War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 477 DSCH Motivation
Following the sisters Olga and Olena on the train for nearly eight hours, when they arrived in St. Petersburg, it was already early the next morning.

"Who will send you to school first?" Wei Ran asked at the exit of the train station.

The two sisters looked at each other and smiled, Olga shook the key in her hand, "Come with us."

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, and obediently followed behind with his suitcase. They left the train station, crossed another road, and finally walked into the parking lot of a large supermarket.

After a while, Olga drove out a semi-new Nissan sedan from the parking lot, lowered the window and said, "Get in the car! Put your luggage in the trunk."

Wei Ran looked at Olena who was standing beside her, walked to the rear of the car, and put the suitcase inside.

When he got into the car, Olena, who got into the car first, was already sitting in the co-pilot's seat and fastened her seat belt.

Almost at the same time as the door hit, Olga stepped on the accelerator and drove the car onto the main road.Seeing that the two sisters who were talking and laughing had no intention of explaining at all, Wei Ran didn't bother to ask any more questions, but silently turned on the phone's recording function again.

Contrary to his expectations, when the car finally stopped, it neither drove into the Repin Academy of Fine Arts nor the Petersburg Conservatory of Music, but parked in the underground parking lot of an apartment building.

"You don't live in the school?" Wei Ran asked belatedly.

“We moved out the year before last”

Olga said nonchalantly, "Of course, don't tell my father, only my mother knows about this."

"There's also the car, so don't tell him about it." Olena added on the sidelines, "Even Mom doesn't know about the car."

"You won't kill people, will you?"

While joking, Wei Ran got out of the car with the briefcase he was carrying with him. As for the suitcase, he didn't take it out of the trunk at all.After all, he didn't think he had the guts to spend the night in the sisters' room, let alone that the other party would let him stay.

"As long as you don't talk nonsense, you shouldn't"

Olga also jokingly replied, "Mom said you are trustworthy, otherwise we wouldn't bring you here."

"really."

Wei Ran murmured to himself, and he also said how these two girls dared to bring a stranger like himself over here. It turned out that their mother, Yana, had already said hello.

Following the two sisters, they took the elevator upstairs, and Olena, who was walking in the front, took out the key and opened the door.

This house is not too big, it looks like a one-bedroom suite, but fortunately, it is quite clean.

After glancing at the sound-absorbing sponges on the walls around the living room, and then at the old-looking upright piano and some unfinished sculptures against the wall, Wei Ran was greeted by Olga Sitting on a sofa full of dolls, after Olena put the two large insulated lunch boxes she brought into the refrigerator, she took out a bottle of frozen cola and handed it to Wei Ran .

"Olena, come and help me!" In the room that seemed to be the bedroom, Olga yelled. Hearing this, Olena ran in quickly, followed by the sound of various bottles and jars colliding. Only small movements will be made.

After a while, sisters Olga and Olena walked out of it carrying a wooden box with metal corners together.

"So big?"

Wei Ran looked in surprise at the wooden box that the sisters put on the carpet, it was at most one size smaller than the bedside table, and there seemed to be traces of some cosmetics left on it.

"We've been using it as a bedside table since we got it." While Olga was speaking, Olena had already taken out a key from her small bag and opened the padlock on the box.

As the box was opened, the corners of Wei Ran's mouth couldn't help twitching. In addition to the things Olga mentioned before, there were actually two underarm holsters with Velcro inside. However, they are two chrome-plated PSS micro-sound pistols.

"It was a gift from my dad when we were in college."

Olena picked up the two holsters and shook them, and said helplessly, "He was worried that we would be in danger living in Petersburg, but in fact we were more worried that these two pistols would cause unnecessary trouble. If we don't really know what to do with these two pistols, we don't have to move them out of the school."

"Father as a mountain."

Wei Ran grinned, and wisely changed the subject and asked, "You guys are secretly renting a house, isn't it financially stressful?"

"fine"

Olga took out a bayanqin from the box, "This house is rented to us by Olena's teacher, so it's not expensive, and the part-time jobs we two usually have are enough to pay the rent. Last year we even used the scholarship to buy the second-hand car downstairs, before that, we all rode motorcycles, but it was too cold to ride motorcycles in winter.”

While talking, the two sisters quickly put the bayan, which was not much different from the accordion, on the dining table, and then put the previously mentioned black bread, half a dried fish, a small bottle of coarse salt, and Half a sheet of music, a necklace, and a TK pistol were all placed on the table.

After getting Olga's permission, Wei Ran opened the briefcase he brought up, and pretended to take out a pair of white gloves that were originally used for pretending, and put them on his hands. After some observation, he picked up the TK automatic pistol.

Carefully pulling out the magazine, Wei Ran's heart tightened suddenly, there were still a few bullets in the magazine.Tried to pull the slide, luckily at least the chamber was empty.

Looking at the words "Soviet Bank" on the wooden handle sticker, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, and finally put it on the table.

According to what he found on the train last night, most of these pistols use bakelite handle patches, which are made of wood, and most of them are early models. As for how early this early is, at least it can be traced back to 1930 before.

At that time, although this palm-sized small pistol was classified as a "civilian weapon", it was never sold to civilians in fact. Those who were qualified to issue such weapons were basically the NKVD, senior officers of the Red Army, important scientific research workers, and even senior staff of the Soviet Bank.

Especially the one on the table that obviously uses a custom-made handle patch. Even if its owner was a certain president of the Soviet Bank, Wei Ran would not be surprised at all.

After looking at the pistol, Wei Ran took a look at the bread and dried fish on the table.Obviously, the piece of bread that had been preserved for an unknown amount of time had been cut off once, and at the position of the cut surface, it could be seen that the bread was mixed with some unknown raw materials like sawdust.Look at the half of the dried fish with only the tail left, and there is a seemingly invisible tooth mark on it.

Putting down the things again, Wei Ran picked up the half of the sheet music.For a music idiot like him, the little tadpoles on the score are almost equivalent to a book without words.

Carefully flipping through the pages, there was nothing but the staves, as if a musical score had been split into two, and this was just one of them.

"What song is recorded on it?" Wei Ran asked after putting down the score.

Olga spread her hands, "Symphony No. [-] in C major. Of course, most people prefer to call it the Leningrad Symphony. This half of the score records the entire fourth movement, so strictly speaking, it That's a quarter of a book of music."

Speaking of this, Olga picked up the bayan on the table, "But anyway, it is a symphony after all, at least it cannot be played alone with this instrument."

Before the words fell, Olga had already memorized the bayan, and played a short section of Katyusha smoothly.

"This bayan is very well preserved,"

Olga took off the bayan on her chest, pointed to a small string of staves engraved on the decorative cover and said, "It is the main reason why I have always wanted to investigate the origin of these things."

"what is this?"

Wei Ran asked suspiciously, although now he can play two pieces on the Huaxia Guqin and a complete piece of "as time goes by" on the blues harmonica, but this does not affect him at all. Tadpole symbol jumping on a rubber band.

"DSCH motivation" Olga's mouth popped out a noun that Wei Ran couldn't understand at all.

"Or you can also call it a music code"

Olga explained helplessly, "Simply put, composers convert their initials into sound names. The one who likes to do this most is the German composer Bach in the Baroque period. Since he started, many composers have Everyone will use this romantic way to hide their own or their lover's name in the score."

Olga paused, pointed to the engraved content on the panel and continued, "If you don't understand music, it's actually hard for me to explain the conversion rules to you.

So let's keep it simple, you just need to know that these notes are called DSCH motives, and that this DSCH motive is also the most important composer of the Soviet era, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich A musical signature is enough. "

"Sister, he probably doesn't even know who Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich is." Olena, who had already eaten an apple, reminded in a low voice.

"The "Leningrad Symphony" recorded in the half of the score was composed by him." Olga simply and directly added an explanation about this person.

"So, you think, this accordion"

"Bayan", Olga corrected seriously, and at the same time pressed the button on the right side, "The right-hand key of the accordion is similar to that of a piano, and the bayan is a round button similar to an old-fashioned typewriter."

"Okay, bayan"

Wei Ran graciously corrected his wrong name, "So what do you suspect this bayan is? Dmitry? Do you suspect it is the instrument he used?"

"I think it's very possible, but this kind of thing needs to be confirmed."

Olga carefully put the bayanqin back into the box, and then said distressedly, "But there is no record about this box in our school's music warehouse, let alone who put it in."

"Since there are no records"

"But what if someone comes after me after I make it public?"

Olga asked frankly, "I secretly took it out of the music warehouse. I just wanted to cause some harmless troubles for my teacher, but I didn't want to send myself to prison."

"Don't worry, no one will send you to prison for this kind of shit. Even if you are sent in, your old man can get you out."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and after thinking for a while, he asked, "Olga, let's assume first. If I find out that it is really the relic of the composer you just mentioned, but it has an owner, you What are you going to do?"

"What else can I do?"

Olga spread her hands and said as a matter of course, "Of course it is sent back, so that the original owner can keep such an important thing well."

Wei Ran smiled and continued to ask, "Conditions remain the same, what if it is already unowned?"

"Resold to school at a decent price"

Olga continued to speak in a natural tone, "This will not only help my family get a new fishing boat or two new engines for the fishing boat, but also as long as the price is high enough, even the school will pay attention to these things and take care of them. Save it instead of sitting in the back of the warehouse as a moisture-proof cushion for other instruments.”

"Victor, have you agreed to help Olga investigate these things?" Olena asked cleverly.

"I haven't made a decision yet"

Wei Ran shook his head resolutely, "First of all, we haven't discussed the issue of the commission carefully, and secondly, I'm going to Sochi tomorrow, and then I'm going to Kaliningrad, at least half a month later. What about time?"

"Didn't we talk about the commission?" Olga pointed to the wooden box, "No matter how much you sell, you can get one-third."

"You did say that, but I didn't agree."

Wei Ran spread his hands, "Olga, how about this, at most half a month later, after I have finished all the things, what about it? Whether it is a commission issue or an investigation of these things."

"It's only half a month"

Olga said indifferently, "But you'd better call me in advance when the time comes. I occasionally work part-time in the musical theater, and I'm basically at school the rest of the time."

"No problem." Wei Ran said and took off his gloves and put it back in his briefcase, "In this case, I will contact you again before June."

"One Last Thing"

Olga paused for a moment, and finally asked, "Victor, what did you and my dad say when we were picking mushrooms yesterday?"

"Everyone should have their own secrets, even their own daughter."

Wei Ran smiled, and said while walking towards the door with a briefcase in his hand, "Then, who of you would like to send me downstairs, and let me take my luggage out of the trunk by the way?"

"Let's go together"

Olena, who doesn't like talking very much, spoke first, "No wonder he is willing to let you come to Petersburg with us, but no matter what, thank you for speaking for us."

"Mr. Ivan still loves you very much." Wei Ran said as he walked out, "Frankly speaking, he is more qualified than most Russian men who have become fathers I have met."

“Should say overqualified”

Olga rolled her eyes and complained, "This is not the United States. Which father would add a pistol to his daughter's list of things to go to college?"

"It's a good thing we're not in the United States," Olena said in harmony, "otherwise we might have to go to school with a bazooka on our backs."

　Thanks to Flying Hands and Short Belly Youshou for rewarding 100 points respectively

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(End of this chapter)