War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 2021 Reunion

As night fell, Wang Cheng, who had cried his fill while holding the suona, began to feel hungry, his stomach rumbling. His body also started to shiver as the temperature dropped after dark.

"I can't die like this," Wang Cheng muttered to himself, "otherwise you'll all have died in vain!"

Before he finished speaking, he tucked the suona into his waistband, turned around and walked into the dark cave, turned on the square box flashlight again, and rummaged through the Japanese soldier's backpack in the dim light.

Soon, he found a box of matches and a heavy Japanese soldier's lunchbox.

Opening the lunchbox revealed quite a few items: two socks filled with rice took up most of the space, along with two cans of yamato stew, a silver coin wrapped in a handkerchief, and a silver longevity lock.

"Damn Japanese devils!" Wang Cheng and Wei Ran cursed in unison. The longevity lock was for the child.

After resealing the lunchbox, Wang Cheng went outside with a dim flashlight, gathered some firewood and dried bean stalks around the cave dwelling, lit the stove in the cave, and then turned on a Japanese officer's canteen, using the water inside and a small handful of rice poured out of his sock to cook a bowl of rice porridge that was destined not to be very thick.

I wonder if you survived.

Wang Cheng, who was tending the stove, muttered to himself as he wiped his eyes, which had long since dried up from crying.

Unfortunately, even Wei Ran was unable to answer his question at this moment.

All he could do was sit with Wang Cheng by the stove, talking to himself about the things he had said to Fourth Master and the others, about Li Denian's wishes, and even trying to write Li Denian's name on the stove—but he still couldn't do it.

After a long time, the cave dwelling became warm, and the mixture of rice and water in the lunchbox was finally cooked into porridge.

After searching around, Wang Cheng picked up a slightly rusty kitchen knife and painstakingly cleaved open the tin can that he knew no better. He then poured the broth, meat chunks, and sand from the outside into the lunchbox.

Wei Ran knew that it was the "generosity" after a long period of hunger, and also the generosity of "not wanting to starve to death" because there was no way to survive.

Beside the stove, glowing with a scarlet fire, Wang Cheng wolfed down his food, while Wei Ran futilely patted his back, repeatedly telling him to eat slowly, even though Wang Cheng couldn't hear him at all.

Despite choking repeatedly and having to stop eating because of tears and sobs, Wang Cheng devoured every grain of rice and every drop of soup in his lunchbox. He even scraped off the last bit of soup from the food and licked it into his mouth.

"belch--"

Wang Cheng finally let out a burp, hugged his gun and the suona tightly, and tied the reins to his wrists before lying down on the heated earthen bed. He soon fell asleep.

Seeing this, Wei Ran neither lay down to take pictures nor fast-forwarded. He simply returned to the stove, took out his cigarette case, lit a cigarette, and patiently watched over the sleeping Wang Cheng, quietly listening to him call out for his parents, Li Denian, the Fourth Master who saved his life, and "Uncle Chun Nian" in his sleep.

This long and heart-wrenching dream repeatedly startled Wang Cheng awake, and also caused the sky outside the cave to gradually brighten.

Finally, just as the sky began to lighten, Wei Ran noticed several people running towards them in the distance.

"Wang Cheng? Wake up, Wang Cheng?"

Wei Ran called out in vain to the sleeping child on the kang (a heated brick bed), but the child was fast asleep. Or perhaps, even if the child was awake, he wouldn't hear his calls at all.

Finally, the people outside, dressed in coarse cloth and with white towels wrapped around their heads, surrounded the cave dwelling.

"What a beautiful foreign woman, she's from Japan!"

Outside the cave dwelling, a man who looked to be in his thirties loaded a single-handed rifle into his hand with a look of surprise. "We've caught him today. How come it's just a kid?"

"Who are you?"

Wang Cheng was finally awakened by the surprised cry. He even grabbed the rifle in his arms the moment he woke up.

However, before he could even steady himself, the horse next to him seemed to be startled and instinctively shook its head, easily pulling Wang Cheng down onto the kang (a heated brick bed) with its reins.

"Ouch!"

Wang Cheng exclaimed in surprise. The man outside laughed and put away his single-handled hoe, pulling out a handful of red dates from his pocket and asking, "Little kid, where did you come from? And where did this little Japanese devil's horse come from?"

"Stolen from the Japanese devils!"

Wang Cheng, who had gotten back to his feet, warily raised his gun. "My gun's got a muzzle! Who are you?"

"We are the Lingbao County Guerrilla Anti-Japanese Relief Team"

The man holding a bunch of large red dates said, "I'm Zhang Xiaowa, the squad leader. Where did you get that suona?! Where's Fourth Master?!"

"Fourth Master... Fourth Master, he..."

Before Wang Cheng could finish speaking, tears welled up in his eyes again, leaving two clear tear streaks on his dirty face.

"Child, don't cry, we're home, you're finally home!"

The man outside the door spoke as he strode in, embracing the weeping Wang Cheng and comforting him. "What's your name? Tell me, what's your name?"

"I"

Wang Cheng paused for a moment, then gave a reply that had already passed away: "My name is Li Denian!"

Ugh.
As Wei Ran sighed silently, a white light obscured everything before him, and the timeline began to move rapidly, eventually stopping on September 30, 1944.

As time began to flow again, everything around us turned into night, a night with a silvery moon.

Looking around, there were soldiers lying in ambush, and in the distance, there was an airport!
Was this a night raid on Dengfeng Airport?

Wei Ran subconsciously pressed "pause," then took out a flashlight and shone it on, finding Wang Cheng lying next to him.

Two years have passed, and Wang Cheng has grown into a strong young man. He carries a burlap-wrapped bag of homemade explosives on his back, several grenades are tucked into his waistband, and he holds a pair of pliers in his hand.

Not far in front of him and his comrades were rows of barbed wire fences.

He's grown so much taller in the last two years!
Wei Ran smiled with satisfaction, then let the timeline continue to flow.

As he watched from the sidelines in solitude, the battle began silently. Wang Cheng used pliers to cut through barbed wire, and together with the other fighters, they crossed the cordon and climbed over ditches littered with the bodies of many migrant workers.

Just then, the nearby pillbox seemed to hear the commotion and fired a burst of bullets, but then grenades flew into the pillbox one after another.

Suddenly, in the darkness, the sound of the explosion drew shouts from many soldiers, and the Japanese soldiers and traitors stationed there immediately lost their will to resist.

"Fellow villagers! We are the Eighth Route Army from north of the Yellow River! We are here to fight the Japanese devils! Run! Go home and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival!"

After throwing two more grenades into a pillbox, Wang Cheng ran to the edge of the workers' shed, cutting through the barbed wire while shouting loudly and energetically.

"Run! Run!"

Some of the braver children in the shed had already gotten up, grabbed a few other kids who looked no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, and ran outside.

Some of the bolder ones even overturned the braziers the Japanese soldiers used for lighting, grabbed a piece of firewood, and set fire to the sentry post, the workers' shed, and even the Japanese soldiers' dormitory.

Suddenly, towering flames replaced the cold moon, illuminating the airport that would never be completed, the figure of Wang Cheng charging forward, and the path for the conscripted laborers to escape.

When Wei Ran caught up with Wang Cheng, he had already lit the explosives he was carrying and thrown them into a Japanese barracks.

"boom!"

With a deafening thud, the Japanese barracks collapsed, and cheers erupted all around. "That's weird, how come that explosive pack was so powerful!" Wang Cheng, covered in dust, muttered as he got up.

"That's the Japanese army's explosives depot! It's incredibly powerful!"

A laborer who was helping to set fires everywhere responded cheerfully.

"That would be perfect!"

Wang Cheng immediately smiled again, rushed to a Japanese soldier who had been pushed over by the impact, and swung his last grenade, smashing it hard into the soldier's forehead.

With a sharp crack, the Japanese soldier's brains splattered as he fell to the ground. Wang Cheng grabbed the Type 38 rifle from the enemy's hand, cocked it with a "click," and pulled the trigger towards a roaring machine gun in the distance.

"boom!"

After the gunfire subsided and the machine guns went out, he immediately rushed forward and threw grenades at the Japanese soldiers who were still resisting.

It was already late September 1944, and the Japanese were truly like grasshoppers that had been laid low for the season.

Now that Wang Cheng has grown up, he is confident that he can even fight his opponent hand-to-hand.

Finally, after repeated battles, the Japanese soldiers, puppet troops, and traitors all obediently surrendered, and the airport was completely captured.

However, this team did not rush to retreat. Instead, they immediately gathered the wounded and withdrew, while distributing the captured weapons, indicating their intention to hold their ground.

Wei Ran, from the future, knew that Commander Pi was buying time for the laborers to escape home.

But he also noticed that Wang Cheng, who was guarding a dilapidated pillbox, was shedding tears.

"Den, why are you crying?" asked another soldier who was also stationed there.

"I'm going home, I'm going home."

Wang Cheng, weeping uncontrollably, pointed in a direction, "My home is over there! This used to be our village's threshing ground. I'm going home! My...my home? I can't find my home!"

"Once we drive the Japanese devils away, we'll rebuild our house brick by brick!" said the soldier next to him, clenching his fist. His eyes seemed to be burning with fire, a fire that could start a prairie fire.

Finally, the order to retreat reached Wei Ran's ears, and everything in front of him was once again wiped away by the white light at an extremely fast speed.

Looking around, there was a small room. At that moment, Wang Cheng, dressed in military uniform, was sitting at a table by the window, holding a fountain pen and writing stroke by stroke on a piece of paper.

"Uncle Chunian, I am Li Denian. After I was separated from the Taoist temple, I joined the Lingbao County Guerrilla Anti-Japanese Relief Team and was later recruited by Commander Pi."

Now that the damned Japanese devils have finally surrendered, I have been reorganized into the 6th Column of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army and am now a platoon leader.

I am writing to inquire about your recent situation. Enclosed is some of my allowance, which I hope will help improve your life. I look forward to your reply.

"I wonder if they're still alive," Wang Cheng muttered anxiously as he looked at the letter he had just written.

Finally, he waited for the ink to dry before folding the letter and putting it in an envelope, then wrote down an address in Jiaokou County, Lüliang.

After placing the letter on the table, Wang Cheng took out the suona with the leather trim from his bag, walked to the door, straightened up, and played a particularly beautiful tune, "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix."

"You absolutely must survive," Wei Ran murmured almost pleadingly.

Finally, the white light appeared again, and the timeline followed, fast-forwarding to August 8, 1949.

When time began to flow again, Wei Ran found himself in a makeshift camp.

"Clang!"

Just then, the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground made him turn around instinctively, and then he saw a middle-aged man—Wu Chunian!

"Wang Cheng? Is that you?" Wu Chunian asked cautiously.

"Uncle Chun Chun? You're still alive?!"

Wang Cheng's voice reached Wei Ran's ears. Before Wei Ran could even turn around, Wang Cheng had already run over from beside a truck and hugged the no-longer-young Wu Chunian. "Uncle Chunian! Why didn't you reply to my message, Uncle Chunian! I thought, I thought..."

"Quickly, sit down and talk."

Wu Chunian gestured for Wang Cheng to sit down by the stable, "Where have you been all these years!"

"I"

Wang Cheng sighed, "Uncle Chunian, my name is Li Denian now."

"We have to crush him."

"No, it wasn't back then!"

Wang Cheng sighed and recounted his experiences over the years. Then, he pulled out two Japanese soldiers' water bottles and a disassembled suona from his bag. "I've kept these two bottles for a long time, waiting to share them with everyone. I also hope that one day I'll have the chance to go to Yan'an to find Fourth Master."

"Sigh! I've looked everywhere! But it's gone! It's been gone for ages!"

Wu Chunian slapped his thigh in frustration, “Ever since we parted ways, I’ve been begging all the way to Yan’an with Mancang and Maimiao. I don’t dare go back to my home.”

“恁”

"When we arrived in Yan'an, we asked around and found out that Fourth Master's child was gone, long gone! His comrade had agreed to help him lie to Fourth Master!"

Wu Chunian wiped away the tears on his face. "Mancang and Maimiao stayed in Yan'an. The year after the Japanese surrendered, they got married and even had a child that year, a little boy!"

"That's great, that's wonderful!"

“I can’t stay idle. Whenever I’m idle, I miss all of you. So when I heard about the liberation of Northwest China, I volunteered to join the army.”

Wu Chunian lamented with self-reproach, "Sigh! I have no idea what to do, I should have joined the army a long time ago!"

"It's not too late, not at all!"

As Wang Cheng spoke, he handed the two water bottles to Wu Chunian, saying, "Uncle Chunian, please carry these two water bottles and this suona for me. I... I have to go to war!"

"How could you possibly survive?" Wu Chunian grabbed Wang Cheng's wrist.

"can!"

Wang Cheng grinned broadly. “I’ve wanted to go to Yan’an for a long time! This pot contains some local salt I found in De Nianjia when I went home several years ago. I’ve carried it with me ever since.”

"he"

"Nobody's here," Wang Cheng shook his head. "Nobody's been here for ages."

"Sigh," Wu Chunian stroked the two kettles, finally saying, "It's alright, it's alright."

"Ok!"

Wang Cheng nodded vigorously, then stood up straight and gave Wu Chunian a very solemn salute.