War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 279
On the second floor of the dimly lit Shudong Bookstore, the couple had already drank most of the bottles of wine they bought from the supermarket.But the young Katenka still curled up silently on the slightly shabby sofa, as if the world had nothing to do with her anymore.

"Kajanka"

Wei Ran put down his wine glass, and when the other party raised his head and stared at him with those red and swollen eyes, he tried to change the subject and asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Katenka." The girl curled up on the sofa raised her head, staring at the ceiling above her head in a daze, and gave the answer.

"no."

Wei Ran paused, "It's just like her name is Karenina"

"Kajianka," the girl's tone became more and more firm, "My name is Katenka, and I am Katenka. There is no second name, no previous name, and there will be no other name in the future."

Wei Ran sighed, and continued to ask tentatively, "What are you guys doing for?"

"for what?"

Katenka shook her head, "I don't know why. In the beginning, she was waiting for someone to contact her. Later, she gave up and adopted me. This bookstore became her last bit of persistence. She has been waiting for the day to hang that apple on the sign, and even though she has Alzheimer's disease, it hasn't stopped her habit of checking the door every day."

Katenka poured another glass of wine on her own, "Sometimes even at night, she would get up quietly and sit at the door until daytime. She actually didn't remember anything at that time, and she often forgot why she went out. Forgot why I was sitting at the door."

Hearing this, Wei Ran sighed, and silently poured himself a glass of wine, but Yu Wang no longer wanted to continue asking.

"You should have come earlier," continued Katenka, "at least she remembered something back then."

"Isn't the Soviet Union long gone?" Wei Ran couldn't help telling the truth.

"Soviet Union?"

Katenka showed undisguised sarcasm, "Do you think I care about a country that has disappeared before I can remember? She might care. But what's the use of caring?

She's old, and I'm an orphan who never grew up in the Soviet Union, maybe even an orphan without any Slavic blood.

Everything here, everything she and I are doing, is more like a reason for her to continue living.To me, it's more like a job. No, maybe it's more like a weird sacrifice-like ritual that keeps my only relative alive. "

"What about after that?" Wei Ran took a sip of his red wine and asked, "What will you do in the future?"

"I should ask you, shouldn't I? You are my boss"

Katenka put down the glass he drank again, and gave an irresponsible answer almost raving, "Of course you do what you say, but the only thing that makes me happy is that at least you are not a Soviet .”

Wei Ran laughed dumbfounded, "It's really good news to be happy about."

However, this time, Katenka did not respond, but the wine glass in her hand slipped gently on the carpet, and slowly rolled into the lower gap of the sofa.

Glancing at Katenka who had fallen asleep at some point, Wei Ran sighed again, stood up staggeringly, took off his suit and covered him, walked down the second floor, and sat in a bookstore. Behind the bar upstairs.

In the blink of an eye the next morning, after waking up from a hangover, Katenka wobbled down from the second floor carrying Wei Ran's suit jacket.

Katenka threw the suit with vomit left on the bar table, then sat on the high stool next to the bar like a normal person, and asked Wei Ran in a bewildered way, "Did we drink last night?" How many?"

Wei Ran shook his head and did not answer the question, but Zhi changed the subject and replied, "I plan to take her back today."

Katenka was stunned, and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Qiuming" Wei Ran turned his head to look at the deserted street outside the window, and gave an inaccurate address.

"Then wait a moment"

Just sitting down, Katenka got up and walked up the stairs a few steps, and said when her figure was completely blocked by the curved stairs, "Or you can come up."

Wei Ran, who hadn't slept all night, stood up when he heard the words, and followed him up to the third floor, which is a model of mess and mess.

After waiting on the sofa for a while, Katenka came out of the bedroom and put a small suitcase that looked very old on the table.

"She said that she was sent here carrying this small box."

While introducing, Katenka opened the box and picked up the "Anna Karenina" that Wei Ran had seen before, "If the Qiumen Library is still there, can you help me return this book? "

Seeing that Wei Ran nodded, Katenka put the book in his hand back into the box, and then put the ashes urn on the table into it. Finally, he picked up a PSS micro-sound pistol from the box, "This The gun is also her relic, you don't mind if I keep it?"

"Next time we meet, do I need to bring you some bullets it uses?" Wei Ran gave the answer in disguise.

"Forget the bullets." Katenka pulled out the magazine, "There are bullets in here. Although there are not many, they are enough for me. After all, my weapons are not guns and bullets."

"Have you managed to bring it to Italy yourself?"

"No problem"

Katenka put the pistol with the magazine in his pocket, and then closed the lid of the case himself, "Okay, let's take her back with this suitcase. After I move to the location you provided, I will Emailed you. Hopefully by then, you've already arranged a job for me, I'm not going to run restaurants and bars after all."

"Let's talk about these things later." Wei Ran revealed the matter vaguely, "Do you need me to do anything else for you?"

Katenka looked at the suitcase on the table, hesitated for a moment and replied, "Can the name appear on her tombstone be Karenina? If possible, please help me put a bunch of sunflowers by the way, then It's her favorite flower. That's all, it's enough."

"I hope life in Italy can satisfy you"

Wei Ran made a final farewell, then picked up the small old suitcase, and left Shudong Bookstore under Kajianka's watch.

Only when the taxi he took completely disappeared at the end of the street, Katenka, who was hiding behind the window, sighed first, and then exhaled heavily, and there was a trace of sadness in his slightly red and swollen eyes. The color of relaxation.

Trotting all the way downstairs, Katenka picked up a claw hammer from behind the door on the second floor, removed the apple on the signboard at the door of Shudong Bookstore, and replaced it with a pink peach.

Crossing his hips and looking at the signboard of the bookstore that accompanied him growing up, Kajianka was silent for a long time, then dropped the hammer in his hand, pushed open the door of the bookstore with the sign of suspension of business, and began to pack up the things that needed to be taken away by himself. luggage, and items that need to be destroyed.

One day later, in the early hours of the morning, almost at the same time that Wei Ran's flight landed in Tyumen, a fire broke out on the first floor of Shudong Bookstore.

With the help of firefighters, Katenka, wearing only a set of pajamas, escaped from the third floor of the bookstore shrouded in thick smoke.

Glancing at the bookstore that was shrouded in raging fire, Katenka's expression showed a touch of nostalgia.But then, it was replaced by deliberately disguised panic, allowing the people around her to help her into the ambulance waiting on the side of the road.

And in Tyumen, Russia, Wei Ran also met Nikolai who was waiting in advance at the pick-up port.Following this old man who was also dying, he walked into the parking lot and got into an unremarkable van. After closing the door, Nikolai said, "Go west along the Tula River to a place called Kamenka."

Wei Ran started the car silently and left the airport. With the help of the navigation, he went all the way west along the Tula River. Finally, when the sun jumped out of the horizon and dyed the entire Tula River red, he drove into the place called "Tula River" in the mouth of Nikolai. Small city of Kamenka.

Under the guidance of the other party, the van left the main road, drove into the forest on the edge of the city, and finally stopped at the edge of a seemingly deserted cemetery.

He took out Karenina's urn from the suitcase and handed it to Mr. Nicholas, and Wei Ran took the shovel, crowbar and a bunch of sunflowers in the carriage under his signal, and then walked into the room It's not a big cemetery.

It can be seen that even Nicholas is not familiar with this place. The two searched almost half of the cemetery, one tombstone after another, and finally stopped in front of an ordinary-looking tombstone.

Pushing aside the lush weeds in front of the tombstone, Nicholas glanced at the name "Karenina" on the tombstone and an inconspicuous "K" in the corner, and then said, "Dig it up, this is her cemetery gone."

Wei Ran nodded in astonishment, put the things in his hands aside, picked up the shovel and dug up the grassy soil behind the tombstone, and then used a crowbar to open a small stone slab.

In this tomb, which is only the size of a microwave oven, there is only a small canning jar.

Bending down to pick up the jar, Nikolai carefully unscrewed it, and took out a certificate, a library card, and a Soviet national emblem with a little rust inside. "

"These things were buried by Karenina herself before she was sent to Vienna."

Nikolai looked at the national emblem in his hand and explained, "She said she hopes to have a chance to be buried here after her death. At that time, at least the Soviet national emblem will know everything she has done."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, he didn't know what to say for a while, he just felt that everything in front of him was more like an absurd pantomime.

Nicholas also didn't seem to count on Wei Ran's answer, carefully placed Karenina's ashes urn in this small tomb, and then put the rusty national emblem and the documents that were originally placed in the canning jar Stacked on the lid of the urn.

In the end, the old man took out a neatly stacked Soviet flag from the briefcase he had been carrying and put it into the tomb. Then he took a step back and waved at Wei Ran, "Let's restore this place to its original state."

After Wei Ran covered the tomb with stone slabs, Nicholas took out a PSS micro-sound pistol from his pocket, pointed it at the sky obliquely, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.Amidst the imperceptible gunshots, the damp soil covered the stone slab and fulfilled Karenina's last wish.

After three weak gunshots, Nicholas slowly put away his pistol, muttering to himself, "Comrade Karenina, you have completed your mission, now... you can rest well. Finally, you are welcome back. Home, my comrade in arms."

(End of this chapter)