War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1042 Nursing staff and breeders

In the ruins of the Leningrad city shrouded in gunfire and gunpowder smoke, Wei Ran, whose upper body was wrapped in a blanket, used a sledge to pull Kona, who was also tightly wrapped in a blanket, enduring desperate hunger, almost aimlessly In general, it is slowly moving towards the northeast direction that seems to never end.

Along the way, all that can be seen as far as the eye can see are ruins and the residents of Leningrad lingering in the ruins. Slowly, I searched through the ruins all over the floor, trying to find something to eat or warm up, and some of them closed their eyes forever in the corner.

"What kind of place is there? Why are there so many people?"

Wei Ran pointed to a building whose doorway was mostly blown down and asked, this building itself is nothing special, but from time to time, people come in and out through the collapsed doorway.

"Library" Ke Na replied weakly, "That's the library, of course everyone goes there to borrow or read books."

"Reading?" Wei Ran couldn't help but look back at Ke Na who provided the answer.

"if not"

Ke Na stretched down the brim of her hat to block the glare of the sunlight, and said as a matter of course, "Reading may be the most energy-saving form of entertainment. Although books can't fill your stomach, at least it can keep everyone alive." hope, isn't it?"

"It's hard to imagine that these words came from a girl as young as you." Wei Ran sighed sincerely.

"Are you very old?" Ke Na responded weakly.

"26 years old." Wei Ran paused, "What about you?"

"16 years old." Kona paused, "17 years old, I almost forgot, it's 42 years now."

"You look like you are only 15 years old." Wei Ran took a step forward and continued walking forward.

"I was originally small"

Ke Na, who squinted her eyes, didn't care whether Wei Ran saw it or not. She gestured with her hands and said, "I used to be a veritable fat man. I was less than 1.6 meters tall, but weighed nearly 70 kilograms."

"It's hard to imagine." Wei Ran couldn't help but look back at the scrawny girl on the sledge. This girl probably weighs 70 catties now.

"yes"

Ke Na sighed, and said weakly, "My classmates often laughed at me for looking like a snowman, and even I never thought that I would become so thin.

However, thanks to the fat I used to be, if it weren't for the embarrassing fat, I'm afraid I would have died. "

As if afraid that Wei Ran would not believe it, Ke Na paused and added, "Several of those classmates who used to laugh at me, those who were slimmer than me, starved to death. But I can't be happy at all, how could I Be happy. I would rather be ridiculed by them in the classroom like before."

"Which direction are we going next?" Wei Ran took the initiative to change the subject, "There is a crossroad ahead."

"Go ahead," Ke Na replied weakly, "Everything around here has been found."

"Do you know where you can catch mice?" Wei Ran asked a hopeless question while walking.

"mouse?"

Kona thought for a while, and quickly replied without any surprises, "I don't know, I dare say, the rats in Leningrad have been caught long ago, not only rats, cats, dogs, sparrows, owls, anything that can provide meat The animals have been caught long ago, even human corpses.”

"We don't consider this last option." Wei Ran clearly expressed his attitude before the other party finished speaking.

"I know," Cora said weakly, "I'm just explaining what's going on."

"I know too." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he stopped again.

"What's the matter?" Ke Na, who didn't know if she was about to fall asleep or fainted from hunger, opened her eyes with difficulty and asked.

"wait for me"

As Wei Ran said, he had already loosened the rope connected to the sledge, and walked quickly towards a collapsed building by the side of the road.

On the edge of the ruins, which were only a pile of rubble, he saw a man in overalls and a Lenin cap, with the same beard as Lenin and the same hairstyle as Stalin.

This man was not tall, but his face was yellow and thin, as if he could be blown down by a gust of wind. Behind him, there was also a sledge cart.

But what caught Wei Ran's attention was that there was no collected wood on the sledge truck. Instead, there were two baskets woven with birch branches and a small rectangular cage woven with wire.

In that barbed wire cage the size of a microwave oven, which is the only posterity, there is an unusually fat mouse!

And in the two birch branch baskets, there are cages that seem to be used to catch mice!
Then look at the skinny man, who is kneeling on the ground at this moment, with his butt pouted and his hands reaching into the gaps in the ruins, as if he was trying to pull out something.

When Wei Ran walked less than five meters away from him, this man who looked like he was in his 40s also pulled out a barbed wire cage that was a little bigger than a tea bucket from a gap in the ruins.What surprised him was that there was an extremely fat mouse in this cage!

The man smiled at Wei Ran, and generously handed over the cage and the mouse in it, "Do you need it?"

"You want to give it to me?"

Wei Ran asked in surprise, he couldn't believe it, this mouse, which is disgusting to look at, is worth saving lives at this moment!But this man was so generously prepared to give it to himself—even if they didn't know each other before.

"take it"

The man stood up unsteadily, and gently patted the dirt and snow on his trouser legs with his canvas gloves, and said gently, "I guess you must need it, otherwise you wouldn't come here."

After finishing speaking, the man limped towards the sledge cart not far away, picked up a barbed wire cage of the same size from the basket, and took out a reddish-brown particle the size of a finger from his pocket, and put it on It was threaded on a thin wire in the cage, and then the cage door with the mechanism was propped up, and it was stuffed into the gap just now.

Unobtrusively glanced at the other party's legs that seemed to be a little inflexible, Wei Ran couldn't help asking curiously, "Comrade, are you a professional mouse catcher?"

"Professional in catching mice?"

The middle-aged man smiled, stood up again and stretched out his hand towards Wei Ran, "I'm Matvey, the golden eagle breeder at the Leningrad Zoo, these mice are for the golden eagles at the zoo, those who are picky The guys eat only live things."

"Zoo? Breeder? Animal trainer?"

Wei Ran was stunned, and subconsciously shook hands with the other party's extended hand, "Hello, Comrade Matvey, I'm Victor, the childcare worker. To a certain extent, we are almost colleagues."

"Nursery?" Matvey raised his eyebrows, "So you are in charge of taking care of the children?"

"Yes, 10 little kids."

Wei Ran pointed to Ke Na who was still lying on the sledge behind her and refused to get up, "Of course, there is also an older child who has just grown up."

"Oh! Sorry, I thought you were going to bury him in the grave."

"Kona is a girl, of course, a living girl."

Wei Ran used a small joke to avoid the embarrassment of the golden eagle breeder, and then changed the subject and asked, "With all due respect, Comrade Matvey, use such precious meat."

"You're saying this rat might save a man's life?"

Seeing the apology on Wei Ran's face, Matvey smiled, beckoned him to sit down on the sledge, took a breath, first pointed to the direction of the library where Wei Ran and the two had just passed by in the distance, and then said, " Preserving zoos is as important as preserving libraries and concert halls. These beautiful things can bring hope to those who are still alive.

You see, as long as the animals in the Leningrad zoo are alive, as long as the Leningrad library is allowed to borrow books, as long as there are performances in the Leningrad concert hall, everyone will firmly believe that Leningrad has not arrived In the most difficult time, we will firmly believe that we will definitely win this war. "

"So now can the zoo still be visited?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously, but he didn't think this middle-aged man was a saint.

Just like the fact that people cannot live by eating the flesh of their own kind is the absolute bottom line, isn’t it because of these seemingly meaningless insistences that people are humans and not beasts?

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do this winter."

Matvey’s tone was not only apologetic, but also deeply ashamed, “Since the Germans bombed the zoo last September, our water, power, heating, and sewage systems have all been paralyzed, and many exhibition halls have also been destroyed. Here comes the destruction."

Seemingly worried about disappointing Wei Ran and Ke Na who was walking towards this side, Matvey continued, "Please give us some time, spring! The zoo will definitely be open for visitors in spring.

We still have more than 100 animals, our star black vulture Veroshke, beautiful hippopotamus and baboon Arsha are still alive.

We also have show goats and puppies, little foxes and little monkeys, and of course, the picky and haughty golden eagles, who are also alive.

Victor, when spring comes, you must take the children to the zoo. "

"Is the beauty still alive?"

Ke Na asked excitedly, then looked at Wei Ran, and said calmly and sadly, "Before the war, my classmates often compared my figure with the beautiful hippopotamus or the elephant Betty."

"Alive, the beauty is still alive."

Matvey nodded, "But because of lack of water, our beauty got a skin disease, but she is indeed alive. Unfortunately, Betty was killed by the Germans in September."

Speaking of this, Matvey sighed, and couldn't help repeating, "Betty was killed, the German bomb fell next to her elephant house, and her breeder, Comrade Blake, was killed on the spot. Days later, Betty died too."

“The zoo is too far away from us”

Ke Na sighed regretfully, "I don't have the strength to walk that far now, but I will definitely go to the zoo in spring!"

"Where do you live with the children?" Matvey asked along the topic.

"The basement of the yellow building behind the Soviet Bank." Before Wei Ran could speak, Ke Na gave the answer without thinking, "There used to be a bakery there, and we are in the basement of the bakery."

"I know it's there," Matvey said regretfully, "it's really far away. There's no way for children to walk to the zoo from there."

"We can only wait until the war is over," Ke Na said helplessly, "if we are still alive by then."

"You will surely survive"

While Matwei was speaking, he had already put on canvas gloves, reached out and took the mouse out of the cage and stuffed it into a mouse trap, and handed it to Wei Ran without hesitation, and said with a deep apology, "If you don't dislike it, take it. Although these mice probably grew so big because they ate human flesh, I guess children must need the nutrition they provide, and this is better than eating human flesh."

"Our child has never eaten a bite of human flesh." Ke Na, who had a regretful face just now, said very seriously at this time, and there was even a trace of undisguised anger in her tone.

"Sorry, I mean."

"I see"

Wei Ran didn't take the cage handed over by the other party and held it in his hand, but instead took the initiative to extend his hand towards the other party, "Anyway, Matvey, thank you for your gift, we won't misunderstand you, and these mice can indeed Save the lives of the children.

But this one is fine, we have this one is enough, of course, thank you for giving us the mousetrap cage, they are just as important. "

"You're welcome, take it."

Matvey threw the undelivered mice back to the sledge behind him, picked up two mousetrap cages from the basket and stuffed them to Wei Ran while asking again, "You live in the bakery behind the Soviet Bank basement?"

"Yes" Ke Na confirmed again before Wei Ran could speak.

"I'll catch rats around there if I get a chance"

As Matvey said, he had already pushed his sledge away from the ruins, and at the same time, he did not forget to say as loudly as possible, "We must survive. In spring, I will wait for you to take your children to visit at the zoo."

"You and the little animals too," Ke Na replied weakly.

Watching Matwei get into another ruin not far away, Wei Ran immediately said, "Kona, do you still have the strength to walk back?"

"Yes, I can go back by myself." Ke Na said, and took the three mouse traps and the fat mouse locked in the cage from Wei Ran.

"Let Mrs. Via decide whether the children can eat this kind of mouse." Wei Ran paused and continued, "If she has no objection, I will deal with this mouse after I go back."

"No problem, we will wait for you." Ke Na said, she had already hidden the three cages in the blanket she was wearing, staggered, and slowly walked towards the direction she came from.

It wasn't until Wei Ran watched the other party go away that he pushed the sledge and continued along the street.

It's a pity that until he walked until noon amidst the clearly audible sound of gunfire, and when he came to the blackness in front of his eyes, he couldn't find anything to burn at all.

Instead, he found a little guy who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, walked into the ruins alone, tiptoed and tried to peel off the remaining wallpaper.

Contrary to his expectations, after taking off the wallpaper, this little guy just casually found a broken brick and sat down, leaning against the remaining wall, tore off the wallpaper that had just been removed and stuffed it into his mouth!

"What are you eating?" Wei Ran walked over slowly, squatting beside the little guy and asked.

"Paste," the skinny little boy replied hoarsely, "paste from the wallpaper, Alyosha said eating it would keep me alive."

"Your parents, they"

"died"

While the little boy was talking, he tore off a small piece of wallpaper and stuffed it into his mouth, licking the dried paste on it, and said, "They were buried under the house, there"

As he said that, the little boy pointed to a building in the distance with his finger holding the wallpaper, "The German shells hit the roof of my house, and they all died, only I survived."

"Where do you live now?" Wei Ran couldn't help asking.

"There"

Pointing to another building in the other direction, the little boy said, "I live there with a few friends around here, and Aunt Tasha will give each of us a piece of bread every day, but my stomach still hurts from hunger. "

"Can you take me to have a look?" Wei Ran gritted his teeth and asked.

"What are you going to do?" the little boy asked warily.

However, perhaps it was because of the tension at this moment that he exhausted his energy. Under Wei Ran's gaze, the body of this little boy whose name was unknown began to tremble and shake uncontrollably, as if he was about to fall down at any moment.

Before the other party fainted, Wei Ran supported the other party, and at the same time, he also used the other hand to support the wall with the wallpaper removed behind him, to fight against the symptoms of black eyes from this violent activity.

After a while, Wei Ran slowly sat down next to the other party, and let the little guy who was so hungry that he almost fainted lie on the ground, pillowing his ankle.

Immediately afterwards, he took off the blanket covering his body to cover his hands, took out the food box as quickly as possible, and took out a piece of chocolate from it.

Putting away the food box and wrapping it in the blanket again, Wei Ran tore off the tin foil wrapped on the chocolate, broke off a small piece and stuffed it into the little boy's mouth.

Stimulated by the unique sweetness of chocolate, the little boy subconsciously began to suck the chocolate near his mouth. When he woke up under the stimulation of sweetness, he immediately covered his mouth and began to gobble it up. At the same time, he curled up subconsciously. body—as if ready to be beaten.

However, until he swallowed a whole piece of chocolate, he found that Wei Ran, who was still sitting against the wall, handed him another piece of chocolate!

After being dazed for a moment, the little boy immediately took the chocolate, but this time, instead of eating it, he stumbled to his feet and ran unsteadily to a building across the road.

Seeing this, Wei Ran also supported the wall and stood up. After the blackness in front of his eyes disappeared, he broke off a corner of chocolate the size of a fingernail and threw it into his mouth. While waiting patiently for it to be slowly melted by his saliva, he followed The little boy walked into the building across the road.

Without any effort at all, he found five or six boys or girls as old as that little boy in a room that seemed to be a classroom, as well as a little boy who looked about four or five years old.

Under Wei Ran's gaze, the little boy walked to the edge of a table, took out a rusty knife from his pocket, and cut the piece of chocolate, which was only half the size of a mahjong block, into several even pieces. small pieces, and a slightly larger pellet.

Immediately afterwards, he first walked to the side of the youngest little boy, stuffed the biggest piece of chocolate into his mouth, and then began to stuff a corresponding chocolate into the mouths of each boy of the same age. Smaller chocolates.

"Alexander, I seem to have tasted chocolate," a little girl asked weakly.

"Correct!"

Alexander bared a pair of rabbit teeth and showed a silly and honest smile, and at the same time looked at Wei Ran gratefully.

And those children who were also awakened by chocolate also noticed Wei Ran standing at the door following Alexander's eyes.

"Have you guys been living here by yourself?"

While talking, Wei Ran broke the remaining bar of chocolate into pieces, just like what Alexander did just now, and stuffed each child's mouth with one.

Are you generous?He didn't know if this was considered generous, but he knew that if these children, who were no more than junior high school students at most, were not supplemented with energy, they might starve to death in the next second.

"There were still Teacher Yuri and his wife, Mrs. Hovorova," Alexander, who was wary of Wei Ran before, replied subconsciously.

"them."

"Teacher Yuri went to work at the port the day before yesterday." Alexander paused, and replied somewhat at a loss, "Mrs. Hovorova...she...she died, starved to death yesterday morning."

"Sorry, I'm late."

Wei Ran sighed, trying not to think about whether he had the ability to take care of so many children, and said through gritted teeth, "Do you want to go back with me? I can take care of you, there are many children similar to you there .”

"Can we have enough to eat?" A little boy couldn't help asking.

"Alyosha, what good things are you thinking about?" A little girl couldn't help reminding.

"I promise you won't starve to death," Wei Ran replied seriously, "but I can't feed you, let alone allow you to eat human flesh."

"We don't eat human flesh!" Alexander subconsciously said, "Teacher Yuri and Mrs. Khovorova said that they would rather starve to death than we can eat human flesh, and we will go to hell."

"So you want to go back with me?"

Seeing that the children were silent, Wei Ran pointed to the outside and said, "I was originally here to collect firewood, so it's a little far away from where I live, if you decide to go back with me, I'm afraid it will be dark. "

"You don't seem to have any firewood on your sledge," reminded a little girl looking out the window.

"I haven't found firewood yet." Wei Ran replied with a smile, "Then I found you."

"we go with you"

Alexander said abruptly, "Mr. Yuri said that he won't come back until spring. Before he comes back, we must find a way to survive. Most importantly, we must find a way to let Mr. Yuri and Howard Mrs. Lova's baby survives."

Hearing this, all the other children subconsciously looked at the little guy who was obviously the youngest present.

"Let's go with you." Alexander looked at Wei Ran and said hoarsely, "I don't know your name yet."

"Victor, you can call me Victor, I'm a childcare worker." Wei Ran looked at the rest of the children, "If you decide to walk with me, if you can still move, start now."

"We need to let Aunt Tasha know where we've been"

Before she finished speaking, a little girl took out half a piece of chalk from her pocket and wrote in Russian on the blackboard with several names written on the wall, "Aunt Tasha, we are with childcare worker Victor. "

"Is it okay to write like this?" the little girl asked while putting away the chalk.

"And write where we are going," the little boy named Alyosha added.

"The yellow building behind the Soviet Bank." Wei Ran paused, there used to be a bakery there, and we were in the basement of the bakery.

"I know there"

Alexander subconsciously licked his big pair of thick dies, "I used to go there with my mother to buy bread, and I often followed my father to deposit or withdraw money there."

"We often go there too," the little girl said, taking out the chalk again, and adding an additional detailed address on the blackboard.

(End of this chapter)