War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1998 Going to the Other Side, Unexpected Old Friends

When the white light faded again, the first thing Wei Ran felt was the bone-chilling cold, the howling wind, and the continuous but soothing swaying beneath him.

Before he could even get a clear look at his surroundings, he was already certain that he had probably returned to the snowy forest.

I don't know when it happened, or how they are doing now.
Before the white light completely dissipated, Wei Ran also put aside his worries about other Anti-Japanese Allied Forces comrades and focused his attention on the present.

Sure enough, as his vision gradually cleared, the first thing he noticed was that he was sitting on a horse-drawn sleigh.

At the very front of the sled sat a man almost entirely wrapped in animal skin.

But instead of being curious about who the driver was, his attention was immediately drawn to the man lying between him and the driver.

Gently lifting the animal skin blanket covering the man and pushing his dog fur up, Wei Ran discovered that he didn't recognize the man at all.

Is Liu Paotou still alive?

Just then, the driver in front asked loudly in the cold wind.

It's Dong Weixin!

Wei Ran immediately recognized the other person's voice.

Realizing what was happening, he immediately took off his mittens and gently touched Liu Paotou's neck, then his forehead. After a moment, he covered Liu Paotou's neck again and shouted, "Still alive!"

"Hold on tight! Giddy up!"

Before Dong Weixin finished speaking, he had already vigorously shaken the reins, urging the two mules pulling the sled to run even faster.

After gently lifting the animal skin blanket to inspect it, Wei Ran couldn't help but feel a tremor in his heart.

This Liu Pao Tou was covered in wounds of all sizes, including cuts, burns, whip marks, and bruises.

He had been tortured! Wei Ran made the judgment almost immediately.

After covering the other person with the animal skin blanket again, he finally had time to check his own attire.

Wearing dog-skin pants and a dog-skin coat, with boots on his feet and a dog-skin hat on his head, he looked exactly the same as when he fought in this snowy forest as an anti-Japanese guerrilla.

With his thick coat open, one could also see the nine-dragon belt around his waist and the Mauser pistol pinned between the belt and his chest.

"How much longer?!" Wei Ran asked loudly after pulling his coat tighter around himself.

"Almost there! We'll be crossing the river soon!"

Dong Weixin anxiously shouted, "We'll be saved once we cross the river to Liupaotou!"

"Do you know the way?" Wei Ran pressed.

But this time, before Dong Weixin could answer, a gunshot suddenly rang out behind them.

Before the gunshot reached his ears, Wei Ran had already noticed a bullet hit the sled frame, less than half a meter away from Dong Weixin.

"The Japanese devils are catching up again!"

Dong Weixin's tone turned desperate, "Brother Wei, give them a shot!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Ran immediately felt around the sled and successfully pulled out a Type 38 rifle without a bayonet.

With a click, he loaded the bullet, turned around, and knelt on the sled, aiming at the figures that were faintly visible a few hundred meters behind him.

"boom!"

After the first shot rang out, Wei Ran didn't care whether it hit or not. He put down his rifle, pulled out his Mauser pistol, and repeatedly pulled the trigger at the tall pine trees passing behind him.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

After four consecutive gunshots, the pine trees, their branches bent under the weight of snow, shook off the snow from their branches as the bullets struck them. The snow, combined with the howling wind, created a blizzard that obscured the vision of Wei Ran and his two companions as they fled.

As he opened fire, the pursuers behind him also opened fire indiscriminately. The gunfire forced Dong Weixin, who was driving the carriage, to desperately whip the two mules' rumps.

After searching the sled again and finding nothing, Wei Ran simply picked up his Mauser pistol again and started firing at every tree he could see along the way, regardless of distance.

Under his rapid bursts of fire, the coniferous forest was filled with artificial smoke.

"How much further?!"

Wei Ran asked loudly, if it was too far, he would have to take out the man-eating horse to help lure the enemy away.

"It's just ahead! We'll be there soon!"

As Dong Weixin spoke, he swung the whip again and lashed it out hard.

"Let me go down."

Just then, Liu Paotou, who was lying between the two of them, woke up. "Young Master, let me down. You...you have to live to give...to the people of Dongjia Village."

"Shut up!"

Dong Weixin irritably rebuked, venting the resentment that had been building up in his heart for far too long, "Huh! From Nanyuan to Nankou, from Juyongguan to Yishui, you've kept me alive all this time, but what good is it if I survive!"
If we die today, we'll take a few Japanese devils with us; if we live, we'll all live together! Giddy up!

In the next round of whipping, the two mules ran even faster, and Liu Paotou, lying in the middle of the sled, fell silent.

At the rear of the sled, Wei Ran silently loaded the Mauser pistol with bullets, while remaining vigilant to prevent Liu Paotou from committing suicide or jumping off the sled.

Fortunately, although the pursuers behind them did not stop and even began to fire grenades around them, Dong Weixin's sled soon managed to safely break out of the forest and see the frozen river in the distance, as well as the patrol soldiers coming from the side to block them.

"Brother Wei! Lie down!"

As Dong Weixin spoke, he pulled out a small knife and made a light cut on the rump of each of the two mules.

Driven by the intense pain, the two mules began to fight desperately. At the same time, Wei Ran picked up his Type 38 rifle again and pulled the trigger at the patrolling soldier on his side.

"boom!"

This shot was extremely lucky, hitting a Japanese soldier or collaborator on horseback, and also causing the other patrolmen to stop immediately.

But the problem is, they seem to be preparing to set up machine guns!

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Just then, Dong Weixin, kneeling on the sled, pulled out a flower-shaped weapon and began to suppress his opponent first.

"Da da da!"

Just as the sled carrying Wei Ran and his two companions was almost airborne, being dragged by the two mules, finally reached the frozen river, the enemy who had been trying to intercept them finally set up their machine guns and began firing.

"Da da da--"

Dong Weixin knelt on the sled, holding the new magazine-equipped sled, and pulled the trigger at the approaching enemies.

"boom!"

Wei Ran, who was lying next to Liu Paotou, also took aim and seized the opportunity to pull the trigger on the machine gun that had started roaring.

This time, luck was not on their side. The machine gun did not stop, but a horse next to the machine gun was hit in the chest and fell straight to the ground, which pinned down the assistant gunner of the machine gun.

Thanks to the brief chaos caused by this minor accident, the sled carrying Wei Ran and his two companions finally crossed the river safely, and the pursuers behind them finally stopped firing.

"Safety."

Wei Ran hadn't even finished speaking when she turned over to get up, but she noticed that Dong Weixin was clutching his right chest.

"Reform!" Wei Ran's heart sank, and he quickly tore open the other person's coat and shirt.

broken
Wei Ran's heart sank. This was a penetrating wound, and it was very likely that it had even damaged his lung.

Looking up at the opposite bank of the river, he quickly helped Dong Weixin lie down on his side, with his right chest on top and his left chest on the bottom to reduce bleeding. At the same time, he vigorously shook the reins, urging the two exhausted mules to keep running.

Brother Wei

Dong Weixin gasped for breath, then reached into his robes and shakily pulled out a patina-covered gourd and a fish-shaped knife used by cart drivers, tied to it. "If I die, send these two to Shouxian and... cough cough Yimo as congratulatory gifts."

"Shut up!"

Wei Ran yelled at him in the same way the other party had just yelled at Liu Paotou, "You'll have to deliver it yourself! Giddy up!"

As he whipped the reins, the two mules, which had already begun to foam at the mouth, finally slowed down more and more. When they were only 10 meters away from the opposite bank, one of them suddenly fell down, causing the other mule to kneel down as well, which caused the sled carrying Wei Ran and the other two to land on the snowy bank.

"Oh!"

The overturned sled frame slammed heavily onto the back of Wei Ran's head, causing him to feel dizzy and vaguely see someone running towards the three of them before everything went black and he lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying in a hospital bed with one handcuffed to the bed railing.

In addition, his head seemed to be wrapped in gauze, and his right leg was in a cast and suspended in a sling.

Looking around with difficulty, he saw that besides himself, Dong Weixin, who was still unconscious, was lying on the bed to his left, and Liu Paotou was lying on the bed to his right.

This is perhaps a rare piece of good news, at least both of them are still alive.

"you're awake"

Just then, a woman asked in broken Mandarin, which still retained a slight Northeastern accent.

I gently looked up at the doorway in the distance, where a female nurse sat with a serious expression, thin lips pursed, and one could even say her face had a somewhat mean look.

She sat in a chair by the desk near the door, holding an enamel mug that seemed to smell of wine.

But when Wei Ran saw the nurse, he froze, then stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"Nurse Pontiac? Su Shengnan? Is it...is that you?"

Wei Ran asked blankly. He recognized the other person. He recognized the other person's face ten years later. He also recognized the string of five emperor coins hanging on the other person's hand.

He even knew that the other person grew up in Khabarovsk and had worked as a nurse at the North Camp.

He also knew that her Chinese name was Su Shengnan, a name given to her by her husband, who came from China and was a member of the Anti-Japanese United Army.

He even knew that she often drank strong liquor with her husband, but her husband died in 1945 in the manner befitting a soldier—leaving her only endless longing and a lifelong hatred for the Japanese devils.

Even in later generations, the chubby-faced little girl raised in his family, Lola, Sui Sui's capable assistant, had intricate connections with this woman.

The reason was simple: ten years later, at the No. 52 mine camp, Wei Ran had punished Japanese prisoners of war with them and drunk alcohol together.

However, he never expected that he would encounter an old friend once again in this time and space where he could not leave a trace—when the other person did not recognize him.

"You...you know me?"

Nurse Pontiac stood up in surprise and quickly walked to Wei Ran's side, suppressing her surprise as she asked, "You know my man? He told you my name? Didn't that bastard say it was a secret for now?"

Is he alright? Is Su Laowu alright?

Faced with Su Shengnan's barrage of questions, Wei Ran fell silent. He didn't know, and he couldn't answer.

He simply recognized someone in this timeline who would have a connection with him in the future, but...
"Is he still alive?" Su Shengnan asked cautiously, almost pleadingly.

"I do not know"

Wei Ran finally hardened his heart and said, "He might still be alive, he must still be alive."

"He'd better be alive, or I'll make sure his son is born calling someone else 'Dad'!" Su Shengnan blurted out a harsh statement that had no effect on Wei Ran.

She couldn't fool Wei Ran at all. On the contrary, the latter knew very well that this woman with a mean face never took a fancy to any man again in the second half of her life.

She even abandoned her responsibilities as a mother, focusing all her reasons for living on the painful matter of revenge.

Comrade Su Shengnan

Wei Ran shook off the tragedy he already knew in his mind and changed the subject, switching to Russian, which was easier for the other party to communicate with, and asked, "For Su Laowu's sake, tell me how the two of them are doing? Also, where is this place? I've been in a coma for several years?"

"Not even a few years."

Su Shengnan seemed to regain her vigilance for a moment, but she quickly relaxed again. "It's still January 1941. This is the North Field Hospital."

You were rescued a week ago, and you were very lucky; Nurse Amy happened to be there on a business trip and rescued you.

After a brief pause, she pointed to Liu Paotou, who was a little further away, and said, "He has many external injuries, but as long as he doesn't get infected, he will recover quickly."

Then, she pointed to Dong Weixin, "His condition is much more serious. The bullet went through his chest cavity and damaged a small part of his lung."

He has a high probability of dying from an infected wound, and even if he survives, his health will likely be poor.

"I understand, thank you, and thank you to Nurse Amy as well."

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for that bastard Su Laowu to get injured and be carried here so I can take care of him."

Su Shengnan's tone was tinged with annoyance and unease, as well as a hint of smugness. "Also, I'm already the head nurse, comrade. Your gossip is outdated."

“Okay, would you like me to call you Head Nurse Pontiac or Head Nurse Su Shengnan?” Wei Ran asked seriously.

"up to you"

As Su Shengnan spoke, she stood up and said, "Considering that you know Su Laowu, that bastard who can't keep his mouth shut and can't keep secrets, I will take good care of you."

Accordingly, you all had better survive so as not to waste the precious medicine.

"What about this?" Wei Ran asked, shaking his handcuffed hands.

“Once you all survive, you will still have to undergo necessary interrogation.”

As Su Shengnan spoke, she walked towards the desk at the door of the ward. "I believe you, but for the safety of the other comrades, I hope you can understand."

“Of course,” Wei Ran took a deep breath, “I understand.”

Before he could finish speaking, a blonde nurse who looked to be no more than 20 years old walked in carrying a tray.

Amy

Su Shengnan pointed at Wei Ran, "One of the people you saved has already woken up."

"Really?" the girl named Amy asked in surprise.

"Hold"

Wei Ran cursed at this moment, because before he could ask the other party anything, white light once again surged out from all directions without warning.

　I'd like Liu Yifei or Wang Xinling to say to me, "Ruin Explorer is really good, I love reading this book," and we'll split the profits.

　　(End of this chapter)