War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1209 The Shadow Holding a Knife

Coming out of the ward on the second floor, Wei Ran immediately noticed that, except for Chen Xiuyu and Xu Keqin who were catching up on their sleep, the other uninjured boys and girls were already lining up under the organization of Qiushi and Tao Canhua. The team is going downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"basement"

Tao Canhua stopped in his tracks and explained, "Anyway, I'm idle. We're going to pick someone first to see who has the talent for singing. Do you want to come and listen?"

"Idle is idle"

Wei Ran responded with a smile, followed the children downstairs and into the storage room, and then along the stairs to the damp basement.

“One rag per person”

As Qiushi spoke, she took out a pile of dry rags from a tin cabinet, "First wipe the stage and then the floor. When everything is clean, let's start."

Before they finished speaking, these half-grown children each took a rag and started working in groups of three and two.

"How are you going to choose?"

Wei Ran stayed away from the two young men, sat down on the damp steps, and took out a pack of Qianmen cigarettes he found in the darkroom, tore it open, lit one for himself first, and then Put the rest into the cigarette box.

"First pick the crispy throat"

Qiushi explained quite seasonedly, "Then choose those who are flexible. Even if they are unable to do either of these, you can also try to teach them musical instruments. It is always better than selling cigarettes outside in the wind and rain."

"My cousin didn't mention sending you to Peking to study opera?" Wei Ran asked in a puff of smoke.

"I don't want to go. What's the use of learning opera in this world?" Qiushi lowered her voice slightly and said with eyes almost shining, "I want to do big things with the lady!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran just smiled, and then listened to Tao Canhua, who was standing on the stool, said loudly, "Before we start selecting people, let's talk about the rules. My aunt said that anyone who can be selected to stay will be Food and housing are taken care of, and each person has an allowance of two oceans a month.

It is limited to five years. When you complete your studies and leave the profession within five years, you will be paid according to the rules of the Liyuan. "

"Brother Tao, what if you don't learn to make a name for yourself?" a little guy of about fourteen or fifteen asked while sticking his buttocks and wiping the floor with a rag.

“Good question”

Tao Canhua cleared his throat, "If you give up after studying for one year or less than two years, you will get a new set of clothes and 20 yuan in travel money when you leave.

If you give up after three years of learning, you can have two new sets of clothes and 30 yuan of money when you leave.

Those who gave up after four years of study were given not only two new sets of clothes and 40 yuan in expenses, but also a foreign car when they left. "

"Do we women also get the same treatment?" A girl who looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old raised her head and asked.

"Girls and boys are all treated the same," Tao Canhua responded simply.

As soon as the words came out, those half-grown children immediately started whispering with their eyes bright, obviously very satisfied with these promises.

"What if you haven't learned anything famous after five years of study?"

Tao Canhua raised his voice slightly and said, "In addition to two new sets of clothes and a foreign car costing fifty yuan, my aunt will also introduce him to a decent job that neither wind nor rain can afford."

"but"

Qiushi poured a ladle of cold water before the younger brothers and sisters cheered, "Miss, I don't want to see you here hanging around. In the past five years, you will take the school entrance examination one by one at the end of each month. If you fail three times in a row, you will be allowed to stay or leave." , it's all up to the lady to decide, can you hear me clearly?"

"Listen clearly!" These children who saw the slightest chance of survival responded loudly with all their strength.

There was no need to push at all. In less than half an hour, the spacious and empty basement was wiped down twice. Even the upturned floors were barely patched up and smoothed by a young man who had learned some carpentry work before.

Next, Wei Ran became a spectator. The children, at the request of Tao Canhua and Qiushi, either babbling and singing a few lines, or doing some somersaults and gestures. Come on, it's pretty decent.

After passing the time leisurely until noon, Uncle Meng also walked down carrying a wicker basket.

The basket contained sesame seed cakes as big as an open palm.These large sesame cakes are filled with slices of pickles and vinegared cabbage.

Jasmine, who came down closely behind, was carrying two enamel buckets, which contained still steaming egg soup and a pile of porcelain bowls.

"Come here quickly," Uncle Meng shouted angrily, "One big sesame seed cake per person, come on, come on!"

Before he finished speaking, the half-grown children immediately lined up according to their size according to the rules they had learned in the past two days. They took the sesame seed cakes wrapped in newspapers and bowed gratefully. , and then received a bowl of egg soup from Jasmine, thanked her again, and then they each found a place to eat.

Although such a meal would only be considered commonplace in later generations, both these children, Tao Canhua and Qiushi, ate very deliciously.

"Xiaowei, this is yours."

Uncle Meng said, and handed the last sesame seed cake and vegetables to Wei Ran, and he sat down on the steps next to Wei Ran.

"Smoking one?" After Wei Ran took the biscuits, he took out a pack of unopened Camel cigarettes and handed it to the other party.

"Hey! Take one!"

Uncle Meng responded, wiped his hands on his clean white apron, then took the cigarette from Wei Ran, tore it open, took one out and held it in his mouth, then took out a pack of matches and lit it. .

At the same time, Wei Ran also took a hard bite of the crispy sesame seed cake in his hand, and Jasmine also served him egg drop soup and placed it on the chair next to him.

"Is it raining outside again?"

Wei Ran asked vaguely while chewing the food in his mouth. Although there was no meat in the biscuits, the biscuits themselves were delicious.

"Come on, I'm having fun!"

Uncle Meng sighed worriedly, "When will this happen? This flood will destroy all the crops outside the city. When winter comes, I don't know how many people will starve to death."

“No need to wait until winter”

Jasmine, who had just lit up a cigarette, sighed, "Mother Yang and I rowed to the grain store just now to have a look. The price was almost half the price yesterday."

"The price of food keeps changing every day, and ordinary people can't afford it."

Uncle Meng sighed, his wrinkled old face was also shrouded in smoke from his mouth and nose, making it appear more and more blurred.

For a moment, the basement fell silent, leaving only the chirping sounds of a few children.

After finishing their simple lunch in silence, Jasmine replaced Tao Canhua, and at the same time motioned for him and Wei Ran to go upstairs to rest.

Both Wei Ran and Tao Canhua immediately understood the other party's subtle hint, got up and left the basement.

“Our evening is”

"Shh-"

Wei Ran stopped what the other party was about to say, "Find a place to sleep by yourself first, and then we'll talk about the rest of the night."

"Okay, let's talk about it tonight!"

Tao Canhua suppressed his excitement and nodded.

Without any discussion, the two of them found an unused room on the first floor to rest.It's just that, compared to Wei Ran who can fall asleep when he falls asleep, Tao Canhua can't help tossing and turning with excitement.

When Wei Ran was woken up by thunder, it was already pitch black outside the window.He took out his pocket watch and glanced at it. It was already past nine o'clock in the evening and almost ten o'clock in the evening. He got up and walked to the bed and looked out. There was only 30 meters of water left in the yard from the highest point of the balcony guard wall. centimeters away.

He quickly left the room, and when he ran to the foyer, he found that Uncle Meng and Chen Xu Keqin were busy raising the embankment at the door with bricks and cement obtained from who knows where.

Not only were they busy, but the other children, under the command of Chen Xiuyu, were also busy using sandbags to reinforce the windows of each room.

What is quite interesting is that these sandbags were fished out by the children from the garage that had been flooded.

"Are you awake?" While Wei Ran was watching the excitement, shirtless Chen Xiuyu also noticed him, waved hello and said, "I was just about to wake you up. The balcony of your room is We need to use sandbags to block it.”

"Excuse me, sell me two more packs of cigarettes." Wei Ran said, stuffing a silver dollar into the other party's pocket.

Perhaps because he knew there was no way he could refuse, Chen Xiuyu happily accepted the silver dollar that was the envy of his surrounding companions. He quickly ran into Cao Duba's room, took two packs of cigarettes and a pack of matches and sent them to Weiran. in hands.

"Is Canhua awake?" Wei Ran asked while putting the cigarette in his pocket.

"I'm awake, I woke up a little earlier than you."

Chen Gouyu pointed in the direction of the second floor, "He was called up by Sister Jasmine. She also said that if you wake up, let you go up too and go to the second floor."

"I see"

Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder, stretched, and then walked up the stairs.

When he arrived on the second floor, he noticed a dim candle burning beside the piano in the banquet hall from a distance.There were several figures standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows not far from the piano.

Seeing this, Wei Ran lit a cigarette and walked over slowly. The four people who heard the movement also turned around one after another.

"Tonight," Mei Xiang, who was also holding a cigarette in her hand, said nonchalantly. A bolt of lightning flashed out of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Then let's do it tonight"

Wei Ran looked out the window at the rainy night with lightning and thunder, and casually responded amidst the rumbling thunder. "Take this," Andy said, handing over a brown glass bottle that was only about the size of a thumb.

"What is this?" Wei Ran asked, looking at the familiar-looking little medicine bottle in his hand.

"cyanide"

Andy hooked Wei Ran's shoulder with his hand, put his ear against his ear, and said in a tone that was half serious and half joking, "I asked for it from Dagma, maybe it can be used." Go ahead, even if you don’t use it. If you are caught, it will save you and Canhua from suffering."

"Thank you, cousin." Wei Ran also responded against the other person's ear.

Hearing this, Andy did what she did when she and Wei Ran met for the first time. She stretched out her tongue and gently licked Wei Ran's earlobe, and then gave Wei Ran a gentle push with a light laugh. His shoulders widened the distance between the two.

"When do you plan to set off?" Mei Xiang asked as if she hadn't seen the scene just now.

"Have you rested yet?" Wei Ran turned to look at Tao Canhua who was standing side by side with Jasmine.

"Relax!" Tao Canhua immediately responded, and at the same time subconsciously held the small pistol in his hand, which was particularly eye-catching.

"Show me your gun." Wei Ran was not in a hurry to start, but instead stretched out his hand towards the other party.

Hearing this, Tao Canhua turned his head and looked at Jasmine. Only when the latter nodded did he hand over the small pistol in his hand.

As expected, this was the small pistol that could be loaded with one hand that Wei Ran seized from Ueda's female companion when he killed him.

"This one won't work." Wei Ran only glanced at it and handed it to Jasmine.

"Why?" Tao Canhua asked subconsciously.

"If I accidentally lose this gun in that yard, or if it is seen by someone who didn't have time to kill me, it will be easy to think of the woman I killed last time." Wei Ran looked at this. Meixiang, "It will attract Ueda's attention."

"Then take this with you"

As Mei Xiang spoke, she took out a small pistol that Wei Ran had briefly seen once from the pocket of her breeches, but it was not the same pistol that sent him into this time and space, and handed it over.

Just like the first time I saw this small pistol, there is no drama engraved on the sleeve of this palm-sized Colt 1908 pocket pistol.Its grip patch, which seems to be made of buffalo horn, is also inlaid with two silver cents worth one dime from the fifth year of the Republic of China.

"Is this okay?" Mei Xiang waited until Wei Ran took the gun and then asked.

"As long as others don't recognize it as my cousin's gun when they see it."

Although Wei Ran said this, he still returned the gun to the other party, "But I guess this gun must have special meaning to my cousin, so forget it."

After finishing speaking, he had already pulled out the small PPK pistol from his back waist, and handed it to the other party along with the two spare magazines in his pants pocket.

"What are you using?" Tao Canhua asked after taking the pistol and magazine hurriedly.

"Killing doesn't have to be with a gun"

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards the outer stairs very neatly, "Don't waste time, let's go quickly."

"Oh! Here we come!" Tao Canhua and Jasmine glanced at each other hurriedly and quickly caught up with Wei Ran.

"Come back alive," Mei Xiang said calmly while standing by the floor-to-ceiling window.

"When we come back alive, how about you tell me what happened to the silver on that little pistol?" Wei Ran stopped and turned around and asked.

"Yes" Mei Xiang smiled, "As long as you can come back alive."

"I will definitely come back alive"

Wei Ran waved his hand without looking back, started walking again, and left the second floor with Tao Canhua.

"Are you really going to go empty-handed?" Tao Canhua waited until the two of them were approaching the first floor before asking worriedly.

"Do not worry"

Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder and said, "Go and change into dark clothes that are suitable for swimming. Remember to wear shoes."

"I'll go right away." Tao Canhua said without further words, quickly jumped down the stairs and got into a room on the first floor.

Slowly returning to his room on the first floor, Wei Ran ignored the children who were busy raising the balcony wall, and slowly changed into a pair of light thousand-layer cloth shoes.He chatted wordlessly with Chen Gouyu, who was busy with his younger brothers and sisters, and seemed to be in no rush for the assassination planned for tonight.

At the same time, Tao Canhua, who had changed his clothes, hung the small PPK pistol around his neck with a rope, ran into the kitchen on the first floor, took out a kitchen knife, weighed it in his hand, and then replaced it with He took a lighter boning knife and waved it around for a try before leaving the kitchen satisfied with the knife.

Not long after, at Jasmine's urging, the children who had finished their flood control work also returned to the relatively safer second floor under the leadership of Uncle Meng.

Chen Pike and Xu Keqin, who were originally responsible for watching the water level at night, were also rushed to the second floor by Jasmine carrying a candle lantern.

Until this time, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua put on the bamboo hats, rowed the small boat in the yard, and quietly left the Shuqingshu Apartment amidst the rumbling thunder and pouring rain, and stuck to the building. The shadows moved in the dark towards the direction of the French Concession.

Around 10:30 midnight, Wei Ran called Tao Canhua to park the boat.In the canopy of a big tree, the two tied it up with a rope, took off the bamboo hats on their heads, and swam out of the small courtyard in the dark.

The terrain here is indeed lower than that of the study apartment. When Wei Ran came here last time, he had to jump up a little in order to climb up the wall.But now, the flood has almost reached the top of the wall.

Holding down Tao Canhua, who was about to climb over the wall, Wei Ran supported the wall and swam around. He could barely see clearly that the first floor of the small building in the yard seemed to have been flooded and splashed by the heavy rain.The water level of countless water splashes is only more than one meter away from the second-floor window.

Can anyone live here?

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and when he walked around to the side of the small building, he finally discovered that there seemed to be a small boat parked outside one of the windows.

Wiping the rain off his face, Wei Ran said into Tao Canhua's ear, "I'm afraid the gate to this yard is unlocked. Let's see if we can swim through the gate later."

Seeing Tao Canhua nodding his head to express his understanding, Wei Ran didn't delay too much. In the heavy rain, he swam against the wall to the gate, and then dived underwater.

Although everything had to be groped because there was no light, the situation was as he expected. In order to facilitate the entry and exit of the boat, the courtyard door was not closed.

Taking Tao Canhua, he carefully swam to the edge of the outer wall of the two-story building. Wei Ran carefully opened the second-floor window and listened.

Unfortunately, firstly, the sound of the rain was too loud, and secondly, the room was too dark without electric lights. Their small movements at the base of the wall did not yield any valuable clues.

Not being disappointed, Wei Ran gestured to Tao Canhua and led him to the door of the two-story building in a familiar way.

After groping against the door frame, Wei Ran gestured to Tao Canhua, who was next to him, to wait. Then he touched the door frame and dived underwater with his eyes closed.

After bypassing the underwater doorframe, Wei Ran slowly surfaced and found that the flood was less than thirty centimeters away from the ceiling of the first floor. This was undoubtedly good news.

Not only that, the water on the first floor of Jinshan, which is already flooded with water, is undoubtedly much calmer than outside. The only shortcoming is that there is a lot of garbage floating there that you can't even see what it is.

Pushing away an unknown object, Wei Ran sneaked out of the door again and gestured for Tao Canhua to follow him into the first floor from underwater.

"Follow me and be quiet."

Wei Ran whispered a reminder into Tao Canhua's ear, pulled him with his hand, and slowly swam towards the stairs leading to the second floor, following his memory.

Not long after, the two stepped on the solid but slippery stairs.

After looking at each other in the darkness, Wei Ran grabbed Tao Canhua's arm with one hand and held on to the handrail of the staircase with the other as he stepped forward little by little.

Although they didn't see anything outside the window just now, standing at the corner of the stairs leading to the second floor, the two of them could see a dim kerosene lamp hanging at the entrance of the stairs to the second floor.

Although no one could be seen within the range of the kerosene lamp, they could hear the clattering of mahjong and even smell it.The smell of nicotine wafts over.

Seeing that Tao Canhua had already picked up the small PPK pistol hanging on a rope around his neck, Wei Ran shook his head gently at the other party, and then carefully walked out of the dirty flood, patiently waiting until the water stains on his body dripped off After he was almost there, he crawled up the stairs. After listening attentively, he slowly stood up against the wall and reached out to gently twist the flame adjustment lever to slowly reduce the brightness of the kerosene lamp.

After waiting for a moment, Wei Ran continued to twist the adjusting lever to completely extinguish the kerosene lamp, and then twisted it in the opposite direction to allow the wick to come out, which was only a small piece as thick as a leek leaf.

After doing this, he did not stop. Instead, he took a few steps forward under the cover of darkness and quietly hid in the shadow of the sofa in the living room on the second floor.

Almost at the same time he lay down on the floor to hide himself, the sound of mahjong playing in the direction of the restaurant also stopped, and a drake voice asked, "Is the light over the stairs out? Go and take a look, don't you?" The water is coming up."

"That's impossible," another male voice said firmly, "I think the lamp is out of oil. I'll go take a look!"

"Let's go and take a pee together." A drunken voice said.

"The rain won't stop, and the floods won't recede. When will this stop?" Another person complained in a moderate voice.

"Are you stupid, Special Code?" The male duck scolded angrily, "The flood will recede a day late, and we can follow Mr. Ding to make an extra day of money! What do you think, Special Code?"

"makes sense"

The person who was complaining just now agreed in agreement, and then both Wei Ran and Tao Canhua heard the sound of the chair legs rubbing against the floor.Tao Canhua, who hid his entire body in the shadows, couldn't help but tighten his grip on the small PPK pistol in his hand.

At the same time, a slender bayonet appeared in Wei Ran's hand.After a moment of waiting, a skinny monkey-like man came over carrying a kerosene lamp and leading three other people behind him.

The four scum, smelling of alcohol, had a tacit understanding. When they reached the stairs, they immediately untied their belts. Judging from the meaning, it was clear that they wanted to solve it on the spot.

Although this was a bitter experience for Tao Canhua, who was still hiding in the water on the first floor, Wei Ran was particularly satisfied.

After a moment of waiting, the skinny monkey-like man hung the kerosene lamp in his hand on the wall, and the four people stood side by side at the stairs, each urinating in a parabola filled with the strong smell of alcohol.

However, while they were secretly competing to see who could pee farther, they didn't notice at all that behind them, there was already a shadow holding a bayonet!
(End of this chapter)