War Photographer's Notebook

In the spacious darkroom in the basement of the library, after Wei Ran calmed down, he subconsciously looked at the titanium alloy oil barrel less than one meter away from him.

He opened the lid with a tired face, and the hot cocoa inside immediately gave off a hot and sweet aroma.

"I really thank you eight generations of ancestors."

Wei Ran muttered something nervously, picked up a disposable coffee cup and filled it with hot cocoa, and then put away the deliberately provocative oil barrel.

Holding the cup and leaving the underground darkroom, he glanced at the time, opened the car door and beckoned Beria to jump in, drove the armored pickup truck out of the yard alone and drove out of the city, heading straight for Jima and their village.

Following his memory, he drove the car to the deserted logging camp where he and Jima, Maya and others camped together. Wei Ran drove around the lake with a diameter of less than [-] meters. After no one was there, he opened the door and got out of the car, standing on the gravel beach by the lake.

After a little hesitation, Wei Ran squatted down again, and not only lay down on the gravel beach without any image, but even took out a bearskin mitten that was rarely used from the metal book and bit it on it. mouth.

No wonder he was so prepared. The torture like needle pricks every time he took out the DT30 transport vehicle was too uncomfortable. If the destroyer Johnston is really taken out later, if the volume is compared to scale up During that brief pain, he was worried that he would die suddenly.

"Hu-! Hu-! Hu-!"

Wei Ran took a few deep breaths in a row, clenched the glove in his mouth again, then closed his eyes and shrunk his neck, and took out the latest thing in the red vortex with a low growl.

"Whoa!"

In the splashing water, Wei Ran, who was ready to die, was stunned, it didn't hurt, it didn't hurt at all.

He opened his eyes and straightened his neck. When he saw something floating on the water, he immediately patted the grass leaves on his body and stood up. While putting away the bearskin mittens, he couldn't help cursing himself for eating something wrong. What is it that has such high expectations for a metal book that can't be counted on at all.

There is no other reason. At this time, it is not the destroyer Johnston or even the traffic boat Johnston floating on the water.

This is just a white canvas sailor bag. If there is any difference from the set in the basement that is still on the table in the darkroom, it is just that the sailor bag is clearly written "DD-557" with black mimeograph. The words, and some black silhouette patterns.

Among these patterns, there are smoking Indian pipe axes, telescopes, sextants, moose horns, and even small figures wearing Indian feather crowns, holding bows and arrows in one hand, and throwing axes in the other.

Of course, the most conspicuous pattern on this sailor bag is the silhouette of the USS Johnston destroyer.

Lifting the sailor bag out of the water, luckily, the sailor bag may have been coated with a waterproof coating, so it was not wet, and even the remaining water stains automatically gathered together, and with the shaking of Wei Ran, there was no trace of it. The relentless drops fell back to the surface of the water.

After walking a few steps to the distance, he untied the sailor bag. He pulled out the folded hammock from inside. After looking around, he fixed it on two birch trees next to each other not far from the lake.

Compared with the only hammock on Helen Island, the quality of this hammock is obviously much better, and it is relatively wider, longer and thicker.

Continue to take it out from the sailor bag, there are two thick and soft green blankets, and a large piece of white umbrella cloth with a square of four meters.

The surrounding area of ​​the umbrella cloth is not only carefully sealed with canvas, but also has a long section of umbrella cord reserved.Without thinking about it at all, Wei Ran guessed that this umbrella cloth was used as a curtain for the hammock.

Does the Destroyer guy love a joke as much as the hot cocoa in the kitchen?
Wei Ran muttered with a smile on his face, kicked off his shoes and lay on the hammock, stuffed one of the blankets and umbrella cloth canopy back into the sailor bag as a pillow, shook the hammock by himself, and took out a thick one from the metal book A stack of negatives, looking at one by one under the bright sunshine.

Unlike the photos taken in memory, there is always one person missing in these negatives.Sometimes it's Hawks, sometimes it's Sterling, sometimes it's Captain Evans.Even, sometimes the few are Akira or Jiro.

It seems that these photos should not exist, just like the red flag photo on the Capitol should not exist.
Wei Ran sighed secretly, sent the negatives back to the paper bag in the metal book, squinted his eyes and stared blankly at the sparkling calm lake in the distance, and fell asleep unknowingly after a while.

Amidst his even snoring, Beria came out of the birch forest with a little wild boar he had invited from nowhere in his mouth, lying in the shadow of the armored pickup truck, while guarding the guard, he also boldly tried to A corpse-like abdominal operation was performed on the little wild boar who was looking for a disease.

When the loud phone ringing woke Wei Ran up, the setting sun had already turned the lake not far away into golden red.The dog Beria, who was full of food and drink, also dug a pit beside the pickup truck that was big enough for him to lie down in.

Yawning, the sleepy Wei Ran took out the satellite phone and glanced at it. Seeing that it was Sui Sui's call, he immediately pressed the answer button.

"Where have you been?"

Sui Sui on the other end of the phone continued without waiting for Wei Ran's answer, "Your scumbag friend, Comrade Xia Shushi, is leaving tomorrow morning. Don't you want to eat something good tonight?"

"Eat, what are you going to eat?" Wei Ran couldn't help but yawned again after finishing speaking.

"How about the seafood buffet?" Sui Sui immediately asked, "Lola said that there is a new restaurant in Bauman Pedestrian Street."

"I don't eat seafood." Wei Ran grinned subconsciously, "There are also coconuts and frigate birds."

"What did you just say?" Sui Sui asked blankly, "The frigate bird? What are you doing? Sleepy?"

"It's in the abandoned lumberyard next to Jima's village." Wei Ran yawned, "Come here to let yourself be quiet and change your mind, and accidentally fell asleep."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran, who finally finished the machine, brought the topic back without waiting for the other party to speak, "Let's make dinner by ourselves! I'll bring back a little suckling pig from Jima's house later, and tonight we'll make roast suckling pig by ourselves. Braised pork, braised pork ribs, braised elbow”

"You might as well burn Xia Shushi in brown sauce later."

Sui Sui on the other end of the phone rolled her eyes, "Anyway, hurry up and bring the pork back, and check to see if Ji Scumbag and Maya are there, and bring them back together if they are."

"Understood, leave it to me!" Wei Ran yawned again after finishing speaking, then stretched his waist and hung up the phone.

Looking around again until he confirmed that he had left the nightmarish island, he packed the hammock as quickly as possible, put the refilled sailor bag back into the metal book, and beckoned Beria, who was like a mud monkey, to jump into the carriage , drove the car around and drove to the village where Jima was.

I went to Jima's house, no accident, Jima and Maya were not there, fortunately, the little wild boars caught and gelded when camping back then are still there, and they have been carefully fed by Jima's parents A circle of fat is visible to the naked eye.

With the help of the old couple and Beria, one of the little wild boars who looked the most ideal and ambitious was caught, and the joints of the four hooves were easily dismantled and thrown into the cargo bucket. Wei Ran declined when he invited the two elders to have dinner together After that, he drove back to his home by Lake Kaban.

Calling Xia Shushi, who has been facing Lola and almost always failing, and sister Katenka, who is not good at cooking but is very skilled in handling ingredients, a certain historian is familiar with the way to bleed this fat little wild boar The singeing is divided into the required pieces of meat.

Of course, at the instigation of Sui Sui, the job of cleaning the sewer was naturally handed over to another historian present at the request of Lola.

From sunset to starry sky, the temporary long tables in the big yard are also filled with all kinds of meat dishes and cold beer.

"Boss, what's the matter?"

Anfisa leaned close to Suisui's ear and asked in a low voice, but her eyes were on Wei Ran who was holding the freshly baked Da Lieba at the table in one hand, and kept throwing braised pork into his mouth with chopsticks in the other hand.

"Boss has a really good appetite today." An Feiya leaned close to Sui Sui's other ear and commented.

"Has he had lunch?" Suisui looked at Lola who was whispering to Sui Xin.

"It seems not." Lola spread her hands. "You should ask the shrimp. These days, they settle their lunch in the basement. I only go down to clean up the garbage every morning."

"Brother Shrimp, have you had lunch?"

Sui Sui asked Xia Shushi, the name Shrimp was naturally borrowed from Lorana.Fortunately, Xia Shushi had a good temper, so he was not dissatisfied with this title, and the title of Brother Shrimp was much nicer than eating pig food anyway.

"It seems to be eaten." Xia Shushi cut off a small piece of grilled ribs while speaking, and took a bite politely.

"didn't eat"

Sui Xin rolled her eyes and said helplessly, "The lunch you two ordered is still on the bar in the library. Although Xia Shushi went to get takeout, he didn't bring it home at all. He only served it from Lola. Two cups of coffee left."

"That's what I didn't eat"

While talking, Xia Shushi picked up the big Lieba baked by Lola himself, opened his mouth and took a small bite, "I said why am I so hungry."

"see that"

Sui Sui, who was holding a cup in her hand, rolled her eyes, and said pretendingly, "Those who study history don't even have the ability to take care of themselves."

"Wooooow woof woof!"

Wei Ran responded vaguely, picked up the cup and took a big gulp, and finally swallowed the food in his mouth.

"belch--!"

Wei Ran hiccupped without any image, and then said again, "Talk to Greva when I have time, and ask him to help catch some more suckling pigs, and send them all to Jima's house for raising. Bleeding wild boar is delicious."

Sui Sui patted his forehead, feeling that Wei Ran seemed to be possessed by a starving ghost, so he simply changed the topic to a less embarrassing topic and asked, "Let's not talk about this, how is your investigation going?"

"Frozen"

"There is a clue." Wei Ran gave a completely different point of view before Xia Shushi finalized their investigation.

"What do you know?" Xia Shushi asked puzzled.

"It's hard to say yet"

Wei Ran threw a piece of ribs into his mouth, and said vaguely and perfunctorily, "It's okay, you go ahead, I will call you when I need your help."

"That's fine." Xia Shushi didn't take it seriously, picked up a glass of sparkling wine and took a sip.

The host and guest enjoyed the meal, and in the blink of an eye the next morning, Xia Shushi was delivered to the airport by Wei Ran himself.

"When are you going to the Philippines?" Xia Shushi asked after finishing the check-in.

"Wait first." Wei Ran responded vaguely, "You're thinking about that business."

"Do not worry!"

Xia Shushi shook the authenticator hanging around his neck, "I will meet the beast as soon as I land, and then we will meet with Zhong Zhen to discuss the establishment of a mental hospital."

"Then it's settled"

Wei Ran smiled and shook hands with the other party, watched him walk into the terminal, and waited until the other party's flight took off, then turned around and left the airport slowly.