War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 180 Grandma's Big Pole ([-]-in-[-] update)

On the day when Wei Ran came home suddenly, the first thing he got was the complaints from his parents. After a few words and no greetings when he came back, the mother who had just returned immediately left home with a vegetable basket to buy food and drink.

The father, on the other hand, inquired about Wei Ran's study and work in Russia with great interest, and finally even found the video of him being interviewed from his mobile phone, and asked about the cause and effect in detail.In desperation, Wei Ran could only explain the matter in detail again.

"Son, you don't know!"

Comrade Lao Wei said with great comfort, "You have made me and your mother look good when you are on TV. Even the business of our travel agency has improved a lot."

"What does this have to do with the travel agency business?"

Wei Ran didn't know why and asked, the small travel agency at home with only two or three employees was naturally created by two old girlfriends, his mother and aunt Zhou Shujin, several years ago.Usually, the main business is to send tourists to Russia and Eastern Europe. Besides, the only domestic route is to send some low-cost tour groups to Baiyangdian, where my grandma’s home is located.

"Your mother has been broadcasting the video of you being interviewed by the TV station on the TV at the entrance of the travel agency for almost a month, and also hung our family portrait in the most prominent position."

Comrade Lao Wei didn't notice the changing expression on his son's face at all, and continued enthusiastically, "Don't say it! Although that Maozi's words are indeed a bit noisy, but the effect is really effective! Years ago In the past two or three weeks, several regiments have been fully registered, and even the hunters you got were recruited."

Speaking of this, Lao Wei finally noticed that his son's expression was wrong, "What's your expression? By the way, you have had enough rest in two days, remember to translate the interview video at that time, and I will let the company's children Add subtitles."

"I knew I wouldn't be back"

"What did you say?" Old Comrade Wei asked, looking at Wei Ran who was muttering beside him.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Wei Ran quickly changed the subject, "I'll show you something good."

"what?"

Seeing that his father was interested, Wei Ran hurriedly opened the piano case, "This is the guqin I bought from Maozi. The parent of a classmate of Sui Sui wanted to buy it for 80 yuan, but I didn't sell it."

"Eight 800,000?!" Comrade Wei widened his eyes, "How much did you pay for it?"

Wei Ran grinned silly and said, "Twenty thousand"

"Only 78? A net profit of [-]?" Comrade Lao Wei became more and more surprised.

"Twenty thousand dollars" Wei Ran had to correct.

"U.S. dollars?"

Lao Wei took out his mobile phone to find out the exchange rate, calculated it, and asked in surprise, "That can earn more than [-] yuan! What's going on with you this year, kid? The windfalls are one after another?"

"Took a few big jobs"

When Wei Ran said this, there was not much excitement on his face. Compared with what he experienced in the process of investigating the historical truth, other benefits became the least important thing.

"You little bastard is finally doing well, call your mother and ask her to buy a bottle of good wine, and we will have a drink later in the evening!"

Comrade Wei leaned on the sofa with emotion. Since Wei Ran graduated for more than half a year, he has sent a lot of money home from Russia alone. He never thought that it would be near the end of the year, and he would bring back such a valuable old antique. , what is there to be unsatisfied with?
"You don't need to buy wine." Wei Ran opened the suitcase next to the sofa, "After I came back, I went to Sichuan to meet a friend, and they gave me a lot of good wine."

"What friends do you have over there?"

Wei Ran was sent to Russia as soon as he graduated from high school, and most of the people he met in China were local classmates.But soon, Comrade Wei's little doubt was pushed aside by the two bottles of good wine that Wei Ran handed over.

That night, the family of three had a lively meal, and after Wei Ran's mother listened to her son's retelling of his son's achievements in the past six months and the details of the interview, she immediately made a decision and decided to take him and her son with her the next day. All kinds of gifts go to various relatives to visit.

Mother's thoughts, whether it's Wei Ran or Comrade Wei, who is holding a glass of wine and refuses to put it down, are naturally clear.What else can I do, it's just to show off my son!

It doesn't matter if it's because of vanity, or if it's about letting Wei Ran come back to his hometown with a good clothes, her own son can get along well, and if she doesn't hit the relatives and friends around her, isn't she too unqualified to be a mother?

After Wei Ran resisted several times to no avail, he could only nod helplessly in agreement with his mother's decision.As for what he wanted to ask several times, about the furnishings in his bedroom, he was fooled by the dishes his mother sent into the bowl with one chopstick after another.

That night, Wei Ran kicked the bear doll that occupied most of the bed to the bottom of the bed, and fell asleep soundly through the drunkenness.

A rare sleep until dawn, when Wei Ran was awakened by the knock on the door, the quartz clock hanging on the wall had just passed half past seven.

Under the urging of his mother, Wei Ran, who resisted to no avail, changed into the suit he wore when he was interviewed, dressed like an insurance buyer, carrying the big and small bags of gifts that his mother picked out last night, and started Had a dizzying tour of the visitor.

It took two full days to satisfy the mother's vanity of showing off her son. After Wei Ran finished beating those peers from relatives and friends, his own treatment also saw a decline. It's time to start preparing breakfast and dinner for the two elders.

"You have nothing to do when you come back, why don't you go to the travel agency to help?"

Early this morning, Wei Ran's mother asked her son after finishing breakfast.

"Who said I have nothing to do?"

Wei Ran, who was busy cleaning up the kitchen waste, raised his chin towards the guqin placed on the table on the balcony, "I've been practicing the piano since you guys went to work."

"You are really willing to buy such an expensive thing, and you just turn it over and over like cotton every day to make such a tune."

Wei Ran's mother complained with pain on her face, that she bought a cheap piece for Wei Ran, and put away the guqin that was said to be worth tens of thousands, and kept it as a family heirloom.

However, she dragged Wei Ran's father to several piano shops, only to find out that not only the guqin for serious performances is not cheap, but the piano is easy to break if it is not used. .

"Why don't you come play?" Wei Ran said very bachelor.

"I'll flick the back of your head!"

Wei Ran's mother put down the chopsticks in her hand, "It's fine if you don't want to go to the travel agency to help out, and go out for a walk more these two days, meet your high school classmates, or go to your grandma's house, don't spend time every day. Stay at home and be careful not to make trouble."

"Come on, let's go to work." Wei Ran's father finally helped his son and said, "It's too late to catch the bus."

After seeing off his parents, Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, and after cleaning up the table, he sat cross-legged on the edge of the table on the balcony, and continued to practice piano against the CD that Chen Guangling gave him back then.

After realizing that he might have a psychological problem, he didn't go to see a psychiatrist. After all, his experiences were too bizarre. It seemed that the Chinese New Year was coming, and it would be great fun if he was sent to a mental hospital again. .

On the other hand, he also found that after returning home, he felt a lot more at ease.Among other things, at least I no longer have nightmares, and playing the piano every day seems to be really helpful to calm my mind.

However, not long after the melody of Ben Ben Kan Kan sounded, the anti-theft door behind him was knocked.After he got up and opened the door, a postman who wrapped himself tightly in a cotton coat immediately handed over a courier document bag.

After looking at the sender's information, Wei Ran thanked the courier brother and sent him away. After closing the door and tearing open the courier, he took out Sui Sui's report card from inside.

The grades in most subjects on this report card are not bad, but at the same time, the three red zero eggs mixed in it are also particularly conspicuous.

Wei Ran found out his cell phone and took a picture first as evidence of crime, then he took out a lighter and went into the bathroom, burned it to ashes in the sink, and by the way, he also took a video of the whole process and sent it to Sui Sui would ask once an hour.

Before he could clean up the ashes in the sink, Sui Suo called.When he pressed the answer button, he immediately heard the other party pretending to whisper, "Officer Guard, your undercover work has ended, and now you have decided through organizational discussion that you can retreat!"

"speak politely!"

"Okay!" Sui Sui finally began to speak human again, "When are you coming? I went to your grandma's house for dinner yesterday, and they kept asking me."

Wei Ran walked out of the bathroom with his mobile phone and thought for a while. The sweet period with his parents in the past few days is almost time to stop due to arrears. It's better to go to grandma's house and continue to enjoy it for a few days. With this in mind, he simply said, "If It’s not just today, I’ll leave in a while.”

"Bring your 80 over here," Sui Sui said immediately, "I told your grandma and grandpa that you are learning to play the piano, and they want to hear it."

"I really appreciate you"

Wei Ran gritted his teeth and said, these two days at home, my mother invited several friends over to show off her son who can play the piano, but Sui Sui also dug a hole for him.

Sui Sui, who didn't know that the knife had almost reached her neck, continued, "And that pink suitcase in my room."

"Your room?" Wei Ran wanted to crush the phone, "That's my room!"

"How many times do you live in a year? In short, you must bring it for me!" Before the words finished, Sui Sui hung up the phone arrogantly.

"Can't heal you anymore?"

Wei Ran sent the report card taken in advance to Suisui, then turned the phone to silent, took the things the other party needed and the gifts prepared in advance, by the way, he also brought his own pug with a crooked mouth, and drove the old car. Dad left the car ahead of time and left home.

It was less than two hundred kilometers away, and when he arrived near his grandma's house, both sides of the road were already covered with withered yellow reeds and remnants of dried lotus leaves.

Don't look at how dilapidated it looks, but when it comes to summer, the scenery here is definitely not to be chosen.The verdant and dense reeds are blowing with the wind, the endless lotus pond and the wooden boats drifting past from time to time are not only the childhood memories of Wei Ran and Sui Sui, but also attract many tourists from other places.

If we push back the time, during the anti-Japanese period, on the same lake, the village where Wei Ran's grandma's house is located was once the main position of the famous anti-Japanese armed Yanling team.

Therefore, no matter Wei Ran or Suisui, since I was a child, I have heard the old people in this village say more than once that the steamboat of the little devil sank near which reed marshes around, and who and so in which village nearby died in what year? The place, or the prototype of the Gazi blocking the chimney in the movie is actually a so-and-so in which village.

In addition, Wei Ran, who came here for summer vacation when he was a child, often took Sui Sui, who also came here for summer vacation, into the water to touch fish, climb trees and dig out bird eggs, even blocked the chimney of grandma's house, and at the same time, he also looked forward to good luck someday , can fish out a bastard box from the water.

Reminiscing about his childhood, Wei Ran drove the car into the village, and finally stopped at the gate of an ordinary farmhouse.

This is Wei Ran's grandma's house, and the next neighbor is Suisui's grandma's house.Thanks to the great relationship between the two mothers, although the two courtyards are still open, there is also an extra doorway on the wall between the two courtyards.

Before Wei Ran opened the car door, Sui Sui ran out of the yard.With a flattering face, he leaned over and asked attentively, "Are you tired on the road? Shall I help you carry your luggage?"

"Come on less..." Wei Ran put the phone into his pocket first, "Be honest, otherwise I will send the report card to my aunt."

"you are vicious!"

Sui Sui gritted her teeth and muttered something, picked up all kinds of things in the trunk with an aggrieved face, and ran into the yard first with the silly dog ​​whose tail was wagging like a propeller.

Wei Ran, who followed behind, smelled the smell of miscellaneous fish sticking pancakes before entering the door, and under Sui Sui's yelling, Wei Ran's grandma and grandpa also came out from different directions in the yard.

"You little thing is back!" Wei Ran's grandma held a kitchen knife in her hand and greeted in a loud voice, "Hurry up, come in and warm up."

"Grandma, are you waiting for me to cook?" Wei Ran asked jokingly.

Only then did the old lady notice the kitchen knife in her hand, "Hi! I'm chopping vegetables here, and I forgot to put it down in a hurry."

"Suisui said that you will come back at noon, and your grandma will start preparing after eating."

While talking, Wei Ran's grandfather walked over from the pigsty with a shovel on his shoulder.This old man's surname is Han, just like most of the old people in the village. He fishes in summer and weaves mats in winter. Basically, the old man will be invited to preside over it.

Wei Ran handed the gift in his hand to Sui Sui who had already run around, and asked curiously, "Grandpa, what are you doing?"

"There was a strong wind two days ago, and the roof of this old pigsty collapsed."

Mr. Han led Wei Ran into the house and said, "I don't want to simply dismantle it and turn it into a vegetable field before the Chinese New Year. Anyway, I haven't raised pigs for more than ten years, and keeping them will take up space."

"I'll unpack it for you after dinner"

"Don't do it, you're just going to be buried."

Wei Ran's grandfather took off his apron mask and hat while talking, "Go to the back room, the tea is ready, Sui Sui, don't run away, let your brother move it by himself."

"Grandpa said to let you move by yourself"

Sui Sui, who had already finished the third trip, said proudly with her arms crossed, but when she saw Wei Ran take out her phone with a smile, she immediately changed her mind, "But I'm losing weight, so I'd better move!"

"Cowardly and steely"

Wei Ran put away his mobile phone, picked up a few gifts, and said to the old man who was washing his hands and face, "I'll go to the east courtyard and sit down, and I'll be back later."

Wei Ran's grandfather wiped his face and said, "Go! Call them to come over for dinner."

Passing through the small gate on the wall of the two courtyards, Wei Ran was warmly welcomed by the two old people again before entering the house.

Different from Wei Ran's grandfather, the old man of the Zhou family is a serious ancestral old Chinese doctor. Unfortunately, when it was passed down to his generation, the only remaining skills were massage and bone setting.

When Wei Ran was young, it was not uncommon to see those unlucky people who had broken their bones or dislocated their hands and feet from all over the world in this yard, screaming for the old man to put a splint on the bones The magnificent scene, even he himself experienced it once.

Although more than ten years have passed now, the crisp "crack" sound when the old man easily pushed the dislocated bone back to its original position when I was a child is still fresh in my memory.

And Mr. Zhou naturally likes Wei Ran, the bastard who has blocked the chimney of his house more than once. If Wei Ran's grandma hadn't prepared a meal, he might have been left behind.

Putting down the gifts and having a chat with the two elders, the two elders sat at a table with Wei Ran and Sui Sui, two young people, and had a lively lunch.

After drinking, eating and drinking enough tea, Grandpa Wei Ran changed into his old clothes again, put on a mask, gloves and a hat, and prepared to continue dismantling the pigsty. Wei Ran had nothing to do, so he simply found a whole set of worn clothes to change into to help.

But Sui Sui cleverly brought her grandparents and Wei Ran's grandma to a table, and started playing mahjong with a lot of yelling.

In the windy yard, under the command of his grandfather, Wei Ran vigorously wielded the pickaxe, while dismantling the pigsty made of blue bricks, he also listened to the latter talking about ancient times.

According to Grandpa Wei Ran, this pigsty was actually the wing of an old house at first, and it has a history of seven to eighty years at least.Later, when he got married, he built a new house on the original site, and the family lived in a small wing room. After the new house was built, most of the old house was demolished, leaving only the last small room and turned it into a pigsty.

"Grandpa, there seems to be something in this hollow wall."

The disheveled Wei Ran pointed to the half-removed wall and said, this kind of old house has hollow walls in order to save materials, and it has just been demolished all the way, and the inside is really a nest of snakes and rats, densely covered with dust. A large amount of moldy grains and snake skin mixed in the cracks in the wall.

"what?"

Mr. Han, who was in charge of transporting bricks to the bottom of the courtyard wall with a trolley, came over to have a look, then grabbed a rusty iron rod covered by moldy grain and dust, and was about to take it out.

However, to the surprise of the grandparents and grandsons, the inconspicuous iron rod turned out to be terrifyingly long. After pulling it out for less than half a meter, not only did the head fail to be seen, but the second half of it was stuck instead.

Wei Ran, who was aroused by his curiosity, immediately regained his energy, picked up the pickaxe again, and picked out pieces of blue bricks glued with yellow mud and threw them on the cart, and then dug up the dust that had accumulated for more than half a century And mixed with all kinds of garbage.

Even so, when he finally dug out the second half of the rusty iron rod, he had almost demolished that wall.Along with it, he also found a second iron rod and two heavy aluminum lunch boxes inside.

What Wei Ran couldn't understand was that each of these two big iron rods was nearly three meters long, and there were still dots of green paint left on them. The two iron rods were the same in length and similar in shape, thin One end was as thick as a fertilized cucumber, and the other end even exceeded the wrist.

And not only the thin end is inlaid with a piece of wood like a gun head, but the thick end is also bound with a piece of bad wood in the shape of a shoehorn with two thick iron plates.In addition, one of the iron rods was tied with a "bow"-shaped iron pin with hemp rope.

"Grandpa, what is this for?" Wei Ran asked suspiciously.

"You don't know?" Grandpa Wei Ran leaned forward with a look of emotion, "This is the big pole, which was used by the Yanling team to beat the little devils."

"Is this the big lifting pole?" Wei Ran's eyes widened, "So long?"

"It's just a big lift pole. I used this thing to shoot wild geese when I was a child, but the one I used was much shorter than this one."

Wei Ran's grandfather pulled off the bad wood inlaid on the thin ends of the two iron rods familiarly, and then revealed the black muzzle of the gun. Motor oil smell.

"Why does our family have this thing?"

While Wei Ran was asking, he couldn't help but put his fingers into the muzzle of the gun. The inner diameter of the big lifting rod must be at least 20 mm, which can be called a small earthen gun!
"You asked that"

Grandpa Wei Ran said as a matter of course, "When I was young, I didn't say that every family had it, at least half of the ten families had it. But our family is so arrogant, maybe they really beat devils."

Seeing Wei Ran's puzzled face, Mr. Han squatted down and untied the bow-shaped iron pin tied to the big lifting pole, and then without getting up, he moved directly to the thick end of the two large lifting poles, and put them together. After tightening it, he put the iron pin to the end, and then said, "This kind of big lifting rod is specially used for putting on small boats, the muzzle is placed on the bow, and the iron pin and hemp are used for the rear butt The rope is fastened to the boat."

Waiting for Wei Ran to squat down, Mr. Han casually picked up a chicken feather by his feet, searched around the end of the big lifting pole, and then opened a small hole that was also sealed with a thin wooden stick, and continued to explain: "The fire gates of these two big lifting rods are connected together. When you need to shoot the gun, you can directly put the thick incense sticks together. When the two big lifting rods are fired together, if you are on the water, you can push the boat to the water. Then backed out several meters away."

"Grandpa, how many meters can this thing hit?" Wei Ran asked after him.

"That's hard to say." Mr. Han thought for a while, "I estimate that a hundred or ten meters should be no problem. If it is four and fifty meters away, two or three layers of cast iron pots can be pierced."

Wei Ran subconsciously looked down at the tattoo on his hand that was covered by two band-aids, but after calming down, he immediately dismissed the thought that had arisen for a moment.The bruises on my chest and elbows haven't completely faded yet, not to mention that although the pistol doesn't have to worry about bullets for the time being, the crucial semi-automatic rifle has already been emptied in Teng County.

While he was thinking about it, Mr. Han also opened the two heavy aluminum lunch boxes.Wei Ran went up to have a look curiously, one of the lunch boxes was full of iron sand, and on the inner cover that could be used as a plate, there was also a stick of incense thicker than a cigarette butt, a roll of rags and A box of matches.

The other lunch box was filled with wet black powder and two rotten goose feathers. Besides that, there was a small funnel made of cow horns buried in the black powder.

Wei Ran took it out of the caked black powder, and at a glance he found that there were several crooked orthographic characters engraved on the horn funnel.

　Thanks may be the author himself, Pomo Huidanqing, Jiu Ai Controlling People's Heart, Mi Lai Xidian for rewarding 1500 points respectively

　　Thanks to Feiwushou and XYSFY for rewarding 200 points respectively

　　Thanks to Lanse Guanghua, Zhao Feiyu, and Dahan Caomin for rewarding 100 points respectively

　　
　
(End of this chapter)