War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 776 You Came at the Right Time

That afternoon, when the setting sun was about to be blocked by Stalingrad on the other side of the river, Uncle Sergey also yelled at the donkey to sleigh the plow, and rushed to Sasha's house again.

"Sasha! Ninel! Victor!"

The old man flicked his whip from a long distance away, and then greeted the three of them with a loud voice. Just like at noon, the dog Neva bit his tail and cheered when the whip sounded. past.

After a while, the old guy yelled at the donkey sledge and stopped at the door, "Niel, Victor, I have good news."

"What's the good news?" Neil put away the German paratrooper's gravity knife used as a carving knife early, and responded absent-mindedly.

During the whole day, he had used the birch wood that could only be used as firewood to carve out a small wooden pistol and a small wooden plane that could be held in both hands for the baby Neva.

In addition, he also made three matryoshka wooden blanks. The smallest of these three matryoshka wooden blanks is only the size of a thumb, and the largest one is only the size of a toothpick holder. Add paint and they will nest together perfectly.

"Are you making nesting dolls?" Sergey was not in a hurry to report the good news, but curiously picked up the biggest one and opened it, "Your craftsmanship is really good."

"Make some toys for Neva"

Neil exchanged a wooden plane for the matryoshka in the opponent's hand without any trace, "Many of my daughter's toys are almost made by myself."

"You're an excellent father, and you'll save a lot of money."

Sergey looked at the wooden plane in his hand over and over again and said, "Before the war, I went to the city on the other side to sell a tin train for my granddaughter. I didn't expect that such a small tin toy would be so fast." Enough for me to buy a train ticket from Stalingrad to Moscow."

"Did you buy it in the end?" Ninel seemed not in a hurry to know the good news brought by the other party, but just handed over the small wooden pistol he had just made.

"did not buy"

Sergey said naturally, "I don't have that much money to spend on toys. I asked the carpenter in the village, Varian, to make one for me out of wood. I only need to give him a red-tailed fish."

Having said that, Uncle Sergey paused, and said regretfully, "I should have bought one for her then."

"Your granddaughter."

"Dead, maybe already dead." Sergey sighed, "She is so young, and she was already sick, how could she survive in Stalingrad by herself."

Ninel opened his mouth, and after a moment of silence, he brought up the topic again, "Uncle Sergey, tell me the good news you brought."

"Look at me, I almost forgot the business"

Sergey patted his forehead, and returned the two toys in his hand to Ninel, "Get in the car, I'll take you to the pier, where there is a boat that can take you to Red Sloboda on the east coast, Then you can go to the safer rear."

"Is it?"

The expression on Ninel's face was unnatural for a moment, and his eyes subconsciously wandered to the distant dirt.

"Niniel, you don't want to miss our Sasha, do you?" Sergey asked jokingly.

"Uncle Sergey, you always make fun of me." Sasha retorted first.

"Sasha, I have something for you."

Ninel took a deep breath, first put the toy pistols and wooden planes that he had just made into the wooden tub that served as Neva's playground, and then put your three matryoshka wooden blanks in Sasha's hand , "This is a matryoshka that I haven't finished. After the war is over, I will come back and ask you to take them away."

When Sasha heard the words, he immediately tightened his grip on the wooden block in his hand. Obviously, this smart girl had already understood what Ninel was alluding to.

However, before she could open her mouth to make a promise, Ninel put the silver cigarette case that originally belonged to Felix into Sasha's hand, "This cigarette case is made of silver, and there are two rings inside. It should be able to sell for a lot of money, so maybe your life will be better in the future."

Sasha was silent for a moment when he heard the words, but in the end, he didn't refuse like when Felix gave her his wedding ring for the first time. He pointedly said, "When the war is over, I will find a way to sell them. Before the war is over, I hope you can shoot down more German planes."

"So."

"How about taking a photo?" Wei Ran shook the Rollei Shuang in his hand and stopped Ninel's farewell with a smile, "In case someone forgets the promise just now after the war is over."

"Then take a picture!" Sasha said generously.

"Let me help you take pictures!" Uncle Sergey said with a smile, "My son used to have such a camera. He worked in a photo studio and often took pictures of our family."

"Then. Let's take a picture." Niel and Wei Ran looked at each other, and stood beside Sasha.

"Are you ready?" Sergey asked, holding up the camera.

"bring it on!"

"Ready!"

Saha and Ninel said in no particular order.

"Victor, what about you?" Sergey put his finger on the shutter while speaking.

"I'm ready too, come on!" Wei Ran nodded with a smile.

Seeing this, Sergey simply pressed the door open.With the unusually clear shutter sound resounding through his mind, Wei Ran's field of vision was completely filled with intense white light.

However, before the white light subsided, Wei Ran's heart sank, because he clearly heard the rumble of cannons, the roar of propellers, and even smelled the choking smell of burning!
Blinking his eyes vigorously, and waiting for the white light to fade completely and his vision gradually clear, Wei Ran immediately widened his eyes, because he saw Berlin's iconic zoo air defense tower at a glance!I even saw the fire snake spewing from the roof of the anti-aircraft tower!
"I'll fuck you uncle!"

Wei Ran reacted, looked down at his surroundings, and immediately cursed. At this time, he was sitting in a fighter jet whose cockpit was already emitting thick smoke, and the glass windshield above his head had also broken, revealing terrifying bullet holes!

Not daring to delay at all, Wei Ran rummaged around for a while, and finally determined that it was a La-7 fighter jet!
parachute!Skydiving is a must!Wei Ran struggled to open the cockpit cover in the billowing smoke, and jumped out of the cabin with all his strength.

"I don't know, if I parachute to the dentist's office next to the Moltke Bridge at this time, will those friends recognize me?"

Before Wei Ran's wild thoughts were over, the parachute on his back had already completed automatic opening.However, before he could adjust his posture, he found that a fire snake from the ground was rushing towards him, tearing a big hole in the parachute above his head!

"Your uncle! Your uncle!"

Wei Ran uttered terrified curses, watched the parachute that had just been opened turn into countless fragments, and at the same time felt the faster and faster descending speed.

Fortunately, when he was getting closer to the ground, he finally touched the parachute cord of the secondary parachute.

As he pulled hard, at an altitude of only three or four hundred meters above the ground, another white parachute stretched out under the force of the wind, and at the same time it caught Wei Ran, who was descending extremely fast.

However, this parachute ended in tragedy. Wei Ran, who couldn't control the parachute at all, only had time to protect his face, and under the force of the wind, he crashed straight into the wall of a ruined building.

Immediately afterwards, the dizzy Wei Ran, driven by the falling parachute, slid down the dilapidated wall in a manner almost face-braking, and fell heavily on the ruins all over the ground.

"Fuck you uncle!"

Trembling with pain, Wei Ran cursed and pulled out a German paratrooper knife from his pocket, and cut the paracord that was about to wrap himself into a mummy as quickly as possible.

However, before he could take a look at his legs that seemed to be broken, a brick slipped from the top of the incomplete wall, wrapped in a white umbrella cloth, and hit his sky cap impartially.

Under this unprepared heavy blow, Wei Ran didn't even have time to let out a scream, and his vision went dark and he completely lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying in a ward that smelled strongly of alcohol.

Stretching out his hand to touch his head, the top of his head was wrapped with thick gauze, and then he looked down at his feet with difficulty, one of his legs had been hung up, and it was still wrapped with thick gauze.

Before he lifted the quilt to see if there were any missing parts, a young soldier dressed as a postman ran into the ward and shouted loudly, "Is Lieutenant Ninell here? The pilot Ninell from Stalingrad you?!"

"I'm here! I'm here!" Next door to Wei Ran, a full-bodied voice shouted.

Subconsciously following the sound, Wei Ran found that there was a person far worse than himself lying on that hospital bed.

Almost all of his upper body was wrapped in gauze, and one leg was hung up like himself. Not only that, but his neck seemed to be fixed, so that he couldn't even turn his head.But even so, his voice was still loud, and he was obviously in a very good mood.

"Oh! Comrade Nigner, what's the matter with you?"

The postman ran over while speaking, took out a triangular letter from his satchel and stuffed it into the other party's hand.Then, he took out a square packet wrapped in kraft paper and put it on the bedside cabinet.

"My plane caught fire"

Ninel said nonchalantly, "Comrade, can you help me open the letter and read it for a while, my hands are all wrapped up. The only things I can move now are my eyes and jaw except my dick."

"Let the comrade next to you help you"

The postman took out a candy from his pocket and stuffed it into Ninel's mouth, "I still have a lot of work to do, and I'm in a hurry, so I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Ninel bit the hard candy in his mouth until it crackled loudly, "This candy is really sweet, but it would be even better if you can have a glass of wine."

"I can't help you with that," said the postman, putting away the candy wrappers. "Goodbye, Comrade Ninel."

"Goodbye," Ninel responded loudly, and then asked loudly, "Which comrade can read my letter for me?"

"How about I come?" Wei Ran sat up with difficulty while speaking.

"Why do I hear your voice so victorious?!" Ninel exclaimed, "You're still alive? That's great! Why were you sent here too?"

"I fell while skydiving." Wei Ran touched the top of his head with great effort, "It seems that some bastard slapped him on the head."

"It's really time for you to appear!" Ninel said in surprise, "I haven't seen you for a long time, I thought you were dead."

"I've been driving the 7, how could I die." Wei Ran said pretending to be proud, and at the same time silently chased a sentence in his heart, "It's a little shorter than the last time I drove the Yi-16."

"I also drove the pull-up 7"

Ninel said happily, and then seemed to think of something, and gestured with his eyes and chin, "As I said just now, it's really time for you to appear, hurry up, read the letter Sasha sent me. letter."

"Sasha?"

Wei Ran picked up the triangular letters and shook them, pretending to ask, "How do you know it's Sasha?"

"She asks people in the village to write to me almost every week"

Ninel gestured with his chin again, "Quickly read what she wrote, and then open it to see what's delicious in her package at home."

Hearing this, Wei Ran carefully opened the folded letter paper as much as possible, and at the same time did not forget to ask, "How is her life? Did her sister survive?"

"No." Ninel sighed with a natural attitude, "How could he survive?"

"At least Sasha is still alive, isn't he?"

Wei Ran opened the letter paper while he was speaking, cleared his throat and muttered loudly, "Dear pilot, Comrade Ninel, today is April 4th, Neva with a tail gave birth to four puppies this morning, and the one without a tail Neva told me that there were two little white male dogs, another parti-colored one, and a yellow-and-white little bitch.

Neva, who has no tail, likes the little yellow and white bitch very much. We decided to keep her and name her Goethe. At the same time, I hope you will not forget your promise.

Recently Neva and I have planted potatoes and sunflowers around the house, and if you can get back to Stalingrad before autumn as you said in your letter last time, it will be just in time for the harvest.

And finally, with the letter, I made smoked fish to drink with vodka if you can get it, and if you can't get vodka, like those bacon I sent you last time Same, share it with your friends.

—Sasha who raised two Nevas"

"It seems that you have a good relationship?" Wei Ran refolded the letter, stuffed it under Niniel's pillow, and asked with a smile.

"We're going to get married when the war is over."

Ninel signaled Wei Ran to open the package and said, "I'm going to raise Neva with her, Victor, will you attend our wedding then?"

"certainly"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he tore a smoked fish in half and stuffed it into Ninel's mouth. He reached under the pillow of his hospital bed and took out a delicate jug and shook it, "Old friend, do you want to?" As Madam Sasha ordered, some fine wine to accompany the smoked fish in Stalingrad?"

"Victor!"

Ninel's eyes lit up immediately, and he lowered his voice and cheered in surprise, "It's really time for you to come!"

(End of this chapter)