In the cement house at the edge of the playground, Wei Ran dragged the sledge out and extended an invitation to Lidya who helped open the door.
"Let's go," Lidya said, taking the initiative to help Wei Ran push the empty sledge.
"Sit on it"
Wei Ran stopped after pulling the sledge out of the door, "We don't have to work during the day, so sit on it. At least you can sleep for a while. I have to go back and take back those mouse traps. When it's almost there, I will call
Wake you up."
Hearing this, Lydia hesitated for a moment, and finally sat on the sledge, wrapped herself tightly in a blanket and closed her eyes.
Dragging the sledge, Wei Ran walked step by step in the direction he came from, following the footprints left last night.
Fortunately, compared to the emergency move before dawn, at least the return trip at this time was in a downwind direction. Sometimes, when he encountered a downhill road, he could still stand on the sledge and slide along for a distance of dozens of meters.
This small advantage, coupled with the fact that there was only the fake and airy Lidya in the car, undoubtedly made Wei Ran go a lot faster. However, before he could reach the ruins of the nursing home where the mouse traps were installed, the sky was full of
But there was heavy snowfall again.
For a moment, the strong wind carried snowflakes and enveloped the ruined city. It also woke up Lydia, who was already sleeping. The two of them watched with their own eyes some pedestrians were blown down by the wind and snow, and struggled, little by little.
Yes, struggling to get up.
"Victor, stop for a moment."
Before Lidya finished speaking, and before Wei Ran, who had already slowed down, came to a complete stop, she stumbled down from the sledge truck and struggled to lift up a thin middle-aged man like a hemp pole.
She didn't want to, so she took out the German chocolate that Wei Ran had given her before from her pocket, took out a piece from it, and stuffed it into the middle-aged man's mouth without any hesitation.
Sighing secretly, Wei Ran also stopped the car completely, took out his bottle of wine, walked over to another Leningrad resident who was knocked down by the wind, lifted his light body up, and let him sit firmly on the sledge.
, then brought the wine bottle with the lid unscrewed to his mouth, and poured him a small sip of thick honey.
Almost at the same time that honey flowed into his mouth, which had not eaten properly for a long time, the young man wearing a leather apron and thick glasses, who was supported by Wei Ran on his shoulders, widened his eyes and subconsciously drank from the wine bottle.
He took a big sip of thick honey.
What he didn't expect was that not only did his subconscious action take a big mouthful of honey, but Wei Ran also had no intention of avoiding it.
He pursed his lips tightly and stepped back. The man glanced at Wei Ran, then took out a glasses case from his arms and carefully spat out a large mouthful of honey into the glasses case.
"What are you doing?" Wei Ran asked in confusion.
"My wife is still hungry, and my children are still hungry." The man wearing glasses said gratefully, "They haven't had sweets for a long time. I plan to leave this mouthful of honey to them, but I
I still want to thank you for being willing to use such a precious thing to save me."
Wei Ran secretly sighed. Under the anxious and nervous gaze of the other party, Wei Ran took the shabby iron glasses case, poured the boss's thick honey into it, and then returned the glasses case to the other party, "Take care of it."
"Your wife and children, I'm sorry, I can only give you so much." "Thank you! Thank you!" The man clutched the glasses case and repeated his heartfelt gratitude over and over again.
"Hurry up and go home," Wei Ran said, and walked towards his sledge, which was about to turn over in the wind.
After a while, Lidya also sat on the sledge again, silently letting Wei Ran pull her and disappear into the wind and snow.
Until the two people behind them who were being helped were completely blocked by the wind and snow, Lydia suddenly asked, "Sorry, I used you to send..."
"It doesn't matter." Wei Ran waved his hand without looking back, and at the same time, he also speeded up slightly.
After almost half an hour of hurrying and slowing, Wei Ran saw the ruins of the bombed building again.
"I will go back by myself in the evening," Lydia said uneasily as she left the sledge, "Victor, take care of the children."
"After you finish your work, go to the basement to find me. I will bury Mrs. Via."
"Why don't we wait together?" Lydia asked subconsciously. "No wait, let's go to work."
After Wei Ran finished speaking, he waved his hand and watched Lidya, who was hesitant to speak, walk alone to the distribution office at the end of the street. Then, despite the wind and snow, he walked straight to the ruins of a nursing home not far away.
From a distance, he noticed that the ruins of the nursing home had also been bombarded before dawn, but fortunately, the nursing home itself was already a ruin that could not collapse anymore, and the surrounding buildings had already been burned down.
There was no one living there at all, so naturally there would be no casualties.
After taking an extra walk around the surrounding ruins, Wei Ran first loaded the half-burned wooden beams he accidentally found onto the sledge truck. He also made sure there were no other people around, and then carefully took out the wooden beams hidden everywhere.
Mouse trap.
What he didn't expect was that in just one night, a total of 6 rats of different sizes were caught in the 13 rat traps set up here!
Of course, all these fat rats that were caught had, without exception, been frozen to death in their cages due to the low temperature.
Without wasting any time, Wei Ran took out the German paratrooper knife he had picked up not long ago, disembowelled the rats as quickly as possible, chopped up the internal organs that had frozen into ice lumps, mixed them with honey, and rearranged the rat cages.
.
After packing all the cleaned furry rats into small sacks, Wei Ran cleaned up the footprints again, pulled half of the charred wooden beams, and returned to the basement, which was still extremely warm before the bombardment.
At this time, a thin layer of snow had accumulated in the basement with the skylight opened. In the open space at the door of the three rooms, a small grave was piled up by falling bricks and rubble.
At the edge of the bag, two frozen corpses could still be seen.
He remembered clearly that of the two corpses, one was originally placed in a room on the third floor, and the other was pulled back by himself with a sledge. The mother of the baby Galina————
Comrade Fennet.
"Wow"
As Wei Ran used the charred wooden beam to pry the gap between the bricks and tiles on the tomb bag, a pile of bricks still stuck together by cement slid to the feet of the tomb bag.
"Crunch, crunch"
Amidst the tooth-grinding noise made by the charred wooden beam itself, Wei Ran, who almost hung his entire body on the other end of the wooden beam, also felt his body slowly descending, and at the same time, another pile of broken bricks
It was also pried and rolled to the side.
After leaving the wooden beam behind, Wei Ran moved bricks and tiles away with his bare hands. Finally, after working for more than half an hour, he dug out the first frozen corpse, and then dug out the second corpse.
There was no rush to move the two corpses. After he stood up and became more accustomed to the dizziness caused by hypoglycemia, he carried the charred wooden beam into the originally warm basement and began to slowly pry more
A large collapsed wall.
After trying several times to no avail, he stopped and used the wooden beam in his hand to support the broken wall. Then he followed his memory to find Mrs. Via's position, sat down silently, and worked together patiently and meticulously.
They moved the broken bricks piece by piece, looking for Mrs. Via who was buried.
As time passed by while he was busy, the cold wind outside the basement became more and more biting, and the snow became heavier and heavier. Even the inside of the basement was covered with a layer of snow that blew in.
But from time to time, bricks of various sizes, complete or incomplete, were still thrown onto the white snow. The broken wall that was originally pressed against the ruins was finally lifted with difficulty thanks to Wei Ran's many efforts.
Gave up the position.
"Whoosh... whoosh..."
Amidst the soft sound of the falling bricks knocking against each other, Wei Ran pulled out Mrs. Via's frozen body with difficulty and caution.
After a rough inspection, he secretly sighed. This kind and pitiful old woman's lumbar vertebrae had been broken. The broken ribs were also soft and had clearly stabbed her internal organs. Even her legs
, all had their bones broken.
"Why bother shelling the civilians here..."
Wei Ran is helping
While watching Mrs. Weiya sorting out her remains, he muttered angrily. In these days, he had already figured out the surrounding situation. There were no factories, power plants, schools in session, no Soviet Red Army command post, and there was no any...
Decent anti-aircraft shelter.
In other words, except for the innocent starving residents, there are no targets for shelling or bombing here at all. But outside the city, there are those Germans and those French smokers flying around in the sky. They still do it, they still do it.
Aim the muzzle here and drop the aerial bomb here.
Wei Ran, who was thinking wildly, couldn't help but pause when he touched Mrs. Weiya's pocket. After a moment's hesitation, he put his hand into Mrs. Weiya's pocket and took out a tightly wrapped towel.
In fact, there is also a small package tied with a cross on the outside with a rope.
Inside this thick white towel is a wooden photo frame. There is a Y-shaped crack in the middle of the glass in the photo frame, but even so, the photo behind the glass can still be seen clearly.
In this color photo, which was not common in this era, the silver-haired Mrs. Via is sitting on a small stool wearing a smart Soviet bank uniform.
Next to her, there was an old man of a similar age sitting, holding an accordion in his arms, looking sideways at Mrs. Via, who was smiling particularly happily, with a loving look on his face.
Behind the old couple, behind the stools in the photo, you can see five younger men and women lined up.
The two on the far left look almost identical. They are both wearing Soviet Red Army uniforms, have beards, and each has a cigarette in his mouth.
On each of their chests, there are awards such as medals of bravery and battle medals. On their waists, there is also a TT33 pistol in a holster. The one on the right also has a TT33 pistol hanging on his chest.
A telescope.
The third one, who looked younger, was wearing a Soviet Air Force one-piece flight suit, with a leather flight cap and goggles on his head. He also had a medal on his chest that he could not see what it was.
The fourth one is a dashing woman, she is wearing a blue police uniform, and a Nagant revolver in a holster can be seen on her waist.
As for the last young man, he was wearing a brown plaid formal suit, a Lenin hat, and a pair of glasses on his face.
On the contrary, he was holding a vodka bottle in one hand and a huge chicken drumstick in the other. Even his cheeks were bulging, as if there was something he hadn't had time to swallow, and he was called to take part in the photo shoot.
A family portrait of laughter and laughter.
Turning the photo frame over to the back, Wei Ran opened the wooden cover at the back. First he found a negative in a paper bag, and then he discovered that on the back of the photo, there was writing in smooth blue cursive Russian.
"The anniversary of the October Revolution of 1940 is a day worth commemorating and celebrating." It's a pity...
Wei Ran silently took out the British army kettle, put the paper bag containing the negatives into the kettle's canvas cover, then restored the photo frame to its original shape, rewrapped it in a towel and tied it tightly with a rope, and placed it on Mrs. Via
's arms.
Looking up at the gloomy sky outside and the falling snowflakes, Wei Ran unscrewed the lid of the kettle and took a sip of sticky honey. Then he put away the kettle and dragged Mrs. Via's frozen body with a little effort.
, wrapped her carefully with a blanket dug out together, and then stacked two layers of broken bricks just excavated against the corner, placed her body side by side with the two corpses outside, and used a paratrooper knife to
On two of the relatively complete bricks, the names of Mrs. Via and Fennette were engraved and placed on their respective necks.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! After finishing this, Wei Ran sat down and rested for a while, then covered the three corpses with the canvas he brought, and then began to carefully stack them on top.
Brick after brick, a layer of snow was covered on top.
When he stopped completely, the snowflakes falling above his head became bigger and bigger, the wind became more and more fierce, and even the sky became darker and gloomier. I don't know who will be buried here next... Wei
Ran touched the crack on the wall that was as wide as a fist, and worriedly took half of the charred wooden beam away from the completely abandoned ruins, returning to the ruins of the nursing home again.
As usual, he checked the surroundings. After making sure that no one was there, he pulled out the mousetraps he had set up in the morning and checked them one by one.
Unfortunately, maybe the time was too short, or maybe the shelling before dawn scared away the rats here. This time, not a single rat was caught in the 13 cages.
Silently, he moved the mouse cage and rearranged it. When Wei Ran returned to the ruins of the building where the basement was located, Lydia, covered with a blanket and wearing a Budyonny hat, was already waiting by the roadside.
"I saw what you did," Lydia said when she saw Wei Ran.
"Get in the car"
Wei Ran pointed to the sledge behind him and waited for the other party to sit on it. Then he walked towards the school playground in the cold wind and asked, "Did you get anything today?" "Black bread."
Lydia paused and replied as loudly as she could, "Today there is only black bread. The wind and snow are too strong. I heard from people in the transport team that besides many accidents on the road today, the Germans dropped a lot of bombs. There are also several
The horse-drawn sleighs were lost, and some of the sleighs arrived at the port with the mules pulling them still alive but the people already frozen to death."
"Is there no good news?" Wei Ran turned around and asked loudly. "No." Tired Lydia shook her head, "All I heard today is bad news."
"Go home," Wei Ran said, hunching his waist and dragging the sledge towards the new shelter.
"Comrade Political Commissar asked me today if I should take the children out."
Lidia paused, and when Wei Ran didn't speak, she continued, "I rejected his suggestion. The situation in Lake Ladoga is too dangerous now. Even if the children won't sink into the lake because of the bombs dropped by the Germans,
There is a possibility of freezing to death on the way."
"When do you plan to evacuate the children?" Wei Ran finally asked.
"Just wait a little longer."
Lydia paused and said tentatively, "The children just had a full meal yesterday. At least let them eat a few more times so that they have enough strength to resist the low temperature on the road..."
After another pause, Lidia asked in a panic when Wei Ran didn't speak, "Victor, I know this... this is difficult, but..."
"Nothing difficult"
Wei Ran responded in a firm tone, "Didn't we find a stable source of food? The horse hides and offal we brought back last time were enough for us to eat for four or five days. After four or five days, Ke Na and I also had
With enough strength, the harvesters can bring back more horse hides and offal from the front line."
Hearing this, Lidya breathed a sigh of relief, and in the biting cold wind, she softly said "thank you" that Wei Ran didn't even hear.
After walking in the wind and snow for nearly an hour, as the sky darkened completely, the two of them finally returned to the small cement house on the edge of the playground with not much gain, relatively smoothly.
As soon as they entered the door, they felt a little warmth rushing towards their faces. Then they saw a set of shelves against the wall that were obviously moved from the basement. On the shelves, there were also pots and pans of various sizes.
The ladle holds the prepared pork skin jelly.
Not only that, even the chimney extending from the basement has strings of sliced brown horse liver hanging on it. And where the chimney is flush with the ground, there are several iron buckets filled with snow.
Obviously he doesn't intend to let go of any heat.
A little further away, Kona was carrying an enamel kettle, pouring hot water on the horsehide placed in the iron washing basin. The older children, headed by Alexander, were gathered around the iron basin, or in their hands
Hold a can skin or a knife and wait to pull out all the horse hair.
"You are back"
While Wei Ran and Lidya were stunned, Ke Na pointed around and proudly showed off, "We made enough aspic for three days, and also found some iron buckets and iron basins in the ruins of the school."
"I also found a national flag!" Alexander rushed to say, pointing behind Wei Ran and Wei Ran.
Turning around subconsciously, the two belatedly discovered that there was indeed a big red Soviet flag hanging on the inside of the iron gate.
"We also found this!"
As the young man named Alyosha said, he had already picked up a Soviet army lunch box that was slightly dry and had serious paint peeling off from the shelf, and handed it to Wei Ran as if it were a treasure.
Taking the lunch box and opening it, Wei Ran couldn't help but shook his head when he saw the contents inside. No wonder he wanted to give this thing to himself. There was a particularly beautiful pipe on the tray of the lunch box, a brown one that was not too big.
A small glass bottle, a pitiful tin funnel, and a small velvet bag with a golden sickle and hammer pattern embroidered on it.
Ignoring the pipe, Wei Ran reached out and picked up the red cloth bag and opened it. What was inside turned out to be a silver hearth stove that looked particularly exquisite in workmanship and definitely not cheap.
Gently weighing the stove, which was about the same size as a later cigarette case, Wei Ran pulled off the upper cover with the beautiful opening and smelled it. Then, he unscrewed the small bottle and smelled it.
Seeing that the bottle was indeed filled with kerosene, Wei Ran tightened the lid again and picked up the tray of the lunch box.
this tray
In the remaining space, in addition to a stack of cigarette papers that had been cut to a suitable size and could be used to roll Mohe cigarettes, there were also two packs of matches and a steel needle that was more than ten centimeters long.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Obviously, the previous owner of these things enjoyed smoking, and seemed to only be fond of low-quality Mohe cigarettes.
"I'm not sure if these Mohe cigarettes are of any use, but I guess that warmer can at least keep one of you two warm."
Kona put down the enamel pot in her hand and said while cleaning the hair on the horse's hide, "We found these things in a collapsed office in the morning, and also found a buried office
The table, of course, we have burned at least a third of that table."
"I don't have any use for these things."
As Wei Ran spoke, he used a small funnel to add kerosene to the stove, lit it with a lighter, and handed it to Lidya.
Before the girl could say anything, Wei Ran had already picked up the pipe and looked at the carvings on it while saying, "Just give those Mohe cigarettes to Comrade Matvey, he will definitely take them happily."
His little actors come here to perform for the children."
"Can he still come here to perform for us?" Alexander and Alyosha asked the same question in surprise.
"It will definitely come, I promise."
Wei Ran said, threw the pipe into the lunch box, closed the tray and lid again, and handed it to Alyosha again, "Young man, put it away. Uncle Matvey will come to perform for us next time."
When the time comes, give it to him personally!"
"Okay!" Alyosha said, already holding this special "performance fee" tightly in his arms.
"It's your turn, how was your harvest today?" Kena also didn't give Lydia, who was holding the stove in her hand, a chance to speak.
"I caught 6 rats"
Wei Ran pretended to show off and took off the sack hanging from his waist, and poured out all the rats whose internal organs had been cleaned, "We can make a big pot of broth today."
"I got the bread back"
Lidya sighed secretly, first looked at Wei Ran gratefully, then put away the warmer that had started to heat up, then untied the sack and took out two pieces from it with a trace of guilt.
Half of brown bread.
Kena opened her mouth and wisely did not ask why there was no milk today. Instead, she asked them to go to the basement first, and then urged Alexander to help go to the basement and bring a bucket of hot water up to deal with the mice.
Under the arrangement of this smart little girl, the children became busy again.
Not long after, an enamel pot was set up on the cast iron stove in the basement, which was constantly providing warmth. In this pot, chopped rat meat, a quarter of dried fish, and
Some chopped fat intestines thrown in at Wei Ran's suggestion.
Before the broth in the pot boiled, Lydia played the bayan skillfully, while Kena led the children to sing a song called "Hey! Little Apple" that required some strength.
Maybe it was because the music was cheerful enough, or maybe it was because the children had finally filled their stomachs recently and had some strength. In this pre-dinner concert, the children's voices were finally no longer so weak.
Not only the children, but even Kona, who originally had no energy to sing even one song, not only sang a whole song today, but also started the song "Night in the Harbor" that Alexander and other older children love to sing.
While the children were singing the second song, Ke Na also sat down next to Wei Ran, lowered her voice and asked, "Victor, I have three things to ask you."
"What's the matter?" Wei Ran asked, looking at Ke Na's thin little face that was illuminated by the fire.
"When are we going to bury Mrs. Via?" Ke Na asked the first question almost against Wei Ran's ear.
"I have already buried her today, so I buried her in the original basement. Lydia saw it." Wei Ran replied in a low voice.
"You should have let me go with you."
Kona paused and continued to ask with her ear, "Second thing, Victor, is there a problem with the rationing today? When will we go to the front line to get some food again?"
"Let's finish eating what we brought back first." Wei Ran selectively answered one of the questions, "What's the last question?"
"There are several horse stomach bags among the offal we brought back. I have washed those things, but how are we going to eat them? I have never eaten the stomach of any animal. Although my mother is a good cook, she has never cooked.
Pass the stomach bag, and most importantly, our seasoning only has some coarse salt."
"Leave these little problems to me."
Wei Ran gave a vague response to the last question, "Okay, is it time to take down the meat jelly you made? I'm already hungry."
"I'll pick it up right now!"
Before she finished speaking, Kona had already stood up holding on to the wall and ran towards the concrete stairs leading to the ground with slightly frivolous steps.
"It should be the second time tonight that I'm full, and things are starting to move in a good direction..."
Wei Ran muttered secretly, and then began to think about it. He had been here for nearly a week. After all, he should complete one of the requirements of the return mission and take a group photo for everyone every week. The transcoding has been serious recently.
, let us be more motivated and update faster, please use your little hands to exit the reading mode. Thank you