As the fourth short day came to the hunter's cabin in the canyon, the raging snowstorm outside the window also began to decline visibly. On the contrary, everyone in the hunter's cabin became a little overwhelmed after waking up.
Karl was lying on his wolfskin blanket, looking at the much brighter window not far away, and complained with a frown, "Why did it stop so soon? We have just become friends."
Although the other German soldiers could not understand what Karl was saying, they made the same complaint. Conon, who had performed "Troika" on Flory's harmonica last night, already looked like a scumbag.
Like a man, he got up from his wolfskin blanket with an expressionless face, put on his clothes carefully, and then stood in front of the window and looked at the snowy scene outside.
"It's time for this friendship to end..." Dr. Jason sighed, and stood up silently and started to get dressed.
Wei Ran and Markla's father and son looked at each other. The three of them did not say anything after all. They had never experienced what Konon went through when Leningrad was besieged, so they were not qualified to give him any advice at this moment.
"I'm going to see if the trap has caught any prey."
Karl once again chose to escape and the hunter's cabin became oppressive again. Without waiting for anyone else to say anything, he opened the wooden door wrapped in animal skins and ran out.
But this time, neither his father Markla nor Flory, who had become friends with him, chose to follow him.
"It's time for us to go." After getting dressed, Dr. Jason shook hands with Markla and Wei Ran respectively, and finally extended his hand to Konon.
"Thank you for the surgery."
Conon and Dr. Jason held hands together and said calmly, "After you walk out of this hut, we will be enemies. You must be loyal to your motherland, and I must be loyal to mine."
"I hope that after the war, we can have the opportunity to sit together as friends again." Doctor Jason paused here and finally just added, "Remember to ask Victor to change your dressing on time."
Konon nodded and decisively let go of his hand.
"Jason, take our sleigh and a reindeer away." Markla pressed the wooden door and said, "For the sake of us still being friends, please accept this gift!"
"What should you do?" Dr. Jason asked subconsciously.
"There's a broken sled in the utility room."
Markla said in a relaxed tone, "As long as we repair the sleigh, we can continue to pursue you. And don't forget, we also have an anti-tank weapon. Your chances of winning are not great."
Dr. Jason nodded after hesitating for a moment, "Markla, if you can, please help me preserve the bodies of Luca and Yannick. If there is a chance in the future, I will come back and take them away. If... or just
Let them stay here!"
"Don't worry," Markla solemnly promised, "They will always be here waiting for you to come back and pick them up."
Dr. Jason turned his head and glanced at Konon, who had been staring at him. He stood up straight and saluted with a military salute, "Thank you."
Konon did not return the gift, but nodded inconspicuously.
"It's time for us to set off." Before Dr. Jason finished speaking, Flory immediately helped a wounded man out of the hunter's cabin.
Under the watchful eyes of Wei Ran and others, Dr. Jason and Flory took the three wounded and not many supplies, each picked up their weapons and got on the sleigh, and left with heavy steps, dragged by a reindeer.
The coniferous forest where the hunter's cabin was located finally disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Karl, move the sleigh out of the utility room. We should get ready to go." Markla said, picking up the ax, lifting several wooden floors and walking into the utility room.
At the same time, Wei Ran also put away the camera that had just photographed the backs of Dr. Jason and others, and returned it to its original owner, Konon.
Amidst the clanking sound, the entrance to the utility room's cellar was completely sealed by the floor, and the dusty sleigh was fixed by Karl with a temporary leather rope cut out of a wolfskin blanket.
On the remaining reindeer.
"Let's go, it's time for us to set off."
Markla raised one end of the anti-tank weapon, while Konon raised the other end. As for the gas, he picked up the rolled animal hide and closed the wooden door of the hunter's cabin after going out.
However, just as their dilapidated sleigh was about to enter the canyon, a clear and audible exchange of fire suddenly came from directly in front of them. Before they could react, the snow on the rock walls on both sides of the canyon suddenly
It began to slide amidst the repeated echoing sounds of gunfire, and finally galloped down like a wild horse!
Amidst the loud "rumbling" sound, more and more snow fell from the rock wall, and the speed became faster and faster. The steaming snow obscured all the sight in the canyon. The sleigh was originally pulling a sleigh and was about to enter.
The reindeer in the canyon did not need to shout at all, but turned around and ran back to the flat land at the edge of the forest, making restless deer calls.
"What's going on?" Konon asked loudly, frowning.
"Even the reindeer knew it was an avalanche!" Carl seemed to have returned to his unpleasant venomous tongue from a few days ago. Conon choked on his words and wanted to throw him into the canyon.
The avalanche came and went quickly, and it took only seven or eight minutes for the avalanche to completely recover. Without any prompting, Karl shouted to the reindeer and rushed into the canyon that was elevated several meters, looking for their destination aimlessly.
enemy.
However, just when the sled cart was halfway through, the reindeer pulling the cart refused to leave. It just pawed anxiously on the spot, using its mouth to dig into the snow under its feet, and at the same time made a burst of deer calls.
"The reindeer they took away and the one they left behind are a pair." Markla sighed and explained, "It seems that they encountered an avalanche here."
Before Konon could say anything, Wei Ran, who had been observing the front, immediately reminded him, "Be careful, someone is coming from ahead."
Hearing this, the others subconsciously picked up their weapons and looked at the two sleighs that were getting closer and closer in front of them.
About three or four minutes later, two sleighs ran over from the other end of the canyon and stopped less than ten meters away from them. Both sleighs were pulled by two reindeer, and one of them was sitting on
Three people dressed as Finnish Civil Guards had a Lati L39 anti-tank gun on their sleigh. On the other sleigh, except for the driver who seemed to be a local, the remaining two people were
They were all wearing Soviet military uniforms, and in the middle of them was a mortar.
"That sleigh full of Germans just now was your prey?" One of the Soviets stood up from the sled and asked apologetically.
“Indeed it’s ours”
Markla hid her sadness and said with regret on her face, "We have been chasing them for several days, and we are about to capture them alive."
"There is no need for the Germans to survive. Killing them all is the simple way." The Soviet man said in Finnish in a calm tone, "Are there any traces of Germans behind you?"
Markla held down Karl who was about to say something, shook his head and replied, "No, the rest will be killed."
"In this case, we won't go in." The Soviet man waved his hand and signaled the Finn driving the car to change direction.
The Finns in the other car obviously saw something from the whining reindeer, but in the end they just sighed in despair and silently shouted to the reindeer to follow the previous reindeer car.
.
"Let's go too"
Markla sighed, picked up a Mosin-Nagant rifle on the sled and poked it hard on the snow, "In the summer, this canyon will become a seasonal river, and all the snow will
They will all turn into rivers, and the friends we once had will disappear completely."
"Dad, should we..."
"No"
Markla obviously knew what her son wanted to do, "When a person dies, he is dead. Even if the body is preserved, it has no meaning."
Everyone on the sleigh fell silent one after another. Apart from the howling cold wind, only the sad roar of deer echoed repeatedly in the narrow and deep canyon.
Soon after, the sleigh walked out of the canyon. When it passed the half-track ambulance that was mostly buried in the snow, Conon, who had been silent all the way, suddenly said, "Doctor Jason has expected it."
They can't go back."
Upon hearing this, Karl immediately shouted to the slowly moving reindeer to stop, and turned his head to look at Conon in confusion.
The latter took out a cloth bag from his arms and opened it, revealing the belongings of the wounded Yannick. "He asked me to send these relics back to him if there is a chance after the war. He said that even if we don't pursue them,
They, they have also missed the last time to board the ship to go home. He just wanted to give the wounded some hope of continuing to live for the time being."
"Let's go back"
Markla sighed, "I'll continue to be a hunter when I go back. The job of the Civil Guard is really not suitable for me."
"Maybe I should consider Flory's suggestion," Carl said with a hint of tears, "I want to be a comedian."
"Just do whatever you like." Markla tiredly took off the submachine gun on his shoulder and threw it aside. He wrapped himself tightly in a bearskin blanket and lay next to the anti-tank weapon that had never been used before.
As time went by, there were no more snowflakes above the head, and even the temperatureless sun hanging in the sky seemed to become extraordinarily dazzling.
When the sled stopped next to the half-track armored vehicle that blinded Konon's eye, Konon signaled Karl to stop.
"What's wrong?" Karl asked impatiently.
"Fire it with your anti-tank weapons," Konon said, pointing at the half-track armored vehicle.
"Are all Soviets so stingy?" Karl mocked, "Although it cost you one..."
This time, Konon was not interested in Karl's venomous tongue at all. He just interrupted the former's taunting in a calm tone, "Let Dr. Jason die in this car, so that at least he has a chance to be listed as killed in battle instead of missing."
.”
Karl was stunned, then lowered his head and said, "Sorry, I..."
The latter had no intention of getting up. He just stretched out his hands on the bearskin blanket and said, "You can do whatever you want, I'm tired."
Karl looked at Weiran for help. The latter sighed and helped lift the anti-tank weapon down and prop it up less than a hundred meters away from the half-track armored vehicle carrying the quadruple anti-aircraft gun. Conon was already there.
Sliding back from the wreckage of the armored vehicle, he reached out and handed Wei Ran a cold armor-piercing bullet.
"Come on," Carl said to Wei Ran, "I want to watch the reindeer to avoid being scared away by the gunfire."
Wei Ran looked at Konon whose face was wrapped in gauze, finally nodded, pressed the only armor-piercing bullet into the magazine, and then vigorously shook the crank on the right side of the gun body to complete unbolting and loading.
With a crisp "click" sound, the only armor-piercing bullet was pushed into the chamber. Slowly, the muzzle of a gun was aimed at the front of the armored vehicle not far away. Wei Ran held the trigger with his right index finger and middle finger and slowly exerted force.
.
"boom!"
After a dull gunshot, the huge recoil caused Wei Ran, who was lying on the snow, to move back about ten centimeters. At the same time, a fierce white light also filled his field of vision.
"It's finally over..."
Wei Ran sighed, but his heart was filled with deep disappointment. He was disappointed because he had never communicated a single word with Yannick from beginning to end, and he was even more disappointed with Markla and his son, Konon, and the few people who had just met each other not long ago.
Finns feel sad about their inner conflict.
In his opinion, Dr. Jason is undoubtedly a good person, Markla and his son are even more impeccable, and even Conon is definitely not a bad person.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! If they are all good people, if they all did what they should do, then why did everyone lose something precious in the end?
Maybe this is war...
Wei Ran closed his eyes tiredly, but then he realized something was wrong. He clearly remembered that he was in the hotel when he came, but the noise coming to his ears was as noisy as at a crossroads.
Wei Ran opened his eyes in confusion, and was surprised to find that he was sitting in the driver's seat of a car. Looking at himself through the rearview mirror, his face turned out to be much more mature, and he looked like a middle-aged man.
Before he could react, the door of the car behind him was opened, and a man wearing a black suit and a top hat got in first, followed by a man similarly dressed but wearing a black eyepatch.
What's quite funny is that this man's eyepatch seems to have been graffitied with a colorful pirate flag by some naughty little guy.
“Go to the Windmill Gallery”
The man wearing an eyepatch said in fluent German, "Keep driving along this street. When you reach the end, turn left."
Wei Ran glanced at the two people in the rear compartment through the rearview mirror, but did not rush to drive. Instead, he turned around and asked with a smile, "Karl, Konon, do you still recognize me?"
"my God!"
The man in a suit who got into the car first widened his eyes, "Brother Victor? Are you Victor? Victor from the Civil Guard?!"
"It's me!" Wei Ran nodded, and asked the same question as Konon in unison, "Why are you here?"
"Let me explain!"
Karl said excitedly, "After the war, I became a comedian, and now I am my partner with Brother Conon."
"You two are partners?" Wei Ran looked at Konon sitting behind him in surprise.
The latter smiled flatly, "Remember when I asked you to shoot at that half-track armored vehicle? I wrote that incident as news and sent it back to Pravda, but it was quickly exposed and the report was not published at all.
It was published in the newspaper and I was almost sent to a labor camp."
"Later, under my persuasion, Konon stayed in Finland. Of course, Konon had already died in an avalanche while ambushing the Germans." Karl said excitedly, "Thanks to being in that hunter's cabin.
For those chocolates you gave me, Satu not only agreed to date me, but is now my wife and manager, and we have a beautiful daughter."
Konon pointed to his face, "My blindfold is the work of his naughty daughter."
"So you two are comedians now?"
"To be precise, I am the only one"
Karl patted his chest excitedly and said, and then he hugged Konon's shoulders, "Brother Konon is responsible for writing manuscripts for me. This time he was invited to perform in Nuremberg. Victor, what about you? How could you do the same?
Come to Germany? And become a taxi driver?"
"Forehead..."
Wei Ran didn't know how to explain it for a while, but Konon seemed to have guessed an answer that was convincing enough for him, so he took up the topic and said, "No matter how you are in Germany, should we find a place to have a drink?"
"That's a good idea!"
Karl said before Wei Ran agreed, "I remember there is a bar across from that gallery. How about we go to that bar after we drop off?"
"What do you want to give?" Wei Ran asked in a strange way while starting the car.
"Do you still remember the German soldier Yannick who didn't survive in the hunter's cabin in the snowstorm?" Conon said with emotion, "Dr. Jason gave me his belongings at that time, hoping that I would have the opportunity to send them back.
But it wasn’t until half a month ago that Carl’s daughter accidentally knocked over the ink bottle in my drawer that I remembered that I had never completed this commission.”
Having said this, Konon opened the briefcase he had been carrying, took out a candy box from it, opened it, took out an ink-soaked ID, showed it to Wei Ran, and said with some anxiety, "I hope that soldier
My family won’t blame me.”
“My daughter is also to blame”
Karl said helplessly, "Maybe it's my father. Since the end of the war, he has been drunk every day. If it hadn't been for him, my daughter would not have run into Conon's office."
"Speaking of which, how is Uncle Macra doing now?"
"Like a Soviet, I drank until I was dead almost every day."
Conon said with a headache, "That old guy has almost become my creative source. In the past six months, many of Carl's performances have come from that old guy who makes jokes every day."
"That's great," Wei Ran murmured to himself with emotion.
"What?"
"I said it's great"
Wei Ran slightly increased his voice, "The war is over, we are all still alive, and we can meet by chance. The most important thing is that you have really become a comedian."
Karl was startled and said in a daze, "My stage name is Flory. Konon gave it to me."
"Florrie gave it to you," Conon corrected while stroking the blindfold on his face, "My current name is Jason."
"It seems I'm the only one still called Victor"
As Wei Ran spoke, he turned the steering wheel and steered the car to a stop in front of a gallery with a windmill sign.
"wait a second"
As Konon spoke, he pushed open the car door, walked to the gallery door across the street, and placed the candy box at the gallery door.
When he got back into the car, the three of them seemed to have lost sight of the conversation, and they all stared at the gallery outside the car window.
More than half an hour later, a skinny boy carrying a schoolbag rushed towards the gallery amid the flying snowflakes.
As he passed the door, the boy bent down, picked up the candy box, shook it, then pushed open the glass door and walked in.
Through the gallery window, the three of them saw a woman walking down the stairs. They saw her lying on the table and crying bitterly after opening the candy box. They also saw the helpless child comforting his mother.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "That kid's name is Noah, Noah Mueller." Wei Ran, who was sitting in the driver's seat, explained softly, "He is the German soldier named Yannick.
The son of a soldier."
"How do you know?" Karl couldn't help but ask.
Wei Ran did not answer his question, but looked at Konon through the rearview mirror and suggested, "Should we tell him what happened?"
"forget it"
Konon shook his head, "People have been dead for so long, so why not give that woman some hope? It may be more painful, but at least it will give her the motivation to live. Okay, let's go have a drink."
Wei Ran opened his mouth, but wisely did not try to change anything, and followed Karl and Konon into a small bar on the street.
That night, Karl and Konon chatted about their post-war experiences. They talked about their achievements in Finland, and about the family that Karl and the girl named Satu had formed and the children they had given birth to.
They even talked about Konon’s experience of trying to open a dessert shop and failing miserably.
As cups of wine were poured into their mouths, the expressions on the faces of the three people changed from excitement at first to emotion later, and even their views on the war that had ended for more than ten years, and what they had lost and gained in the war.
s things.
At some point, Wei Ran, who had already drunk too much, felt that the two people in front of him were getting blurry and blurred, and finally lost consciousness completely, and then immediately regained consciousness.
When the white light in the field of vision dissipated, the surroundings finally turned into a familiar yet unfamiliar hotel room. And the metal book automatically turned to the tenth page, letting the metal quill "swish, swish, swish" under the black and white photo.
