Chapter 146 In this group photo, I finally have my shadow.
Source of "War Photographer's Notes":
The night he arrived in Berlin, Wei Ran rarely had nightmares and had a good sleep. Early the next morning, when he woke up, the Spree River facing the hotel's floor-to-ceiling windows was already reflected.
Most of the blazing sun came out.
"Maybe they also want me to come back here and have a look..."
Wei Ran stood in front of the window, staring at the small independent clinic on the river bank, and murmured to comfort himself. He relaxed and took a cold bath that could make people howl like ghosts. He called the neighbor next door, who was also on the biological clock.
Ji Ma urged him to get up. After the two had breakfast, they followed the staff who came to pick them up and returned to the clinic where they stopped for a long time yesterday.
Before they entered the door, they heard the young girl Anna say decisively, "Mr. Hans, we are very grateful for your willingness to help us, but my mother and I will not leave Ukraine to settle in Germany.
Life in Ukraine is indeed difficult, but it is our home after all."
"I respect my daughter's decision."
Ms. Mora said in a gentle but firm tone, "Mr. Hans, my daughter and I cherish the friendship with your family, just like the friendship between my grandfather Ivan and Mr. Mario. Therefore, we do not want to use
What are the benefits of this friendship? Of course, if we really need help one day in the future, we will contact you without hesitation."
Hans played with half a thumb-sized gold bar in his hand. After a moment of silence, he saw that Wei Ran and Jima had walked in, and he had no choice but to say, "Since you insist on staying in Ukraine, please allow me to help you change to a better place in Kiev."
Some living environment, just like when Mr. Ivan was willing to take my family to escape the war as a Jewish survivor and doctor."
"This..." Maura and the lady looked at each other, and finally nodded, agreeing to Hans' request.
Hans finally showed a happy smile on his face, "In this case, I will ask my son to take you to have fun in Berlin for a few days, and then send you back."
"Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Hans." Mora said rather awkwardly.
"No trouble, not trouble at all." Hans stood up with a smile, "Victor, how about we talk alone next?"
"My pleasure." Wei Ran nodded with a smile and followed Hans along the creaking wooden stairs to the second floor.
When both parties sat down around the table, Hans sighed, "I wanted to leave them in Berlin to start a new life, but they all wanted to return to Ukraine."
Wei Ran looked around and saw the very familiar layout in the room. After thinking for a moment, he said leisurely, "Perhaps Mr. Mario and Dr. Rocky also received the same invitation from Mr. Ivan back then. Didn't they stay in the room in the end?"
Are you in Berlin?"
Hans was stunned for a moment, then he laughed dumbly, "You're right, it seems I didn't think it through well. If I don't say this, young man, how should I thank you?"
“Just pay for the investigation as we say”
Wei Ran picked up the coffee pot on the table and poured the other party a cup. He said half-jokingly, "Of course, if possible, it is best to pay in cash in Russia. This will allow me to pay a lot less tax."
"Haha! That's not a problem!"
Hans laughed and took out a check from his suit pocket and pushed it to Wei Ran, "In addition to the 12 million rubles for the investigation fee, please accept this check for 200,000 US dollars."
"What is this?" Wei Ran looked at Hans sitting opposite him in confusion, but did not touch the check.
"Manuscript of Mr. Ivan's Memoirs"
Hans explained gently, "Although you don't want to say more, it must have taken a lot of effort to find it. Even so, you are still willing to return it to Maura, which is rare. So of course I can't let the young man
Your efforts will not yield any benefits.”
Wei Ran smiled and said, "Mr. Hans, if I accept this surprise, are you also willing to accept the surprise I prepared for you and Ms. Maura?"
"What kind of surprise?" Hans asked with interest. Then seeing Wei Ran just looking at him with a smile, he immediately nodded happily, "I'm looking forward to the surprise you've prepared."
Seeing this, Wei Ran put down his coffee cup, took out a brown paper package from his backpack and handed it to the other party.
Unexpectedly, he opened the hemp rope and thick kraft paper, and there were only three square wooden photo frames inside. The photos in the first two photo frames were the wounded outside the clinic and the photos taken by Wei Ran after he had just obtained the camera.
In the tent, Father Hans and Dr. Lodge were busy carrying out rescue operations.
In the third photo frame, a few minutes before the Berlin city defense commander surrendered, Wei Ran took a group photo of everyone in a conference room full of wounded people.
"This is..." Hans raised his head and looked at the frozen lens in the photo frame, "Where does this come from?"
"I found it together with the manuscript." Wei Ran smiled, "Of course, all I found were the negatives, and I developed the photos myself."
"Very good, already very good, thank you Victor!"
Father Hans stood up excitedly, "Come on, come with me and hang them on the wall in the basement. Also, put that check away. Or how about I change it for you with one with a larger denomination?"
?”
"This one is enough." Wei Ran put the check into the compartment of his backpack with peace of mind, then took out a USB flash drive and handed it to Hans, "Here is the electronic version of the negative."
Putting away the USB flash drive carefully, Hans went downstairs and immediately showed everyone the photos he had just received from Wei Ran, who naturally received a wave of exclamation and thanks.
"Mr. Hans, and Ms. Mora."
Wei Ran took out a Rolleiflex double-lens reflex camera with a horse fur camera bag and even a gold melee assault medal on it from his backpack, "Before you hang those photo frames on the wall in the basement,
How about I take a group photo of you guys?"
"This is a good suggestion!" Hans looked at the photo frame in his hand, "Well, let's go take pictures outside the clinic!"
Upon hearing this, people in the room immediately moved their chairs to the outside of the clinic and stood in two rows under Jima's command.
Taking this opportunity, Wei Ran loaded a box of color film into his camera. After they posed, he gently moved the camera to capture all the people, the clinic behind them, and a short section of the Spree River sparkling in the morning sun.
Hold on, gently press the shutter.
"Victor, how about taking a photo with us?" Maura's proposal was immediately unanimously agreed by everyone.
He handed Jima the old-fashioned camera in his hand and showed him the position of the shutter. At Hans and Moura's insistence, Wei Ran stood behind them, standing side by side with Anna and Hans' son.
As the shutter clicked again, the smile on Wei Ran's face was frozen on the silver salt film. At the same time, he secretly muttered in his heart, "This photoshoot finally has my shadow."
