"cheers!"

Although the reason in this toast was a bit ridiculous, everyone still drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.

When Panin poured the same amount of wine into everyone's glasses for the fourth time, the wine bottle was completely emptied and thrown into the shadow of the corner. At the same time, everyone also grabbed a piece of roasted and fragrant spine meat.

, tore strips of brown meat from the top and stuffed them into their mouths.

"Listen to me, I heard bad news."

Sergey lowered his voice and said, "I heard that all of us may have to move to the northern dock by December at the latest."

"Go mining?" Panin asked in a low voice.

"right"

Sergey nodded, "I heard that the infrastructure of that mine has been built, and the production indicators this winter seem to be so high that it gives the director a headache. I also heard that there may be more people coming from the mine by then.

We will transfer some more prisoners of war from another logging camp nearby. We might be hungry again by then."

"Are we going too?" Mesut asked in a low voice.

"Of course we are going, everyone is going."

Sergey put a piece of meat into his mouth, took a sip of vodka, and then continued in a low voice, "You will definitely not have to serve those animals by then, all the ones used over there are mine carts.

It is said that the rails have been laid from the wharf to the mine, and a windmill seems to have been built. In the summer, there may be plans to build a waterwheel. This is what the director said. "

Seeing that Ihor seemed to be about to say something, Mesut raised his glass first and said, "No matter what we do, we will work hard."

"Yes, no matter what you do," Ihor raised the cup.

"cheers"

Wei Ran then changed the topic. Seeing this, Sergei and Panin immediately raised their glasses and touched them with the three of them.

The meal lasted for nearly an hour, and Sergei and Panin left the stone house with messy dishes.

Ihor, who was about to say something, was also called away by someone at the stable who seemed to be changing horses. For a while, only Mesut and Wei Ran were left in this overly warm room.

"Victor, this is my birthday gift to you." Mesut said, taking out an object the size of a finger from his pocket and handing it to Wei Ran.

I took the birthday gift and looked at it. It was a cigarette holder made of deer antler. It was a gadget that most smokers needed in the era of cigarettes without filters.

This not-so-big cigarette holder is carved with a scene of two reindeer pulling a sleigh running through the wilderness. It is used to fix one end of the cigarette and is wrapped in a circle that is only as wide as a leek leaf, but it is

Polished and shiny copper.

"Your skills are really good," Wei Ran said in admiration.

"As long as you like it," Mesut said, turning around to continue clearing the things on the table.

"Let me give you a gift too"

Wei Ran said, pretending to put his hand in his pocket, took out the pen from the metal book and gave it to the other party.

"Are you willing to give this to me?" Mesut looked at Wei Ran in surprise.

"Take it" Wei Ran smiled and put the pen into the other person's hand.

"I will cherish it," Mesut said, holding the pen.

Just at this moment, Ihor, who had just left, also got in again. Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately turned around and walked out. At the same time, he did not forget to say, "I'll go to the store to see if there is any ink for sale."

After saying that, he lifted the curtain and got out. However, he did not leave. He just took out the sterling silver cigarette case from Leningrad from the metal book, took out a cigarette from it and fixed it on the filter, and then leaned against it.

He lit his cigarette against the wall and took a puff.

Just as he was blowing out the first cloud of smoke, in a room with two curtains and one door, Sumet also pulled out a horseshoe made of horseshoes with an antler handle from a wooden box full of horseshoes.

The Finnish knife with a wooden sheath was handed to Ihor, "This is my birthday gift to you."

"I also prepared a gift for you"

While taking the knife, Ihor reached out to fumble around in his boots, and then took out a silver pocket watch-style compass that was only slightly larger than a bottle cap and handed it to Mesut, "For this."

You."

"Is your gift so expensive?" Mesut raised his eyebrows, "I remember you said this was given to you by your father?"

"yes"

Ihor nodded, "I'll give it to you. You have to be responsible for hiding it. We are not allowed to have this kind of thing."

"I will hide it," Mesut said, stuffing the pocket watch-style compass into his boot.

After listening to the conversation between the two people, Wei Ran blew out a second smoke ring and walked towards the store not far away.

This so-called store is a little pitiful, with only a few items on the row of shelves, and sitting at the wooden counter is the simple woman who was responsible for cooking just now.

What Wei Ran didn't expect was that this woman was actually playing with an early Kiev Type 2 camera in her hands.

“Are you selling this camera too?”

Wei Ran asked, and at the same time he glanced at the calendar hanging on the shelf. At this time, the calendar had been turned to November 7, 1951, which was a Wednesday.

There is also a 24-hour dial hanging next to the calendar, but the hands are no longer moving and have become pure decoration.

"This is not for sale, Victor, you really know how to joke."

This simple woman explained, "But if you want to take a photo, you can buy a negative and I can take it for you. The photo cannot be sent to Turukhansk for development until a whole roll of film is shot."

“Forget it”

Wei Ran glanced at the photo prices marked on the shelf, and then looked at the other things on the shelf. There weren't actually many things for sale on the shelf. In addition to hats, felt boots, gloves, and scarves, there were cigarettes and matches.

There are also items such as enamel cups, knives, forks and plates. In the center, in addition to letter paper, envelopes, stamps, ink and pens, there are also playing cards for sale.

Taking out the tokens in his pocket and counting them, Wei Ran set aside enough money to buy two negatives, and then took out a small portion to buy a pair of knitted gloves and a pair of new thick felt boots. The man who was originally playing with them

The woman who took the camera also took the initiative to give Wei Ran two soft foot wraps.

Returning to the stone house with these things, Mesut and Ihor had already cleared the table. At this time, they were sitting on the wooden stools by the fireplace. Each of them still held a half-burned stick in their hands.

cigarette.

Seeing Wei Ran come in, the two temporarily stopped talking, and it wasn't until Wei Ran closed the door, lowered the curtain, and sat on the stool next to Mesut that the tall and thin man whispered, "We

We have to act quickly, we have to leave before the end of the month, otherwise once we are sent to mine, we will never leave again."

"What is missing now?" Ihor asked in a low voice.

Hearing this, Mesut put his hand into the gap between the pile of wooden boards. After groping around inside, he took out a sanitary ware and looked at the very familiar horse fur notepad. He flipped through a few pages, pointed at the supplies list and said,

"We also need candles and a tent, as well as animal skins for warmth and shotguns for self-defense."

"Is that all that's missing?" Ihor asked in a low voice.

"That's all that's missing." Mesut nodded and stuffed the notepad back into the gap between the boards. "Without any of them, we won't be able to leave alive."

"But what about candles?"

Before Ihor finished speaking, the door was pushed open again, and Andre, a Japanese prisoner of war carrying a lunch box in his hand, also walked in.

Upon seeing this, Ihor immediately changed his tone and said, "Many of the horseshoes on the draft horses that were just delivered have already been loosened."

"Let's get up early tomorrow"

Mesut said, having already stood up, followed Andre who was obviously in a bad mood and walked into the dormitory next door.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and Yihor stood up one after another and followed them into the dormitory.

After delaying some time by pretending to fill his kettle with hot water, Wei Ran waited for the other three people to go to bed, and finally knew that his bed was directly above Mesut, and he was on the other top bunk, feet to feet.

, lying down was Andre, who was going to go mining tomorrow.

Looking at his bed again, apart from the tattered bedding, the only decent personal belongings were a Finnish knife with an antler handle placed in a wooden box fixed on the log wall, and

A glass wine bottle with a bottle of vodka still left.

He raised his head and drank the remaining sip of vodka in the bottle. Wei Ran covered himself with a blanket and closed his eyes, secretly thinking about the conversation between Mesut and Ihor, as well as the prisoners of war, including himself, and Panin.
Chapter completed!