War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 711 The Locked Corridor

On the third day after arriving at the No. 52 mine site, Wei Ran got up early under the urging of his biological clock. After eating the breakfast prepared in advance last night, he climbed onto the roof of the car in the dark and entered the cab through the skylight.

Just like yesterday, he used the roar of the engine to drive away the wolves ambushing around the transport vehicle. Wei Ran parked the vehicle under the window of the building again, and climbed up the window to the third floor before dawn.

But even though he got up early and worked late at night, even if he found many interesting old objects by the way, until he searched the last room, he didn't find the other half of the map in this dark floor, let alone the demantoid any clues about it.

Of course, even he has to admit that if the possible demantoid treasures are not too attractive, this is definitely a good place to shop for treasures.

“What a waste of a whole day”

The disheartened Wei Ran glanced at the time on the satellite phone, took an enamel jar wrapped in kraft paper and a few posters in good condition, and left the building cursing.

First send the souvenirs to be taken away into the warm living cabin, Wei Ran returned to the room on the second floor as the entrance, set up the tent that Ji Ma had prepared for himself, and used an aluminum washbasin and Broken bricks all over the floor set up a hearth and set up a small bonfire.

This aluminum washbasin produced by the Soviet Union in the 50s is also interesting. Not only is the volume in liters stamped on the bottom, but even the price is stamped on it.

And as far as Wei Ran knows, this pricing method seems to have remained unchanged until the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

For example, the price of an aluminum washbasin with a capacity of 15 liters is one ruble plus a few kopeks, a box of 70 matches is priced at a few kopecks, and even the weight of an ice cream in grams is priced at a price. These should change with the market. Things were printed on commodities by the Soviet Union in an almost invariable way.

Feel so happy?It was really happy at the beginning. After all, the Soviet people did not have to worry about someone driving up prices, but such a rigid and rigid one-size-fits-all planted a time bomb for the Soviet Union.

With the development of the country, the income of Soviet citizens has increased, but the quantity of goods produced has not increased, and the prices have not become more expensive.

This has created a terrifying phenomenon. It used to take a month of hard work to buy things, but now you can buy several things in a month of work.

When such a situation occurred in large numbers in the Soviet Union, it undoubtedly caused a shortage of commodity supply.

In other words, the ruble was plentiful, and people lined up in front of the shops for bread, but there were only a few pieces of bread in the shops.So after enjoying the benefits for a while, the rigid contradiction between supply and demand in the market, and Gorbachev's shock therapy, who firmly believed in folk remedies for serious illnesses, quickly burned out the last trace of vitality of the once behemoth.

Nowadays, although this aluminum washbasin is dull, it is still strong, but the manufacturer that produced this washbasin has most likely become a funeral object of the Red Empire long ago.

Waiting patiently for the rotten wooden boards in the washbasin to be reduced to ashes, Wei Ran messed up the sleeping bags in the tent, and used a parachute to make a windshield for the broken window, and a curtain hanging from the window. The rope ladder was used to put the dirty coat on the top of the tent. After taking a photo, he sauntered back to the cab of the transport vehicle wearing only thermal underwear.

Driving the transport vehicle far away from the building, Wei Ran got into the living cabin and took a hot bath comfortably. While eating a hot dinner, he communicated with Sui Sui and Ji Ma one after another. their respective situations.

Today, Sui Sui is still busy organizing tourists to drive down the Tunguska River by themselves.On the other hand, Jima had successfully landed at the airstrip in Sarampaul on the plane driven by Alili at noon today.

Not only that, he has even found a hotel and rented a car, and now as long as Wei Ran says hello, he can drive the car over to help at any time.

Of course, Ji Ma brought bad news as well as good news. According to him, at the latest tomorrow night, there will be a heavy snowfall in the area where Wei Ran is located.

After making sure that the other party had read Inta's weather forecast correctly, Wei Ran calmed down the other party slowly, and then briefly described the photos taken in advance and the current situation.

After fooling Ji Ma, Wei Ran brushed the enamel rod that came back, watched the heating stove and boiled a pot of hawthorn leaf tea, secretly thinking about the next plan.

After these days of exploration, there are only the last two buildings left here that have not been visited yet.Although he already guessed that there might not be any gains, he still decided to search the two buildings before the snow fell in the morning tomorrow. Look around the mine for clues.

After arranging the plan for the next day, Wei Ran looked at Beria, who bowed his body and looked vigilantly in the direction of the cabin door, and then at the pack of wolves groping in circles outside the window, but in the end he just patted The dog's head around him counts as comfort.

In the past few days, the wolf group seemed to have reached some agreement with Wei Ran tacitly.

Basically, as long as the sun goes down and it's time to return to the living quarters of the transport vehicle, the wolves that have been in the forest during the day will return to the abandoned buildings that they have already used as their lairs, and at the same time send a few wolves to hide under the transport vehicle , monitoring Wei Ran, so as not to surprise them.

Correspondingly, Wei Ran would also take the opportunity to throw some leftovers or deliberately meaty bones outside, as a way of paying the overtime pay for the little wolf that the wolf sent to him.

In the early morning of the next day, Wei Ran would symbolically start the engine, and the wolves hiding under the car would immediately run away, while barking to remind their companions in the building.

Of course, Wei Ran, who had no intention of harming them, would patiently wait until the wolf led his team out of the field and entered the forest before starting his day's work.

It's hard to say whether this is a harmonious coexistence between man and nature or a compromise between each other, but in the end, both sides are in peace, Wei Ran is satisfied, the chief wolf is satisfied, and the wolves who can get overtime pay are also satisfied, this is enough .

Of course, the only person who is dissatisfied with this dog is probably Beria who always wants to go out and fight.Even, Wei Ran occasionally felt that this dog was pretending, because every time it succeeded in warning, he would get some snacks from himself as a reward, which made him have to suspect that the dog's motives seemed to be a little bit different. pure.

Regardless of the truth, Beria finally successfully obtained a piece of reindeer bone with meat and cartilage from Wei Ran as a molar stick. The latter, like the previous few days, opened it after eating and drinking. That slightly outdated military radio communication system.

Absently listening to the local public radio channel, and the aviation band that ordinary people rarely pay attention to.By the way, after cleaning the living cabin, he pasted the few posters he brought on the door of the metal cabinet to set off the atmosphere.

Amidst the crackling of the fire and the slight noise of Beria gnawing his bones, Wei Ran was also reading the book "On the Great Soviet Union David" that he brought back at noon under the old desk lamp. Civil War", and various sentiments written with a pen in the margins of the book.

Outside the thick double-layered car windows, at the door of an abandoned building almost facing the window, the wolf king of the wolf pack was squatting on the ground, watching the warm light from the window vigilantly.And behind it, other members of the wolf pack are eating the leftover prey of the wolf king in turn according to the hierarchy system - an adult reindeer captured by them because of a leg injury.

Another night passed without incident, and when Wei Ran woke up again, snowflakes the size of a finger had already floated outside the window, but fortunately, although the snow looked not small, it was not windy .

Therefore, when he had breakfast and carefully pushed open the skylight of the living cabin as usual, he could even hear the rustling sound of snowflakes falling.

Squinting his eyes to look at the gloomy sky, Wei Ran moved into the driver's cab as usual, startled the wolves hiding under the carriage away with the engine, and waited patiently for the wolf to leave with his little brothers Abandoned building, and then drove the transport vehicle to the door of an abandoned building that had not yet been explored.

Compared with the previous building that was used to hide the "Stalin culture", this building has returned to its old appearance. All you can see when you enter the door, except for the remaining red cross on the wall and the brown medicine bottle mixed with garbage in the corner , so that he can be sure that there used to be a hospital, but there are more animal feces and bones.

As always, he led Beria to search the first floor carefully, and Wei Ran, who found nothing, walked up the stairs to the second floor.

Wei Ran glanced at the stairs that were supposed to lead to the third floor but was blown up, and then turned his head to look at the corridor.

But then, he frowned.Because not far from the right hand side of the stairs, there is an anti-theft sliding door in the corridor with a height that goes straight to the ceiling.

At the top of the sliding door, which was entangled in iron chains, there was a metal sign similar to "Psychiatric Ward, No Entry".

But what attracted Wei Ran's attention was the inside of the sliding door, where an SKS rifle with the muzzle pointing at him was thrown away!

After a little observation, he found that although the anti-theft sliding door was wrapped with several circles of iron chains, it was not locked.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran carefully untied the iron chain, pushed open the rusted steel anti-theft sliding door with hands and feet, bent down and picked up the dusty and rusty semi-automatic rifle.

With a little effort, he pulled the trigger, and there were actually yellow and orange bullets in the chamber that didn't have much rust at all.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran first emptied the chamber, then closed the metal sliding door and tied it with a chain again, and finally tied Beria's traction rope to it.

After finally testing the firmness of the sliding door, he took the rifle he picked up and cautiously walked into the first nearest room.However, when he saw the things in the room clearly, he opened his mouth wide in surprise.

(End of this chapter)