War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 142 The Trip to Kiev
At 11:15 pm on November 42th, the lights in the basement finally came on.Karp, Teacher Dalia, and a curious Jima walked in one after another.

While Karp and Dalia were inspecting the weapons that Wei Ran worked so hard to assemble on the table, the latter finally saw clearly what it was that scared him half to death before. But it is a toy snake with exquisite workmanship and lifelike.The most deceitful operation is that one end of these toy snakes is actually connected to a few turtles that are only palm-sized and slowly crawling!

Besides a few toy snakes among these parts, there are quite a few realistic spiders, a few chubby hamsters, and a large number of metal parts that are not used in guns at all. Add to the trouble.

Ji Ma picked up a trampled hamster, "I heard that you were frightened by this thing and howled?"

"Fuck off!"

Wei Ran sent out a middle finger angrily. Karp's small tricks really scared him a lot, and he also knocked over a lot of parts on the table, otherwise, he would not have wasted such a long time.

After checking the weapons on the table one by one and emptying the fake bullets in the chambers, Mrs. Dalia and Karp looked at each other and said, "Okay, you can leave now. But Victor, go back Afterwards, remember to teach yourself one of your Chinese musical instruments."

"Musical instruments?" Wei Ran, who was about to go out, asked in surprise, "Why learn musical instruments?"

"Christmas Gala, do you have a problem?" Culp asked, holding a struggling little hamster in his hand.

"No, no objection! Let's go first, the two teachers have a happy holiday!" Wei Ran quickly shook his head when he realized it, and ran out of the room with Ji Ma in no particular order.

"Finally came out alive."

Standing at the entrance of the hall, Wei Ran squinted his eyes and watched the setting sun at the edge of the forest in the distance. When the cold northwest wind blew over, he realized that his back was covered with a layer of cold sweat.

"Is that room in the basement really that scary?" Jima looked at Wei Ran suspiciously.

"You'll know when you have a chance to try it." Wei Ran, who was locked in a small dark room for several hours, didn't even bother to explain, and now he still hears the sound of those startled and scary music lingering in his ears.

Back to the small village in the northwest of Kazan by car, Wei Ran had a surprisingly hot dinner at Jima's house, and then got drunk into the bedroom. During this sleep, his nightmares were one after another. It wasn't Sadako who came from the well Crawling out of the bed, he was swallowed by the python, but it was rare that he did not dream of the tragic death of Marco and the corpses all over the city of Berlin like a few days ago.

In the blink of an eye the next morning, the two drove to the airport and flew to the Russian border city of Belgorod.

Before coming out of the airport, Jima asked impatiently, "Victor, where are we going next? The bar is still."

“Go to a shit bar in broad daylight”

Wei Ran reached out to stop a taxi, waited for Ji Ma to negotiate the price skillfully, then got in and said, "Let's go to Gongqing Town to investigate some clues. If everything goes well, take the flight to Kyiv tomorrow morning."

"Since we're going to Kyiv, we won't go to the bar for the time being!" Although Jima's tone was serious, the careless look in those wretched eyes showed that he knew what he was planning.

It took a taxi to leave Belgorod City and drove southwest for nearly an hour, and finally stopped at a town surrounded by vast farmland.

Following the detailed address provided in the cowhide book, they inquired all the way in the town, and finally the two stopped at the door of an old house.However, to Wei Ran's disappointment, the owner of this house had no idea that a World War II veteran named Mikhail lived here, and even when they bought the house, it was after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As for the original owner of the house, he has lost contact for a long time.

Not to mention disappointed, Wei Ran urged Ji Ma to get into the taxi that was still waiting for them, turned around and headed straight for the direction of the airport.

"Victor, what are you investigating?" Halfway, Jima finally couldn't help asking, and at the same time secretly worried that after arriving in Kyiv, would he go to a place like Gongqing Town.

Wei Ran explained perfunctorily, "a veteran of World War II".

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

At first, Ji Ma just said something unintentionally, but Wei Ran's eyes lit up. It seemed that this kind of "no technical difficulty" investigation work could really be entrusted to him.Although this requires some additional costs, at least I don't have to waste time running around.

Back then, didn't Professor Alexei pull himself into the studio to help out for the same reason?But thinking about Jima's unreliable virtue, Wei Ran thought for a moment and said, "Jima, are you interested in finding a job?"

"What job?" Jima asked puzzled.

"I need a helper in my studio"

Wei Ran paused, seeing that Jima seemed interested, he explained in detail, "The main thing is to help me go to various places to investigate something, as long as I find the clues I need, I can get a commission. If I can't find it, at least I can go out and play for a few days for free."

Jima asked excitedly, "Like the last time I went to Finland?"

"right"

Wei Ran hesitated when he said this. If it was really like the one in Finland, he might miss some important hidden rewards.Thinking of this, he hurriedly added before the other party could speak, "Of course, you don't necessarily need to help run errands every time."

"Deal!" Ji Ma agreed without even thinking about it. For him, being able to hang out for free is enough.If you can make money, it is a windfall, and there is nothing you can't promise.

Wei Ran nodded when he heard the words, "Since you are willing to try, don't treat this trip to Kyiv as a tourist. If you can find out something, I will also pay you some commission."

"Travel and work don't conflict." Jima triumphantly denied Wei Ran's point of view, "Maybe some pretty girl in the bar knows some key clues?"

"I hope so." Wei Ran didn't bother to argue, and after winking at Jima, he changed the topic to another place.

Letting the taxi take them to the hotel next to the airport, before Wei Ran paid the fare, Ji Ma had already said hello and then disappeared in a flash.

Regardless of this unreliable thing, Wei Ran took out his tablet after moving in, and began to think about what Chinese musical instrument he should learn.Although he couldn't figure out why Karp made such a strange request, the other party must be holding back something to make such an arrangement. In order not to be punished by the other party one day in the future, it is undoubtedly the best way to obey the other party's arrangement honestly. a wise decision.It's just that for a music idiot like him, none of the Chinese musical instruments that can be found on the Internet seem to be easy to learn.

They stayed in Belgorod for one night. Early the next morning, the two boarded the plane on time. After two transfers and detours to Moscow and Poland, they landed at Kyiv Airport that night.

"I told you very clearly on the way"

While waiting for his luggage, Wei Ran reminded Jima again, "We need to find as many clues as possible from the home of the World War II Soviet company instructor named Ivan, and this is related to."

"Fifty thousand rubles!"

Without waiting for Wei Ran to finish speaking, Jima rubbed his hands and replied, "Don't worry, Victor, for the agreed [-] rubles, I will find out even the dentures left by that Ivan for you! But... now we Do you want to find a place to eat first?"

Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, pointed to the suitcase on the turntable, "Let's go"

"Okay!" Driven by [-] rubles, Ji sycophantly picked up his suitcase, which was not too big, and left the airport with Wei Ran.

If you ignore the name of the city of Kyiv and the Ukrainian words that occasionally come out of the mouths of passers-by on the street, the difference between this place and Volgograd is really not that big.The architectural style is the same, the appearance and characteristics of pedestrians are similar, and even the peculiar xenophobia and childish arrogance unique to the Slavs, and even the drunkards on the street are exactly the same.

On the other hand, the two cities are also adjacent to a large river, and there is also a huge statue of the motherland mother on the river bank. The only difference may be that the mother in Kyiv has an extra large shield in her hand.It's just that these two mothers probably didn't expect that the people they once protected with their sharp swords would one day choose to separate and embark on completely different paths.

Thanks to the fact that many people in this city also speak Russian, and the few accented Ukrainian words that Jima and the Ukrainian girl learned when exchanging gene fragments, the two of them successfully moved into a hotel with the curtains drawn. You can see the hotel with the statue, and after putting down your luggage, you find a restaurant with a rich creamy aroma on the corner of the street not far from the hotel.

Before the food was served, Jima unscrewed the vodka he bought on the way, and asked while pouring wine into the glass, "Victor, where are we going tomorrow?"

"The address I found is in Podil District, which seems to be in the northwest corner of Kyiv." While speaking, Wei Ran handed Jima a note with the address written in advance.

Taking a look at the note, Jima put it in his pocket, "Leave it to me! Tonight I can find a guide who understands Ukrainian and is familiar enough with Kyiv."

Wei Ran raised his glass, "First of all, we have mobile phone navigation. Secondly, the guide you are looking for is accurate enough to be familiar with the bars in Kyiv, and most importantly, is it beautiful enough?"

Ji Ma, who had been punctured, did not refute, and eagerly poured Wei Ran another glass of wine, and changed the topic to other directions with a playful smile.

After dinner, Jima couldn't wait to take a taxi and went straight to the bar to find his satisfactory guide, while Wei Ran also looked at the huge statue outside the window with full expectation, praying that tomorrow he could find some information about the Soviet company instructor Ivan Traces that once existed.

(End of this chapter)