War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 960 Bitter Candy

Under the harsh beam of the flashlight, the dust stirred up by the explosion formed sparkling reflections in the line of sight.

Under the dust, at the corner of the triangular space that had been closed for more than 20 years, sat quietly a withered corpse whose hands were tied behind the back with wire and whose mouth was stuffed with a rag until death.

The corpse was wearing an American-style camouflage uniform that looked a little outdated today, and one of his legs was also pressed under the floor.

The moment he saw the corpse, Karp gasped for breath, but Wei Ran, who was standing behind him, knew that the corpse was not a member of the team back then, but was caught by them at that time. Value, the captive who should have been brought back for detailed interrogation!
Using the location of the corpse, Wei Ran deduced where the Deathstroke team members were trapped after determining the location based on memory.

Bending down and squatting at the breach, Wei Ran stretched out his hand to touch the dust accumulated on the ground, and then looked at the collapsed floor.Fortunately, the inside is dry enough, which is rare good news.

"Shall we dig here next?"

Karp, who was standing at the blasted damage, asked extraordinarily calmly—even though he knew exactly what to do next.

"wait first"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already walked to a shelf in the distance, and took out the wire cutters from the metal book under the cover of the remaining boxes on it.

"It's gone, it's gone a long time ago." Karp sighed with regret, but also with inexplicable joy.

"What about you?"

"Your brother?"

"She can speak?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

After finishing speaking, she ignored Dalia's opening, picked up the big-eared fox wearing a blue triangle scarf, got up and urged Wei Ran to go outside the library.

"Where are you going?" Anna closed the book and waved to the young genius Kolawa not far away.

Wei Ran spread his hands, "If Teacher Anna has time, it's best to come with me."

"Hey, put this book away for me."

Karp opened the tin jar while speaking, took out a candy produced by Kaban Lake Candy Company, tore off the plastic candy wrapper, and stuffed it with the sweetness that had expired for too long but came from home in his memory. mouth.

Seeing this, Dalia opened her mouth, and finally got up and followed out.

Karp paused, and said with emotion, "Gorman also grew up in that orphanage. I remember when I was a child, every festival, my parents would take me and my brother with us. Visiting children in orphanages with candies from my family’s candy company.”

Glancing at Wei Ran, who had only his calves outside, Karp opened his mouth, but was willing to be ordered by Wei Ran, put on a mask and dust-proof glasses, and crawled towards the curled up corpse.

"Victor, we."

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, the little girl who always had a smile on her face also rode a tricycle and parked beside the table, speaking very slowly, a greeting in Russian that was considered very good for her , "What do you need Korava to do?"

Wei Ran stood up, handed the dusty Walkman and the revolver to Karp, then took out his cell phone, called out the photo he just took, and handed it to Karp, "There is still room on the floor inside." There are two sentences like this, judging from the traces, it should be written in blood."

"I had already anticipated this situation. There is indeed a space supported by the collapsed floor."

"Is that person still alive?" Wei Ran asked with a frown.

"You haven't seen Dahlia when she was young. She and Anna have another girl. She is almost the most beautiful among all the female students, but she is the first one to get married and get pregnant."

"Taras, Taras Karp"

Karp gently pulled out the dagger from the corpse's leg and put it in the box, and then took out a tin jar full of candy from his bag, "The reason why she became friends with me is because of the opportunity to meet My brother, Anna told me this herself."

"There are still a few mummies inside." Wei Ran said, before Karp opened his mouth, he turned his head and burrowed in again.

"What's the matter?" Dahlia looked at Wei Ran with a smile, and asked in a gentle tone.

Look at Darya again, she is also holding a cup of coffee, and even curled up obediently on the chair beside her with a big-eared fox tied with a blue triangle scarf.

After a few clicks and clicks, he trimmed the steel bars around the blast hole. He turned around and picked up a pre-prepared electric drill from the table, and straddled his shoulders with a bulging canvas bag.

"This is the last thing I found"

"Maya's current parents"

Wei Ran had already connected the earphones to the Walkman while speaking. Seeing this, Anna immediately greeted Daria to sit on the old double sofa.

While speaking, Wei Ran cleared a wooden box from the shelf and handed it to the other party, "In the past few years, whether it is Mr. Gorman, you, or Kirov's veteran Leva, they have mentioned some and Something about Daria, something about that war."

"Enough, enough, don't continue the investigation."

He opened the canvas bag and took out a piece of plastic explosives. He was tearing off a small piece with his hands, kneading it into a bun the size of a beer bottle cap, wrapping the detonator and stuffing it into the hole he just punched. Then he stepped back, On one side is the detonating wire.

"Can"

"We are 5 years apart"

Wei Ran paused at this point, and asked tentatively, "Do you need me to buy some batteries? Or buy a tape recorder that can play tapes?"

Finally, he put away the food box and took down the revolver. Like a big dung beetle, he retreated a little bit with difficulty in this narrow space, and finally let Karp pull his legs to hold him back. Pulled out.

Karp sighed, put the dirty Walkman into his pocket, sighed, walked to Captain Karp's body and squatted down, and introduced to himself, "This is my brother Si Jaypan Karp, the captain of the squad, and Darya's husband. That poor woman spent the rest of her life looking for his shadow."

After thinking about it, he simply drove away from Hongqi Forest Farm to the shore of Kaban Lake, and then to the courtyard of the library next door.

Karp didn't give Wei Ran a chance to speak at all. He reached out from his pocket and took out the Walkman that Wei Ran had just given him and handed it over, and then picked up the tin jar that still contained a lot of candy and handed it over, "As soon as possible Hurry back to Kazan, give this Walkman, the tape inside, and this can of candy to Darya, and leave the matter here to me."

Glancing at Anna, Dalia finally sighed, followed Wei Ran silently, and walked all the way to the two leftmost rooms on the third floor.

"Tom!"

As soon as he said this, Karp, who had rarely shown a trace of humanity just now, immediately became incomparably indifferent and serious, "Victor, this is the end of this matter. You can find them, all of us People are grateful to you, this result is enough for us."

The little girl said something vaguely, got out of the car and straightened the book in the cargo compartment, then got on the car and sat down, stepped on the pedals and rode straight to a bookshelf in the distance.

Before Wei Ran got out of the car, he kneaded his still sore right arm and muttered something in a godly manner. After doing a lot of mental construction, he took a deep breath, opened the car door and walked into the coffee room, which was echoing with the sound of coffee. In the library of fragrance and Chinese classical piano music.

"or"

After a short pause, Karp smiled, and said softly with a trace of nostalgia for the past and nostalgia for the good, "My brother has captured many people, including spies from various forces and traitorous Soviets. From the time he became the captain of the capture team until he disappeared, he never failed."

"Oh..." Wei Ran sighed silently, reached out and took the jug and put it in his pocket.

Just as Karp pulled the mummy out, Wei Ran, who followed him, immediately pressed the detonator.

"I just checked it. There is no battery in it. It should have been removed in advance. I guess it may be for a longer storage time."

"Teacher Dalia must admire him very much, right?" Wei Ran said softly.

Amidst the sound of the fan running, Wei Ran bent down and got into the blasted hole, and said loudly while crawling towards the end where there was no corpse, "There may be space on the other three sides, and there may be space inside." If you find anything, if you want to help, how about taking out the corpse? There may be some clues on him."

"Something." Wei Ran scratched the back of his head, "How about we talk in another place?"

Ignoring Lola who was looking at him on tiptoe and waving wildly, Wei Ran went straight to the two teachers who occupied a large exclusive table.

"I don't know." Karp shook his head, "It's dangerous because I don't know."

"Two of us or three of us?" Dalia looked at Wei Ran suspiciously.

After carefully clearing the gravel and steel bars blocking the road, as well as the gas masks that could be seen everywhere, he finally saw a mummy after struggling to remove a piece of concrete fragments!
It's Feshank!

"Mr. Southland and his wife were former tutors and nurses at the orphanage"

After the two teachers each took over an old-fashioned earphone, Wei Ran pressed the play button.

"Yeah, we've known each other for a long time."

Wei Ran had already put on a mask, dust-proof glasses, and a headlamp while speaking, and then moved the large industrial electric fan that was also prepared in advance and placed it less than two meters away from the blast hole and turned on the switch.

"So you've known each other for a long time?"

Hearing this, Anna walked into the room first, sat on a sofa familiarly, and said inexplicably, "You really look like an accountant."

While helping the mummy carefully clean the dust off his body, the handsome old man muttered to himself and answered Wei Ran's question, "You don't seem surprised that the person you found has something to do with us?"

"Is that orphanage still there?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

Karp put the revolver aside casually, squinted his eyes to look at the photos on the screen, and at the same time pressed the buttons on the Walkman repeatedly.

"next door"

"Teacher Dalia, choose one of the two rooms." Wei Ran said gently.

"yes"

Karp carefully put the relics from his brother's body into the box while explaining, "I graduated from the same school as he, Dahlia and Anna, and then entered the same school. The same department. It’s just that when the few of us entered that department, he was already the captain of the capture team of that department.”

"Leave it to Korava!"

"He's Maya's dad"

"Sit..." Teacher Anna picked up the coffee and took a sip while speaking, but from the beginning to the end, her eyes never left the book "Young Guard" with yellowed pages in her hand.

Anna finally picked up the coffee and drank it down, "Let's go and see what Victor has to say."

"Listen to a song first"

After a short pause, Wei Ran handed over a second wooden box, "I just didn't expect that Teacher Dalia's husband turned out to be your brother."

Karp said to himself, "Maya's mother was a well-known singer in the Soviet era. Unfortunately, that woman sent Maya to an orphanage shortly after giving birth, and then went to the United States by herself. At that time, It has been less than half a year since they disappeared."

After another slight explosion, there was also a sputtering sound from inside. Wei Ran didn't wait for the smoke to be blown away by the fan, so he took the wire cutters and got into the smoke again.

"Come up with me first." Wei Ran interrupted Teacher Dalia's question, and at the same time walked towards the stairs leading upstairs without stopping.

After taking the jug and unscrewing the lid and taking a sip, Karp returned the jug to Wei Ran, shook his head after a little hesitation, and replied vaguely, "I don't have any other family members."

Although the flying dust obscured his vision due to the blowing of the electric fan, for Wei Ran who climbed in first, it was better than fainting due to lack of oxygen.

"Who is the 'he' mentioned in that sentence that betrayed everyone?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.

Speaking of this, Karp chewed the candy in his mouth and swallowed it, and said with pity, "She is also the most unfortunate one."

Regardless of Karp behind him, he crawled to the end of the gap little by little, aimed the electric drill at the collapsed floor that blocked the road in front of him, and carefully made small conical holes that were not too deep. hole.

Gently putting a pack of tissue paper bought in advance in Daria's hand, Wei Ran opened the rusty tin can, took out three hard fruit candies that had long expired, and distributed two of them to two teachers.

"She has learned a lot, she just doesn't like to talk about it."

Karp said ramblingly, "Become good friends first, then become classmates who study together, brothers who trust each other, and finally together with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, we became the ghost we are now."

"What did you say?"

While Anna was speaking, she first took out a toffee from her pocket, peeled off the candy wrapper and stuffed it gently into Korava's little mouth, then picked up the "Young Guard" and showed her , and then put it into the cargo box of the three-wheeled children's bicycle.

Taking a deep breath, Dalia stretched out her hand and pushed open the leftmost door, and said in a trembling tone, "Come in and sit down."

Seeing this, Wei Ran silently took out the slightly rusty tin can from the bag, but it was printed with the words "Kaban Lake Candy Company Multi-flavor Fruit Hard Candy" in Russian and put it on the table, and then took it out of the bag Ri pulled out the Walkman that had been wiped clean and batteries installed on the road.

Wei Ran was silent for a moment, but took a deep breath, and asked a seemingly unrelated question that connected the two brothers with blood, "What about you? What's your name?"

"When I found out that the extrajudicial mercenary Athol came to Grozny in 94, I probably guessed that the content of the final investigation might be related to you."

"Click! Click!"

"no need"

He took out his mobile phone and adjusted the flash to the constant light mode to take a picture of the two paragraphs of French above. Wei Ran glanced behind his eyes, hesitated for a while, and took out the food box as quickly as possible under the cover of his body. He took out the Walkman from the food box, which had already disconnected the battery, and then grabbed a handful of dust and smeared it all over.

"Okay, you should get out of here."

"The work of delivering letters is really exhausting"

Dalia didn't respond, she just sat behind the desk as a matter of course.

Karp walked to the side of the second mummy, and said while helping to collect the remnants of the corpse, "He is also Maya's father."

Karp became more and more serious, even stopped what he was doing and stood up, "Knowing too much is not a good thing, it will only bring trouble and danger to you, your family and friends."

Soon, the mummified corpses of Demoman Rezli, Machine Gunner Serge, Ammunition Soldier Agni, Ruslan's Deputy Captain, and the innermost Captain Karp, together with their weapons and relics, were sent by Wei Ran one by one. out.

In the blink of an eye, the next afternoon, Wei Ran's flight also landed at Kazan Airport a little rough.

"It's not too late"

Wei Ran recognized the other party at a glance, and at the same time noticed the notebook beside him that was lit but not burned out.

"It's Brother Lezli's voice!" Anna exclaimed, but Daria had already covered her mouth, and a series of tears fell uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes.

Hearing this, Wei Ran opened his mouth, and finally took the Walkman that he gave away not long ago, and crawled along the secret road back to the alley that was still blocked by police cars, leaving the car keys, hands Putting pockets on and walking towards the direction of the hotel.

Leading the two teachers through the electromagnetic gate between the two courtyards, Wei Ran led them into the hall on the first floor of the villa without stopping.

"Listen to me honey don't wait for me if you can hear this recording"

"What are you going to do?" Darya asked with a little panic.

However, contrary to his expectations, when he finally found a familiar and beautiful senior in the office of Time Film Studio and asked about it, he was told that whether it was Gorman, Anna or Daria Not even there.

Daria said regretfully, "If she had been educated carefully since she was born, she wouldn't be much different from ordinary people."

This back and forth did not even run out for a week, and now not only are there two days left before June, but she has already accepted the invitation of the little rich woman Koko, and Sui Sui, who took the Katenka sisters to France to play, is still waiting. Didn't come back yet.

Taking this opportunity, he also discovered that there were no walkmans and tapes on their bodies, but on the collapsed floor at the end, there were still black French writings left by the two captains with blood.

While Wei Ran was speaking, under the cover of his coat, he took out the portable flagon in the metal book and handed it to Karp, "Aren't you married?"

This time, before he even had time to get out of the car, he saw Dalia and Teacher Anna sitting in the exclusive seats facing the gate.

After thinking about it at the airport, Wei Ran simply drove an armored commercial vehicle to the Hongqi Forest Farm not far away.

Taking off the headlamp and looking behind him, Wei Ran groped Feschenk's body as quickly as possible, and then carefully carried the light mummy, and retreated little by little, together with his weapon and a few The remains, as well as the unburned notebook, were handed over to Mr. Karp who was examining the corpse.

"This is Ruslan, my brother's best friend."

And on a protruding steel bar next to the two lines of writing, there is also a Colt 6-inch Python revolver with a finger-grooved walnut grip.

Leaving the room without making a sound, almost at the same time as he closed the door, Teacher Dalia's mournful cry could be faintly heard in this room deliberately reserved for certain people.

"This is also the death knell."

While Wei Ran was raving, he tore off the candy wrapper and stuffed the expired and deformed hard candy into his mouth.

It's a pity that this once incomparably sweet candy, now there is only unswallowable bitterness left.

(End of this chapter)