War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1040 Go to a sunny place

In the night, Wei Ran dragged two boxes and a wooden beam as thick as a thigh with a rope, and under the slightly envious eyes of the people around him, he rushed back to the building amidst the sound of gunfire and the roar of the plane. A three-story building in general ruins.

If you just stand on the edge of the collapsed corridor on the first floor and look down, there is no light source in the semi-outdoor basement, but the chimney coming out of the wall above the basement door is emitting light blue light. colored smoke.

The wisps of blue smoke drifted from the deserted first floor, and diffused along the cracks in the ceiling to the second floor. Before rushing up to the third floor, it completely disappeared into the night filled with hunger and gunpowder smoke.

After waiting quietly for a while, seeing no one following behind him, Wei Ran untied the wooden beam and pushed it into the basement from the edge of collapse.

Immediately afterwards, he lifted the blanket covering the sledge again, and picked up the wooden box containing various Budyonny hats and a small baby.

Stepping on the crumbling stairs to the semi-outdoor basement, Wei Ran looked down again at the sleeping little guy who was biting a corner of the blanket in the box, then gently lifted the quilt curtain, pushed open the thick wooden door, and gently Walked in lightly.

After all this time, the children and the two young girls had already fallen asleep around the stove, but Mrs. Via was still hugging the little guy who liked to eat fingers, humming weakly.

"You're back. You." Mrs. Via reacted for a while before noticing the little baby in Wei Ran's arms.

"Where did you find this little angel?"

Mrs. Via's body seemed to have infinite strength. She put the older little guy in her arms beside her and covered it with a blanket, then got up unsteadily and walked towards Wei Ran.

"Found it from next door to the State Store, which has just been shelled."

While Wei Ran was speaking, he stretched out his hand to prevent Mrs. Via from picking up the little guy Galina who was still in the wooden box.

"Do you want this child?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Via looked at Wei Ran blankly.

"Let's make a deal"

As Wei Ran said, he put the suitcase he had been holding at his feet, walked to the table and picked up a small enamel cup, then took out the portable wine jug, and filled the small cup with viscous of honey.

Turning around and walking to Mrs. Weiya, Wei Ran handed over the enamel cup, "Drink it, and I will sell this child to you, otherwise I will throw it to the third floor now."

Mrs. Via was stunned, stretched out her trembling hands in disbelief, and took the small cup of honey, "Victor, you from"

"Shhh—" Wei Ran made a silent gesture, "Drink it quickly."

"No, no no!"

Mrs. Via was about to walk out with this small cup as she spoke, "It's so precious, it"

"You have to drink it"

While Wei Ran was speaking, a Nagant revolver appeared in his hand, but the muzzle of this gun was already pointing at the little baby lying in the box at his feet.

"you"

"Drink it..." Wei Ran interrupted the other party involuntarily, even his tone was full of seriousness and madness!

Mrs. Via was stunned, sighed feebly, put the small cup of honey to her lips with a distressed face, took a symbolic sip and said, "Victor, those children need to..."

"I need you to drink it." Wei Ran had already pulled the hammer while speaking, and at the same time put his hand on the trigger.

Hearing this, Mrs. Weiya sighed, brought the cup to her mouth again with a wry smile, and drank the sticky, sweet and energy-rich honey inside her mouth little by little.

"Mrs. Via, the children need you to survive."

While talking, Wei Ran slowly released the hammer in front of the other party, and refilled the magazines that were emptied in advance one by one, "Food, fuel, I will figure out how to deal with these, and you are in charge." Lead the children to survive."

"you"

"Don't worry, I won't let any child here starve to death." Wei Ran made a serious promise.

Hearing this, Mrs. Weiya showed a reassuring smile, and immediately after, tears fell from the corners of her eyes.

"Crying also takes energy"

Wei Ran, who reloaded the pistol with bullets, pointed to the enamel cup in the opponent's hand, "I guess you don't mind scraping off the honey inside with your fingers and then eating it all in your mouth?"

Hearing this, Mrs. Weiya, who was almost choking just now, couldn't help laughing immediately, and carefully scraped out the remaining honey in the cup with her fingers with a little frostbite, and put it into her mouth that hadn't eaten for a long time.

It wasn't until she finished eating the full cup of honey, and allowed Wei Ran to fill the enamel cup with hot water to drink into her stomach, that she picked up the sleeping baby in the box, "Tell me about her What's the matter? I haven't seen such a small child for a long time."

"Her name is Galina Valentinovna Aitman, born on September 1941, 9, her father is Valentin Petronovich Aitman of the horse-drawn sleigh transport team."

Wei Ran first repeated in a low voice the important information that he had been muttering to himself all the way for fear of forgetting, and then briefly described what happened before.

"Valentin, I know Valentine. He used to be a postman in the post office. He was a very strong and wonderful boy." Mrs. Via sighed, "He's dead."

"What did you say?" Wei Ran was stunned.

"He died, about half a month ago."

Via gently placed the newly picked up baby in the blanket by the stove, let her lie side by side with the little guy who likes to eat fingers, and then signaled Wei Ran to put the remaining meat in the enamel basin The soup, and the hind leg of the unknown animal, were all poured into the pot that stood over the fire, and the water was refilled, with an extra pinch of coarse salt added.

After everything was done, Mrs. Via sat down next to the baby Galina, and continued to whisper, "My Belia is also in the horse-drawn sleigh team. He mentioned Valentine to me, and it was about half a year old." Months ago, his horse-drawn sleigh fell into a hole in the ice, and he... alas, what a fine lad."

"His sacrifice was worth it"

Wei Ran responded in a pale tone. After thinking for a while, he pretended to take out his portable flagon from his pocket and handed it to Mrs. Via, "This is the honey I found, and I will leave it to you."

"You take care of it"

Wei Ya made a decision before Wei Ran finished speaking, "Victor, stop doing such stupid things just now, we must give priority to ensuring that these children survive."

"What day is it today?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

"What day is it?"

Via was stunned for a moment, then shook her head, "I don't know, I haven't paid attention to these things for a long time, but there is a broadcast speaker at the intersection not far from us, and it tells the time every day, if you want to know the exact time date, you can go there and listen to it tomorrow morning.”

"You always know what year it is now?" Wei Ran asked in a joking tone.

"I'm only 60 years old, I'm not old yet."

Via gently stroked the heads of the two little guys beside her and said, "1942, it must be 1942 now, but I'm not sure if it's January or February."

"It's been a long time." Wei Ran couldn't help but sighed.

"Yes." Mrs. Via also sighed.

"I'm going to move the other stuff in too"

While speaking, Wei Ran turned and left the warm basement room, pushed open the door and raised the curtain, and climbed up the first floor again on broken steps.

First, he brought all the wooden boxes containing coal and firewood into the room, and then he dragged the wooden beam and the sledge cart into an abandoned room on the first floor, and then took down the tin bucket that still had some embers. With the warmth provided by the embers, patiently used the rusty saw to saw the wooden beam into a suitable length for burning.

By the time he finished his work, the city, which was starved and blacked out, had completely plunged into darkness and silence.At this time, even the front line, which was not far away outside the city, seemed to have ceased fire temporarily.

After moving sections of wooden beams to the room in the basement where firewood was stacked, Wei Ran did not rest. Instead, he pulled the sledge cart and left the ruins of the building again, walking towards the state-owned store that was bombarded for the second time.

At this time, he was also so hungry that his chest was pressed against his back, but he was only hungry and not weak from hunger, so he had to take advantage of the strength in his body to do as many things as possible, otherwise, wait for him to meet with you. When all the people who arrived were weak, the job of finding fuel, which was not easy at all, would become an extraordinarily difficult job.

Hurrying all the way, when he returned to the state-run store that was shelled, someone was already looking for wood in the dark, and Finnet's house had completely collapsed, exposing more wood.

Without wasting time at all, Wei Ran rushed up with the saw in his hand, found a wooden beam that no one had touched, and began to pull the saw up and down.

"There's a dead body there"

In the darkness, someone muttered something, but immediately afterwards, the ruins fell into silence again, only the sound of the saw being pulled, and the sound of bricks and tiles sliding down as they were stepped on and loosened.

I don’t know how long it took, those who had gained something left here with a longer or shorter section of wooden beams. A little later, Wei Ran also dragged the wooden beams he sawed so hard to the sledge outside the ruins. .

However, just as he was about to leave, he noticed that two people walked into the ruins quickly, and he also vaguely saw that these two people seemed to be holding something in their hands.

fuck.
Wei Ran's heart sank, and he chased after him without even thinking about it. At the same time, he handed over the Nagant revolver in his left hand to his right hand, and a flashlight immediately appeared in his left hand.

"That's right here. What I saw just now, his blood hasn't been shed yet!" In the darkness, a person whispered urgently.

"Shh! Keep your voice down! If you get caught, you might be shot!" Another person yelled in a slightly flustered voice.

"If you're going to do it, I'm going to shoot right now."

As Wei Ran spoke, he also turned on the flashlight, illuminating the two ruddy-faced people who looked at him in horror.

Deliberately shaking the revolver in the other hand in front of the beam of the flashlight, Wei Ran turned off the flashlight and said fiercely, "I remember your looks, if you don't want to die, report to the front line now! "

As soon as he said this, the two of them immediately slumped on the ground, and the knife in one of them fell on the ruins that still smelled of gunpowder smoke with a clang.

"Get out..." Wei Ran snorted coldly, and the two people immediately fled from here.

"Ms. Finnett, Comrade Finnett, we meet again"

Wei Ran sighed secretly, walked to the place where the two had just stopped, carried out the young mother Finnette from the still complete fireplace, then pulled out the blanket spread in the fireplace, unfolded it carefully, After wrapping up the light and weightless corpse, she was carefully placed on the sledge cart.

Wei Ran, who played a guest role as a law enforcement officer, also didn't dare to waste time, so he pulled the sledge and the wooden beam tied to the sledge again and left here.

This time, the length of the wooden beam he sawed was about three meters, which was undoubtedly a huge gain, but compared to these, how to place Finnette's body made him have a difficult time.

After thinking about it, he simply returned to the ruined building, and after habitually confirming that there was no tail behind him, he climbed up to the third floor with Finnet's body in his arms, and placed her and the body on the third floor side by side. .

"Your child is downstairs, don't worry."

Wei Ran muttered goodbye to the mother again, turned around and went downstairs, sawed the wooden beam into two and carried it to the basement.

Ignoring the growling stomach, he left the ruins again. However, when he arrived near the state-owned store again, he couldn't find anything useful at all, and the completely darkened The sky and the blackout regulations also made it impossible for him to see the surrounding situation clearly, and it was even more impossible for him to turn on the flashlight for a long time at the risk of being shot and killed by law enforcement as a spy.

In desperation, he could only go back the same way empty-handed this time. After hiding the sledge, he got into the warm but crowded basement.

Lie down on the side of the door against the wall, Wei Ran looked at the slowly burning fire in the distance, looked at the sleeping children, gradually closed his eyes, and fell asleep hungry.

That night, he didn't dream, but he woke up again and again because of stomach cramps. From time to time, he saw the girl playing the bayan adding firewood to the stove in the middle of the night, and saw her feeding the children. It even included the fact that he had covered himself with a blanket.

When he woke up again, he just heard Mrs. Wei Ya weakly introducing the little baby who was sent here by Wei Ran last night.The young girl who sang to the children yesterday was filling the enamel pot on the stove, but the girl who played the bayan yesterday was gone.

"Sister Ke Na, today's soup is better than yesterday's."

A little boy who looked about six or seven years old, although his voice was weak, still tried his best to show a smiling face with missing front teeth.

"Thanks to Galina who just joined us last night"

Last night, the little girl who sang Katyusha purposely scooped up the hind leg of the unknown animal that was almost deboned with a spoon and showed it to the children, and encouraged the children with a smile on her face and a nice voice , "Look, Jialinna's mother brought us such a big leg!"

"Wow——" The children who were drinking the eight-hand broth immediately let out a weak exclamation. Obviously, the piece of meat that was about to be boiled was a huge temptation for them.

"Why is there one less?"

Wei Ran took the enamel cup handed to him by the girl named Ke Na and asked, although this girl was as hungry as skinny, she didn't seem to be very old. If Wei Ran estimated, she might be sixteen Seven-year-old is said to be older.

"Sister Lydia has gone to work." Jana said weakly, while serving Mrs. Via a cup of broth that didn't show much oil.

"Can you tell me about her job?"

"She's the statistician in charge of food distribution, don't you know?" Ke Na looked at Wei Ran in confusion, and then filled herself with a bowl of broth with no visible meat.

"Of course I know she's a statistician"

Wei Ran deliberately took a sip of the hot soup, waited until he swallowed it, and then added, "I mean, do you know her previous job?"

"Looks like an accountant for a Soviet bank"

Ke Na responded uncertainly, then turned to look at Mrs. Weiya next to her, "Grandma Weiya must know that she used to work at the Soviet Bank."

"Lydia used to be a bank teller"

While carefully feeding the little guy in her arms who likes to eat fingers, Via said, "But I didn't know her before. I reached retirement age before the war started, and she just started working. .”

Having said that, Mrs. Weiya looked at Wei Ran, "Victor, give Galina some honey, she is too young to drink broth."

"No problem," Wei Ran said, and again took out the portable flagon with honey under the cover of his pocket.

At the same time, Mrs. Via was also prepared to hand a feeding bottle from nowhere to the surprised Ke Na.

"Where did you get the honey?"

Ke Na, who obviously only knew the news, asked in surprise. At the same time, she also took the baby bottle and poured some hot water into it. After shaking it quickly with her hand, she poured out the water and poured some water in again. The hot water was passed to Wei Ran.

"Found at Galina's house yesterday"

Wei Ran took the bottle and unscrewed it as usual, then picked up the portable flagon, and slowly poured out an amber filament under the envious gazes of all the little guys including Ke Na.

When the sticky filaments with a sweet taste fell into the bottle and dissolved in the steaming hot water, all the children and Kona couldn't help swallowing with a "gurgling" sound.

"Okay, Victor, that's enough." Mrs. Via reminded, "The honey is all her food, we want"

"Do not worry"

Wei Ran responded with a smile that made the other party uneasy no matter what, and let the honey flow into the bottle, and then slightly lifted the spout of the jug, and wiped the outside of the spout with the rubber nipple some remaining honey.

After tightening the lid and shaking it gently, he waited until the temperature was about the same before passing the glass bottle to Via.

While Wei Ya was feeding Galina with honey water, Wei Ran also put away the portable flagon with honey in the disappointed eyes of the other children.

"Let me see, who has finished their broth?"

Wei Ran asked with a smile, "If you've finished drinking, turn your enamel cups upside down and let me see."

"Victor, what are you going to do?" A little boy said weakly, "Grandma Via said, we should move as little as possible, which will make us less hungry."

"I want to buy you a drink"

Wei Ran pretended to put his hand into his cotton padded jacket, and after some exaggerated groping, he took out a British Army P44 water bottle in a canvas sleeve.

"Okay guys, how about I fill your glasses with something nice and let me take a picture of each of you?"

"What is it?" After a little girl finished speaking, she did not forget to lick away a drop of transparent broth dripping from the enamel cup in her hand.

“Certainly a good thing”

Wei Ran ignored Weiya's questioning eyes, lightly patted the kettle in his hand and said, "Okay, everyone prepare your own cups. Mrs. Weiya, and Ke Na, you also have a share. As for Galina, Forget it, she's too young to drink this."

"Victor, there is"

"It's just black tea." Wei Ran gave an obviously perfunctory answer before Mrs. Via asked.

Soon, the enamel cup in the first little guy's hand was half full.The enamel cups used by these children are all of the same model, and according to the label on them, the total capacity is only 200 ml.

Thanks to these enamel cups that may be used for drinking, there is a 100ml scale line at the waistline, which allows Wei Ran to ensure enough fairness.

He poured a full 100ml of hot cocoa for each child in turn. After shaking the kettle, he first poured a third of Jana's cup and supervised her to drink it all before walking to Via At his wife's side, he looked at each other with a smile.

Hearing this, Mrs. Via sighed helplessly, and extended her cup over.

He also poured a third cup for the other party and supervised that she drank it into her stomach. Wei Ran shook the almost empty kettle again and said, "Let's keep the rest for Lydia."

"Victor, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Cora asked as she sipped the last drop of hot cocoa from her cup.

“Food left me to figure it out”

While stuffing the kettle into his arms, Wei Ran secretly took it back into the metal book, and then said, "I also picked up a camera in the state-run store yesterday, I'll go get it back and take a picture for everyone! "

"Why did you pick up so many things?" Kona said with great regret, "If I had known yesterday, I wouldn't have been lazy and went with you."

Hearing this, Wei Ran's heart trembled, and he had roughly guessed who brought back the baby Galina in the history without him.

"Lucky yesterday." Wei Ran had already walked to the door of the room while speaking, "I'll go get the camera back, and I'll take pictures for you later."

Saying that, Wei Ran deliberately didn't look at Weiya, endured his hunger and quickly walked out of the room and climbed up to the first floor.

After confirming that the sledge cart was still there, he deliberately waited for a while, and then took the Rollei reversible that he took out from the metal book, lifted the cotton curtain, opened the door and walked in again.

After only a short while, he found that Via was wiping each child's cheeks and hands carefully with a steaming blue towel, while Ke Na was helping the children clean up the clothes they were wearing. Clothes, after picking off the dry pine needles hanging on them, I didn’t forget to randomly take out a brightly colored Budyonny hat from the box, and put it on the heads of these little guys who are shaking when they walk.

"Let's go outside and take pictures." The still weak Mrs. Via suggested while holding the baby Galina, "Let's go outside and go to a sunny place."

(End of this chapter)