War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 399

In the center of the camp shrouded in the afterglow of the setting sun, the nervous but excited tank soldier Shura with a stiff smile on his face and Mr. Jaina with a gentle smile leaned side by side on a BMW motorcycle pushed over from nowhere. Let Wei Ran aim at them and press the shutter.

After taking a group photo of these two young people, Uncle Slava has organized the rest of the people to move enough ammunition boxes to serve as chairs. There are more than [-] men, women, old and children standing in a row, and those children also He was hugged by Ivan and his little friends and sat on the grass in the front row.

Turning around and looking at the only half of the sunset behind him, Wei Ran seized the time and pressed the shutter button again amidst the sound of "Ula".

"Comrade reporter, where's the wine?" The middle-aged man who was in charge of slaughtering the prey just now asked impatiently, "Just now you said that you would buy us a drink!"

"Don't worry." Wei Ran put the camera back in his bag, "When we have dinner, there will definitely be vodka, I promise!"

"That's what you said." Uncle Slava waved at the crowd who hadn't dispersed yet, "Since we have wine tonight, let's make a bigger dinner!"

"Victor, don't forget that you promised to teach the children for me." Teacher Jaina also came over and reminded with a smile.

"Of course I haven't forgotten, leave the children to me!"

Wei Ran winked at the tanker Shula, "Shula, I remember that the clothes hanging in the potato field have not been confiscated, how about you and Teacher Jaina to collect the clothes?"

"Good! Good!"

Shula is obviously just stupid, but she is not a fool. Naturally, she understood Wei Ran's meaning, mustered up the courage to grab Jaina's hand, and ran to the distant potato field amidst the good-natured laughter of the crowd.

"Okay, adults, go prepare dinner."

Uncle Slava picked up the metal whistle hanging around his neck and blew, "Ivan, you take all the children to find Victor for lessons."

"Follow me all!"

Ivan, who is like a king of children, waved his hands imposingly. In an instant, more than forty little guys ranging from four to five years old and as old as fifteen or sixteen years old swarmed under the pine tree staring at the board. Automatically sit in a fan according to height and height.

Looking at the big patch of small heads in front of him, Wei Ran was rarely nervous.More than once when he was in a travel agency, he took more and more mischievous and even ignorant tourists to carry out group activities.But at this moment, when he faced these prematurely sensible children as a teacher, he felt a little stage fright.

He didn't know what he should say, he didn't know how what he said would affect these children, and he didn't know how many of these children who were full of curiosity for knowledge would survive until the end of the war.

"Victor, what do you want to tell us?"

Seeing Wei Ran staring blankly at them and not speaking, Ivan who was sitting in the center offered a suggestion, "We should learn history class today, otherwise."

"No"

Wei Ran didn't wait for Ivan to finish before rejecting his kind proposal, "Today we won't talk about history, and we won't talk about what happened before."

"Then what are we talking about?" Sergey, who can be called Ivan's follower, asked, "How is the math class? I like math class the most!"

"We don't like it!" A little yellow-haired girl said pitifully, "I like art class."

"Music class! Music is also available!" A little bean sprout who looked smaller and was even eating his fingers shouted childishly, "I like music class the most!"

"children"

Wei Ran's tone at this time has become more firm and confident, "We don't have math class today, let alone art class or music class."

"Then what do we do?" Ivan asked again.

He took a serious look at the children whose faces had been dyed red by the setting sun, and turned to look at the guerrillas who surrounded them and sat on the ground with their weapons in their hands.

Wei Ran picked up a wet rag from a German helmet fixed on the tree trunk, and carefully wiped off the smooth writing on the wooden boards.Then he took out a piece of charcoal the size of a matchbox from another helmet, and wrote the Russian word "dream" on the wet board.

"Mr. Victor, I don't know the word you wrote." The child who just wanted to take music class said in a childlike voice.

"Dream" Ivan replied for Wei Ran, "this word is dream."

"yes"

Wei Ran threw the charcoal in his hand back into the helmet, "Children, we have two classes today, and the first class is called Dream."

"Ivan, what class is this?" Sergey asked his good friend beside him in a moderate voice.

"How do I know?" Ivan replied blankly, and then looked at Wei Ran who was standing on the ammunition box together with the other children.

"In this class, let's talk about everyone's dreams." Wei Ran simply sat on the ammunition box used as a podium, "Ivan, tell me first, what is your dream in the future?"

"My dream is to be an investigator!" Ivan replied without thinking.

"no no no"

Wei Ran waved his hand, "I'm talking about after the war is over, after the Germans are driven out, what is your dream?"

"After the war?"

The child king Iwan was stunned, "The war will probably be over for a long time, and I want to be an investigator right now."

"The war will be over soon"

Wei Ran obviously didn't intend to let Ivan go just like that, "So think about it now, what is your dream after the war is over."

"After the war."

Ivan looked around, his immature face suddenly became radiant, and his voice, which was in the period of changing voice, was extraordinarily firm this time, "My dream is that after the war is over, everyone can still get together! A lot of people gathered together Together!
At that time, we will return to the village occupied by the Germans together. Teacher Jaina will still be responsible for teaching the younger brothers and sisters. Uncle Slava and Shura and I will continue to protect everyone.When I get older, I can become a soldier and continue to protect everyone! "

As Ivan described his dream sentence by sentence, the guerrillas who were watching and whispering gradually became quieter.Uncle Slava, with a pipe in his mouth, couldn't help but smile on his weathered face.

"Is there any more?" Wei Ran asked as if deliberately embarrassing Ivan, "Are there any other things besides these?"

"and also."

Ivan rubbed his messy hair in distress, and said happily after a while, "I want to be a Hero of the Soviet Union! A Hero of the Soviet Union who can be published in the newspaper and can be awarded a medal by Comrade Stalin himself!"

"Ivan, your dream will surely come true."

Wei Ran vowed to make a promise, and then waved his hand to signal the other party to sit down, "Sergey, don't hide, it's up to you to talk, tell me what your dream is, other people can also think about their own first." What is dream."

"I want to be a Hero of the Soviet Union too!" Sergey stammered.

"You can be a hero of the Soviet Union." Wei Ran first gave affirmation, and finally continued, "But this is Ivan's dream, he has already said it, so you have to think about it again."

Seeing Sergey staring at him in a daze, Wei Ran smiled, "Children, let's count down for Sergey from 10, and when he counts to 1, if he can't speak, we will How about a little punishment for him?"

"it is good!"

These children immediately became interested, and then started counting down under Ivan's leadership.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"Stop! Stop!" Sergey shouted, waving his small arms, "I thought of it! I thought of it! Victor, I want to be a mathematician!"

"Tell me why you want to be a mathematician?" Wei Ran, who was sitting cross-legged on the ammunition box, asked with a smile.

"Because I Like Math"

Sergey explained his dream seriously, "Ms. Jaina said that I am very talented in mathematics, and she also said that mathematics can do many things and help many people. Although I don't know how to use mathematics to help others, more Don't know what to do, but I want to be a mathematician."

"Well, it seems we now have a Hero of the Soviet Union and a great mathematician"

Wei Ran pointed to the blond girl who once shared the snake meat, "It's your turn, tell me what your dream is."

"I want to be a painter!"

The little girl seemed to have been prepared for a long time, and immediately said simply, "Become a great painter like Mr. Repin! I want to draw Mr. Ivan, the hero of the Soviet Union, and Mr. Sergey, the mathematician, and then paint They hang in the village church!"

Before the little girl finished speaking, more and more adults around who were listening couldn't help laughing, and the faces of the two little guys, Ivan and Sergey, seemed to be even more reddened by the setting sun.

"I was serious!"

The little blond girl said loudly, "I'm going to draw Uncle Slava, Brother Shula, Teacher Jaina and everyone else!"

"I believe you will become a great painter like Mr. Repin!"

Wei Ran affirmed again, and then asked, "Who will talk next?"

"Me! I'm coming!"

The little boy with only one arm left, who was in charge of herding sheep during the day, rushed to stand up, "After the war is over, I want to raise a hundred, no, a thousand sheep! Another thousand cows, let the village Everyone here can eat meat at any time, so that everyone can drink milk as water! I will also grow a lot of potatoes and wheat, so that everyone will not be as hungry as they are now!"

"Vassily! You stole my dreams!"

A younger child was displeased, "I was going to say plant a lot of potatoes and wheat! That way we can have bread every day!"

"That potato and wheat dream is yours"

The one-armed boy named Vasily said generously, "I only have one arm, and it's really not suitable for growing potatoes and wheat."

"Thank you!"

The little guy whose dream was just robbed thanked him solemnly, and then said, "But I don't grow potatoes for eating, I want to make potatoes into vodka, so Uncle Slava and the others don't have to steal Teacher Jaina's medical kit Drink the alcohol in it, let alone add water to it.”

Glancing at the guerrillas who either turned their faces or looked up at the sky, Wei Ran once again gave affirmative encouragement, "I believe that you will also realize your dreams, so who will be next?" ?”

"I want to be a singer"

The little guy who suggested music lessons before said while chewing on his fingers, "I still want to be a poet, I still want to, I still want to. I also want to be a writer!"

"Alyosha, you are too greedy!"

A ragged little girl stood up and shouted angrily, "Why do you have so many dreams? I'm already thinking about becoming a poet!"

"But I really want to"

The former bit his finger and said, "I want to write everyone into the lyrics, into the poem, and I want to write you all into the bedtime story that Teacher Jaina tells us every night."

"What about you?"

Seeing that the little girl closest to him was crying while holding her knees, Wei Ran simply gave her the right to speak.

"I I hope that after the war, my mother is still alive. She was captured by the Germans. I haven't seen her in... It's been a long time."

After finishing speaking, the little girl who Wei Ran didn't even know her name finally stopped suppressing her crying, and the open-air classroom that had just been in a quarrel fell into silence for a while, and then the rest of the children also lowered their heads, and the original The guerrillas who were listening around also clenched their weapons tightly.

(End of this chapter)