War Photographer's Notebook

At Kazan Airport, as a flight took off, Wei Ran and Jima, who were squeezed into the same row of seats with Karp, became more and more confused.

The destination of this flight is not far away, it is only the border city of Ural, which is five or six hundred kilometers away.

Whether Wei Ran was sent there alone to take part in the assessment a few years ago, or he went to visit Maya's house relatively recently, this was almost always their first stop.

Could it be that the plane is actually hidden in Maya's house?

Ji Ma, who was sitting at the outermost position of this row of seats, murmured something secretly in his heart, but there was a frowning silly smile on his face.

If the plane is really in Maya's house, isn't it a gift from Maya's parents?Could this be the betrothal gift or dowry that they mentioned at Victor's house last time?
Although he knew it was impossible, when he thought of this, Ji Ma couldn't help swallowing with a smirk.

"Mr. Karp, did Jima take the wrong medicine before he came here?" Wei Ran, who was sitting in the middle, asked in a low voice to Karp, who was sitting in the innermost seat.

Hearing this, Karp glanced at Jima who was still giggling, rubbed his temples helplessly, and muttered vaguely, "Don't pay attention to that idiot, just pretend you don't know him."

"makes sense"

Wei Ran also muttered vaguely, and silently took out a mask and a baseball cap from his bag, covering his face.

Although the voyage was only one hour, and the aircraft on duty was only a noisy or even rudimentary An-24, even so, there were still a few people in the cabin who recognized Jima Allah, who is now a star. Comrade He.

What makes Wei Ran and Karp feel that they don't want others to know that they know Jima is that this guy not only agreed to the photo request of almost everyone, including the aunt-level stewardess, but even took out the photo from his bag. He bought a Polaroid camera that took up quite a lot of space but "just happened to carry", and provided a set for everyone who wanted to take a photo with him that "supports on-site film production and comes with a signing service."

"I bet one hundred thousand rubles, this bastard's signature pens are all custom-made." After finishing speaking, Wei Ran did not forget to press down his baseball cap extra.

"you guessed right"

Karp said helplessly, "But this is the arrangement of Gorman and Anna. Now they need to make Jima look like a civilian star. But now it seems that at least on this point, the little bastard Jima Maybe even better than Gorman and Anna."

"It's also a good thing." Wei Ran responded with a smile, "I guess this must be the life Ji Ma likes."

"Humph" Karp snorted noncommittally, but did not comment.

"Where are we going next?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

"I do not know either"

Karp looked at the scenery outside the porthole and responded casually, "This time it's all arranged by Dahlia, she just asked me to help send you to the corresponding people."

"What is Teacher Dalia up to lately?" Wei Ran asked along the topic.

"She recently bought a big house in Peterborough"

Karp said with a smile, "On the edge of Lake Ladoga, she seems to open a gallery and a sculpture hall, which almost used up all her savings, but fortunately, those two girls will concentrate on creating at her place. In the future After her place is finished, remember to ask Aurora to send some tourists there."

"I'll talk to her." Wei Ran promised with a smile.

In the noisy atmosphere where the two chatted with each other, and Sheniu Jima posed for photos in the cabin like a call boy from the beginning to the end, the old regional airliner finally landed smoothly. the Urals in Hasa territory.

Waiting patiently for Jima and the crew to take a group photo and be invited to leave his signature on the cabin door, the group of three walked into the waiting hall.

Almost at the same time that Karp hung up the phone, a middle-aged man wearing Soviet camouflage pants and a sea soul shirt that can be described as "retro" quickly ran over from a distance. Ran or Quarter Horse have already put on masks and baseball caps according to Culp's requirements.

"Excuse me, is this Mr. Shevchenko?" The middle-aged man had a trace of respect in his tone, and at the same time, he took the initiative to take the suitcase Karp was pushing.

"Where's your boss?" Karp, who was also wearing a baseball cap and mask, asked gently.

"He's already waiting for you on the plane, please come with me." As the middle-aged man said, he turned around and led the three of them to the staff passage not far away.

Under the leadership of the middle-aged man, the three of Wei Ran returned to the tarmac they left not long ago, and stood under the wing of a bright red painted An 74 aircraft.

On the tail of this odd-looking plane, a Soviet-style sickle is drawn around a cluster of delicate, plump purple grapes with emerald green leaves and unripe fruit growing on the vines. , and was loosely wrapped around the sickle.

Under this insignificant but extremely beautiful logo, the words "Grape Vine Agricultural Products Company" are written in Russian.

But what is quite strange is that at this time, although the cabin door of the aircraft remained open and the boarding ladder was placed, the crew members were all standing outside the cabin, under the shadow of the wing.

"Please go up"

The middle-aged man who was in charge of bringing them over finished speaking, and without waiting for Karp to respond, he greeted the crew members who were smoking, and walked straight to the waiting hall not far away.

Retracting the straight line, Karp was the first to walk into the cabin by stepping on the ladder.

"Close the hatch, take off your mask and hat"

Before Karp could finish his sentence, a fat man covered in fat ran over, hugged Karp in a bear hug, laughed loudly and patted the former's back with his big hands comparable to bear paws.

"Brother Karp! We finally meet again!"

The big fat man wished he could lift Karp up, and asked a little excitedly, "How is my sister doing?"

In fact, without him saying this, Wei Ran and Jima who followed in had already noticed that the appearance of this middle-aged fat man was somewhat similar to that of Teacher Dalia.

"She's doing well"

Karp reluctantly pushed away the fat man who was at least two X older than himself, "Jima, close the hatch!"

"Oh! Immediately!"

Ji Ma came to his senses, quickly closed the hatch with Wei Ran's help, and then took off their respective masks and hats.

"What's the matter with these two little guys?" The big fat man asked with great interest.

"The one on the left is Ji Ma, the captain he found by accident."

Karp said and pointed at Wei Ran, "The young man on the right is Victor, a student trained by Daria and I, and he is now a well-known historian."

"I seem to have seen this guy in a movie"

While talking, the big fat man grabbed a handful of cigars from the humidor on the table beside him, distributed one to everyone, patted Jima on the shoulder affectionately and said, "I've seen the two movies he made. , every movie moved me to tears, damn it, your acting skills are almost as good as that bastard Culp."

"To shut up!"

Karp glared at the big fat man, found a place to sit down on his own, lit the cigar handed by the other party and said, "This big fat man is Darya's younger brother, you can call him um. Call him Uncle Bu."

"Forehead"

Wei Ran and Jima looked at each other, and each tried their best to hold back their smiles. There is no doubt that the name just now was what Karp thought of when he saw the plane.

The so-called Chabu, in fact, should be called "Chabrashka" in its full name. It is a cartoon similar to "Big Ear Tutu" created by a famous children's writer in the Soviet Union in the 60s. Image - Chubu with big ears (also translated as "chebu, chebu" in China, they are all the same, and they are the protagonist of "The Adventures of Little Chabu").

At the same time, Chubu with Big Ears is also the nickname of the Soviet An 72/74, a wonderful aircraft with a pair of protruding ears.

However, the fat man who looked particularly fierce, after listening to Karp making up his own name and address, winked and put two fat big fists on the sides of his head, trying his best to imitate the big ears. The appearance of the cloth.

Wei Ran and Ji Ma couldn't help but smile at such a funny big fat man, and each honestly called out "Uncle Chabu".

"Is this guy the one who discovered the photo of the red flag on the Capitol a few years ago?" Uncle Chabu patted Wei Ran's shoulder affectionately while speaking.

"It's him"

Karp nodded with a smile, "He is a very hardworking and smart student, Dahlia also gave him the candy company's house."

"What a nice boy!"

Uncle Chubu patted Wei Ran's shoulder affectionately again, and after calling the two of them to sit down casually on this luxuriously decorated special plane with only a dozen seats, he made a gesture of cutting his neck Asked, "I heard"

"Fishink's children found him"

Karp changed into English that Wei Ran could not understand nominally and that Jima really could not understand, and sighed, "At the cost of his life and his entire childhood that he would not be able to get sunshine in the future, he finally found that damned traitor. "

"Don't worry, Brother Karp!"

Uncle Chubu, the big fat man, also switched to English, and said confidently, "I will reward him. I have already said that I will reward whoever achieves it. The reward offered 20 years ago is still valid."

"Let his reward go to the young historian"

Karp pointed to the runway outside the window, but said a topic that had nothing to do with the scenery outside, "This is what that child meant. His life is not well-known, so he doesn't want to have too much contact with us. But the historian You have some business dealings with him, and your reward will be laundered through this historian, and rewarded to him in another way."

"Your students are trustworthy?" Big Fat Chubb asked.

"Totally trustworthy"

Karp paused, "We are going to take advantage of his back, so we need to give him some nourishment from time to time. Believe me, he is a trustworthy partner."

"Partner?"

The fat Chubb took a sip of the cigar he had just lit, "That's a really high evaluation, my friend."

"That friend of yours is a white bandit, how do you ask me to trust him?"

Karp snorted angrily, "This little guy is different. Mr. Nicholas and your sister are very satisfied with him."

"my sister"

"She has gone to Petersburg, and you may be able to visit the sculpture gallery she runs together with her daughter in the future." Karp looked out of the window in a daze, "Of course, that girl doesn't know her relationship with your sister. "

"I'll take a look around when her sculpture gallery is ready." The big fat Chubu couldn't help but smile on his face when he said this.

"So be it"

Karp abruptly switched back to Russian, "I'll leave these two little guys to you, don't waste their time too much, and don't teach them badly."

"How could I do such a thing?" Big Fat Chabu laughed and promised.

"You two listen to Uncle Chubu's arrangement." Culp stood up while speaking, and put on his mask and baseball cap again.

"Aren't you following us?" Jima asked subconsciously.

"You're not a child anymore, do you still expect me to change your diaper for you?" After Karp finished speaking, he opened the cabin door by himself and left the cabin very simply.

Before Wei Ran could speak to Jima, the fat Chubu picked up the phone on the table, pressed it casually, and then said in a loud voice, "Come back soon! We're leaving!"

"Crack!" Putting down the phone with a loud sound, this big fat man, who was not easy to mess with, immediately greeted Wei Ran and Jima with a smile on his face to sit down opposite him, and asked impatiently, "You two Little guy, tell me how my sister Dahlia has been doing these years."

"Where do you start talking about this?" Ji Ma subconsciously looked at Wei Ran.

"Of course it started when you first met her!"

While the fat Chub was speaking, he got up and closed the sunshade of the porthole, and then took out a bottle of vodka that looked very cheap from the wine cabinet that Jima had been staring at just now, and took out three frozen bottles from the small refrigerator. The frosted glass tumbler lay on the table, wiped the corners of his eyes and said, "boy, tell me, because some goddamn bastards, I haven't seen mine since '96 sister."

Hearing this, Jima and Wei Ran looked at each other again, took a deep breath and said, "Uncle Chabu, let me start first. I come from a small village in the northwest of Kazan. I have the impression that I met Dali for the first time. When I met Teacher Ya, she was already my brother's music teacher."

In Jima's memory, the swallow cup on the table was filled with vodka time and time again, and the bright red An-74 plane under his feet also flew into the blue sky after a short run amidst the roar of the engine. to an unknown destination.