War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 901 Country House

After breakfast, at the gate outside the farm, Wei Ran raised the camera again and pressed the shutter.

In the group photo this time, there are not only the children who escaped from birth and the two girls who were rescued halfway, but also the farmer Mr. female nurse.

Time was running out, and under the reluctant farewell of the wounded headed by Dominic and his little girlfriend Nadia, Wei Ran got into the four-wheeled carriage with a canvas awning with his uninjured companions , let Derwent yell at the two draft horses, and rushed to the direction of the train station in the drifting fine snowflakes.

Almost before and after, several carriages and even cars picked up one or two injured friends as they passed by the farm, and took them away from the farm.

In the end, there were only Dominique and Nadia standing at the door supporting each other, and Dr. Walter and Mrs. Lena who stayed behind to take care of them.

"Will we meet them again?" Nadia asked with a hint of daze and helplessness.

"Yes, definitely." Dominic, who could only stand in a squatting posture for the time being, said firmly.

"Of course we will meet. We will be able to meet you two after your injuries are healed."

Mrs. Lena said softly, "Okay, two little guys, are you interested in visiting our house? I baked a lot of waffles before I came, and you must like them."

The young couple looked at each other, and finally nodded to Mrs. Lena together, agreeing to her invitation.

Just after the two of them, with the help of Walter and Lena, left the farm lying or lying down in a carriage, less than 5 minutes later, a Willys jeep full of American soldiers also drove into the farm. .

After smashing the door to no avail, the leading soldier directly pushed open the door which was not locked at all, then looked around as if entering his own home, took a piece of leftover bread from the morning and stuffed it in. mouth.

"There's no one here." While speaking, the soldier picked up an extra sausage and took a hard bite.

"Did those German rats hide in the gutter?"

A corporal who was still sitting in the car muttered cursingly, "Let's go, let's ask Dr. Walter, he might know something."

Under the greeting of this corporal, the rest of the American soldiers were like a group of bandits who robbed a house, or they were carrying a bottle of wine that they didn't know where to find, or they were carrying half a barrel of milk, or they simply hugged each other. A young lamb got into the jeep, stepped on the accelerator and drove away, completely oblivious to the messy ruts on the dirt road covered with a thin layer of snow at the gate of the farm.

At noon that day, under the leadership of a blonde girl who seemed to be in her early 20s, Wei Ran, who was completely a music idiot, boarded a car with a group of students in his name in the name of a music teacher. The train full of people, amidst the clanging noise and steam, slowly left the border and headed for Brussels.

After changing trains in Brussels, it took them more than an hour to take the slow train to Mons, which smelled of soot.

Led by the "senior tour guide" Wei Ran and the blonde girl who didn't introduce herself from beginning to end, everyone left the busy train station and took a long-awaited four-wheeled carriage to the direction outside the city.

It wasn't until the sun went down that the carriage stopped in front of a country house that looked very old.

"It seems to be here..."

The blond girl looked at the barbed wire fence around her and muttered indistinctly, reached out and pulled out a leather rope from the neckline, pulled out an old-fashioned key with body temperature and milk fragrance, and threw it to Wei Ran, "Here is Sophie's grandmother's house, here is the key to this house, which Sophie asked me to hand over to you.

In addition, she also asked me to tell you that the attic of this house is leaking, and she hopes that you can help repair it when you have time. "

Speaking of this, the blonde girl took out a German lunch box from her bag and handed it to Wei Ran, "And this, this is also her
Let me leave it to you. In addition, if you need to buy vegetables, you can go back along this road to the town to buy.Well, that's all for these things, bye. "

"Please wait a moment," Wei Ran, holding the key in one hand and the lunch box in the other, called out to him, "Excuse me..."

"G"

A letter full of deep meaning popped out of the blonde girl's mouth, which was a vague hint of her identity.

"Excuse me, do you know where Sophie and Qiqi are?" Wei Ran asked the question he really wanted to ask.

"They started off last night, and they might have already reached the opposite side by this time."

While the blonde girl was talking, the young man driving the carriage also took paper bags containing bread or sausages out of the carriage and handed them to the children who came with him, and before Wei Ran could ask any more questions, he yelled The draft horse turned back the way it came, and eventually disappeared from view.

It turns out that this key is used here...

Wei Ran muttered to himself, turned around and walked to the door of the building, and successfully opened the thick wooden door with the old-fashioned key in his hand.

When Uta and Boyi who came with them helped to open the green velvet curtains to let the sunset into the room, the children who came with them couldn't help but exclaimed "Wow——".

The layout and furniture in this room are nothing unusual, no matter the tables, chairs or the floor, there are traces of time accumulated.

But wherever he looked, no matter on the walls or on the door, there were oil paintings hanging one by one.Even, on the long dusty table, there are rolls of canvas, boxes of paints of various colors, and even several easels of different sizes and palettes stacked together waiting to be cleaned.

"These must have been painted by sister Sophie"

A little girl made a positive judgment, and followed, except for the two girls who were rescued halfway, the rest, including Wei Ran, nodded in agreement.

"Everyone, clean up here," Wei Ran said, reaching out and trying to pull a string on the side of the door.

With a soft "click", the chandelier on the roof of this room was also lit up.

Looking at the cheering children, Wei Ran smiled, turned and left the room, and walked around the house.

I have to admit that although this country house looks old, it has complete facilities. Not only is there a garden with a well on the side of the house, but there is also a stable at the back of the house. Although there are no horses in the stable, there is a park. four-wheeled carriage.

In addition, in the small shed next to the stable, there are still chopped firewood and coal covered with canvas.

After getting acquainted with the environment, Wei Ran sat on the agricultural four-wheeled carriage and opened the lunch box that the girl who seemed to be from the G Group had handed over to him just now.What he didn't expect was that there was a large roll of banknotes in the lunch box, as well as a group photo taken yesterday in Dominique and Nadia's ward!
Turn the group photo to the back, but only a group of deja vu numbers are written on it.

Radio channel? What did that girl say? The attic is leaking?
Wei Ran reacted immediately, fastened the lunch box, ran into the room quickly, and climbed the wooden stairs all the way to the top floor.

After some searching, he finally found a wooden ladder leading to the attic from an inconspicuous small room.

Climbing the ladder up to the attic, and passing through the piles of clutter and rubbish, he too smiled instantly as he lifted a dirty velvet cloth next to the chimney of the fireplace.

Under the velvet cloth is a set of rough and cracked wooden tables and chairs.But on this wooden table that Wei Ran looked very familiar with, there was a book of Aesop's fables, a BC1000 radio station of the US military, and a desk lamp.

Glancing at the antenna extending from the chimney of this radio station, Wei Ran skillfully found the switch after some hesitation and turned it on, and then adjusted the frequency to the channel written on the back of the photo.

However, in this extraordinarily quiet channel, except for a little noise, there is no sound at all.

any movement.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran turned and left the attic, and carefully filled the three-story country house around.

It can be seen that Sophie should have lived here for a long time, almost as long as she opens a room at random, she can see the picture frames randomly hung everywhere, as well as the various paints accidentally stained everywhere.

But at the same time, Wei Ran also noticed that in such a large house, the only real traces of life are the three bedrooms on the first floor.

One of the bedrooms was, of course, Sophie's room, as could be seen from the paint-stained clothes.

In the other room, there are bookshelves full of books. If you pick up a book at random, it was printed before World War I.

Not only that, but on the table by the window facing the garden, there is also a pair of reading glasses with a metal chain, and a navy blue lady's hat with white feathers. "What a noble..."

Wei Ran glanced at the inconspicuous iris engraving on the temples of his glasses, and left the room murmuring, and went into the only last bedroom on the first floor.

This bedroom can also see part of the garden, but there are glass vases of various shapes and colors in this room, as well as various ladies' clothing hanging in the closet.

These clothes include gorgeous dresses and long skirts, smart suits, and coarse cloth clothes that seem to be worn when doing rough work.
But what Wei Ran cares most about is an oil painting hanging on the wall.In this oil painting, there is a woman in a long skirt, holding a basket in one hand and gardening scissors in the other hand looking for in the garden.

There are already several flowers of different colors in the maroon basket hanging on the woman's arm.At her feet, there are still some cut off flower stems.

But the strange thing is, I don't know if it was intentional, but the facial expression of the woman in this oil painting is extremely blurred. It can even be said that her face is like a mosaic, and it is impossible to distinguish this woman What does it look like.

Taking a last look at the oil painting, Wei Ran left the room, found the girl named Boyi, and entrusted her with taking care of the rest of the children for dinner and cleaning up the room.

As for himself, he just took two pieces of bread and two sausages, returned to the attic again, and continued to listen to the radio station that was still working, hoping to hear some clues from this agreed channel. .

In the dusty attic, Wei Ran moved his chair to the position next to the chimney of the fireplace and sat down. Then he took out the flatbread oven in the metal book and put it on the table to light it. Water, and by the way, simply toasted the bread and sausages that were brought up.

Eating a simple but warm dinner, leaning against the chimney of the fireplace that was getting warmer and warmer, Wei Ran focused all his attention on the earphones connected to the radio.

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