War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 2000 The Wine Gourd Returns Home
As the white light faded once more, Wei Ran heard the cicadas chirping again, but besides the chirping, there was also laughter and cursing.

When he saw everything around him clearly, Wei Ran was stunned. This was a Chinese city, a Chinese city where he could not see Japanese soldiers, but could only see Soviet Red Army soldiers everywhere.

Bending down to pick up a newspaper with shoe prints and stains, Wei Ran immediately noticed the date on the masthead—August 19, 1945, the day the Soviet Red Army entered Changchun.

After releasing the newspaper, Wei Ran looked down at his Soviet military uniform and the nine-dragon belt, as well as the Mauser pistol clipped between the belt and his body.

Then he looked around, and in just a few glances, his eyes turned bloodshot.

He saw the Russian Red Army soldiers, also dressed in Soviet uniforms, dismantling railway tracks and trains, transporting various items—some he recognized, some he didn't—in obviously looted freight cars that seemed to have been taken from factories. They were even robbing people, stealing radios, clocks, and even oxen, mules, donkeys, and horses.

If all of this was the price of hiring these "mercenaries" to help drive away the invaders, then the sight of groups of laughing and joking women being stopped on the road, and even the open violence committed by Soviet Red Army soldiers, made him instinctively pull out his Mauser pistol and instinctively pull the trigger, a bullet lolling out of the barrel.

"You big-nosed devils! I curse your ancestors for eight generations!"

Just then, Liu Paotou's furious, irrational roar reached our ears.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Five gunshots rang out in quick succession. The five Soviet Red Army soldiers carrying PPSh guns, who had already torn open a woman's cheongsam, were shot in the back of the head and fell to the ground with a clatter.

The moment the gunshot rang out, the surrounding Soviet Red Army soldiers immediately surrounded them, and some of those who were nearby even grabbed their guns.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Five more gunshots rang out in quick succession. Liu Paotou, dressed in civilian clothes, killed five more Soviet soldiers. He then glanced subconsciously at Wei Ran, who had already raised his gun, and together with Wei Ran looked at Dong Weixin and Nurse Amy sitting in a carriage not far away, as well as Head Nurse Su Shengnan—all three of them were holding a camera.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Wei Ran pulled the trigger as he moved toward the body of a Soviet Red Army soldier.

Amidst the camouflage of gunfire, his Soviet uniform became the perfect disguise. The Red Army soldiers around him, also dressed in Soviet uniforms, became the perfect targets.

Finally, when he ran out of bullets in his Mauser pistol, he walked over to the Soviet soldier who had been shot in the abdomen but was still alive.

"Oh!"

Wei Ran kicked the other man in the crotch, and only after the blood had stained his tan pants black did he grab the PPSh from the man's hand and take a spare drumstick from his waist.

"Da da da da! Da da da da! Da da da da da!"

Accompanied by PPSh's roar, Wei Ran and Liu Paotou covered each other and hid in an alley, glancing almost simultaneously at Dong Weixin, who was still holding up his camera and pressing the shutter button repeatedly.

"We've finished fighting those damn Japanese devils, are we going to have to fight those big-nosed Japanese devils too?" Liu Paotou roared as he asked.

"No need," Wei Ran answered instinctively.

"No need? We're just going to let them bully us like this?!"

Liu Paotou asked angrily, his face, which was no longer young, showing even greater resentment, humiliation, and hatred of betrayal than before.

But this time, Wei Ran couldn't give an answer at all.

He knew that even if he told them that these big-nosed Japanese devils would withdraw next year, it would be of no use, because it could neither stop nor change what was happening right now.

"They're there!"

Just then, someone blocked their path, and the two men raised their submachine guns and pulled the triggers without hesitation.

"Da da da da da-"

The two barrages of bullets brought down the pursuers and those blocking their way, and incidentally, they also killed several Red Army soldiers who were carrying several rolls of cloth.

"Their Stalin said, 'If you fall behind, you will be attacked.'"

As Liu Paotou spoke, he shoved Wei Ran into a clothing shop by the roadside. "Wei Ran! You survive! Go and see if we'll get beaten up in the future!"

"We won't do it again."

"Da da da da da!"

Before Liu Paotou could hear the answer clearly, he pulled the trigger again, leading the big-nosed Japanese soldiers to run into the distance. Then, in the middle of the street, he was hit in the thigh by bullets fired from afar, followed by bullets to his chest and back.

"Liu"

Before Wei Ran could even shout, the owner of the clothing store covered his mouth and dragged him inside, while simultaneously ordering the two shop assistants to start putting clothes on the counter.

"Hide quickly! Hide quickly!"

As the boss spoke, he forcefully pushed Wei Ran to the backyard and then laboriously lifted a water vat, revealing a small hole.

"Young man, hurry up and go in, hurry up and go in!" the boss urged anxiously.

Immediately afterwards, a girl who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old jumped out of the hidden cellar entrance, grabbed Wei Ran's wrist, and used the weight of her petite body to pull him into the cellar.

"Sh-!"

As the girl gestured for Wei Ran to be quiet, she covered his mouth with her hand.

Almost simultaneously, the owner of the clothing shop laboriously moved the large vat above his head and covered the opening again, and he also heard the sound of water being poured into the vat.

What's happening outside? How's it going out?

Wei Ran only regained his breathing at this moment. He had been suppressed by that living father, otherwise... otherwise, perhaps Liu Paotou could have survived.

But now.
But now he has to consider that if he continues to act impulsively, he might harm the girl in the cellar.

"laugh--"

Just then, a small flame appeared not far away, accompanied by the faint sound of a match burning. Immediately afterward, an oil lamp was lit, and by its dim light, he could see that there was another little girl who looked to be about the same age hidden in the cellar.

Ugh.
Under their horrified gazes, Wei Ran sighed helplessly, then slowly emptied the chamber, eventually even tossing aside the PPSh rifle whose drum magazine had been removed.

"puff"

The oil lamp that had just been lit was blown out, and the not-so-large cellar fell into darkness and silence again, so much so that Wei Ran, who was clenching his fists, felt as if he had returned to Berlin, back to the basement of that dental clinic.

But there are clearly no Nazis here, nor are there any Warts trying to kill the Nazis.

Being backward invites aggression. Indeed, being backward invites aggression.
Wei Ran murmured silently, his fists clenching tighter and tighter.

At that very moment, the young woman who had stopped covering his mouth after he laid down his weapon leaned close to his ear and recited in a voice only the two of them could hear, "The first anniversary of the great War of Resistance Against Japan, July 7th, is approaching. The strength of the entire nation must unite."

When the voice reached his ears, Wei Ran, who seemed to have gone mad, shuddered, then calmed down and listened quietly to the other person reciting in his ear. At the same time, he was also silently reciting the article that he had tried countless times to recite to those who did not survive.

After an unknown amount of time, he heard the sound of the water tank being moved overhead. In an instant, Wei Ran grabbed the PPSh-45 in the dark and quickly loaded the drum magazine and chambered the round, pointing the muzzle at the top of his head.

A moment later, the water tank above his head was moved away, and he saw the stars in the night sky and the Milky Way where the stars converged.

"Brother Wei, are you alright?" Dong Weixin asked in a hoarse voice outside the cellar.

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran emptied the chamber once more and silently climbed out of the cellar.

At this moment, in this not-so-large courtyard, besides the clothing shop owner who was carrying an oil lamp and a bundle, but whose face was already bruised and swollen, there was Dong Weixin, who was wearing a Soviet army uniform, and Amy, a nurse who was wearing a Soviet female soldier uniform, as well as head nurse Su Shengnan.

"I'll see you off," Head Nurse Su Shengnan said firmly. "Brother Wei, I want to stay."

At this moment, Dong Weixin spoke up, "I want to stay. At the North Field Camp, I filmed the training of the training brigade. Along the way, I also filmed the battles between the Soviet Red Army and the Japanese."

Now the perpetrators have become the Soviet Red Army, and I have no reason not to film it.

"In that case, I will too."

"Brother Wei, let me assign you a task this time."

As Dong Weixin spoke, he handed a canvas shoulder bag to Wei Ran. "I took your advice back then, and all the film negatives I've taken over the years are here, including everything I'm shooting today."

"Where to send it?" After a long silence, Wei Ran finally reached out and took the lightweight canvas bag.

As Dong Weixin spoke of "Xifengkou," he looked at the owner of the clothing shop.

"Let my two daughters come along too."

The owner of the clothing shop sighed, "If we survive, we survive; if we don't... oh well! Oh well! Alas!"

"Let them change into the uniforms we prepared."

Su Shengnan spoke up at this moment, saying, "I'll see you off later."

"I killed a lot"

Those drug addicts deserve to die.

Su Shengnan's tone was contemptuous, "I'm going to Hegang to find my man, Su Laowu, so I can only send you out of the city. You'll have to walk the rest of the way on your own."

“I will protect Weixin,” said Amy, the young nurse, at that moment.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Wei Ran nodded weakly, and the shopkeeper immediately took the bundle in his hand into the cellar and urged his two daughters to change quickly.

Before long, two girls dressed in Soviet female soldier uniforms came out of the cellar.

Let's set off quickly!

As Dong Weixin was speaking, he suddenly changed the subject, "Brother Wei, you were right, 12 years."

"I was right, but I never imagined so many people wouldn't survive." Wei Ran sighed wearily.

"After the war ends, we'll go to Xifengkou for a celebratory feast."

Dong Weixin said, "I will go, and I will bring Amy with me. You must go too, and you must drink a glass of our wedding wine."

"it is good"

Wei Ran patted the other person on the shoulder, and led the two girls dressed in Soviet female soldier uniforms out of the courtyard with Nurse Su Shengnan and into an ambulance.

At that moment, inside the ambulance canopy, there were two young men dressed in Soviet military uniforms, pretending to be wounded.

Although he had only caught a glimpse of them during the day, he recognized them as the two shop assistants from the clothing store.

"You drive," Su Shengnan said without room for argument.

Wei Ran did not refuse and opened the driver's side door of the GAZ-55 ambulance and got in.

Once Su Shengnan was seated comfortably in the passenger seat, Wei Ran started the car. Amidst the reluctant farewells of the nurse Amy, Dong Weixin, and the clothing shop owner, he expressionlessly pressed the accelerator and drove towards the outskirts of the city.

"I'm looking for an anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter named Su Laowu."

At this moment, Su Shengnan spoke up in Chinese, saying, "He is about the same height as the man from before, but thinner. He has a scar on the left side of his face, and his left ear was frostbitten off."

After a brief pause, Su Shengnan continued, "If any of you four see him, tell him that he has a son named Su Wu, who lives in Khabarovsk, in the place where people drink strong liquor."

This is the reward I deserve for saving you. If you encounter Su Laowu, remember to tell him this.

"it is good"

In the back carriage, the four young men cautiously agreed.

"Is he still alive?" Wei Ran, who was driving, asked after a moment of silence.

"He must live."

Su Shengnan took out the wine flask that Wei Ran had given her years ago from her pocket, tilted her head back and drank the last mouthful of wine in it, then casually stuffed the empty flask into the canvas bag that Dong Weixin had given to Wei Ran. "Even if he dies, I can bring him back to life."

He must still be alive.

Wei Ran tried his best not to look out the car window at the ongoing robbery and violence, but instead gradually floored the accelerator, as if he could escape this powerless humiliation by increasing the car speed.

Finally, the car successfully drove out of the city.

"Let's do it here."

Su Shengnan and Wei Ran stopped the ambulance and said, "I can only take you this far. I hope you hope your country will end the war soon."

We will meet again.

Wei Ran said earnestly, "We will definitely meet again after the war ends."

"Let's have a drink together then," Su Shengnan said, already opening the car door.

“Let’s get off the bus too,” Wei Ran sighed. “We have to walk our own path from now on.”

Are you friends?

The young woman who had covered Wei Ran's mouth in the cellar asked in a daze after getting out of the car, only after Su Shengnan drove away alone.

"Maybe so."

Wei Ran smiled and reached into the canvas bag.

There are at least dozens of rolls of film inside. Among these rolls, besides the wine flask that originally belonged to him, there is also a wine gourd with a patina and a fish knife tied to it.

"Will we be friends in the future?" the naive girl continued to ask.

Do you hope we can be friends?

Faced with Wei Ran's question, the girl shook her head, "I don't want a friend like that."

"Then let's work hard and become strong. When we're strong, we won't need such barbaric and unreasonable friends anymore."

Wei Ran muttered to himself in the white light, clutching the wine gourd from Xifengkou in the early spring of 1933, a gourd that clearly came from the wounded Northeast.

In any case, on this day, it finally returned to its equally wounded hometown, covered in scars and exhausted.

But this gourd was filled with humiliation and resentment—only the gourd itself knew this.

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