War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 2024 His Longing Returned Home

On the evening of June 6th, Xia Shushi returned before dark, bringing with him seven document bags.

"What is this?"

Wei Ran took the file bag handed to him and asked curiously, "Among these seven file bags, one has my name on it, while the other six have the names of Sui Sui's core followers."

This includes not only the Kachenka sisters, Marta, and Lucinda, but also Lola and Lyubov, who were not even in the country.

"See for yourself"

As Xia Shushi spoke, he took the tea that Qin Qi, who was still waiting for him, handed him and began to gulp it down.

"Come and take a look, everyone," Wei Ran called out.

"Our package?"

The Kachenka sisters were the first to run out; they had just been playing video games together.

See for yourself.

As Wei Ran spoke, she handed over the two documents that belonged to the two of them.

"Has my order of snail rice noodles arrived yet?"

Following closely behind, Lu Xinda, the purely decorative one, ran out of the kitchen. She had just been helping Marta with the cooking.

"I guess so," Wei Ran said, handing over her share as well.

"Is this supposed to be a picture of snail rice noodles?"

As Lu Xinda spoke, Marta, who came out a little later, also took the file bag from Wei Ran's hand.

Meanwhile, the Kachenka sisters had already torn open the document bags in their hands and taken out a visa, a foreigner's work permit, and a social security card from each of them.

What does "R visa" mean?

Lu Xinda, who had also opened her own document bag, stared blankly at her visa, permit, and social security card. "Why are they so expired? How did I become a photo studio model? Hehe! I knew I was good-looking!"

"Talent Visa"

Sui Sui answered Lu Xinda's question, "This Brother Liu is really generous; he actually gave me an R visa directly."

"Am I considered talented?"

Lu Xinda, who had been enjoying a carefree life for the past few years, widened her eyes and pointed at her nose, asking the question.

"He's a talent, but a talent who just coasts along," Wei Ran joked with a smile.

"She's definitely not just coasting along."

Sui Sui said with a smile, "After a few more years of training, we'll hand over the domestic tourism business to her. Then she can work with Lola from Kazan, which will save us a lot of trouble."

"Can I just be a complete waste?" Lu Xinda asked with a mournful face.

"You're just being hypocritical, getting the benefit for yourself."

As Marta uttered a sentence in Chinese, she carefully put away her visa, work permit, and social security card.

She understood far better than Lu Xinda, the queen's accessory who was pampered like a younger sister by Wei Ran and Sui Sui, that these 10-year visas, and even that social security card, were not things that foreigners could obtain easily.

"We are also models for the photo studio."

The Kachenka sisters asked with great interest, "So we'll be living in China from now on?"

"It's up to you."

Wei Ran casually remarked that although the two sisters were Hela's soul and core, he had always adopted a laissez-faire attitude, letting them stay or leave as they pleased.

“We are not Gorbachev,” the Kadenka sisters said in unison.

"This one is for Lola."

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed one of the documents to Sui Sui. Then, one of them tore open Lola's document, and the other tore open Lyubov's document.

“Here I have Lola’s R visa, Social Security card, work permit, and her sister’s student visa.”

Sui Sui looked at it and said with a smile, "Lola is working for our gang's company, and she's a high-ranking executive there."

"This is an invitation letter for Liu Bofu to study abroad. This university is quite good," Wei Ran said, handing the document to Sui Sui.

"What are you thinking?" Sui Sui asked, taking the document.

"Let's leave a seed for Mr. Ivan; we can't steal his last disciple away."

As Wei Ran tore open his own file folder, he made a decision: "Besides, she's not suited to live in China, so let her stay in Kazan from now on."

"also"

As Sui Sui spoke, she handed the invitation to Anfisa for safekeeping, then leaned closer to Wei Ran and asked, "And what's this?"

Social Security Card

Wei Ran pulled out a card and waved it around. "I wonder which company it's registered with. Oh! There's one for you too!"

"Let me see!"

As Sui Sui spoke, she snatched the ID that Wei Ran had just taken out.

"I knew it, it must be an R-signed visa. I have to say, Brother Liu is really something! He's a model too? Oh well, a model it is!"

Hehe! I have a social security card now! Tomorrow I'm going to go to a top-tier hospital and get a full body checkup!

"I also need to go!"

Without thinking, Lu Xinda echoed, knowing better than anyone that as long as she followed the Queen, even if the food was unpalatable or disgusting, she wouldn't suffer any losses!
"clang clang"

Just as the Kachenka sisters were starting to wonder if they should join in the fun, Xia Shushi tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention to his face.

"You probably won't have time to go to the hospital for a free medical check-up."

Xia Shushi said, "Everyone, please pack your things. I've found the recipient."

"return"

Wei Ran opened his mouth and uttered the first word, but then he couldn't continue. He didn't even dare to ask.

"Still alive"

Xia Shushi nodded. "The recipient, Gao Hongyan, is still alive. She is 93 years old, but in good health."

That old lady is never idle. Besides tending to her acre of millet and a patch of goji berries, she also goes for a stroll every day on her tricycle.

At this point, Xia Shushi lit up his phone, pulled out a photo, and handed it to Wei Ran. "Zhang Yang is over there. I told him to go and take a look first. It'll be easy to find him when he gets there. He's the boss's whole family."

"Oh? Who else is in the old lady's family?"

As Wei Ran took the phone, he asked, "In this photo, an exceptionally clean-looking old woman is sitting in front of several beautiful cave dwellings. In her arms, she is holding a chubby little baby, and behind her stands a large family."

"He has a son named Li Weihe, who is a veteran of the Sino-Vietnamese War. He was awarded a second-class merit without any injuries."

Xia Shushi pointed to an old man in the photo who looked to be around seventy years old and said, "He has three sons and two daughters, one of whom and the two daughters all have the surname Li."

Another son was surnamed Wu, and the youngest son was surnamed Wang; they were said to be his biological children.

After introducing the people in the photo, Xia Shushi continued, "His two daughters married the two sons of a neighboring family surnamed He. The two families used to live in cave dwellings, one above the other, and now they live in single-story houses next to each other."

The two families are so close, like your and the Queen's maternal grandparents' homes, that they even tore down the wall between them.

The two women in the photo are Li Weihe's two daughters.

Seeing that Wei Ran remained silent, Xia Shushi continued to explain, "Li Weihe's three sons also served in the army, similar to the Li family in Zigong that you took me to."

In their generation, all three families had only one son. The eldest son is now married with children, and the one the old lady is holding is him.

"They've started to branch out," Wei Ran sighed.

"That's right. Besides Grandma Gao Hongyan and her son Li Weihe and his wife, the rest of the family still lives in the cave dwelling. Her three grandchildren also take turns taking care of them."

Xia Shushi took another sip of tea and said, "Back in 08, most of the villagers in their village had already moved into bungalows in the village's residential area."

But the old lady refused to move no matter what. I heard that the local authorities did a lot of work but it was no use. Later, the old lady even had to whip people with her sheep whip.

Later, the old woman's grandchildren pooled their money to renovate the cave dwelling and also did some basic repairs on the road between the cave dwelling and the village. Only then was the matter considered closed.

"His health is just too robust!"

Sui Sui, who was listening in the background, exclaimed in amazement, "This is almost as good as Grandpa Nikolai."

"Perhaps?"

Wei Ran finally returned the photo to the other person, asking, "When are we leaving?"

"The flight takes off at 7:30 tomorrow morning, flying to Nanniwan. Zhang Yang will pick us up there."

Xia Shushi said, "Your plane tickets have all been bought. That Brother Liu bought them, but it was the beast who paid for them. Also, have you had dinner yet?"

"We've been waiting for you. Let's go, have some dinner first. You two can stay here tonight and leave together tomorrow," Wei Ran said.

"You're living in this little villa, are you planning to make us stay in a hotel?"

Xia Shushi didn't know how to be polite with Wei Ran, and pulled the beaming Qin Qi upstairs to the restaurant.

The dinner that day was naturally much more lavish than the "banquet" served when the photo studio opened at noon.

Of course, the leftovers from lunch, such as the sesame seed cakes, were not wasted. Wei Ran, who treated Xia Shushi as an outsider, brought out these leftovers as well, and also brought out a bottle of good wine, giving everyone, including Lu Xinda, a small cup.

"Scholar Wei, what exactly are you holding in your hands?"

After a busy afternoon, Xia Shushi, holding a wine glass, asked curiously, "Can you let me see it?"

"Drink, drink."

Wei Ran completely ignored this conversation, instead raising his glass and inviting the girls to clink glasses.

Knowing he wouldn't get any more information, Xia Shushi gave up on asking questions. After clinking glasses with everyone, he walked to the liquor cabinet without Wei Ran's prompting, opened it, and picked out the most expensive bottle of baijiu.

With such a leading example, everyone naturally drank and chatted a lot at dinner, but they tacitly avoided anything about Gao Hongyan and the two kettles.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they went back to their rooms early to wash up and go to bed, in order to recharge for tomorrow's trip.

"Do you think that old lady Gao Hongyan is waiting for her husband because she refuses to move out?"

Before going to sleep, a tipsy Sui Sui nestled in Wei Ran's arms and whispered a question.

"It should be...it should be," Wei Ran sighed. The answer that everyone could guess might just be the only answer.

"Fortunately, our country doesn't have to fight a war," Sui Sui sighed thankfully, still tipsy.

"Why do you say that?" Wei Ran asked with great interest, as he rarely wanted to hear Sui Sui's drunken truths.

I no longer know you.

With her eyes barely open, Sui Sui clung tightly to Wei Ran and muttered, "If a fight really breaks out, you'll definitely have to deal with all those dangerous people you've been secretly raising all these years."

Before she could finish speaking, Sui Sui, who had absolutely no talent for drinking, drifted off into a dream that brought her immense peace of mind.

The next morning, alarm clocks rang from each room, waking up everyone who had gone to bed early.

Amidst the chaos, everyone, carrying varying amounts of luggage, sped to the airport in Iveco vans that were already waiting at the door.

The flight from Tianjin to Nanniwan takes less than two hours, and it only takes 40 minutes to get from the airport to the mailing address.

But this journey, which adds up to at most two and a half hours, was a long 70 years for those who couldn't return and for those who kept waiting.

But life is like that. Some people's lives may not even last seventy years, while others spend a long seventy years of their lives waiting for a letter.

"Zhang Yang, you talked to that family yesterday, right?" Wei Ran asked again on the way into the village.

"I said it"

Because of his excellent driving skills, Zhang Yang, who could only sit in the passenger seat, quickly replied, "I first found the village secretary of this village, and then I found the old lady's eldest grandson. I simply explained the situation to him according to the method you told me."

Later, the family held an internal meeting and ultimately decided to tell the old lady, so she wouldn't have to wait in vain. This morning, the whole family was already waiting.

"That's fine"

Wei Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief. After all, the old lady was almost a hundred years old, and extreme joy or sorrow would be a very dangerous burden for her.

"Do you think they would have such a token of love?" Sui Sui, sitting next to Wei Ran, said, pulling out a lotus-shaped pendant from her collar.

That was a token of love between Chun Cai and Yu Yanlin. Unfortunately, Wei Ran, the time messenger, appeared too late that time.

“Maybe.”

Wei Ran stared absentmindedly out the window, instinctively wanting to escape once again.

Sui Sui seemed to realize something, tucked the pendant back into her collar, and reached out to hold Wei Ran's hand.

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran smiled and took Sui Sui's hand in return. In this matter, he could never be more indifferent than anyone around him, but he could never be as tormented as the person involved.

Regardless of how prepared they were or whether they were ready, the Iveco van driven by Xia Shushi had already entered the village.

"Over there! Those cave dwellings on the left are it, just ahead to the left," Zhang Yang, sitting in the passenger seat, said, pointing out the window.

Subconsciously glancing out the window, Wei Ran saw from a distance that many people were standing in the courtyard in front of the three cave dwellings, eagerly waiting.

As the distance closed, Wei Ran could clearly see that at the very front of the group, there was an old woman wearing a 50s-style military uniform. She was trying her best to stand up straight and eagerly waiting.

Even when she noticed that the car carrying Wei Ran and the others was driving towards her, she pushed away the young man beside her who was helping her, and carefully tidied the liberation cap on her head and the two black but sparse double braids.

She had clearly dyed her hair, and even specially braided it into the double braids that were popular when she was young, just to wait for the person she had been longing for.

On her leather belt was a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument) that almost made Wei Ran hold his breath.

just
Time, she is no longer young, and no longer has the strength to play the suona that is trembling and raised to her lips.

Finally, as the car began to slow down, she reluctantly handed the suona to an elderly man who looked slightly younger than her.

The old man was wearing a Type 65 military uniform. Even though he was some distance away and the car window was tinted, Wei Ran could still see a slight resemblance to Wang Cheng on his face.

For this reason, he was almost certain that the old man was Wang Cheng's son, Li Weihe.

Finally, when the car stopped and the door opened, the beautiful melody of "The East Is Red" was successfully played once again on this loess slope.

Wang Cheng, his longing has returned home.