War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 720 Some Inside Story

"Vice Captain, I want to talk to you."

At the door of the dormitory building, the head nurse shook the wine bottle in his hand while speaking, "I won't waste too much of your time."

"It's my honor." Wei Ran smiled, "Where shall we go to chat?"

"Come with me." Before the head nurse could finish her sentence, she had already walked towards the hospital not far away.

Seeing this, Wei Ran ignored Mikita who was winking at him, followed behind the head nurse, and walked into the hospital in silence.

When passing by a treatment room, Wei Ran also saw the prisoner through the half-open door.

At this time, amidst the screams of the prisoner of war, the female nurse Zhuo Ya violently tore off the gauze that had just stuck to the wound on his hand, and brought out a large amount of blood stains by the way, no accident Yes, even the wound healed by Wei Ran with the red-hot dagger burst open.

At the same time, several other nurses also tore off the bandages on the rest of the prisoner's body.Then, like Zhuo Ya, he nervously started the new work of hemostasis and bandaging.

"This bandaging practice will continue until he completely dies"

The head nurse who stopped her footsteps made a promise, and gently pushed the door of the consulting room completely open. By the way, the screams of the prisoner of war were heard more clearly throughout the entire corridor and even the entire building.

"You can have a prisoner of the same blood type come over to give it a blood transfusion"

Leaning against the door frame, Wei Ran raised his voice slightly and gave his suggestion, "In this way it can persist for more time, and it can also train more excellent and experienced nurses for the Soviet Union."

“It's a good suggestion”

The head nurse's eyes lit up, and she said in a too high voice, "Zoya, you are in charge of this house. Starting tomorrow, go to the prisoner-of-war camp to find blood donors."

"Okay" Zhuo Ya responded angrily, and then muttered "crazy" in a just right volume.

"Let's go." The head nurse smiled at Chao Wei Ran, and led him into an office at the end of the corridor.

Quite a coincidence, this office happened to be located in two completely different directions of the corridor from Dr. Goosen's office on the second floor.

After Wei Ran came in and sat down, the head nurse closed the door, then took out two enamel jars from the table and filled them with vodka, and found a large bag of fried peanuts from the drawer. In the future, the traditional Russian appetizers will become the common snacks of Chinese people.

"It seems that you have been to Huaxia?"

While the head nurse was speaking, she had already peeled off a slightly burnt peanut, and threw the nut inside into her mouth.

Wei Ran opened his mouth, and finally just nodded ambiguously, "I lived there for a very long time."

"That's when you learned Chinese?" The head nurse raised the cup and asked.

"I learned more than Chinese there." Wei Ran raised his cup as he said, and gave an ambiguous response again.

The head nurse just nodded, poured a gulp of vodka into her mouth, changed into Chinese, and said almost Nan Nan muttering to herself, "The farthest Chinese city I used to be was Cha Chong, and it was with the soldiers of the Anti-Japanese League and the Soviet Red Army. went together."

"1945?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

"The Autumn of That Year"

The head nurse sighed, "But I didn't find his family, and I don't even know where his home is. On the address he told me countless times before he was alive, I only found a mass grave washed out by the rain. What about you? Have you ever been to that city?"

"I" Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and agreed, "I have been there."

"real?!"

A hint of surprise flashed across the face of the head nurse, who was no longer young, and followed up with a long list of detailed addresses in Chinese and asked, "Where is this address? Have you been here before? Or do you know anyone there? "

"I"

Wei Ran knew that his lies could no longer continue, so he could only shake his head hard in the end, "Sorry, no, I have never been to the address you mentioned, and I don't know anyone there."

"That's it."

The head nurse, whose face was full of surprise a second ago, became depressed in an instant, picked up the cup again, and said dully, "I think so too. How could such a coincidence happen?"

"But I will definitely go to that city in the future, and I will help you take a look at that time."

Wei Ran earnestly made his promise, "If you need me to go there to do something, you can just tell Ponty. No, Comrade Su Shengnan, I am very happy to help you."

"I"

The head nurse hesitated for a moment, and finally shook her head and picked up the cup, "Forget it, it's nothing."

After having a drink with the other party, Wei Ran, who tried to change the subject, asked tentatively, "Do you...have any children?"

The head nurse trembled subconsciously, and finally nodded, "I have a son, he will be 10 years old soon."

"Here too?" Wei Ran asked somewhat inquisitively.

"In Khabarovsk." The head nurse paused, "Do you know Khabarovsk?"

"Khabarovsk" Wei Ran replied without thinking, this is the new name given to the city after the Russians seized it.

"I used to call it Khabarovsk, and he always corrected me seriously, saying that the city I grew up in was called Khabarovsk, and that it used to be their land."

The head nurse had already poured a full glass of vodka into her mouth while she was speaking, until she put down the glass again, and then said, "No matter who it once belonged to, who it belongs to now, or who it will belong to in the future, I haven't been back for a long time. Our children probably don't know me anymore."

"You left him there?" Wei Ran frowned.

"My parents are helping me take care of him," the head nurse said as she poured herself a drink. "I don't have the courage to go back there."

"Drink this." Wei Ran gently took the cup in front of the other party, and then took out his wine jug, unscrewed it and handed it to the other party.

"Thank you"

The head nurse didn't refuse either, she just drank the vodka she had just poured in one gulp, and then poured the rest of the white wine in the jug into the enamel cup.

"Where did you get the Huaxia Baijiu?" the head nurse asked without looking up, obviously looking for a new topic.

"It was a gift from a friend before I came here," Wei Ran replied absent-mindedly, and at the same time moved his gaze away from the other party, and instead observed the office.

Objectively speaking, just from the furnishings in this office, it is impossible to tell that it is a woman's room. It can even be said that at a glance, except for a mirror box hanging on the wall and a Chinese-style cigarette pole Other than that, you can't see any personal items at all.

In the weird silence, the head nurse poured all the little white wine left in Wei Ran's jug into the cup. After the latter took the jug, he also picked up the wine bottle on the table and refilled it carefully. Full of vodka.

"Is there really no need for me to do anything?" Wei Ran put down the wine bottle and asked again.

Sighing lightly, the head nurse raised her glass and signaled, "This is enough. If I have a chance in the future, maybe I will go there and see for myself. I'm just vice-captain Victor, thank you for the wine."

"nothing"

Wei Ran followed with a sigh, swallowed all the questions he wanted to ask, turned around and left the office with the flagon in hand.

Almost at the same time as he closed the door, suppressed crying came from the office behind him.

After groping around on his body, Wei Ran took out a choking Mohe cigarette and put it in his mouth, left the hospital with screams that did not stop, and walked back to the dormitory building against the bone-chilling wind.

Originally, he was still thinking about what he could get out of the head nurse's mouth, but now it seems that the head nurse, who has been blinded by hatred, may have focused all his attention on the head nurse. How to torture those prisoners of war.

But after thinking about it, how much better is he than them?It's just half a catty.All the way back to the dormitory on the second floor with emotion, Wei Ran found that the door of the dormitory was locked.

Knocking on the door lightly, Wei Ran only heard Mikita in the dormitory ask vigilantly, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Victor." While Wei Ran responded, he subconsciously opened the cowhide holster on his waist and lightly pressed the hammer.

"Why did you come back so early?"

Mikita asked back through the door, but he didn't open the door immediately, but continued to tease, "I was betting with Baolid just now how long it would take before the head nurse of Pontiac called us to go over Bring back the ugly drunk."

Having said that, Wei Ran also heard the sound of footsteps coming from the room, followed by a soft "click", the door was finally opened by Mikita from the inside.

"I thought you were exchanging information with Zhuoya in the dormitory."

Wei Ran did not answer the other party's question, but instead teased him, walked slowly to the bed and sat down, took out the revolver from the holster, and placed it on the bedside quilt.

"Exchange information?" Mikita couldn't react for a while, and asked with a blank face, "What information?"

"Of course it's their respective genetic information." Wei Ran teased the other party seriously.

"I won't bring Zhuoya to the dormitory to do that kind of thing, she will definitely kill me."

Mikita grinned stupidly, picked up a bulging kraft paper bag on the table and handed it to Wei Ran, "Don't talk about it, this is from Baolide."

"For me?"

Wei Ran took the paper bag subconsciously, and then found that there was a coiled whip in it, "What do you want me to do with the whip?"

"Didn't you tell Sergey today that you wanted a whip?"

While Mikita was talking, he had already moved the bedside cabinet again, "After Baolid heard about it, he sent this one he just made."

"Forehead"

Wei Ran grinned, and then he remembered that there was indeed such a thing, but at that time he just used those whips as an entry point for the topic, and he didn't expect those people whose names he didn't even recognize The execution team was so enthusiastic and caring.

"Put it away"

Mikita obviously saw something, and said gloatingly, "It's rude to refuse the Mongol's gift, but if you hang this whip around your waist tomorrow, Baoled will be very happy."

"I will remember"

Wei Ran shook his head dumbfoundingly. Such a large roll of cowhide whip seemed to be at least four or five meters long, but it was precisely because the length was too long that he couldn't exert the power of the whip at all. On the contrary, it was better. A one-meter-long riding whip, he is confident that he can use that thing to pull the shit out of any prisoner of war.

"Victor, you really don't need to talk to Dr. Goosen?" Mikita asked tentatively.

"What are you talking about?"

Wei Ran looked at the other party puzzled, but found that after the former locked the door again, he actually moved the bedside cabinet between the two beds, and then carefully lifted a half-meter-square floor tile, and took out from under the floor tile. An aluminum lunch box.

Mikita didn't mean to shy away from Wei Ran at all. He took the lunch box and walked to the table at the end of the bed and sat down. While opening the lunch box, he said, "Of course I want to talk about your psychological problems. Do you still remember that I said that I was actively applying for entry?" Before the firing squad, there was something about the members of the firing squad going crazy, right?"

"Remember"

Wei Ran nodded, watching Mikita take out one after another tin cans that were only the size of toothpick holders from the lunch box.

"He was in the same situation as you at the time"

While talking, Mikita opened these tin cans, then found a glasses case from the drawer and opened it, and carefully poured out a small pile of large and small stones from the glasses case.

This is not over yet. After taking back the glasses case, he took off the holster and poured out a few small stones that he got this morning.

After gesturing to Wei Ran to help adjust the desk lamp to a suitable angle, Mikita continued to classify the stones on the table according to their size, "At that time he was very obsessed with torturing prisoners of war, and that bastard took torturing prisoners of war as a kind of pleasure. To tell you the truth, I wasn't frightened by him torturing the prisoner, but I was frightened by the happy expression on his face when he tortured the prisoner."

Speaking of which, Mikita took a tin can, squeezed out the cotton inside, threw the first few largest gemstones into it, covered the bread and lid again, and put it into the lunch box.

I don’t know if it was intentional to give Wei Ran some time to think. After Mikita put the tin can back into the lunch box, he looked up at Wei Ran who was sitting by the bed and said seriously, “Victor, today I see the same emotion in your eyes, so I really think you need to go and have a chat with Dr. Goossen.

The man I was talking about went mad not long after that, when he ran into the hut where the German prisoners lived one winter night and detonated the mine explosives strapped to his body, not only killing himself, but also killing himself. Hundreds of German prisoners of war died. "

"I'm fine"

Wei Ran smiled and made a serious promise, "I have the same reason as Commissar Krech, Sue, and the head nurse of Pontiac to treat those two-legged animals kindly. So all the prisoners of war here are dead. Before the light, I will maintain enough sanity and sobriety."

"You better be like you promised"

Mikita sighed, lowered his voice and said, "Victor, we have saved enough treasures here, as long as we wait patiently for a while to ship them out, the few of us can live a decent life." life, but the premise of all this is that you should have a clear brain enough to enjoy that kind of life.”

"Don't worry, don't worry." Wei Ran reassured with a smile, and then took advantage of the situation and asked, "What about you?"

"Me what?" Mikita asked while putting the second batch of gemstones into the second tin can.

"What is your attitude towards those prisoners of war?"

Wei Ran added in a calm tone that although he was not curious about the answer to this question, he was looking forward to Mikita revealing key information in just a few words.

"I don't have any attitude"

Mikita replied nonchalantly, "I haven't participated in the battles in the Far East, and before coming here, I didn't even have experience in managing prisoners of war, let alone contact with the Japanese.

To me, they are animals that walk on two legs and have a reasonable brain.So as long as they are obedient, I don't mind feeding them some delicious food, let alone giving them some rewards.Of course, if they are disobedient, I will kill or even torture them without hesitation. "

"That's why you became the captain of the firing squad?" Wei Ran asked with almost certainty.

Mikita paused, then laughed loudly, "Probably for this reason, every member of this firing squad has enmity with those prisoners of war. From this point of view, it really needs a relatively fair and rational captain."

"What if we are discovered?" Wei Ran asked intentionally in a low voice.

"You said this?"

Mikita picked up a rock slightly bigger than soybeans and shook it, then threw it into the tin can, leaned his upper body towards Wei Ran and whispered, "Don't worry, those animals won't live long .They have lost their value, and then they just need to find a way to shut up."

What the hell are you calling fair and rational?Wei Ran's brows twitched, obviously he already understood what Mikita wanted to do.

"Mikita, can you tell me about the origin of that mine?" Wei Ran tentatively asked the question he had been curious about.

Hearing this, Mikita paused for a moment, then sped up the action of sorting stones, divided them into different tin cans according to the standards that Wei Ran could not understand, and then put them into lunch boxes and hid them under the floor , and restored the bedside table to its original state.

"Let's go outside and have a chat." Mikita finished and got up and left the dormitory.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who just came back, picked up the pistol on the quilt again, hesitated for a moment, and hung the coiled whip around his waist, then quickly caught up with Mikita, followed him into the In a jeep at the gate, I left the camp along the snow-covered logging road and saw the frozen river bank.

Until this time, Mikita stepped on the brakes, looked at the lighted sentry tower in the distance and explained, "My father is a jeweler, and I have learned a lot from him, including the identification and polishing of jewelry. .”

"So you discovered it?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

“I did find out”

Mikita nodded, "At the beginning, I just randomly picked up a stone at the place where we parked now, and found that it was inlaid with a very high-quality demantoid. In order to know which mine the ore came from, It took me all summer to find that mine.

Coincidentally, both you and Dr. Goosen were transferred to Mine No. 52, and he also pursued my sister in a very short time.You know what happened later. With the help of Goosen, we borrowed the name of his experiment and used those prisoners of war to mine that mine.

Originally, I thought there wouldn't be many there, but I didn't expect so many to be dug up in such a short time. "

"what's next?"

Now that the topic has started, Wei Ran simply opened up the conversation, "What are you going to do next? Goosen will be leaving soon, and with the attitude of Commissar Krech, I am afraid he will not let those prisoners of war continue to live a good life." It's time."

"That mine has basically been collected, and now there is not much chromite. In other words, those prisoners of war have no value."

"Kill?" Wei Ran looked at the other party and asked.

"That's too deliberate"

Mikita showed a confident smile on his face, "Don't worry, I've already figured out a way, and those prisoners of war will disappear soon. We only need to wait patiently for a few years, and all those gems will be ours." .”

Before the words were finished, the captain of the firing squad had already stepped on the accelerator and turned around amidst the roar of the engine.

(End of this chapter)