War Photographer's Notebook

"This is the All-Soviet Radio Station"

This morning, the alarm clock that woke up Wei Ran changed from the bombardment of the Germans to the simple radio for the first time, and beside the radio, the little boy named Andre was shaking it vigorously Pedals.

Undoubtedly, neither Wei Ran nor the rest of the children who were awakened had any complaints—except of course, the little baby Galina who slept between Kona and Lydia.However, even the crying of this little guy is more powerful than the previous few days.

"Andre, didn't you agree yesterday that I would be the first to be in charge of generating electricity?" Alyosha got up and said dissatisfied.

"I've been awake for a long time, and I don't want to wait for you anymore."

Andre, who was still shaking his pedals, said happily, "If you want to be the first to generate electricity, you have to get up earlier than me."

Seeing that these children were about to roll up, Wei Ran quickly took out a bar of chocolates, stuffed everyone's mouths with one as in the past, and reminded, "Starting tomorrow, who of you is under the gunfire of the German devils?" Crank the radio before it goes off, and I pop his chocolate into my own mouth."

Hearing this, Alyosha, who was about to say something, immediately changed his tone and said, "Then let's run the generator in the order we agreed last night."

"You guys have the strength, why don't you go further afield with me to collect firewood later."

Ke Na reminded these children helplessly, "We only have enough firewood for today, and I'm afraid there will be no more firewood by this time tomorrow."

Lydia, who had already opened the window shutter, looked at the window covered by snow outside and reminded, "Today is not a good weather."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately looked over. At this time, the white expanse outside the window was obviously buried by snow.

Seeing this, he quickly handed over the unfinished chocolates to Kona, put on his flying leather cap and gloves, and put on felt boots, he was the first to run out of the basement and opened the locked iron door.For a moment, the cold wind was blowing towards the face with snowflakes, and instantly took away the remaining temperature on the first floor.

Glancing at Lydia who was catching up behind him, Wei Ran picked up the snow shovel in the corner and left the room against the cold wind. He was busy clearing the snow that blocked the basement windows, and at the same time he did not forget to raise the windshield wall again. .

After clearing the snow around the windows in the basement, when he came back, the children were already sitting next to each other on the edge of the long table converted from shelves, holding the bone soup that had been boiled all night, using spoons She drank in small sips, and from time to time, would stuff a piece of jelly into her mouth.

Not only the children, but even the little baby in Ke Na's arms has already embraced the milk bottle containing honey water with her immature hands.

After receiving the bone soup and jelly from Lydia, Wei Ran just found a place to sit down when Ke Na said worriedly, "Victor, Lydia, we have to find a way to get some firewood back today.

Even if we take down the chair that doubles as a radio, our firewood will last at most until tomorrow morning or maybe even midnight tonight.Even if the bucket of coal is burned, it can only last until tomorrow night at most. "

"I'll find a way," Lydia made a difficult promise again.

"Don't worry too much." Wei Ran put down the hot cup, pointed to the top of his head and said, "The fuel was actually obtained yesterday."

"What did you say?" Ke Na and Lydia looked at Wei Ran in astonishment.

“This is the second surprise”

Wei Ran smiled, motioned the two girls to follow him to the first floor, pointed to the glass jars filled with fuel and said, "I got these from the fuel tank of that German plane yesterday. Kona, you know Of that plane, the pilot is still hanging from the beam."

"What did you use to get it back? Why didn't I notice it yesterday?" Lydia asked in surprise.

"Of course it's a barrel"

With a normal expression, Wei Ran pointed to the sledge placed against the wall. There was indeed an oil drum wrapped in a torn blanket beside the sledge.

"It was placed under the chair yesterday. I thought you could find it. Maybe it was too dark in the room at that time."

While speaking, Wei Ran reached out from the blanket wrapped in the oil barrel, took out the two "War and Peace" that he accidentally picked up yesterday and handed them to Ke Na, "I also discovered this yesterday, if the child If you don't like it, at least you can throw it in the fire as firewood."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Lydia said angrily, "Although we have had a difficult time, it is far from the point where we need to burn books to keep warm, and I believe that as long as the weather is a little better, our supplies will definitely be more abundant than before of."

"I think so."

Cora put the two beautifully bound books on the shelf, and pointed to the glass jars filled with fuel, "But how do we use the fuel? We can't pour them directly into the stove, can we?"

"Didn't we pick up a gasoline stove before?"

Wei Ran looked at Ke Na, "Use that little thing to make do with it, I'll figure out a way in the next two days."

"All right."

Ke Na breathed a sigh of relief, "Anyway, we still need enough firewood."

"There will be firewood." Wei Ran said deliberately, "There will also be bread and horse meat."

Hearing this, the two worried girls immediately smiled, and answered in unison a classic line belonging to Comrade Lenin's guards, "There will be milk, and there will be everything."

It was easy to use a barrel of fuel to build confidence for the two girls, and the three of them went back to the basement, and each finished the bone soup for breakfast and the not so delicious meat jelly.

Taking advantage of the warmth brought by the hot soup and the feeling of fullness brought by the meat jelly, Wei Ran took the lunch box of Mo Heyan that the children had found before and the meat jelly filled with a worker's lunch box, and used it as usual. The sledge pulled Lydia away from the warm little house under the cold wind.

Almost front and rear, Ke Na also pulled a sledge cart, and led Alexander and Alyosha, against the strong wind, into the surrounding building ruins, like a desperate scavenger, looking for anything that could be used or used. Something that can be burned.

Half an hour later, Wei Ran also dragged the sledge to the ruins of the nursing home again.

"Let's go back together at night." Wei Ran said before Lydia got off the car, "I'm still waiting for you in the basement!"

"No problem." After Lydia finished speaking, she immediately added, "I will find a way to go back with firewood or coal!"

"I'll think of a way too." Wei Ran also assured the other party.

After bidding farewell to Lydia who left alone, Wei Ran inspected the surroundings as usual, then pulled out the snow that was carried together by the cold wind, and took out the mouse trap hidden in the crevice of the ruins.

First, empty, second, empty, third, still empty!

Gritting his teeth, Wei Ran rearranged the first three cages, and continued to check the mouse traps that had been arranged before.

The fourth, fifth, sixth, all the way to the ninth cage, he finally saw a mouse in the cage, a small mouse that was only the size of a duck egg and had already frozen to death.

Taking out the mouse silently, Wei Ran disemboweled it more and more proficiently, and dipped a small amount of honey on the frozen internal organs that had been stripped out, and hung it in the mouse trap again. Act as bait.

Throwing the little mouse into the sack, Wei Ran continued to check, but the next four cages were still empty, nothing was caught at all.

"One more mouse is enough to make up 11 mice."

While cleaning up his footprints, Wei Ran muttered to himself, as long as he catches 11 mice, he will be considered as having completed that harmonica proficiency task.

But compared to this task he didn't care about, he really didn't want to complete another bayan mastery task-even if he had already buried a colleague.

Who will be the next colleague to be buried?Lydia or Cora?Wei Ran sighed secretly, once again avoiding this difficult problem destined to be sad.

Leaving the ruins, Wei Ran found a collapsed building that he hadn't searched for before, put away the oil drums that had been on the sledge, and then started the work of scavenging.

After searching from building to building, the most common ones are corpses that were frozen to death or starved to death. These corpses are generally skinny, and they are basically old people or children.

It is clear that last night's low temperature helped the Leningradians to consolidate the ice on Lake Ladoga, but it also claimed many lives.

But at the same time, the fighting outside the city has never stopped. From time to time, shells will fly in from outside the city, blowing up a certain building at random, and taking away some suffering lives along the way.

Walking silently among these frozen and starved corpses, there were two more tin buckets on the sledge behind Wei Ran.

From time to time, he would stop, carefully rummage through the cold embers of the bonfire next to the corpse, carefully pick out the charcoal that could still be used as fuel, and throw it into the same tin bucket .

When one of the tin buckets was almost filled with large and small charcoal, Wei Ran also stopped at the door of a small room without a door.

This room, which seemed to be a storage room, was not that big. The only window was less than half a meter square. In order to keep warm, several layers of blankets or quilts were hung on the door.

And under the small window half-blocked by bricks, there was a pile of smoldering embers of a campfire near the wall, and there were large smoky traces on the original white wall.

Beside the bonfire, a haggard woman who looked about the same age as Lydia was sitting on a small blanket leaning against the corner of the wall. Warm comforter.

On the other side of the bonfire, there is a red copper water storage tank with a height of one meter, a small mouth and a big belly, a very slender neck and handle, and a metal lid on it against the wall.

Apparently, this household water storage tank, which buried most of its stomach in the bonfire, also served as a radiator.

And right above the bonfire, there is an enamel kettle, but what is boiled in the kettle is just a sheepskin glove.
Looking at the dead woman again, Wei Ran noticed that there seemed to be something in her arms.

Gently peeling off the blankets wrapped around her body, Wei Ran couldn't help clenching his fists. There was a baby not much bigger than Galina in this woman's arms.

The little baby was still holding the woman's head, but the baby's back, chest and even the woman's chest were all stained red with blood.The woman also held a double-action Nagant revolver in her hand, also hidden under the blanket.
Sighing secretly, Wei Ran rewrapped the mother and child who chose to free themselves with a blanket in silence.

After a little hesitation, he took away the one-meter-high water storage tank, changed to another room, emptied the ice water that was almost freezing inside, and put it on the sledge, like an inexperienced murderer. Yes, he fled in a panic from the building that made cold sweat break out on his back.

After so many experiences, he has seen and even got used to the battlefield full of blood and blood. He has seen or heard the horror of cannibalism more than once, and even killed an unknown number of people with his own hands.

But the mother who killed herself and her child with her own hands still made him turn pale, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.

Stumbling and confused, he rushed to the basement where Mrs. Weiya was buried. Wei Ran sat on the sledge, hugging his head wearily.

After a while, he struggled to stand up again, dragged the sledge, and returned to the small room that made him escape in a hurry.

Pushing down the brick on the small window to let the light and snow from outside come in, Wei Ran took a deep breath, squatted at the door, and pressed the shutter of the Rollei double-reverse camera towards the woman sitting by the embers of the campfire.

Putting away the camera, Wei Ran hardened his heart and took off the blanket that was draped over the woman's body, revealing her thin body, the baby in her arms, the blood dripping on the floor, and the blanket that was still nestled under her. The Nagant revolver in his hand.

"Click"

Amidst the sound of gunfire mixed with cold wind and snowflakes, Wei Ran, who squatted at the door again, pressed the shutter again.

Putting away the camera, he bowed solemnly, and muttered to himself, "I'm sorry, I want to let more people know how cruel this war is. Let those bastards who worship Naqu See clearly, what kind of demon they worship. I'm sorry"

After a long time, Wei Ran finally straightened his waist while supporting the wall, and wrapped the mother and child in a warm blanket again.

Leaving this room without any hesitation, he dragged the sledge in the bitter cold wind, followed the memory of yesterday, and found the room of the brother and sister again.

Taking out the key still in his pocket, Wei Ran opened the iron door that was locked by himself and walked into the room again. Looking for a good angle, he first took a group photo of the siblings, and then took a close-up of each .

Locking the door again, Wei Ran walked resolutely towards the basement where Mrs. Via was buried. Along the way, he raised his camera more than once to take pictures of the city with only ruins left. Those citizens who listened to the news around the loudspeakers took pictures of those who were frozen to death and starved to death in every corner.

I also took photos of those optimistic ordinary people who found him taking pictures and immediately raised their hands enthusiastically and waved to him, or pulled down their scarves and hats despite the cold, and tried to wave to him with a smile.

Stopping and stopping all the way, when he arrived at Mrs. Via's cemetery near noon, he saw a plow truck parked next to the basement from a distance, and beside the plow truck, there was a thin figure , rummaging through the ruins, trying to find something.

"Matvey!"

Wei Ran first took a photo of the other party, then put away the camera, and waved his hand while calling the other party's name.

"Hey! Comrade Victor!"

After Matwei noticed Wei Ran, he immediately dropped the things in his hand, stumbled over, took off his gloves and shook hands with him.

"Are the kids all right?"

The skinny Matvey asked with concern, "I noticed the building collapsed when I passed by yesterday, and I was terrified at the time."

"The children are all fine, none of them were injured." Wei Ran said and looked towards the direction of the basement, "Unfortunately, Mrs. Via"

"It's a relief for her."

Matvei sighed, "Anyway, it's a good thing that the children are not injured. By the way, where do you live now? Are you short of food? There has been a problem with supplies in the past two days. I have never encountered this before." Such cold weather."

"We live in an abandoned middle school in the north, we still have some food, and we can last for two or three days."

Wei Ran motioned for the other party to sit down on his sledge, and while searching for his sack, he said, "But we don't have enough firewood, the girls are going to go outside the city to get some firewood. Besides, this is a gift from the children. A gift for you."

"A gift for me?" Matvey took the two lunch boxes from Wei Ran without knowing why.

"open to take a look"

Wei Ran put on his gloves again, urging him with anticipation, but in fact he was just trying to use Matvey's joy to dispel the negative emotions in his heart.

Seeing this, Matvey opened the aluminum cuboid worker's lunch box with great interest.

"You guys made this out of horse hide and offal?" Matvey guessed the answer at a glance.

"Yes." Wei Ran nodded, "Try it."

"No need"

Matvey closed the lid unexpectedly, "We also made a lot of meat jelly, let's save these for the children. There has been a severe shortage of supplies in the past few days. These may allow the children to persist for a while."

While talking, Matvey has re-fastened the lunch box and put it on Wei Ran's sledge cart decisively.

Seeing this, Wei Ran didn't insist, he just pointed to another lunch box placed by the other party's feet, "You will definitely not refuse anything in the other lunch box."

"Let me see it first"

Matvey obviously enjoyed the fun of unwrapping the presents, he opened the lid of the slightly deformed lunch box little by little, and then picked up the tray.

Then, his eyes widened and he exclaimed almost tremblingly, "Mo Heyan! Where did you get it! And there is such a beautiful pipe?!"

"It was found by the children. They said that if you accept the gift, you will have the opportunity to bring your little actors to give them another performance in the future."

While Wei Ran used the other party's happiness to self-regulate his emotions, Matvey had already skillfully picked up a piece of cigarette paper and rolled a Mohe cigarette for himself, and at the same time responded in a hurry, "No problem! This precious I accepted the gift, and when the weather gets better, I will take the little ones to perform for the children!"

Before the words were finished, Matvey had already pulled out the lighter and lit the freshly rolled Mohe Cigarette.Immediately afterwards, he took out the high-end cigarette case that Wei Ran gave him and stuffed it over, "I'll return this to you, no, treat it as a gift from me."

"Can't it be used for performance fees? It's useless for me to ask for this thing?"

Wei Ran said that he had opened the cigarette case. At this time, there were only the last two cigarettes and two photos belonging to Matvey left in the cigarette case.

"Of course not! For the performance fee of 16 rubles, you have to let the children go to the zoo to hand it over to me after the war is over, even less than half a kopeck."

While Matvey was speaking, he took away the photo of him and his wife and daughter, and put it in a lunch box with shredded tobacco, "I will give you the remaining photo of me and my colleagues in the zoo as a gift." gone."

"I'll keep it safe"

Wei Ran smiled, picked up a German cigarette from it and stuffed it into his mouth, then took out the lighter that Matvey gave him before from his pocket and lit the cigarette.

"I just said that you will definitely smoke," Matvey said in a puffy voice, even his voice seemed to be stronger and more energetic because of the blessing of nicotine.

"I rarely smoke"

Wei Ran put away the cigarette case and lighter, took another puff on the cigarette, and then asked, "Matvey, we are going to go outside the city to get some more horse meat, and we need to get some firewood by the way."

"That's why I came to you." Matvey took a sip of the choking Mo Heyan, "How about tomorrow?"

"Still that time?"

"You can also go earlier." Matvey spread his hands, "This time my two colleagues will also go together."

"I will also take Kona and Lydia with me." Wei Ran gritted his teeth and added with great difficulty, "There are two older children."

Hearing this, Matvey was stunned for a while, and then he took a sip of Mo Heyan, and then sighed, "It's not your fault, Comrade Victor, it's not your fault, with the child Come on, I promise I won't put them in danger."

"Are you going to visit us?" Wei Ran changed the subject in a timely manner.

"Forget it today." Matvey waved his hand, "I have to go back early today."

"In that case, we'll see you tomorrow." Wei Ran took off his gloves while speaking, and stretched out his hand towards the other party.

"See you tomorrow"

Matvey also took off his gloves and held them together with Wei Ran, "I'm still waiting for you at the intersection. In addition, tell the children for me that I like the presents they gave me very much, and I owe them a performance."

"I'll tell them"

Wei Ran held the other's hand and shook it, watching the other party pulling the sledge, smoking a Mohe cigarette, like a small train blowing clouds and mist, driven by the wind towards the direction of the zoo.