War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1759 Let’s see who lives longer

"When did you learn to play the harmonica?"

In the truck cab, Wei Ran asked while slowing down the speed of the truck.

“What Chuncai taught me”

After playing the farewell piece, Yu Yanlin smiled and explained, "She knows a lot of songs, but I only learned a few."

At this point, Yu Yanlin put away his harmonica and said, "Fortunately, Clemont is still alive. What a pity, Aaron!"

"Sit tight and squat down."

Wei Ran sighed, "We are about to enter the battlefield."

"In case you die in battle, is there anything you need me to bring back for you?" Yu Yanlin asked abruptly while crouching down.

"It's enough to bring the faith back," said Wei Ran, stepping on the accelerator to the bottom and turning off the headlights.

In the dim sky, the truck loaded with medicines and medical staff turned at the intersection and rushed into the university town where bullets were flying.

Amid the not-too-intensive sounds of gunfire, Wei Ran lowered his body slightly, ignoring the sound of bullets penetrating the door panel, wetting the blanket and door panel, and then embedding into the door panel on the other side. He tried to drive the car along the street avoiding all obstructions and obstacles.

Finally, with the cover of daylight, he managed to drive the car back to the original neighborhood in the dark, and finally parked it in the street shop where he started.

"Are you OK?"

Without waiting for the car to stop, Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin asked each other the same question in unison. Fortunately, both of their voices were powerful.

"I'm fine," they both said the same answer at the same time, then pushed open the car door and ran to the rear of the car.

Fortunately, since there were not many people following, these medical staff could basically lie flat in the cargo box, relying on the two thin layers of sandbags stacked on both sides as cover.

Considering the weather and the speed of the car, no one was injured, which is undoubtedly good news.

"Where's Maria?"

Just at this moment, Mr. Francisco, the philosophy teacher, ran over with a gun in his hand and asked worriedly in French.

"She" Yu Yanlin looked at Wei Ran beside him for help.

'She was killed in action'

Wei Ran sighed and took over the job he disliked the most. "We didn't push her down. We took her to the field hospital. Someone will be responsible for burying her."

Francisco was stunned for a moment, stretched out his hand and hastily made the sign of the cross on his chest, walked to the back of the car, picked up a box of medicine and asked, "Where is your friend?"

"He also died in battle," Yu Yanlin said, "on his way out of the battlefield."

"Feel sorry"

Francisco carried the medicine and walked to the next corridor while saying guiltily, "I'm sorry, you lost your friends because of Spain."

“Don’t apologize for this.”

Yu Yanlin, who was also holding a box of medicine, changed the subject, "Where is Joseph? Where is he?"

"He is busy performing surgery," Francisco said, "Let me take you to find a place to rest. When he is done, I will let him come to see you."

"Okay," Wei Ran responded before Yu Yanlin.

After Francisco placed the medicines in his hand against the wall, the two of them went down to the second floor under his guidance.

The corridor on this floor was more like a ward, with a long row of simple beds or mats on the floor lined up against the walls on both sides of the corridor. The wounded were either lying on them or sitting together, resting or chatting in low voices.

Fortunately, thanks to the thick blankets that blocked both sides of the corridor and the oil lamps placed everywhere, the corridor was still relatively warm.

"Come here"

Francisco pushed open the door of a room and said, "Joseph usually lives here. He will come up when he is done with his work. You should take a rest first. I will get you some food."

After saying that, Francisco turned and left the not-so-big room, leaving behind only an oil lamp and an old figure who seemed to be wiping his eyes.

"Hold on"

As Wei Ran spoke, he sat down on a chair beside the table at the entrance, looking around the small room.

This room may have been just a storage room before. There are no windows in the room, but there are many pipes in the corners.

In the remaining space, the only furniture was a table, a chair, a single bed, and a kerosene lamp.

The only decoration in this room is a slogan written in white paint on the wall where the window should be - "Fight for your freedom and our freedom!"

“I didn’t expect we were so close.”

Yu Yanlin said as he sat down on the narrow single bed, "I didn't expect that we would kill Aaron right after we met him."

"You said this wrongly"

As Wei Ran spoke, he took out all the things that Clemont had stuffed into his backpack. Things were rushed at the time, and Clemont probably didn't think much about it, so the things he stuffed in included not only the coffee pot and oil bottle, but even his small kerosene lamp and a pack of matches.

"What's wrong?" Yu Yanlin asked.

"We didn't kill Aaron. He was ready to sacrifice himself here before he came here."

As Wei Ran spoke, he unscrewed the silver coffee can with beautiful hammer patterns, scooped some coffee powder with a small silver spoon poked inside and put it into the coffee pot. Then, using the cover of the backpack, he took out the kettle, unscrewed the lid, took out the pendant stuck in the mouth of the kettle, and returned it to Yu Yanlin, then poured some water into the coffee pot.

After closing the lid and lighting the alcohol lamp that heated the coffee pot, Wei Ran carefully placed the eggshell cup and continued, "Everyone, including me, you, Joseph, and anyone who died before.

We are all prepared to sacrifice here and also prepared to not be able to return to our families.

By contrast, if I have to die here, it would be a good thing to have the chance to die next to my friends."

"makes sense"

Yu Yanlin smiled carefreely, took a deep breath and said, "I'm starting to get used to the taste of this Western medicine soup. If I can go back alive in the future, I have to let Chuncai taste this."

“You’re starting to look like a veteran.”

Wei Ran picked up the pack of cigarettes, took out two and gave them to the other party, then he held the cigarette in his mouth and lowered his head to light a fire with the alcohol lamp under the coffee pot.

“Just a few days, actually.”

Yu Yanlin also lit up his cigarette and took a puff. "We came on the 8th, and this is only the 19th."

"It's not easy to survive these 10 days"

Wei Ran sighed and said, this is a battlefield, not a training ground. 10 days are enough to turn any rookie into an experienced veteran.

Can't become? If I can't become a veteran, can I still become a corpse?

"yes."

Yu Yanlin sighed, "At the beginning, I counted how many people I knew had died around me."

"How many died?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

"I can't remember, I can't remember it for a long time."

Yu Yanlin shook his head. "I stopped counting after I counted more than seventy. It was too difficult. Those who were alive yesterday turned into a pile of rotten meat today. You still have to count them with your fingers. There are not even names, just numbers. It's too difficult."

“It’s really difficult”

Wei Ran sighed. Although he did not spend the entire ten days, he knew that what Yu Yanlin said was true.

Not to mention anything else, the positional warfare on the 9th alone caused more than one-third of the casualties of the International Brigade, which is enough to explain a lot.

"I can hardly remember the name of the person who died next to me at the beginning," Yu Yanlin sighed, "This postman's job is really not a human job. The person who came to you to drop off a letter today may not be there when you deliver the letter tomorrow. You can't even find his body. Sigh!"

"Tell me about you and Chuncai."

Wei Ran eagerly changed the topic to one that was less depressing, "Anything is fine, let's talk about something happy."

“I’m happy.”

Yu Yanlin thought about it and couldn't help but smile, "Chun Cai has always wanted to be a teacher."

"Be a teacher?" Wei Ran asked curiously, "What kind of teacher?"

"Teacher of the Foundling Home"

Yu Yanlin smiled and said, "She has always wanted to set up an orphanage in the future to adopt abandoned babies, educate them, and even send them abroad to study."

"How many years did she study?" Wei Ran asked.

"Before I went abroad, she studied for the same number of years as I did."

Yu Yanlin said, "When I was a child, I went to school and taught her when I came back. Later, my father saw that she was smart and sent her to school as well. She did much better than me in her studies.

My father always said, it's a pity that she is a girl, if she was a boy, she would definitely become a great scholar in the future."

Wei Ran said, "Women can also do great things."

"My daughter Chuncai's favorite is the poetess Lü Bicheng," Yu Yanlin said with a smile, "She is very ambitious."

At this point, Yu Yanlin, who was originally smiling, sighed again, took a long puff of cigarette in annoyance and let out a long sigh, "I don't know if she is already on the ship to Germany or France."

"Do you want to go back to find her?" Wei Ran asked suddenly.

"What did you say?" Yu Yanlin couldn't help but be in a trance for a moment. His heart was moved. Wei Ran was 800% sure of it.

"I said, are you going to go find her?"

Wei Ran ignored the increasingly unbearable burning sensation at the base of his left hand and said again in a normal tone, "Go back to Germany or France to see if she has arrived. If she hasn't arrived, you wait there. If she has, come here together.

Anyway, the battle here won't end anytime soon, so it makes sense for you to go pick someone up, and if you pick her up early, maybe she can help."

"What's wrong with you?" Yu Yanlin glanced at Wei Ran.

"It's okay. I got burned by the coffee pot." Wei Ran waved his hand, secretly clenched his fist and continued to ask, "How is it? Are you going?"

"Forget it. I'm not going."

Yu Yanlin shook his head and took a deep breath. "There are more important things to do here. People die here every day. Let's do more and kill more Faxusi. When she finds this place, there will be less danger."

"Actually you"

Before Wei Ran could finish his words, the half-closed door was opened from the outside, and Joseph, still smelling of disinfectant and blood, walked in.

"Great, you're all still alive!"

Joseph was visibly relieved, and then asked, "Where is your American friend? And Ma?"

"I'm sorry, they..." Wei Ran paused, "They all failed to survive."

Hearing this, Joseph was stunned for a moment, then he breathed a sigh of relief, "At least you survived."

“We didn’t abandon them”

Wei Ran said subconsciously, "We took them to the field hospital and met our friend, who will bury them."

"no problem, no problem."

Joseph waved his hands in a panic, "It's okay, I don't blame you. This is not your fault."

“Let’s have coffee”

Wei Ran changed the subject, "This was brought to us by an Italian friend of ours. Maybe it can help you."

As he spoke, Wei Ran handed the other person a small cup of coffee.

"Thank you"

Joseph took the not-so-big eggshell cup and said, "I mean, thank you for the gift from your friends."

"Try it," Wei Ran said, picking up the second cup and handing it to Yu Yanlin, then he picked up the third cup himself.

In silence, the three of them sipped their Italian coffee, which they should have drunk in one gulp. They didn't know what to say for a moment. The room was so quiet that they could clearly hear the conversations of the wounded in the corridor outside, as well as the occasional sounds of gunfire outside the building.

Finally, the three of them drank all the coffee in their cups. Joseph put down his cup and asked, "What are your plans next?"

“We are postmen”

Yu Yanlin also put down the cup and said, "We are going to go back and do the work we should do."

"A postman's job?" Joseph asked.

"Yes, the job of a postman." Yu Yanlin nodded seriously.

"Wait a mininute"

Joseph said, and he stood up and walked to the bed. He lifted the blanket on the bed, took out a letter from it and handed it to him. "This is the letter I'm going to send. Please keep it for me."

Almost at the same time when Yu Yanlin took the letter, Joseph said, "I don't know if we will have the chance to meet again, so there is no need to rush to send this letter."

Hearing this, Yu Yanlin trembled, "Then when should I..."

"Wait until you hear the news that I've been killed before sending it out."

Joseph continued calmly in his not very fluent French, "I don't know when or where I will die, so please keep it for me first."

After a brief hesitation, Yu Yanlin stuffed the letter into his arms and asked, "What if I die before you?"

"If I were still alive at that time, I would find another postman."

Joseph unscrewed the fuel pot that came with the coffee pot and sniffed it. Seeing that it was alcohol, he immediately tilted his head back and took a sip. Then he sniffed his elbow and said, "If I am dead by then, at least I have delivered the letter."

"Then let's see who lives longer," Yu Yanlin said, extending his hand to the other party.

"Then let's have a competition," Joseph said with a laugh, "I hope none of you will appear on the operating table I'm in charge of. My skills are not that great."

"I also hope that you can go home by yourself and tell the recipient what you want to say in person." Yu Yanlin also sent his blessings.

"Are you ready to leave now?" Joseph asked. "I heard you were back, so I came to see you, but there are still wounded waiting for me downstairs."

"Yes." While Yu Yanlin was speaking, Wei Ran also stood up.

"I hope we can meet again after the war is over," Joseph said finally.

"We will meet"

Wei Ran followed and walked out of the room. At the same time, Joseph also hurried downstairs ahead of them.

"Where are we going next?" Wei Ran asked as he walked downstairs.

"Let's go to the front-line hospital we visited before. The post office I'm in charge of is right next to it."

Yu Yanlin said, loading the submachine gun in his hand with bullets, "I hope they are all still here."

"them."

Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, and sighed in the rising white light, "They must still be there."