As the white light that filled the field of vision gradually faded, the familiar studio outside the car window became increasingly clear.
But Wei Ran found that the pain in his body was getting more and more severe. The pain came from his right arm that was broken by the machine gun, and from the bullets that hit his chest at the last moment.
Soon, the uncontrollable screams were heard from the car to the studio and then faintly from the studio to the outside. But he couldn't even turn his head and could only watch the dial on the dashboard of the off-road vehicle.
Beating from second to second.
The intense pain, like digging out flesh and heart, made him faint several times because he couldn't resist it. But the next second, he was awakened by the pain again and continued to suffer while letting out meaningless growls.
Wait for the pain to subside.
It wasn't until an hour passed on the dial that the unbearable pain finally subsided. Wei Ran, whose whole body was soaked with sweat, glanced at the pistol on his lap and the cowhide book spread out, and his vision went dark and he finally lost it.
consciousness.
When he was woken up by the ringtone of his cell phone, it was already morning. Looking at the caller number, it turned out to be Suisui.
"Has she already landed?"
Wei Ran struggled to pick up the phone in the glove box, but then he realized that he couldn't use his right hand at all.
Reluctantly, he switched to his left hand, just by holding the phone, and his chest and abdomen immediately responded with tearing pain.
With difficulty, she reached for the phone and pressed the connect button and speakerphone button. Suisui's voice immediately came from the receiver, "Why did it take you so long to answer the phone? I won't disturb your good things, right?"
"Asleep," Wei Ran replied weakly.
"Why does your voice sound a little wrong?" Suisui on the other end of the phone immediately heard the clues.
"It's okay," Wei Ranqiang tried his best to cover up, "It was freezing last night and I have a bit of a cold."
"But you sound like you're about to get cold," Suisui said angrily, "You'd better go to the hospital quickly."
"It's okay"
Weiran adjusted the seat to a comfortable angle, "Are you here?"
"We're almost at school. We need to hurry up just in time to catch up with the exam." Suisui brought the topic back to the topic uncertainly, "Are you really okay?"
“It’s really okay”
"Okay, I'm getting off the car and I'll call you after I finish the exam."
"Concentrate on the exam, I'm going to go back to sleep."
Wei Ran said a final perfunctory sentence and then died. Suisui on the other end of the phone waited for nearly a minute before ending the call completely.
Until this time, Wei Ran endured the pain and unzipped the cotton-padded jacket, lifted up the sweater and lining inside, and then found that his chest seemed to have been beaten, and there was a large piece of flesh remaining like a splash of water.
bruises.
Taking the cold air, I took off my shirt one by one, and then I found that the entire right elbow was covered with severe congestion, and even the slightest touch would cause excruciating pain.
Looking at the time on his phone, Wei Ran found that he had been in a coma for more than ten hours and had missed several Suisui's phone calls. However, his right hand, which he could still move slowly, made him let out a long sigh.
, anyway, fortunately, he came back in one piece.
He closed his eyes and took a breath. Wei Ran, who had no strength in his body, pushed open the car door with great effort, picked up the big box that fell at his feet and wiped it carefully. Then he hugged the top he had just taken off and held back his breasts.
Feeling the pain in his abdomen, he slowly moved to the upstairs bedroom in the dark. It wasn't until he turned on the lamp and wrapped himself in a quilt that he summoned the cowhide notebook that had turned back into a tattoo.
To his surprise, the outer cover of the book changed from cowhide to bronze-like material. The half-centimetre-thick metal cover was densely covered with mottled green rust. Even the metal quill pen was inlaid with
It corresponds to the concave outline on the cover.
After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran turned the desk lamp brighter and then turned to the first page.
What surprised him was that under his photo on this page, under the original seven words "War Photographer Wei Ran", there was actually an additional line of words "Military Rank: Second Lieutenant".
Is this a promotion for me?
Wei Ran muttered to himself and continued to turn the page. There was no change on the second page. In the red whirlpool on the back, the Mauser bayonet was floating quietly on it.
The same was true on the third page. Wei Ran took out the CZP09 pistol that used a large number of titanium alloy parts from the whirlpool on the back, looked at it, and then stuffed it back.
Continuing to turn back, unexpectedly, the red vortex on the back of the fourth page stopped rotating, and there was even a countdown of more than 100 hours!
Over 100 hours...five days?
After Wei Ran found that he couldn't reach into the stopped rotating whirlpool and take out the kerosene lamp, he simply continued to read.
Fortunately, the telescope and SVT40 semi-automatic rifle in the red and blue whirlpools on the back of the fifth page, as well as the Rollei twin-lens reflex camera in the red whirlpool on the sixth page, are not affected and can all be taken out.
But under the Junior Field Angel Medal on the seventh page, the red vortex containing the medical kit stopped rotating, and a countdown of more than one hundred hours also appeared on it.
So, it was locked because I gave the kerosene lamp and medical kit to the Chinese medicine shop?
Wei Ran thought for a moment and then turned to page eight.
On this page, the 20-ring potbelly box originally drawn with a metal quill pen and the big hand holding the gun have been transformed into a black and white photo.
Wei Ran remembered clearly that it was the scene when Li Hexian handed the pistol to his cousin Li Sui'an and asked him to ask for help before his death.
Under this black and white photo, the dark red writing seems to still smell of smoke and blood:
Mountains and rivers in foreign lands, irreconcilable
The shopkeeper of Cangxuzhai, on March 17, 1938, killed two enemy soldiers after the city of Teng County was captured, and died for his country.
Li Hexian, who detonated a grenade after the city of Teng County was captured on March 17, 1938, died for his country at the age of 24.
Li Sui'an, at the end of the Tengxian Defense War, was seriously injured when he was shelled on his way to the Beiguan position to seek help. He was later discovered by officers and soldiers of the Beiguan position and escaped through the Beicheng Gate.
After the battle to defend Teng County, Li Sui'an joined the army under the pseudonym Li Wangchuan and traveled to many battlefields. After the Anti-Japanese War, he assumed the name of Li Sui'an and returned to Zigong to settle down. He passed away on the night of September 18, 1988, leaving behind a son who he did not disclose to anyone until his death.
Military experience.
Continuing to look down, there is a name called "Li Wangchuan" written in black handwriting, a detailed address in Zigong, and a string of mobile phone numbers that clearly belong to China.
As the information continued, the handwriting returned to dark red, and another line neatly wrote the poem on the big-bellied box, "The war smoke stains the rivers and mountains with blood, and the Japanese will not return to Sichuan if they are not destroyed. Why should Xu Guo fear death when he goes to war?"
, kill all the Japanese invaders and build the Jingguan."
Without turning the pages in a hurry, Wei Ran took out a few negatives from the paper bag next to the photo and looked at the desk lamp, his thoughts seemed to have returned to those short days.
After a long time, Wei Ran sighed, stuffed the negatives back into the paper bag, and then turned the pages to the back.
Under the slowly rotating red vortex, a line of short black handwriting read, "Tangyuan made by Miss Zhou."
Wei Ran seemed to be laughing. He put his hand into the red vortex and endured the pain in his chest to pull out a big red traditional Chinese food box.
What made him laugh was that between the handle and the first lid of the food box, there was a small brass abacus only the size of a pencil box. On one of the borders of the abacus, there was a clear inscription "
"Cangxuzhai" are three small words.
Putting the abacus aside, Wei Ran gently opened the lid of the first layer of the food box, and immediately smelled the faint scent of osmanthus.
It was an ordinary white porcelain bowl and a spoon made of the same material. The glutinous rice balls in this bowl were not only steaming, but also sprinkled with some sweet-scented osmanthus.
Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then quickly closed the lid after realizing his reaction, and carefully returned the not-so-large food box together with the abacus back into the red vortex.
Taking back the notebook that had been replaced with a bronze cover, Wei Ran turned off the lamp with great effort and fell into a deep sleep again.
When he was woken up again by the ringing of the phone and the banging of the door, it was already afternoon, and heavy snow had drifted outside the window at some point.
While refusing to answer Ji Ma's call, Wei Ran put away his pistol. Wei Ran, who had not had any water or rice for more than 24 hours, found that he had started to have a fever, and his throat felt as if it was on fire.
He lowered his head and looked at the bruises on his chest, abdomen and elbows, and then he climbed up with difficulty. He weakly held the wall with his hands and feet and walked down the stairs step by step. He opened the rolling shutter door that was banging and banging.
"Victor, are you..." Before Jima could finish his words as he entered the studio, he noticed Wei Ran's sallow face.
"What's wrong with you?" Ji Ma asked with a frown.
"Maybe I have a cold..." Wei Ran replied drowsily, and then he felt like the world was spinning, and he fell to the floor uncontrollably and lost consciousness again.
Seeing this, Ji Ma didn't have time to think too much. He bent down, picked up Wei Ran and threw it into the compartment of the off-road vehicle. He drove it out of the studio, locked the rolling door and ran towards the hospital.
When Wei Ran woke up again, he found that he was already lying on the hospital bed. After trying to recall what happened before he fell into coma, he picked up the charging cell phone on the table and called Jima.
"Thank God, you are still alive." Jima said happily as soon as the call was connected.
"Why did I come to the hospital?" Wei Ran asked weakly.
"I should ask you," said Jima on the other end of the phone. "The doctor said that you have very severe symptoms of inflammation and slight bleeding in your body, and there are also some bruises like being beaten. Victor, you
You won’t be robbed, right?”
"No problem, where are you?" Wei Ran asked feebly.
"If you still have the strength to get up, just look down the window. I'm already in your car downstairs."
Ji Ma on the other end of the phone continued, "But it's useless even if you can see it. You were almost admitted to the critical ward before. The doctor said you have to stay in the hospital for at least two days for observation. In addition, Kalpuna
I have already explained the situation, and he said that the next class can be postponed to March until you come back from China. Also, I have also explained it to you, Aurora."
"They don't know I'm sick, right?" Wei Ran continued to ask.
"Only April knows that you have a cold. Neither Ms. Zhou nor Professor Alexei knows." Jima said wholeheartedly, "Anyway, you don't have to worry. Just leave the outside matters to me."
"Then I'll trouble you."
Wei Ran hung up the phone and looked at the time, only to realize that it was already the afternoon of the 11th, so he had slept all day again?
Putting down his cell phone, Wei Ran shook his head helplessly. This time he was sent back to Teng County in a cowhide book to defend the battle. It was definitely not comfortable, not to mention the heart-wrenching memories of the battlefield. Just after returning to this world, that
The severe pain that lasted for an hour made him shiver uncontrollably.
The remaining bruises on his chest and elbows, as well as the inflammation that led him to the hospital, are undoubtedly related to the fatal injuries he suffered at the last moment.
But as long as he remembered that it was still in the cowhide... no, it should be called a metal book, but no matter what it was, as long as he thought of the bowl of hot glutinous rice balls inside, he suddenly felt extremely satisfied.
