War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 808

On the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, Wei Ran took the first high-speed train back to the capital early in the morning, and drove the car he bought to his grandma's house without hesitation.

As the end of the year was approaching, there were fewer cars on the road, so the speed was naturally much faster, but even so, it was almost ten o'clock in the morning when he arrived at the door.

A few months later, the new houses of the two old people have been completely renovated. Not only the ground is paved with red bricks, but also a new one has been fastened in the middle of the courtyard next to the well. Plastic greenhouses that are bigger than before.

However, until he drove the car into the yard, he found that the only pug with a crooked mouth at home came out to greet him.

"Grandma! Grandpa! Dad! Mom! Auntie! Uncle! Sui Sui!" Wei Ran shouted at the top of his voice, but found that no one responded to him at all.

"Hey! Why did these people go?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, bent over and picked up the crooked pug that had been chasing him around, then took out his cell phone and dialed Sui Sui's number.

"Where did you go?"

Wei Ran asked the question in his heart after the call was connected, and the noisy voice from the other end of the phone let him know the answer before Sui Sui spoke.

"We're rushing to the temple fair," Sui Sui responded loudly, "Have you arrived yet?"

"Just arrived." Wei Ran thought for a while and asked, "Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No need," Sui Sui teased with a suppressed smile, "You can wait at home, lest you get lost again."

Hearing this, Wei Ran rolled his eyes and hung up the phone angrily.

It's unlucky to say that during his six years in elementary school, he would be separated from his family once or twice at the temple fair or fair near his grandma's house at the end of every year, and then he would be sold by various clothes sellers at the temple fair. The stalls of pots and pans shouted his name through loudspeakers.

And such embarrassing incidents also became the main content of Sui Sui's teasing of him and the main topic of chatting between the two families before and after the temple fair at the end of the year.

“I knew I would come back tomorrow”

Wei Ran circled the dog's head depressedly, let go of it, and took it around the newly renovated house.

Although there are only four elderly people in these two families, Wei Ran's parents usually come back every half a month at most.

But there are 15 large tile-roofed houses in this long row. Except for the two large living rooms shared by the two elderly people, and a large kitchen and dining room, the rest are all decorated into single rooms with floor heating and bathrooms.

Maybe it’s for keeping warm, or maybe it’s also for cleanliness. Even the corridors linking the long row of houses are equipped with double-layer windows for insulation. Inside the windows, there is also a long row filled with various Pots with plants and flowers.

One by one, he found Sui Sui's room through the glass on the door. Wei Ran saw that his suitcase was also in this room, so he opened the door and walked in. He opened the suitcase and found a suit of clothes for himself. , By the way, he also threw the backpack he was carrying on the sofa in this room.

He walked around the wing rooms that were far apart on both sides as if the ghosts were mopping them up. What he didn't expect was that even though Suisui's grandfather had stopped hanging pots, he still cleaned up the newly built wing rooms to look like a medicine shop. .

Whether it's the old elm table with the smell of medicine, or the maroon-red seven-star chest, etc., they are all wiped clean, even the iron frame bed inside that was specially tied to people during bone setting. All repainted.

Finally, he took a look at the white cloth tiger cover kept in the glass frame on the wall, and Wei Ran slowly sat on the very old chair, leaning his neck up to let the sunlight shine on his body through the glass, squinting Looking at the wooden plaque above the door frame directly in front of him, he couldn't help but think of some friends from a generation ago.

While he was wandering in this slightly cold west wing room, bursts of howling and crying that belonged to children, and the barking of the pug with the crooked mouth came from far and near.

When he opened his eyes, he found that an electric bicycle had already rushed into the yard, and at the same time, the woman riding the bicycle was also anxiously shouting, "Grandpa! Is Grandpa at home?"

"My great-grandfather is going to the market. Do you have anything to do with him?"

Wei Ran quickly came out of the wing room to say hello, and immediately after, he noticed that this woman he didn't know very well had large scratches on her hands and face, and the rearview mirror of the electric car was crooked. .

And on the seat behind her, the wailing child was shaking with one hand, and at the same time, there were two blood-stained tissues stuffed in his nostrils, and a small piece of his forehead was scratched.

"Are you Wei Ran?"

The woman asked uncertainly, and without waiting for the former's response, she asked impatiently, "When will grandpa come back? My son seems to have unhooked his arm."

"What's the matter?" Wei Ran had already carried the child down while speaking.

"I was just going to take my son to the market, but I don't know which one whose family can't eat four dishes, splashed a large piece of water at the intersection, and it was all frozen." As the woman spoke, she also parked the car in a panic.

"Why don't you go to the bathroom?" Wei Ran asked while carrying the child into the wing.

"Their family is also going to the temple fair," the woman said anxiously, "My aunt said that grandpa might be able to cure me, but I didn't expect him to go too."

"Go to the kitchen and bring a basin of cold water."

"Wei Ran, you, can you cure it?" The woman asked worriedly as she looked at Wei Ran who was carrying the child to the wing.

"You asked that." Wei Ran gave an ambiguous answer without turning his head, "Hurry up and get some water, and get another towel."

"Okay, I'll go now!"

The woman gritted her teeth, and ran towards the kitchen at a trot, and just from this small movement, Wei Ran already knew that this woman he hadn't seen much should come here quite often.

Taking advantage of the absence of the child's mother, Wei Ran carried the child to the elm table and made him sit down, and took advantage of the situation to pinch and push the dislocated elbow, and then easily completed the reset.And from the beginning to the end, this crying little guy didn't realize what happened.

Looking back at the woman who had just rushed into the kitchen, Wei Ran quickly walked to the next room, and under the cover of the door, took out the medical box that had not been used for a long time from the metal book.

This medical box is not only the medicines from World War II that he brought with him, but also a lot of modern emergency medical supplies. Although these things will not be used after returning to World War II, he himself is for the current situation. prepared for this situation.

Picking and picking out some medicines and dressings for debridement, Wei Ran collected the medicine box before the woman entered the door, and took out a pair of plastic-wrapped medical rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on. Walked out with those medicines.

"The water is coming!"

While speaking, the woman also pushed open the door of the wing room, and at the same time saw the medicines that Wei Ran took out.

"Wei Ran, my son's arm is mainly dislodged." The woman was half dumbfounded, because her son was wiping tears with that dislocated hand.

"You picked him up?" The woman asked in surprise, "Wei Ran, are you taking over from Grandpa?"

"What?" Wei Ran asked pretending to be blank, "Isn't your son's arm fine?"

"You didn't do it?" the woman asked suspiciously.

"What did I do?" Wei Ran, who was still pretending to be stupid, looked down at the medicine in his hand, "I just found these things and haven't had time to put them down yet."

"But I just now"

"Come on, do you want me to help you bandage?"

Wei Ran put the things on the table one by one and asked, "I have passed the first aid certificate and know how to bandage it. If you use it, I will wrap it up for you. If you are worried about your son's arm, you'd better go to the hospital to have it taken." a film."

"Then I'll trouble you to wrap it up." The woman agreed with a puzzled expression.

"I haven't seen you much before, have you?"

"My man, Wang Hai!"

The woman introduced herself while watching Wei Ran's work, "I know you, my son's father said, you two used to fry fish with mari seeds, and even threw them into the cesspit of the village chief's house."

"Oh-oh-oh! Are your children this old?"

Wei Ran quickly put on an expression of sudden realization, and at the same time secretly muttered again, "I knew I would come back tomorrow." He had only been back for less than ten minutes, and what he heard in his ears were all the "brilliance" that he didn't want to recall. Deeds".

Carefully cleaned up the little guy's wound and applied medicine, and then bandaged the woman's wound. By the way, he helped the mother and son return the rearview mirror of the electric car to its original position.

After a lot of busy work to send the mother and son away, before Wei Ran had time to breathe a sigh of relief, a minibus with a sticker saying "A certain farmhouse pick-up bus" also stopped at the gate of the yard.Immediately afterwards, Suisui, Lola, and sister Katenka jumped down first, and then helped the elders of the two families down one by one.

It's just that, while the four girls were busy, they each had a bunch of candied haws in their mouths.

And Jima and Maya, who followed the four old people, not only held a fried golden sweet thousand seeds and an equally golden fried cake in their hands, but also hung a bulging red plastic bag on their respective wrists. .

"Victor! Come and help!"

The sharp-eyed Jima spotted Wei Ran first, and immediately greeted Wei Ran enthusiastically, "I found two very delicious things! Come and help me get them!"

Wei Ran, who came over quickly, first said hello to the four old people and the three seniors in the car, and then asked with a smile, "Don't tell me it's the thing in your hand."

"That's the stuff"

While Jima was speaking, he opened his mouth in unison with Maya and took a bite of the sweet thousand seeds he was holding in his hand. While chewing, he mumbled in Russian, "I bought twenty 1s, and I also bought two. Ten zeros, these things are really delicious."

"The whole temple fair, the two of them, and Katenka and Lola, they hardly went anywhere."

Sui Sui beckoned Wei Ran to help him pick up the things from the car and complained angrily, "The five of them each ate at least two Tianqianzi and three fried cakes. Ji Ma ate the most, He ate it all the way back."

"Really. Bon Appetit"

Wei Ran grinned, this fried cake is nothing more than glutinous rice bread fried with bean paste, each one is about the size of a dumpling wrapper, no more than two fingers thick.

But the Tianqianzi is a unique specialty within a hundred and ten kilometers of the local area.Twenty centimeters long, with a thick wrist, filled with red bean paste, and the outer skin is fried golden and crispy with soybean noodles. It is really delicious.

When Wei Ran was young, this food could only be eaten on weddings and funerals. At that time, he and Suisui could eat half of it happily for most of the day.

But like Jima and the others, everyone surrounded the fryer and ate two big roots and a few greasy fried cakes. This is really not something ordinary people can do.

"may not"

Wei Ran's grandma smiled from ear to ear, "These kids, they eat so fast! The boss can't even fry them as fast as they eat, and there are people around who applaud!"

"And those two girls want to buy the formula."

Professor Alexei, who came down, said with a smile, and at the same time pointed to Sister Katenka, who had candied haws in her mouth but couldn't eat them at all.

“They both even wanted to try and do it themselves”

Zhou Shujin, who came down with a bag in her hand, said worriedly, "Suisui, you should keep a close eye on the two of them, I'm afraid they will enter the kitchen."

"Victor, what are they talking about?" Maya asked curiously, and at the same time handed over the bag in her hand, "Do you want to try it? Especially the long ones, they are really delicious."

"I don't have to"

Wei Ran took a cardboard box that his father handed out along the car window, and hurriedly explained, "Everyone is praising your appetite."

"Hic—" Ji Ma hiccupped regardless of his image, and at the same time, his parents got out of the car.

However, what made Wei Ran unable to hold back his laughter was that not only did the old couple also have a half-eaten sweet thousand seeds in each hand, but they also carried a large bag of sugar-fried chestnuts and a bag of tobacco leaves in the other hand. son.Even on the collar of the old comrade's neck, there is a copper pipe and pot that looks like it is nearly one meter long.

"Don't be dazed, hurry up and pick it up!"

Comrade Old Wei greeted them in the car, "These boxes are all bought by your uncle, so be careful."

"Oh oh oh!"

Wei Ran hurriedly took over the heavy cardboard box, carefully placed it on the grinding disc at the door, and at the same time asked without idling, "Did you rent a minibus to go to the temple fair?"

"No, it's thanks to your uncle's car at home, otherwise so many people would have to go by tractor. In this cold weather, their brains would have been frozen."

While talking, Wei Ran's mother also took out two red tickets from her pocket and handed them to the driver of the minibus who was helping to carry the goods, and the driver, who was Wei Ran's uncle according to his seniority, also declined after some excuses. I just took one of them symbolically, and stuffed it into the big bag of peanuts and melon seeds when I was helping to move the goods.And Wei Ran's mother, taking advantage of the other party's inattention, took out two red tickets and stuffed them into the other party's cigarette case.

After a lot of busy work, all the new year's goods bought were moved out of the car. After everyone sent off the driver who helped, they dumped these things into the back seat on the side of the gate that was specially used as a storage room. Those relatively dangerous fireworks and firecrackers, Under the command of the two old people, they were sent to the vegetable cellar as in previous years, so as not to hurt people due to a sudden explosion.

Until the wooden boards of the vegetable cellar were covered, Father Wei Ran and Professor Alexei, who had endured all the way, immediately took out a box of good cigarettes and distributed them to everyone, while Jima's old man Dad, on the other hand, pulled out the slender pipe pot and lit a pot with the help of Ji Ma.

In the choking smoke, women of three age groups also frowned and fanned the wind, counting the three generations of smoking guns standing in the middle of the yard, and walked into the warm room together.

While Wei Ran was preparing for the coming New Year with his relatives and friends, in the mountains far away in the suburbs of Beijing, a construction team led by the middle-aged man named Yang Haifeng entered the already The yard changed hands.

With the harsh cutting sound of the grinder, all the original color steel tile carports in this yard were demolished. At the same time, a few additional electric poles were buried in the center of the yard as pillars, and in the open space outside the yard, piles of Various building materials.

As the New Year's Eve is getting closer and closer, Ji Ma has been drinking in the village with Wei Ran's father and Professor Alexei, oh oh oh, and his father, just like last year. Big wine.

The Katenka sisters, Lola and Maya, and of course, Jima's mother, experienced various activities such as posting Spring Festival couplets with great interest.

Just the day before New Year's Eve, the courtyard wall deep in the mountains on the outskirts of Beijing was finally covered by the roof of colored steel tiles and a new gate was replaced.

And the middle-aged man named Yang Haifeng returned to the village on a four-wheeled motorcycle alone after paying the workers their wages and sending them away.

However, less than half an hour after he left, an unremarkable off-road vehicle drove up to the gate of the yard.

As the car door opened, a fat man who seemed to be less than 40 years old at most jumped out of the cab flexibly, took the key out of the mouth of the stone lion at the door, which was not as big as a Teddy, and opened the iron door .

Looking around for the last time, the fat man pushed open the iron door and drove the off-road vehicle in. When he got out of the car again, he already had an ordinary-looking suitcase in his hand.

Looking outside again, the fat man swallowed his saliva, and under the light of the headlights, he took small steps to the side of the towed RV that was still abandoned here, and took out a key to open the door of the RV. Then he climbed in laboriously on the rusty folded steps, and put the suitcase in his hand on the dusty table.

With a soft "click", the fat man opened the suitcase, revealing the document bag inside and several wads of big red cash under the weight of the document bag.

Touching the cash with a painful face, the fat man shook his head helplessly, took out his phone and dialed it.

"Brother Qin, I've brought the things." The fat man said in a very humble tone, even though the person on the other end of the phone was much younger than him.

"It's all done?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone who couldn't hear it.

"It's done, it's all done." The fat man replied hastily.

"Okay, don't let things get lost, and don't let people disturb my friend."

The person on the other end of the phone thought for a while, and then said, "The matter between the two of us is a story, and I owe you a favor."

"Brother Qin, thank you, Brother Qin, thank you." The fat man said hurriedly, but there was already a relieved expression on that fat face.

"I heard that how many foreign friends have come to your modeling agency?"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

The fat man hurriedly said, "They are all new international students from the little devil and the little stick! How about I give you some?"

"Hey, hey! What are you talking about special codes! Dude, I'm a serious person! Don't give me such a trick!" The inarticulate voice on the other end of the phone said dissatisfied, "Okay, hang up, New Year's Eve joy!"

"You are such a beast that you hit 8!"

After the fat man waited for the busy tone that the call was terminated from the receiver, he spat and cursed.

But then, he scratched his crotch helplessly, changed the number and dialed again with a look of resentment, and urgently made some temporary arrangements.

At the same time, Qin Er Shi, who was still at Xia Shushi's house and was preparing for a New Year's Eve dinner, also put away his mobile phone in satisfaction.

"Are you really planning to trouble the little girl again?" Xia Shushi, who was busy in the kitchen, asked without surprise.

"Who hurt the little girl?" Qin Ershi put his feet on the coffee table, "I call it winning glory for the country, and I call it helping a little devil with a strip of water to optimize his genes."

"Take a break!" Xia Shu chopped the kitchen knife onto the chopping board, "Believe it or not, the person who called you just now might scold you."

"Just scold me, I still care about this?" Qin Ershi said with a nonchalant expression, "Do you think he dares to scold me in person?"

"The one who called you just now, did you take you to the devil to spread the hope of love last time, and then caused you to be dragged to Gabao by your sister and your brother-in-law after you came back?"

"Which pot do you choose not to open and which pot to carry?"

Qin Er Shi, who was said to be embarrassed, immediately threw the orange peel he had just peeled off towards Xia Shushi's face.

"You are so afraid of being mentioned by others, so don't do that stupid thing in the first place."

Xia Shushi took the orange peel casually, rinsed it with water indiscriminately, and threw it directly into the pot of stewing meat. By the way, he changed the subject and asked, "You seem to value that Wei Ran?"

"I checked it in the past two days, and he is much more famous than you. The serious historians in Maozi are not like you. They know how to dump old books every day."

Qin Ershi took it for granted, "Didn't my sister always say that I make some friends who are as naughty as you, hey hey! This time I will make a serious friend to show her to save her from criticizing me every day." .”

"What do you call me such a nonsensical friend?" Xia Shushi asked dissatisfied.

"Or is it not male or female?"

Qin Ershi threw a piece of orange into his mouth, frowned and grinned, "Last time, who the hell secretly changed it at home?"

"How many times have I said that, it was a misunderstanding!" Xia Shushi said anxiously, "I was there to participate in the comic exhibition!"

"Take a break, you are so afraid of being mentioned by others, so don't do that stupid thing in the first place!"

When Qin Ershi returned the words intact, he had already stood up and walked to the door, "I won't talk nonsense with you, remember to add my share to the New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow, and I will celebrate the New Year at your house this year .”

"Aren't you going home?" Xia Shushi asked with a look of disgust.

"I'll fight when I go home, what are you going to do when I go back?" Qin Er Shi was already humming an unknown tune, pushed open the door and walked out pretending to be chic.

"This bastard!" Xia Shushi cursed helplessly, but in the end he could only take out his mobile phone and send a message, which was a report for himself.

(End of this chapter)