War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 200 A Crowdfunding Dish
In the raging blizzard, Wei Ran has already completed the task of shooting 10 photos. These photos include not only group photos of all groups except Kenon, but also individual photos of everyone including Kenon.He even ran outside against the blizzard and pressed the shutter on the hunter's hut that provided shelter and friendship for everyone.

However, on the second night of the blizzard, Yannick, who hadn't woken up, also quietly stopped breathing.This caused Wei Ran to be at a loss for a moment, he came for Yannick, but he didn't say a word to him from the beginning to the end, and now the other party just died without beginning or end.

In the silence of everyone, Flory simply read out Yannick's name and origin according to the contents of Yannick's certificate, and then stuffed half of the soldier's card into his gauze-wrapped mouth.Dr. Jason, on the other hand, used a torn trouser leg to wrap a P38 pistol, a pocket watch with a gold case, and Yannick's ID from Yannick's body, and put them in his pocket.

"I'll go outside and chop some firewood"

Marka couldn't stand the silent atmosphere in the hunter's hut, so he picked up an ax and opened the wooden door wrapped in animal skins.

"I'm going to see if the animal traps I set yesterday have any harvest. I'm almost out of food." Carl ignored the wolf meat hanging outside the door, and followed him out of the oppressive room.

"I'm going to help Karl." Although the young Flory couldn't understand what Karl was saying, he still got up and followed.

For a while, only Wei Ran, Dr. Jason, and four wounded including Kenon were left in the bonfire-burning cabin.

Dr. Jason glanced at the three wounded German soldiers sitting together, then at Conon, who was silent and wondering what he was thinking. After hesitating for a moment, he walked to the latter's side. , said seriously in Finnish, "Konon, I want to talk to you."

"Where are we going to talk?" Conon asked, standing up slowly.

"How about the utility room?"

"Let's go." Before Konon could finish his sentence, he was already walking towards the utility room.

Watching the two of them enter the not-so-big utility room and close the door, Wei Ran silently put away the pistol hidden under the wolf fur blanket after waiting for a while.

After a long time, Dr. Jason and Conon came out one after the other.The face of the former is still serious, while the face of the latter is still plain. No one knows what they talked about.

In the long silence, the kettle on the edge of the fireplace was steaming, making the flickering bonfire feel unspeakably distorted.

After a long time, Markla walked into the cabin with a bundle of snow-covered logs, and Carl and Flory walked in with two frozen rabbits shortly after.However, seeing that the atmosphere in the wooden house was still depressed, the three of them immediately had the urge to quit and continue to find something to do.

Wei Ran, who had been a spectator, sighed, stood up and asked in German and Finnish respectively, "Which one of you has sugar?"

"What sugar?"

Conon asked in a rare initiative. Only one day had passed since he woke up, and his identity was still a secret among the remaining German soldiers.

At the same time, except for Dr. Jason, who treats everyone equally, the rest of the Germans are subconsciously avoiding any contact with any non-Germans, and before Konon just opened his mouth, he also silently refused to have any contact with everyone. comminicate.

"Candy that can be used for eating is fine," Wei Ran said quickly.

"I have a piece of sugar cube." Conon reached out and took out a canvas ammunition bag from his bag, took out a paper bag from it and handed it to Wei Ran.

"I have a bag of sugar"

A German soldier whose face was covered with gauze, only showing his eyes and mouth, took out a paper bag folded with newspaper and handed it to Wei Ran.

Wei Ran took the paper bag and put it on the table, "Then the next question, who has wine? Wine that can be used for drinking, or anything that tastes spicy."

"I have a pepper"

Carl opened his dry food bag, took out a sun-dried red pepper from it and handed it to Wei Ran, and said, "I use it to refresh myself, it's very spicy, and I usually only dare to lick it."

"I have a bottle of red wine." Dr. Jason also joined the topic, and generously took out a bottle of unopened red wine from his bag.

Wei Ran gestured with his thumb and index finger, "Just a small cup is enough."

Dr. Jason put the red wine together with a corkscrew on the table beside Wei Ran, "Take it! It doesn't matter if you drink it all."

"Finally, Mr. Markla, you must have bear fat, right? Bear fat that can be eaten."

"Of course!" Markla simply took out a canning bottle and handed it to Wei Ran, "I put some pine needles and rosemary in it when cooking, and the taste is pretty good."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Wei Ran looked at the two rabbits frozen into sticks in Flory's hand, "Flory, please cut those two rabbits into small pieces with Carl, like matches. Box size, or even smaller."

"Are you going to show off your cooking skills?" Carl asked curiously.

"You'll find out later"

Wei Ran waited until Flory and Carl helped him cut the two rabbits into pieces, then opened the bottle of red wine, poured out a small glass miserly and put it aside, then took down the cast iron pot hanging by the fireplace He dug a large piece of bear fat into it with a spoon, and when the bear fat melted, he threw in the sugar provided by Conon and the German soldier and kept stirring until blue smoke came out of the pot, and immediately put those rabbits The meat was thrown in together with the two skinned rabbit heads that he specifically asked to keep.

Stirring it randomly with an iron spoon, until every piece of meat was colored with sugar, Wei Ran poured the small glass of red wine into the pot under the crowd's onlookers.

For a moment, the smell of wine and meat rose up, making everyone twitch their noses, and even the depression on their faces dissipated a little with the aroma.

Wei Ran, who was busy making braised rabbit meat, curled his lips secretly, muttering in his heart that foodies do not respect national borders, let alone who is on the battlefield, after all, even if it is a war, the essence is just to make yourself eat better Nothing more.

While everyone was waiting more and more curiously, Wei Ran tore off a small half of the chili pepper and threw it into the pot, and returned the other half to Karl by the way.Then he calmly picked up the salt brick by the fireplace, knocked a piece out, crushed it in a wooden bowl, and poured it into the pot along with the hot water.

Finally put the lid on the cast iron pot, and Wei Ran stood up calmly, "If any gentleman has a watch, remember to look at it, you can eat it in an hour, and you can't lift the lid before that."

Hearing this, Conon subconsciously put his hands into his pockets, but when he saw Dr. Jason had already rolled up his sleeves, he immediately pulled his hands out of his pockets.

Just a pot of rabbit meat with an unfamiliar but appetizing aroma made the following wait less depressing, and the living people finally broke through the inexplicable barrier again, and the relationship between Wei Ran and Jason was in full swing. Under the translation, they chatted about the delicacies of their respective hometowns, and made exaggerated hisses from time to time.

Soon, when the hour came to an end, Markla took the initiative to distribute a wooden plate and a piece of black bread hard enough to be used as a weapon in front of everyone.

In the anticipation of everyone, Wei Ran brought the heavy steaming cast iron pot to the table, while Dr. Jason poured the same amount of red wine into everyone's glasses before that.

As the lid of the cast iron pot was lifted, a large pot of braised rabbit meat that was not too successful steamed with a strong aroma and a lot of water vapor.

"Konon, come and share the meat for everyone!" Wei Ran handed a slightly rusty cast iron spoon to Kenon who was sitting opposite.

The latter froze for a moment, subconsciously reached out to take the spoon, and took over the job of cooking.Fortunately, this Leningrad native who had experienced 900 days of siege and starvation did not have the severe Parkinsonism of the canteen aunt.

Therefore, not only did everyone keep the same amount of meat and soup on each plate, but after distributing the last spoonful of thick soup, he also distributed the remaining three pieces to the three wounded German soldiers. .Although this move was slightly deliberate, it also made everyone smile involuntarily.

After waiting for Conon to sit down, Dr. Jason immediately raised his wooden cup and repeatedly suggested in German and Finnish, "Gentlemen, let's use the first glass of wine to toast the precious friendship in the snowstorm!"

"To the precious friendship in the snowstorm!"

In the warm hunter's hut, soldiers from the three countries except Wei Ran repeated a sentence in German and Finnish respectively, and shouted "Cheers!" in both languages ​​in unison.

In a winter night on the northwestern border of Finland in 1944, eight cups of different materials and styles put aside all scruples and finally came together.

In the splashing wine, it seemed that everyone saw something extremely precious in terms of their different positions in the transpiring mist.

(End of this chapter)