War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1539

That evening, as night fell, the medical staff of Acre Hospital finished a day's work and rushed back to their dormitories, chatting in various languages ​​about the dead barrel outside the refugee camp.

In the dormitory assigned to Wei Ran and others, everyone sat around two beds, facing each other, each holding a lunch box, and savoring their first dinner after entering the refugee camp.

Compared with the outside world, the food in this refugee camp is naturally inferior. Each person is given a slightly dry and hard flatbread and a spoonful of curry-like paste. It is impossible to tell whether there is meat or vegetables in it.

"Are we going to stay here tonight?" Edelweiss asked while struggling to tear the pancake in her hand that was bigger than her face.

"Let's take a rest here first."

Wei Ran looked at the hot air balloon sitting opposite him, and said with a smile, "Let's go to that house later. The conditions there are better."

"I don't know if there's a fight outside," Cradle said worriedly.

"We haven't heard much gunfire yet, probably not yet," the sewing machine replied, "and we're in a refugee camp, so there's nothing to worry about."

“We can’t help much here.”

Rama said rather disappointedly, "During the whole day, our ambulance only brought back one pregnant woman.

By the way, Mrs. Cradle, how is the woman doing? I didn’t even take a picture of her and her baby.”

Hearing this, Cradle subconsciously looked at Edelweiss, then smiled and nodded, "She survived, she and her baby both survived, a healthy girl. I'm sorry, I couldn't find you to take a picture of them."

"Are they still in the hospital?" Lamar asked. "I can go find them later."

"No, no need."

Edelweiss spoke up, "The veterinarian left his camera with me. I have taken pictures of them. The mother and daughter have been picked up by their family."

"That's it"

Rama heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this. It was obvious that this little girl was extremely serious about her work and had an extraordinary enthusiasm for it.

Seeing Edelweiss beside him looking at him and accidentally touching his shoes with her shoes, Wei Ran bit off a piece of cake, chewed it greedily, and said vaguely, "Don't worry, I will remember to develop the photos."

"Then I'll leave it to you." Edelweiss immediately showed a bright and heart-wrenching smile.

After finishing their simple dinner, Hot Air Balloon took out a pack of cigarettes and shook it, "Shou, no, Mr. Dongfeng, how about we go smoke a cigarette?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran nodded, handed the lunch box to Hanward who was in charge of cleaning up, stood up and followed the hot air balloon out of the dormitory, and then without any manners, he climbed over the windows at the end of the corridor not far away, and finally stood next to their ambulance on the side of the road.

“This camera is for you.”

Before the other party could speak, Wei Ran took out the Nikon half-frame camera and two rolls of film that he had prepared in advance and handed them over. "This is a half-frame camera. Each roll of film can take 72 photos."

The hot air balloon happily took the camera and hung it around his neck, "This couldn't be better."

"Do you need me to teach you how to use it?" Wei Ran asked.

“I can use a camera”

The balloon replied, "Before everything went wrong, I also had a rangefinder camera, a Leica rangefinder camera, and then I sold it."

"That's good"

Wei Ran thought for a moment, then took out a roll of film from his pocket and handed it to the other person. "I'll give you an extra roll of film. How about you help me take some photos of the scenery in the refugee camp? I plan to send them to my family."

"Of course!" Hot Air Balloon happily took the third roll of film. "I asked you to come out because I wanted to borrow your camera. Besides that, I also want to give you a small gift."

"What gift?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"this"

Hot Air Balloon said, pulling out a rolled newspaper from his waist bag and handing it to Wei Ran, "Your skin color is too conspicuous here, maybe it would be better to cover it up, I mean, Mr. Dongfeng."

Hearing this, Wei Ran took the rolled newspaper handed to him, weighed it, then looked around before opening it.

Inside the newspaper roll was an Arabic scarf with a yellow background and black plaid, and a label hanging on the corner. However, inside the scarf was a Soviet-made Makarov pistol and a spare magazine full of bullets.

"Where did you get it?"

Wei Ran asked without even raising his head. He knew very well that the handkerchief bought from somewhere was just a "packaging bag" and what the other party really wanted to give him was actually this pistol.

"My wife's father left it behind"

The hot air balloon replied, "He died in the civil war. Keep this gun for self-defense. Didn't you promise to help me protect everyone?"

“Keep it for yourself.”

Wei Ran said, having already returned the pistol and magazine to the other party, "This handkerchief is enough."

"Are you an intelligence officer of some country?" After taking the pistol, Hot Air Balloon suddenly pointed the gun at Wei Ran.

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled and said, "I am Doctors Without Borders."

"So where is Mr. Dongfeng?" the hot air balloon asked.

Wei Ran, who didn't even bother to raise his hand, answered as a matter of course that "internationalist fighter", he had just checked and the gun was not even loaded with bullets.

After a moment, the hot air balloon asked with almost certainty, "Are you staying for the Edelweiss?"

"For justice," Wei Ran answered frankly.

“I never thought that Edelweiss would one day represent justice.”

The hot air balloon smiled self-deprecatingly, and finally slowly put away the weapon and pinned it on the back of his waist, as if he had determined that Wei Ran stayed just because of Edelweiss.

"Have you dispelled your doubts so quickly?" Wei Ran asked back with a normal expression.

"At least you did save many lives in the operating room before"

Hot Air Balloon took out the pack of cigarettes again, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth to light it, then handed the cigarette box and lighter to Wei Ran, "It's just that you give me, no, Mr. Dongfeng gives me a feeling that is too dangerous, I have to figure it out."

"how about you?"

When Wei Ran took the cigarette and lighter, a pistol with a silencer appeared in his left hand holding the scarf.

"It's your turn, Mr. Hot Air Balloon."

Wei Ran said with a smile, "Don't worry, my gun is loaded with bullets, and I also want to find out your purpose."

"Purpose?"

The hot air balloon also seemed to realize that Wei Ran had no ill intentions, and said, leaning against the car door, puffing smoke, "Actually, I'm already a Frenchman."

“I’ve heard of it”

After proving his strength, Wei Ran put away his weapon under the cover of his coat, "You studied in France, then joined the French Army, and obtained French citizenship after retiring."

"That's right"

The hot air balloon blew out a large cloud of smoke. "I only got French citizenship in the third year of the civil war in the French Republic, but..."

“You can choose not to say it.”

Wei Ran, who had already guessed something, sighed, "I have put the gun away." "They are all dead, they are all dead."

The hot air balloon slowly sat on the ground next to the car body, suppressing the pain and saying, "My wife, children, parents, and her parents all died in the civil war. I wanted to take them to France, but I couldn't even find their bodies."

"Is this why you stayed?" Wei Ran asked, and finally lit the wrinkled cigarette in his hand.

“Not the reason”

The hot air balloon smiled bitterly. "Where else can I go except here? They are all here. Where can I go if I leave here? To France? Without them, I have no interest in being a Frenchman."

"so."

“I didn’t save them.”

The hot air balloon glanced at Edelweiss who was clumsily climbing over the window. "So I want to save as many people as possible until..."

With Wei Ran's help, Hot Air Balloon stood up, patted his butt and said, "Until I die here."

After saying that, the hot air balloon enthusiastically greeted Edelweiss who was walking towards it, walked towards the window at the end of the corridor, and flipped over swiftly.

"Would you like a drink?" Edelweiss said as she opened the door of the ambulance.

But then, she said with a little embarrassment, "But I didn't find any wine, and I drank all the wine in the wine bottle you gave me."

"Let's have a drink then."

As Wei Ran spoke, he walked to the passenger seat, opened the door and got in.

"But."

Edelweiss, who closed the car door a step later, hadn't finished speaking yet, but Wei Ran had already taken out his kettle and unscrewed the lid.

"I filled a pot in advance." Wei Ran pointed at the top of Edelweiss's head. The latter reacted and immediately took down the two glasses, allowing Wei Ran to pour half a glass for each of them.

"Ding"

With a crisp and pleasant collision sound, the wine glasses in the hands of the two people gently knocked against each other. At that moment, Edelweiss, who had been tense all day, seemed to have received a signal and seemed to relax a lot.

As if she was taking poison to avoid reality, Edelweiss drank all the red wine in the glass in one breath, and then picked up Wei Ran's kettle.

After a moment's hesitation, she put down her wine glass, held the kettle with both hands and took a sip of the wine.

"Are you under a lot of pressure?" Wei Ran, who just took a sip of wine, finally asked.

"Um"

Edelweiss responded in a voice that only she could hear. Her entire petite body curled up in the driver's seat, holding the bottle of red wine that was like a life-saving potion to her, and said in a daze, "I'm scared."

“You’re afraid.”

"I want to go home"

Edelweiss, who was almost emotionally broken, covered her mouth tightly, lowered her voice, and said with all her might, "I want to leave here, leave immediately, I want to go home, I don't want to die here."

"You now"

Wei Ran paused, and seeing that the living ancestor did not stop him, he boldly continued, "You still have time to leave now."

"I"

After a moment's hesitation, Edelweiss took a sip of wine, then shook her head with difficulty, "I can't leave. I can't abandon you and leave by myself, but...but I'm so scared."

  Ugh.

Wei Ran sighed, drank the remaining red wine in the glass, then carefully wrapped the goblet with newspaper and stuffed it into the net bag above his head.

In the dim sky, Wei Ran stretched out his hand towards Edelweiss. The latter, like a child who had suffered a lot of grievances, pouted her lips, and shed uncontrollable tears. She handed one hand to Wei Ran, then crawled over the engine hood between the two of them, and lay in Wei Ran's arms like she did last night, letting him hold her. She cried unrestrainedly in his arms, venting the strong fear that could not be dispelled at all.

Similarly, Wei Ran, who was holding the girl, was also drawing some luxurious comfort from her.

He knew very well in his heart, just as Edelweiss knew very well in her heart, that there might not be any sexual desire between a man and a woman between them.

But they were all unable to resist drawing that bit of precious warmth from each other's arms, just like two poor children hugging each other tightly for warmth in the winter in Leningrad.

Of course Xueronghua was scared. For this little princess who came from a developed country and grew up being spoiled, everything here was her dream, but also a nightmare she had never experienced before.

No, maybe in her original cognition, nightmares might just be "falling into the mud but not being able to take a bath" or "a man-eating monster with goat horns".

But here, everything here is a real, unimaginable nightmare to her.

A nightmare that made her want to run away and hide behind her all-powerful grandfather.

  But who is born a fearless warrior?

Wei Ran? He is definitely not.

Those Palestinian children who were born into nightmares? They are probably not.

“Warriors are not fearless”

Wei Ran hugged the thin girl who was biting his collar and crying loudly in his arms, and whispered in her ear, "A warrior is someone who is so scared that he wants to run away, but still chooses to stay. Xue Clara, you are already a warrior."

"Are they warriors like those patchwork tank soldiers in the story you told last night?" Edelweiss raised her head, sniffed the slightly embarrassing snot bubbles, and asked with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah," Wei Ran couldn't help but hug the other person tighter, "Like them."

"I want to hear you continue to tell those stories about your time on the battlefield."

Edelweiss took out a handkerchief and blew her nose without any image. Then, she inexplicably switched to the other shoulder that was not wet with tears and leaned down, "You promised me yesterday that you would continue."

"That was my second battle, by the bank of a river."

Wei Ran gently placed one hand on the other's head, looked at the increasingly blurred outline of the building outside the window, and said in a murmur, "There, I met a little boy who was younger than Rama. His name was Nicholas."

"Why is there another child?" Edelweiss, who was held in Wei Ran's arms, couldn't help but tremble.

"yes"

Wei Ran, who also shuddered, sighed, "Why is it another child?"

"Did he survive?" Edelweiss asked while hugging Wei Ran tightly.

“Survived”

Wei Ran's voice became stronger. "He survived and is alive and well. He and his friends left behind a good question."

"What's the problem?" Edelweiss asked in a daze, looking at Wei Ran who was almost swallowed by the darkness.

“If there is only one negative left in the camera, should it be used to record war or happiness?”

"I choose happiness," Edelweiss said almost subconsciously, "but I also want to record the war. No, let's just be happy."

"There is only one negative."

Wei Ran sighed, held the only listener in his arms, and told her about the things that happened by the Don River, hoping to give some encouragement to the girl in his arms and also hoping to get some comfort from her.

(End of this chapter)