War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1171 Guangling San in Xiaoyang Building
On Christmas Day for the Maozi, Wei Ran's old den was extremely lively.

This day, apart from Lothar and his group who woke up from the hangover and continued to conduct business negotiations with Sui Sui.

The sisters Olga and Olena, who came with Sui Xin and the young genius Korava the night before, obviously depended on staying here, and spent an Orthodox Christmas together that no one actually cared about.

Compared with these noisy girls, Wei Ran got up early and drove the armored pickup truck to the airport alone.

After waiting for more than an hour, Chen Guangling and his wife walked out from the airport pick-up gate with Chen Luoxiang in a hurry.

What surprised Wei Ran was that the family of three didn't even bring an extra suitcase, except for a backpack for each of them.

"Here it is! Teacher Chen! Luo Xiang!" Wei Ran waved at the family of three.

"Hey! Brother!" Chen Luoxiang was the first to see Wei Ran, and ran over with his parents.

"It's been a long journey"

Wei Ran took a few steps forward to greet them, and after some brief courtesies, he led them out, but it was wise not to ask the other party about the difficulties they encountered immediately.

It wasn't until the four of them got into the car that Wei Ran tore open a pack of cigarettes he bought in advance and gave Chen Guangling a cigarette, then he asked carefully, "Mr. Chen, what difficulties did you encounter this time? If you are in a hurry, let's not be polite, and take the time to solve the trouble first."

"Ugh!"

Chen Guangling sighed, after searching for the button to lower the window, he simply pushed open the heavy bulletproof door, letting the cold air outside take away the warmth and second-hand smoke in the car.

It wasn't until the air became clean again that Chen Guangling said eagerly, "Wei Ran, this matter is actually related to your guqin bed."

"Youquan?"

"Do you still remember Mr. Tao who planned to buy your piano for 500 million?" Chen Guangling asked.

"Why, he thought again"

"Grandpa Tao is dying soon"

Chen Luoxiang, who was sitting in the back row, grabbed the topic and said with a slight choke, "Brother, Grandpa Tao wants to see the secluded spring bed again before he leaves. He...he may not be able to hold on for long."

"That's it"

Chen Guangling took a sharp puff of cigarette, "Master Tao is childless, all his thoughts are put on the piano, and this time he begged me and Luo Xiang to invite you in person. So Wei Ran, See if it's convenient for you."

Hearing this, Wei Ran was silent for a moment, opened the car door and flicked away the half-smoked cigarette in his hand and said, "Put on your seat belt, let's go back and get that piano first."

"Hey!" Chen Guangling immediately threw away the cigarette in his hand in a panic, closed the car door lightly, and put on his seat belt.

After the family sat down, Wei Ran drove the car out of the parking lot smoothly, and drove to the shore of Kaban Lake as fast as possible, while thinking secretly while driving.

When the car finally drove into the large courtyard where the library was located, Wei Ran also sighed secretly, and finally made a decision.

Pushing the door to get off the car, Wei Ran greeted Chen Guangling's family to get off the car, and explained apologetically that Suisui was discussing business so he couldn't come out to say hello.And when the three members of the Chen family waved their hands repeatedly to indicate that it was okay, Sui Xin and Lola, who were sitting in wheelchairs, also took the initiative to say hello to the Chen Guangling family.

Last time when Wei Ran was attacked and pretended to return to China for refuge, he had a good exchange of piano skills at Chen Guangling's piano shop, and even Lola's younger sister Korawa was also a doctor Chen Guangling helped find. , and led by Chen Luoxiang.

After another simple politeness, Wei Ran handed over the job of introduction to Lu Xinda, a little girl who can speak Chinese, but he winked at Sui Xin and pushed her into the storage room on the first floor.

"What's wrong?" Sui Xin asked in confusion.

"I'll have to use that bed of secluded spring for a few days." Wei Ran pointed to the outside, "Wait until it's used up."

"That piano is yours in the first place." Sui Xin said, she had already turned around and walked out in the wheelchair, "I'll get it for you."

Watching the girl leave the storage room and go into her room next door, Wei Ran closed the door of the storage room, and after locking it, went to the window and took out his cell phone and dialed it to Jima.

"Do you still need me to drink with you today?" Ji Ma asked as soon as the phone was connected.

"I'm afraid I won't have a chance to drink for the time being." Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief, "Jima, I want to borrow your private jet to return to Huaxia urgently."

"When?" Ji Ma, who had been fooling around before, became serious.

"The sooner the better"

"I'll call Alili now," Jima said, and hung up the phone.

"It's really money to burn."

Wei Ran muttered with pain on his face, if he was not in a hurry, he would never be willing to take such a trip, even though the flight cost of this trip may be recovered from Suisui's business in the end.

But the last experience in Leningrad let him know that music is really more important than life for some people.

He couldn't make up for the regret of the little girl named Ke Na, but this time he had the opportunity to fulfill the last wish of an old man who was obsessed with love.From this point of view, the high cost of flying a special trip seems to be worth it.

Before he could leave the storage room, Ji Ma called back.

"Let's go to the airport"

When the phone was connected, Jima said very quickly, "You are lucky, it just so happens that Alili is going to send a few friends of Mr. Karp to Chita, but you have to hurry up, and it is best to be there within an hour. Hurry over."

"I'm leaving now"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he hung up the phone, opened the door and walked out of the room, took the piano box that Sui Xin had just taken out, and greeted Chen Guangling's family of three to get up and walk out while saying, "Sui Xin, after Sui Sui is done with work, I will meet with you." She said, I have something urgent to go back to China with Teacher Chen's family first, and ask her to send me a WeChat message when she is done."

"I will convey it." Before Sui Xin finished speaking, Wei Ran had already run out of the room carrying the piano case.

Hurriedly coming and going, when Wei Ran led Chen Guangling's family back to the airport, Alili was already waiting for them at the security checkpoint.

"Let's hurry up," Alili greeted, "A few friends of Uncle Karp have been waiting for more than ten minutes. By the way, which airport are you flying to?"

"Where are we going to meet Mr. Tao?" Wei Ran turned to Chen Guangling and asked.

"Jinmen!"

Chen Luoxiang answered first, "Grandpa Tao used to live with my master for the elderly. He is my master's half-uncle. Two days ago he felt that he was going to die, so he went back to his old house in Jinmen. "

"Go, go."

Wei Ran asked Chen Guangling's family to follow him, and after conveying the destination airport to Alili, he went through various procedures as quickly as possible under his leadership, and then was sent directly to the Chou Meng by a ground service vehicle. Next to the ugly little plane.

When the four of them got into the cabin under the leadership of Alili, Wei Ran immediately noticed that four or five middle-aged men and women were already sitting in the position near the door of the cabin, and in the positions next to each of these people, there were still people. There are various styles of luggage, and even on one of the seats by the window, there is a collie squatting with its head up and its chest up.

While Wei Ran was observing these people, these middle-aged people also looked up at Wei Ran in unison.

"Are you the Victor who found the red flag of the Capitol?" One of the bald men with a fierce face asked curiously in a slightly hoarse voice.

"It's me." Wei Ran replied with a smile and just the right amount of complacency.

"Go and sit in the back"

The bald head gestured behind his back with his thumb, "Take care of your people. Before we old guys get off the plane, we are not allowed to take pictures, record or raise the visor. It is best to keep quiet enough. We need to sleep for a while."

"no problem"

Wei Ran responded, and greeted Chen Guangling's family all the way to the end of the cabin, found four seats and sat down, and at the same time reminded them in a low voice in Chinese what they need to pay attention to.

Naturally, Chen Guangling's family would not have any objections. After each of them sat down and fastened their seat belts, they let Wei Ran help lower their seat backs a bit.

After Wei Ran put on his seat belt and hugged the piano case to finish, all the lights in the cabin were also turned off.But soon, the plane slid onto the runway under Alili's driving, and flew into the blue sky lightly in a very short distance.

During the voyage from Kazan to Chita, Alili obviously gave up the most economical speed and only wanted to arrive as soon as possible.In the dark cabin, Wei Ran also noticed that whether it was Chen Guangling and his wife or Chen Luoxiang beside him, they fell asleep one after another shortly after the plane stabilized.Clearly, the family is exhausted.

After the short and long first voyage, as the plane landed in Chita, and as those middle-aged people left with their luggage and pets, the plane that could have seated more than 30 people finally failed. Look so depressing again.

He opened the visor and glanced at the middle-aged people who left in the ground service vehicle, Wei Ran extinguished his curiosity in time, closed the visor again and closed his eyes.

When Wei Ran and Chen Guangling's family were woken up by Alili through the loudspeaker, the outside of the visor that was pushed away again was already dyed golden red by the setting sun.

Without making the only four passengers in the cabin wait for long, the plane landed on the airport smoothly according to the control tower's command.

Almost at the same time, Wei Ran, who had just turned on his phone again, also received a WeChat message from Suisui.

After he briefly explained some important things, Alili, who had already parked the plane, got out of the cockpit and said with a painful face, "Victor, you need us to wait for you here Is it? If we don't need it, we'll fly away later.

The honorable Mr. Gorbachev testified that the airport parking fee and fuel fee here are really too expensive. The parking fee of our Il transport plane parked at Inta Airport is dozens of times cheaper than the parking fee of this little fly times. "

This is not nonsense.
Wei Ran twitched the corners of his mouth, because there are few large flights in Tana, the parking fee is probably a little more expensive than the parking fee at the airport below.

"Don't wait for me." Wei Ran said while carrying the piano case and walking down, "Go back and pay attention to safety."

"In this case, we will go back first"

Alili said rather impatiently, his expression was very similar to that of a taxi driver who parked illegally on the side of the road, worried that he would be ticketed by the police.

At any rate, the last time I took a private jet back, Wei Ran was quite familiar with it. After taking Chen Guangling's family through the customs and entering the country according to the procedures, he asked when he walked out of the airport, "Where are we going next?"

"Are you in Jinmen?" Chen Guangling asked a completely redundant question belatedly, "Did you come back with our chartered plane?"

“My friend's private jet”

Wei Ran explained with a smile, and before the other party continued the topic, he patted the piano case he was carrying and asked again, "Where are we going?"

"Oh! Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

Chen Guangling patted his forehead, "Luo Xiang, hurry up! Call a car quickly, and then ask your master where Mr. Tao's house is."

The three of you have never been here together?
Wei Ran muttered to himself, now he has done everything he can, and the rest depends on the arrangement of their family.

Without waiting for Chen Luoxiang to ask for the address, Chen Guangling's wife has already pulled out two big red tickets from her bag and held them shaking in her hand, and easily stopped a taxi that had just dropped off passengers.

"Get in the car first"

Chen Guangling's wife urged Wei Ran and the three of them to get into the crowded rear compartment first, and she also opened the co-pilot's door and got in, handing the cash in her hand to the driver, "Go to the city first." on."

Hearing this, the driver, who was originally sitting in so many people wanted to say something, immediately smiled. After the four of them settled down, they quickly stepped on the accelerator.

Before the airport behind him was blocked by buildings along the way, Chen Luoxiang, who was sitting in the middle, finally asked for the detailed address and passed it on to the driver, while Chen Guangling on the other side also explained that they were actually giving Wei Ran I got the news about an hour before the first phone call, and I bought the latest flight to find Wei Ran before I had time to prepare anything.

Fortunately, just now Chen Luoxiang got the news from his master that Mr. Tao's condition seems to be stable at the moment, which is undoubtedly good news.

However, when the car arrived at its destination and finally stepped on the brakes, the four people in the car except the driver stared a little.

After a little hesitation, Wei Ran pushed open the car door first, got out with the piano case lying across the knees of the three, and looked at the buildings on the roadside with the last rays of the setting sun.

This is a small three-story western-style building with a yard. At a glance, the building and yard are estimated to have an area of ​​six to seven hundred square meters.

just
Wei Ran looked at the beautiful small foreign-style buildings of the Republic of China around him, and the businesses such as cafes that were run by those small foreign-style buildings.

But look at this building again. It is estimated that there is a yard of about [-] square meters. In addition to an unknown big tree that has lost all its leaves, there is also a row of small iron houses built on the yard wall. It is divided into several rooms, each with handwritten signboards with red letters on a white background such as "cigarette drink", "Om'er Om'er cake", and "Pancake Guozi".

This is not over yet, on the red brick wall inside this small courtyard, there is still a wooden board with the same white background and red letters, on which is written "Convenience store, 9 yuan for a haircut per person." in beautiful big characters.It's just obvious that the red number "9" seems to be modified from "7".

Let the eyes continue to look in. Although the three-story small western-style building looks good on the outside, it looks extraordinarily dark inside the two wooden doors with windows.

"It should be here, right?"

While Wei Ran was looking at the building, Chen Luoxiang also walked to the door mutteringly, holding up his mobile phone and comparing it with the number plate nailed on the door stack, muttering "No Wrong" and other fragmented words.

Fortunately, just as he was about to knock on the door, the wooden door leading to the interior of the building was also pushed open from the inside, followed by an old man who seemed to be about 70 or [-] years old, but his bones seemed to be particularly tough. Walked out from inside.

"master!"

Just when Wei Ran secretly looked at this kind-hearted old man who couldn't hide his sadness, Chen Luoxiang also shouted, and at the same time he let out a sigh of relief and said, "It's really here, I thought I was looking for it wrong. "

"It's right here"

The old man spoke Mandarin with a local accent that Wei Ran couldn't tell where he came from, but after he nodded to Chen Guangling and his wife, he took the initiative to reach out to Wei Ran, "This must be Mr. Wei Ran, right? You are causing trouble."

"Mr. Liu was joking. It is my honor to have the opportunity to meet Mr. Tao."

Wei Ran lowered his posture and shook hands with the other party. He naturally knew that the other party's surname was Liu. He had heard Chen Guangling and his son mention this matter a long time ago.He even knew that the old man was almost involved in a lawsuit because of a few pieces of broken wood not long ago.

"If Luo Xiang is half as smart as you, I, an old man, don't have to worry about it!"

Mr. Liu praised Wei Ran in a joking tone, and while breaking the slightly dignified atmosphere, he also raised his hand towards the small western-style building behind him, "Mr. Tao is running out of time, Wei Ran, I will ask Mr. I treat you as a child of the same generation as Luo Xiang, so I won't be polite to you, you have suffered a lot, go and accompany Mr. Tao."

"It should be, it should be."

Wei Ran quickly agreed, and exchanged glances with Chen Guangling and his wife who were behind him indiscriminately. Then, carrying the piano case, he followed Mr. Liu to the vermilion wooden door with heavy traces of time.

However, to Wei Ran's surprise, when he walked up the steps and passed through the wooden door, he found that this small western-style building was completely gold and jade on the outside, no, its outside was not even "gold and jade", but its Inside is a real mess.

When entering the rooms on the first floor, the walls had peeled off in many places, and there was no furniture on the dusty floor. Instead, various daily necessities and some metal shelves that seemed to have expired were piled up scatteredly.

In the only room that looked clean, the only furnishings were a large mirror fixed to the wall and two old-fashioned barber chairs.In the corner of this room, there is even an old-fashioned briquette stove that serves as a washbasin stand.

When I followed Mr. Liu to the stairs leading to the upstairs, there was actually a push-pull anti-theft net door installed here.

Passing through the rusty anti-theft door, Mr. Liu raised his thumb and said in a low voice while walking upstairs, "This small western-style building was left by Mr. Tao's aunt, who was the owner of Xiaobailou back then." Famous character."

"What about this building?"

"Hi"

Mr. Liu sighed, stopped and rubbed the peeling wooden handrail and said with emotion, "Old Tao has suffered a lot in his life. He suffered from many diseases when he was young. When he was young 20 years ago, his body couldn't bear it. The weather in winter and summer in the north is getting worse, so I was taken to live in Yangzhou.

The first floor and yard of this small building were also rented out to former friends to open shops and stalls that were closed for a long time.The monthly rent is Lao Tao's pension. "

"So at the beginning he planned to spend 500 million to buy it"

"The most valuable of all his belongings is this dilapidated house, which he bought back at a high price when he was in full bloom more than 40 years ago."

Mr. Liu muttered to himself, "Old Tao was born in this house, and returning to this place after wandering for most of his life can be regarded as returning to his roots. Let's go, young man."

After finishing speaking, Mr. Liu raised his foot again, and walked up to the second floor step by step.

Compared with the warehouse-like first floor, the second floor is somewhat better. At least it looks cleaner and warmer, and at the stairway, an aluminum alloy sliding door that looks very old is installed.

Passing through the frosted glass sliding door, Wei Ran walked to the door of a bedroom with cotton curtains under the guidance of Mr. Liu.

"Go, go and accompany Lao Tao." Mr. Liu Lao personally helped Wei Ran open the thick cotton curtain and said, "I was in a hurry to bring him back, and this room has not been cleaned properly, so I just tidied up such a room. It made Mr. Wei laugh."

"You are welcome, Mr. Tao's body"

"I'm old, I'm simply old, and it's a pain to go to the hospital. He is already a hundred years old, and he will be a hundred years old today." Mr. Liu pointed to a basket of birthday peaches not far away and said in a low voice, "Oh Go in and see him, before he fell asleep, he kept thinking about you."

Hearing this, Wei Ran raised his hand, tapped lightly on the slightly old wooden door with his knuckles, then tapped twice, and waited for a while before slowly pushing the door open He bent down and got in.

This bedroom was unexpectedly spacious and warm, and the floor-to-ceiling windows faced a small flower bed in the outside yard.

If it was summer, he could even imagine that the shade of the big tree in the yard would definitely cover him.

It's just that at this moment, the old bare tree outside the window only made the room with two additional electric heaters turned on to become more lifeless - just like the tall and thin man lying on the only iron frame bed. The bones are prominent, but both the face and the hands are covered with senile plaques, like an old man, and they are also lifeless.

He approached softly and slowly, a monitor was placed on the bedside table on one side of the bed, and an oxygen generator was placed on the other side of the bedside table.But beside the old man's pillow, there was an open photo album.

Gently putting down the piano case in his hand, Wei Ran carefully picked up the photo album and opened it. The first page that came into view was the Guangling Sanjian handbook that had been stuffed in the resonance chamber of Youquan back then.

Continue to turn back, and there are also those paper balls written with poems or childhood graffiti that were stuffed in the resonance chamber together.

After that, it was a group photo. The protagonist in the group photo was the tall and thin old man on the hospital bed. He was about 50 years old when he took this photo, wearing a suit that seems outdated now, behind him , also stood a young man with an erhu in his hand and a young woman in a cheongsam with a snare drum beside her.

The expression on the face of Mr. Tao in this photo can be described as high-spirited, quite a bit like a master.Even the background of this photo shoot seemed to be the small western-style building that he was in at this time, but the more so, it formed an increasingly sharp contrast with the dilapidated appearance of the room and the old man on the bed at this time.

Continue to turn back, and the next photo is a man wearing a long gown carrying a piano bag, holding a man who is also wearing a thick long gown, standing under a city gate with a look of hesitation. Black and white photo.But continue to turn back, but there is only one rope that seems to be a string in the album.

Without pulling out the string, Wei Ran put the photo album back to its original place and glanced at the blood oxygen monitor on the bedside cabinet, then at the oxygen concentrator on the other side, and after pondering for a moment, he called softly Said, "Master Tao? Mr. Tao? I brought you Youquan."

After waiting for a while, the old man on the bed showed no sign of waking up, subconsciously glanced at the monitor again, Wei Ran looked left and right, and simply sat cross-legged on the wooden floor that looked very old, took out the deep spring On my own knee, I played "Guangling San" on my own.

(End of this chapter)