War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 506 Group Photo in the Wooden House
"Uncle Akim, how long does it take to get to your friend's house from here?" Wei Ran asked after nailing the cover on the last simple coffin.

"It's not too far if it's just flying," Akim replied with a smile, "One and a half hours at most is enough for a round trip, but I'm afraid it will be a waste when we arrive at the airport and then rush to his house from the airport." An hour will do."

"In this case, let's go quickly!" Alexey slapped himself on the neck while speaking, "There are so many mosquitoes in this ghost place."

"I'm not going"

Wei Ran said unexpectedly, "Professor, I'll stay here. While looking here so as not to lose anything, I will look around to see if I can find anything else."

"Victor, it's not safe here." Akim frowned, "There are brown bears and wolves here, no matter which one you encounter."

"I have a shotgun." Wei Ran pointed to the shotgun placed on another coffin not far away, "Don't worry, I will climb to the tree if I am in danger."

Professor Alexey hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded and said, "Then you should pay attention to safety and ensure that the satellite phone can be connected at any time."

"Don't worry, I'm not a child anymore."

As Wei Ran said, he had already lifted one end of the simple coffin, "Come here and help, I will help you send these three to the pier."

The two old guys looked at each other, and finally came together, put the three simple coffins on their respective bathtubs together, and dragged them to the pier outside the forest.

It took a lot of trouble to transport the three simple coffins to the lake and then to the plane. Wei Ran stood on the dock and said, "Professor, remember to call Mr. Alexander, and remember to call me when you arrive. I didn't even know that Uncle Akim was shot down for flying to Norway for a drunk driving."

"You don't want to follow me because you're worried about the danger of me drinking and flying a plane?" Akim asked with a beard and staring eyes.

"How can it be?"

Wei Ran spread his hands with a hippie smile, but the expression on his face was that of being guessed carefully, "Anyway, Uncle Akim, remember to fly slowly, after all, you have been drinking."

"You don't need to remind me of this kind of thing"

Akim angrily untied the cable that fixed the plane, and after greeting Alexei to board the plane, he said, "Young man, you also pay attention to safety."

"It's definitely safer than you guys." Wei Ran took off the shotgun that was originally carried on his shoulder while speaking.

Watching the plane take off gliding on the lake, and disappearing completely at the end of sight after a while of circling.Wei Ran didn't dare to waste time at all, and took out the Paizi boat that he got from Baiyangdian from the metal book as quickly as possible.

"Finally I'm using this small boat." Wei Ran jumped onto the rowboat, skillfully swung the oars, and rowed towards the opposite bank.

The distance is only less than a hundred meters, so naturally it won't take long. After the bow of the boat rushed to the shore of the lake, Wei Ran immediately jumped onto the rocks on the shore to put away the boat, and then took out the contents of the metal book. With the help of the satellite phone's navigation map, the half-track motorcycle rushed to the destination marked in the metal book.

Thanks to the powerful off-road capability of the half-track motorcycle, the next ten kilometers or so was not much time wasted, except that the overgrown bushes and the large mosquitoes that could be seen everywhere were really tormenting.

After climbing over two not-so-high mountains in a row, Wei Ran glanced at the straight-line distance of less than 200 meters on the navigation map. One foot into the forest.

Not long after, he saw the two iconic big stones and the wooden house built on the two three-meter-high stones.In addition, a circle of rusty barbed wire was built around this old-looking wooden house, and even the roof was covered with a layer of color steel tiles that were almost rusted.

Protecting the long-uninhabited hunter's hut with barbed wire seems to be a common operation for Finnish hunters, at least in the snowstorm hut that has been made into a movie, and it was the same operation when I went there.

However, compared to that hut, this place has obviously been deserted for too long. Not only the padlock on the barbed wire fence gate has been completely rusted to death, even the iron warning sign hanging on it has been blurred and can only be seen barely. "Private Territory" was vaguely written in Finnish on it.

Turning around the barbed wire and seeing no traces of human activity, Wei Ran thought for a moment, then put on the German boots in the metal book, put his shoes aside, and then easily climbed over the barbed wire.

Without rushing into the gate, Wei Ran first opened the shed on the left side of the wooden house.

To his surprise, although the wooden sheds looked dilapidated on the outside, at least the inside of the two sheds was extraordinarily tidy. Not only were there a stone wall built on both sides, but there was even a letter "I" painted red on the top of the head. The steel beams and even the ground are paved with flat stones, but most importantly, there is a half-track motorcycle covered with canvas parked here!

Gently lifting the dusty canvas, Wei Ran couldn't help but smile.It can be seen that this car has been well preserved, not only the chassis was framed by logs, but also a lot of sludge remained on the tracks on both sides.And on the metal shelf against the wall, there are several oil drums that are also covered with dust, and a fuel-fired generator obviously produced after World War II.

"It seems that this place has not been abandoned by them."

While muttering to himself, Wei Ran re-covered the canvas used as a car cover, and then carefully cleaned up the fingerprints left by himself before exiting the shed on the left.

Walking to the door of the wooden shed on the right side of the wooden house, Wei Ran opened the wooden door and found that there is no difference in structure between this place and the wooden shed on the left.And the piles inside are all construction materials such as cement or color steel tiles, welding rods and nails. One of the relatively well-preserved welding rod packaging boxes can barely see that the production date is 2013.

Backing away to close the door, Wei Ran finally stood at the door of the wooden house, took out the lockpicking tool that had been kept in the food box, and easily opened the keyhole covered with a layer of sludge.

With a "squeak", as the wooden door opened, a familiar scene came into view. The only difference was that there was an extra electric light on the shed above, and the few furniture were covered with plastic sheets.

In addition, there are more than a dozen photo frames hanging on the wall facing the fireplace.Without exception, these photo frames are all group photos of Quentin and others, and the photos in each frame are marked with the time of the group photo.

Looking at the past one by one along the time, the first group photo is from 1945, and there is a kind-hearted Kang Tan in the photo.In the photo, the four people are wearing towels around their waists, holding wine glasses in their hands, and in Quentin's hand, they are additionally clutching the extended camera shutter cable.

By the time the group photo was taken in 1946, there was no Contan in the photo, and the smiles on the faces of Quentin and the three of them also disappeared, instead there was a trace of sadness, and there was a single photo of Contin next to it.

Going forward, from 1947 to 1957, the three people in the photos gradually had more women, and then more children. In addition to the fireplace in the wooden house, there was also a fur shop in the background of the group photo. Their The clothes on his body have occasionally turned into suits or traditional Finnish costumes with Lapland characteristics.

In the past ten years, Quentin and Gail in the photos have aged a little bit, and Dorian has also become more mature.At the same time, there are more and more children around them.

However, the group photo marked with time also came to an abrupt end. In 1958, these people never took a group photo again.

The next photo that reappeared was only a group photo of the Quentin family, and the time stamp on it was 1961.

A subsequent photo, of Gail and his wife, is dated 1988.

From the records in the metal book, we can know that the time on these two photos is exactly the time when the Quentin family suffered an avalanche and Gail and his wife died of illness successively.

So far, there is only the last wooden photo frame left on the wall, but there are no photos in this photo frame at all.

"Could it be that Dorian is still alive?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, but at this moment, the satellite phone in his pocket rang.

He took out the phone and pressed the connect button. Before he could speak, he heard Professor Alexi on the other end of the phone shout in panic, "Victor! Victor! I don't have much time, remember to help I take care of Aurora! Tell her and your aunt that I love them!"

Wei Ran's heart sank, and he asked nervously, "What's wrong with you?"

"It's okay, I just wanted to let you know that the plane has landed safely."

Professor Alexei returned to a relaxed tone, and at the same time, Wei Ran vaguely heard Akim's undisguised wanton laughter on the other end of the phone.

"These two old bastards." Wei Ran gritted his teeth and cursed in his heart, too lazy to listen to the other party's nonsense, and simply hung up the phone.

Putting the satellite phone back into his pocket, Wei Ran didn't dare to delay, and took the time to go upstairs and downstairs in this wooden house.

Unfortunately, apart from finding half a bottle of potato wine with a production date marked in 2010, he didn't find many valuable discoveries. Naturally, there was no way to verify it. The year 1958, Quentin and Gale and What the hell happened between Dorian.

"Is it possible to really go to the address in Lille, France?"

Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, but finally suppressed this impulsive thought.Just like his advice to Alexei and Akim before, it is best to use official power to find out the truth about the corpses dug up in that shelter.

And before the insider showed up, it was obviously not a sensible thing for him to rush to the address recorded in the metal book to find out.

With this in mind, Wei Ran could only suppress his thirst for knowledge in the end.Turned around and left the cabin.

Re-locking the wooden door, and blocking the keyhole with the remaining sludge, Wei Ran sat on the steps of the door, waved and took out the metal book, and then took out the only negative in it from the side of the half-track motorcycle photo .

Hold it up to the bright sunshine above your head, and in the negative, the images of the four with large towels around their waists drinking around a warm fireplace are clearly visible.

"Sure enough, Quentin should be included in the group photo?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and was about to put the negative in his hand back into the paper bag next to the photo, but found that the metal book on his lap turned a page automatically, and then, the red swirl on the back Suddenly, a reversed blue vortex quietly appeared!

(End of this chapter)