War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1077 The Man Who Was Hungry For A Long Time
In the small yard not far from the cemetery, Wei Ran, while accompanying Anastasia, also waved the sharp ax in his hand again and again, carefully splitting the log blocks, and then stacked them on the ground. Under the window sill of the balcony.

And the old man in the wheelchair also slowly recounted more detailed and cruel memories.

In the memory of this old man, there is no chocolate and honey that can be eaten every day, and even the stove is not burning 24 hours a day.

Most of the time, the only way for the children hiding in the basement to keep warm is to huddle together and hug each other, covered with all the blankets they picked up and the sponge cushions used as quilts, not daring to move.

In her memory, they were accompanied by hunger, cold, and chilblains throughout the winter, and more often than not, they didn't even have the strength to get out of the basement.

Even the not-so-distance journey from the basement where Mrs. Via was buried to the concrete house next to the playground was extremely difficult and full of dangers—she and Galina were almost snatched away as food .

"Do you have any wishes?"

Wei Ran pushed the old man back into the room, parked the wheelchair beside the stove, and skillfully added some firewood to the stove, and also cleaned up the ashes.

"You are really proficient in doing these things," Anastasia said in surprise.

Hearing this, Wei Ran's body couldn't help but tremble. Of course he is proficient. In the basement of that cement house, this cast iron stove needs to be cared for just like the children.

Add firewood in time, clean ash in time, and keep an eye on whether the chimney is blocked by snow. If you forget any of these tasks, the lives of the children hiding in the basement are in danger, so how can you let him not be dedicated?

"yes"

Wei Ran responded vaguely, and then asked again, "Do you have any wishes? I want to help you do something."

"desire?"

The old lady smiled and shook her head, "You probably won't be able to realize my wish, so it would be great if you could help me chop so much firewood."

Hearing this, Wei Ran sighed secretly, he had already guessed the old lady's wish, and the fact is just like what she said, he can't realize this wish, not only he can't realize it, I'm afraid even the great emperor can't. A way to help her realize that wish that has become unrealistic.

He chatted with this dying old man by the fire until noon, and when he knew that the middle-aged man named Alyosha was driving back, he declined his lunch invitation and walked towards the pier alone. Waiting for his friends and the fishing boat to return to the small island in the middle of the river amidst the roar of the engine.

In the next few days, at the invitation of Ivan's family and Teacher Daria, Wei Ran, Sui Sui and others took a fishing boat and rushed along the canal from Lake Ladoga to Lake Onega, and then to Ivan In the small fishing village where the Wan family lived.

Following their family to experience the life of fishermen for a few days, Jima and Maya first took the private plane driven by Aliri to leave and returned to the filming scene. The cute and ugly little plane sent Wei Ran and others back to Kazan safely and smoothly.

It took a full ten days to go back and forth. While Sui Sui and the others had fun, they also had a lot of work backlogged, not to mention that there is now another route to Lake Ladoga that needs to be planned.

Because of this, Sui Sui and her twin assistants went back to their busy work on the second day after returning home.

Not only them, even Sui Xin, Lola, and Lola's younger sister Korava didn't have time to rest, so they were busy restarting their business in the library.

Of course, Wei Ran was not idle either. Also on the morning of the second day after his return, he got into the darkroom in the basement of the library, developed all the negatives obtained during this trip into photos of different sizes and put them into photo frames.

It took a whole day to select some of these large and small photos and hang them in the library. In the early morning of the next day, Wei Ran took the largest photo album, together with a set of large and small photo albums that were developed separately. The size photos were packaged together and handed over to Greva, the library's nominal security manager.

"Don't worry, Victor." Greva patted his chest and promised, "I will personally deliver these things to Aunt Daria."

Wei Ran patted the other person on the shoulder, and said apologetically, "This matter will trouble you."

"No trouble"

Greva showed a simple and honest smile, greeted his younger brother, pushed the big wooden box full of things out of the library, and drove straight to the direction of the airport.

Sending away this extraordinarily hardworking and reliable non-staff member, Wei Ran greeted Sui Sui, who got up early and was busy with work, and then took the three-barreled German survival shotgun from World War II, and another set of guns since he bought it. With unopened fishing equipment and a box of various vegetables grown in his own yard, he greeted his dog Beria and drove away from the yard, heading for the village where Jima was.

After buying some ingredients halfway, he drove the car to the edge of the small lake where he camped last time, and then stepped on the brakes.

In fact, he came here early in the morning for no serious business, he just wanted to change the environment and change his depressed mood.

And this is also the secluded place he accidentally discovered after he investigated the USS Johnston destroyer last time.

After all, this deserted lumbermill doesn't have to worry about anyone coming, least of all the girls who like to grab the habitat.

Of course, he didn't think that the group of borrowed girls at home affected his life. After all, getting along with a group of beautiful girls day and night, even just looking at them is enough to make people feel happy.

It's just that a person like him who hides too many secrets in his heart really needs a pure land where no one will disturb him to lick his wounds.

Turning around the small lake as usual, Wei Ran parked the car on a relatively high gravel ground next to the birch forest by the lake.

Untie the leash and the muzzle and let the dog Beria have fun by himself. Wei Ran took out a shovel from the cargo bed of the armored pickup truck to level the ground briefly, and then took out the half-track motorcycle from the metal book , from which the tent and polar bear skins and reindeer skins were removed.

After putting away the motorcycle and setting up the tent, he then took out the latest one, the airdrop box with the stove, dragged it into the tent, set it up and set up the chimney.

Before this was over, he took out the pannier obtained from Savage Mountain, took out an enamel pot and an enamel kettle from it, and put them on the lid of the box beside the stove.

Immediately afterwards, another camp bed was pulled out from the cargo box, and a bearskin mat was spread on it.

After observing with his hips crossed, he took out the sailor bag he had obtained before from the metal book, put the umbrella cloth canopy inside at the door, and then tied the hammock between the two trees covered by the canopy.

In addition, he dug a simple smoke-free stove on the side of the tent door. He took out the panel saw from the airdrop box, picked some dead birch trees at the edge of the forest, and brought them back.Soon, a beating bonfire was lit in the smoke-free stove at the entrance of the tent.

Slowly burning an enamel pot holder filled with clear water on the bonfire, and throwing a few hawthorn leaves into it, Wei Ran lay on the hammock, covered with a blanket and looked at the top of his head in a daze. The fragmented sky bitten by the branches, and the slowly moving, strangely shaped clouds in the sky.

After the water in the pot boiled, he sat up slowly, processed the ingredients with great interest, took the small cast iron pot with two ears from Savage Mountain, and made half a pot of braised pork for himself .

A few additional flower rolls were pasted on the side of the pot and the wooden pot lid was put on, and a few potatoes were thrown into the stove. Wei Ran took the British army kettle filled with leaf tea and lay down on the hammock again and continued to let himself go.

Just when he was drowsy, the dog Beria also ran back with a fat hare that he didn't know where he caught.

Just looking at the eyes of this big man looking at the bonfire from time to time, Wei Ran got up again helplessly, took out the Mauser bayonet and skillfully disemboweled him, wrapped the hare in tin foil and placed it on the edge of the smokeless stove .

"You will find trouble for Lao Tzu"

After Wei Ran finished his work, he muttered dumbfoundedly, but the dog just lay on the side of the smoke-free stove with his tongue out, staring straight at the hare wrapped in tin foil, obviously decided to wait What to eat next.

However, almost at the time when the lunches of the person and the dog were full of aroma, the sky above was covered by overcast clouds, followed by continuous autumn rain.

Looking at the braised pork that hadn't had time to lift the lid of the pot, and then at Beria, who was about to drip water on his feet, Wei Ran resolutely gave up his plan to go home now, took out the bearskin gloves and put them on as Heat-resistant gloves, tore off the tin foil, and tore the cooked hare into Beria's stainless steel rice bowl.

Putting away his gloves, he used an engineer shovel to shovel the still red charcoal fire into the stove in the tent. He took out a British army lunch box from the side basket and filled it with steaming flower rolls, and then used the other half of the British army lunch box Filled with large chunks of braised pork brought into the tent.

On this rare afternoon with nothing to do, Wei Ran sat on the foldable bed and ate a mouthful of soup-soaked flower rolls, and another mouthful of soft braised pork. a mouthful.

And beside the old-fashioned cast-iron stove that exudes warmth, Beria also hugged its stainless steel rice bowl, ate a cooled baked potato, and a delicious roasted hare. From time to time, he would stick his head in In another stainless steel basin, he drank two sips of water.

Although there was only one dog who didn't care about drinking with him under the continual autumn rain, Wei Ran still ate deliciously and carefully, as if he had been hungry for a long time.

(End of this chapter)