War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1051 It feels so good to be full

It was just a meal, but when the three of Wei Ran walked out of the warm basement, the cold wind outside became more and more piercing, and even the whistling sound became more and more permeating.

Not daring to waste time, Wei Ran picked up the mousetrap cages that Matvey gave him, and led by Alexander, took Lydia who obviously had something to say, and left the ruins and walked towards the shadow of the building across the road.

After walking through the streets and alleys for about 10 minutes, Alexander pointed to a burnt dark building directly in front of him and said, "We put the cages here to catch the rats."

"Alexander, do you know the way back?" Lydia asked abruptly.

"Yes, of course I do"

"Then go back by yourself first"

Lydia said without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, "Don't run around in the middle, especially keep an eye on your younger brothers and sisters, and don't allow them to steal the food made by Victor."

"I'll go back now!" After finishing his drink of broth and water, Alexander immediately turned around and wobbled back while leaning on the wall.

It wasn't until the child's back was completely swallowed by the shadow of the building that Lydia pointed to the ruins in front of her and asked, "Victor, do you know where this is?"

What do I know? Wei Ran grinned secretly, "Lydia, if you have something to say, just say it."

“This used to be a nursing home”

Lydia looked at the ruins in front of her and said, "More than two months ago, when the German bombers hit this place with incendiary bombs, dozens of old people hid in the basement of this building, and they didn't come out. Including... Including my father, he is the health doctor of this nursing home."

"You mean." Wei Ran shrugged his Adam's apple, forcing himself to suppress that bad thought.

"I guess, those mice must also like to eat cooked food." Lydia told the cruel truth that Wei Ran didn't want to hear with a bitter face.

Before he could say anything, Lydia said to herself, "I have no other purpose in telling you this, and I don't want to stop you from feeding the children rats.

And I also know that the rats that are still alive in this city basically live by eating the corpses of the residents. Lots of options - if we can catch the rats. "

Taking a deep breath, Lydia continued to speak seriously, "But Victor, I don't want those children to discover this pattern. Alexander is a smart child. Sooner or later, he will know that many people were burned to death here. The person attracts a lot of mice past.

But they are children after all, and they can survive by eating those rats, but I don't want him to discover this cruel law. "

"I understand." Wei Ran nodded, "I will not let the children participate in the work of catching mice anymore."

"Thank you"

Lydia wiped the corners of her eyes with the knitted gloves she was wearing, "They haven't grown up yet, and the reconstruction of Leningrad will depend on them in the future, and they may live in this city for a long time.

Victor, I don't want them to recall the city with 'rats prefer burnt people' as their life experience. "

"I understand, I will pay attention to this matter." Wei Ran promised again.

"Let's go back"

Lydia wrapped her scarf tightly, and said worriedly as she staggered back, "The wind is so strong, the transport team on Lake Ladoga may suffer again."

"Is the supply of supplies still insufficient?" Wei Ran asked.

"Food, fuel, medicine, ammunition, these are the things that Leningrad is most lacking at present." Lydia sighed, "It has always been in short supply, and there is still transportation capacity and a thick enough ice layer."

"Isn't it getting better?"

"The temperature dropped yesterday and today, which is a good thing, the ice is getting stronger."

Although Lydia said so, her tone was not very happy, "There are always people dying on that road. Let me tell you, Mrs. Via's son Belia died."

"said"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he sighed silently. He had already learned how to judge whether a person was lying at the Hongqi Forest Farm.

So he knew better that those who lied had to bear the undisguised pain behind the lies—for example, Lydia who deceived Mrs. Via.

"He was killed and his body sank in the lake."

Lydia wiped the corners of her cold eyes, "When I arrived at the port, his good friend Anatoly asked me to help hide it from Mrs. Via no matter what. Belia is her youngest and last Son, her two oldest sons died in Kiev last summer, the third son was a pilot, also last summer, died in Poland, her only daughter is the traffic director of the ice road, a month ago died too, she was frozen to death. Now her only remaining child is dead too"

"Oh..." Wei Ran sighed, but he didn't know how to answer this topic at all.

"That fish, those vegetables, and half a bottle of milk every day are the compensation and sympathy for Belia's family." Lydia wiped her tears in vain, "Although not all of them, the transport team There are only so many supplies that can be allocated for the time being.”

"When can the children be evacuated?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

"not the right time yet"

Lydia shook her head, and said another tragedy with increasing pain, "I heard from a comrade who came back from the port today that he encountered a broken down truck on the way this morning. More than ten people were sitting on it. A wounded child the size of Alexander and a dozen wounded warriors.

They were going to retreat to Cobona, but when he got closer, he realized that the children and the wounded had been frozen together with the cargo box of the truck, and the truck driver and the people on the cargo bed had all frozen to death. "

Gently hugging this young girl who was covering her face and crying, Wei Ran let her hide in his arms and cry loudly, venting her negative emotions that her strength could no longer hold.

After a long time, the skinny girl finally stopped crying, and Wei Ran just in time to put a round tin box into the other party's pocket before the other party could speak.

"What is it this time?" Lydia sniffled and asked, but it was rare that she didn't refuse the gift that had been stuffed into the capital.

"A box of chocolates that Cora found in the wreckage of the German plane"

Wei Ran put the credit on Ke Na, and deliberately made a bad joke, "Take it, women are naturally good at lying, if you starve to death, I don't think I can fool Mrs. Via."

"Women are naturally good at lying?"

Lydia sniffled, and muttered, "Your lies are also very good. I already knew from Kona's mouth what you have encountered today, and I also know that the things she discovered have already disappeared." I gave it to Comrade Matvey, but thank you anyway."

"Well, I am also a woman who is good at lying."

Wei Ran played jokes on himself without any pressure, and his reckless appearance, which is not afraid of boiling water, finally turned the sadness and astonishment on Lydia's face into an uncontrollable smile.

After helping this strong girl in her early 20s to adjust her emotions, Wei Ran, who was actually in a worse mood, after some hesitation, placed rat traps all over the ruins of the burnt building. He also habitually cleaned up his footprints, and then, led by Lydia, he returned to the ruins of the building where the basement was located.

This back and forth plus the effort of eating dinner before the meal, the pork skin jelly boiled before the meal has been completely condensed with the help of this low temperature.

In the anticipation of the children around, Wei Ran cut the big pot full of meat jelly into long strips the size of his thumb, and distributed it to the present under the name of "tasting and tasting". everyone.

“A little bitter, a little salty, and a little sweet”

Ke Na was the first to post her own comment, "In general, it's not as delicious as my mother's, but it's still delicious, except that the horse skin is a bit hard to chew. Is that horse skin? It must be?"

"Your mother will also do this?" Wei Ran asked in pretended surprise.

Of course he was pretending to be surprised. You know, no matter in the Soviet era or the Russian era, Maozi's jelly was famously delicious.

Especially in the Soviet era, jelly was nicknamed "Soviet glue". It ranged from the dining tables of workers or peasant families to the dining tables of previous leaders of the Soviet era and even banquets for envoys or leaders of various countries. There are as many kinds of aspic as there are kinds of pies.

"My mom would do it too!"

Alexander, with his mouth full of jelly, said vaguely, "She will put a lot of fish, chicken, beef and pork in it, and if my dad catches a deer when he goes hunting, he will also put venison in it. I will put venison in it." It tastes the best."

“Venison needs to be stewed very poorly”

Ke Na subconsciously said, and at the same time, she did not forget to throw two big pieces of jelly with only horse hide, horse intestines and a little horse liver in her mouth, and said while chewing, "My father also goes hunting occasionally, he I once hunted a bear. It was not the kind of bear that performed for us. It was a very big one. My mother made all the bear meat into jelly and gave it to the neighbors. The bear skin was laid out before. It's warm in my bed."

"I testify that what she said is true"

Mrs. Via joined the topic with a smile, and said after throwing a piece of jelly into her mouth, "I also received the jelly from Ke Na at that time, and the bear meat in it was bright red and tasted very good , that was the first time I ate bear meat, and I have never eaten such a delicious jelly.”

Following the old lady's description, the children who were listening to the story couldn't help speeding up the speed of stuffing the meat jelly into their mouths.

At the same time, Wei Ran was also secretly rejoicing. Fortunately, he had laid a solid foundation for adding food to the children from time to time in the past few days. Fortunately, the water content of these meat jelly was relatively high. Children who have been there for too long may not be able to digest it at all.

Unobtrusively, he exchanged a glance with Lydia, who was also eating jelly, and Wei Ran, who had been watching silently just now, also picked up a piece of jelly and threw it into his mouth.

After just one bite, he frowned. This meat jelly is definitely not delicious. It is fishy, ​​smelly, hard to chew, and has a unique bitter taste of liver.

But looking at the children and women around who were eating with gusto, Wei Ran finally threw the remaining half into his mouth, chewed it creakingly, and swallowed it into his stomach.

This night, the bitter cold wind did not stop from beginning to end, and in the warm basement, the children around the stove had the illusion of being full for the first time.

Especially before going to bed, they also got a large glass full of slightly hot honey water from Wei Ran.

In such an era and such an environment, no one cares whether drinking honey water before going to bed will cause tooth decay, and those children who are sweating profusely after drinking are unconsciously licking the traces left in their mouths all night long. Sweetness, and in this increasingly weak sweetness, cuddling each other, wrapped in various blankets, surrounding the stove that has never been extinguished, peacefully entered a dream without war.

That night, Wei Ran, who also filled his stomach with meat jelly, suffered from insomnia. Whenever he closed his eyes, he would think of those dismembered military horses, and the nursing home that was hit by incendiary bombs in Lydia's description. , Thinking of those rats that like to eat cooked meat, thinking of the five children that Mrs. Via has sacrificed, and thinking of the drivers, children and wounded who died on the lake that Lydia said.

Also suffering from insomnia are Cora and Lydia, who are sleeping side by side. Both girls put their hands into the pillow rolls made of clothes. Inside, without exception, there is a German chocolate round iron box.

Of course, there was a pair of bearskin mittens lent to her by Wei Ran in the girl's arms, and a German P38 pistol without a top bullet was hidden in one of the gloves.

In the faint red light released by the stove, the girl inevitably thought of the German pilot who was shot dead by herself, she remembered the German corpses that Wei Ran hung on the wooden beams she saw with her own eyes, and also remembered those who appeared in Wei Ran's mind The carcass of the army horse, and the jelly that helped everyone fill their stomachs before going to bed.

It feels so good to eat.
Ke Na couldn't help pinching the tin box containing the German chocolates, and then she took her hand out silently, and slowly inserted it into the warm bearskin glove. The furry feeling inside the glove was very similar to her The bearskin that used to be on the bed.

It feels so good to eat.
On the other side of the stove, Mrs. Via also let out a silent sigh of satisfaction, gently pulled out a small TK pistol from under her pillow, stroked the wooden grip patch on it, and stroked the "Soviet Bank" on it. Finally, he closed his eyes slowly and contentedly, and returned to Leningrad where there was no war.

　I can't bear it anymore today, just update one, and return to Beijing tomorrow to resume the update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)