War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 498 Murder Under the Bathtub
In the underground shelter shrouded in wind and snow, the rich aroma of meat mixed with the aroma of bread permeated, easily overwhelming the aroma of jasmine tea in the enamel kettle.

And the source of this aroma came from the two steel helmets with braised bear fat sausage and braised bear paws stewed on the fireplace, and the oven that Gale had just opened the wooden baffle.

While everyone was waiting, Gail first brought out two baguettes that were nearly half a meter long and thick as arms from the oven, and then brought out a tray of sausages that were baked into a maroon color.

While Gail was pouring the sausages with soup, Wei Ran scooped out the braised fat sausage and braised bear's paw from the two helmets, and packed them into four lunch boxes in equal amounts.

It is indeed the first time he has made this braised bear fat sausage, but so far, at least it smells pretty good.As for the braised bear's paw, as early as the first day when he first came to Russia to study, his aunt brought it to him as the main course of the welcome banquet.

In the following years, during the hunting season, even if Professor Alexey could not hunt or dare not hunt brown bears, my aunt would always receive bear meat from the travel agency staff.Under the influence of his ears and eyes, Wei Ran can really be regarded as having seen a bear run and eaten a bear's paw.

According to my aunt, the bear paws taste the best after being dried and saccharified, but as long as you are willing to feed them, even if they are fresh, the taste is not bad.At most, it just needs to be stewed for a longer time. Simply put, it is not much different from braised pig's trotters.

Wait until all meals are served.Gail used a bayonet to cut the burnt bread and distributed it to everyone, and then he poked a piece of sausage he made himself into the bread.

Dorian, on the other hand, had already poked a small piece of bear paw meat covered with thick soup with a fork and stuffed it into his mouth.

"It tastes really good!" Before Dorian finished his sentence, he took a bite of his baguette and said with a satisfied face, "Finally, I have bread."

"You have to thank me for preparing a small piece of dough for fermentation on the day I moved in." While speaking, Gail also fished out a piece of braised fat sausage from his lunch box and stuffed it into his mouth.

"This taste is really good, Victor, what's the name of this dish?" Gail asked curiously.

"Life is gutless" Wei Ran responded vaguely in Chinese, obviously too lazy to think about how to translate the word "red roast".

"What?" Gail looked at Wei Ran blankly, but before he could say anything, Kang Tan had already unscrewed a bottle of potato wine, "Don't care what it's called, come and have a drink!"

"It's really worth a drink!" Gail immediately picked up the cup.

After Wei Ran and Dorian also raised their cups, everyone bumped into each other and drank it down.

"It would be nice if there was wine," Gail said with a regretful face.

“Some drinks are good”

Kang Tan put down his wine glass, took a bite of the sausage covered in sauce, "After I make my own shoes, I plan to repair those animal traps, if they still work, we can try to catch more prey .”

"I really need to catch more." Gail nodded, "That bear is not enough for us to feed for a winter, and there are not many onions and potatoes."

Dorian took another big bite of the bread, "I just want to dig out the bathtub quickly and burn enough hot water to take a good bath."

"After the bathtub is dug out, we can still find a way to remove the engine of the half-track motorcycle."

Gale also said, "If we can fix its engine, whether it's to get Quentin back, or go to the Soviet Union after the winter, it will be much easier."

"But Quentin might have already" Dorian said halfway and immediately stopped the rest of the words.

"Quentin must be alive!" Gail said, frowning.

"gail"

Kang Tan put down the wine glass he just picked up, "You have to calm down, we are very lucky to be able to escape here, to be able to eat meat and bread, and to drink wine, if..."

"what if?"

Gail stood up and said loudly, "Quentin lured the Germans away and saved us! What do you want to do? Hide here for the rest of your life eating meat, drinking, taking hot baths, waiting for flowers to grow outside, waiting for the Germans After fighting this war, wait for them to catch us again?"

"That's not what we mean," Kang Tan explained in a pale tone, "but."

"But Quentin is probably dead, that's obvious," Dorian whispered. "We're not worth the risk."

"Not worth it?" Gail's tone became colder, "Have you forgotten who lured the Germans away for us?"

"Gail!"

Kang Tan emphasized his tone, "We haven't forgotten, we haven't forgotten Quentin. But have you thought about it? If Quentin is dead, what's the point of finding him? Was he captured by the Germans and continued to build roads?
If he's not dead, he just hid somewhere, or was captured by the Germans again, do you think we can find him?Or can a few of us save him from the Germans? "

"How about we finish this meal first?"

Seeing that the atmosphere between the three of them was getting more and more tense, Wei Ran, who originally didn't want to get involved, had no choice but to smooth things over with his glass, "Even if we are going to save Quentin, we must at least fix that half-track motorcycle, that's all. Gail is indeed right.

But Gail needs to be calm too, not to mention that we only have a Mauser rifle and a submachine gun, and even the fuel for that half-track motorcycle, we don't have much fuel at all, do we?
Although the reality is hard to accept, with us alone, the hope of finding Quentin is really low, and most importantly, Gail, do you remember the way we came here? "

"I..." Gail froze for a moment, then sat down on the bed again in a decadent manner.

"Have a drink"

Holding the cup, Wei Ran winked at Kang Tan and Dorian, and after they picked up the cup, he said, "We will help you repair the engine together, why don't we discuss how to save Kun after the engine is repaired?" How are things with Ting?"

After being silent for a long time, Gail finally picked up the cup and touched the three of them, then raised his head and drank it down.

The differences were resolved temporarily, and everyone who followed seemed to have lost their appetites. They even drank less than half of the half bottle of potato wine, and ended the long-awaited meal hastily.

After tidying up the rest of the meal, Kang Tan sat down again under the oil lamp and started making bearskin wooden shoes for himself. Dorian also continued to pick up the ax and started making beds.And Gail seemed to have forgotten the conflict at the dinner table, picked up the pickaxe again, and dug the remaining soil in the shelter with Wei Ran.

I have to admit that after this week of recuperation, there is almost unlimited supply of meat every day. With enough food and warm clothes, the physical condition of the three of Kang Tan has almost recovered, but Wei Ran also knows , The disagreement during the meal just now has already buried a trace of estrangement in the hearts of these three people.

With the sound of clanging and knocking, Dorian made two additional beds placed against the wall, and covered them with pine needles obtained from outside and two layers of thick canvas.

Obviously, one of these cards was prepared for Quentin, and Gail could see it, which made his attitude slightly better.

And after Dorian also joined the digging team with a pickaxe, the speed of cleaning also accelerated again.

When there was a scratch on the plank on the chimney of the fireplace, and when Kang Tan also made himself a pair of warm and thick bearskin wooden shoes, the three of Wei Ran finally dug out the buried enamel bathtub.

It's just that when they opened the bathtub, a corpse suddenly appeared in it, which shocked them all!
"How come... there is a corpse here?" Dorian said with a pale face.

Wei Ran frowned looking at the corpse that had been completely ossified, but the remaining clothing and fabrics on the corpse had been carbonized and would shatter when touched.He still held a Finnish knife in his hand, the point of which was still stuck in the ribs of his chest.

"There seems to be something carved in the bathtub?" Kang Tan, who was carrying a kerosene lamp, and Gail, who was holding the bathtub, said in unison.

Hearing this, Wei Ran leaned over and found at a glance that there were two lines of rusty Finnish marks left on the bottom of the bathtub: "It was Erlo and his accomplices who took my wife and daughter and took my wife and daughter away." Trapped in the basement and set the house on fire, it's Eero! The German fur trader Eero from Inari! He's a robber! A murderer!"

"Desolate mountains and wild mountains, a good place to kill people and bury corpses." Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh.

"Do you know what is written on it?" Kang Tan turned his head and asked.

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran nodded, "It's Finnish. It probably means that Erlo, a German fur trader from Inari, trapped the man in the bathtub in the basement, set fire to his house, and snatched his wife and daughter."

"Oh! The Germans!" Contan said with sarcasm and hatred, "Just like what they did in France, Finland is still their ally!"

"I don't care if Finland is their ally, but I didn't expect us to live with a corpse for so long." Dorian shivered, "I don't want to take a bath in this bathtub anymore."

You don't want to wash it.
Wei Ran muttered something in his heart, and said in a flat tone, "It's not the bathtub that's wrong, why didn't you wash it?"

"But."

"Nothing but"

Wei Ran pretended to be disgusted and said, "We've lived here for so long, we've already got lice on our bodies, taking a hot bath and washing our clothes will be good for our health, it's a big deal for us Just brush this bathtub carefully."

"Victor was right"

Kang Tan used the topic to say, "We really need to ensure our health, and after we decide to go to Quentin, maybe we won't have a chance to take a bath."

"Are you willing to go to Quentin with me?" Gail looked at Kang Tan in astonishment.

Kang Tan spread his hands, "As Victor said, at least the half-track motorcycle must be repaired first, and the wound on my leg is still not healed, you can't let me go with a limp Are you going to die? Let me think about it, we may have to prepare enough food in advance."

Gail froze for a moment, lowered his head and muttered "thank you" to himself.

(End of this chapter)