War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1538: The tacit understanding with the hot air balloon

After lunch on September 9, Hot Air Balloon also got a job as an ambulance driver in the hospital - they had their own ambulance.

As the afro-haired man insisted, Dalal and Hanward became his partners, and even little Rama sat in the passenger seat of the ambulance and served as the announcer of the tweeter on the roof.

Of course, although they, one adult and three children, were given jobs, they were not actually given jobs.

This is a refugee camp, there is no electricity, let alone a telephone, so all they can do is drive the car to the window of their dormitory and sit in the car waiting for the possibility that they might be needed.

In fact, due to the shortage of fuel and medical supplies, the medicines and fuel carried in this ambulance can play a greater role in this hospital than the ambulance itself.

Because of this, when Wei Ran was busy performing an appendectomy on a child in the operating room with the cooperation of Edelweiss, Sewing Machine had already called on the hot air balloon for help and distributed a considerable portion of the medicines in the car and most of the fuel in the tank to the hospital.

“I thought you were a veterinarian.”

In the operating room, Edelweiss said to Wei Ran who was standing opposite the operating table, "It turns out you can suture so delicately."

"It's not like outside, where there are so many people queuing up to save their lives."

Wei Ran didn't know what he was thinking about. He paused and continued, "We have enough time, but this little girl's life has just begun."

"Thank you," Edelweiss suddenly smiled with relief.

"What are you thanking me for?" Wei Ran looked up at the other person.

Edelweiss smiled and said while playing along, "I was just struggling over whether I should stop you if you're still as rude as you were outside the refugee camp, and then I can do the surgery myself."

"You should have some confidence in me," Wei Ran said helplessly.

“But your code name is Veterinarian.”

Edelweiss smiled, and while taking over the bandaging work, she changed the subject, "There are far fewer wounded here than outside. Compared to doctors, what we lack here is actually supplies."

"What do you want to say?" Wei Ran asked as he took off his gloves.

"If it's not so dangerous outside, I don't think we need to waste time hiding in the refugee camp any longer."

Edelweiss spoke up and stated her plan, "I want to save as many people as possible before I leave here."

"When do you plan to leave here?" Wei Ran asked the second question.

"My original plan was to end the humanitarian mission here a week before Christmas."

As Edelweiss finally fixed the gauze, she said, "After finishing my work here, I may go to the medical school of the University of Vienna to continue my studies."

"A good choice," Wei Ran asked, following the topic, "Which field?"

"Medical Hypnosis"

After finishing the bandaging work, Edelweiss explained shyly, "I have been interested in hypnosis since I was a child. Do you know the gypsies? The gypsies who can hypnotize people with crystal balls."

"I know." Wei Ran nodded.

"When I was a kid, my grandfather told me he had seen a gypsy who could actually hypnotize people."

Edelweiss said, "It was in the collection he was working on. He said that the gypsy hypnotized the guards and managed to escape."

"And then?" Wei Ran asked with interest.

"Then my grandfather captured him and studied hypnosis with him for a long time."

Edelweiss shrugged her shoulders and said, "Although my grandfather did not learn hypnosis, he told me many stories about hypnosis. I became interested in hypnosis from then on."

As if she had thought of something, Edelweiss couldn't help but smile, "I even pestered my grandfather to buy me a crystal ball. My earliest dream was to be a fortune-telling gypsy witch, until that glass ball almost set my grandfather's house on fire."

"Where did you put it?"

"The sofa my grandfather used to bask in the sun"

As Edelweiss spoke, she took a step back and allowed the Palestinian nurse who was working with them to push the little girl on the operating table out of the operating room.

"You will go to the Medical School of the University of Vienna to study medical hypnosis," Wei Ran said as he walked out of the operating room, as if making a promise.

"Are you Aladdin's magic lamp?" Edelweiss couldn't help but laugh and teased.

"Who knows?" Wei Ran muttered vaguely.

"If you really are Aladdin's magic lamp," Edelweiss murmured to herself, "I would rather make a wish."

"what?"

"Forget it," Edelweiss forced a smile, "Nothing."

Without continuing this helpless topic, the two walked out of the operating room one after another.

That afternoon, the two of them performed several operations of varying sizes. During their free time, Edelweiss went to the clinic to help, while Wei Ran walked around the hospital alone.

There was nothing special about this Aka Hospital, but what particularly satisfied Wei Ran was that there was a stairwell right opposite their dormitory, which led both upstairs and downstairs.

Going down the stairwell is the hospital's morgue, but due to power outages, it has obviously been out of use for a long time.

After looking around with a flashlight, Wei Ran, who had originally planned to go in and take a look, ran towards the operating room with Edelweiss at the call of the Palestinian nurse named Sophia in the operating room.

"She's a pregnant woman"

The nurse named Sophia shouted, "It's a difficult birth. Your car just pulled back."

"Go find the cradle!" Edelweiss immediately said to Wei Ran, "You can't help!"

"it is good!"

As Wei Ran said this, he turned around and ran downstairs. He really couldn't help with anything like delivering a baby.

Wei Ran let the cradle in the clinic take over his shift. After saying hello to the sewing machine, he strolled to the stairwell opposite the dormitory again without giving up.

After looking around, Wei Ran slowly lit a cigarette and took a puff. Then he walked into the dark basement with a flashlight in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Of course, there was not only a morgue in this basement, but also other departments that had been discontinued. Standing at the stairs leading to the first floor, Wei Ran squatted down and placed the cigarette in his hand on the edge of the steps, while also aiming the flashlight beam at the smoke rising from the cigarette butt.

However, to his disappointment, the smoke went straight up and down with almost no disturbance by the wind.

This certainly does not mean that there are no ghosts in the basement of the morgue, but it implies that the stairs he just came down may be the only entrance and exit to the basement of this building.

To put it more bluntly, if we need to hide here in the future, it would be fine if we are not discovered, but if we are discovered, it would be a desperate situation.

But at the same time, he knew that according to historical records, no matter how those little chairs tried to shift the blame or cover up, the Falangist thugs instigated by them did attack the medical workers of this hospital.

Picking up the cigarette butt and taking another puff, Wei Ran searched room by room with the flashlight in hand, looking for any suitable hiding place.

It can be seen that although this floor was shut down due to lack of power supply, the equipment inside has been properly sealed.

In comparison, the morgue is completely open, which is understandable. After all, there is nothing to steal here, not even a corpse.

Apart from the rows of morgues after the power outage, there was only a faint but unignorable stench of corpses.

After opening a morgue and looking inside, Wei Ran was silent for a moment, then turned around and walked out again.

People can be hidden here, but they can't hide here. Once discovered, there is really no room for resistance. Now he can only hope that the rented house can provide some hidden space.

Before returning to the first floor, he took off his white coat and draped it over the stair railing, climbed over the window at the end of the corridor, and greeted the hot air balloon sitting in the cab of the ambulance.

"Do you need me to take you there?"

While asking, Hot Air Balloon handed over a cigarette and a bunch of keys, "Show the keys to the owner and he will let you in."

"no need"

While Wei Ran took the key, he also refused the other party's offer and cigarette, "I can go by myself." "Those things are under the bed in the room on the second floor facing the Kuwait Embassy," said the hot air balloon.

"Okay." Wei Ran nodded and walked towards the outside of the hospital.

"Veterinarian, no, Dongfeng." The hot air balloon called out to Wei Ran.

"What's wrong?" Wei Ran turned around and asked.

"Can you lend me your camera?"

The hot air balloon said, pointing to Rama, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, "There are too few Polaroid photo boxes, and you can't buy Polaroid photo boxes here."

"no problem"

Wei Ran readily agreed, "I'll get it for you later."

"Thank you"

The hot air balloon immediately said gratefully, "I want to go find my wife and daughter's friends and take some pictures of them."

"I will be back as soon as possible." Wei Ran promised again and took another step forward.

Wei Ran left through the side door of the hospital and walked aimlessly on the dilapidated streets.

Although it was his first time here and he couldn't understand Arabic, he could see that a well-developed small social circle had been formed in this crowded refugee camp, and it seemed that everyone passing by knew each other.

Similarly, compared with this harmonious "neighborhood relationship", he can also see the scarcity of supplies and the poor living environment here.

Walking through the streets and alleys, when he passed through a narrow alley less than one meter wide and came to the street opposite, he was less than a hundred meters away from the house rented by the hot air balloon.

Instead of knocking on the door of the house in a hurry, Wei Ran walked into the alley next door.

This alley is much wider than the one I just came from. Apart from anything else, if the skills are better, at least the ambulance can barely drive in.

Walking into the alley, on the left, across a courtyard wall less than two meters high, was the two-story building they rented, and on the right was the outer wall of another building. Fortunately, there were no windows on this outer wall.

The better news was that although the end of the alley was blocked by all kinds of debris, he found a manhole cover that was mostly covered by piled up broken bricks.

  Maybe he can actually survive.

Wei Ran knocked gently on the old-looking manhole cover while muttering to himself. After a moment's hesitation, he did not rush to do anything. Instead, he stood up and walked out of the alley, went to the door of the house and knocked gently on the gate.

After a while, a man who looked to be in his thirties opened the door.

Smiling politely at the other person, Wei Ran took out the key bunch that the hot air balloon had given him and shook it.

The moment he saw the key ring, the man who was originally a little wary immediately became much more enthusiastic. He let him in while speaking Arabic, which Wei Ran could not understand.

The yard was quite large, and there was even a car with slightly deflated tires parked inside, and a swing built on a metal frame.

At this time, a little boy who looked about seven or eight years old was pushing a little girl who was probably one or two years younger than him on a swing.

Not far from the swing, a woman was operating a water pressurized well to draw water into a large iron basin. Another basin next to it was full of dirty clothes from adults and children.

Just from these details, it is clear that this family is not refugees - even though they live in a refugee camp.

In fact, although this is a refugee camp, there are actually quite a few “non-refugees” living here.

Most of these non-refugees are workers from neighboring countries such as Iraq, Syria or Egypt.

Although it is now the seventh year of the Lebanese Civil War, seven years ago, Lebanon was known as the "Switzerland of the Middle East".

Coming here to work is almost a dream job for many neighboring countries.

Even though the civil war has been going on intermittently for seven years, there is still money to be made here, especially working for the Near East Engineering Project. For many people at the bottom of society, it is still a good job that provides a stable income regardless of the weather.

Of course, for these workers with low incomes, the low cost of living in the refugee camps is an irresistible temptation and their inevitable choice.

In addition to these lower-class people, there are naturally people with better living conditions. Most of these people are "local residents". In other words, they have been living here since before there were refugee camps.

Later this place became a refugee camp, and they started doing business with refugees.

In addition, there are also those who have become "refugee sons-in-law" or "started a family outside the refugee camp", like the hot air balloon.

Whether they are getting married out or getting married in, most of those who return to the refugee camp are visiting relatives and friends, or like Wei Ran and others at this time, they simply live in the refugee camp to avoid the war.

There are even humanitarians such as Doctors Without Borders, journalists and even intelligence personnel among them.

In short, although there are definitely all kinds of people here, the only thing that is the same is that most of the people here have the same religious beliefs.

Because of the language barrier, Wei Ran simply continued to think freely and allowed the enthusiastic man to lead him to the second floor along the external stairs on the side of the building.

Instructing Wei Ran to use one of the keys in the bunch to open the door on the second floor, the man also demonstrated the movements of eating and drinking.

Smiling and waving his hand to reject the other party's kindness, Wei Ran watched the landlord go downstairs, then pushed open the wooden door and walked into the hall on the second floor.

The layout here is very Arabic, with beautiful but slightly old carpets, old but slightly messy furniture around, and even a TV that has been covered in dust for a long time. These small details all suggest that this was once a wealthy family.

Closing the wooden door behind him, Wei Ran roughly checked the few rooms on this floor, and successfully found the body bag hidden under one of the beds, as well as the weapons inside the body bag.

After pulling up most of the curtains facing the seven-story building of the Kuwait Embassy, ​​Wei Ran looked around, pulled over a chair and placed it two meters away from the window. Then he sat cross-legged on the carpet, took out the SVD sniper rifle, placed the muzzle on the back of the chair, and secretly observed the tallest building outside the gap in the curtains.

After a moment, he changed rooms again and observed the direction of the refugee camp's entrance and exit, as well as another slightly abrupt five-story building in the southwest.

After a moment, he changed rooms again and looked in the direction of the hospital.

Fortunately, because the height was just enough and the distance was close enough, even without the help of a scope, he could clearly see the hot air balloon smoking against the front of the ambulance, as well as Rama, Hanwad and Dalal who were chasing around the car.

It was not until this time and at this distance that the three little ones inadvertently showed their childlike nature, instead of being little helpers who were busy all the time inside and outside the operating room.

Satisfied, he rewrapped the gun and hid it in a body bag. Wei Ran climbed up to the roof again and pretended to casually observe the surrounding terrain. He came down before the sun set, temporarily bid farewell to the couple and their curious children, and returned to the hospital through the narrow alley.

"Did you get anything?" The hot air balloon, which seemed to be waiting for him in advance, asked straight to the point.

"The ambulance can be parked in that alley," Wei Ran paused and continued, "There is a manhole cover at the end of the alley."

"Mr. Dongfeng"

Hot Air Balloon looked directly at Wei Ran and asked seriously, "What are you worried about? No, what are you afraid of?"

"I'm not worried about anything, and I'm not afraid of anything." Wei Ran denied it, "I'm just being cautious."

"I heard from Lamar that you are from the American Seabee Battalion?" The hot air balloon paused and added, "A medic?"

"What's wrong?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

“I’ve dealt with American soldiers.”

The hot air balloon said to himself, "You are definitely not an American soldier. You don't have the strong and stinking arrogance and conceit that they have. So, veterinarian or Mr. Dongfeng, what are you doing here?"

"for what?"

Wei Ran smiled and said, "I am Doctors Without Borders now, codenamed Veterinarian. What do you think I am here for? Of course, to carry out humanitarian relief."

"I will protect you and all of you." said the hot air balloon seriously.

"Mr. Dongfeng asked me to convey this."

Wei Ran shrugged seriously, "He said he would help you, help you protect everyone, everyone you want to protect."

"In this case"

Hot Air Balloon showed an extremely bright smile on his face and took the initiative to extend his hand to Wei Ran, "Thank Mr. Dongfeng for me."

"certainly"

As Wei Ran spoke, he also stretched out his hand and shook hands with the other person tightly.