklessly and wantonly destroy their own country.

Sacrifice is inevitable, sacrifice is meaningful. Do those ignorant young people really not understand what the country’s strength means? Maybe they can see it from books, but they cannot comprehend it until the country falls again, until these people are stung by reality, they will only say look, look at what this damned country has become. Yet they still fail to understand what anyone has ever sacrificed for this country’s strength, and what have they sacrificed for this country. Gao, look at the people on the street, they are still enjoying the afterglow of the Soviet Union, but they will not realize that, and even if they did, they will not admit it."

Slowly turning around, Yarebin smiled and said, "There are still a lot of fools in this world."

Gao Yang said softly, "Do you regret it?"

"Regret? I never regret, nor ever felt it was not worth it, nor ever felt it was not fair. Gao, look outside, what do you see?"

Gao Yang glanced outside, and said, "There are many people..."

"They are lambs to the slaughter, tools to create wealth, they provide you food and wealth."

After Yarebin finished, he said seriously to Gao Yang, "We once tried to create and sustain a fair utopia, where everyone could be called human. Of course, we failed, people chose to become beasts of the jungle law, but they don’t realize the role they are supposed to play in the jungle law should be food. Gao, since the world is a big jungle, then strive to become the biggest beast, that’s fair."