War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 202 Snow Flower's Mission (Two in One)

As the fourth short day fell to the hunter's lodge in the canyon, the blizzard that was raging outside the window also visibly entered into decline.On the contrary, everyone in the hunter's cabin also became a little overwhelmed after waking up.

Karl lay on his wolf fur blanket, looked at the much brighter window not far away, and complained sadly, "Why did it stop so soon? We just became friends."

Although the rest of the German soldiers couldn't understand what Karl was saying, they made the same complaint.And Conon, who performed "Tricycle" with Flory's harmonica last night, has already looked like a scumbag, getting up from his wolf fur blanket with a blank expression, and meticulously dressed. After finishing the clothes, I stood in front of the window and looked at the snow scene outside.

"It's time for this friendship to end." Dr. Jason sighed, and got up silently to get dressed.

Wei Ran and Markla and his son looked at each other. After all, the three did not say anything. They had never experienced what Konon experienced when he was besieged in Leningrad, so they were not qualified to give him any advice at this moment.

"I'm going to see if the trap has caught the prey"

Karl once again chose to escape from the hunter's hut, which had become depressing again. Without waiting for others to say anything, he opened the wooden door wrapped in animal skins and ran out.

Only this time, neither his father Markla nor Flory, who had become friends with him, chose to keep up.

"It's time for us to go." After getting dressed, Dr. Jason shook hands with Markla and Wei Ran respectively, and finally stretched out his hand in front of Conon.

"Thank you for the surgery"

Conon and Dr. Jason held hands together, and said in a flat tone, "After you leave this hut, we are enemies. You must be loyal to your motherland, and I must also be loyal to mine."

"I hope that after the war, we can have a chance to sit together as friends again." Doctor Jason paused here, and finally just added, "Remember to ask Victor to change your medicine on time."

Conon nodded and let go of his hand decisively.

"Jason, take our sleigh and a reindeer away." Markla pressed the wooden door and said, "For the sake of our friendship, please accept this gift!"

"What are you going to do?" Dr. Jason asked subconsciously.

"There's a broken sled in the utility room"

Marka said in a relaxed tone, "As long as we fix that sleigh, we can continue to chase you, and don't forget, we also have an anti-tank weapon. Your chances of winning are not great."

Doctor Jason nodded after hesitating for a moment, "Markla, if possible, please help me preserve the bodies of Luka and Yannick. If there is a chance in the future, I will come back and take them away. If... or just let them Stay here!"

"Don't worry," Makela solemnly promised, "They will always be here waiting for you to come back to pick them up."

Dr. Jason turned his head to look at Conon who had been staring at him, stood up straight and saluted, "Thank you".

Conon didn't return the salute, but just nodded slightly.

"It's time for us to go." Before Dr. Jason could finish his sentence, Flory immediately helped a wounded man out of the hunter's hut.

Under the watchful eyes of Wei Ran and others, Dr. Jason and Flory took the three wounded and not many supplies, took their weapons and got into the sleigh, and walked away under the drag of a reindeer. The coniferous forest where the hunter's hut is located finally disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Karl, get the sleigh cart out of the utility room, and we should be ready to go." Markla said, picked up the axe, lifted a few wooden floors and walked into the utility room.

At the same time, Wei Ran also put away the camera that just captured the back of Dr. Jason and others, and returned it to its original owner, Conon.

In the sound of clanging and knocking, the cellar entrance to the utility room was completely sealed by the floor, and the dusty sleigh was fixed by Carl with a temporary leather rope cut from a wolfskin blanket. On one of the remaining reindeer.

"Let's go, we should go too."

Marka lifted one end of the anti-tank weapon, while Conon lifted the other end. As for Wei Ran, he picked up the rolled animal hide and fastened it to the wooden door of the hunter's cabin after going out.

However, just as their dilapidated sled was about to enter the canyon, there was a clear and audible firefight directly in front of them.Before they could react, the snow on the rock walls on both sides of the canyon began to slide down amidst the repeated echoing gunfire, and finally galloped down like a wild horse!

Amidst the loud bang, more and more snow fell on the rock wall at a faster and faster speed, and the transpiring snow covered all sight in the canyon.The reindeer who were pulling the sleigh cart and were about to enter the canyon didn't need to shout at all, so they turned desperately and ran back to the flat ground at the edge of the forest, making restless deer cries.

"What's going on?" Conon asked loudly, frowning.

"Even the reindeer know it's an avalanche!" Carl seemed to have resumed his unpleasant tongue a few days ago. Conon choked on his words and wanted to throw him into the canyon.

The avalanche came and went quickly, and calm was completely restored within seven or eight minutes.Without urging at all, Karl yelled at the reindeer and rushed into the canyon that was raised several meters, looking for their enemies aimlessly.

However, halfway through the sleigh cart, the reindeer pulling the cart died and refused to leave. They just planed their hooves anxiously on the spot, arched the snow under their feet with their mouths, and let out a burst of deer noises at the same time.

"The reindeer they took away is a pair with the one they left behind." Makla sighed and explained, "It seems that they encountered an avalanche here."

Before Conon could say anything, Wei Ran, who had been observing the front, immediately reminded, "Be careful, someone is coming in front."

Hearing this, the rest subconsciously picked up the weapons in their hands and looked at the two sledges that were getting closer and closer.

About three and four minutes later, two sleigh cars came running from the other side of the canyon and stopped less than ten meters away from them.The two sleighs are all pulled by two reindeer. In one of them, there are three people dressed as Finnish Civil Guards. On their sleigh, there is also a Lati L4 anti-tank gun.On the other sleigh, except for the driver who seemed to be a local, the remaining two people were all wearing Soviet military uniforms, and a mortar was placed between them.

"Is that sleigh full of Germans just now your prey?" One of the Soviets stood up from the sleigh and asked apologetically.

"It's really ours"

Marka hid her sadness and said with regret on her face, "We have been chasing them for several days, and we are about to capture them alive."

"The Germans don't need to live. It's a simple way to kill them all." The Soviet said in Finnish in a flat tone, "Are there any traces of the Germans behind you?"

Marka pressed Carl who was about to say something, shook his head and replied, "No more, all the rest are killed."

"In this case, we won't go in." The Soviet waved his hand, signaling the Finn driving to turn around.

The Finns in the other car obviously saw something from the whining reindeer, but in the end they just sighed lonely and silently steered the reindeer to follow the previous sleigh car .

"Let's go too"

Marka sighed, picked up a Mosin Nagant rifle on the sleigh and poked it hard on the snow, "In summer, this canyon will become a seasonal river, and all the snow They will all turn into rivers, and our former friends will disappear completely."

"Dad, do we want to?"

"no need"

Marka obviously knew what her son wanted to do. "When a person dies, he is dead. Even if the body is preserved, it doesn't make any sense."

The people on the sleigh fell silent one after another. In the narrow and deep canyon, apart from the howling cold wind, only the mournful deer's cry echoed repeatedly.

Not long after, the sleigh vehicle walked out of the canyon. When passing the half-track ambulance that was mostly buried by snow, Conon, who had not spoken all the way, said abruptly, "Doctor Jason has expected They can't go back."

Carl immediately yelled at the slow-moving reindeer to stop when he heard the words, and turned his head to look at Conon in confusion.

The latter took out a cloth bag from his arms and opened it, revealing the relics of the wounded Yannick, "He asked me to send these relics back for him if there is a chance after the war. He said that even if we don't chase They, they have also missed the last boarding time to go home, he just wanted to give those wounded some hope of continuing to live for the time being."

"Let's go back"

Marka sighed, "I'll continue to be a hunter when I go back. The job of the Civil Guard is really not suitable for me."

"Maybe I should consider Flory's suggestion." Carl said with a hint of tears, "I want to be a comedian."

"Just do what you like." Markla wearily took off the submachine gun on his shoulder and threw it aside, wrapped the bearskin blanket tightly and lay down next to the anti-tank weapon that had never been used from the beginning to the end.

As time passed, there were no snowflakes on the top of the head, and even the temperatureless sun hanging in the sky seemed to be extraordinarily dazzling.

When the sleigh pulled up next to the halftrack that had blown Conon's eye, Conon motioned for Karl to stop.

"What's wrong?" Karl asked impatiently.

"Shoot it with your anti-tank weapons," Conon said, pointing to the halftrack.

"Are the Soviets so stingy?" Karl sneered, "Although it caused you to lose one."

This time, Conon was not at all impressed by Carl's venomous tongue, and just interrupted the former's taunt in a flat tone, "Let Dr. Jason die in this car, so that at least he has a chance to be listed as killed in battle instead of missing. .”

Carl was startled, then lowered his head and said, "Sorry, I."

"It's okay." Conon waved his hand, "Hurry up, don't waste time."

"Daddy" Carl rocks his daddy Markla.

The latter didn't intend to get up at all, but just stretched out his hand on the bearskin blanket, "Do whatever you want, I'm tired."

Karl looked at Wei Ran for help, and the latter sighed, helping to lift the anti-tank weapon, and put it on the position less than [-] meters away from the half-track armored vehicle carrying the quadruple anti-aircraft gun, while Conon had already After strolling back from the wreckage of the armored vehicle, he reached out and handed Wei Ran a cold armor-piercing bullet.

"Come on," Carl said to Wei Ran, "I want to watch the reindeer so as not to be scared away by the gunfire."

Wei Ran looked at Conon, whose face was covered with gauze, finally nodded, pressed the only armor-piercing bullet into the magazine, and then vigorously shook the crank on the right side of the gun body to complete the bolt loading.

With a crisp "click", the only armor-piercing bullet was pushed into the chamber.Moving the muzzle aimed at the front of the armored vehicle not far away, Wei Ran held the trigger with his right index finger and middle finger and squeezed slowly.

"boom!"

After a muffled gunshot, the huge recoil made Wei Ran, who was lying on the snow, move back about ten centimeters.At the same time, a violent white light also filled his field of vision.

"It's finally over."

Wei Ran sighed, but his heart was filled with deep loss.He was disappointed that he had not communicated with Yannick a word from the beginning to the end, and he was saddened by the inner conflicts between Markla and his son, Konon, and the few Finns who had a relationship not long ago.

In his perception, Dr. Jason is undoubtedly a good man, Markla and his son are even more impeccable, and even Conon is definitely not a bad man.

If they were all good people, if they all did what they were supposed to do, why did everyone lose something so precious in the end?

Maybe this is war
Wei Ran closed his eyes wearily, but then he realized that something was wrong. When he came, he clearly remembered that he was in the hotel, but the noise coming from his ears was as noisy as at a crossroad.

Opening his eyes suspiciously, Wei Ran was surprised to find himself sitting in the driver's seat of a car.Looking at himself through the rearview mirror, his face has matured a lot, and he looks like a middle-aged man.

Before he could react, the door of the car behind him was pulled open. A man in a black suit and top hat got in first, followed by another man in the same dress but wearing a black blindfold.

What's funny is that on the man's blindfold, there seems to be a colorful pirate flag graffitied on it by a naughty little guy.

"Go to Windmill Gallery"

The man with the blindfold said in fluent German, "Go straight along this street, turn left at the end and you will be there."

Wei Ran glanced at the two people in the rear compartment through the rearview mirror, but did not drive in a hurry, but turned around and asked with a smile, "Carl, Conon, do you still know me?"

"my God!"

The first man in a suit to get into the car widened his eyes, "Brother Victor? Are you Victor? Victor from the Civil Guard?!"

"It's me!" Wei Ran nodded, and asked the same question as Kenon, "Why are you here?"

"Let me explain!"

Carl said excitedly, "After the war, I became a comedian, and now I'm partnering with Brother Conon."

"You two are partners?" Wei Ran looked at Conon sitting behind him in surprise.

The latter smiled plainly, "Remember when I told you to shoot at that half-track armored vehicle? I wrote that incident as news and sent it back to Pravda, but it was revealed quickly, and the report never made it to the Pravda. In the newspapers, I was almost sent to a labor camp."

"After my persuasion, Konon stayed in Finland. Of course, the previous Konon died in an avalanche when he was ambushing the Germans." Karl said excitedly, "Thanks to being in the hunter's lodge For the chocolates you gave me, Shatu not only agreed to date me, but is now my wife and manager, and we have a beautiful daughter."

Conon pointed to his face, "My blindfold is the work of his naughty daughter"

"So you two are comedians now?"

"To be precise, only I am"

Carl patted his chest proudly and said, and then grabbed Conon's shoulder, "Brother Conon is responsible for writing the manuscript for me. This time we are invited to perform in Nuremberg. Victor, how about you? How could you do it?" Come to Germany? And become a taxi driver?"

"Forehead"

Wei Ran didn't know how to explain it for a while, but Kenon seemed to have guessed an answer that was convincing enough, took over the topic and said, "No matter why you are in Germany, shouldn't we find a place to have a drink?"

"That's a good proposal!"

Carl said without waiting for Wei Ran's consent, "I remember that there is a bar opposite that gallery, how about we go to that bar after delivering the things?"

"What do you want to send?" Wei Ran asked mysteriously while starting the car.

"Do you still remember the German soldier Yannick who didn't survive in the hunter's hut in the snowstorm?" Conon said with emotion, "Dr. But it wasn’t until half a month ago, when Carl’s daughter accidentally knocked over the ink bottle in my drawer, that I realized that I hadn’t fulfilled this entrustment.”

Speaking of which, Kenon opened the briefcase that he had been carrying all the time, took out a candy box from it, opened it, took out a document soaked in ink, showed it to Wei Ran, and said rather nervously, "I hope that soldier My family will not blame me."

"It's my daughter who is to blame"

Carl said helplessly, "Or blame my dad. Since the end of the war, he has drunk himself every day. If it weren't for him, my daughter would not have run into Conon's office."

"Speaking of which, how is Uncle Markla doing now?"

"Like a Soviet, get drunk almost every day."

Conon said with a headache, "Uncle Markla has almost become the source of my creation. In the past six months, many of Karl's performances come from that old guy who makes jokes every day."

"That's great," Wei Ran murmured emotionally.

"what?"

"I say it's great"

Wei Ran slightly increased the volume, "The war is over, we are still alive, and we can still meet by chance. The most important thing is that you have really become a comedian."

Carl was startled, and said in a daze, "My stage name is Flory, and Conon helped me choose it."

"Flory gave it to you," Conon corrected, rubbing the patch on his face. "My name is Jason now."

"Looks like I'm the only one still called Victor"

Wei Ran turned the steering wheel while speaking, and steered the car to stop in front of a gallery with a windmill sign.

"wait a second"

Conon opened the car door as he spoke, walked across the street, and left the candy box at the entrance of the gallery.

When he got into the car again, the three of them seemed to have lost the memory of talking, and all looked at the gallery outside the car window with burning eyes.

After more than half an hour, a skinny boy rushed towards the gallery amidst the snowflakes flying all over the sky with his schoolbag in his hand.

As he passed the door, the boy stooped to pick up the candy box and shook it, then pushed open the glass door and walked in.

Through the window of the gallery, the three of them saw a woman coming down from the stairs, saw her lying on the table crying bitterly after opening the candy box, and even saw the helpless child comforting his mother.

"That kid's name is Noah, Noah Muller." Wei Ran, who was sitting in the driver's seat, explained softly, "He's the son of the German soldier named Yannick."

"How do you know?" Carl couldn't help asking.

Wei Ran did not answer his question, but looked at Conon through the rearview mirror and suggested, "Are you going to tell him what happened?"

"forget it"

Conon shook his head, "People have been dead for so long, why don't you give that woman some hope, maybe that will be more tormenting, but at least it will give her the motivation to live. Alright, let's go have a drink."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, wisely, he didn't try to change anything, and followed Carl and Conon obediently into a small bar facing the street.

That night, Carl and Conon chatted about their post-war experiences.They talked about their achievements in Finland, about the family Karl and the girl named Shatu formed and the children they gave birth to, and even talked about Conon's experience of trying to open a dessert shop that failed miserably.

As glasses of wine poured into their mouths, the expressions on the faces of the three people changed from excitement at the beginning to emotion later on, and even their views on the war that had ended for more than ten years, and what they lost and gained in the war s things.

At some point, Wei Ran, who had already drank too much, felt that the two people in front of him became more and more blurred, and finally completely lost consciousness, and immediately regained consciousness.

When the white light in the field of vision dissipated, the surrounding finally turned into a familiar yet unfamiliar hotel room.And the metal book also automatically turned to the tenth page, allowing the metal quill to write lines of text under the black and white photo.

(End of this chapter)