Surrounded by two sheep and a border shepherd, Wei Ran walked to the door in a leisurely manner.
Without him having to do anything, the smart border collie bit the cloth strip tied to the door handle and opened the door. It shook its big fluffy tail crazily and motioned Wei Ran in with its eyes. And the two sheep,
Then he knelt down on the blankets on both sides of the door.
After touching the head of the border collie, Wei Ran took a deep breath, knocked gently on the door, waited for a while, and then walked into the room.
The house is not that big. There are many pet toys scattered on the wooden floor. There is also a set of exquisite coffee pots on the dining table not far away. There are also many hangings on the wall on the side of the door.
The oil painting depicting a rural scene even had an easel propped up on the side of the old man sitting in the rocking chair looking at himself.
"Young man, welcome to be our guest." The old man in the rocking chair raised his finger and pointed to the sofa not far away, "You can find a place to sit by yourself."
"Thanks"
Wei Ran bowed slightly, walked to the beige single sofa and sat down, but then, a series of fart-like sounds came out from under his butt.
The old man sitting in the rocking chair also laughed heartily when the sound came out.
Wei Ran stood up slightly awkwardly, lifted up the cushion on the sofa, and then discovered that there was something like an old-fashioned hot water bottle placed under the cushion.
"Just a little joke, that was a little gift my students gave me on April Fool's Day a few days ago."
The old man motioned for Wei Ran to sit down again, and then continued with a smile, "Young man, why did you come to my place?"
"Hello, my name is Victor."
Wei Ran shook hands with the other party respectfully, sat down again and said, "Are you Mr. Sergey, a teacher of the Department of Mathematics at the National University?"
"It is true that I worked as a teacher in the mathematics department of the National University, and my name is indeed Sergey."
The old man in the wheelchair said gently, "But I don't remember teaching an Asian student as young as you. When I retired and stopped teaching, the Soviet Union had not yet retired."
"The Soviet Union was already retired when I was born."
Wei Ran indirectly confirmed the other party's guess and said with a smile, "Mr. Sergey, I am taking the liberty of visiting you this time to ask you some questions."
"You want to ask me a question?"
Sergey thought for a moment, shook his head and asked, "I guess it's not a math problem, right?"
"You're as smart as you were when you were a kid..." Wei Ran muttered secretly, nodded and replied, "It's a matter of history."
"I'd be happy to help you answer something," Sergey said gently, "but how about you do me a favor too?"
"No problem" Wei Ran agreed happily, "What do you need from me?"
"Help me give that dog and those two sheep a bath," Sergey said slowly, "They haven't had a bath in almost a month."
"I'm very happy," Wei Ran said and stood up.
"There's no rush." Sergey quickly waved his hand, "Wait until I, the math teacher, am sure that I can answer your history questions, then go give them a bath."
"Even if I'm not here to ask questions, it's okay to do this for you."
As he spoke, Wei Ran took off his suit jacket, took off his tie and placed it on the sofa, "Mr. Sergey, where is the bathroom?"
"Enter the room on the left"
Sergey patted the butt of the big fat cat on his knee, and after it reluctantly jumped to the floor, he stood up slowly and said while walking towards the bathroom, "Victor,
If I guess correctly, are you from China?"
"Where did you see that?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.
"When I was a teacher at a national university, I once had students from China."
Sergey said with emotion, "At that time, they were just like you. They were always enthusiastic and willing to help others, and they could always turn transactions into friendship. The time spent with those young people is really missed."
"Do you still have contact?"
While Wei Ran was talking, he had already opened the door to the bathroom. There was a light green enamel bathtub inside. There were also a lot of pet toiletries on the shelf next to it, and there were even plastic signs indicating that they were for dogs.
Yes, for cats, or for sheep.
“There are very few people who have any contact.”
Sergey moved a chair and sat at the door of the bathroom, and said slowly, "I am already over 90 years old, and some of my earliest students even went to see Comrade Stalin earlier than me.
Many of them have lost contact, and only a few children still remember me as their teacher."
"At least someone will give you a gift on April Fool's Day," Wei Ran reminded with a smile. While speaking, he picked up a little sheep from the door and sent it to the bathroom.
"I never celebrate April Fool's Day"
Sergey smiled and shook his head, "Wash them in the bathtub. That bathtub is specially used for bathing them. Rinse them with warm water first, then use the red brush dipped in shower gel to wash them twice, and finally rinse them again.
Twice, then wipe them dry, and then use a hair dryer to dry their fur. Don’t worry, they are used to it and won’t be afraid of the hair dryer.”
"Okay" Wei Ran carried the sheep into the bathtub under the guidance of the other party and started bathing the little lamb according to the steps.
"Victor, tell me the historical question you want to ask." Sergey, who was sitting at the door of the bathroom, asked, "If I can't answer it, I can think of what to do while you help me bathe them.
Thank u."
“Those things are not urgent”
Wei Ran used a brush to lather the little sheep and asked, "Mr. Sergey, do you usually live by yourself?"
"And these little guys"
Sergey said gently, as if he treated Wei Ran, whom he met for the first time, as an old friend. "My two grandsons and one granddaughter are older than you. They bring their children to see me every week.
These little animals are also raised here by their children to accompany me, and a nanny usually comes to help me cook every day."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "It seems that your old age is very happy," Wei Ran said sincerely, with his hands full of foam.
While chatting with Sergey, Wei Ran carefully bathed the two sheep and the dog, as well as the big fat cat that got into the bathroom to watch the fun out of excessive curiosity.
By the time he finished his work, it was already noon, and the nanny who came in advance also prepared a table of delicious meals.
After having lunch with Sergey, Wei Ran, who sat on the sofa again, took out the large group photo from his briefcase and handed it to him, "Mr. Sergey, I found this by accident in Liuban.
A group photo. I spent a long time looking for someone who knew the story behind this group photo, and finally found you with the help of friends. As far as I know, your hometown seems to be near Liuban. So, you know
Where does this photo come from?”
Sergey took the group photo and looked at it, then shiveringly took out a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket and put them on his face.
After a long time, Sergey took out a pen that looked very old and very familiar to Wei Ran from his coat pocket. He pointed the cap of the pen at a child in the front row of the group photo and said, "You got the right person."
.The child in the photo is me."
"Is this you?" Wei Ran asked pretending to be surprised.
Sergey smiled and nodded, "If I guess correctly, you found this group photo from the guerrilla village, right? Many families in that village should have this group photo, but they still remember the story behind this group photo.
There aren’t many people left.”
"I found it indeed from the guerrilla village," Wei Ran answered excitedly in the affirmative, without mentioning the fact that he had never been to the guerrilla village.
"This group photo was taken in 1942"
Sergey took off his reading glasses and recalled with a trace of nostalgia in his tone, "The guerrilla village at that time was still a primitive forest. Just like its name, this village was established by the guerrillas. At that time,
, I am still a child, not even a formal guerrilla."
During Sergey's slow narration, Wei Ran couldn't help but recall everything he had personally experienced.
However, what was slightly different from his experience was that in Sergey's recollection, no reporters had been there, and even the photo was taken with Teacher Gianna's camera, and in
After Teacher Gianna died, the camera followed Dr. Sasha to the battlefield and eventually disappeared.
"In 1943, I was flown to the rear by Alisa, and then took a train to Tula. After completing all the courses before university, I was sent to Moscow to continue my studies."
Having said this, Sergey took out the pen with traces of time from his pocket and said, "This is a gift given to me by Teacher Gianna. From 1943 to today, I have always carried it with me. Every time
Whenever I slack off, I always think of Teacher Gianna and those guerrillas."
"Those people at that time...are there any others who survived?"
Wei Ran asked tentatively, "We found the ruins of the guerrilla hospital that was destroyed by the Germans you just mentioned, and found the Germans who were thrown into the well. I also followed this clue to find it.
This group photo, but I didn’t expect that there is actually a connection between them.”
"It is true that many people survived after the end of World War II, but there were also many people who sacrificed their lives."
Sergey stood up slowly and took Wei Ran into the study on the first floor. Then he opened an old-looking safe and took out a lot of things from it.
Among these things, there is a thick photo album, a very well-preserved boat cap, and even a TT33 pistol, a shepherd's whip and a plastic leather roster.
Sergey took out a pair of white silk gloves from the drawer and put them on. He slowly opened the roster. After searching for it, he pointed at Ivan's name and said, "He is a good friend of mine. He was
He took me to the hospital to fight the Germans together. We were only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time, but we killed several Germans with grenades and submachine guns!"
Sergey stretched out his hand and pointed at the boat cap and TT33 pistol placed on the table, "This military cap was left to Ivan by our teacher Gianna. This pistol is from the one I just mentioned, named Shu.
La's guerrillas were left to Ivan. That madman who loved fighting followed the Soviet Red Army all the way into Berlin and became a platoon leader!
When he came back, he had several medals hanging on his chest, which made us envious. But that idiot, until the end of the war, always believed that our teacher Jaina and Shula were still alive, alas...
"
"Then these things..."
Sergey sighed, "I remember it very clearly. It was the summer of 1967. When he was arresting a murderer, he was shot in the neck by the criminal. These things were all taken from his son by me.
We brought it with us after we came here, but unfortunately, that little guy died in Afghanistan in 1982."
Wiping the corner of his eyes, Sergey turned over a page in the roster, pointed to the name on it and said, "That sheep-herding whip belongs to this guy named Vasily. When I first met him, he
He was carried back from the pile of dead by Teacher Gianna and Doctor Sasha, and one of his hands was already broken at that time."
"He also survived?" Wei Ran asked.
Sergey shook his head bitterly, "No, he didn't. In the winter of 1942, he was killed by a German plane bomb while herding sheep. When we found him, we only found his sheep whip."
Wei Ran was startled, but before he could say anything, Sergey had already turned over a few more pages of the roster, pointed at the name on it and said happily, "Jonia, she survived, and she just
Like this roster says, she became a painter."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! That little blond girl who shared the snake meat?
Wei Ran immediately matched the dream recorded by Teacher Gianna on the roster with the little girl in the class he was in charge of. He clearly remembered that the little girl wanted to draw Uncle Slava and others.
It also needs to be hung on the church in the village.
"Just like her dream at the time"
Sergey, who didn't notice Wei Ran's distraction, continued, "In 1943, she and I were sent to Tula to study together. After the war, she really became a painter and really hung her oil paintings.
It was at the church in the guerrilla village, but unfortunately after that idiot Khrushchev came to power, all those oil paintings were burned."
"She is now..."
Sergey was stunned, pointing to the oil paintings on the wall of the room and said, "She died more than ten years ago. She gave birth to a son and a daughter for me. These oil paintings, as well as the oil paintings outside, are all from her."
Leave it to me."
"Are you married?" Wei Ran's eyes widened.
Sergey's old face showed a hint of happiness, "We got married in 1953, and my good friend Ivan actually liked Joniya too. Ha! Who didn't like Joniya at that time?
But Ivan and I definitely like Jonia the most."
"Then what?" Wei Ran asked.
"Then that bastard Ivan fell in love with a female communications soldier."
Sergey sighed when he said this, "Later, when Joniya and I got married, he drank too much when he came to our wedding and he secretly told me the truth.
He said that he was just a soldier who only knew how to fight. He didn't understand oil painting, and he didn't even have any interest in oil painting. He didn't know what to talk to Jiao Niya at all. Because Jiao Niya couldn't understand what he said.
He couldn’t understand what Jiao Niya said, he said that Jiao Niya would never be happy together with him.”
"At least he realized his dream, and you realized yours. You are all heroes."
"Heroes? We are all just lucky survivors."
Sergey turned the roster to the last page, pointed to the last string of words left by Teacher Gianna and said, "This booklet was asked by Dr. Sasha to take away before I went to Tula.
Look, how many of them have realized their dreams. How many of them died before they could find the soil to realize their dreams. Compared with them, how can we be heroes?"
"Is the world today the same as the world you imagined back then?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.
Sergey was stunned, smiled and shook his head, "I don't know, maybe it's the same, maybe it's different. Young man, are you interested in accompanying me to the guerrilla village? I haven't been back for a long time.
.”
"Now?"
Wei Ran looked at Sergey in embarrassment. This once young man was now a dying old man. The distance of more than 100 kilometers from Minsk to Lyuban was already a huge burden on his old body.
Perhaps knowing what Wei Ran was worried about, Sergey smiled and waved his hand, "As long as you have time, that's enough. I'll take care of the rest."
"Well...well then," Wei Ran said respectfully, "It is my honor to have the honor to go with you to visit the place where we have fought."
"Wait a mininute"
As Sergey spoke, he had already picked up the landline microphone on the desk and dialed a series of numbers skillfully.
After a while, Sergey said cheerfully into the microphone, "Vitaly, do you have time now? I want to go home and see you. Okay, I'll wait for you."
After hanging up the phone, Sergey explained, "My grandson is now also a teacher at the National University, a computer teacher. Just wait a moment, he will be here soon."
"Please allow me to make a call too"
After Wei Ran finished speaking, he walked out of the study, took out his cell phone and dialed Diane's number, telling the other party to make preparations in Liuban.
While waiting, Sergey opened the photo album he had taken out from the safe. In this photo album, Wei Ran not only saw the photos he had taken, but also some that he had not seen.
past photos.
It was from these old photos that he indirectly learned about the changes in the guerrilla village.
From the initial camp hidden deep in the forest, hospitals were gradually built, farmland was reclaimed, and even a newspaper office and even a narrow-gauge railway that could lead directly to the rear area were built.
Later, even the Bo-2 plane was able to land near the guerrilla village. However, the man piloting the plane turned into a man Weiran had never seen before.
Through questioning, he found out that this man was the brother of the female pilot Alissa, the man who dropped a key bomb during the battle at the guerrilla hospital.
As the photo album is flipped, the guerrilla village in the black and white photos is getting bigger and bigger, the surrounding trees are gradually decreasing, and the farmland is rapidly increasing.
Later, the photos became color, and there were many more people working in the farmland. In one of the color photos, there was even a blond woman holding a drawing board in the field. And in her unfinished oil painting
, you can also see a half-drawn tractor.
But the only thing that remains unchanged is the group photos that appear from time to time. Although there are fewer and fewer familiar people in the group photo with the ever-changing background, and more and more unfamiliar people, the only thing that remains unchanged is that
The smiles on the faces of the children who were placed at the front from beginning to end.
"Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the guerrilla village would take a group photo after the harvest almost every autumn."
After gently closing the photo album, Sergey said with emotion, "Although most people in that village no longer know the original intention of the original group photo, it does not affect everyone in maintaining this tradition at all."
"That's great," Wei Ran murmured to himself.
"What did you say?" Sergey, who didn't hear clearly, looked at Wei Ran in confusion.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "I say that's great," Wei Ran said slightly louder.
"Yes." Sergey looked out the window at a car that was slowly stopping. "It's like living in a dream. Okay, young man, let's go to the guerrilla village and have a look."
Hearing this, Wei Ran quickly stood up and helped the other party put away everything on the table. Then he took his briefcase and followed the other party away from the house and the lively pets.
"This is my grandson Vitaly and his wife Antosha"
Before Sergey got into the car, he introduced with a smile, "This young man is Victor, a new kid we met today. He wants to go to the guerrilla village with us."
"Hello"
Wei Ran shook hands with the couple politely. Vitali was a middle-aged man who looked to be almost forty years old. Whether it was his gentle and elegant temperament, the car he drove or even the clothes he wore, it proved that his life was very special.
Nice and well educated.
The woman sitting in the passenger seat had a kind face, and there was a linked list with the hospital logo pinned to her chest, which implicitly revealed her occupation.
While the group was chatting, Vitaly drove the car and arrived at the guerrilla village before the sun set.
Over the past seventy or eighty years, the original simple camp located deep in the forest has turned into a small village surrounded by vast farmland. And it can be seen that most of the people in this village know Sergey and his grandson.
Vitaly, so from time to time, someone would wave and say hello to their car.
At the same time, Diane and the amateur digger Prokhor, who had received the news in advance, had been waiting at the head of the guerrilla village for a long time.
Perhaps it was because he saw Diane and Prokhor, two strangers he had never met before, or perhaps because Weiran had already frankly and in detail explained his purpose of coming halfway. Sergei was waiting for him
After the grandson parked the car at the door of a house, he immediately said, "Vitaly, take Victor to the cemetery. Just ask Antosha to accompany me here and wait for you to come back for dinner."
"no problem"
Vitaly agreed happily, and then said to his wife who was sitting in the passenger seat, "Remember to supervise grandpa and don't allow him to secretly eat sweets."
"Don't worry, I'm a nurse. I'm more professional than you in this kind of thing." Antosha had already opened the car door before he finished speaking. With the help of Wei Ran, he helped Sergey into the house on the roadside.
.
Vitaly waited until Weiran hailed the off-road vehicle not far away and followed the car he was driving to leave the village, then asked curiously, "Are you the Victor who appeared on Russian TV some time ago?
I think I’ve seen your interview.”
Wei Ran was stunned for a moment and replied calmly, "If you are talking about the interview at the Russian Patriotic War Museum, then it should be me."
"Although I don't know much about history, your words about the Poles sound really comfortable."
Vitali seemed to feel a lot more relaxed because his grandfather Sergey and his wife were not in the car. "To be honest, there were several international students from Poland in the class I was in charge of. I saw them being raped by you at that time.
It’s really interesting to see you going crazy with anger during the interview. You can take more shots like that in the future, and I will help you speak out on the Internet.”
"Then I'll thank you in advance."
Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded. He really didn't expect that the controversial attitude that Teacher Dalia set for him at the beginning could really attract a group of supporters who would follow suit.
