In the wilderness tavern, Suisui immediately became interested after listening to Wei Ran's retelling. She put down her beer glass with a clang and said enthusiastically, "Anfisa, change the ticket! Let's go back two days later. Let's go back tomorrow morning.
Go and see Vorkuta.”
"Are you really planning to go?" Wei Ran asked, dumbfounded.
"Of course I want to go!"
Suisui, who was slightly drunk, replied without thinking, "I have been working for so long and I haven't even found a bone. The foundation of the septic tank that my uncles ordered to build hasn't even been laid yet."
"Don't mention that broken pool, and don't change your ticket."
Wei Ran shook his head helplessly. The so-called septic tank was actually just an abandoned mine connected to the sewer of the wooden cabin camp dozens of meters away. However, the entrance of the mine was made of a previously discovered
The tombstone was sealed and a dry toilet was built.
As for Sui Sui's so-called foundation laying ceremony, he just wanted to write down the experiences of the owners whose names were recorded in the tombstones on the wall of the toilet.
"It's hard to find a clue..."
“It really doesn’t have to be so troublesome.”
Misha refilled Suisui's glass with beer, "I'll call my dad later and ask him to check it in the population file, whether it's Inta or Vorkuta.
"
"I'll also ask the people in the coal mine."
Alili sat down next to Wei Ran, "The population flow here is not large. If you know the specific time and the job position in the coal mine, it can be easily found."
"We will go look for him after he is found."
Jima, who was holding a large glass of beer, also came over, sat down next to Maya with a shy face, changed the subject and asked, "Aphroel, are you really going to let Pasha and the others go to China? Are they?
Even Inta has never left."
"I've already arranged the air tickets and visas for them. Do you still have to leave?"
Suisui burped, took a sleepy little fox from Anfiya's arms and hugged her, "Anyway, don't worry! They will be back in a month, and after arriving in China,
There will also be a Russian-speaking tour guide accompanying them throughout the journey.”
“And the place where they study is also taken care of by our friends.”
Wei Ran added on the side that the Pasha and others mentioned by Jima were three men and three women, a total of six young people with an average age of 22, selected by Suisui in the past month.
These six will follow the four mason uncles to China tomorrow. Then, under the guidance of a tour guide arranged by Wei Ran's parents, they will go to Chen Luoxiang, who is studying qin in Yangzhou, and will follow the recommendation of Chen Luoxiang's master.
, I spent a month learning how to rub my back and rub my back with two bathers.
Although this proposal was Weiran's first bad idea, it was obvious that Suisui was determined to do this, especially after Weiran said that he could afford all the tuition and travel expenses.
select.
As for whether the six young bather apprentices with red and black thorn tattoos on their wrists could learn anything in a month, no one present had any hope at the beginning.
In Suisui's words, sending these people to China to learn how to bathe was a gimmick to promote her classmates in China who were responsible for recruiting people. It was also to give Inta students who had not gone out
Those who have experienced it have planted a seed. As for whether they can use the skills they learned after returning from a month of "gilding" in China, it actually doesn't matter at all.
When the topic of bathing came up, the clues about the corpses of the Japanese that had attracted all of Suisui's attention were thrown out of the window as the cups were raised again and again.
But it was obvious that both Misha and Alili took this matter to heart and left one after another to make phone calls. Before the lively dinner was over, the two of them received phone calls one after another.
"Found it," Alili and Misha said in no particular order, as they hung up the phone almost at the same time.
"You go ahead and say it first" Misha raised her glass towards Alili.
"The news I asked about from the Pechora coalfield"
Alili lit a cigarette and said, "October Town was abandoned in 1994, and the coal miners who lived there basically moved to other places.
Among those who moved, there was indeed an electric power inspector named Isaiah Popov. According to coal field records, he moved with the mining team and his family to the Komsomolsk area more than ten kilometers away in the winter of 1994.
town. But before spring came the next day, he quit his job in the coal mine, and no one seems to know where he went after that."
"My father also helped find this person."
Misha said with a strange expression, "If this man named Isaiah Popov is still alive now, he is not yet seventy years old."
"Wait a minute." Wei Ran immediately realized something was wrong, "He is not yet seventy years old?"
"He was born in 1955."
Misha's expression became more and more strange, and she even glanced at Alili and Jima before continuing, "When he was 19 years old, he joined the Abez Coal Mine and became a circuit inspector. From then on, he continued to
He worked in the Abez coal mine until 1988. Later, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Abez coal mine could no longer pay wages, he went to Vorkuta."
"Abetz coal mine?"
After hearing this name, Jima subconsciously looked at Alili who looked surprised. At the same time, many people in the tavern subconsciously looked over after hearing this name.
"What's wrong?" Suisui, who was already drunk and a little confused, asked.
"Arili used to be the captain of the air patrol at the Abez coal mine," Jima explained, dumbfounded.
“Not surprising”
Alili spread his hands, "Although this deposit produces iron ore, it did fall under the jurisdiction of the Abez Mine in the Soviet era, and the distance between here and Abez is even closer than going to Inta
.”
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "There is no record of where this Isay Popov went."
Misha glanced at Ji Ma again, and then continued, "But his sister is still alive, and she is in Inta."
"What did you say?" As soon as the words came out, everyone at the table immediately looked at Misha.
"His sister's name is Theda, who is 15 years younger than him."
Misha looked at the wide-eyed Jima and Alili and continued, "She married Inta in 1988, and is still working as a chemistry teacher in Inta's middle school. Her husband is from the Inta Freight Terminal.
You all know the dispatcher Gu Liye."
“I definitely know you”
Dima replied dumbfounded, "When I was a hunter, it was Guliye who helped me get a seat in the high-end sleeper car. Even their son is now with Greva in Kazan, but I can
I never heard that Aunt Theda actually has a brother."
"Teacher Sidda even taught me," Alili continued, "and I was caught by her stealing alcohol lamps from the chemistry lab."
"This world is so small," Maya, who had been listening to the excitement, couldn't help but sigh.
“The world is not too small”
Misha sighed, "It's because Yinta is too young. Everyone living here basically knows each other. As Alili said, Xida is also my teacher. It's a pity that my chemistry class results
It’s really not that good.”
"How about we go visit that Mr. Cedar before we leave tomorrow?"
Suisui took another sip of cold beer and asked, "I'm becoming more and more curious about what happened here."
"As long as you can stay awake tomorrow," Wei Ran said while reaching out and taking away the beer cup in Suisui's hand.
"It seems we have to leave early tomorrow." Wei Ran took the cup he got from Suisui and clinked it with Alili.
"Don't worry, there's still enough time." Alili had already picked up the cup and greeted him before he finished speaking.
In the midst of drinking and drinking, the lively party finally came to an end, and Wei Ran walked into the wooden house where he was staying, carrying Suisui who was drunk and staring.
Early the next morning, Suisui, who was hungover, let Wei Ran lead her in a daze, and then left the camp with her four uncles, Ji Ma and others who were also drunk in daze, and boarded the plane piloted by Alili.
Returned to Inta.
It happened to be the weekend, and Xida, who was a teacher in the local middle school, definitely didn't have to go to work, so Jima took Wei Ran and Suisui, the Katenka sisters and Maya directly to Xida's home. Misha, on the other hand, rushed to Xida's house.
Alili and I stayed at the airport, staying in the lounge with our four uncles, who were also confused, and the six local friends who were going to China with us.
On the slightly muddy road, Ji Ma drove the van out of the city and drove straight to a small village on the edge of the town.
There are only about twenty households in this village. Behind it is a dense forest, and not far in front are the railway and the road leading to the train station.
It can be seen that Ji Ma is very familiar with this place and clearly remembers every ditch and bump along the way.
Finally, he drove the car and stopped in front of a yard. What's more interesting is that although the yard is not big, the surrounding walls are surrounded by containers, and on the top of the container on one side of the gate,
There is also a satellite cauldron for receiving TV signals, and two strong-looking and somewhat scary Caucasian dogs are tied to the door of the container.
"Don't get out of the car yet"
Jima reminded him rather nervously, "His two dogs are also patrol guards at the freight station. They can receive a salary of three thousand rubles every month."
"Can dogs also get paid?" Anfiya, who had been quiet these past few days, asked in surprise, then subconsciously looked down at the cute little fox in her arms.
“It couldn’t have been”
Jima honked the horn, swallowed and said, "But three years ago, a wanted criminal who was about to hijack a train driver was bitten off both arms by the two of them, and he started to receive wages."
Hearing this, Suisui, who was sitting next to Wei Ran, simply closed the car window that she had just opened. And the Katenka sisters, in unison, stuffed the little fox they were holding in their arms into their bags.
Speaking of which, Suisui specially asked Anfiya to bring these two little foxes from Kazan. Unfortunately, she was too busy these days in Inta and had no time to play with these two cute little guys.
After Ji Ma pressed the horn for the third time, a bald old man wearing a sea soul shirt finally came out of the small courtyard. It was only then that Ji Ma dared to lower the window and say hello.
Seeing that the person coming was Ji Ma, this old man who looked completely Asian immediately waved his hands enthusiastically, then drove the two fierce dogs that were taller than humans into the container and closed the door.
"Jima, come down quickly!"
The old man greeted warmly, "Xida and I just went to see your movie last weekend. I didn't expect you to come to our place so soon."
"How was my performance?" Ji Ma jumped out of the cab and hugged the old guy happily, and then handed the two bottles of wine he had prepared in advance to him.
“Very well done!”
After drinking, the old guy said, "In the future, we must make more movies that you can go to the cinema and watch casually without buying a ticket."
"I..."
Ji Ma, who was just waiting for praise, grinned, glanced at Wei Ran and others who were laughing so hard just after getting off the car, wisely changed the topic and asked, "Uncle Gu Liye, don't you invite us in to sit down?
?Besides, is Aunt Theda at home?"
"here I am!"
Gu Liye curiously glanced at Wei Ran and others who got out of the car, but was not in a hurry to take everyone in. Instead, he pointed at Suisui and said, "Let me guess, she must be Aurora, right?
So the guy next to her is her boyfriend?"
"Hello, I'm Aurora."
"I am Victor"
Wei Ran and Suisui shook hands with each other one after another.
"So who of the remaining three beautiful girls is your girlfriend?" Gulier asked with a smile, obviously an old man who likes to joke.
However, before Jima could speak, the Katenka sisters and Maya stepped aside in unison, making it clear that they did not want to take the blame.
Ji Ma patted the back of his neck, pointed at Maya and said, "This is mine..."
"broker"
Maya was the first to reveal her identity, but the Katenka sisters, who did not want to be affected, were already standing behind Wei Ran and Suisui, and proactively said in unison, "We are Aurora's assistants."
"Everyone come in!"
Gu Liye laughed loudly and said as he walked into the yard, "I feel relieved to see that this little bastard Jima is still so unpopular with serious girls."
"You old bastard" Jima muttered angrily.
"It seems that naughty girls like you very much," Maya teased Jima in a flat tone, and walked into the small courtyard holding the energetic Suisui.
Under the leadership of Gu Liye, a group of people walked into the wooden house facing the gate. The house did not seem to be very old, and it was clean inside and out. When they entered,
A particularly gentle-looking middle-aged woman was busy baking bread.
Before they could sit down, several fluffy Caucasian cubs came over wagging their tails, followed by the four women who came with them, each holding them on their laps.
"Our big star from Inta is here?" The gentle middle-aged woman brought a teapot and enthusiastically poured a cup of black tea for everyone.
Ji Ma showed a rare hint of shyness, "I'm not a celebrity, Aunt Xida, please don't make fun of me."
"Jima, is Tonya causing trouble for you?"
Gulier pulled a chair over and sat down, and asked nervously. After he said these words, Xida subconsciously grasped the apron stained with flour.
"No, of course not!"
Jima said quickly, "Tonya works very well at the Kazan Railway Station. I heard Greva say that he seems to have a girlfriend."
"He has a girlfriend?" Xida asked in surprise.
"I also heard what Greva said. You can call him and ask him."
Jima smiled and brought the topic to the main topic, "Aunt Xida, we actually want to ask you something this time."
"Find me?"
Xida was stunned for a moment, then nodded happily, "What do you want to ask? As long as I know, I will tell you."
"Is such that..."
Jima paused and briefly described the discovery at the hot spring camp. Finally, he said, "Aunt Xida, we followed the clues and accidentally found that your brother Isaiah Popov seems to be related to this matter.
, we want to find him and ask him what happened there at that time.
Of course, as I just said, Victor is a historian, he is just curious about the historical truth."
"I do have a brother"
Sida picked up the cup and took a sip of the warm black tea, "But my brother moved to Khabarovsk more than 20 years ago."
"Khabarovsk?"
Wei Ran and others looked at each other. The so-called Khabarovsk was only separated from China by a river. Another name of that city may be more widely known - Khabarovsk.
"The last time he came here was six or seven years ago, but we often communicate on the phone."
Xida shook his head, "I probably know some of the things you mentioned. I remember clearly that he did make a lot of money around 1993."
Theda sighed, "Even when my Sasha and Tonya were born, it was because of his help. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to support these two children. My life was really too tight in those years."
"So..." Ji Ma looked confused and hesitant to speak.
"That is indeed his handwriting"
Xida picked up Wei Ran's cell phone on the table again, took a look at it, and gave a positive reply to the scanned letter on the screen.
"Aunt Xida, those tombstones..." Suisui rubbed the dog's head, and for a moment she didn't know how to say it.
"This matter actually starts with my father." Xida smiled, put Wei Ran's cell phone on the coffee table, then stood up and walked into the bedroom.
After a moment of waiting, Xida sat back on the chair in the living room holding an old-looking photo album.
After some searching, Theda pointed to a black and white photo in the album and said, "This is my father. He was once a colleague with Mr. Nicholas."
"Are you a colleague of Mr. Nicholas?"
Wei Ran and Ji Ma patted their foreheads in unison. They really didn't think of this and forgot that Mr. Nicholas had lived in Inta for a long time.
"Of course I'm a colleague"
Xida turned back a few pages, pointed to a group photo and said, "Look, this is a group photo of my father and Mr. Nicholas."
Everyone looked over and saw, as expected, that it was indeed the young Mr. Nicholas in the group photo.
In this photo, Nikolai, who is shirtless and has tattoos on his body, is leaning against the wooden railing and laughing while holding a bottle of frothy beer.
Next to him was a thin young man with an Asian face. He was also holding a bottle of beer, and around his neck was a Moscow accordion.
"I remember my mother said that my father used to be the director of the Abez mine and was responsible for the management of prisoners of war. Later, after my brother was born, he was sent to the Far East to carry out mineral and timber trade work."
Far East?
Wei Ran and Jima looked at each other, and the Katenka sisters also looked at each other subconsciously. Apparently they were both keenly aware of something.
Xida continued to scroll back, "From the second year after my brother was born, my father might not be able to come back once a year. In order to facilitate meeting with my father, my mother also moved her brother to Khabarovsk.
, I was born in Khabarovsk.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, when I was three years old, my father had an accident due to a car accident. My mother also moved my brother and me back to Abe.
Hereby.
So I really don’t have many memories of my father, except that my brother said he spoke Japanese very well and that our house in Khabarovsk was very big.”
After talking about this, Xida continued to turn over a few pages, pointed to a young man wearing a helmet in a group photo, and said, "In 1984, our mother also passed away. This photo was taken half the time before my mother died.
Taken in 2001. This is my brother Isai. I was only 12 years old at that time. My brother’s first child was only seven years younger than me.
Later, our mother passed away, and my brother took me to Khabarovsk and buried her with our father. From then on until I met Guliye and decided to marry him, everything was
My brother is taking care of me."
"When Isai knew that the two of us were getting married, he brought his friends and gave me a hard lesson." Gu Liye said with a sigh.
"Later I followed Gu Liye to Inta"
Sida held Guliye's hand and continued to recall, "That year, the coal mine where my brother worked could no longer pay wages, and then he moved to Khabarovsk with his children and wife, where he stayed until early 1992.
At that time, he came back on his own, but left his wife and children behind in Khabarovsk."
"Shortly after he came back, he went to Vorkuta and worked in the coal mines."
Gulier took up the topic and said, "I was also unemployed at that time, and Theda was still pregnant with Tonya's sister. Although he scolded me, he still took our family over and continued to Sasha.
We will be released back to Inta only after we are born.”
"Then one day, my brother suddenly gave me five thousand dollars. At that time, that was a lot of money."
Sida sighed and said, "He asked Gulier to take me away from Inta, to Moscow, to Petersburg, even to live in a city like Kazan or Khabarovsk."
"You didn't leave?" Suisui couldn't help but ask.
"We went, we went to Moscow in high spirits."
Gulier shook his head bitterly, "But it was only after I went there that I realized that five thousand dollars was not enough for our family to live there for long, so after wasting five hundred dollars and not finding a decent job, we returned to Inta
.
Although this place is not as good as Moscow, the money was not spent until 1995 when Tonya was born."
"Why didn't you go when Mr. Nikolai helped everyone move to Kazan?" Jima asked subconsciously.
"We had just returned from Moscow at that time. Isay helped me get a job as a train dispatcher before leaving here. With his help, Theda also found a stable job at Inta School." Guliere
Speaking of which, he said, "This is better than going to Kazan and starting over, isn't it?"
"That's right." Ji Ma couldn't help but nodded.
"I once asked my brother where he got the money."
Xida said dumbfounded, "He told me at the time that he found some things left by his father in Khabarovsk's house, and he sold those things in exchange for money, but he never said that he had sold them.
It turned out to be the ashes of prisoners of war.”
"So those ashes really exist?"
Suisui asked in surprise. She didn't expect that there was such a story behind the tombstone she accidentally discovered.
"If you are interested, you can ask my brother."
As he spoke, Xida took out a pen and a palm-sized notebook from his jacket pocket, fluently wrote down a string of addresses and a phone number, then tore them off and handed them to Jima, "Call him or go find him directly.
It will be all right."
"Thank you!" Ji Ma quickly took the note handed by the other party.
"It's my turn to ask questions."
Xida refilled the tea for everyone one by one and asked enthusiastically, "Did you just say that Tonya found a girlfriend? What is that girl's name? Where is she from?"
"She is from Samara, a beautiful white girl..."
While Jima and Xida were exchanging information, Wei Ran was looking at the young man taking a photo with Nicholas in the album, and comparing it with the scanned letter sent by Xia Shushi yesterday.
In this scan, in addition to the incomprehensible Japanese and Russian addresses, there is also a group photo.
In this group photo, a group of Japanese prisoners of war are each holding a piece of bread as big as two bricks stacked together. In the other hand, they are each stabbing a piece of steak as big as the mouth of a bowl with a fork and eating it.
joyous.
Wei Ran didn't know who the victim Yukichi Hanai was in this group photo, but he found a prisoner of war in this group photo who looked very much like Shida's father.
Thinking back to the clues we got before, Xida's brother Isai Popov was born in 1955. Just now Xida said that their father was sent to the Far East to develop timber and wood the second year after his brother Isai was born.
He worked in the mining industry. Before that, he was responsible for the management of prisoners of war.
In addition, in Theda's memories, her brother once said that their father spoke Japanese very well. And the name Isaiah Popov is also very strange, because he does not have a middle patronymic at all.
In addition, their father died unexpectedly, and their mother took them away from Khabarovsk and returned to Abez, which was inaccessible to foreigners during the Soviet era.
Based on these clues, the identity of Xida's father has actually been revealed. Looking at the slightly blurry photo of prisoners of war on the phone screen, Wei Ran is almost certain that Xida's father is most likely a fake Kwantung Army prisoner of war who broke into the Japanese country.
spy agent!
After returning home, do you want to go find Mr. Nicholas to verify your guess? Regarding this idea, Wei Ran only hesitated for less than a second and shook his head secretly.
Mr. Nikolai, who is now over ninety years old, lives a happy life in Volgograd every day. There is really no need for him to recall the past. Moreover, Theda has already given her brother’s address and phone number.
Now, if you want to satisfy your curiosity, just wait until you have the opportunity to go over and ask in person.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Of course, even without asking, Wei Ran has already guessed. After all, for a fake repatriated prisoner of war, what other way is there than
How can the reason of bringing back the ashes of comrades and helping to send them home be better integrated into the local interpersonal relationships? Even the tombstone and cemetery are most likely props used by Xida's father to disguise his identity.
In fact, he had no doubt that Xida's father might have been married and had children in the Guizi country before his death, and had a disguised family.
The only thing he didn't know was maybe why the man whose name he didn't even know lost his life.
"Should we go to Khabarovsk to satisfy our curiosity?" Suisui leaned into Wei Ran's ear and asked in a low voice.
"Don't go there yet"
Wei Ran thought for a while and said, "Let's ask Alili and the others to cement the tombstone in the toilet later."
"Why?" Suisui asked puzzled.
"The fact that Mr. Isaiah Popov can give five thousand dollars to his sister Theda is enough to prove that the Japanese have been fooled."
Wei Ran paused, then simply changed into Chinese that only the two of them could understand, and continued, "So if it comes out that you changed the stone tablet into a toilet urinal, Isaiah Po
Bofu has caused unnecessary trouble, after all, Xida's son is still serving as Jima's younger brother."
"makes sense"
Suisui sighed regretfully, "I'm going to do what your friend did and burn a pig to ashes and send it back to that little devil."
"Do you think the son of the prisoner of war named Huajing will care whether the ashes you send back are his father's ashes or pig's ashes?"
"What do you mean?" Suisui looked at Wei Ran in confusion.
"Even if you send him a piece of dried shit and tell him it's his father, I think he'll be happy to believe it."
Wei Ran said very clearly, "For the living, that jar of ashes is a psychological comfort. If you send it, his son will have no regrets. Even if it is not his father's ashes, as long as you don't tell him
The truth is, his heart is satisfied."
Looking at Suisui who suddenly understood, Wei Ran said with a smile, "So even if it's just a piece of shit, I don't plan to send it to him. Isn't it good to let him beg for it with regret until his death?"
Not only did I not tell him that I had found it, nor did I tell him that I had not found it, I didn’t even tell him where the tombstone was photographed.”
"Comrade Wei Ran, what you said makes sense!"
Suisui patted Wei Ran's shoulder seriously, "You little comrade has great ideas and a bright future. I will cultivate you well."
"speak nicely"
Wei Ran angrily pulled away the opponent's paws that were stained with dog hair, and smoothly lifted the belly-up puppy on the opponent's lap onto his lap.
