Just south of Volgograd, the town of Chacha on the shore of Chacha Lake once again welcomes its weekly farm market on Tuesdays.
In an abandoned farm next to the lakeshore, cars or vans with their number plates covered are arranged neatly according to the agreed rules, and the opened trunks are filled with various things. Strange objects.
From the World War II medals that remain in the dirt, to the Makarov pistol that smells like gun oil. From all kinds of porcelain vases with no origin, to accordions and record players that are already out of date. There were even passports, suitcases and laptops from different countries stolen from unknown pockets. Basically, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can always find some weird things here.
In the core area of the market, an old Slavic man over fifty years old and heavily drunk was holding half a bottle of gin in one hand and half a pickle in the other. I walked and stopped between various stalls. Occasionally, I would call the stall owner and whisper a few questions into my ear. Behind him, there was a young Asian man pulling a shopping cart.
There is nothing else in this tattered shopping cart, except for various Soviet newspapers and magazines from the World War II era. Even at the very edge, there was an unopened bottle of gin and more than half a can of pickles.
"Professor, we have been shopping all morning, are you sure we can really find clues in this ghost place?" Wei Ran pulled away a woman who took the initiative to sell reading materials, and looked at the stall owner who was bored. asked the old man who ended the chat.
"Victor, be patient."
Professor Alexei took a sip of wine leisurely, "If you feel bored, you can go for a walk around by yourself or go We’re just fishing on the lake, but don’t worry, we’ll definitely find what we want.”
“You said so two hours ago.”
Wei Ran unscrewed the can helplessly. bottle, and allowed the other party to pinch out a pickle again, "I didn't find what you were looking for. I've already eaten half of the bottle of pickles. Also, don't forget that my wife asked me to keep an eye on you and drink less wine."
"Wait until I finish drinking this bottle of wine. If I haven't found it yet, I'll go back. Also, how about I give you an extra graduation gift?" Alexei shook the bottle, "As a thank you, let's drink. Just forget about it. I’ll take you to Chacha Lake when I have time in the afternoon.”
“Actually, buying parts is fake, but looking for opportunities to drink is real, right?” Wei Ran revealed without any expectation. He fell in love with the other party's trick, "Also, let me guess, this time the gift is another brand new stack of Soviet rubles?"
"Fuck you Stalin!" Professor Alexey jumped and scolded He said, "I have given away all my Soviet rubles a long time ago!"
"Is there just the last pile left?" Weiran asked in anticipation.
"Fart! Fart your Stalin!" Professor Alexei blushed and pointed around, "This time I will pick a decent gift for you in this market, worth at least five dollars." A gift of a thousand rubles!”
“As long as I don’t have to pay for it myself” WeiRan blocked all the old man's escape routes with one sentence.
"I'm so blind, how could I leave you, a bastard, here in such a moment of confusion?" Alexei raised his head and took a sip of gin, not bothering to say another word to Wei Ran, and shook his head. Wandering towards the next stall.
And Wei Ran, who was following him, continued to push the shopping cart and concentrate on being a porter as if nothing had happened.
The quarrel between him and Professor Alexey started almost four years ago when he first came here to go to school. He thought that graduating from college would finally allow his ears and lips to rest. But he didn't expect that this old guy used his good job as a professor's assistant to keep him here.
But the reason for such "good" treatment is all due to Professor Alexey having a Chinese wife, and even more to the teacher's wife and Wei Ran's mother who has been in kindergarten since kindergarten. Classmates in high school.
Otherwise, with my disastrous college entrance examination scores, I would definitely not be qualified to enter Volgograd State University as an international student to study history. Even if it hadn't been for the past four or five years for Professor Alexei and his wife to teach him step by step and practice word by word, I wouldn't even be able to understand this nonsense, let alone my diploma.
Of course, for Professor Alexei, an old guy who drinks all kinds of things every day, he just wants a trustworthy cheap labor force to help him do some private work.
Following Professor Alexei for a walk, when most of the half-bottle of gin and pickled cucumbers went into Professor Alexei’s stomach, the teacher and student finally found themselves in a remote place. I found the person I was looking for in the small stall.
After rounds of bargaining, Alexey reluctantly paid the high price of 50,000 rubles, and Weiran was able to successfully carry the wooden suitcase in. shopping cart.
According to the stall owner, this box contains all negatives taken during World War II, but there is still a question mark as to whether they can find the clues they want to find from these films.
"How about giving me this broken box?" Alexei asked, holding on to the 50,000 rubles and pointing to a completely rusted iron box in the corner of the stall with his chin.
"Unless you add eight thousand rubles," the stall owner said, holding the other side of the ruble. < /p>
"It is the same as the negatives you bought. They were all obtained from the same closed photo studio." The stall owner simply let go of the ruble and kicked the box on the edge of the stall with his toe, "And I haven’t even had time to open it since I got it. There might be gold inside.”
“Why didn’t you say there was Stalin smoking a pipe inside?”
Professor Alexei shook the banknotes in his hand and said, "I will give you another three thousand rubles at most. ThisBroken boxes are just a way to deceive foreign tourists. Who among the locals would buy this kind of garbage? ”
“Deal! ”
The stall owner agreed to the deal very straightforwardly. This box was not bought at all, but like Professor Alexei at this time, he shamelessly asked for it from the buyer. The “giveaway. ”
As for whether the box really contains treasures, the stall owner has no doubt. He has already used the engine endoscope to look at the rusty damage, and only some of it has already become moldy. clothes, otherwise he would have opened it long ago.
“Since I bought the box, how about giving me this vernier caliper? "Professor Alexei, who was pushing further, bent down and picked up another open Bakelite box.
"Otherwise, I'll give you my wife as well."
This The stall owner took the vernier caliper back angrily, "This is a high-end product produced by Bosch in Germany during World War II. It is more expensive than the shabby films you buy." "
"If you don't want to give it away, don't give it away." Alexei reached out and picked up a bayonet issued by Germany during World War II. "Is it okay to give this to me? "
"Old thing, do you want to buy it or not? "The stall owner directly lifted up the hem of his clothes, revealing a polished P38 pistol.
"No, I didn't say I wouldn't buy it."
Professor Alexei was particularly straightforward. He put the bayonet back in place, took out a few large bills from his wallet, and handed them to the other party along with the rubles he had been holding in his hand.
He greeted the man who was hiding far away and pretended not to recognize him. Wei Ran loaded the almost rotten iron box into the shopping cart, and the teacher and student immediately walked to the parking lot of the dock market.
"Professor, why did you buy this broken box? "While Wei Ran asked, he also pulled out a piece of rust shell the size of a bottle cap from the iron box.
"Look carefully at what is written on the side of the box," Professor Alexei reminded proudly.< /p>
Wei Ran bent down and looked at it, "Truth...Pravda? ! ”
“It’s Pravda. The owner of this box may be a reporter from that newspaper. There may be a camera or something used by that reporter.” "
After trying to pick up the second bottle of gin in the shopping cart to no avail, Professor Alexei said shamelessly, "But no matter what treasures are in this box, they are all yours. Now, consider it your college graduation gift! "
"Are you kidding me? Wei Ran looked like he had seen a ghost, "Who would want this crap?" "
"Victor, dear Victor"
Professor Alexei said seriously, "Compared to the value of the unknown treasure in the box itself, the value of the price when opening the box is Surprise is the most precious thing, isn't it? "
"No, you just don't want to spend money. "Wei Ran once again ruthlessly exposed this stingy professor's old trick.
"Stop talking nonsense, do you want it? "Alexei suddenly asked in authentic Chinese, and the look in his tone was very much like his aunt's when she was angry.Posture.
"Yes, why don't you want it for free?"
Wei Ran said reluctantly, holding his neck. If he had known better, he might as well have gotten a bunch of Soviet Union from the other party's hand. As for rubles, at least those pieces of waste paper that are too opaque to cover with windows will be bought by fools even if they are priced at 50 yuan a piece when they are brought home.
But this almost rusty iron box, let alone whether its owner is a reporter, even if it is a reporter, there is a question mark whether there is an old camera in it.
After leaving the market, Professor Alexei never mentioned the boating trip to Chacha Lake, and urged Weiran to drive the dirty Vaz van to Volgograd. Open in the direction of the city.
Weiran, who had known this outcome for a long time, didn't care and drove straight to the city on the west bank of the Volga River, more than 60 kilometers away.
When Weiran stopped the car at the foot of a high-end apartment building, Professor Alexey pointed to the rear compartment before getting out of the car, "Remember to check all those films when you get back."
p>Before Wei Ran could open his mouth, Professor Alexei, who had just left the carriage, patted his forehead and said, "Also, if you find any clues related to tanks or World War II in the photos, remember to send a message to "Me."
"One more thing"
Professor Alexei ran back after taking only two steps, and then saw Wei Ran carrying a bag. A bottle of gin was waiting for him with a smile.
"It's okay now" Professor Alexei took the gin with satisfaction and walked into the apartment door.
"10, 9, 8..." Wei Ran, who was sitting in the cab, was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, he slowly started counting down.
Sure enough, before his countdown reached zero, Professor Alexei, carrying a wine bottle, ran out of the apartment building anxiously.
"Why haven't you left yet?" Professor Alexei asked while opening the carriage door.
"You must have forgotten something again" Wei Ran responded with an expression that he had already guessed.
"Then why don't you know how to send it to me?" Professor Alexei picked up a bouquet of roses he bought at the dock market and turned around without waiting for Wei Ran's response. walked into the apartment.
"It's almost done this time" Weiran didn't restart the car until this moment and went straight to a workshop used for processing canned fish in the Soviet era, located between the Motherland Statue and the Volga River.
This old workshop, which is 50 meters long and nearly 15 meters wide, was bought by Professor Alexey and his wife at the end of last year with a high-priced loan. More than half of the area was renovated by the teacher's wife. It became a specialty B&B and travel agency, while the other half was converted into a studio where Professor Alexey took on private work.
As for Wei Ran, he usually either helps Professor Alexei in the studio, or goes to the travel agency next door to serve as a tour guide for a few days, taking domestic tourists to eat, drink and have fun, while giving lectures by the way. Soviet history learned in college.
Although such days are too fulfilling, the benefits are not low. At least this year’s tuition fees have been paid back. And the most important thing is that living here is much more comfortable than the bedbug-infested dormitory at the National University.
Wei Ran parked the dirty Watts bun at the door of the studio with familiarity, took out the key and opened the rolling shutter door, and then put the negatives in the wooden box he bought a few hours ago. Moved to the workbench.
In the innermost part of this huge office, at least a quarter of the space is filled with rows of bookshelves, which contain all kinds of books that Professor Alexei has accumulated over the years. Historical archives or old film negatives or even video tapes.
As for the clients of this studio, there are various public or private museums, as well as digging parties wandering in the wilderness digging for war treasures. Of course, there are also some people sent by underground auctions.
Just like the T-34 tank that temporarily occupied the entrance of this studio, it was dug out of his backyard by a local collector not long ago.
Of course, no one cares whether it was really dug out of his own backyard, and the reason why it was sent to this studio was only because the collector hoped that Professor Alexei could Find out the combat history of this T-34 tank so you can tell a good story or sell it for a good price.
Like all the T-34 tanks produced at the tractor factory in this city during the Battle of Stalingrad, it had no time to be painted, let alone any number. But there are five red paint fingerprints on the left side of its turret that remain to this day.
This is also Professor Alexei’s only clue, but unfortunately, the teacher and student have not been able to determine whether it is the Stalingrad Tractor Factory in the past half month. No clues about this tank were found. Even if Professor Alexei hadn't always found a way to resell the purchased materials, the 500,000 rubles activity fund provided by the collector would have been all spent.
"I hope these negatives can provide some valuable clues"
Wei Ran rubbed his hands, opened the wooden box, and took out the photo albums inside and placed them on the on the table.
Each of these negative photo albums is A4-sized and five to six centimeters thick. Even on the first page of each photo album, the shooting time and film specifications of the negatives are marked in neat pen letters. , and even the place where the photo was taken and the name of the person or thing were written in the same handwriting next to each negative.
"Such detailed work does not look like the work of a fool"
Wei Ran joked to himself, and then found the photo album taken in 1941, from Starting from the first page, I pulled out the cut negative and stuck it on the copy board.
After turning on the power and pressing the switch, Wei Ran picked up a magnifying glass as big as a bowl and carefully observed the contents of each film.
The moments recorded on these negatives taken more than half a century agoThere seems to be a long-lasting smell of gunpowder smoke, from the ruins of dilapidated buildings to the streets strewn with corpses, to the smoky suburban battlefields and muddy trenches, and even to the wounded and busy nurses in field hospitals. The content recorded in each negative is particularly thrilling.
After looking through the negatives one by one, as expected, I couldn’t find any footage of the T-34 tank. Still unfinished, Wei Ran put these precious negatives back into place and turned to the second page to continue the operation.
Soon, the whole album of negatives turned to the last page. Wei Ran rubbed his eyes that were blurred, and after taking a short rest, he took out the album of negatives from 1942.
In this boring repetition, one after another the negatives ran before Wei Ran's eyes like a revolving lantern. Occasionally, there was a shot of a T-34 tank in the photo, so he quickly took it off and fixed it on the film. Clip it on and scan it into the computer with a scanner for coloring. This is much more convenient than directly developing it into a photo.
I was busy until dark. Even the statue of the Motherland outside the window was lit up for more than an hour. Even the content in the negatives turned into various photos of life and scenery after retirement. But there were less than fifty negatives that were eligible to be scanned into the computer. Even he could be sure that there was a high probability that these scanned photos had nothing to do with the tank behind him.
"Bang Dang"
Wei Ran threw the heavy magnifying glass on the table and muttered to himself while rubbing his sore neck, "Another 50,000 yuan wasted. Rubles, I hope the professor can sell these negatives at a good price."
"Don't worry, I can sell these negatives tomorrow." Professor Alexey walked in almost stuck. studio, and also brought a sumptuous dinner to Wei Ran.
"Shocked me, when did you come?"
Wei Ran quickly let go of the Tokarev pistol in the drawer. Professor Alexei himself fired this gun. It was put in so that if a thief came in one day, he would not be able to fight back.
"Just arrived, come over for dinner."
Professor Alexey's lies come out of his mouth. He will not admit that he came more than two hours ago, but Seeing that Wei Ran was busy, he quietly hid in the travel agency next door to drink coffee with his wife.
"Where is my aunt?" Wei Ran didn't even bother to wash his hands. After opening the lunch box, he started to wolf down the steaming braised pork in his mouth.
"I came back an hour ago..." Professor Alexei realized he had let it slip halfway through his sentence. Without saying a word, he unplugged the power supply, picked up his laptop and ran out quickly. studio.
This old bastard!
Wei Ran, who almost choked to death, hammered his chest hard and watched helplessly as Professor Alexei disappeared at the end of the street in his BMW car.