War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 51
In the scope of the sniper rifle, Jima holding a flashlight slowly approached the old building left over from the Soviet era step by step.

When he was standing at the door of the building, two men with guns opened the door to meet Jima, and Wei Ran, who was 200 meters away, immediately put a scope on the chest of one of them.

Naturally, the content of the communication between the two parties could not be heard from such a long distance, but within 5 minutes before and after, the three of them entered the building one after another and completely disappeared in the dim field of vision of the scope.

"I hope there will be no accidents." Wei Ran muttered to himself, patiently waiting for the signal from the other party.

It wasn't until half an hour later that the smoking room on the second floor was suddenly lit up with frequently flickering lights.Seeing this, Wei Ran heaved a sigh of relief. After pondering for a while, he wrapped Jima's sniper rifle and his own backpack in a canvas tent and buried them in the snow, only using the sledge to pull the leftover venison and deer head. And deerskin, walked out of the dense forest along the footprints left by Jima, and walked towards the building in the middle of the glade.

Before he could approach, Jima walked out of the building door with a man carrying a high-pressure kerosene lamp and greeted him.

Seeing that Wei Ran was only using the sledge to pull the gifts he got yesterday, Jima didn't say anything, but just introduced him with a natural expression, "Victor, this is my friend Victor, this is from Kosio River Akeem the hunters on the other side, they are also hunting reindeer."

"You are lucky to have caught such a big prey." Akim, who was carrying a kerosene lamp, looked at the venison on the sledge. "We have been waiting here for almost a week and only killed two wolves."

"Let's go! Let's go back and eat venison together!" Ji Ma took the rope from Wei Ran's hand, and walked in the front with the sledge himself.

Following the two of them into the building, Wei Ran discovered that there were more than a dozen lively huskies running around in the corridor on the first floor, and in the rooms on both sides of the corridor, the ugly roar of reindeer could be heard from time to time .

Followed to the second floor, on the ceiling of the room facing the stairs, two wild wolves whose skins had been skinned were hung upside down.And in a large room next to the stairs, there was a bonfire with half a gasoline barrel near the window, and four men playing cards were sitting around it.

After introducing the two sides to each other again, Ji Ma put the venison he had carried on a clean table, untied the ax from his waist, and with three or two strokes, cut off the remaining ribs and two front legs. chopped off.And that Akim also brought several bottles of vodka with snow remaining from the room next door.

The gurgling cold wine was poured into the dilapidated enamel jar, and Akim was the first to hold up the glass and said, "Cheers to our meeting on this snowy night!"

"Cheers!" Hearing the words, everyone lifted their cups and drank cleanly.

When the cup was refilled, Akim raised it again and said, "Second cup, thanks to our new friends Jima and Victor for bringing us delicious venison!"

This time, Wei Ran and Ji Ma kept their minds on the same page, and they all took a sip of it.

Akim didn't care either. He filled the cup again and said enthusiastically, "The third cup, I hope we can catch enough reindeer this year!"

After three glasses of wine, Akim and his other four companions all became much more energetic. They took out their knives and cut off a small piece of frozen venison with a natural expression, and stuffed it directly into their mouths.On the other hand, Ji Ma happily drank the vodka in the cup after the other party ate the venison.

Wei Ran couldn't eat venison raw, and he didn't want to get drunk, so he simply picked up his cup and took another sip.

Akim and the others didn't care. After swallowing the raw meat in their mouths one after another, they busily cut up the venison and put it on the campfire.

The constantly jumping flames licked the frozen venison. Whenever the outermost layer was cooked, they were removed by everyone with small blades, and directly sent into their mouths with a little salt.

Such a rough way of eating is definitely not delicious, but it has to be admitted that all the deliciousness of the venison has been preserved, and at the same time it is very good for drinking. Even Wei Ran couldn't help but drink up the second glass of vodka.

After eating a barbeque in the wild for nearly two hours, the satiated crowd stopped and replaced the vodka in their cups with cheap instant coffee.

"Jima, you can also sleep here tonight, or you can go to the third floor. There are two rooms with intact windows upstairs." Akim put down his glass and pointed to the floor under his feet, "There is a room in the hall on the first floor. Firewood, you can make a fire yourself."

"We'll probably set out early tomorrow to chase the reindeer"

Except for the first three glasses of wine, Jima, who hardly drank any alcohol, stood up with a smile, "So let's go to the third floor so as not to wake you up."

Akim got up to see them off, and handed Jima an unlit kerosene lamp by the way, "Good night, maybe we can go hunting together tomorrow."

After taking the other party's kerosene lamp, Wei Ran followed Jima up to the third floor, found a room farthest from the stairs and went in to store a few luggage, then brought firewood from the first floor, and lit a pile in the corner by the window bonfire.

"Wake up at night"

While talking, Ji Ma picked up a few rusty tin cans from the corner of the room and placed them in the corridor at intervals.

"Akim and the others have a problem?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"Even if there is no problem, be vigilant, and remember to keep the gun safe at hand."

As Jima spoke, he lit the kerosene lamp and hung it on the door frame, and then spread out the sleeping bag in the dark corner farthest from the kerosene lamp and the bonfire.

It is still the night shift, but this time, Wei Ran is replaced in the first half of the night, and Ji Ma comes in person in the second half of the night, which is prone to accidents.

Soon after, Jima's loud humming sounded in the room, and the sound of playing cards from downstairs continued until midnight.

Wei Ran, who was guarding the bonfire, was holding a shotgun. From time to time, he leaned against the window to look at the forest where the snowflakes began to fall again. From time to time, he poked his head out to look at the corridor illuminated by kerosene lamps, trying his best to resist the turbulent drowsiness after drinking .

After struggling to survive until three o'clock in the morning, Wei Ran shook Ji Ma awake, then got into his sleeping bag and started snoring.

Just as Wei Ran fell asleep, in the room on the second floor, one of Akim's companions had already placed Wei Ran's buried canvas tent and backpack on the table, and then whispered, "Just now After looking for it, it should be just the two of them."

Akim nodded when he heard the words, spit out the toothpick in his mouth, took a look at Jima's sniper rifle, and then handed it to his companion, "Put it back first, if those two young people leave early tomorrow morning, Let's not bother them either."

"Boss, do we want to?"

Before the companion who took the gun finished speaking, Akeem shook his head, "There will be more and more hunters in this forest, should we arrest them all?"

"What if they don't leave tomorrow?" another obviously drunk companion asked.

"If you don't leave?"

Akim smiled, "Tomorrow morning, we will hide in the mine and see what they are going to do."

When Akim made his decision, Jima, who didn't know that he had escaped a quarter, was worrying by the campfire.According to Principal Nicholas, the safe was in a certain room on the first floor, but now he had no idea how to find the mezzanine and open the safe under the eyes of Akeem and the others.

Looking down at the shotgun on his lap, Ji Ma shook his head. With the weapons he and Wei Ran had, it was impossible to drive each other away from here.

"It seems that we can only see if there is a chance when they go hunting tomorrow." Jima sighed, and secretly made a decision similar to Akeem.

In the early morning of the next day, the coniferous forest, where the wind had stopped and the snow had stopped, was once again illuminated by the temperatureless sunlight.This is fine weather for hunting.

After eating breakfast in a hurry, Akim saw that Jima and Wei Ran had no intention of leaving, so he immediately got up and said, "Today is a good day for hunting, Jima, Victor, which direction are you going to go?"

"We're going to the west," Jima said with a belch. "Maybe there will be reindeer crossing the Kosiyu River. We plan to go there later to see."

"In this case, let's go to the north." Akim said, picked up his gun, and greeted everyone to go out, "Jima, Victor, I wish you good luck."

"I also wish you a good harvest." Ji Ma secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and generously sent his blessings without money.

Watching Akim and the others drive the reindeer out of the building, pulling the sledge and disappearing out of sight, Jima immediately said, "Victor, go to the top floor and watch them with binoculars. I'll go find the safe."

"no problem"

Wei Ran took the telescope handed by the other party, climbed up the stairs to the top floor, chose a room with a good enough view, and stared at the surrounding movement without blinking.

Jima was also not idle. According to Nicholas' explanation before coming, he found an office full of garbage according to the house number remaining on the wall.

Pulling away all kinds of debris at his feet, he counted the dirty floor tiles from left to right. After finding the target, he immediately pulled out a knife, pried it along the edge of the floor tiles, and then lifted it off. Picking up the gravel under the bedding, I found a metal handle.

Clasping the handle with both hands and pushing upwards, a square steel plate weighing several tens of kilograms was lifted out amidst the noise of piercing, revealing a not-so-big safe lying flat underneath.

Perhaps because it has been left here for too long, the safe is already covered with rust. Fortunately, the keyhole and combination disk are all covered with thick paint as Nikolai said, and it does not seem to be completely rusted. .

"Could it be gold?"

Jima looked up and looked out the window, then took out the sandpaper prepared in advance from his pocket to polish off the paint protection layer, then unscrewed the oil storage bin of the kerosene lamp and poured some kerosene on it, and then pulled it out from his neck A shiny key was smoothly inserted into the lock, and then the slightly sour combination dial was carefully turned.

After he finished turning the last code, the key could finally be turned smoothly with the help of a pair of pliers.

Finally, with the ax pinned to the handle of the cabinet door, he pulled it up forcefully, and with a soft click, the safe that had been dusty for an unknown amount of time was finally completely opened.

Looking inside, Ji Ma was very disappointed. There was no gold in this safe that could hold up to two bricks, but only two things that were vacuum-sealed with thick transparent plastic.

One of them is a plastic-covered photo album, and the other is a tin box almost the same size as the photo album.

Weighing the sealed tin box, it didn't feel like it was filled with gold at all, and there was no movement at all when it was shaken.

Resisting the curiosity to open it and take a look, Jima stuffed the two things into the backpack, then restored the safe and the floor tiles to their original state, and pulled the trash to the second bag again, then called Wei Ran to go downstairs quickly with a loud voice.

"They didn't come back?" Jima asked nervously.

"no"

Wei Ran returned the telescope to the other party and said, "But they came out from other places after walking around in the forest and hid in the mine. Did you find anything?"

"We found it, let's leave quickly." Ji Ma patted his backpack, "They might really be gold diggers. I don't want to deal with those lunatics."

Almost at the same time as the two of them entered the forest, Akim who was hiding near the mine also put down his binoculars, and after pondering for a moment, he said to an old man with a beard who was over half a century old beside him, "Follow them, along the way Leave a mark."

The bearded man nodded taciturnly, picked up an SVD sniper rifle wrapped in white fur, and stooped into the coniferous forest not far away.

"Let's go back and see what those two young men are doing." Before he could finish his sentence, Akim had already yelled at the reindeer, stepped on the sledge and ran towards the building hundreds of meters away.

When they returned to the building, one of the companions immediately took out an action camera from the radiator in the corridor.

It was easy to find the room Jima had been to and the content of his conversation with Wei Ran. Akim and others also found the safe hidden under the floor tiles.

"Boss, gold! It must be gold!"

The brawny man who was about to attack Wei Ran yesterday shouted excitedly, "We all know that this place used to be a gold mine, those two little bugs must have stolen our gold!"

"Catch up!" Akim ordered without thinking, "Notify Dad to stop them! It doesn't matter if you kill them if necessary!"

While talking, Akim has already called the other two companions to run out, the distance is only a few hundred meters to the left and right, and with the reindeer sledge, he is not worried that Wei Ran and Jima will run away from his hands at all. Lose.

However, just as they ran out of the building, Ji Ma, who had already set up his gun and stared at the place, immediately put a scope on the stomach of a reindeer.

After a while, seeing Akim yelling at the reindeer and chasing them in the direction of the two of them, Ji Ma immediately pulled the trigger without hesitation!

"boom!"

A clear gunshot rang out, and the reindeer who was helping Akim pull the sledge was shot and fell to the ground, and even the people on the sledge fell hard on the snow in the confusion.

"Victor, it looks like we're in trouble." While speaking, Jima pushed the second bullet on the top of the charging handle, and pulled the trigger again on another reindeer connected to the sledge.

　Thanks to the amateur photography foodie chef for rewarding 500 points

　　Thanks to the biting cat for rewarding 200 points

　　Thanks to Eight Key No. 1991, Drunk Dream 100, Zhenai Wuzui, Flying Hand, and Ice Blue Slashing Demon Sword for rewarding [-] points

　　
　
(End of this chapter)