War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1497 The Late Fish

That afternoon, because the little lama was sick and had to stop to rest again, Wei Ran would feed him two pieces of charcoal every hour. The charcoal was crispy, not delicious but not bad either, and he would also let him drink a few sips of salt water.

Fortunately, under his care, the little lama's diarrhea became less and less frequent. By the time the sun set, although his face was so pale that no trace of blood could be seen, he had finally managed to stop the symptoms.

Almost at the same time, Zhang Erwa and the other two came back, each carrying a bamboo basket.

From a distance, he could hear Zhang Erwa shouting excitedly, "Hey! Light the fire! Light it!"

"it is good--!"

Wei Ran responded loudly to the other party's shout, took out the can from squad leader Liu, pinched out a handful of tinder from it and pressed it on the flint, then struck it with a flint to ignite it, then used two pieces of charcoal to clamp the tinder and blow up the sparks, eventually igniting the pine sawdust that had been shaved in advance.

After he lit the bonfire, Zhang Erwa and the other two happily walked to the halfway point of the small hill.

"Wei Ran! Little Lama! Guess what we found!" Li Zhuang asked excitedly.

"What did you find?"

  Wei Ran asked with a smile, and then his eyes widened. Nurse Ji actually took out a big fish with a straw rope through its gills from the bamboo basket carried by Zhang Erwa!

This fish is almost longer than Nurse Ji's hand. Even with a rough estimate, it probably weighs at least four or five kilograms!

"Where did you catch it?!" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"there!"

Zhang Erwa, with an unstoppable smile on his face, turned around and pointed in the direction behind him. "We walked about three or four miles and found it in the mud. The three of us used a bamboo basket and were almost exhausted before we finally caught it."

"Come up quickly!"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already run over and took the big fish that Nurse Ji was holding with great effort in her hands.

When they got closer, he noticed that the three of them brought back not only this big fish, but also a lot of wild vegetables and almost half a bamboo basket of dry grass.

"Maybe it's too far away, there are a lot of wild vegetables growing there."

Zhang Erwa said regretfully, "If it wasn't getting dark, and if we hadn't brought lanterns, we might have been able to bring back more food."

Looking at the mud that was almost up to Zhang Erwa's chest and the scratches on their arms, Wei Ran couldn't help but ask, "You must have encountered a lot of dangers?"

"Li Zhuang almost fell in"

Nurse Ji said thankfully, "Luckily he reacted quickly and fell on the bamboo basket, so we were able to pull him back."

"I also caught a fish." Li Zhuanghan smiled and scratched the back of his head, his eyes never leaving the big fish that Wei Ran was holding.

"By the way, how is the little lama?" Nurse Ji asked as she walked upstairs, leaning on a wooden stick.

"No more pulling"

Wei Ran supported Zhang Erwa, who seemed to be a little exhausted, and asked as they walked up, "Shall we have fish soup tonight?"

"Eat fish soup!"

Zhang Erwa said proudly, "Eat half tonight and the other half tomorrow morning. It will be a good way to nourish the little lama."

"But the class monitor is gone, who will be the chef?" The question asked by Li Zhuang made Zhang Erwa, who was just in high spirits, fall into silence.

Then, the young acting squad leader burst into tears and said with regret and guilt, "If only we had caught this fish earlier, the squad leader wouldn't have..."

Looking at Zhang Erwa who was crying and Li Zhuang who couldn't help crying, and even Nurse Ji who was walking in front and also wiping tears, Wei Ran sighed heavily, "Squad leader, I... I will do it, I will take care of this fish."

After a while, Wei Ran patted the two young soldiers on the shoulders and said seriously, "Squad Leader Liu's sacrifice is valuable. This fish can keep us full tonight and tomorrow morning, but the dried meat can keep us alive and out of the grassland.

So his sacrifice was worthwhile. All we can do is to get out of the grassland alive, no one less, and get out of the grassland alive."

After saying this, Wei Ran, who actually had no idea how to comfort them, quickened his pace as if he was running away, and returned to the campfire that had just been lit, carrying the big fish that was still twisting its body.

Asking Nurse Ji for a piece of cloth to spread on the ground, Wei Ran carefully scraped off the fish scales with a knife and cut off the bony fan and fins of the fish tail.

Gradually, Li Zhuang, Zhang Erwa, Nurse Ji, and even the little lama came over, squatted by the campfire, and watched Wei Ran cut open the fish.

"Great! There are fish roe!" Li Zhuang said in surprise, and then couldn't help swallowing his saliva.

"My mother said that children can't eat fish eggs, or they will lose their ability to count." Nurse Ji also swallowed and said.

"You're kidding, the fish roe is delicious." Zhang Erwa swallowed his saliva and said. He looked at the pale little lama, who was already reciting scriptures in a low voice.

Wei Ran carefully placed two large clumps of fish roe into the lid of the lunch box that he had picked up in the morning and had washed. He then took out the fish's internal organs and examined them carefully. Only after he was sure that there were no parasites did he safely put the fish bladder and scales together, and then carefully washed the fish intestines with a copper ladle.

He did not even waste the hearts, livers, gallbladders and gills that were very likely to contain parasites. He threw them all into the bamboo basket, intending to soak the basket in the mud on the hillside later, and catch whatever he could.

Finally, he cut off the fish head and split the fish in half vertically. Wei Ran first cut half of the fish meat into pieces and threw it into a copper ladle, then added water and slowly boiled it.

"We'll eat this pot tomorrow morning."

As Wei Ran spoke, he divided the two lumps of fish roe and fish intestines into five equal portions and put them into everyone's enamel jar. Then he cut the remaining fish meat in half, divided it into five portions again and put them into the jar as well.

He put the remaining half of the fish into the lunch box he picked up in the morning, filled it with water, and placed it next to the campfire.

"These will cook quickly and we can eat them soon." Wei Ran said as he closed the lid of the lunch box.

"Where are these?"

Zhang Erwa pointed at the remaining fish meat, fish intestines and other items and asked with concern, saying that this fish was not easy to come by and he could not accept throwing away the fish head.

"As long as the rain stops and the fire doesn't go out, we can keep eating these."

As Wei Ran spoke, he threw the fish head into the copper kettle he had picked up in the morning. He then threw the scraped fish scales and fins into the kettle, and also placed it on the campfire.

"Gurgle." Everyone, including Wei Ran, swallowed.

“We are running low on firewood”

Wei Ran put down the knife in his hand, stood up shakily and said, "So hurry up and dry the wet clothes on your body."

After saying this, he picked up the bamboo basket containing the fish hearts, livers and gallbladders, walked down the small hillock leaning on a wooden stick, chose a muddy area, and pressed the bamboo basket down at an angle.

When we returned to the small hill, Zhang Erwa and the others had already sat down around the campfire. In front of them, next to the campfire, were various containers filled with food. Their faces were filled with expectant smiles, as well as a hint of sadness that was tacitly hidden beneath their smiles.

  It would be nice if squad leader Liu was here too.

Wei Ran sighed and murmured to himself, raised his camera towards them, pressed the shutter button towards the young soldiers whose faces were illuminated by the last ray of sunset and the flickering bonfire, and took the 21st photo.

After putting away the camera before being discovered, Wei Ran returned to the campfire and sat down. He took out two pieces of charcoal from his pocket and handed them to the little lama, who put them into his mouth and chewed them like an expert. Then he took off the water bottle hanging on his shoulder and took a few big gulps of salt water.

This was an extremely rare sumptuous dinner in all these days, but after the initial excitement and anticipation, everyone sitting around the campfire fell into silence.

There was no need to ask, everyone knew clearly that everyone was thinking of squad leader Liu. Or, everyone was cursing the malicious thief God.

There was no rain when there was a shortage of water, there was no rain when there was a shortage of firewood, and there was no food when there was a shortage of food. Team Leader Liu risked his life to get food, but the damn God immediately sent him such a big fish.

  Because of the sacrifices, there are great ambitions. We dare to change the sun and the moon to a new sky. This thief sky that doesn't understand human affairs should really be replaced with a new one.

Wei Ran murmured silently, but at the same time he reached his hand into his pocket as a cover, took out the harmonica and put it to his mouth.

A moment later, the melody of the March of the Volunteers was also heard beside the campfire.

Gradually, Nurse Ji began to sing along in her hoarse voice, and gradually, Li Zhuang and Zhang Erwa also began to sing along, and even the little lama began to sing along - even though he could only barely remember the pronunciation of the lyrics, but had no idea what the lyrics were about.

As they sang over and over again, Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang's voices were filled with uncontrollable tears, but like Nurse Ji's singing, they became more and more determined and powerful.

Even the little lama subconsciously clenched his fists and waved them vigorously to the rhythm.

As the songs were sung over and over again, the rain gradually turned into snow, and the containers around the campfire were filled with rich fragrance.

Another song ended, Wei Ran put away his harmonica, and everyone looked at Zhang Erwa tacitly.

"We'll set out at dawn tomorrow," Zhang Erwa said seriously, "We must get out of this grassland!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded in unison.

"Have a meal!"

Following Zhang Erwa's order, everyone picked up their own cup of fish soup.

There was a big piece of fish meat and a piece of fish roe the size of a ping-pong ball floating in this cup of boiling hot fish soup. The fish soup had been boiled to a thick white color, filled with a rich aroma, with some wild vegetables floating on top.

After blowing gently, Wei Ran couldn't wait to take a sip. Although there was no seasoning in the fish soup, not even salt, it was extremely delicious. Even though he kept inhaling the cool air because of the scald, he couldn't stop at all.

It would be nice if squad leader Liu could also drink such delicious fish soup.