War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1038 Precious Black Bread
Role identity: childcare worker Victor

Return task:

1. Under the premise of prohibiting the consumption of human flesh, ensure that all children in the nursery survive until the premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. [-] in C major by Kuibyshev

2. Send all orphans to board the ship successfully

3. Listen to the Leningrad Premiere of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in C Major

4. Take a single photo for all staff in the nursery, and take a group photo once a week.

Bruce Harmonica Mastery Skill Quest: Hunt 11 mice in total
Bayanqin Mastery Skill Quest: Bury Two Colleagues
This.
When Wei Ran looked at the task requirements on the page with a look of astonishment and fear, the rising white light also obscured his vision, and immediately after, he saw something that could be used this time.

Contrary to his expectation, among the things that can be used this time, not only the kerosene lamp and the Rollei dual-lens reflex camera with the gold medal, but also the very few dual-lens reflex cameras that can be used by himself. Layer Food Box!

This is not over yet, and then, in the intense white light, he saw the row boat from Baiyangdian, three titanium alloy oil drums, a silver portable jug, and Hein, who did not belong to that era. The oil stove, the blues harmonica from the Taiping battlefield, the bearskin mittens presented by the French prisoners of war, the flashlight from the recruiting battlefield, the pilot leather cap of the eagle over Stalingrad, and the U.S. military that appeared together B8 goggles and sheepskin flight gloves.

Immediately afterwards, a pannier full of kitchen utensils, a British Army P44 kettle, and wire cutters appeared in the white light.

Until the end, the last thing that appeared in the white light was the Nagant revolver obtained from Mine No. 52.

Are there so many?
Wei Ran swallowed with great difficulty, he had already foreseen the difficulty this time, but this time he was given such an item that seemed to contain ingredients, which immediately made him realize that maybe the situation he was going to face was far worse than he thought Be more cruel.

In contrast, those "proficient" skill tasks like yolk eggs are nothing.

After waiting for a while, as the white light faded away, the first thing he felt was the chill coming from his cheeks and neck, as well as the sound of explosions, artillery, and weak ravings mixed in between.

Before his sight returned to normal, Wei Ran, who had just eaten enough, found that his stomach was empty. The feeling of emptiness and the slight colic that could not be ignored also made him subconsciously think that he had returned to the place where he was floating on the Pacific Ocean. On the traffic boat.

After a long time, when he could see everything around him clearly, he found that he was standing next to a solid wooden table. On this table against the wall, there was a bayan piano and a not-so-large The snare drum, plus a wooden box that he is very familiar with, the only difference is that there is a copper lock the size of a matchbox on this wooden box.

Look at yourself again, holding a candle lantern in your left hand, and a slightly rusty saw in your right hand.Beside her, there was a skinny old woman with a basket on her elbow, tremblingly trying to put the brass key in her hand into the brass lock that locked the wooden box. .

"Victor, help. Help me." The old woman with a vicissitudes of life handed the key to Wei Ran weakly.

First put the candle lamp on the corner of the table, and then put the saw on the snare drum, then he took the key from the palm of the other party, and opened the copper lock with the dim light.

When he opened the wooden box and held up the candle lamp again, he immediately saw that there were several sheets of Pravda spread in the box.

On this layer of fairly clean newspapers, there were two pieces of black bread the size of two red bricks stacked together.In addition to this, there was an extra half loaf of black bread and three individual slices of brown bread, plus a small bowl of bread crumbs.

Besides the black bread, the chest contained a small rectangular basket made of birch bark.

The basket contained only three or four pieces of hard dried fish less than 20 centimeters long, and a small bottle of Wei Ran's very familiar coarse salt.

In addition, in the remaining space of the box, there is also a small scale and a glass jar wrapped in kraft paper so that it is impossible to see what is inside.

Under Wei Ran's watchful eyes, the old woman who didn't know her name, let alone her age, but wobbled as if she was about to fall at any moment, carefully placed the basket that had been straddling her elbows on the table, Trembling, he lifted off the coarse cloth covering it, then took out two large pieces of black bread and put them into the box, and then took out another half piece of bread and put it on the table.

"Victor, saw it open."

The old woman said weakly, "Saw it as wide as your finger. According to the latest regulations, the elderly and children have a daily ration of 100 grams of bread. You and Lydia are both public servants, so there is 150 grams per day. With my Belia, he would save 100 grams a day to send to us.”

Speaking of this, the old woman took a breath, and said in a rambling manner, "It's still enough, if you can survive, don't worry, all the children will survive."

While she was muttering here, Wei Ran also sawed the half piece of bread on the table into slices that were about as wide as the thickness of a finger.

Under his silent gaze, the old woman put the bread slices on the scale in the box one by one, first weighed out 9 slices of bread with a single weight of 150 grams, and wrapped them with clean handkerchiefs. They wrapped them one by one and put them in the basket, and then weighed out three slices of bread with a single weight of 100 grams, and handed one of them to Wei Ran, and wrapped the remaining two slices in a handkerchief and carried them separately into the pocket.

"Lock them up"

As the old woman spoke, she had already used the handkerchief that had been spread on the weighing pan to carefully sweep all the residue on the table and the bits from the saw into her hand, and then tremblingly picked up the bread. The crumbs collected in the special wooden bowl inside the box.

Before closing the lid of the wooden box, Wei Ran took a look at his own piece of black bread, tore off almost half of it with a little effort and put it into the wooden bowl, then he fastened the lid and locked it.

Putting away the key handed over by Wei Ran, the old woman turned around slowly, almost leaning on the wall and walked towards the door not far away.

"You seem to have forgotten your share"

Wei Ran couldn't help but reminded.Although he didn't know how many people shared those slices of bread just now, the only adults he knew included two public officials like himself and the old lady.

Not counting the Belia who "saved 100 grams of rations for us every day", obviously, it is not in compliance with the regulations for four people to share three slices of 100 grams of bread.

"I'm so hungry"

The old woman said bitterly, "So before I got it, I ate my share first, but don't worry, I didn't eat too much, there are only so many of us in total."

"I'll give you my piece too." Wei Ran followed the other person and said as he walked out, "I'm not hungry."

"Eat it even if you're not hungry"

The old woman had already walked out of the dark room while speaking, "You are the only adult male here, you have to do a lot of physical work, if you are exhausted, there is no way to take care of those two girls child."

"Okay"

Wei Ran sighed, left the room holding his own half piece of black bread, helped the old woman lock the door, and returned the key to her.

"Victor, let's go find some firewood after dinner."

The old woman sighed, "It's so cold, if our stove goes out, the children will freeze to death."

"Leave it to me." Wei Ran responded while looking at the surrounding environment.

It was obvious that this was the basement of a building, but the ceiling above the basement had been completely blasted, allowing him to see the cracked ceiling on the first floor as long as he looked up.

Looking around again, in addition to the broken steps that can barely climb up to the first floor, there are two rooms on both sides of the room that was just locked.

Among them, the door of the room on the left is hung with a thick quilt as a curtain, while the one on the right has no door frame, so that you can easily see all kinds of things neatly stacked inside.

I walked to the door of this room and looked in. There was a small pile of firewood on the right hand side against the wall. On the firewood, some were left with large and small nails, and some were even stained with dark red blood.

Just at this moment, the old woman with difficulty opened the quilt curtain and pushed open the thick wooden door.

Along with the warmth rushing to his face, Wei Ran also heard Katyusha played on the bayan, and a woman's voice who was singing this song.

It's just that, like the old woman, this voice is also weak, so that it can't sing the sense of strength that Katyusha should have at all.

Before Wei Ran could follow into this room full of warmth, the singing and music all stopped, followed by immature voices, also weak, but you said what you said. Shouted softly, "Grandma Wei Ya, it's Grandma Wei Ya, can we eat?"

"It's okay, it's okay"

The old woman, whom the children called Grandma Via, walked over staggeringly, slowly knelt on the floor, tremblingly took out handkerchiefs from the basket and handed them to the skinny children around her.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who had already closed the door, was also looking at everything in this room which was slightly larger than the room just now.

In the center of this room, which is less than 20 square meters at most, is a cast iron stove with a big belly, on which is a small enamel pot that is not too big and is steaming.

Around this cast iron stove is a protective net made of iron wire. Surrounding this circle of protective net, the surrounding ground is covered with thick pine needles and withered grass from nowhere, and blankets are laid on top of it. , quilts or simply stitched sacks.

And on top of these sacks, except for a girl sitting on a small chair, leaning most of her body on the wall behind and on the table beside her, holding a bayanqin on her chest, at her feet There was also a younger girl who was singing just now, and 9 children covered in blankets with only their heads and hands exposed.

But what is worrying is that, just like that grandma Wei Ya, no matter the girl holding the bayanqin, the singing girl, or even the children, they are all skinny and skinny from hunger, and it seems that a gust of wind can blow them away. They blow away like that.

While he was in a daze, Grandma Wei Ya had distributed bread slices wrapped in handkerchiefs to those children and the two girls.

And the two girls stood up with each other's support. One took the enamel cup on the table, and the other took an enamel spoon. From the small pot on the stove, they scooped out a spoon with a little fish aroma. The liquid into the cup, and then carefully handed them to everyone including Wei Ran.

After taking the enamel cup, which is small enough to make people wonder whether it should be used to drink vodka, Wei Ran looked through the candle in his hand, but found that there were still a small piece of fish bone scattered in the yellowish liquid and a few pine needles.But other than that, there is no other solid in it.

Even so, the little ones who received the enamel cups were still ecstatically dipping the liquid in the cups with the slices of bread they just got, and then carefully put them into their mouths.

And the youngest of these children, the little girl who has been eating thumbs, was also held in her arms by Grandma Wei Ya, and was feeding her with small mouthfuls.

After blowing out the candle lamp in his hand, Wei Ran sat down in the corner near the door in silence, first put the piece of bread in his hand, which weighed no more than 50 grams, into his mouth and took a small bite, patiently chewing.

Thanks to Uncle Maozi who has no blood relationship since he can remember, he can't remember when he first ate black bread, but he has never eaten it so bitter, so astringent, and mixed with Black bread with so much sawdust!

With this small bite, he didn't taste any nuts and the characteristic aroma of flour. The only thing he could taste seemed to be safe to eat in his stomach. The unique "feed smell" when the water washes away the bran.

Is this edible?

The answer is obvious, at least for those skinny children, such black bread is edible and delicious.

Following the example of those children, he dipped the remaining half of the bread into the small enamel cup, waited until it was full of the light yellow liquid, and put it into his mouth again.

This time, the only change is that the taste is not so hard, and a little bit of salty and fishy taste is added.

Is it tasty?Wei Ran can swear that it really doesn't taste much.

Poured the bland fish soup that was left in the enamel cup, which seemed to be made from dried fish, into his mouth and swallowed it together. Wei Ran quietly left the room with the saw that he had just used to saw bread. In the relatively warm basement, I climbed up to the ruined first floor by stepping on the crumbling steps.

　I'm sorry for the late update. I'm on a business trip and the update is a little unstable. It will definitely return to normal when I go back on the 12th.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)