War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 338 Another Person Forgotten by History
After leaving the "printing shop" run by the old man Sergey and his granddaughter, the weaving girl playing the accordion was still clearly audible after the girl floated out from the glass door, and the black Iveco tires on the side of the road had already A piece of solid amber ice froze.

Turning his head and looking at the old man Sergey standing inside the glass door waving goodbye to him, Wei Ran also waved his hand, then got into the borrowed off-road vehicle, started the engine and drove towards the Red Square.

On the way, Wei Ran called Teacher Dalia, briefly described the results of his investigation, and then mentioned his current situation in Moscow.

Under the instruction of Teacher Dalia, Wei Ran randomly found a hotel to stay, and waited patiently for the other party to come and meet him.

Taking advantage of this period of time, Wei Ran also roughly rummaged through the criminal evidence collected by Kajianka for himself about the smuggler in Japan, and now it is almost the end of the year, and he plans to hand over these things together For Teacher Dalia, it's the end of that delayed assessment.

While he waited patiently, the next afternoon, Teacher Dalia took the deputy director of the museum named Lu Ren to the hotel where he was staying.

When he let the two of them into the room, Teacher Dalia found a place to sit down on her own, crossed her legs and asked, "Have you found it?"

"checked"

Wei Ran said, and put the photo album prepared in advance, the photos of the tombstones he took in the suburbs of Rzhev, and the audio recording of the story told by the old man named Sergey on the table.

Under the instruction of Teacher Dalia, Deputy Director Lu Ren asked, "Victor, tell me about your investigation process."

“Actually it's not too difficult”

Wei Ran first set the tone for his "investigation process", deliberately sat on the side facing Teacher Dalia, and explained slowly, "According to the information provided by you, the family information of the owner of that apartment , I found out that their family used to be residents of a village near Rzhev before they moved to Moscow. After many investigations, I finally found a hunter's cabin in the forest."

Speaking of this, Wei Ran's subsequent investigation results can be logically revealed, from the fabricated note with the address on it, to the tombstone, and finally to the small shop in Moscow City.

After he explained everything, and finally played the story recorded by Sergey yesterday, Director Lu Ren finally nodded.

"How is it?" Teacher Dalia asked, lighting a cigarette.

"Very detailed"

Deputy curator Lu Ren commented pertinently, "Except for the regret that the note with the address of the photo studio was not preserved, it is enough to find so many."

"Where's the consultant's letter of appointment?" Teacher Dalia asked after her.

"Here I am. I'll be ready when I get your call." Deputy curator Lu Ren shook his head helplessly, opened the briefcase he brought, and opened a letter of appointment on the table.

However, before Wei Ran could see what was written on it, Teacher Dalia reached out and closed it and pushed it back to Lu Ren's side.

"What's wrong?" Deputy curator Lu Ren asked in confusion.

"It's not okay to be so casual." Teacher Dalia shook her head. "How about I arrange an exclusive interview at a suitable time?"

"Do another interview?" Wei Ran asked with a bitter face.

"Shut up, go downstairs and buy me a pack of cigarettes." Dalia waved her hand like she was chasing flies.

"When I didn't speak." Wei Ran resolutely confessed, but he didn't want to get up at all, he just wanted to see what new tricks Dalia wanted to do this time.

"What do you want to do?" Lu Ren asked angrily.

"This little guy is now our signature"

Dahlia said with a cheeky look, "So how about just before Defender of the Fatherland Day? You just need to lend us a small piece of the museum's grounds. It doesn't matter whether it's indoors or out."

"No." Lu Ren, the deputy curator, said without even thinking about it. "The museum has activities for the Defender of the Motherland Day. You need to make preparations beforehand. It's impossible for you to mess around."

"You do your events, we do our interviews, these two things don't conflict at all."

When Dalia said this, she looked straight at Deputy Director Lu Ren, "Or should I ask her to talk to you?"

Deputy curator Lu Ren opened his mouth, and finally shook his head dumbfoundingly, "Then before the Defender of the Fatherland Day. If there are any other conditions, let's talk about it together."

"That's enough"

Dalia returned to her previous gentle appearance, hooked her hands at Wei Ran and said, "Okay, it's time for us to leave, and the rest will be left to Mr. Lu Ren."

"Remember to inform me at least one week in advance when you have confirmed the time," Deputy Director Lu Ren, who was sitting in his seat and didn't get up at all, reminded helplessly.

"will remind you"

Dalia waved her hand without looking back, led Wei Ran out of the room, left the hotel and got into an ordinary-looking car.

"Teacher Dalia, why is there another interview?" Wei Ran asked with a bitter face.

"What the hell kind of expression is that on your face?"

Daria rolled her eyes and threw the car keys to Wei Ran. She reclined the seat and adjusted it into a comfortable position, and then explained slowly, "Victor, enjoy the sunshine on your body." Spotlights. As long as these spotlights are bright enough, there will be no shadows around you."

Wei Ran curled his lips secretly when he heard the words. He naturally knew that the more glamorous his status as a historian, the more benefits he would have in the future. He simply started the car and asked directly, "Where are we going next?"

"There is a business card on the dashboard, go to the address on the card."

After Teacher Dalia finished speaking, she actually took out a steam eye mask from the pocket of the down jacket and put it on. By the way, she took out a USB flash drive from her pocket and handed it to Wei Ran, "Play the music in it."

Reluctantly taking the USB flash drive, Wei Ran inserted it on the dashboard, and then adjusted the volume to a level that the other party was satisfied with.

It wasn't until this time that he had time to input the address on the business card into the mobile navigation software, and drove the car out of the hotel.

Under the guidance of the navigation, the car driven by Wei Ran left the urban area, and finally stopped at the door of a shop facing the street that looked dilapidated and old.

This shop is not as good as the photo studio I visited yesterday. There is even a hole the size of a bowl on the signboard hanging on the lintel, and even the French windows facing the street look like they were once smashed. As before, on the spider web-like cracks, several colors of scotch tape were pasted randomly.

And inside the floor-to-ceiling windows, except for an old man hiding next to a big-ass TV watching the news.Where you can see around, there are also wooden models in suits.

For some unknown reason, he followed Teacher Dalia into the store. The old man who was watching TV turned his head to look at Dalia, stood up and asked with difficulty, "Who do you make clothes for?"

"He" Dalia pointed to Wei Ran, "two suits, two briefcases, and one casual outfit."

"What else?" The old man slowly opened the drawer and asked, taking out a tape measure from it.

"Gloves, tie, leather shoes, belt, pocket square and shirt." Teacher Daria thought for a while and continued, "What else do you think you need?"

The old man stood up, walked around the unknown Wei Ran, and said, "Young man, take off the down jacket."

Wei Ran looked at Teacher Dalia, seeing that the other party didn't respond at all, he could only shake his head helplessly, took off his down jacket and put it on the wooden counter beside him.

Continuing to circle around Wei Ran, the old man grabbed Wei Ran's wrist, looked at the watch that teacher Dalia sold him forcibly, and asked after thinking for a moment, "What identity?"

"Historian" Dalia answered this question instead of Wei Ran.

"How old are you?" The old man continued to ask.

"25 years old" Dalia continued without waiting for Wei Ran to open his mouth.

"Smoking?" the old man continued to ask.

Seeing that Dalia didn't help to answer this time, Wei Ran quickly answered, "Suck, but you don't have to smoke."

"Smoking less can live longer, of course, this is my guess."

While talking, the old man walked slowly to the French windows, drew the thick curtains, then pointed to the chairs placed at the back of the shop and said, "Go and take off your clothes, you don't need to take off your underwear."

Wei Ran glanced at Dalia who was leaning against the door frame, and then at the bundles of fabrics and ready-made clothes on the shelves around the store, and finally walked to the innermost side honestly, sat on a chair and took off his clothes down.

"Is this your student?"

The old man signaled Wei Ran to stretch out his hands, and while using a tape measure to measure various sizes such as shoulders, waist, height, etc., he asked Dalia behind him.

"That's right," Darya replied nonchalantly, "How are you doing?"

"Still the same"

The old avatar was just like an old friend, talking in a calm and proud tone, "My grandson won a scholarship from the National University again this year, and he used the money to buy me a new washing machine , the fully automatic one with drying, it took me two days to learn how to use it."

"Where's your son?" Dalia asked, playing with the lighter in her hand, "Is he still serving?"

"Maybe I'll retire in a few years"

The old man signaled Wei Ran to turn around, and continued to measure while saying, "He sent back some caviar a few days ago, do you want to try it? I don't like the taste of that kind of thing."

"Where is it?" Teacher Dalia asked curiously.

"Go look inside, I put it in the refrigerator." The old man's tone became more and more proud, "My grandson bought that refrigerator for me this summer. It has no shortcomings except that it consumes too much electricity."

"You are not short of money"

Teacher Dalia muttered, and patted Wei Ran's buttocks casually, then ignored the former's helpless expression, pushed open the wooden door familiarly, and got inside.

After the old man measured Wei Ran's feet carefully, Teacher Dalia also came back with a slice of bread covered with caviar.

"what about the taste?"

"It's delicious." Teacher Dalia glanced at Wei Ran who was getting dressed, and asked with a smile, "How long will it take to make it?"

"I'm getting old, not as fast as before." The old man put away the tape measure in his hand, "A month, maybe I can do it in a month."

"How much?" Teacher Dahlia asked after eating the last bite of bread.

"Let me do the math"

The old man took out a Nixie tube computer that looked very old-fashioned from the drawer, and after pressing it back and forth, he finally said, "For your student's sake, it's 120 million rubles." , I will prepare the rest of the trinkets for him."

"Then 120 million, anyway, you are not short of money." Dalia turned her head to look at Wei Ran, "120 million rubles, bring cash to pick up the clothes in a month."

"Oh yes, yes." Wei Ran hurriedly endured the pain and agreed, wisely, he didn't ask carefully.

"take this"

The old man took out a piece of white cloth from the drawer, used the large scissors on the table to cut off a piece of cloth the size of a dumpling wrapper, and then wrote a few unknown letters on it with a marker pen, and then handed it over to the Gave it to Wei Ran.

It wasn't until Wei Ran put the rag into his pocket that the old man asked with a smile, "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"What's for dinner tonight?" Teacher Dalia asked gently.

"Red cabbage soup, baked potatoes with mushrooms. And the leftover dumplings from lunch and the caviar you just tasted."

"Then we won't be polite," Teacher Dalia said familiarly.

"Go and sit upstairs first." The old man untied the apron around his waist, "I'll call you down after I finish dinner."

"Do you need our help?" Darya asked proactively.

"No, no, these are very simple, and I will fix them soon." After finishing speaking, the old man tremblingly walked to the inside.

Wei Ran didn't ask until the figure of the other party was blocked by the wooden door, "Teacher Dalia, who is he?"

"A very talented costume designer"

Darya whispered, "During the Soviet era, he was responsible for designing and tailoring many of the dresses and formal suits we wore. Regardless of his age, his craftsmanship is the best in Russia."

Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then sighed with emotion, "Another poor man who has been forgotten by history"

"Pitiful?"

Teacher Dalia shook her head, "He is not pitiful at all, he is happier than any of us. But...it is true that not many people remember him anymore."

(End of this chapter)