War Photographer's Notebook

"This is a signed photo of a celebrity!"

At the entrance of the small western building, Wei Ran's second uncle seemed to have discovered some rare treasure, staring at the photo pasted on the small mirror with bright eyes, "Nephew, this photo is not worth it. No, this wooden box radio station Could it be Shang Xiaoyun's?"

"impossible"

Wei Ran shook his head decisively.

Just kidding, but if this small building used to live in such a big and famous actor, why would it be Wei Ran's turn to come here to pick up junk?I am afraid that it has long been protected by the title of "Shang Xiaoyun's Former Residence".

"Why is it impossible?" Second Uncle subconsciously asked.

"Which star would put his autographed photo in his own wooden box?" Wei Ran asked back, "How stinky is that?"

"Your bastard buddy can definitely do such a thing." The second uncle who reacted jokingly said.

"When I said nothing"

Wei Ran grinned, "But this Shang Xiaoyun is definitely not as coquettish as Ji Ma, and he is definitely not the earliest owner of this small building. The one who lived here was a woman, not a man."

After saying this, Wei Ran finally remembered the question he had been wanting to ask Suisui's grandfather yesterday but couldn't remember.

However, this question has already been answered with the result of the query on the mobile phone-Wang Zhaojun, the Daomadan in Peking Opera, was actually sung by a man!

When he thought of this, he immediately thought of another question - the set of Zhaojun skin that he brought back yesterday. Ah no, that set of Zhaojun costumes, can't it be the famous actor Shang Xiaoyun's? !
Thinking of this, Wei Ran didn't bother to explain to his second uncle, he closed the wooden box with a "snap!", and asked quickly, "Second uncle, is there any work that hasn't been done in this small building? "

"Running out"

Speaking of business, Wei Ran's second uncle, who is a cousin of his mother, is also unambiguous, "I found out the leaking place on the roof early this morning, and removed everything that could be removed from the water and electricity lines. Those rotten dormer windows have also been temporarily sealed with waterproof material and wooden boards.

Right now, all that remains is to seal the demolished windows with boards and clean up the demolished construction waste.

However, the garbage can only be cleaned after dark, and the car cannot drive in during the day, so I guess I can finish it tonight. "

Speaking of this, the second uncle came close to Wei Ran's ear and lowered his voice, "I took your cousin to seal the basement window that you dug open yesterday, and I guarantee that no one can get in."

"This second uncle can get along"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and while transferring money to the other party via WeChat, he said, "Second Uncle, I'll take this radio station to someone to ask what's going on first. You're tired and take the masters to work for another day, and I'll let my dad do it later. The travel agency will book a hotel for everyone and set up two tables of dishes. When the work is over, you take the masters to have a good meal tonight before resting.

In addition, I just transferred 2 yuan to you, and you will share one point with everyone as a hush money, which is in addition to wages. "

"No need, you."

"Listen to me, Second Uncle." Wei Ran stopped the other party and lowered his voice to remind, "These discoveries must make everyone shut up."

Seeing that Wei Ran didn't look like a joke, and that the mobile phone in his hand had indeed received the money transferred from Wei Ran, the second uncle, who had already paid the workers in advance, also became serious, patted his chest and promised, "Daddy!" Nephew, don't worry, if anyone tells you, I'll make your cousin beat his shit out!"

"That's it, I'll take this first."

While talking, Wei Ran carried the wooden box, turned around and got into the car, and drove out of this scenic street.

It wasn't until the small building was completely blocked by the surrounding street trees and buildings that he found a parking space on the side of the road, parked the car in a hurry, and dialed the phone to Sui Sui.

"What's the matter?" After the call was connected, Sui Sui on the other end asked sleepily, "Have you had breakfast?"

“Almost Lunch”

Wei Ran reminded, dumbfounded, that this girl played with Sister Katenka and Lu Xinda for most of the night last night, so it's no wonder she can wake up at this time.

"I'll sleep again." Sui Sui said vaguely.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep anymore." Wei Ran cleared his throat and explained what he just discovered.

It wasn't until this moment that Sui Sui realized that he wasn't in the next room at all.

"Anyway, you can take care of the outfit we brought back yesterday."

Before the other party could speak, Wei Ran reminded, "That outfit might really belong to that famous actor, so don't break it."

"I'll move it to your room and lock it up!" Sui Sui, who was completely sleepy, rolled over and got out of bed as she spoke.

"Remind grandparents and grandparents too," Wei Ran finally ordered, "Otherwise, it's a big Chinese New Year holiday, and the house will become a scenic spot."

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Sui Sui agreed, and then asked, "When are you coming back?"

"It may not be possible to go back today." Wei Ran said vaguely, "Let's talk about the details later in the evening."

"Tomorrow I have to go to the airport to pick up the rich woman," Sui Sui reminded.

"Maybe I will rush over to find a hotel to stay at night."

After discussing the next arrangement with Suisui in a few words, Wei Ran hung up the phone and immediately called Chen Luoxiang.

Using this cheap junior as a way to inquire with Mr. Chen Guangling and Mr. Liu respectively, Wei Ran was surprised to learn that the deceased Mr. Tao, no matter in the theater troupe or his own troupe, was best at Dao Ma Dan, and the best in Dao Ma Dan is Wang Zhaojun in the play of Concubine Han Ming!

After hanging up the phone, when he opened the wooden box in his hand again, he gradually pieced together a fairly complete image in his mind based on the fragmented information he got from various places these days.

The original owner of that small building was a woman. She was not only Mr. Tao's aunt, but also a well-known "entertainment celebrity" at least in Tianjin at that time.

Not only is she rich and background able to afford such a mansion, but she must be a woman like Wang Zhaojun who does not give in to men.This can be seen from the engraving on the slide of the small pistol.

On the other hand, she is very likely to be a loyal fan of Shang Xiaoyun, a well-known contemporary dramatist.

So she has Shang Xiaoyun's signed photo, so the small pistol grip she uses for self-defense is engraved with the silhouette of an idol.

She even engraved her favorite line from one of the idol's best plays on the sleeve, and it is very likely that she obtained the costumes worn by the idol through her own means.

And all of this may be the real her, but it is only her on the surface.

In the shadows where the sun can't reach, this woman hides a radio station that is absolutely dangerous at the time, and even very boldly hides a small printing factory in the basement of her home.

Perhaps what gave her motivation was the signed photo from the idol.

So every time she sends and receives a telegram with this rudimentary assembled station, does she take a look at herself in the mirror, and then at a picture of her idol?
What messages did she send, and what messages did she receive, through this humble station?Did the person she communicated with via Morse code come from Jinling, the mountain city, or the revolutionary holy land of Yan'an?

Those printing presses and mimeographs in the basement that have been dusted for a long time, and what kind of thoughts are conveying the articles that were secretly printed on paper?

What made him even more curious was, what role did the late Mr. Tao play in that enigmatic history?
Driven by more and more curiosity, Wei Ran also gently lifted up the photo with the top two corners glued to the mirror little by little.It's a pity that there is no text written on the back of this photo.

Seeing this, Wei Ran was not really disappointed, but slowly closed the lid and placed it in the co-pilot's position, and then with the help of navigation, drove the car into the nearest building materials city.

A family from east to west bought a carload of things, and he drove to find a hotel not far from the small western-style building and opened a room. After some inspections, he sent a few messages to his father, and then made a reservation. The alarm clock fell asleep.

When he was woken up by the bell, it was already nine o'clock in the evening, and he also received a message from his father on WeChat, saying that the workers had been arranged to go to the hotel.

After replying a message to his father, Wei Ran left the room, drove out and found a fly house to fill his stomach, and then rushed back to the small western-style building.

Compared with tourists or sightseeing carriages passing by the door from time to time during the day, this street at night is much quieter. There are occasionally a few small buildings with lights along the way, either they are still open dining places, or they are really The local tyrants who live in those small buildings.

After opening the locked iron gate, he drove the car in. Wei Ran locked the iron gate of the small courtyard again, and then opened the locked wooden door. Checked up and down.

Wei Ran didn't return to the car until he was sure that there was no one here, and changed into a knockoff camouflage uniform bought at the building materials market. On the north side of the small courtyard, the brick wall blocking the window was easily removed again.

Taking advantage of the time to ventilate the basement, Wei Ran returned to the car and carried all the things he bought to the window of the basement one by one.

First, a folded aluminum alloy ladder was sent in along the window. After Wei Ran jumped into the basement, he stepped on the ladder to move all kinds of things into the basement.

Climbing out along the window again, he used two shovel poles to support a piece of thick canvas bought in advance on the wall to block the window. At the same time, he placed two electric fans by the window and used the plug wires from the small building to block the window. The board provides power.

Climbed into the basement again, and turned on two electric fans to ventilate the windows. Wei Ran placed all kinds of magnetic charging lighting lamps he purchased in various places, and placed this four- to five-hundred-square-meter The semi-underground space is as bright as daylight.

Next, he picked out a large mop from the various things he brought down, and then took out two hand-held metal detectors for security checks.

After tying the two detectors to the crossbar of the T-shaped mop with straps, Wei Ran then carried the agricultural electric sprayer on his back.

Putting on a mask and dust-proof glasses, Wei Ran turned on the switch of the sprayer, and sprayed the dusty basement with a layer of water mist to suppress dust.

Immediately afterwards, he turned on the two metal detectors tied to the mop, dragged the mop with his hand, and circled it a little bit inward against the wall.From time to time, he would even remove the two detectors and wash the mop head with a large plastic basin and the water left in the sprayer that he bought together.

During his trips back and forth, the dusty basement gradually became cleaner, but to his disappointment, from the beginning to the end, the two metal detectors found nothing but the metal cabinets. special response.

"It shouldn't be." Wei Ran frowned after mopping and washing the entire basement like a big wronged species.

According to his guess, since there are so many things hidden in this small building, it is very likely that there are other things hidden in it.

And the reason why he judged so was nothing more than one reason—this basement seemed to block the surrounding windows, but it didn't have any concealment at all.

Not to mention that he had advanced training at Hongqi Forest Farm, even if Suisui came over, whenever she took a look at the small western-style buildings around her, she would easily guess that this small building also had a basement.

Because of this, it is almost certain that the surrounding printing presses were definitely not here in the first place.

Pulling over a chair that had been cleaned just now, sat down and took a breath, Wei Ran turned on the two high-power electric heating fans that he had just brought down, then picked up a rubber hammer, and tied a PVC pipe to the handle of the hammer , circling in circles in the basement again, tapping on the floor.

To his disappointment, after another lap, he still found nothing.

Could it be in the yard?shouldn't
Wei Ran threw away the long-handled hammer in his hand, and after looking around, he focused on the iron cabinets.

Don't worry about the ones around the load-bearing columns, but the one next to the steps caught Wei Ran's attention.

After careful observation, he first took out the two scary glass jars and the expired medicines and put them on a table, then carefully removed the metal cabinet.

Unfortunately, there is still nothing abnormal under the iron cabinet.

"Could it be that it's really under the yard?" Wei Ran looked around, looking for the place he had neglected.

Soon, he had a new goal again.This time, what he was eyeing was the concrete steps that were originally used to connect the first floor and the basement.

Taking out the wire cutters from the metal book, Wei Ran tapped lightly on the side of the concrete steps, the thick and dull sound also implied that the inside was completely solid.

Reluctantly, he continued to walk forward while tapping lightly. When the tapping point was less than one meter away from the wall at the end of the steps, the tapping sound suddenly became much more hollow!

Knocking again, Wei Ran finally showed such an expression on his face, then put away the wire cutters, ran back to the window in a hurry, pulled out a flat-head screwdriver, and then untied the rubber hammer. PVC pipe.

Climbing back to his original position, Wei Ran tapped again to determine the approximate range, and then started tapping with a rubber hammer in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.

Soon, the cement wall was smashed open, exposing the red bricks inside.Crowbars were used to violently remove the red brick and cement wall shell, and soon a rectangular area with a height of no more than 1.2 meters and a width of no more than seventy to eighty centimeters appeared on the wall, sealed off by red bricks.

Use a crowbar to pry along the brick seam, and soon a brick begins to loosen.Carefully pull out the brick, the other side is really empty!

With this breakthrough, Wei Ran can be said to have dismantled the door faster and faster, and within half an hour, the small door was dismantled.

The space inside this sealed small door is not too big, or to describe it more vividly, it is more like the mouth of a sewer. The square hole that can only accommodate one person is dark and filled with a faint musty smell. A rusty climbing rail.

Take out two small magnetic lights not much bigger than a mahjong block, tie them with a rope and hang them down a little bit. As the wellhead is illuminated, what Wei Ran can see is only one less than one meter wide, with a horizontal line extending the way out.

Is it really under the yard?

After Wei Ran recognized the direction of this passage, he became more and more curious about who built such a small building in the first place.

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran waited patiently for almost an hour. Then he put on rubber gloves, held a bright flashlight, and brought a bag of small magnetic lights, along the rusty road. Carefully climb down the handrail.

Standing in this narrow passage, less than one meter wide and less than two meters high, but seemingly made of concrete, he immediately noticed something interesting.

First of all, on the left wall, there are many cast-iron lamp stands, on which not only hang rusty kerosene lamps, but also two wires that were obviously added later. An incandescent lamp will be connected to every other lamp holder.

Secondly, on the concrete wall on the other side, a picture of "The Last Supper" is still vaguely drawn.

He took out the lighter in the metal book and lit it. Wei Ran held the flashlight in one hand and the lighter in the other. While walking all the way, he did not forget to turn on the small magnetic lights and place them on the ground.

When he came to the end of the narrow passage, a crucifix was painted on the concrete wall directly ahead.But on the crucifix, there is a sentence written in big vermilion characters:

Yu swears to join the anti-Japanese anti-traitor group with sincerity, and is willing to work actively under the leadership of the organization, obey the command and absolutely keep secrets.If violated, willing to accept the most severe sanctions.

Anti-Japanese murder group?

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, and finally moved his gaze and the beam of the flashlight to the wall on the left, where there was a locked iron gate 1.5 meters wide.On the vermilion iron door, there is still firmly pasted a piece of "Xinhua Daily" published on August 1945, 8, "Accept the Potsdam Declaration and Japan's Unconditional Surrender"!
He raised his head and looked at the top of his head, which was within reach, and then looked at the distance between the place where he came down and the current location. After some estimation, Wei Ran became more and more sure that he was right under the small courtyard.

Finally, he took a look at the lighter that was still burning stably. After Wei Ran put it away, he put on the wire cutters and easily opened the almost rusted padlock on the iron door.

Slowly pulling open the iron gate to block the crucifix and the large scarlet characters covering it, the beam of light from the flashlight in Wei Ran's hand also illuminated the underground space, which is less than 40 square meters and has a ceiling height of three meters.

Although this small space with remnants of wallpaper is still dry, the walls covered with photo frames are inevitably full of mildew.

The wire that ran in the passageway next to the lamp holder also came to an end after connecting the two incandescent bulbs on the wall.

Glancing at a round hole in the corner that seemed to be a ventilation hole, Wei Ran focused on the photo frames hanging on the wall that were more than 70 centimeters high and half a meter wide.

When the bright beam hits, Wei Ran can still clearly see, even through the dirty glass on the photo frame, most of the photo frames are posters with a beautiful woman as the main character.

In these posters, the woman sometimes wears a cheongsam and holds a round fan, and sometimes wears a gorgeous dress with a sense of the times. In other photos, there are breeches, boots and a slim waistcoat.

And among these photo posters of different styles, there are also a few wearing Zhaojun costumes, which seem to be the "fixed makeup photos" of the famous actor Shang Xiaoyun.

After looking at them one by one, Wei Ran also gradually discovered that those photos that were suspected to be "Shang Xiaoyun's makeup photos" seemed to be taken in the semi-underground basement outside, and there was no text on the photos, or in other words, That is simply a large photo rather than a poster.

And on the various posters of that woman, words such as "Seven Heavens" or "Miss Meixiang" are still vaguely discernible.

So Shang Xiaoyun, the famous actor at that time, actually often came to this small building?So who is this Miss Meixiang?Mr. Tao's aunt?

In this random guess, the light beam from the flashlight in Wei Ran's hand finally stayed on the camphor wood box on the two long benches placed side by side at the end of the room.

The copper-skinned box was not locked, and the lid was not even tightly closed.It was also because of this that when Wei Ran entered the door, he actually noticed several rolls of cloth of different colors protruding from the box in Li.

With a "squeak" sound, Wei Ran's heart skipped a beat as he lifted the dusty and moldy cover.

There are quite a lot of things in this box that is more than one meter long and half a meter square, except for the three long strips of red, white and green cloth rolls, there are also several porcelain bowls in this box, each of which contains some Bullets of different calibers and lengths.

And in a wooden box next to the porcelain bowl, there are many pistols.

These pistols are almost all kinds of pistols, and without exception, they are all small and easy to carry, and there is no big one like a box gun.

In addition to these, there are three wooden pallets stacked together in this box, and this pallet is divided into slender grids one by one.In each grid, there are silver dollars lying next to each other.

Taking out a pair of rubber gloves and putting them on, Wei Ran carefully took out one of the white cloth rolls, gently untied the cloth strips tied on it and unfolded it, in the seemingly invisible smell of sludge, he saw A slightly rusty Enfield rifle!

After re-rolling the gun and putting it back in its original position, Wei Ran picked up the red cloth roll and opened it, which contained a medium-sized rifle.

Re-folded and pulled out the last green cloth roll, which was wrapped with a devil's [-]-style rifle.

How can this be handled.
Wei Ran looked at the small pistols in the box again, but for a while he was in trouble.