Returning to the studio with Federer and the trailer arranged by the other party, the latter immediately directed the workers to load the anti-tank gun into the truck, even loading the shell casing that had been cut in half.
In the plastic box prepared in advance, after Wei Ran washed out a photo of Aleutian and Zoya again and handed it to the other party, Federer went back to find his boss with satisfaction.
After sending away the big client who was like a boy who was just throwing away money, Wei Ran put the investigation fee paid by the other party into the safe, and then he couldn't wait to close the rolling door, took out the expensive pistol presented by Mr. Alexander from the gun box, and shared it with Ah
The original pistols bought by Professor Alexey are placed together.
Comparing the two, the former, which uses a lot of titanium alloy parts, is much heavier than the original version with a polymer body, but because of the extra wooden handle patch, the former feels much more comfortable to hold.
At the same time, Weiran also discovered that the pistol presented by Alexander not only had no markings or logos on the sleeve except for the anti-slip groove, but even after it was disassembled, no vital parts could be found at all.
gun number.
After all, after staying in Russia for such a long time, he immediately understood the value of this pistol besides the luxurious materials. To put it simply, this expensive pistol was probably not recorded at all.
But this also raises another problem. If it is just a normal pistol, such as the original one bought by Professor Alexei, because there is a gun number, and Professor Alexei has most likely registered his identity. So even if
The police found out that as long as I didn't take him out of the studio, there wouldn't be much of a problem.
But such a black gun, even if it was just kept at home, would probably be a big trouble if it was discovered by the police. At a certain moment, he even wondered whether this was a trap deliberately set by Alexander.
Once this suspicion emerged in his heart, Wei Ran suddenly felt that the gun in his hand became a little hot, and he began to think about where to hide it which would be the safest place.
"Can those red swirls in the notebook hide something?"
Wei Ran's heart moved, he stood up and locked the rolling door, summoned his notebook and flipped to the page where he originally stored the Leica camera. Ever since he took out the old Leica, the red vortex had been empty.
Wei Ran did not dare to test it with that expensive pistol. Without any psychological barriers, Wei Ran sent the original pistol given to him by Professor Alexei into the whirlpool. What made him ecstatic was that this pistol was really real.
Can be placed inside!
I tried to close the cowhide book, but there was no obstruction at all. There was no problem even turning it back into a tattoo. I summoned the cowhide book again and turned to the corresponding page. At a glance, I saw the handle of the gun floating in the red vortex!
It really works! Weiran was ecstatic and took it out, even dismantling it into parts and observing carefully, but he didn't find any damage.
"Since the pistol can go in, can other things be used?"
Wei Ran became interested and rummaged through the cabinets and found various things including seasonings, film, cash and even a double-barreled shotgun. However, to his disappointment, the whirlpool seemed to be unable to hold any other items except the pistol, and even
Even the bullets can only be fed into the magazine.
"So, is this vortex stretched into the shape of a pistol, or is it restricted by other rules?"
Wei Ran muttered to himself as he looked at the table full of odds and ends, but he was pondering a more bold guess in his mind - could he put things in a cowhide notebook and take them back to the battlefield of World War II?
Suppressing the crazy idea of randomly finding war artifacts and returning to World War II to try again, Wei Ran filled the unnumbered black gun given by Alexander with bullets and sent it into the red vortex in the notebook. Then he got into the darkroom and put the front
The street scenes taken in Kazan over the past few days and the photos taken of Nikolai were all developed.
Compared with the colorful digital photos and color photos, the unique texture and gray scale of black and white photos seem to bring the street scene of the city and the old man wearing the Soviet-era KGB military uniform back to the last century, and the gradually drying silver salt
The unique graininess of photographic paper also seems to cast a layer of false mottled time over those frozen moments.
Waiting patiently for the photo paper to dry completely, Wei Ran put Alexander's letter of commitment, Nicholas's photo, the corridor taken at the entrance of the abandoned school, and the corresponding negatives into the photo frame, and finally stuffed them into his backpack.
Then I hung the old Leica around my neck and drove straight to the airport impatiently.
On this trip to Kazan, in addition to handing over Alexander's letter of commitment and the $50,000 to Nikolai, Weiyan had additional plans.
He had happily asked the professor to help him find a place where he could learn some life-saving skills, but he never expected that the unreliable old guy arranged for him to be a group of war re-enactment enthusiasts.
Even if you think about it with your toenails, you will know that even if you learn everything from them, it will probably be of no use at all. Even if you learn it, it is better not to learn it. After all, once you develop muscle memory, your body will react subconsciously in a life-or-death situation.
You won't give your brain time to think at all. When the time comes, you may not even know how you died.
But Nikolai is different. He is a KGB who survived the war years. As long as the other party is willing to teach him a few moves, he will be much more professional than those actors who shoot blank ammunition. By the way, he may also be able to learn from Nikolai.
From Gula's mouth, he found out the real reason why the Aleutian company commander of Position 19 was sent to the correction camp.
However, the plan could not keep up with the change. When his flight landed at Kazan Airport and took a taxi to reach Nikolai's school again, he found that the old man was actually cleaning up the school with the young gangster with mixed hair.
luggage.
"Victor, why didn't you give me a call when you came?"
The little gangster patted Wei Ran on the shoulder with great joy, and then said with regret, "But you came at the wrong time. Mr. Nicholas is planning to go on a long trip."
“It doesn’t matter if you leave later”
Nikolai, who had already tied his luggage to his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, said nonchalantly, "I was planning to ride a motorcycle to Volgograd to see the monument you mentioned, but I didn't expect you to come again so soon.
"
"That monument will be erected in a week, right in front of the Volgasky Geography Exhibition Hall."
Wei Ran first answered what the other party was most concerned about, and then said with a smile, "Mr. Nicholas, I came to you this time for something else."
Seemingly understanding the meaning in the former's eyes, Nikolai untied the luggage from the motorcycle without any haste, and then handed the car key to the young gangster, "Jima, help me go to the city to change the engine oil of the motorcycle.
Bring back some food and drink by the way."
"Okay, Mr. Principal," the little bastard Ji Ma happily took the key, skillfully mounted his Harley motorcycle and left the abandoned school in a jaunt.
"You have a really good relationship with those gangsters." Wei Ran couldn't help but say.
"They are not punks."
Nicholas carried a small amount of luggage and walked towards the small building. At the same time, he did not forget to explain, "They are all good children I watched grow up, but their aesthetics about hairstyles are really bad."
.How come you came to my place again so soon?"
Wei Ran patted his backpack and said, "I'll bring you some things."
"Is it possible that you sent back the application report again?" Nicholas's tone was filled with a trace of expectation, but at the same time it was also filled with subtle disappointment.
"I'm sorry, I can't bring that application report back at the moment."
Wei Ran followed him into the classroom he had visited once before, and then took out the photo frames and $50,000 in cash from his bag and placed them on the desk one by one.
"This is a commitment from my client to you. With this commitment letter, you can bring back the Zis-3 anti-tank gun that once fought at Position 19 on the Don River together with the application report for free at any time.
The other party is even willing to bear all transportation costs."
Taking the letter of commitment that Wei Ran handed him first, Nicholas read it over and over several times before he said leisurely, "Where did you find this fool?"
"After all, it's not Ukraine, so there are actually quite a lot of fools like this."
Wei Ran smiled, and without waiting for the other party to say anything else, he directly pushed the pile of cash on the table and said, "This fifty thousand US dollars was also given to you by the other party. He hopes that you can use the money to improve your life. If you are right,
If you have any doubts about the amount of the money, the commitment letter has the contact number of the other party, you can call at any time to verify."
"You are also a fool." Nicholas glanced at the cash on the table noncommittally, and then focused on his photo.
"This is the photo I took for you last time. The other one is the corridor I took in this courtyard. Their negatives are behind their respective photo frames." While Wei Ran spoke, he knowingly pushed the last two photo frames to him.
the other party.
Picking up the two black and white photos and looking at them each, Nicholas nodded with satisfaction, and then asked abruptly, "Are you here just to bring these things back?"
Wei Ran nodded candidly, "There are indeed two other things, but they have little to do with the ones on the table."
"Tell me about it," Nicholas asked nonchalantly as he lit a cigarette.
"I checked Aleutian's combat history through his identity capsule, and found that the reason he was sent to the correctional camp was because he deserted during the Defense of Moscow. This may be one of the reasons why the application report he submitted was not approved.
,so I thought..."
Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, Nicholas sighed, "Because of Zoya"
"That war reporter Zoya?" Wei Ran looked at the old man sitting on the ground in confusion.
Nicholas nodded, "According to the information I found, during the Moscow Defense War, Zoya was seriously injured while reporting on the front line of the Ruza River. It was Aleutian and the combat team he led who sent Zoya back to the rear.
hospital, but because he left his post without permission, he almost allowed the Germans to tear open their defense line."
"So he was sent to a correctional camp?"
Nicholas nodded, "It was them. The infantry squad led by Aleutian at that time were all sent to the correction camp in Siberia. Even if Zoya hadn't published an article about the Aleutians and
According to the reports and related photos of his combat team's operations, they may not even hope to make it out of the correctional camp alive."
"Where did you find these clues?" Wei Ran asked.
"I worked in a correctional camp for a period of time. At that time, I deliberately used some means to go to the correctional camp where Aleuts and others were detained. But even so, it took a lot of effort to find clues about the World War II period after the war."
Nicholas said this, stood up holding on to the table, and walked out while saying, "Take what you brought and come with me!"
Wei Ran hurriedly put the photo frame and cash on the table into his backpack, followed Nicholas up to the second floor, and re-entered the spacious room.
While Wei Ran took out the contents of his backpack and placed them on the table, Nicholas rummaged through the bookshelf behind his desk, finally pulled out a file bag, tore off the yellowed seal, and
He pulled out a well-preserved Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and handed it to Wei Ran.
"This is the newspaper I spent a lot of effort to find."
Nikolai pointed to the blurry photo published on one page and said, "This is the Aleutian and his combat group that Zoya took during the defense of Moscow. The article next to it is a report about them."
"The brave warriors guarding the Ruza River"
Wei Ran glanced at the title of this article, and then found Zoya's name in the corner, and the time this newspaper was published was in February 1942. Think about Nikolai's correction
While working in the camp, there was a gap of nearly ten years. Nicholas undoubtedly devoted a lot of energy to finding this newspaper at that time.
After reading the entire report carefully, Wei Ran was secretly stunned. In addition to Captain Aleutian and Vanya, there were several other unfamiliar names in this report, but their positions and companies were all listed.
Zoya took every opportunity to include some battle details.
This was obviously intentional. In Zoya's writing, the Aleutians and others were also portrayed as fearless heroes. But from beginning to end, there was no mention of them being sent to a correctional camp, let alone that they had rescued
Live your own business.
"Can I take this newspaper with me or make a copy?" Wei Ran raised the camera around his neck, "Or let me take a photo."
Nicholas nodded very happily, and while putting the newspaper into the file bag, he said, "After the monument you mentioned is built, this newspaper will be yours. Now let's talk about the other thing you came to see me for."
What’s the matter!”
"I want to learn some knowledge from you," Wei Ran said carefully and said the excuse he had thought of in advance, "I may become a war photographer in the future. I want to know how to survive on the battlefield."
Nicholas stuffed the file bag back into the bookshelf and said without looking back, "Although you deliberately didn't look into my eyes this time, your tone and little movements prove that you are not telling the truth."
