War Photographer's Notebook

After only being honest at his grandma’s house for three days, Wei Ran took the high-speed train back to the capital with Sui Sui, and drove to a photo studio he had found so hard that still had a darkroom. Mr. Tao's portrait was printed out.

While the two of them were busy delivering the portrait to Chen Guangling's home to fulfill their promise, sisters Katenka had already taken Lu Xinda, who could act as an interpreter for the two sisters, to play by themselves.

Finally, I discussed with Chen Guangling and his son and Mr. Liu on the other end of the video call about what to do with the things left over from Mr. Tao's broken building. Wei Ran and Suisui spent a meal at Chen Guangling's house After the home-cooked meal, he immediately went straight to Jinmen without stopping.

"Do you know how much that small building is worth?" Sui Sui asked while flicking the screen of the tablet on the way.

"Knowing" Wei Ran, who was in charge of driving, nodded, "It would cost 3000 to [-] million at least."

"Teacher Chen and his family are really willing"

Sui Sui said in admiration, "Such a building is willing to give it to you. That Mr. Tao is really courageous. He is willing to give such a building to you, a person who has only called once before."

Wei Ran smiled, "Think about it again."

"What do you mean?" Sui Sui asked in confusion.

"Assuming that the violin in Youquan belongs to Mr. Chen, when Mr. Tao offered 500 million yuan to buy the violin, do you think Mr. Chen would sell it?"

"It's a fool not to sell," Sui Sui replied without thinking, and then looked at Wei Ran flatteringly, "I don't mean to say that"

"Don't explain yourself"

Wei Ran waved his hand angrily, "Let's not put the piano in Mr. Chen's place, even if it is given to Mr. Liu, 500 million is enough to impress him."

"so what?"

"It's all about picking generals among the dwarves"

Wei Ran smiled, "In comparison, I may be the least likely to sell that small building, and the most likely to have the financial resources to renovate that small building, after all, I don't even look at 500 million, do I? What's more, Youquan is still in my hands."

"You blow it!"

Sui Sui teased recklessly, but then said, "Anyway, at least Mr. Chen and Mr. Liu are not greedy, which is commendable enough."

"It's true"

Wei Ran nodded in agreement, and at the same time slightly increased the speed of the car and changed the subject, "Don't you need to pick up Sister Katenka and Lu Xinda?"

"Need not"

Sui Sui waved her hands reassuringly, "Let them play by themselves, and when Kou Kou comes over the day after tomorrow, it won't be too late to meet them at the airport."

Hearing this, Wei Ran slightly increased the speed of the car, and spent nearly three hours chatting along the way, and finally drove the car to the door of the small broken building.

In just three short days, the iron houses built privately in the courtyard attached to this small building have been demolished, and the sundries that were originally piled up between the courtyard wall and the small building have been cleaned up one by one. It looks much cleaner and more spacious, at least the car can be driven in.

"You two are here"

Just as Wei Ran and Suisui pushed open the car door, a distant uncle who had followed Suisui to Inta to build a kang immediately greeted him and said as he walked over, "The garbage inside and outside the house has been cleaned up, those Broken tables, rotten chairs, and camphor wood boxes were also taken away by your father in a hired car."

"Second Uncle, what are you all busy with now?" Wei Ran took the hard hat, dust mask, and dust glasses from the other party and asked.

"Shoveling the wall in the house"

The second uncle who led the construction team handed another helmet with a mask and glasses to Sui Sui while speaking, then pointed to the workers outside and said, "By the way, let's change the water and electricity lines together, let's go." , I'll take you to have a look inside."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Sui Sui, who hastily put on protective gear, immediately followed the second uncle into the small building, and at the same time listened to the second uncle explaining, "I asked someone to help look at this building yesterday, and the main body is The reinforced concrete structure is very strong."

Hearing this, Wei Ran stretched out his hand and patted the wall whose skin had been scraped off. Before he could say anything, the second uncle continued, "A year ago we tried to deal with the leaky roof and windows first. , further processing will have to wait until the first month of the year is out. This kind of ancient building restoration is different from new houses, and there are many rules.

Wei Ran, you have to be prepared, kid. It might cost a lot of money to build such a small building that can accommodate people, and you have to find a professional, so we can do the hard work. "

"Let's take it one step at a time"

Wei Ran responded ambiguously, and then asked the most concerned question, "Second Uncle, you called me and said you found the entrance to the basement?"

"I found it"

The second uncle said with a bit of a headache, "Come with me, I'll take you to see it."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Sui Sui looked at each other, and led by each other, they walked into a small windowless room near the kitchen on the first floor.

Like the rest of the room, the wall skin of this room has been shoveled off, and the terrazzo floor tiles on the ground have also been pried open, revealing the most original appearance.

At the far end of the suspected storage room against the wall, on the concrete floor with some exposed steel bars, there is obviously a piece the size of a door panel, which is tightly built with red bricks and cement like a patch.

At the corner of this patch, a piece the size of a washbasin was chiseled out. Looking down, five or six layers of bricks have been chiseled down, but the bottom has not yet been seen.

"I reckon there might be some treasure hidden here."

The second uncle lowered his voice and said, "I'm asking, all the rich owners lived here before. If there is no treasure hidden in this basement, it must not be so solid."

Speaking of this, the second uncle signaled Wei Ran and Sui Sui to come over, "Wei Ran, when you come out, I will say that it is an early New Year's greeting to invite everyone to dinner. When the time comes, I will take the workers to have a dinner together. I have found all the places.

The two of you take advantage of this time to break open the windows in the basement, the window on the north side of this small building, where the bricks are the worst and it is best to do it.

I put a chemical bucket there in advance, and electric picks and everything are in it, so be careful when using it.If there is anything valuable in the basement, you two should quickly load it up and take it away, and I will handle the rest.

If there is nothing, we can also speed up the progress and try to clean up the basement before Xiaonian. "

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Sui Sui, who was obviously already on top, looked at each other, and finally nodded.

Anyway, this uncle who is cousin to his mother is still on his and Suisui's side after all, so even if there is nothing in the basement, he can't take away the other party's kindness.

He readily agreed to the second uncle's proposal, Wei Ran followed the second uncle's pretentious upstairs and downstairs tour with an excited Sui Sui, and at the end, according to the script given by the second uncle, to invite Everyone had a meal and ended today's work ahead of schedule.

Watching the second uncle take the workers away in two vans, Sui Sui ran to the shade of the small building.Seeing this, Wei Ran shook his head, and followed him leisurely.

Finding the conspicuous white chemical barrel, Wei Ran found that the second uncle not only prepared tools such as electric picks and crowbars, but also passed a power strip in advance.

"You don't know how to use it, do you?" Seeing that Wei Ran hadn't started yet, Sui Sui said impatiently, "Why don't you let me do it?"

"Go ahead and watch the sentry, and close the iron gate of the small courtyard by the way."

As Wei Ran said, he had already pressed the electric pick against the red bricks blocking the basement windows and pressed the start button.

Without much effort at all, he easily pried open a gap in the bricks, and with the help of this gap, gradually expanded, and finally removed all the two layers of red bricks blocking the window.

This basement window is only one meter wide and half a meter high. The wooden window sills have been slightly decayed, but the glass is still strong and intact.And inside the window, there seems to be something like a blind hanging on it.

After some observation, Wei Ran took out a pair of rubber gloves from the chemical barrel and put them on, carefully took off the long piece of patterned glass and put it aside, then used a crowbar to pry off the messy wooden window frame.

Gently lifted the soft curtain inside the window, when Wei Ran put the flashlight prepared by his second uncle in advance into the basement, he was stunned.

This dusty basement is far drier than I imagined, but there are far more things in it than I imagined.

"Spike"

Wei Ran greeted the girl who stood under the ginkgo tree and looked around vigilantly.

Before he finished speaking, Sui Sui ran over like a swipe, poking his head and asking, "What good things are there?"

"Don't go in yet." Wei Ran stopped Suisui who was about to poke his head in, "Just take a look, be careful of lack of oxygen."

"What are these things?"

Sui Sui shrank back, her eyes moved back and forth following the beam of light from the flashlight Wei Ran held in his hand.

"Those seem to be old printing presses"

Wei Ran pointed the beam of the flashlight at the row of four dusty machines placed against the wall in this semi-underground room and said, "I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a similar machine in the teacher's office. What a thing, the test papers I used at that time were all printed with that shit."

"Why are there so many printing machines here?" Suisui took the flashlight held by Wei Ran and observed it dangling, but immediately after, she uttered a cry of surprise. The flashlight she just took from Wei Ran , also clanging and falling into the basement.

"what happened?"

Seeing Sui Sui screaming, Wei Ran hid back, his small face turned pale, and immediately blocked Sui Sui with his body while raising his vigilance.

"Someone! There's someone in there! It looks like he was hanged with a rope!" The terrified Sui Sui scrambled and hid behind Wei Ran, but she didn't even dare to open her eyes.