War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1058 The Obituary on the Wall

"What if I say no?" Wei Ran turned around and asked with a smile on the edge of the birch forest next to the front line.

"Kona admires you very much." Lydia also joked, but then she couldn't help shivering.

"This has nothing to do with Cora's worship"

While speaking, Wei Ran had already bent down to pick up a slender birch pole that was not loaded into the sledge, walked to the depths of the birch forest, put it on the trunk of a thick pine tree, and said, "The thing about making the sledge is also first. Put it aside, now we need to get a shelter to keep warm, otherwise we won't have a place to hide when it's dawn."

"Will it be discovered by the German plane?" Lydia asked subconsciously.

"Probably not." Wei Ran said, he had already picked up the second one and put it on the tree trunk.

Seeing this, Lydia also quickly picked up some thin wooden poles left over from the tree felling just now, imitating Wei Ran's appearance, and built a circle around the trunk.

Covering the remaining two blankets around the tapered wooden pole, Wei Ran picked up the snow shovel he brought, first buried the surrounding area with snow, and then shoveled out the snow inside to cover it on the ground. On the top of this simple shack, and spread a layer of pine needles inside.

They carried the tin bucket that was used to transfer fuel into the shack, and the two picked up some branches that were not worth taking back, chopped them into small pieces with an axe, and lit them in the tin bucket.

After waiting for a while, Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the smoke was coming out of the shack through the gap reserved at the top and into the dense canopy of pine trees, and said, "You take a rest here, I will try it first." See if we can find some horsemeat."

As he spoke, he rummaged through his pocket, took out two pieces of chocolate and handed them to Lydia, who was still skinny and scary.

"I don't yet"

"One of us must retain enough strength"

Wei Ran gave his reason without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, "In this way, in case of any accident, at least one can escape, and you are not really resting."

"What do I need to do?" Lydia asked immediately.

"Pay attention to heaven"

Wei Ran pointed to the top of his head, then took off the goggles, and said while wiping the accumulated water mist inside, "If you hear the sound of an airplane, put out the bonfire immediately, it is related to whether we will be killed by the Germans." The plane was found."

Hearing this, Lydia opened her mouth and finally agreed to the arrangement of a disguised rest.

After putting on the goggles again, Wei Ran picked up the snow shovel and saw, pinned the ax to his waist, and followed his memory to walk in the direction where he found the corpse of the army horse last time.

After such a long time interval, there were several snowfalls in the middle. The corpses of the army horses discovered by the dog Joseph had already been buried tightly, and even the abandoned trench was only shallow. A ditch in the snow.

After digging five or six snow pits with a snow shovel, he was finally lucky enough to find a rib of a military horse with no meat at all.

Upon seeing this, surprise was immediately revealed on his face, and he luxuriously threw a piece of chocolate into his mouth, chewing vigorously while waving the snow shovel even more vigorously.

During his busy work, all the mutilated corpses of the army horse were dug out.

Although the internal organs and horse hide were taken away the last time I came here, this corpse still has a complete spine and horse head.

After a moment of hesitation, he picked up the ax and smashed away the thick rib sternum, leaving only a thick fleshy spine and a complete horse head connected to the spine.

"I'm sorry."

Wei Ran murmured secretly, dragged the spine and put it aside, and then continued digging in the soft snow.

Soon, the body of the second military horse was dug up, but this time, he cut off the horse's head more simply and simply, and threw it behind him.

Next, the bodies of the third, fourth, and fifth army horses were dug out one after another, and the area behind him also had one more horse head after another.

Taking a breath, Wei Ran looked up at the snowflakes that were still falling with the strong wind, and seeing that there was still some time before dawn, he immediately started digging up the corpses again.

Soon, he dug out the corpse of the sixth army horse. He remembered clearly that this was also the last army horse corpse here.

However, before he could cut off the only head of the army horse that still had meat, a flash of fire flashed in the direction of the birch forest in the distance, and within a second, a dull explosion was heard. into his ears.

He straightened up and was stunned for a moment, then Wei Ran, who came to his senses, threw off the snow shovel in his hand, and ran like crazy towards the direction of the explosion just now.

This is located outside the city behind the battlefield, the wind blowing head-on is far more bitter and cold than in the city, and the snow under his feet is also deeper than that in the city, and even with that, he fell into the snow more than once. Get up again and again.

While stumbling, he got closer and closer to the location of the explosion, and gradually saw the shack that was still emitting faint smoke in his vision.

"Lydia!"

Wei Ran rushed to the side of the shack and lifted the blanket that served as the door curtain. Not surprisingly, there was no one he was looking for except for the charcoal fire still burning in the tin bucket and the slightly choking aroma of birch bark!

Putting down the blanket and turning around, Wei Ran looked around and chased after a series of footprints.

Soon, he noticed a black area appeared on the snow in the glade directly ahead.

Stepping on the footprints more cautiously to catch up, he soon found Lydia lying in the snow!

"Lydia!"

Wei Ran rushed over quickly, but with just one glance, he saw that the girl's two hands were gone from the elbows, and her face and chest were also a bloody mess.

"Victor"

After being held in Wei Ran's arms, the girl said with difficulty, "The can. Don't open it, it will explode."

"I hear you, the cans are going to explode!"

While repeating what the other party just said, Wei Ran hurriedly took out the first-aid kit that he had been carrying since he picked it up, took out a needle of Dolantin issued to pilots by the German army from it, and put it on Lydia, and then pulled out another The rope tightly tied the elbows of her hands so that she would not die due to excessive blood loss.

"Don't save me"

Lydia took a deep breath, and tried hard to reach her chest with the remaining half of her hand, "The bosom. Take it away. It's very warm. Victor, I'll send you off, you and the children. Want to. live"

"Lydia? Lydia?!"

Wei Ran, who just took out the bandage, stopped all his movements, looked down at the girl lying in his arms, lowered his head tremblingly, and put his ear to her bloody mouth and nose to listen.But in the howling cold wind, he couldn't hear the girl's breathing at all.

"Patter" The gauze in his hand and the hemostatic powder that hadn't been torn off fell on the snow splashed with blood.

Carefully stretching his hand into Lydia's arms, he could still feel the girl's body temperature.

Gently pulled out the bosom that the children found, at this moment, the cloth bag containing the bosom was already soaked red with Lydia's blood.

But apart from the little warmth inherited from Lydia, this bosom is not releasing any warmth at all—this kind and strong girl is as stingy as Mrs. Via, which makes people feel distressed!

“This bosom is really warm”

Wei Ran murmured to himself and put the blood-stained furnace into his arms, carefully put down the body, picked up the brown Budyonny hat from a distance, and helped her put it on again, and also helped her to block the The bloody eyes were blown out.

He turned his head to look at the opened German airdrop box not far away.

The box is less than half a meter square and more than one meter long. Two sets of entwined parachutes are hung on one end, and a T-shaped metal handle is on the other end.On both sides of the box, there are two sleds almost as long as the box.

And in the box that has been opened, there are German cans next to each other!

Looking at Lydia who was dying in his arms, Wei Ran secretly sighed, these cans were undoubtedly thrown here by the Germans on purpose.The idea, I am afraid, is also looking forward to the unbearably hungry Soviet soldiers pulling these cans back to the position, sharing them with the comrades around, and then when they open the cans like Lydia.
In fact, Wei Ran, who came from later generations, is more aware that more of these canned landmines were air-dropped on the ice road on Lake Ladoga, where more hungry people could not resist the temptation of food.

But he didn't expect that such a vicious trap would be air-dropped on the front line of Leningrad.

Hesitating for a while, he poured out the canned food in the airdrop box as quickly as possible, then carried Lydia's body and the broken limbs into the airdrop box, and dragged them back to the shelter. side.

After a little hesitation, he still hardened his heart, hugged Lydia's body tightly to the warm shack, then picked up the saw, and cut down the birch trees that can be seen everywhere by himself, sawing them one by one to about 1.5 meters long paragraph.

While he was busy, the sky gradually turned brighter, but the snowstorm intensified, and even the front line was extremely quiet, but this quietness made Wei Ran even more tormented.

Sitting in the shack and escaping for a long time, Wei Ran finally packed Lydia's body into the small airdrop box, and then stacked thick or thin logs horizontally, and tied them carefully with ropes. Good and well covered with a blanket.

Finally, I went to pick up the six horse heads and a piece of spine, wrapped them in a blanket and a tattered umbrella cloth, and threw them on top. Wei Ran took a big mouthful of honey and held it in his mouth, dragging the heavy airdrop box with both hands. , Against the cold wind and goose feather university, step by step towards the besieged city of Leningrad.

At around ten o'clock in the morning, he passed the gate of the zoo, paused for a while, and then started walking again, step by step towards the north of the city.

Just before noon, he once again encountered the corpse of a German pilot hanging from a wooden beam by himself, crossed the frozen Neva River, and passed by the abandoned basement where Mrs. Via was buried.

But when he was only a hundred meters away from the abandoned school playground, he stopped.

After a long time, Wei Ran took another step and walked to the door of the small concrete house step by step with great difficulty.

Before he could knock on the door, the little girl named Olga opened the locked door from the inside, and came out with her two classmates, Ivan and Sasha.

"Victor, why did you come back so soon?"

Oujia asked in surprise, "Sister Kona said that you and Sister Lydia will not come back until night! Where is Sister Lydia?"

"The German plane will not come out in this weather, so I came back early."

While talking, Wei Ran had already handed the bundle with the horse's head to the young man named Ivan, and at the same time changed the subject without a trace and asked, "Kona and the others are back already?"

"came back!"

The girl named Sasha and Olga helped unload the logs and said, "They are catching up on sleep in the basement, and they are going to pick you up at night. Where is Sister Lydia?"

"Of course she's going to work." Wei Ran said naturally, "Okay, go and wake up Ke Na."

"I'm going right now"

Sasha and Olga responded in unison, and at the same time each picked up a log and walked into the concrete house.Not long after, Ke Na hurried out with a group of children.

Compared with the cheering children carrying firewood into the concrete house, Ke Na's face showed a look of panic.

But soon, under Wei Ran's gaze, she led the children to carry all the firewood into the concrete house.

"Olga, lock the door."

Wei Ran greeted her, and then motioned for Ke Na to ride on the airdrop box whose lid was tied tightly with ropes and blankets.

"What are you going to do?" Alexander, who was still holding a piece of wood in his hand, asked subconsciously.

"We're going to the black market to get some food"

Wei Ran didn't wait for Ke Na, who had already covered her mouth, to respond, "Remember to lock the door, we can come back before dark."

Before the words fell, Wei Ran had already taken a step, pulled the airdrop box and Ke Na who was sitting on the airdrop box, left the empty playground and the abandoned school.

Just turning a corner at the edge of a ruined building, Ke Na stumbled down from the airdrop box and asked in a crying voice, "Where's Lydia? Where's Lydia?"

Wei Ran stopped, turned around and remained silent for a moment, finally raised his finger with difficulty and pointed to the airdrop box, "There".

Hearing this, Ke Na shivered subconsciously, knelt down beside the box with tears streaming down her cheeks, and tried tremblingly to untie the tightly tied paracord, but failed several times.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran took out the Gravity Knife he had found, helped the other party cut the rope, and helped the other party lift off the blanket that was tightly tied to the airdrop box by the rope.As the wooden cover was lifted, Cora also saw Lydia curled up inside.

"She found a box of cans airdropped by the Germans." Wei Ran paused and sighed, "Those cans are actually landmines. She was killed by the bombing. Sorry, I."

"I don't blame you." After Kona finished speaking, she was already crying until she lost her voice, and her whole body was lying on the airdrop box.

"This is what she left for you"

Wei Ran took out the blood-stained cloth cover with a bosom furnace from his arms and put it in the opponent's hand, "She hopes that you can lead your younger brothers and sisters to live strong together."

"To younger siblings, and younger siblings"

When Ke Na was holding on to the bosom, it was as if she had grasped a life-saving straw, but the dark red blood on the cloth bag seemed to be scalding hot, which made her shiver subconsciously. The bosom furnace in the bag also fell on the pure white snow.

In a panic, she picked up the bosom stove and wiped it on the scarf. Kona put it back into the dark red cloth bag, put it into her arms, and then wiped it awkwardly with her cold cuff. Unable to hold back tears, he hurriedly closed the lid of the airdrop box, and wrapped it carefully with a blanket.

"Victor, we, what shall we do next?" Cora asked helplessly.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Ran said, "Let's go, let's bury Lydia, and then you will be responsible for bringing back the children's bread today."

"Yep!"

Before Ke Na finished speaking, she had already grabbed the handle of the airdrop box, stubbornly refused Wei Ran's help, and pulled Lydia alone to the direction of the basement where Mrs. Via was buried.

In the strong wind mixed with blizzard, in the sound of rumbling guns entering the city outside the city, and in the sound of explosions that sounded at intervals from far or near, the two escorted Lydia back to the room. basement.

At this time, the basement has accumulated almost knee-deep snow, and there are lines of red chalk writing on the wall with cracks:
"How are you all? Where have you been? I'll be back at noon tomorrow - Matvey"

"We are still alive, see you tomorrow, comrade breeder"

"Mrs. Via testified that I owed the children a performance, and the children owed me 16 rubles for the performance."

"When was this written?"

Ke Na asked in a crying voice. During the journey, her long eyelashes were covered with white frost, and even her cheeks were frozen together with the scarf due to the tears that flowed across her face.

"The first two sentences were three days ago and two days ago, and the last sentence was probably yesterday." Wei Ran paused, and added, "I just saw the last sentence."

"Uncle Matvey is dead too." Before Kona could finish her sentence, she was already lying on the airdrop box and crying in pain, venting the backlog of despair in her heart.

Gently patted the girl's shoulder, Wei Ran took off the blanket that was wrapped around his body and covered her body, and then silently moved down the bricks that he had built with his own hands one by one.

After a while, Ke Na finally stopped crying, and after waiting for a while, the thin girl with red eyes also helped to move the big and small bricks away.

While the two were busy in silence, Mrs. Via and the mother of the baby Galina, Finnette, and the corpse that Wei Ran didn't know who died on the third floor were also revealed one after another.

"Who is she?" Cora asked, pointing to Finnet's body.

"Galina's Mom"

Wei Ran sighed, "After I brought Galina back, I brought her mother back and put her on the third floor. Do you know whose body this is?"

"That's Mrs. Serkina"

Kona responded absent-mindedly, "Sergey and Kalyuzhina were adopted by her at the earliest. Mrs. Serkina was a nursery worker in the nursery before she retired. We also listened to her suggestion and guessed that the ruins of the nursery said Maybe I can find something to eat, and then I found you, but unfortunately, when we came back, she was already starving to death."

Having said that, Ke Na finally came to her senses, and turned to look at Wei Ran, "Don't you know her?"

"I know, of course I do."

Wei Ran sighed. It wasn't until this time that he noticed that there was a sword and shield badge belonging to NKVD pinned to the inconspicuous position inside the lapel of the woolen coat worn by this skinny woman.

Gently took off the badge that was almost worn out, Wei Ran pinned it on the inside of the lapel of his clothes, and at the same time did not forget to say, "She is a childcare worker of the NKVD, and she was responsible for taking care of war orphans before she retired. Of course, The same goes for retirement."

"Are you too?" Kona asked subconsciously.

"At least for now"

Wei Ran covered the badge with his collar, "Kona, let's bury Lydia here too."

"It can only be buried here"

Ke Na sighed secretly, endured her grief and opened the airdrop box with Wei Ran again, lifted Lydia who was curled up inside, stretched her curled legs as gently as possible, and used the torn umbrella cloth to open the airdrop box again. , tied her limbs and arms together as much as possible.

Finally, after helping the poor girl put on the warm brown Budyonny hat, Kona took off her own coat and put it on for Lydia with the help of Wei Ran, covering her eyes. Defective arm.

But even with such efforts, the girl's bloody face could not be restored to its original appearance no matter what.

Wiping the tears she couldn't hold back, Kona took off her scarf and wrapped it around her. She even took out the goggles she seized from the German pilot to help her put it on, barely covering her face. A terrible wound.

Finally, the girl still covered her face and staggered back a few steps, sat down slowly against the wall, and buried her face in her knees and arms.

Covering the girl with a warm blanket again, Wei Ran covered the four female corpses with another blanket by himself, and then pressed bricks on top of them one by one, covering all the gaps with ice and snow I just hope that this natural big refrigerator can keep them longer.

When he finished all this work, the indescribable sense of brain downtime suddenly struck him without warning. Wei Ran, who had never been so hopeless and did not expect the metal book to teach him any new skills, only felt First it was red, then it was black, and the whole person sat down on the ground after a while of spinning around.

"Victor?! Victor? What's wrong with you?"

When Wei Ran regained consciousness due to the pain caused by the fall, he also saw the panicked expression on Ke Na's pear blossom and rainy face.

Subconsciously wiped the blood flowing from his nostrils, Wei Ran casually grabbed a handful of snow and pressed it on his nose, then waved his other hand nonchalantly, "It's okay, I'm fine, I just felt a little dizzy just now That's all."

"Your eyes are bloodshot"

While speaking, Ke Na panicked and took out a small round mirror the size of a pocket watch from her pocket. On the back of the mirror, there was a photo of a chubby little girl and a middle-aged couple.

Bringing the mirror closer to Wei Ran, Wei Ran found that the self in the mirror was also so hungry that his cheeks sunken and his cheekbones protruded, but those eyes, as Ke Na said, the whites of the eyes were all congested and turned red.

"I'm fine"

While returning the mirror to the other party, Wei Ran changed the subject and asked, "Is this a photo of you and your parents?"

"It was taken on my 15th birthday," Cora said, sniffling, taking the mirror. "It was probably when I was the fattest."

"You will be so fat in the future." Wei Ran wiped the blood and snow on his nose, but didn't know what to say for a while.

"Is there still a chance for us to take the children to the zoo to watch the show?" Ke Na asked mutteringly.

"Of course there is a chance, there must be a chance!" Wei Ran responded more and more firmly.

"Ok!"

Kona nodded vigorously, tiptoed and reached out to pick up the red chalk stuck in the crack of the wall. After thinking for a while, she wrote lines of red Russian words on the wall.

"In December 1941, Mrs. Serkina, a retired childminder, died. She starved to death, but left all her bread to the children."

"In February 1942, Mrs. Via, a retired Soviet bank accountant, died. She had a last meal of horse hide jelly that was enough to fill her stomach."

"In February 1942, Uncle Matvey, the keeper of the zoo, died. He owed his younger brothers and sisters an animal show. We owed him 2 rubles for the performance."

"In February 1942, sister Lydia also died, she was killed by a German canned can."

"If we win this war, I hope those Germans will come to Leningrad and see what they've done."

(End of this chapter)