War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 478

After saying goodbye to the sisters Olga and Olena, Wei Ran took the suitcase and walked to the side of the street, stopped a taxi and immediately rushed to the direction of the airport.

Now nearly a week has passed since the half-month trip, but he still has two places that he hasn't traveled to.It would be a lie to say that he was not nervous during this time, and even he could have a premonition that once the time limit expired, Teacher Dalia must have countless tricks waiting for him.

Hurrying to the airport, Wei Ran was almost urged by the radio to board the plane to Sochi.

He heaved a long sigh of relief until the flight took off, and began to ponder the possible history behind the bayanqin that Olga wanted to investigate.There is no doubt that the first thing to doubt is undoubtedly the Battle of Leningrad.

In the history courses he had studied, there were too many descriptions of this battle of defending the city that were more trembling than bloody.

The 872-day siege may only be comparable to the Murmansk defense that took place further north.

But compared to Murmansk, which had a steady stream of material resources, what was flooding Leningrad at that time was hunger and bombing in every corner.

Words such as "famine", "longest siege", "most destructive", "highest number of deaths" and even "genocide" inevitably appeared in all descriptions of that war.

At the same time, accompanied by these bloody and cruel appearances, there is naturally the road of life on ice that cannot be ignored.

Do you have the courage to enter that battlefield?

Wei Ran looked at the peaceful land outside the porthole and asked himself, but after a long time he gave a negative answer. He didn't have the courage, because hunger is far more cruel and difficult than war.

But at the same time, he couldn't help but think of Konon, whom he had become friends with in the hut in the blizzard in Finland. He clearly remembered that the reporter who was blind in one eye was a survivor of the Battle of Leningrad.

Maybe meet Conon there?Will he recognize me?Shouldn't it?After all, it was after the Battle of Leningrad, how could he remember it.

Wei Ran sighed secretly. The only thing he was lucky about was that at least he still had a choice, and he could refuse to enter some battles that made him fearful.

In the torrent of thoughts, Wei Ran's flight landed at Sochi Airport smoothly.Following the address that Dalia had recorded on his schedule back then, Wei Ran took a taxi and rushed to a resort next to the coastline of the Black Sea.

There is no need to inquire about the history of this resort. Just by looking at the heavy Stalinist building, we know that this resort most likely served as a sanatorium for high-ranking officials in the Soviet era.

"The doorman. He should be an old guy like Ivan again."

Wei Ran looked at the contact information on the schedule and muttered to himself, then took out his mobile phone and dialed the number on it.The waiting tone in the handset only rang three times before being connected, but no one spoke.

Clearing his throat, Wei Ran said, "I'm looking for the guard."

"Who asked you to make this call?" The person on the other end of the phone asked, it was a man who spoke, the hoarse and thick bubbly voice made Wei Ran have the urge to arrange an endotracheal intubation for the other party immediately.

"Daria"

"Daria? Darya of Kazan?"

"Yes" Wei Ran frowned and replied.

"So you are Victor?" The man on the other end of the phone paused and continued, "The young man standing at the gate of the resort like a fool?"

"I'm Victor." Wei Ran replied patiently, presuming he didn't hear the other party's last ridicule.

"Wait for me a few minutes"

Before Wei Ran had time to respond, a busy tone of "beep beep beep" came from the receiver.Soon, a Mercedes-Benz off-road vehicle drove out of the resort and finally stopped beside him.

Contrary to Wei Ran's expectations, the person in the car was a bald man who was at most 40 years old, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Wei Ran immediately matched him with the person on the phone.

"Get in the car," the man pointed at the co-pilot while speaking.

Hearing this, Wei Ran opened the door of the rear driver's cab silently, threw the suitcase in, and then got into the car and sat in the co-pilot's seat.

"Seat belt," the middle-aged man continued to remind with an unpleasant bubble tone.

After Wei Ran fastened his seat belt, the man stepped on the gas pedal, and drove the car on the main road in a smooth and steady manner.

"Stepan"

The middle-aged man driving the car held out his hand to Wei Ran solemnly while waiting for the red light, "Stepan Khlozov, I'm glad you came to Sochi."

"Victor"

Wei Ran felt uncomfortable and shook hands with the other party. The bald man was not tall and strong, but apart from the impressive and unpleasant sound of bubbles, his eyes were also so sharp that it made him feel uncomfortable. He couldn't help but think of the concentration that the big white cat on Ivan's boat had when he was catching water birds.

"Do you know what Darya asked you to do here?" Stepan let go of Wei Ran's hand and asked while slowly stepping on the accelerator.

"Just let me see you, and only with your consent, I can go to see the next person, other than that, I didn't say much else."

"Um"

Stepan closed his mouth and responded, but fell into silence again.It wasn't until the coastline behind him was completely blocked by various buildings, and dense broad-leaved forests began to appear on both sides of the road, that he asked again, "Have you been to Sochi before?"

“Come here once”

Wei Ran responded in a flat tone, "Three or four years ago, as a tour guide, I brought tourists here to play."

"ski?"

"Hot Spring, Winter Theater" Wei Ran replied with a smile, "Of course, there is also Comrade Stalin's green villa."

"Comrade Stalin? Comrade? Haha! That's a good word!" Stepan smiled nervously, "Many people call him Mr. now."

"Probably because the people who call him Mister are not too worried that he will come back to life." Wei Ran made a joke that was small enough but scary enough.

"Fortunately, medicine is not developed enough now." Stepan, who seemed to be easy to talk, echoed, and then asked, "What do you think of this city?"

"to be frank?"

"Of course" Stepan nodded as a matter of course.

“Nothing special to me”

Wei Ran slightly lowered the car window, "For Russians, this should be the first choice for vacation, right? Warm sunshine, golden sandy beaches, various tropical fruits and bikini girls that I haven't seen yet. "

"Picky Chinese people"

Stepan smiled and said, "There's really nothing special here, except that it's warmer, and the girls don't hesitate to show off their snow-white thighs and part of their soft chest muscles."

Before Wei Ran could say anything, Stepan changed the topic and continued, "However, if you need to smuggle something into Russia, or ship something out quietly, you can come here to find me at any time, look at the red flag For the sake of the forest farm, you can get a limit of 100 kilograms per year. It doesn't matter if it's gold or poison, even if it's a living person.

Of course, you know what not to touch, so don't try anything too dangerous, or you'll end up in the Black Sea with whatever you're trying to smuggle. "

"What is this?" Wei Ran looked at the other party puzzled.

"A piece of cake"

Stepan said indifferently, "I'll do what Dalia says, and it's been like this all these years. Since she asked you to come here to find me, if she didn't want me to kill you, she must be satisfied enough with you. So I don't mind giving you a little gift, that's all."

"Can I know more?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.

"Let me think about it."

Stepan drove the off-road vehicle through two intersections in silence, and then continued, "If you get into trouble in the future, as long as you can escape here, I can send you to a safe enough place to hide hide.

On the contrary, if you need some helpers to solve some troubles, as long as it is not a fatal situation, I can support you with at least a dozen people. Of course, if there are casualties, you have to pay some pensions.

In the end, if it weren't for the situations above, the less we meet and communicate, the better.That's all, there seems to be nothing else to tell you. "

"Do you need an equivalent exchange?" Wei Ran asked straightforwardly. The other party told him so many things so simply, and he had to express it. Even if the other party said what he said, he probably wouldn't use it.

"Can you send me a picture of the flag you found at the Capitol?"

Stepan asked with a hint of anticipation, "I went to see the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow. Although the shot was not as good-looking as the angle it was posed for later, it was still shocking."

"Of course it's okay"

Wei Ran readily agreed, "I even brought the original negatives with me. If you can find the developing equipment, I can help you develop a few more on the spot."

"That's the best, and I'll arrange it after I finish my business with you." While speaking, Stepan also accelerated the speed of the car a little.

"Stepan, where are we going?" Wei Ran finally asked the question he wanted to ask before getting in the car.

"I'll show you some friends. By the way, I want you to give us a show." Stepan's tone became more and more expectant.

"Performing?" Wei Ran was stunned, "Performing what?"

"Joint dislocation and reduction"

Stepan said bluntly, "I heard from Sister Anna that it is said that it is completely different from our fighting skills, and it is not even the Chinese fighting skills we are familiar with."

"Wait" Wei Ran turned his head to look at the other party, "You guys? Also, what do you mean 'the Chinese fighting skills we are familiar with?' You guys."

"Don't get me wrong, our two countries, of course, what I'm talking about here is the Soviet Union and China, not Russia and China, although the relationship between Russia and China is pretty good at the moment.

In short, the Soviet Union and China used to have a long partnership, didn't they?Although we broke up and quarreled later, some of the technical exchanges left over from the partner era will always remain part of it.That's what I said, the Chinese fighting skills we are familiar with. "

"Your description is very strange"

Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded, took a deep breath and asked, "So let me guess, what am I using to perform this time? Drug dealers or human traffickers? Or smugglers? They can't be poachers, right?"

"It seems that your study life at Hongqi Forest Farm is very rich," Stepan joked with a smile.

"It's too rich." Wei Ran responded to the other party dumbfounded. He really didn't know whether he should guard against this middle-aged uncle who seemed a little too familiar.

"This time I arranged for you a woman, a beautiful woman." Stepan said with a hint of mischief.

"Woman?" Wei Ran frowned subconsciously.

"right"

Stepan nodded bluntly, "A woman who makes money by luring and forcing young girls to make pornographic movies and even surrogacy."

"What are you guys? Sochi Superman? Sochi Spiderman? Yes or Captain Sochi?"

"Whatever, but Captain Sochi sounds like a good nickname. I can think about wearing a ridiculous shield on my back when I see you next time. Maybe I'm short of a blue tights."

Responding to Wei Ran's joke with a joke, Stepan continued to explain in an indifferent tone, "I can't use an innocent person as your performance prop, can I? Although I don't mind too much, Sister Anna reminded me , Said that you are a scholar who loves cleanliness.

So in order to watch your performance, we took a lot of effort to find the woman just mentioned. "

Wei Ran didn't know whether to laugh or cry and asked, "So to put it simply, I'm only here to perform for you?"

"I've just paid for the show"

Stepan lit a cigarette on his own, and finally told the truth, "It's just that we don't want to embarrass you, otherwise you would have been tied up and thrown into the basement to starve by now."

"Look how good you all are!" Wei Ran murmured to himself, but his face showed just the right amount of gratitude.

(End of this chapter)