Early the next morning, Wei Ran left a note before his aunt came to look for Professor Alexei who had not returned home all night, drove to the airport in a hurry, and boarded a direct flight to Kazan.
After the plane took off, Wei Ran would occasionally take out the black and white photos that were already in the frame and look at them. And he was in a particularly uneasy mood at this time. He wanted to know Nikolai's memories of Don Position 19, but he was worried about whether the other party would recognize him. At the same time, he was also afraid that there was no "Postman Vic" in the other party's memory. "More" this person.
In this anxious mood, the flight landed at Kazan Airport ten minutes early. Wei Ran, who had no luggage at all, left the airport as quickly as possible, hailed a taxi and went straight to his laptop. the address recorded on.
Compared with Volgograd (Stalingrad), which was almost completely demolished and rebuilt after World War II, Kazan has retained more ancient buildings, and the entire city has a particularly strong sense of history, but it is different from Volga. The same thing about Grad is that in this city, which is also located on the bank of the Volga River, you can also see monuments about that war.
Sitting in the taxi, Wei Ran would raise the Leica camera from Zoya from time to time, and while waiting for the traffic lights, he would aim at the buildings outside the window and press the shutter again and again.
When the last piece of film was exposed, the taxi also stopped in a small village surrounded by forests on the edge of the city.
After paying the fare, Weiran declined the taxi driver’s suggestion that he would wait for his return. He walked into the village on the gravel road soaked by the rain, looking for the house number that matched the address. .
However, what disappointed him was that he almost visited this small village with only a few dozen households, but could not find the address provided in the notebook. Instead, he attracted several unscrupulous people. of young people watching.
"Outlander, are you here to steal things?"
One of the young men smelling of alcohol raised the beer bottle in his hand while asking. And his greedy attention was already focused on the Leica camera hanging on Wei Ran's chest.
Wei Ran had already seen life and death countless times in Stalingrad and Position 19, so that the provocations of the young people in front of him did not make him feel any danger at all.
"I found an old gentleman named Nicholas. He is about 90 years old this year. His house number is No. 44, but I don't..."
"Why are you looking for the old principal?" The young man who was just about to give Wei Ran a slap on the head was stunned when he heard this, and then accurately threw the empty bottle in his hand into the garbage pile not far away.
"Old principal?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, "Is he a principal?"
"Answer my question first, why are you looking for Mr. Nicholas?" Another one The young man with colorfully dyed hair, who looked like he could be a high school student at most, asked.
“I’m a postman.” Wei Ran patted his backpack, “I have some things here that I need to kiss.Delivered to Mr. Nicholas. "
The young people surrounding Wei Ran looked at each other. The leading young man took a step back and waved, "Follow me. Principal Nicholas does not live in the village. "
"Thank you"
Wei Ran calmly touched the tattoo at the tiger's mouth. There was also a bayonet from the Battle of Stalingrad in the cowhide book. If these few This young man really has some bad intentions. The bayonet may be his only weapon.
In his secret alert, these idle young people walked in front and led Wei Ran through the village. , walked on a cement road leading to the forest outside the village. At the same time, the young man in his senior year also took the initiative to explain, "Principal Nicholas has always lived in the school. Just ask in the village. Anyone willing to take you there. ”
“Has Mr. Nicholas been the principal here? "Wei Ran, who was walking at the end, asked curiously.
"It's been a long time"
A young man with a red mohawk said, "As far as I know , that school was a mental hospital in the Soviet era, and even our village had just moved there at that time, and Mr. Nikolai was the director of that mental hospital at the time.
After the Soviet Union disappeared, the mental hospital was turned into a school through Mr. Nikolai’s efforts. My father even studied in that school. "
"My brother also went to school there."
The leading young man followed up and said, "Even I went to school there, but that school was only ten years old. It was closed down some time ago, and now only Principal Nikolai himself still lives there. ”
Wei Ran didn’t ask any more questions, but there were more and more doubts in his heart. If what these young people said was true, was the information provided in the cowhide book wrong? Or was he going to The Nicholas they were looking for was not the same person as the Principal Nicholas they described?
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran quietly followed the ones in front of him. The young man continued to move forward along the old cracked road. When the village behind him was completely blocked by tall and dense pine trees, a particularly neat and clean high-walled compound quietly appeared at the end of the road.
Different from the schools in Wei Ran’s impression, the walls of this school are two to three meters high. What’s even more exaggerated is that there are even a period-sounding wall at the corners of the walls on both sides of the gate.
In the half-open gate, there is a green stone corridor in the middle of the green lawn, with thick oak trees on both sides providing a large amount of shade. The fat cat that came from nowhere was lying in the middle of the road, looking arrogant and blocking the road.
Listening to the roar of the engine coming from the end of the corridor from time to time, Wei Ran looked at those few people in confusion. The young gangster whose name I still don’t know.
The young man in charge spread his hands indifferently, “Just keep going, you’ll see it later. ”
AlsoBefore Wei Ran could take a step forward, the melodious sound of horse hoofbeats came from far away. A shirtless old man wearing leather pants drove a black old-fashioned Harley-Davidson motorcycle from behind the two-story building at the end of the corridor. Then he calmly stopped in front of everyone, hooked his high-waisted boots, and skillfully opened the footrests.
Is this Nikolai?
Wei Ran looked at the other person’s body with age spots, the tattoos that could be described as graffiti, and the sparse white hair tied into braids. It was really difficult to compare him to the skinny little postman who was at Position 19. Match the number.
"Why did you bastards come to my place?" The shirtless old man said with a contented voice. While speaking, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket and lit them. The cigarette case was thrown to the leading young gangster.
"Principal, there is a postman looking for you, saying that he has something to deliver to you in person." The young gangster took the cigarette case skillfully, lit the cigarette as he was doing, and turned to look at Wei. Ran asked, "By the way, what's your name?"
"Wei...Wei Ran"
I don't know if the old man riding the motorcycle is No. 19 Before the little postman Nikolay was at the position, and he didn’t even know whether the other party had “Postman Victor” in his memory about Position 19, when he deliberately met the other party as a postman, he didn’t want to say anything about Victor. Kedo is a Russian name that may ring a bell to the other party.
"Tail..." The young gangster tried to repeat Wei Ran's Chinese name. After a few times, he simply gave up and said to the old man who was holding the fuel tank with both hands, "In short, it's him." Looking for you."
"Chinese?" the old man asked abruptly.
Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a smile but didn't say much.
Principal Nicholas took two puffs of his cigarette, reached out and turned the key to turn off the motorcycle's engine. After the engine stopped making noise, he asked curiously, "What happened last time?" When I met the Chinese, the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed, so young man, what do you want from me?"
"I want you to see this photo," Wei Ran opened it under the other's gaze. backpack, took out the photo frame inside and handed it to the old man who was still riding the motorcycle.
Taking the photo frame and looking at it doubtfully, Nicholas looked up at Wei Ran with a questioning look on his face.
"Don River, Position 19." Wei Ran answered the other party's question briefly while staring at his facial expression.