War Photographer's Notebook

When Wei Ran drove the car into the big yard of his grandma's house amidst the sound of gongs and drums, he found that not only the four elderly people from the two families were not there, but also Wei Ran's parents were not there. Only the crooked pug circling around people wagging its head and tail.

Without waiting for the car to come to a complete stop, Sui Sui and Kou Kou opened the car door in no particular order. They each took the Katenka sisters, the Indian housekeeper Tantu, and the new follower Lu Xinda, and left the yard amidst chattering and running. To the lively stage across the road.

Pulling up the handbrake and turning off the engine, Wei Ran took out the stove from the metal book and lit it, then put it into the inner pocket of the down jacket, opened the car door and sent the girls' luggage into the room, then left the house and walked to the opposite side .

For the young people of their generation, what kind of stories are hidden in the libretto of those big and small faces on the stage in the distance really does not arouse too much interest.

Even because this rural grass-roots group is too amateurish, so that there are some accents and mistakes in the libretto, it is a bit troublesome to occasionally hear what is being sung a cappella.

But even so, this rare entertainment still aroused the interest of most of the villagers, and it also attracted the attention of foreigners such as Sister Katenka and Kou Kou.

"The two grandpas seem to be singing on the stage too?" Sui Sui waited for Wei Ran to follow, and leaned into his ear and said, "I heard what Aunt Qi said."

"How many days have you been singing?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"It seems to be the third day. I went to the town to sing two days ago."

Sui Sui raised her finger and pointed in the direction, "I just saw my mother, she said that the grandparents will go to the next village to sing tomorrow."

"Are they back?"

Wei Ran looked in the direction of Sui Sui, only to find that his aunt Zhou Shujin and Professor Alexei were eating melon seeds and chatting with his parents at a chessboard table. There was also a large teapot and Two kettles.

Speaking of which, my aunt and the professor came back long before the New Year, but I heard from my grandma that the couple went south to play not long after they came back.

"came back"

Sui Sui explained helplessly, "They arrived home less than two hours earlier than us, and they seemed to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their acquaintance."

“No wonder I came back at this time”

Wei Ran shook his head with a smile, although the professor's drunkenness is all sorts of unreliable, but the sense of ritual in this kind of thing is much stronger than that of his father.

This is the only advantage, and I am afraid it is the only thing my aunt can't find fault with the professor.

Similarly, this is the only dissatisfaction Wei Ran's mother has with Old Comrade Wei - Wei Ran's father doesn't even remember the date of their wedding anniversary.

When Wei Ran and Sui Sui were hiding behind a few beautiful girls and arranging their parents, Wei Ran's father stood up, looked left and right, and walked over with his mobile phone.

"Wei Ran, I'm looking for your phone number." Old Comrade Wei said, and had already handed Wei Ran his mobile phone.

"Looking for my number?"

Wei Ran took the mobile phone from his father in doubt, "How did the call I was looking for get to you?"

"How would I know?"

Comrade Lao Wei said that he distributed the fried peanuts in his hand to Suisui who greeted him, and asked with a smile how he was playing these days and other topics.

Seeing this, Wei Ran simply walked a few steps away, and at the same time said to the phone, "I am Wei Ran, who are you?"

"Hello Comrade Wei Ran"

The person on the other end of the phone immediately said, "We are the Public Security Bureau of Jinmen Heping District. Now there is a theft case here and we need your assistance in investigating it."

"Fuck!"

Wei Ran's heart immediately sank when he heard the words, he was naturally not involved in any theft case, but he immediately thought of the basement of that small dilapidated building!
It's not surprising that the other party called his father. When the small building was assigned to his name, Wei Ran kept his father's phone number. Pointless.

"Comrade Wei Ran? Are you listening?" the police uncle on the other end of the phone urged.

"Yes, I'm listening." Wei Ran responded immediately, and at the same time walked quickly back to the yard of his grandma's house, got into the car and closed the door, blocking the noisy gongs and drums outside.

After the introduction of the police uncle who claimed to be surnamed Zhao, Wei Ran also roughly figured out the cause and effect.

To put it simply, a burglar gang of five broke into that small dilapidated building last night and dug open the entrance to the basement.

What made Wei Ran feel relieved was that the gang had just dug open the basement with an electric pick before being complained about disturbing the people during the late-night construction.

Although the police uncle did not mention which local tyrant living nearby called the police to complain about the construction nuisance, but it did not delay the police uncle at all to catch these big grievances.

This overnight interrogation not only let the theft gang miss the bottom line, but the police also seized a full van from their den, as well as replica cultural relics stolen from several small western-style buildings on that street that were considered the former residences of celebrities. .

And the police uncle contacted Wei Ran, naturally, to let him go over as soon as possible to check if there was anything missing in that building.

After leaving the contact information of Police Officer Zhao, Wei Ran, who hung up the phone, couldn't sit still immediately.

Fortunately in misfortune, according to what the other party said, neither the theft gang nor the police seemed to have discovered the hidden basement.But even so, it still made Wei Ran tense up.

Why don't we just use this matter to deal with it?No, no, no, before that, no matter what, you have to figure out what happened in that small building back then.

Thinking of this, Wei Ran opened the door, got out of the car and ran out of the yard. He found the parents sitting at the chessboard table, the professor's aunt and others and said hello to each other. While returning the phone, he explained what happened. In Dad's hand is the key to his car with four rings.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Sui Sui, who came over halfway, asked immediately after Wei Ran's explanation.

"Need not"

Wei Ran waved his hand, "I'll just make a trip by myself. I can come back tomorrow morning if I don't come back tonight. You can stay here to entertain Kou Kou."

This is undoubtedly a good excuse, and Sui Sui could only nod her head in agreement.

"My good nephew, or how about I go with you?" Professor Alexey and Wei Ran asked, shoulder to shoulder.

"By the way, find a place to have a drink?" Wei Ran asked the other party with a smile.

"You stay here, and you are not allowed to go anywhere!" Before Professor Alexei could speak, Zhou Shujin made the decision for him without a doubt.

"Slow down on the road"

Old Comrade Wei was very relieved of Wei Ran, and he just said in a showy manner, "My car was bought by Sui Sui with money, so you can drive carefully for me."

Ignoring the bickering old father and the cheap old man, Wei Ran leaned into Sui Sui's ear and whispered a few words, then ran into the yard quickly, went back to the room, took the simple wooden box radio, and drove Dad's car left the yard and made another long run.

It took two hours to arrive at the door of the small broken building again, Wei Ran couldn't help grinning. At this time, the small rusty iron door was only ajar, and there was only a signature on the lock tongue. Just a pen.

Pulling out his signature pen and pushing open the iron gate, Wei Ran drove the car in, and then went around the small dilapidated building first, and saw that the window he had built randomly had not been dismantled, and there was nothing in the rest of the place. It was damaged, so he walked into the room with a strong flashlight.

Naturally, there was nothing to lose in this rough house, and there was no need to check it at all, so he walked directly into the storage room, and saw the broken basement entrance and broken bricks scattered all over the room at a glance.

Walking into the half-basement again along the disassembled basement entrance, Wei Ran saw a printing machine with several parts removed at a glance.

Looking at the scattered bricks on the steps and the basement illuminated by lights, Wei Ran heaved a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, although those mimeograph machines shaped like suitcases were gone, and although all the metal cabinets placed around the load-bearing columns had been opened, the hidden entrance to the basement was still blocked by the metal cabinets he had moved there.

Moved the cabinet away little by little. The wall he had plastered with cement was still flat and almost solidified. Obviously, the thief last night didn't find it here.

As the saying goes, if you are not afraid of thieves stealing, you are afraid of thieves thinking about it. It seems that the New Year will be two or three days away, so you can't guard those things here.

Can't you just let me rest for a year?
Wei Ran muttered helplessly, moved the cabinet back to its original place to block the wall, then turned around and walked to a dusty desk, hung the flashlight on the desk lamp, took out the food box and put it in the The two small pistols inside were drawn out.

He looked around with a gun in one hand, and after some thought, he threw the devil's Type [-] pistol back into the food box—he didn't want to become a devil.

Putting away the food box, Wei Ran placed the remaining small Browning pistol in his hand on the table, and then took out the metal book with some expectation.

Under his gaze, the metal book slowly turned to the latest page, and the quill also slowly floated up, and started to draw on the light yellow paper.

Under the beam of light from the flashlight, a delicate pistol gradually appeared on the page.

However, this pistol was held by a small hand and rested on one leg, and the other protruded from the slit of the cheongsam, which seemed to be wearing stockings.

Finally, when the picture was finished, what he saw was a beautiful woman wearing a cheongsam, sitting reclined on the sofa with a small Browning pistol on her lap.

This woman held the small pistol against her thigh in one hand and a cigarette in the other, but her pretty face was full of contempt and arrogance.