War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1516 Hypothesis

On September 9, Wei Ran drove the domestic SUV that Secretary Bai helped him borrow, and took several girls including Sui Sui who came to watch the ceremony, and drove to the vicinity of Sister Juan's old cave house, the open space in the field next to Hulu River early.

In just a week, the place has become much more spacious. Even the bumpy and steep dirt road that was originally impossible to drive on seems to have been repaired. Not only has the slope been gentler, but it has also been paved with a layer of broken bricks, which seems to have been pressed with a press and is particularly solid.

"Go up there?"

In the car, Sui Sui, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, asked. Today, whether it was her and Wei Ran, or Ka Jianka and others who followed in the car behind them, they all changed into black formal clothes.

"Go ahead."

As Wei Ran spoke, he slowly stepped on the accelerator and drove the two-wheel drive car all the way up, passing the three old cave dwellings that seemed to be still under repair, the jujube tree full of big red dates, and the harvested millet field, and went up along the newly opened dirt road, and finally stopped at the edge of the highest point of the loess mountain, at the end of a wolfberry field.

Without getting out of the car, they could clearly see that less than 20 meters into the wolfberry field, almost at the highest point of the hill, a not-so-luxurious cemetery had been built.

On the tombstone, which is not very tall but faces the direction of Yan'an, under a conspicuous embossed red star, the words "Tomb of Red Army Revolutionary Martyr Li Zhuang" are engraved.

Next to this martyrs' tomb, there are two other unique tombstones.

Both of these steles are in the shape of semi-cylinders. If you put them together, I'm afraid anyone would be able to recognize that it is a stone mill.

On the cross-section of the first half of the stone millstone, six mottled but still clearly legible characters were engraved: "Tomb of Red Army Squad Leader Li". Apart from that, there was nothing else.

On the cross-section of the second half of the stone millstone, detailed information about Li Zhuang's combat experience and the indissoluble bond between the Yao family and the Red Army were engraved in golden handwriting.

During a casual chat with Secretary Bai yesterday, Wei Ran also learned that the stone mill that was split in half was placed in front and behind Li Zhuang's coffin and buried in the loess together with the coffin. According to an elder of Uncle Yao, this tombstone was made by the great grandfather of the Yao family who chiseled out an old stone mill in his home, for fear that the location would be lost in the future.

Just as Wei Ran was staring at the three old and new monuments outside the window, Sui Sui had already opened the car door and asked, "Do you want to take out the things you brought now?"

"Take it out," Wei Ran said, and also pushed open the car door.

"Boss, do we need to get off the car?" the Kajianka sisters sitting in the back seat asked in unison.

"Need not"

Wei Ran spoke. At this time, several cars had already driven up. It was really inappropriate for this group of young ladies to be gathered together.

The Kajianka sisters had no objection to this, so they just sat obediently in the car and watched everything outside through the window.

At nine o'clock in the morning, under the chairmanship of Secretary Bai, the Communists and villagers in the town who rushed here, as well as Uncle Jiang and Wei Ran who were also invited by Secretary Bai from Ganzi, successively presented wreaths as offerings in a solemn atmosphere.

Seeing the tombstone filled with red and white chrysanthemums, paper flowers, and a bunch of Notopterygium flowers brought by Uncle Jiang, Wei Ran also brought Sui Sui and placed a large bowl of white rice and a large plate of ice cream of various flavors piled up in front of the tombstone.

After them, a long-haired girl who looked about ten years old, wearing a school uniform and a red scarf, and a fat boy who also wore a school uniform and a red scarf and looked about 80% like Yao Dajun, jointly carried a wreath to the tombstone and put it down steadily.

Then, the girl took out a bunch of lollipops from her school uniform pocket and placed them on the altar in front of the tombstone. The fat boy took out a large bottle of juice and a large bowl from his arms, and with the smiles of the people around him, he poured a full bowl of juice and placed it on the altar.

"salute!"

When the fat boy stood up, the little girl shouted crisply, and the two little guys raised their arms in unison and saluted as the Young Pioneers. The rest of the people bowed their heads in silence.

"Sister, if the Soviet Union still existed, would it be like this?"

In the SUV driven by Wei Ran, Anfia muttered to herself in English that the four of them could understand.

"What's it like?" Anfisa asked absentmindedly, also looking sideways out the window.

Anfia pointed out the window and said, "This is how China is."

Then, she switched to Italian, which only Anfisa could understand, and said, "If the Soviet Union still existed, would my mother's tombstone be so lively? People would lay flowers and children would salute."

“It may be so lively, but the Soviet Union no longer exists and it is unlikely to appear again.”

Anfisa switched to English and said, "The Soviet Union is the Soviet Union, and China is China. Even if the Soviet Union still exists, it will not be like China. China is not a copy of the Soviet Union, nor is it a spiritual successor like Belarus or a wealth successor like Russia."

"The Soviet Union no longer exists, and many people miss it."

Marta, a frontline military doctor from eastern Ukraine, also looked out the window and expressed her opinion, "It's just nostalgia. No one really wants to go back to the Soviet Union. It's simply a nightmare."

At this point, Marta looked at the rest of the people in the car and said, "While the boss is away, how about we make an assumption?"

"What if?" Lu Xinda asked casually. "Suppose China suffered the same fate as the Soviet Union, what do you think they would do?"

Marta pointed out the window and said, "I mean the Chinese, not just those outside. What do you think they will do?"

"Although I am not Chinese, I know the answer."

Lu Xinda, who has yellow skin and black hair, also looked at the crowd outside the window who were mourning in silence, and said with a hint of envy, "Those people, I mean those Chinese people including the boss, they will do whatever it takes to make China reappear.

If you ask me, the only ones who can make China disappear from the earth are probably aliens. The kind of aliens who drive a spaceship and can blow the moon into eight pieces with one shot. "

"I'm not sure whether aliens can make China disappear. After all, I haven't encountered aliens yet."

Anfisa licked her lips when she said this, "But I guess, as long as the aliens don't make the Chinese disappear, they will most likely be served on the Chinese table.

Just like the ending of the monsters in the Chinese mysterious recipe story you translated for us recently."

“Who told you that was the story of the mysterious recipe?” Lu Xinda stared at the other three people in astonishment with her eyes wide open.

"Isn't it?" the Kajianka sisters asked in unison.

Lu Xinda hugged her head, "Classic of Mountains and Seas! That's Classic of Mountains and Seas, not some mysterious Chinese recipe story! It's a myth, just like the Bible, but it's much older than the Bible!"

"Come on"

Marta obviously didn't believe it. "It's not like I haven't read the Bible. It doesn't tell us how to cook God, the Virgin Mary, or Judas, let alone what effects eating them would have."

"Didn't the story of the Chinese monkey say that eating a Chinese monk would give you eternal life? I guess eating God would be about the same."

Anfisa said excitedly, "But if you ask me, I actually want to eat that pig more, just like what Sister Aurora's mother made for us last time."

"Why don't we just communicate in Russian," Lucinda requested weakly.

"You don't understand Russian," Anfia refused with disgust.

"It's because I don't understand Russian," Lu Xinda mumbled incoherently, her CPU about to smoke.

Not to mention where the four girls in the car's aimless chat led them to, the ceremony outside the car window also came to an end with the crisp "the ceremony is over" from the little girl named Li Lingxi.

There was no speech, no declaration, just like Li Zhuang did not ask Wei Ran to make any guarantees.

When the ceremony was over, the villagers who had come spontaneously also left in groups of three or five. Some said they would come here often in the future and asked "Yao Lao San" to remember to put some tables and chairs. Some said they would buy some saplings and plant them here when they were not busy in the next few days, so that "Yao Lao San" would not be reluctant to give up his food land. Others urged "Yao Lao San" to repair their old cave house as soon as possible.

Uncle Yao, who was wearing a formal suit today, readily agreed to all these requests.

Those villagers who got satisfactory answers responded with promises like "I'll help you get wolfberries when the time comes" and continued to walk back around Secretary Bai and County Magistrate Ma, who seemed to be quite popular. They spoke in the local dialect that Wei Ran could barely understand, about how the older generation had helped the Red Army carry water, lead the way, carry the wounded, and sighed about those who survived or did not survive.

Until the end, in front of the tombstone filled with various offerings and bouquets, only Sister Juan's family, Uncle Jiang, Wei Ran and Sui Sui who were invited were left, and of course, Kajianka and others who had just got out of the car.

While the Kajianka sisters, Marta, and Lu Xinda were presenting the bouquets they bought in the county town, Sister Juan also pulled her daughter Lingxi and greeted them in a hurry, "Uncle Jiang, Teacher Wei, and Sister Sui Sui, you all come to my house later.

My dad and brother were busy preparing it yesterday, and today we will let you taste our local specialty, Nine Bowls and Thirteen Flowers. "

Before she finished her words, Li Lingxi, who was being held by her hand, pointed at the tombstone behind him, looked up at Uncle Yao and asked in a baby voice, "Grandpa, can you serve a separate portion and send it here later?"

"Yes! There must be one here!"

Uncle Yao promised lovingly, "I will also give you a pot of millet wine brewed by grandpa!"

"Dad, how about changing my last name to Li?"

The fat boy standing next to Yao Dajun asked without knowing whether to live or die, "Maybe I will become smarter after taking Grandpa Hongjun's surname."

"I think you deserve a beating again"

Before Yao Dajun finished his words, he grabbed the chubby arm of the filial son, took off the new leather shoes he had bought in the county town, and slapped the soles of his shoes on each side of his plump and perky butt.

Suddenly, this originally solemn and dignified martyrs' cemetery, as expected, became quiet and peaceful with the full and energetic wails, and became much more joyful, as if... as if it was supposed to be this way.