War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 230 Tree Hole Bookstore
In the middle of the night on May 15th, Wei Ran drove the An-2 plane painted by Hongqi Forest Farm, and landed smoothly at the airport in Inta under the guidance of the control tower.

When the plane stopped on the tarmac and the engine was turned off, Teacher Dalia, who was sitting in the co-pilot, took out a small notebook and flipped through it and said, "Now tell me about your mistakes."

Hearing this, Wei Ran, who had just relaxed, immediately tensed up again.Teacher Dalia smiled and said slowly, "Like Jima, the timing of opening the parachute is too early during the parachute. Karp's requirement for you is 600 meters, but you opened the parachute at 1000 meters. .”

Wei Ran twitched the corner of his mouth, 1000 meters and 600 meters sounded like hundreds of meters difference in height, but in fact the difference was only a few seconds before and after, he would rather drive early than drive late and take pictures on the snow.

For the same reason, Ji Ma also chose to open the umbrella in advance, but this guy's luck is really not very good. According to Alili, when he finally landed, he was almost dragged by a monster wind that came out of nowhere Dash into the campfire.

Fortunately, regardless of the small mistake made by Ji Ma or Wei Ran, Teacher Dalia didn't go into it, but continued, "Then it's the landing part. If it wasn't for me to stabilize it for you, I ran off the runway just now. Think about why."

"There was a crosswind, and I stepped on the rudder in a hurry." Wei Ran replied honestly.

"Inta will soon be summer, and it will be more difficult to take off and land on the runway here, especially after replacing it with wheeled landing gear, the maneuverability will also decrease. So if you have time, you'd better take advantage of it The snow here hasn't melted yet and practice more."

Speaking of which, Dalia glanced at Karp who had already left in the cabin behind, waited for a while and said abruptly, "As for your assessment task, don't worry about Karp's attitude, Hongqi Forest Farm doesn't count. "

Wei Ran turned his head to look at Teacher Dalia in surprise, only to see the latter smiled, "Of course, he did it for your own good, and he didn't have any malicious intentions. It's just that his way is more um. Maybe it's more appropriate to describe it as rude, This is a common problem of men, isn't it?"

Wei Ran was silent for a moment, took off the communication headset hanging around his neck, and said sincerely, "I just don't want to be a murderer, and I don't want to have to live incognito in the future."

"No one will make you a murderer"

Teacher Dalia stood up and continued walking towards the cabin behind her, "Of course, even if you choose to complete the assessment, you can still avoid becoming a murderer through the skills you have learned. After all, this is why you came to Hongqi Forest Farm to learn Isn't it the purpose?"

Watching Teacher Dalia leave the cabin, Wei Ran, who was still sitting in the driver's seat, took out the two A4 papers and the old-fashioned button phone in his pocket, and sighed helplessly after thinking for a moment.

Locking the door of the plane, Wei Ran walked to the waiting hall with a small amount of luggage, and took advantage of the moment before the flight took off to buy a ticket from Kazan to Finland.

However, he went to Finland this time, in addition to sending the journal script that had already been corrected, the main reason was also to fly there to Germany, and then from Germany to Vienna, Austria, to complete the Nikolai script. Pull on his postman job.

The reason why he made such a big circle was naturally to avoid attracting the attention of Mr. Karp and Dalia. After all, Mr. Nicholas had reminded him very bluntly that this matter should be kept from them.

When the plane landed, Ralph who had already come and waited immediately greeted him.What made Wei Ran dumbfounded was that in less than half a month, the gentle and gentle Ralph turned out to be unshaven and sleep-deprived just like when he first met Jima half a month ago. There was still a strong smell of gunpowder smoke remaining on his body.

"Ralph, what's going on with you?" Wei Ran asked curiously as he handed the USB flash drive with the script to the other party.

"What else can happen?"

Ralph put the USB flash drive into his pocket, rubbed his messy hair and began to complain, "I've been living a miserable life for half a month, and I can't even guarantee five hours of sleep every day."

"For that movie?"

Ralph nodded with a wry smile when he heard the words, "Mr. Alexander has helped us gather all the props we need, and also invited a director. Now everyone is auditioning to find a suitable role."

"Is anyone sure?" Wei Ran followed the other party into the airport lounge and asked.

"Mr. Alexander as Dr. Jason"

Ralph sat down on the soft sofa, "Professor Alexis will play the role of Papa Markla. Andy will still play the role of Mr. Conon."

"Professor Alexis playing Papa Markla?" Wei Ran's eyes widened, "What about you? Ralph, which role are you in charge of?"

"A Soldier Called Flory"

Ralph said wearily, "In addition, Andy's son who is in high school plays the role of Mr. Carl when he was young. And the wounded are all responsible for the friends Andy found. Victor, if you have time, I I suggest that you must go to the scene to see it. My God! These amateur actors gathered together, it is a disaster comparable to the Austrian art student who failed to enter the German beer can!"

"Forget it, I won't go." Wei Ran shook his head and refused without thinking, "I still have to go to Vienna."

“Already arranged for you”

Ralph took out a flight ticket to Munich, a business card and two thick wads of cash from his briefcase and handed them to Wei Ran, "When you arrive in Munich, just call this person directly, he called Mark is an employee of the gallery, and he will personally drive you to Vienna."

"Thank you, you helped me a lot." Wei Ran hurriedly took over the air ticket, business card, and the cash he exchanged with the other party. These were the main purposes of his detour to Finland.

"I should be the one to say thank you." Ralph patted the jacket pocket with the USB flash drive in it. "Actually, you can send it directly by email. There is no need to make a special trip."

Wei Ran replied grandly, "By the way, let's see what I can help you with. Even if you can't help me, I can give you a chance to take a break."

This casual sentence made Ralph continue to pour out bitterness as if he had met a bosom sister.Wei Ran simply pretended to be listening to stand-up comedy, and listened to the other party's "crying" while suppressing a smile.

It was not until Wei Ran's flight was about to start the ticket check that he bid farewell to the reluctant Ralph and walked into the security checkpoint.

That night, the plane landed safely in Munich, a city in southern Germany. Wei Ran also found the gallery employee named Mark outside the pick-up gate.

Following the other party into a comfortable business car, the taciturn Mark started the car and drove straight to Austria.The distance between the two places is more than 400 kilometers, and the car driven by Mark ran for nearly five hours before reaching the destination.

When the car drove into the urban area of ​​Vienna, Wei Ran, who fell asleep in the car halfway, signaled Mark to find a place to wait, while he himself was like an ordinary backpacker, with a retro SLR around his neck. The camera roams the streets aimlessly.

Until he was sure that no one was following him, he got into the bathroom of an office building, changed his face with the things he bought on the way and the wig he brought in advance, and then took out the clothes in the suitcase to change into, and finally Only then did he take out the "Confessions" that had been in the food box and the cash that had been put in before registering in Finland, and stuffed them into the windbreaker pocket.

Leaving the empty suitcase where it was, Wei Ran, dressed in a white-collar outfit, walked out of the office building with the briefcase he just bought, raised his hand to stop a taxi, and reported the number recorded on the card provided by Nicholas. The block in which the address is located.

More than half an hour later, the taxi stopped on the side of a street that looked quite old.Wei Ran paid the fare, got out of the car with his briefcase, and walked slowly along the sidewalk, paying attention to the house numbers along the way.

After he passed a school that didn't look too big, Wei Ran finally stopped in his tracks, and his attention was also placed on the sign above the entrance of a bookstore across the road.

This bookstore doesn't look too big, and beside the old wooden door, the signboard is a cartoon red squirrel. The squirrel is staring at an eye that is almost bigger than its face, licking its tongue and licking a paw. Stretching into the tree hole, it seems that something is being pulled out of the hole, and at the foot of the pine tree, there are a few scattered acorns and pine cones.Look at the top of the wooden door, and there are "Tree Hole Bookstore" written in German in a few fancy cartoon fonts.

After comparing the addresses on the card again, he crossed the road and pushed open the wooden door of the bookstore.

This bookstore has a small facade, but the inside is nearly [-] square meters in size, with several solid wood bookshelves arranged in a patchwork order.On the side of the entrance, there are some small wooden chairs scattered around. At this time, a few children are sitting on the small chairs and looking at the books in their hands intently.

Inside the wooden counter on the other side of the door, sitting on a solid wooden high stool is a beautiful girl who looks to be in her early 20s at most.

The girl's short hair was dyed fancy, and she was wearing a tight-fitting white T-shirt and a pair of fat denim overalls shorts. He was also wearing a pair of nondescript desert-colored high-waisted military boots.

Wei Ran looked at this beautiful girl who was like a golden pheasant, but the latter seemed to have not seen him, still sitting on the high stool with a lollipop in her mouth, following the The frenzied music faintly came from the huge headphones, and Erlang's upturned legs were shaking rhythmically.

Not in a hurry to say hello, Wei Ran went to the bookshelf and took a look at it. This is not a big bookstore, almost all of them are children's books and some jade that can't be read just by the thickness. Forgotten tome masterpiece.But the only two types of books, no matter which one has a clear sense of contradiction with the temperament of the girl at the counter.

Perhaps it was also for this reason that the customers of this bookstore, apart from the little Bean Sprouts reading quietly at the door, were only a few middle-aged people sitting on the sofa in the corner, drinking coffee and reading.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran took out the "Confession" in the windbreaker pocket, put the card on it, walked back to the counter at the door, and handed it to the girl at the counter.

The girl absently rolled her eyes and glanced at Wei Ran, then picked up the scanning gun in one hand and the confession book in the other to prepare to pay the bill, but when she saw the ordinary card on the book, she immediately stared round eyes.

Quickly raised her head and glanced at Wei Ran standing outside the counter, the girl hurriedly took off her earphones, grabbed the lollipop out of her mouth and threw it into the trash can at her feet, took a deep breath, and pretended to be calm with her hands. German asked in a low voice, "Who are you looking for?"

"Katenka" Wei Ran whispered in Russian with the same volume.

Hearing this, the girl frowned, picked up the card and the "Confession" again, then hooked her fingers at Chao Wei Ran, got up and walked up the wooden stairs on the side of the counter, and walked up to the second floor.

(End of this chapter)