When we left the Kremlin, Bezikov drove the driver away and personally drove Krochkov and me to the hospital just to be on the safe side.

It's funny to say that the three people in our car, Crochkov was originally our sworn enemy, but now he has become my friend. And Bezikov has always been angry with Krochkov because of the fact that we were almost shot last time. This can be guessed from the actions of his glaring eyes at Krochkov, who was sitting in the back row, through the rearview mirror from time to time. And Crochkov only smiled faintly at such a provocative move by Bezikov.

I didn't pay attention to the secret contest between the two, but thought about it on my own, today's award ceremony really gave me a lot of gains, in addition to getting to know a big man like Ustinov, but also completely resolving the grievances with Krochkov.

During the defense of Moscow, I was appreciated by Zhukov and Rokossovsky, and I made a small contribution, so I had the opportunity to rise to the top. However, officers who are too conspicuous and climb too fast have a fundamentally unstable foundation, and they are far less mature and stable than those officers who have worked in the army for more than ten or twenty years and have risen step by step.

After being demoted, he was sent first to Leningrad and then to Stalingrad, and although he almost lost his life several times, he had a wealth of combat experience and accumulated a large number of contacts, and even had a unit that could be completely controlled by himself, not like a panacea. Wipe wherever you need it.

I'm thinking cranky. The car was parked in the courtyard of a hospital. Crochkov asked Bezikov, who was driving, in a mocking tone: "Comrade Colonel. It's in place. Will you get out of the car and go in with us, or will you stay in the car and wait? ”

Hearing what Crochkov said, Bezikov turned his head and glared at him angrily, then gritted his back molars and said, "Of course we went in together, how do I know if you will do anything again." ”

When Krochkov heard this, he turned his head to me and said, "Oshanina, let's get out of the car." With that, he pushed open the door on his side. Hop out of the car.

Instead of immediately following Crochkov out of the car, I politely said to Bezikov: "Comrade Colonel, you first find a place to park, and then we will go in together." With that, I pushed the door open and got out of the car.

Crochkov, who was standing at the door of the outpatient hall, waited for me to walk up to him, glanced at the car heading towards the side, and then asked in a low voice: "Oshanina, is Colonel Bezikov going in with us?" ”

I nodded and politely said to him: "Yes, Comrade Crochkov." The Colonel will go park the car now, and will go in with us later. ”

The two of us stood at the door and waited for a short time. Bezkov, who had parked the car, hurried over. He walked up to us, shook his head at me, and said loudly, "Let's go, Leda, let's go in and get the doctor." ”

Seeing that Bezikov said this, he walked into the outpatient building without looking back, Krochkov smiled helplessly and said to me: "This Bezikov is still angry with me. Oshanina, let's go, let's go to the doctor. ”

In the Soviet hospital, you don't need to register, you just need to wait outside the doctor's outpatient room. The three of us came to the doctor's outpatient clinic of the ENT department, and saw that there were really a lot of people standing in the corridor outside, at least about 30 people. I calculated in my mind that even if the doctor saw a patient in five minutes, it would be at least two hours later when it was my turn.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but retreat, I gently pulled Lacrochkov's sleeve and whispered to him: "Comrade Crochkov, there are too many people today, can we come back another day?" ”

Crochkov turned his head to look at me and said strangely: "Tomorrow? Why wait until tomorrow to come back? ”

I pointed to the long line outside the outpatient clinic with my hand and said helplessly, "Look, there are so many people outside, I don't know how long I will have to wait when it's my turn." ”

Hearing that what I was worried about was this, a smile appeared on Crochkov's face, and he said disappreciatively: "Oshanina, you are too worried. If you're going to see a doctor, you don't have to wait that long. ”

When Bezikov heard his words, he rolled his eyes at him and said angrily: "Damn it, you want to abuse his power again." ”

For Bezkov's cynicism, Krochkov did not care. He walked quickly to the front of the line, took out a dark red document from his jacket pocket, raised it high above his head, and said loudly to the patients in the queue: "Citizens, I am from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and there is a commander who has just returned from the front line to see a doctor, because her time is precious, so please wait a little longer and let her see a doctor first." After speaking, without waiting for the patients to react, he beckoned to me, "Oshanina, come here." ”

I was embarrassed by his use of his position to go through the back door, and I blushed past the long waiting line and came to Crochkov's side.

Crochkov casually pushed open the door of the outpatient room, shook his head at me, and said, "Oshanina, go in." I nodded, and walked into the clinic, followed by Crochkov. After he came in, he turned around and stopped Bezikov, who wanted to follow up, "Okay, Comrade Colonel, there are not too many people in the outpatient room, you better stay outside and wait." With that, he closed the door.

The doctor in the outpatient room, who was instructing the nurse to treat a patient with an ear injury, saw an uninvited guest intruding, he looked back at us and said dissatisfiedly, "Is there anything wrong with you?" ”

Instead of the slightest irritation at the doctor's reproach, Krochkov smiled and said to him: "Dear Sergey, don't you know me?" ”

The doctor, known as Sergei, squinted at Krochkov for a moment, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face, and he immediately greeted him with open arms. At the same time, he happily said: "Crochkov turned out to be you." See you're alive. What a delight. ”

The two hugged and parted. Sergei asked enthusiastically: "Crochkov, you busy man, why did you have time to come to me today?" ”

Crochkov stretched out his hand and pointed at me, and introduced to the other party: "That's right, Comrade Sergei, I am here today with the commander, who has just returned from the front. There seems to be something wrong with her eyes, and I want you to give her a good check-up. "Maybe it's to get the other party's attention," he also deliberately emphasized. She had just attended the ceremony, at which she was awarded the title of 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. ”

The effect of Krochkov's presentation was immediate, and when Sergei heard this, he immediately stood in awe of me, and he respectfully asked: "Comrade commander, may I ask what is wrong with your eyes, what are the symptoms?" ”

After listening to my detailed description of the symptoms, Sergei could not help but frown. Seeing his expression, a bad feeling surged in my heart: "Doctor, isn't the condition of my eyes bad?" ”

Sergei was silent for a moment. "Based on the symptoms you mentioned, it may be a retinal detachment. However, to avoid misdiagnosis. I'm going to check your dilated pupils first. What the specific situation is, we will find out after the inspection. After that, he instructed the nurse, who had just taken care of the patient's injury, to come and give me eye drops and dilate my pupils.

I was lying on the hospital bed covered by a curtain, waiting for the nurse to drip eye drops for me, when I heard Crochkov outside asking the doctor: "Sergey, retinal detachment, is the situation serious?" ”

"Hell, Comrade Krochkov, don't you even have this bit of common sense?" Sergei probably heard Crochkov ask a low-level question, and said with some dissatisfaction: "The retina is like a photosensitive film in a camera, which is responsible for photosensitive imaging. When we look at something, the image of the object passes through the refractive system and falls on the retina. Once the retina is completely detached, blindness can occur. ”

When I heard that I might be blind, I shuddered. If it weren't for the fact that the nurse was putting eye drops on me at this time, I would have rushed outside to ask Dr. Sergei what was going on.

After a moment of silence, Krochkov then asked: "If it's a retinal detachment, is there any way to prevent blindness?" ”

Hearing Crochkov ask my concerns, lying on the hospital bed, I listened carefully to the conversation outside with my ears tilted to the side. I only heard Sergei say: "Of course it's an operation." After the surgery, although her vision could not be restored to the original level, she could avoid blindness in her left eye and affect the vision in her right eye. ”

Crochkov gasped after hearing this, and said: "This matter is too important, I will report it to my superiors immediately." ”

"Wait a minute, Crochkov." Sergei immediately stopped him and said: "Don't report it to your superiors yet, the condition of the female commander is only my judgment based on past experience, and it may not be accurate." As for the exact condition, it will not be confirmed until the dilated pupil examination. ”

"When can I get tested?" Crochkov asked.

"Thirty minutes at the earliest." After Sergei answered this sentence, he said euphemistically to Krochkov: "Anyway, it's still early, you see if you go outside first and wait for a while, during this time I can see a few more patients." ”

"Okay, I'll talk to the female commander first." After Krochkov finished speaking, he walked to the bedside where I was lying, talked about the curtain and said to me: "Oshanina, Dr. Sergei will examine you in half an hour. In order not to affect his work, I went outside and waited first. ”

To the polite Crochkov, I smiled and said: "Okay, there you go." ”

Crochkov nodded, lowered the curtain, said hello to Sergei, opened the door and walked out. Not long after he went out, there was another knock on the door, and someone walked in from outside, and from the conversation between the other party and the doctor, I could tell that it was a patient. When I heard a patient coming in, the nurse said hello to me and went out to pick up the patient.

I heard five or six patients in front of me enter the outpatient room, and Sergey, after patiently listening to the patient's story, sent some away without saying a word, and asked the nurse to take care of the injuries before opening the pharmacy and asking the patient to go to the nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.

Just when I was waiting a little impatiently, I suddenly heard Sergei's voice from outside: "Comrade commander, please come out for inspection." ”

As soon as Sergei finished speaking, the nurse came up and pulled back the curtains, helped me out of the bed, helped me to sit down on a chair against the wall, and turned on an incandescent lamp above my head. Sergei stood in front of me, leaned down, opened my eyelids, and with a magnifying glass with a condenser, carefully examined my eyes, and from time to time instructed me to look in different directions, up and down, left and right.

After looking at it for a long time, he straightened up, let out a long sigh, glanced at my epaulettes, and then asked, "Comrade General, have you received any heavy blows to the head recently?" ”

"Heavy hit?" I repeated the word, and in my mind I went through my experience during this period as if I wanted to play a movie, and I realized that I didn't seem to have encountered any heavy blows to the head. Just as I was about to shake my head in denial, it occurred to me that outside that town, when I met Vasily, he accidentally stepped on a mine, and the blast swept me away, and I hit my head on a stone as I landed. Luckily I wore a steel helmet, otherwise I might have been honorable at the time.

Thinking of this, I hurriedly told Sergei about it, and after finishing speaking, I asked nervously: "Comrade doctor, my eyes don't matter." ”

Sergei replied with a serious expression: "Comrade General, it is precisely because of such a blow that your retina has a precursor to detachment, which is now falling off because you did not treat it in time. ”

Sergei's words made me even more frightened, and I asked in a panic: "Doctor, will I then go blind?" ”

Hearing my concern, Sergei thought for a moment and replied: "If the operation had been carried out in time, it would probably not have been." ”

"When will I be able to operate?" I hurriedly asked.

"Although it has been confirmed that it is a retinal detachment, it will take another two days of observation before the operation can be performed." After Sergei finished these two sentences, he returned to the table, picked up a pen and began to write the case, saying as he wrote: "Comrade General, the inpatient department is at the back of the outpatient department, and later you can take me to write a case for you, go to the doctor on duty, and he will arrange a ward for you." (To be continued......)