War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1774 28 Star Cafe

Wei Ran naturally didn't know nor did he care how Teacher Ge introduced himself to Yu Jinjiang in the stairwell of the inpatient building. After all, he was just "the chief prostitute of the Soviet Union".

He went downstairs carrying his long horsehair bag, but did not return to the hotel in the misty winter rain that had begun at some point. Instead, he took an online taxi to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

The address here was naturally provided by the metal notebook. Following the address, Wei Ran successfully found several tombstones next to each other.

Here is the joint tomb of "Yu Shi Chuncai" and Yu Yanlin, and naturally there are also tombstones of Huang Youze and Ke Laimin.

The former joint tomb was undoubtedly a cenotaph for Yu Yanlin. Although the tombstones of the latter two were replaced with new ones, the inscriptions engraved on them remained unchanged.

"Yu Yanlin is going home"

Wei Ran placed the three bouquets of flowers he had bought on the way next to the three tombstones, then sat next to Clermont's tombstone, took out a coffee pot and a coffee powder can from his horsehair leather bag, then lit the alcohol lamp that came with the coffee pot and brewed a pot of coffee.

"Wait until Yanlin is brought back, Clemont. I will take you back then and find a way to bury you and Amani together."

Wei Ran said to himself, "Comrade Huang Youze, I guess you will have to go to the Martyrs' Cemetery by then.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take a photo of you. Now I can only hope that Clermont or Armani took the photo of you. "

After saying this, Wei Ran wiped off the coffee powder that was accidentally stained on his hands, took out the harmonica, leaned it against Clermont's tombstone, and played the Internationale again among the green pines and cypresses.

When the song ended, the coffee pot also brewed two cups of fragrant coffee.

He placed the two cups of coffee in front of the tombstones of Clement and Huang Youze respectively, then carefully replaced the coffee powder with new one, added water and started the extraction.

But this time, when he picked up the harmonica again, the song he played was "Farewell".

However, he had no idea whether he was bidding farewell to Clermont who was about to leave China, or Huang Youze who was about to leave this cemetery. Or perhaps, he was bidding farewell to the China that was suffering from the invasion at that time.

When the song ended again, he placed the two cups of coffee he had just made in front of the tomb where Chuncai and Yu Yanlin, whom he had never met before, were buried together.

"Yanlin said he wanted you to taste this bitter medicine soup from the foreigners"

Wei Ran said as he packed up the coffee pot, "He also said he wanted to take you to Antarctica and study abroad. If this is not a materialistic world, then come back if you know what's going on in your afterlife."

If you are born in China in this era, you can go to various countries to study abroad. No one dares to look down on us, and no one dares to invade us. Even if you want to go to Antarctica to see penguins, you have the opportunity.

I guess I won’t be able to eat penguin paws anymore, as it’s illegal to eat that crap now. But it’s okay, it’s smelly and rotten and doesn’t taste good at all.

To be honest, I can't get used to this coffee. It's too bitter without sugar or milk.

Those of you who have endured the bitter sea should drink more sweet things, either with sugar or honey, or with more milk, so that it tastes better. "

At this point, Wei Ran patted his forehead in regret, "I was in a hurry too. I should have bought you each a cup of milk tea on the way here."

But after saying this, Wei Ran fell silent again. Finally, he picked up cup after cup of coffee and poured them next to the tombstones. Finally, he put away the pile of eggshell cups and put them in his bag. Finally, he patted the three tombstones, turned around and left.

Without waiting to leave the cemetery, he called Sui Sui.

"We're about to leave." As soon as the call was connected, Sui Sui's voice came over, "Why are you up so early?"

"Sorry, Sui Sui"

"Are you going out?"

Sui Sui had already guessed most of it before Wei Ran finished speaking, "Let me think about it. Going to Spain?"

"right"

Wei Ran said apologetically, "I may have found that Yu Yanlin. He should be in Spain. I want to pick him up. The New Year is coming soon. I want to bring him back to celebrate the New Year."

"When do we leave?" Sui Sui asked simply.

“I haven’t checked the flight yet.”

"Card girl"

On the other end of the phone, Sui Sui's voice shifted and changed to Russian, "The fastest flight from Shanghai to Spain."

"Where in Spain?" Anfisa asked.

Barcelona

Wei Ran smiled and said, if there is anyone in this world who would immediately help him prepare a lighter even if he wanted to blow up the earth, it must be Sui Sui.

"There's a direct flight to Madrid at midnight"

Anfisa, who had guessed last night that her boss would go to Barcelona, ​​immediately said, "The arrival time is about the same as if we depart now and transfer, but the direct flight only takes 14 hours, and after arriving in Madrid, we can immediately take a branch line to Barcelona."

"In that case, you should come pick us up!"

Sui Sui switched back to Chinese and said, "How about I go with you then?"

"Okay," Wei Ran agreed to the other party's proposal. "Then it's settled!"

Sui Sui on the other end of the phone said excitedly, "When I get there, tell me what you found out."

"it is good"

Wei Ran agreed again, but at the same time he couldn't help but look back at the joint tomb behind him.

He couldn't help but wonder, if there had been no war, would Yu Yanlin and his Chuncai have gotten along like he and Sui Sui did.

After hanging up the call with Sui Sui, Wei Ran took an online taxi back to the hotel and rented an Iveco with plenty of seats.

That afternoon, Wei Ran, who was woken up by spam messages, logged into his mailbox and learned some basic information from the emails sent by the Hela girls.

First of all, the contact person "Hanika Rios" with an address in Barcelona provided by Metal Book is indeed the child born after the two children they rescued during the war formed a family.

The news was mixed. The shop owner's mother, Estelle, was still alive, but her father, the little boy who probably remembered everything that happened at the time, had passed away several years ago.

On the other hand, this cafe in Barcelona was opened by the little boy and the little girl after they started a family.

From the actual photos taken in the store sent back by Miss Hela, it can be clearly seen that there are many collectibles related to the Spanish International Brigade in this cafe.

In fact, in one of the photos, he could clearly see the silver-skinned hammer-patterned jar painted with three colors of paint!

He could almost confirm just by looking at the photo that it was Yu Yanlin's ashes!

This was undoubtedly good news, but it also made him more eager to get there as soon as possible.

Perhaps because of this, when he was driving the rented car to pick up Sui Sui and others, he didn't even remember that there was a couple named Aniya and Daofeng staying in the same hotel with him.

Just like he forgot that Aniya and Dao Feng were staying in the same hotel with him, Wei Ran also forgot that Xia Shushi and Qin Qi also came on the same day.

For the same reason, after picking up the girls, he drove back to the hotel without wasting any time.

Leaving the girls to check in at the front desk by themselves, Wei Ran took Su Su and her not-so-much luggage back to the room first.

"What did you find out?" After kicking off her shoes, Sui Sui habitually hung on Wei Ran and asked.

"Two notebooks and three negative albums were found"

As Wei Ran spoke, he took out the film album and notebook that he had prepared in advance, hugged the girl in his arms and told her about the forgotten history that he had "investigated".

Late that night, the two men took the Kajianka sisters on a late-night flight to Madrid, thousands of kilometers away.

When the long and tiring journey was over, when Wei Ran brought the three girls to the transit lounge, he immediately saw the Spanish wrestler Miguel and his translator who had been waiting there in advance.

"Long time no see, my Chinese friend!"

The burly Miguel greeted Wei Ran enthusiastically in Spanish and shook hands with him, and the woman in formal wear standing next to him immediately helped translate into Russian.

"Long time no see, Mr. Miguel. I'm sorry to trouble you." Wei Ran said politely in Russian.

The reason why Miguel came to pick him up was naturally because he received a call from Wei Ran, and Wei Ran felt at ease asking the other party for help. This guy had reached a lot of business cooperation with Greva, and he could be considered one of his own.

On the other hand, he also believed that taking this friend to Barcelona would make many things much simpler.

"You don't have to be so polite, Mr. Victor," Miguel said, "I will personally accompany you to Barcelona!"

With this person's promise, the next things naturally became much simpler. After a short wait and flight, at 10:30 in the morning, they arrived at the door of the cafe in a car driven by Miguel himself.

"28...uh, the red triangle cafe?"

As Miguel stopped the car, he recited the name on the sign at the entrance of the cafe in Spanish, and then muttered, "What kind of weird name is that?"

"It seems that someone still remembers your story."

Wei Ran, who was also staring at the sign, muttered to himself.

In addition to the constantly flashing number "28" on the three-color neon sign of this cafe, there is also a constantly flashing red triangular star.

In addition to the strange sign, they also vaguely heard music and singing coming from the cafe.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if it was always the same, but it was the Internationale with harmonica accompaniment.

The song contained German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, English and even Chinese.

The singing included both male and female voices, old and young voices, and even children's voices - just like it was back then.

"What's the name of this cafe?" Sui Sui asked curiously in her native language.

“28 Stars Cafe”

Wei Ran smiled and said, "It must be called this name."