War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 781 The Pilot's Romance
Right next to the entrance of the tube building on Mamayev Hill, Wei Ran leaned against the guardrail of the corridor, rarely took the initiative to light a cigarette, and quietly watched Felix who was walking back and forth among the three houses excitedly. , and Ruslan who was talking excitedly with the professor while holding the memoir.

After the cigarette between his fingers was completely burned out, Wei Ran snuffed it out, put the butt of the cigarette in his pocket, and then handed over the photo frame and the bunch of keys that he had taken from this room before. He gave it to the young man in his early 20s standing at the door, and slowly went downstairs with his hands in his pockets, and got into the rear compartment of the car parked downstairs.

Looking around the body, Wei Ran took out the metal book and opened it. As expected, there was another blue vortex under the red vortex with the gravity knife.

"My friend, the skies of Stalingrad are in your care."

Wei Ran silently read the text under the light blue vortex, sighed and reached into the blue vortex, and took out a brown leather winter flight cap inlaid with various trophies.

The only difference between this hat and the one kept in the tube building is that the appearance has become brand new, and at the same time, it lacks the unmatched goggles.

"I'm really sorry, Stalingrad is no longer here." Wei Ran muttered to himself, and sent the hat back to the blue vortex that just appeared.

When he pushed the car door, Ruslan and Professor Alexei, also led by the middle-aged Felix, came out of the unit door.

"Although I don't remember it very clearly, just now my sister said on the phone that our family had three garages connected together."

While Felix was speaking, he had already walked towards the garage facing the stairs, and at the same time kept saying, "My sister said that she remembers very clearly that the three garages next to each other are counted from the left hand side. No. 9 all the way to No. 11."

Having said that, Felix has already reached the door of the No. 9 garage, but the door lock of this garage still has traces of being drilled by an electric drill.

Seeing this, he exchanged glances with his family members who were following him, and simply tried to pull the steel handle as thick as a thumb.

Amidst the harsh noise of "Kerala", the iron door of this garage was opened smoothly.However, when the temperatureless sunlight shines in through the wider and wider cracks in the door, as far as the eye can see, except for a car repair ditch, there are only some scrapped and cracked tires around. .

But at the same time, everyone can see from the difference in the thickness of the dust accumulated on the ground, as well as the clear tire marks, footprints and drag marks, that there seems to be a car parked here, and the position against the wall should still be right. with something.

“Looks like it was stolen”

"It looks like that's where the station wagon that already belonged to Father Nikolai came from."

Mr. Felix and Wei Ran muttered to each other brightly and secretly.But obviously, the former didn't particularly care about the stolen things in this garage.

"Let's go to the next garage!" Felix said, leading his family to the next garage.

With the help of the chemical cleaning agent provided by Wei Ran, Felix easily opened the dusty garage for a long time, and then everyone saw a plane, an I-16 plane with its wings removed!

On the side of the fuselage of this plane, there is also a line of Russian written in red paint - the Stalingrad Aviation School, a gift to our hero Comrade Niniel Ustinovich Bondu.

"I was on that plane when I was a kid"

Felix pointed to the fighter jet in the garage and said, "I only have a little impression, but I must have sat on it."

"Why didn't you remember anything when I asked you before?" Professor Alexey muttered secretly.

"I was maybe three or four years old at the most. If I hadn't seen these things, how could I remember them."

Felix innocently walked around the garage, took an extra look at the wings fixed to the walls on both sides, stretched out his arms, and carefully wiped off the dust on the wings with his sleeves. The line of bright red writing was revealed - defend the great Stalingrad with your life!

"Unfortunately, Stalingrad is no longer there"

Ruslan, Alexei, and Felix, who was looking up at the wings, let out a sigh of nostalgia, regret and a little bit of joy almost in unison.

"Let's go check out the next garage!"

Felix patted the dust off his cuffs, and beckoned everyone to come with him to the door of the last garage.

As the door of the last workshop opened, what everyone saw was a square object covered with thick canvas. At the same time, they also saw toolboxes and shelves lined up almost a full circle around three walls. .

Felix beckoned to his sons and daughters, and several young men immediately came up to help, and lifted the badly decayed canvas to reveal the wreckage of a formula car protected by a thick wooden frame. .

The car has a lot of damage, with flame burns and a lot of rust.

"This may have been my father's car at the time."

Felix sighed and shook his head, "I hardly have any memory of him anymore, even if it wasn't for the memoir upstairs, I wouldn't remember him at all."

Sighing silently, Wei Ran winked at the professor and Ruslan, turned and left silently, and got into the carriage again.After a while, Ruslan and Professor Alexei also got in one after another.

"What do you guys plan to do in the future?" Wei Ran asked Ruslan who was sitting in the back row.

"The museum will find a way to help Mr. Felix take ownership of the property here"

Speaking of this, Ruslan pointed to the manuscript of the memoirs that he had held in his hand from the beginning to the end, "This memoir and the medals that Comrade Ninel won, we will continue to talk with Felix. Besides Besides, according to Professor Alexei's proposal, we decided to find a suitable time to go to the cemetery in Lipetsk together to visit the graves of Comrades Ninel and Sasha."

"Victor, are you coming with us?"

Alexey asked, "Besides, because the truth of this matter was found out so quickly, our interview may have to be brought forward."

"To Lipetsk?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, "When?"

"How about the day after tomorrow?" Ruslan asked with a smile, "We will also put the interview before going to Lipetsk."

Of course, Wei Ran, who was already idle, would not have any objection to this, and nodded happily in agreement.After agreeing on the time and place to leave for Lipetsk together, Ruslan opened the door and left the carriage, Wei Ran immediately started the engine, and dragged Professor Alexei, who was obviously over-excited, away from this old community .

"Victor! My good nephew, I'm going to be an honorary advisor to the Mamayev Museum!" Professor Alexey murmured excitedly.

"congratulations"

Wei Ran smiled, no matter on the surface or in his heart, he was far less excited than the other party.

All of this now has become a habit for him from the time when he chased ducks to the shelves.Moreover, Professor Alexis is far from needing to create an image of a scholar like himself, and naturally he does not need a heart that must remain calm and rational.

Of course, this good news is still a major event worth knowing for my aunt and Sui Sui.And Professor Alexey was able to enjoy a whole bottle of gin to celebrate that day.

"What did you say? You're not going to Lipetsk with us?"

That night, after Wei Ran briefly communicated with Suisui about the itinerary for the next few days, the latter did not clamor to follow as usual this time.

"I'm not going"

Sui Sui showed a mysterious smile, "I have business to do these few days, and when I'm done, I'm going to go back to Kazan right away."

"What about Inta or Tula Town?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"neither"

Sui Sui smiled smugly, but she bit her to death and didn't intend to explain in detail.And her arrogant appearance of a dead duck's mouth was not surprising, and she received various corporal punishments.

Three days passed in a blink of an eye. Wei Ran, who successfully took Uncle Yang to deal with the interview, was also led by Ruslan, followed Professor Alexei, Felix and his family, together with the museum from the TV station. Together with the borrowed shooting team, they rushed to Lipetsk together.

At the same time when Wei Ran and others arrived at their destination, Sui Sui also rushed to the airport with sisters Kajianka and the others and three pets, and boarded the flight to Kazan under Zhou Shujin's farewell.

On the outskirts of Lipetsk, not far from the mysterious but well-known aviation center, Wei Ran, wearing a black suit, followed the crowd into a small cemetery.

Just from the inscriptions on the tombstones, we know that most of the people buried in this cemetery are local ordinary people.And the joint tomb of Ninel and Sasha is hidden in this ordinary cemetery.

Stepping on the dry fallen leaves, Wei Ran patiently searched for familiar names on the tombstones.

In the end, these foreigners from Volgograd stopped in front of a black tombstone.

There is an I-16 plane and a flying cap engraved on this tombstone. Besides, there is no name engraved on this tombstone. Instead, there are only two epitaphs——

This is where the eaglets take off and where friendships begin.

This is the place where he took off, and it is also the place where I accompany him to sleep forever.Fortunately, I am no stranger to darkness. Fortunately, he can always bring me sunshine.

“I guess it should be here”

Wei Ran stroked the tombstone and muttered to himself, bent down and placed the bouquet in his hand in front of the tombstone.

"Aviators are always so romantic"

Professor Alexey muttered in a tone of admiration and even envy, and also placed the bouquet in his hand in front of the not-so-big tombstone.

"I envy Mr. Ninel. No, Comrade Ninel, I envy Comrade Ninel's friendship and love."

Ruslan also sighed, placed the bouquet in front of the tombstone, and then followed Wei Ran and Professor Alexis to make room for the filming team.

(End of this chapter)