War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 84 Birthday Gifts New Life

Returning to Kazan after some twists and turns, Wei Ran and Jima only rested for half a day, and they were called up by Karp early the next morning, each carrying a canvas bag weighing more than [-] kilograms, and each carrying a radio The tracker got into the damp birch forest.

"One last reminder, breakfast is on time at eight o'clock, so you only have two hours to find all the orientation points."

It wasn't until the swearing Wei Ran and Jima disappeared into the birch forest that Karp put down the tweeter in satisfaction, drove the off-road vehicle to leave the Hongqi Forest Farm, and headed for the small village where Nicholas lived.

In the next four days, the courses of Wei Ran and Jima were also enriched a lot. Every morning at six o'clock, while doing physical exercise, they searched for various radio orientation points in the forest, and even at the same time, they had to Receive the Morse code sent by Dalia from the roof of the main building through the walkie-talkie.Whether these Morse codes are correct or not is also related to whether they can have breakfast.

After breakfast until lunch, there are courses related to radio communication. After dinner, there are German courses for most of the day. After dinner, they will continue to go to the forest for two hours of hunting games and two hours of fighting training.Thought this was the end?Of course not, before going to bed, they also need to systematically learn first aid knowledge.

After just four days, no matter Wei Ran or Ji Ma, they all miss the relaxing hunting games in the first few days.But on the other hand, Wei Ran has to admit that this high-pressure learning progress is really effective. At least he can use Morse code to accurately type out the meaning he wants to express, and even German has been learned. Lots of common phrases.As for medical treatment, just look at the dense needle holes on his and Jima's arms, people who don't know what's inside may treat them as drug addicts.

On the evening of October 10th, Wei Ran, who finished a week of classes, followed Teacher Dalia to the side of the counseling center, and lifted the hood of a car under the other's signal.

"This car was given to you by Mr. Nikolai"

Teacher Dalia stood aside and explained, "According to the admission agreement, you will get a car for transportation during your studies at Hongqi Forest Farm. We originally prepared a Vaz van for you, but Mr. Nicholas is very grateful to you. Help him find out the cause of death of his wife and children, so I bought this car as a gift."

"What kind of car is this?" Wei Ran looked at the chubby black off-road vehicle in front of him and asked, not to mention anything else, the tires of this car are probably 40 cm wide!
"Viking 29031"

Dalia threw the car keys to Wei Ran, "Go up and try it, this is an amphibious off-road vehicle, even if you drive it into the Volga River, it can take you back to your studio safely. But before that , you can go to Nikolai's birthday first."

"When is his birthday?" Wei Ran, who was about to open the car door, turned his head and asked.

"tonight"

After Dalia finished speaking, she turned around and walked towards the gate of the counseling center, and at the same time reminded, "Remember to come back to class on time in a week."

Watching Dalia leave, Wei Ran opened the door curiously. To his surprise, there was no co-pilot in the cab of this off-road vehicle. There were only two steering seats behind the only driver's seat. Looking up at the position above the head of the driver's seat, two velcro sticks fixed the VSS micro-sound sniper rifle borrowed from Nikolai, and on the two rear seats, a PSS micro-sound sniper rifle was placed respectively. The ammunition and spare magazines for the acoustic pistol and the two weapons, as well as the graduate study materials that Culp prepared for himself.

This is too exaggerated
Wei Ran was dumbfounded, such a cool off-road vehicle, plus there are countless secret Hongqi forest farms hidden outside the vehicle.He subconsciously thought of the funny news that the newly graduated rookie agents of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs rented luxury cars to shoot videos to celebrate, and then were sent to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East by the emperor.

So is this a reminder to myself?Or make yourself public a little so as not to attract the attention of interested people?

Wei Ran shook his head and stopped thinking about it, fumbled to start the car and drove out of the Hongqi Forest Farm, meeting Ji Ma who was waiting outside.

"This is your car?" Jima almost stretched out his upper body from the cab of the truck, and asked greedily, "Where did you buy it? How much did you spend?"

"I don't know about it, it was given by someone else."

Wei Ran didn't want to hit Jima, so he found a vague excuse to fool him, then changed the subject and asked, "I heard that today is Mr. Nicholas' birthday?"

"Correct!"

Ji Ma jumped out of the cab, looked at Wei Ran's car in a circle, and sent out an invitation, "Are you going to participate? It's very lively."

"Of course, I've even prepared presents." Wei Ran gave an affirmative answer with a smile.

"Then let's hurry up." Jima asked obsequiously, scratching the window of the driver's cab, "How about letting me try this big guy?"

"You drank at dinner." Wei Ran unceremoniously pushed Ji Ma's head out of the car window, and at the same time released the clutch, and drove the car towards Kazan.

"I will buy such a car in the future!"

Ji Ma raised his middle finger and shouted loudly, seeing that Wei Ran didn't intend to stop to wait for him at all, he quickly climbed into the cab of the truck, turned around roughly and chased after him.

When the two cars returned to the small village on the northwest outskirts of Kazan, the school where Nikolai lived had been cleaned exceptionally clean. On the lawn on the side of the entrance, almost the entire village gathered here, splicing out The long table was filled with food, and the aroma from the oven not far away attracted a few fat wild cats to squat obediently and wait for the barbecue to be delivered to their door.

And on the edge of the lawn behind the two-story building, there is also a black marble tombstone.Under the illumination of the car lights, Wei Ran could clearly see a red five-pointed star on the tombstone.But under this five-pointed star, there is only a short introduction such as "Ampule and his son" engraved.

"I misunderstood him." Nicholas touched the tombstone and sighed, then turned to look at Wei Ran, "Do you like the gift?"

"I like it very much, thank you for your gift."

Wei Ran said gratefully, driving this way, the plus+ version of the Jimny behind him is much more comfortable than the previous van, especially the two pairs of large tires, not to mention how stable it is on the old road built in the Soviet era .

Nicholas nodded upon hearing this, and said abruptly, "I'm going to move back to Stalingrad tomorrow after my 90th birthday here."

"Are you planning to move to Volgograd?!" Wei Ran and Jima, who had just strolled over, exclaimed in unison. The news was really unexpected.

Nicholas nodded with a smile, and patted Wei Ran's shoulder vigorously, "And I will be your neighbor, I have already bought the house between your studio and Mamayev Hill, although it cost I have a lot of money, but at least I can see the statue of the motherland every day when I open the window, for me, there is no better view than that."

"Then what about here?" Wei Ran pointed around.

"Leave it to Jima's parents"

Nicholas turned his gaze back to the tombstone next to him, "When I see him, I can't help but think of my wife and three children, which is too much for me, Victor, thank you for your help, now I can finally lay down my burden and return to Stalingrad for the rest of my life."

"In this case, Mr. Nicholas, I wish you a happy birthday and wish you a new life." While speaking, Wei Ran took out a Leica camera from his bag and handed it to the other party, "Although you refused Once, but I can't think of a better birthday present."

Nicholas took the camera and hung it around his neck after hesitating for a moment, with a faint smile on his old face, "Young man, thank you for your birthday gift, I will use it to record my new life in the future."

(End of this chapter)