War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 85 The Missing Teacher (adding more to the kitchen knife on the anvil)

I spent Nikolai’s 90th birthday with those villagers I didn’t know at all, and took several film rolls by the way.Early the next morning, two trucks full of luggage followed the off-road vehicle driven by Wei Ran to leave the abandoned school, and drove towards Kazan in the farewell of almost all the villagers.

In the brand-new off-road vehicle, the driver turned into a quarter horse, while Wei Ran and Nicholas sat on the only two passenger seats, chatting about what they had learned at the Hongqi Forest Farm this week Content and Culp's plans for his future.

Except for a short stopover in Saratov for a late lunch, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening when they arrived in Volgograd.

Nicholas, who insisted on taking a car, was extremely tired at this time. After all, he was 90 years old. Even though he was in good health, the ten-hour drive was still a heavy burden for him.However, when he saw the illuminated statue of the motherland across the road, the old man who had experienced World War II and joined the Cold War became extremely excited again.

He insisted on rejecting Wei Ran's suggestion to invite him to go to a travel agency not far away for a night's rest. Nicholas happily pushed open the door of the single-family wooden house he bought. A suitcase was removed from the car and sent in.

Wei Ran, Jima, and the other two gangsters looked at each other, and resignedly moved all the boxes of luggage into the house from the truck at the door.

After a lot of busy work, it was more than an hour after they finished moving the last box of things.Almost at the same time that Ji Ma rode over the old Harley that was still in Wei Ran's studio, Alexei also drove over following the address with a few insulated lunch boxes.

While Nicholas, Jima and others were having dinner, Professor Alexey pulled Wei Ran aside and asked in a low voice in Chinese, "What is the origin of that old man?"

"The survivors implicated by the ZIS-3 anti-tank gun last time"

Wei Ran pointed to the off-road vehicle outside the door with his chin, "Mr. Nicholas helped me a lot in preparing to continue my graduate studies in Kazan, even the car was given to me by him."

"Your luck is really good," Professor Alexey muttered with a strange expression.

"In the future, I may have to trouble my aunt and you to take care of Mr. Nicholas." Wei Ran said with some embarrassment, "He doesn't have any family members anymore, and they are all 90 years old."

"It's not a big deal." Professor Alexey's aunt's catchphrase came out of his mouth, "Anyway, it's just a matter of adding a pair of chopsticks."

"What about you? How is work?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

"I was hit by you"

Professor Alexey's face suddenly became extremely bitter, "That bastard Alexander actually asked me to investigate the origin of every collection in his museum."

"I said a long time ago not to work for capitalists." Wei Ran mercilessly blocked Professor Alexei in advance, "Let's say yes first, I won't help, even if I have a salary."

"You bastard!" Professor Alexey knocked on the top of Wei Ran's head lightly, then winked to the side, and whispered, "I'll be waiting for you in the studio."

Wei Ran nodded, and waited for Professor Alexei to drive away before turning around to join the dinner. While introducing Jima and others to the table full of Chinese dishes, he filled his stomach.

After dinner, Wei Ran packed up the insulated lunch box, bid farewell to Nicholas and Jima and others who were going to rest for a night before going back, and drove back to the brightly lit studio [-] meters away.

"What's the matter?" After Wei Ran entered the studio, he pulled down the shutter door and sat opposite Professor Alexey.

"Look at this." Professor Alexey pointed to the canvas roll on the table.

"what?"

Wei Ran opened the canvas roll while speaking, and then saw a pair of old-fashioned skis, a pair of ski poles, and a Soviet flag.

Seeing Wei Ran looking up at him in doubt, Professor Alexis slowly unfolded the old flag and said in a low voice, "According to my verification, this is the flag of the 163rd Infantry Division of the Soviet Ninth Army, the 163rd Infantry Division Master, you always know, right?"

"In the Winter War, the infantry division that was wiped out by the Finns?" Wei Ran asked uncertainly.

Professor Alexis nodded in satisfaction, "That's them"

"Where did you get it?"

Wei Ran looked at the embroidery patterns on the flag and the remaining damage and asked.After following Alexei for so long, he can tell at a glance that this flag is probably not a replica.

Professor Alexey put away the flag and explained in a low voice, "An old friend of mine in Petersburg found this by accident in his wife's old house, along with this pair of skis and skis." Staff."

"Did you buy it?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows and asked, "I'm afraid this flag is worth a lot of money?"

Professor Arik shook his head, "I don't have that much money to buy this precious flag, but compared to this flag, the story behind it is more valuable."

"What do you mean?" Wei Ran looked at Professor Alexei in confusion.

"Let's talk about the Battle of Suomusalmi first," asked Professor Alexei, the examiner of the school.

Wei Ran replied without thinking, "On December 1939, 12, the 27th Finnish Infantry Division spent two days in the village of Suomusalmi and almost wiped out most of the 9rd Infantry Division of the Soviet Ninth Army. The main force, and then almost wiped out the 163th Division of the Soviet Motorized Rifle.”

Hearing this, Professor Alexei nodded in satisfaction, and then continued, "In this battle, the 163rd Infantry Division of the Soviet Ninth Army not only suffered heavy losses, but even their division commander disappeared. They never showed up again."

"Don't tell me you want to find the missing teacher." Wei Ran asked dumbfounded.

"No, no, no." Professor Alexei shook his head, "It doesn't matter whether the missing teacher is found or not."

"Then what are you going to do?" Wei Ran looked at Professor Alexei in a daze.

The latter pointed his finger at the things on the table, and said dumbfoundedly, "My old friend suspects that his wife is the descendant of the missing teacher. He hopes we can find a way to investigate this matter."

"Why?" Wei Ran asked without interest, "And how to prove it?"

"Why not! And how to prove it is something you should consider"

Professor Alexey pointed to the small card on his chest, "I am the curator of Mr. Alexander's museum now, so I have no way to investigate this matter."

"What's the benefit? What's the benefit?" Wei Ran got up and walked to the coffee pot not far away. He came back from Kazan early this morning. The journey was not easy, and now he was so sleepy that he could hardly keep his eyes open.

"A Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun with four blue crosses on the mantlet"

Professor Alexei raised his voice slightly, "It was also found in that old house, Victor, as long as you can figure out the relationship between that teacher and that old house, the door is worth forty thousand The dollar artillery is yours."

　Hit the workers to pay off the debt, and add more to the kitchen knife on the anvil of the creditor in the previous book
　　
　
(End of this chapter)