War Photographer's Notebook

"Hi-! Hanno!"

At the entrance of the ice cave that was about to be temporarily abandoned, Wei Ran put away the skis on his feet and shouted in response to the other party's calls.

"Victor! You are indeed alive!" Hanno shouted excitedly before getting off the sleigh, "Are you injured?"

"No, I'm not hurt."

Wei Ran responded immediately, "Why are you here? Didn't you promise that you wouldn't come to save me if an accident happened?"

"We regretted it," Dr. Cross, who was maneuvering another sleigh to a stop, said equally excitedly.

"What will happen to Mr. Carsten when you are all here?"

Wei Ran glanced at Dr. Yog who was unloading another sled without a dog from his sled and asked, "Is he awake?"

"he"

Dr. Jorg paused, "He died, Victor, Carsten died, just in the daytime two days ago."

After saying this, Wei Ran, Hanno or Dr. Cross fell silent. Carsten's death was expected, but also unexpected.

"he"

Wei Ran opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to ask, let alone whether he should ask what he cared about most - whether the other party had left a suicide note.

"Now is not the time to talk about this." Hanno was the first to break the silence. "Victor, come back with us!"

After looking at the sled driven by these three people, Wei Ran calmed down and said, "Don't worry, I have hunted a lot of penguins and taken them away together. By the way, how did you find me?"

"Those sled dogs ran back a few days ago and brought back a penguin."

Dr. Yog explained, "Then we guessed that you must have encountered an accident. We were able to find this place thanks to the sled dogs leading the way. Victor, what trouble did you encounter?"

"The same trouble as Major Schubert"

As Wei Ran spoke, he led three sleighs towards the ice cave and explained, "I fell into an ice crevice. Fortunately, the ice crevice was not too deep and there was thick snow underneath. I was able to climb out alive. But by the time I climbed out, the sled dogs were gone, and before that I was busy loading the penguins on the sled."

Before he finished speaking, he had already crawled into the ice cave filled with penguin meat.

"So many penguins?"

Dr. Cross exclaimed after seeing the decomposed pieces of meat.

"There are 27 in total"

Wei Ran said and pointed to the bucket of penguin oil, "I've even boiled the oil. Yog, Cross, I'll trouble you to load the car here. Hanno, you come with me, there are still two penguins left." When I get it back, even if it doesn't work out, I still have to move it here while I still remember the location."

"Okay!" Hannuo responded immediately and handed the reins to Wei Ran.

Following his memory to find the re-buried ice crevice, Wei Ran finally found the penguin that had not yet had time to load into the car after searching with a mountaineering pick.

As the two of them moved it to the car, Wei Ran also asked, "Has the radio communication been restored?"

"no"

Hanno shook his head, "I can't even receive any broadcasts. I guess it's because of the terrain. The terrain there affects the signal transmission too much."

"What are you going to do?" Wei Ran asked after carrying the icy lump of penguin carcass to the car.

"I'm hesitant to change the radio station to a place with better signal." Hanno glanced at the ice cave where penguins are stored. "For example, that place would be good."

"The polar night is coming soon"

Wei Ran reminded, "We may not have such good weather by then, and there is nothing here."

"This is indeed a problem." Hanno sighed and asked, "Where is the second penguin?"

"Under the crevasses"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had taken off the climbing rope hanging diagonally from his shoulders, tied one end to the sleigh, and then passed the other end through the lock on his belt.

While Hanno was fixing the sleigh, Wei Ran lay down on the snow again, digging into the crusted snow on the ground using the location where the penguin carcass had just been found as a reference.

Soon, as the snow collapsed, he discovered the covered ice crack again.

Putting a waterproof canvas on the edge of the ice crevice, Wei Yan used the rope to rappel to the bottom of the ice crevice with ease. Then he dug out the penguin that fell with him from the thin layer of snow and tied it with a rope. Hold the burnt feet.

It stands to reason that they are not short of penguin meat for the time being, but perhaps because of the hunting rules they learned from Jima, Wei Ran has no intention of wasting the prey.

They worked together to drag the blackened penguin carcass to the surface. When the gas came up again and returned to the ice cave, Dr. Cross and Dr. Yog had already filled three sleighs with pieces of penguin meat and were busy sorting out the pieces. A team of dogs were tied to the sled that had been brought.

"Are you so confident that I'm still alive?" Wei Ran looked at the sleigh they brought and asked with a smile.

"Hanno has great confidence in you"

Dr. Yog explained while helping the two men unload the two penguin carcasses, "He said you must still be alive, and the harvest must be very good."

"Thank you for having such confidence in me"

Wei Ran said as he threw the frozen and hard penguin meat into the sleigh that had just been emptied.

Hannuo just smiled honestly, moved the two corpses to the side and joined the loading process.

"Victor, so you found the penguin breeding ground, right?" Dr. Cross, who was also busy loading the car, asked.

"A large group of penguins passed by outside a few days ago." Wei Ran raised his finger and pointed outside, "They went in that direction."

"So, we are not too far from the coastline." Dr. Cross couldn't help but say.

"How far is it not too far?" Dr. Yog asked.

"The furthest distance will not exceed two hundred kilometers."

Dr. Cross pointed to the two relatively complete penguin carcasses not far away and explained, "The breeding ground of emperor penguins is no more than 150 kilometers away from the coastline. In other words, the distance between our warehouse and the coastline is most likely within 200 kilometers." Within kilometers, if we follow the penguin migration route, maybe"

"Even if we can get to the coastline, it doesn't make any sense at all."

Dr. Yog interrupted the other party's hypothesis, "Who will take us in? Or, which prison will we be sent to."

Before Dr. Cross could answer, Hanno added quietly, "My wife, parents, and parents are all in Germany."

After these words, everyone in the ice cave fell into silence again. Obviously, these people must be sent here with a kite string tied to them.

“It’s better to go back early”

Hanno abruptly changed the subject, "We only have four sleighs, and we can't haul so much penguin meat at one time. If the weather is good, we'd better make a few more trips."

"It's true. It's much safer to store more food than to escape to the coastline." Yog added meaningfully, and then covered the already filled sleigh with a canvas.

Dr. Cross opened his mouth hesitantly, but in the end he just remained silent and helped tie up the sleigh.

"Let's go," Hanno said, who did not join in the last conversation, "I'm in the front, Victor, how about you at the end?"

"no problem"

Wei Ran nodded happily and placed an extra bucket of penguin paws on the sleigh he was in charge of.

Without daring to waste too much time, the four sleigh trucks lined up and left the ice cave where there was still a lot of penguin meat. In the wind and snow that had not stopped, they followed the vaguely discernible sled marks and rushed to the direction of the warehouse cave. .

He hurriedly and slowly hurried along. When Wei Ran saw the cave again, the wind and snow were getting stronger again. Obviously, it was impossible to make another trip.

Fortunately, the penguin meat brought back this time was enough for the sled dogs to eat for a long time, which gave them enough patience to wait for good weather.

After settling the hard-working dogs, the four unloaded the penguin meat from the car, filled several empty iron buckets, and buried them in a snowdrift not far from the entrance of the cave.

"Mr. Carsten is in there."

Hanno pointed to a lonely iron barrel and said, "We kept him in that iron barrel, and we can send him home in the summer."

"Didn't he leave anything behind?" Wei Ran asked thoughtfully.

Hearing this, Hanno shook his head, "No, nothing. He didn't even regain consciousness before he died."

"At least I didn't suffer."

Wei Ran muttered to himself and comforted himself and the people around him, picked up the bucket of goose paws and went into the warm cave.

As soon as he entered the cave, he noticed that there were several sleeping bags that seemed to have been recently washed on wooden boards beside the still burning stove.

"We washed our sleeping bags to kill time before we went to rescue you."

Hannuo took the initiative to find a topic and said, "We have cleaned it many times, and there will definitely be no smell this time."

"And I made a table," sighed Dr. Yoger. "It's such a long time here."

"Let's take a group photo," Wei Yan suddenly suggested as he put down the iron bucket he was carrying.

"Take a group photo?" Hannuo and the other two were stunned for a moment, then nodded without thinking.

“Definitely worth taking a photo of”

Dr. Yog opened his mouth and found the reason, "Victor is back alive, and we have brought back enough penguin meat. Today is indeed a memorable day."

"And we can have a nice drink tonight," Dr. Cross echoed.

Naturally, no one would refuse such a proposal. Soon, Hannuo took out a bright kerosene gas lamp and lit it. Then everyone sat around the warm stove and let Wei Ran and Dr. Yog take turns pressing the shutter to take the picture. Took two group photos.

Everyone who put away their cameras and had a drink immediately began to prepare for the drinking party.

Dr. Cross baked enough white bread for everyone, Dr. Jörg cooked a large pot of Hungarian soup, and Hanno cooked a rich German stew.

"Victor, what are you doing?"

Dr. Yog, who was waiting for the soup to come out of the pot, asked curiously, "Are you going to eat these things?"

"certainly"

As Wei Ran spoke, he poured boiling water into the iron bucket filled with penguin paws. Suddenly, the fishy smell filled the small cave.

"I've only seen descriptions of witches cooking with this thing in phone stories," Dr. Yog said, pinching his nose.

"Even a witch wouldn't eat that kind of thing," Hanno said as he put away the sleeping bags that had just been dried. "This smells even worse than the sleeping bags I made!"

"Victor, we have enough food reserves." Dr. Cross couldn't help but say.

"I hope you will still have this attitude later."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already carried the iron bucket to the stove, picked up an ax, and carefully cleaned the sharp toenails on the goose feet.

Under the continuous scalding of several large buckets of boiling water, these fat and thick goose feet gradually melted and thawed, and then the outer layer of rough skin was scalded away, revealing the tender meat inside.

Leaving the cave to avoid the others, Wei Ran took out his backpack, searched for some spices, and started his cooking show.

When the large pot full of stewed soup was boiling, the cleaned goosefoot in the small iron bucket was also poured into the pot by the fire. The original stinky smell in the cave was also dissipated by the aroma of the stewed stew.

Before the pot of braised goosefoot, which was not expected by anyone except Wei Ran, came out, the remaining dishes were already served on the table that Dr. Yog had recently prepared. Following that, Dr. Yog also He took out two large bottles of brandy from an airdrop box and poured a full glass for everyone.

"Let's have a drink!"

Dr. Yoger was the first to hold up the cup and said, "To celebrate Victor's return alive, and also to celebrate that our sled dogs have received enough food for the winter."

"Cheers!" Hanno responded first and picked up the cup in front of him.

"Cheers!" Dr. Cross and Wei Ran each picked up their own cups and lightly touched them with the cup extended by the person sitting opposite.

This was undoubtedly a carnival to vent loneliness. Everyone drank a lot of wine while drinking, especially after the pot of braised goose feet prepared by Wei Ran was brought to the table.

After careful attempts, these Germans, whose food tastes were not much different from those in Northeastern China, seemed to have grown a shriveled stomach again and filled their glasses with wine again.

Wei Ran had to admit that he had underestimated the three people present. Whether it was Dr. Yog, Hanno, or Dr. Cross, who seemed to be the weakest, after they were let go, their drinking capacity became more and more intense. exaggerate.

So in the end, when he couldn't drink anymore and lay on his own bed, Dr. Jorg was still able to accurately pick up the wine bottle and pour a full glass of wine for Dr. Cross and Hanno who were sitting opposite. And not even a drop was spilled.

"Mao Dong, Mao Winter, just think it's Mao Winter."

Wei Ran sighed contentedly in words that only he could understand, threw away the claws that had chewed the clean meat and fell asleep.

Amid his snoring, Hanno was the second to get drunk, followed closely by Dr. Cross, who also lay on the table in a daze.

After slowly drinking the last sip of wine in the cup, Dr. Yog picked up a corner of bread, dipped the last bit of soup in the plate and threw it into his mouth. Then he stood up and walked to the radio transmitter, picked up the The code book that was supposed to be kept secret turned to the last page and read the suicide note left by Major Schubert.

Putting away the smile at the corner of his mouth, Dr. Yog picked up the pencil clamped in the code book and wrote lines of text on the previous page next to the major's suicide note with a rustling sound.

After a while, he closed the code book and placed it on the radio station, but then he picked it up again, and after some thought, placed it on Wei Ran's bedside.

Covering his mouth and letting out a wine burp, Dr. Yog picked up a table spoon and brought it to the entrance of the hole. He inserted the handle of the table spoon into his throat and pressed it gently, and then easily drank the wine. Everything he ate and vomited into the 100-liter iron drum containing coal ash.

Wiping the corners of his mouth carelessly, Dr. Yog gently cut up all the remaining bread and put it into the bag. Then he collected a dozen cans from all over the cave and stuffed them together. In the bag.

He picked it up to test the weight, and then took away two sleeping bags that had just been washed and dried and a barrel of kerosene.

After sending all these to the entrance of the cave, Dr. Yog thought for a while, and then took away his own medicine box, the rifle placed at the end of the bed, and dozens of bullets.

"Sorry, I don't have any family to worry about. I want to get out of here before winter comes. Maybe I will die in the snowstorm, but I have had enough of this long night."

After muttering to himself, Dr. Yoger put on his one-piece thermal insulation suit, and then put on the one-piece thermal insulation suit that belonged to Carsten.

Taking a final look at the other three people sleeping in the cave, Dr. Yog picked up the bright kerosene gas lamp and all the things he planned to take away and left the cave, then closed the wooden door he made by himself from the outside.

Soon after, a sleigh pulled by 20 sled dogs pulled Dr. Yog, who was covered in two layers of sleeping bags, and left the warm warehouse cave without saying goodbye, almost dying.