War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 476
After dismissing Olga who visited late at night, Wei Ran closed the door and lay down on the bed again.He wasn't interested in helping the other party investigate the bayanqin, and he didn't want Ivan to misunderstand and cause him unnecessary trouble.

There was nothing to say all night, until the next morning, the drizzle that had been pattering all day yesterday had stopped at some point, replaced by bright sunshine and fresh air with a little earthy smell.

After a rare sleep until [-]:[-] in the morning, Wei Ran got up and went downstairs at Yana's call, brushed his teeth and washed his face, and sat at the dining table.

"Today we're going to pick mushrooms"

Yana said while pouring milk for everyone, "The men bring weapons, and the girls bring baskets. If we are lucky, we will have mushroom pies in the afternoon."

Shorter Olena yawned and said, "I'd rather continue sleeping in my room, or playing games in bed."

"You can also take your bed and go mushroom picking with us"

After teasing her younger sister, Olga picked up the warm milk and drank it all in one gulp, while Ivan, who was sitting opposite her, also drank the milk in the cup at the same time. sighed, as if they were drinking vodka instead of milk.

"Olena, go pick mushrooms with us, you can't stay in the room all the time." Ivan persuaded, wiping the milk from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"I'm not always stuck in my room"

Olena drank the milk one after another, and said with a bitter face, "I spent half of the time last week at the horse farm, and now I feel like I can smell the horse manure as soon as I leave the room."

"You were very fond of horses when you were a child"

Yana sat down with a basket of freshly baked bread, and was about to talk about Olena's childhood as usual, but the former quickly brought the topic back to school in the afternoon.

After talking and laughing after breakfast, Wei Ran and the family put on their rain boots, and then took an old-looking SKS semi-automatic rifle from Ivan.

"Ivan, are we going hunting?" Wei Ran checked the chamber of the gun, and then pressed the bullets in the clip into it and asked.

"Sometimes there are wolves in the forest, and the brown bears have ended their hibernation this season, so it's always right to be careful." While speaking, Ivan also loaded two bullets into a vertical double-barreled shotgun in his hand .

"For a mushroom?" Wei Ran muttered to himself, followed Ivan into the wet birch forest first.

"Who went to your room last night?" Ivan asked abruptly, "What did you talk about? What did you do?"

Wei Ran froze for a moment, glanced at the shotgun that the other party was pointing at intentionally or unintentionally, and simply took out his mobile phone to call up the recording function, and handed it to him together with the handwritten note with her mobile phone number that Olga gave him last night. other side.

Glancing at Wei Ran, Ivan took the phone, lowered the volume and put it next to his ear.

After a long time, Ivan returned the phone to Wei Ran, and said sadly, "She never told me about this kind of thing."

"She's your daughter, not your pet."

Wei Ran took the phone and said to himself, "Ivan, your daughters have grown up, and they will definitely have their own secrets. If you protect them too much, maybe it will arouse their resentment."

"Are you teaching me how to be a father?" Ivan glared at Wei Ran dissatisfied.

"whatever you think"

Wei Ran shook the mobile phone still in his hand, turned around and walked forward and said, "You have listened to the recording, so can you stop pointing the gun at my ass?"

"You'd better not think of them," Ivan threatened dissatisfiedly, and finally moved the gun to the side.

As the two continued to move forward, some fallen dead trees began to appear around them, and mushrooms of various colors and shapes grew on them at intervals.Yana, who was walking behind, also started to work with her two daughters.

"Ivan, are we just watching? Don't you need to help?" Wei Ran asked Ivan who was leaning against the tree trunk and smoking.

"Do you know which mushrooms are edible and which are poisonous?" Ivan took out a cigarette case from his pocket and handed it to Wei Ran while speaking, "Don't refuse, I heard the sound of a lighter in the recording."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, and finally took the cigarette case and disposable lighter from the other party. He waited until sparks came out from the cigarette butt, and then he continued to ask, "Don't you know?"

Ivan spread his hands, "If I knew, I would have gone to help."

"Forget it, let's smoke."

Wei Ran, who was always looking for something to say, simply found a tree stump and sat down, observing the surrounding situation in the smoke around his fingertips.

"Victor, can you help Olga investigate what she said?" Ivan asked Wei Ran abruptly.

"Why?" Wei Ran looked at the other party vigilantly, "Don't worry, I won't take the initiative to contact Olga."

"Check it out for her if you have time"

Ivan hesitated for a long time, and reluctantly stuffed the note that Wei Ran gave him just now to Wei Ran, "Before calling her, you'd better inform me first, otherwise"

"Otherwise put it in an oil drum and tie it to an anchor and sink into the lake alive?"

Wei Ran didn't take the note in the other party's hand, and shirked with a trace of revenge, "This kind of historical investigation is not as easy as you think, and besides, I really don't have so much time recently."

"I can also help Olga investigate it myself." Ivan put away the note angrily.

"wish you success"

Wei Ran said indifferently, this investigation work is destined to not bring much benefit, not to mention that unlike the time in Guam where he was able to learn English, which can be called the shadow of his student days, he naturally does not have much power.

Ivan shook his eyebrows, but he didn't continue the topic after all, he just held the cigarette butt and sucked it hard, as if what was wrapped in the cigarette paper was not shredded tobacco, but Wei Ran next to him.

Like bodyguards, they accompanied Yana, mother and daughter, and Ivan, who was bearded and staring, to pick mushrooms all morning, and the group left the forest before the sun rose to its highest point at noon.

In the remaining half a day, Yana used the fresh mushrooms she picked to bake three large plates of pies and a basket of bread mixed with mushrooms, and then made a big pot of cheese and cheese mushrooms that Wei Ran regarded as heresy Stuffed dumplings.

When the sun was about to set in the afternoon, sisters Olga and Olena, and Wei Ran who was also about to leave each boarded the fishing boat with an insulated lunch box full of pies.

"Victor, it's better for you to drive the boat." Ivan, who was wearing a suit and leather shoes, said standing on the deck, "Go to the city, remember to drive steadily."

"no problem"

Wei Ran waved to Yana who was standing at the pier, and asked while the two sisters were not paying attention, "Ivan, can I come to your place as a guest in the future?"

"Of course." Ivan glanced at his daughter beside him, and said very meanly, "But you'd better come on a working day."

"Come to help you fish?" Wei Ran deliberately didn't break the other party's careful thinking, and also didn't wait for the other party's answer, so he turned around and got into the cockpit.

"Smart boy" Ivan said with emotion, and then he greeted his two daughters and sat on the deck chair on the bow deck.

Wei Ran in the driver's cab also skillfully steered the dilapidated fishing boat to the Petrozavodsk pier on the southwestern shore of Lake Onega.

However, what he didn't expect was that after he steered the fishing boat to the pier, Ivan, who guarded him all the way, arranged another unexpected task for him.

"You want me to send your two daughters to Petersburg?" Wei Ran looked at Ivan in surprise, and even the two sisters who were about to disembark had expressions of surprise.

"You were probably right when you were in the forest this morning."

Ivan said incoherently, "And you just happened to be going to Petersburg? So drop them off and send them to school. I'm sure you won't refuse. I'm here to watch over the refueling of the fishing boats." That's fine, the two of them will leave it to you."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, turned his head to look at the two sisters not far away, and finally nodded reluctantly.Drop in?Stop by!But the other party hinted so clearly that if he refused, he might have some bad luck waiting for him when he returned to Hongqi Forest Farm.

"Okay, let's go early."

Ivan hugged his two precious daughters respectively, and then hugged Wei Ran, reminding him in a low voice, "Take care of your mind."

"You forced me to send them off, and I didn't go along the way at all!" Wei Ran also snapped back amidst the roar of the engine.

After bidding farewell to Ivan who stood on the deck with a worried face, Wei Ran followed the two sisters out of the pier, took a taxi and headed straight for the train station.

"Victor, what did you tell my dad? How could he let you send us to Petersburg?"

As soon as the taxi started, Olga, who was sitting behind Wei Ran, hugged the back of the co-pilot's seat and asked curiously.

"Maybe it's because I already have a girlfriend," Wei Ran said nonsense.

"It's really rare." Olena tore off a piece of chewing gum and stuffed it into her mouth while speaking, "Dad didn't accidentally eat a poisonous mushroom?"

"You just ate poisonous mushrooms"

Olga knocked on her sister's head, then looked back at Wei Ran who was sitting in front, "Victor, since you are going to send us to Petersburg, why don't you take a look at what I said yesterday?" Sample?"

"Yes! Let's go and see together!"

Olena said equally enthusiastically, "If the accordion that Olga found was really used by a famous musician, maybe we can help Dad replace two new engines for the fishing boat after we sell it."

"Wait, change the engine?" Wei Ran turned his head suspiciously, "For that fishing boat?"

"The engine of that boat often fails"

Olga said distressedly, "The boat turned off on the lake a month ago, and my dad and his guys worked hard for more than three hours to get it started again, and it was already night when they got home that day. It's past nine o'clock."

"And this kind of thing has happened several times." Olena, who was a little introverted, followed up, "Victor, how about helping me? There is still something on that accordion."

"Bayanqin, to be precise, it should be called Bayanqin"

Olga interrupted what her sister was about to say with a completely unnecessary explanation, "Anyway, since you're going to Petersburg, why don't you take a look at it? As for whether you want to help, we'll talk about it after you have seen it."

"It's not a good job."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and finally nodded and agreed to go and have a look. Anyway, at the end of the day, it's just a matter of evading the investigation, but if he doesn't go, he can't guarantee what kind of trouble that Ivan will create for himself.

(End of this chapter)