War Photographer's Notebook

The basement of the Love Letter Apartment was extremely warm due to the heating. On the stage next to the big mirror, Tao Canhua, wearing a cotton robe, stood behind a table and slowly told a story from a Chinese chat room. To be honest, the audience who were playing mahjong under the stage were inevitably a little distracted.

"Meixiang, among us, you must be the one who knows how to do business."

At the card table, in front of a Wei Ran.The rich lady who had never seen her before threw out a piece of eight and said with envy, "Not to mention the tea parties every Monday and Thursday, I heard that there are many young masters from rich families and the dance classes on Saturday alone. The ladies are here to learn to dance.”

"may not"

Another overly wealthy lady sitting at the same card table said with the same envy, "I noticed it at the dance last Friday, but there were a few handsome college students.

To say this woman, it is really better not to marry.Look at sister Meixiang, how carefree she is living every day, it is really eye-catching. "

"Who said it wasn't"

A young woman sitting at another card table with a cigarette in her mouth sighed sadly, and then glanced at Tao Canhua who was telling a story on the stage with the eyes of a prey, "Unlike me, that dead man in my family, every day Baba's waiting behind his too-guy ass is more important than serving me. Now, I'm looking forward to the tea parties on Mondays and Thursdays every day.

Come to Sister Meixiang's place to listen to operas and music, drink tea and chat with everyone, or even dress up as a prime minister and sing a few verses in person. It's much more comfortable than at home, and it's not as noisy as going to the theater. "

"Why did Mrs. Ning forget the Japanese class every Wednesday?"

Junko Sometani, who was sitting at the same table as Wei Ran and Walker, smiled and said in Chinese, "My Japanese class doesn't even cost money for tea, but I haven't seen you come here a few times this month."

"Shunzi, please forgive me."

The resentful young woman said with a pitiful look, "I haven't studied for a few years since I was a child. How could I learn that?"

"Forget it if you forget Shunzi's Japanese class, why did you forget about Friday's dance?" The rich lady at the same table as Meixiang threw a card and laughed and said, "I won't be here for this tea party. You come every time, but I never saw you miss the Friday night dance. And you came early, so you danced with all the young men and college students who came to dance, right? "

"I'm afraid it's more than just dancing." The young woman who first started this topic joked.

"Don't Second Sister You come here every time?"

The young woman with a resentful and lonely face rolled her eyes and said without covering up at all, "We are just birds raised in a cage. Speaking of which, we are really not as free as sister Meixiang. This is something we dare to do." It’s just dancing, is it possible that you still want to sleep with them?”

"I think the three sisters are not envious of my small business, are they?"

As she spoke, Mei Xiang picked up the card thrown by the fat lady and said, "Second Sister You still feels sorry for me. What a fool."

"Hey!"

The chubby wife slapped her chubby white hand, "Why is your luck so bad today? Qiushi, Qiushi, peel an orange for my sister to change my luck."

"okay!"

Qiushi responded crisply, picked the largest orange from the table next to the wall, peeled it carefully and tore off the white silk, and carried it on a red lacquer tray to the fat You. The second sister got a large reward in exchange for it.

Just an orange can get you a dollar reward. From this small detail, Wei Ran, who was playing cards with the "three foreigners", already realized what kind of wealth the rich ladies who came to this tea party had.

On the stage, Tao Canhua was still eloquently telling the story of Liaozhai. Offstage, the card games on several card tables were still going on. Around the card tables, Qiushi was also running around bringing tea and water. Fruit, occasionally a rich wife temporarily leaves the poker table to go to the bathroom, and Jasmine, who is sitting on the side, will temporarily go up to help replace it for a while.

During the card game, Wei Ran also learned a lot of information from the small talk with Walker and Someya at the same table, as well as from the few words of the rich ladies around them.

I have to admit that in just over two years, Meixiang has indeed managed this bookstore in a spectacular way.

No need to guess, the actors who sang on the stage just now and the drummers who accompanied the audience were all children who were saved from the flood in 1939.

Although Wei Ran couldn't tell whether the children sang well or not, they were able to perform on stage in just two years. Even if the singing was not good, it was enough to prove the hard work of these children. What's more, when he came down just now, The two of them were blindfolded and fighting on the stage, and they fought vigorously, which is enough to explain a lot of things.

On the other hand, the current "business" of this love letter is far more than just singing a few plays. According to the information he heard, every Monday and Thursday is a tea party for rich wives. On Wednesday, Someya Junko At Meixiang's invitation, I will come over and give Japanese lessons to those actors' children.If those wealthy wives want to listen to Japanese, they can also come and listen for free.

On Friday night, there will be a dance organized on the second floor. In addition to these wealthy ladies who have money and leisure, there are also wealthy young men and ladies who come to study and dance every Saturday, as well as some residents who live in the apartment. Children of Japanese overseas Chinese in the Japanese Concession.

In other words, during this week, this book apartment will be closed to the public on Tuesdays and Sundays.

While thinking about things, Wei Ran also lost two games in a row at the card table and contributed five or six yuan to his opponent Somegu and his wife.

After two consecutive rounds of cards, Tao Canhua also finished telling the story. Immediately afterwards, Qiushi, who was responsible for pouring tea and water, came on stage and sang a song that seemed to be quite popular, accompanied by Jasmine on the organ.

"What's the name of this song?" Wei Ran asked curiously after Qiushi came off the stage.

"See you soon, Sasha. Don't you want to watch the movie?"

Before Qiushi finished, another girl who looked younger than her came on stage and sang the second song with Jasmine's organ accompaniment.

At this time, Wei Ran didn't bother to ask, and simply cooperated with Walker to win back the lost Dayang amidst the songs of the little girls who took turns singing.

In the rounds of card games, the performances on the stage almost never stopped, whether it was songs, opera, storytelling, or drumming.

Although this unsystematic program collocation is quite disorganized, Wei Ran can also see that no matter those rich wives, Someya couples, or the German guy Volker, they really do like this.Especially those rich ladies who occasionally "sing" a song.

After all this commotion, when the self-ringing clock in the basement started to chime six o'clock, the ladies, the Someyas and Walker also left one after another, leaving only more or less money for tea and a lot of money on the table. Peel garbage from the ground.

Without ordering at all, those boys and girls who had been playing and singing all afternoon, took off their makeup and cleaned them as quickly as possible.

It wasn't until everything was tidied up in the basement, and even the floor and stage were wiped with rags, that Meixiang, who had been watching, put down the tea cup in her hand and said, "Qiushi, you and Canhua take your younger brothers and sisters." Let’s go upstairs and let everyone talk about which one sang well and which one didn’t sing well before eating.”

"Hey!" Tao Canhua and Qiushi responded in unison, and left the basement talking and laughing with the children whose average age was estimated to be less than 18 years old.

"jasmine"

Mei Xiang winked, and the latter nodded and followed the children upstairs.

"Open the door and go inside to see how busy they are." Mei Xiang whispered.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately pushed open the large mirror hidden behind the stage with familiarity, and then opened the wooden door wrapped with a layer of cotton mattress inside and outside.

Following Mei Xiang into the small door, Wei Ran found that there were more cotton curtains hanging in the passage leading to the hidden basement than when he entered last time.

Passing through one layer after another of cotton curtains, when the two of them finally stood at the door of the iron gate, Wei Ran couldn't help being stunned.

At this time, the hidden basement was brightly lit, not only that, but the surrounding walls and even the floor beneath his feet.On the bed, there are also two layers of thick quilts hung or spread.

But it's obvious that these quilts are not for warmth, but more for sound insulation.

Because at this time, in this underground space of sixty or seventy square meters, there were three girls either carefully wiping the printing machines with rags or busy cleaning the underground space.

And on the hospital bed at the end of the room, there was still a wounded person wrapped in gauze, and only men and women could be seen.Next to the wounded man, Andy was wearing a nurse's uniform and holding a teacup in his hand.

"How is Brother Tang doing?" While Wei Ran was stunned, Mei Xiang had already walked to the bedside and asked with concern.

“Basically stable”

Andy put down the tea cup, took out the thermometer from the armpit of the sleeping wounded man and looked at it, then continued to answer, "I was still awake for a while in the afternoon. I estimate that I will be fully awake in a day or two. What's going on outside now?"

"Mr. Someya told me in the afternoon that the Japanese were still looking for him." Meixiang couldn't help but sigh after finishing speaking.

"Do you think the brothers and sisters of the Guan family are still alive?" Andy asked abruptly in German, "Will they come back?"

"meeting"

Just when Wei Ran thought the other party was asking him and was thinking about how to respond, Mei Xiang replied in German with a slight mispronunciation, "The two siblings are definitely still alive, and I believe they will definitely come back. "

At this point, Meixiang switched back to her native language and asked the girls who were still busy, "Has the printing been finished?"

"Printing finished"

A girl who could be sixteen or seventeen years old replied immediately, "Brother Canhua and Sister Qiushi started to sing The Story of the West Chamber and it was finished printing, and we were all listening behind the small door."

"Alright then, let's all go up to eat, and remember to put the big-character posters in the car."

Before Mei Xiang finished speaking, the three young girls either picked up a trash can, a boxy paper bag about the size of a shoe box, or picked up a spittoon outside the door, and started to carry it out one after another. left the room.

At the same time, Mei Xiang and Andy continued to chat, while Wei Ran, who was ignored, still looked at the three little girls who walked out.

Although time had passed a little long for those girls, for Wei Ran, it was just last night, so he recognized at a glance that the three young girls in pajamas were exactly what he had seen in 1939. On that thunderstorm night, three of the five girls who were rescued from the "haunted" small western-style building in the French Concession together with Tao Canhua!

Not only that, he also learned from the chat between Mei Xiang and Andy that the injured patient named Tang lying on the hospital bed turned out to be Andy's brother!

Brother Tang was injured because he was caught by the Japanese while sending and receiving telegrams and was tortured.And the reason why he can appear here seems to be that Cao Yuba and Mr. Feng rescued him.

Now, what these two beautiful women are worried about is how to safely send Brother Tang out during the Japanese interrogation.

When the topic reached this point, Wei Ran felt more and more uncomfortable. He knew clearly that in one week, the Japanese would enter the British Concession, and it would be really difficult to send him out by then. .

However, what made him despair was that when he tried to reveal this key information to these two beautiful cousins, he found that not only could he not open his mouth at all, but his whole body was frozen and could not move, especially his throat. The tattoos on his forehead and the tiger's mouth on his left hand were even more burning, as if he had been stung by a scorpion.

Knowing that this was the warning given to him by the cold and harsh metal book, Wei Ran had no choice but to give up. After the strangeness in his body disappeared, he stood by the hospital bed obediently and examined Brother Tang. Covering the wounds all over his body.

About half an hour later, Qiu Shi also came in with a food box.Seeing this, Mei Xiang also stood up, beckoned Wei Ran to join her, and left the basement again through thick cotton curtains.

When the two of them walked out of the storage room, they found that Tao Canhua had changed into a Mao tunic woolen coat that was almost the same as Wei Ran's, and was waiting with Jasmine who was guarding the door.

"First go to Quanyechang to do a good deed, and then go to the Seventh Heaven to dance." Meixiang said as she walked out, "Canhua, you drive. Cousin, remember to buy cigarettes from Keqin later, and buy two packs of cigarettes. "

"Okay" Wei Ran responded, and at the same time he vaguely guessed something.

While talking, a group of four people got into the devil car, Tao Canhua also started the car skillfully, crushed the snow and left the small courtyard, and drove straight to the direction of Quanyechang under the small snowflakes that were still falling .

When the car stopped at the entrance of the still bustling Quanyechang, Wei Ran got out of the car first and helped open the door of the rear compartment without even saying hello.

When Jasmine got out of the car and held up an oil-paper umbrella, Meixiang, who was full of aura, slowly came out.

After looking around, Meixiang walked up to a little beggar huddled in the snow on the side of the road, took out five pieces of gold from her bag and gently placed them in the broken bowl in front of him.

The little beggar was stunned for a moment, then grabbed the five pieces of ocean and clenched it in his hand, and kowtowed towards Mei Xiang in the snow.

"stand up"

Holding an umbrella, Jasmine said in an indifferent tone, "Take the money and follow us, and I'll buy it for you later. A warm robe. I'll take these five dollars to find a way to survive in the future. Big dung is also much better than begging for food, do you hear me?"

"I heard it, I heard it."

The little beggar responded with red eyes. He originally wanted to pick up the broken bowl he was begging for, but before he could reach out, the broken bowl had been kicked to the lamppost by Jasmine and shattered into pieces.

Watching Mei Xiang and Jasmine leading the little beggar in rags into the bustling Quanye Market, Wei Ran used the cover of his coat pocket to take out the cigarette case, opened it, took a look, and then buttoned up the cigarette with a "pop" sound. He looked around, then snapped his fingers at Chen Xiuyu who was standing not far away watching the excitement, and said in a rather bossy manner, "The cigarette seller, come here!"

"Hey! Here we come!"

Xu Keqin immediately ran over with the cigarette box in his hand, and asked enthusiastically, "Master, what kind of cigarettes do you buy?"

"One pack for the front door and one pack for the camel," Wei Ran said, throwing a silver dollar he had prepared in advance into the other party's cigarette case.

"One package for the front door and one package for Camel. Take it and give you a package of matches!"

Xu Keqin shouted in a clear voice, handed two packs of cigarettes and a pack of matches to Wei Ran, and then took out a few silver coins from his pocket and gave them to Wei Ran.

Taking the cigarettes, matches and change with a normal expression, Wei Ran sat back in the passenger seat, slowly put the matches and camel cigarettes into his pocket, then tore open the front door of the pack and carefully arranged the cigarettes inside. He put it in the cigarette case, and finally put a cigarette holder on it, lit it, and took a long puff.

"Who was that rich lady just now?"

Outside the car window, a rickshaw driver was sitting in his rickshaw, with his hands in his sleeves, asking his colleagues in another rickshaw next door waiting for work.

"We don't even need to hear your accent."

Another rickshaw driver with a strong Cannabis accent said, "You can tell from the introduction questions you asked that you are definitely not a local."

"How do you say this?" The rickshaw driver who asked the question looked at the other party in confusion.

"That rich lady who just came in, since the floods receded two years ago, she will definitely find a beggar on the first of every month to give away five yuan for a set of clothes and a pair of shoes. I have seen her many times!"

Another rickshaw driver raised his thumb and said nonsense, "You must be asking, who is the fourth one?"
Listen carefully, if this was ten years ago, every man in Jinmen would know that that person was Miss Meixiang, a famous prostitute! "

"Why haven't I heard of it?" The rickshaw driver who asked the question looked confused.

"Otherwise, you old man is definitely not from here."

The rickshaw driver who was responsible for explaining saw other colleagues coming around, and it seemed that some of the talents in the Jinmen people had been aroused. He stood up, lifted up his shiny black cotton pants, stepped on the rickshaw, and continued. He gestured with his thumbs, but lowered his voice and said, "Have you seen the guy smoking in the car?"

"Is that the lover of the rich lady just now?" another rickshaw driver with a pipe in his mouth rushed to answer.

"Hold on to your grandma!"

The man in charge of the explanation cursed in fear, then glanced in Wei Ran's direction fearfully, and lowered his voice and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't say you are on guard, don't implicate us, that man is Mei Xiang." Cousin!"

"Hi!"

Several of the rickshaw drivers slapped their thighs in disappointment, obviously full of regret for not hearing any tidbits.

"You guys who are short-sighted should stay away from him."

The rickshaw driver picked up a cigarette butt thrown by a passer-by on the steps, sucked it twice and continued, "That man is not easy to get along with, he is like Grandma Te's mad dog, you know Uncle Guan who works for devils, right? ?”

"What's going on?" several cart pullers asked in unison.

"I heard that the eldest lady in the car who caused trouble to the Guan family got pregnant! The eldest lady had to hide out of town! But with such a big hatred, that uncle Guan Even the farts have to be held in and burped out."

"Who is behind that man?" Another rickshaw driver asked in confusion.

"Who else!"

The rickshaw driver, who was getting more and more enthusiastic as he talked, made a bastard-like gesture, stretching and shrinking his neck and said, "Japanese! I heard that it's better to have a Japanese journalist and a German devil who runs a foreign company! It’s time to chop off the chicken’s head! Did you see that car? It was a gift from his Japanese brother.”

"The one who pulls the cart!"

Wei Ran, who was sitting in the passenger seat, cursed and yelled as Tao Canhua struggled to hold back his smile, "Come here and take me to the graveyard. When you get there, you can choose a pit yourself. I have worked hard today." , I buried you with my own hands."

After he said this, the rickshaw drivers dispersed in the blink of an eye, leaving behind the rickshaw driver in the middle who was spitting just now but now sat on the ground in fear.

When he came to his senses, the rickshaw driver pulled his rickshaw and ran away. Some of the timid rickshaw drivers around him immediately dispersed. Even the pedestrians around him subconsciously chose to walk to the other side of the road to avoid it. I found this Japanese car and the crazy guy in the car.

Wei Ran spit out the car window quite angrily. Wei Ran rolled up the car window roughly and asked in a low voice, "Is that Chen Pike just now?"

"It's him"

Tao Canhua uses a hat.He covered his face, pretended to continue laughing and shook his shoulders, but at the same time replied in a low voice, "He just made a bastard gesture, right?"

"Yes," Wei Ran replied while patting the car seat and pretending to be angry.

"That's the eighth street light"

After Tao Canhua said this, he started laughing loudly. Wei Ran knew that his laughter was really not fake.

Although his innocence was sullied for no reason, Wei Ran didn't care.On the contrary, the rumor just now was probably intentional.

Soon, Meixiang and Jasmine walked out of Quanyechang with a half-year-old child wearing a cotton robe, cotton shoes, and a cotton hat on his head.

However, the child did not go down the steps. Instead, he knelt down again and solemnly kowtowed three times to Mei Xiang who got into the car. Then he wiped his tears, turned around and got back into Quanye Field to do it. That Miss Meixiang just helped him get the job of cleaning toilets from a manager at Quanyechang.

Compared to this lucky young man, in the car that had already driven towards the seventh heaven of the Japanese Concession, Meixiang and Jasmine were already laughing and out of breath after listening to the gossip relayed by Tao Canhua.

"Pike is a bad boy, he has a nose and an eye for telling lies."

Meixiang, who had had enough laughter, was doing it.He took a deep breath and cursed with a smile, "Wait for Linglu to come back, and see if she doesn't tear Chen Pike's mouth."

"I don't care if Miss Ling Lu tears Chen Pike's mouth into pieces."

Wei Ran pretended to be helpless and said, "What I'm worried about now is whether Ling Lu's father will tear me apart if he finds out."

"Don't worry, it won't."

Mei Xiang said firmly, "After Brother Tang had an accident some time ago, the Guan family siblings were urgently transferred. Now maybe the Japanese are suspecting them both. The Guan family father is eager to find an excuse for his daughter to flee."

Having said this, Mei Xiang looked at the back of Wei Ran's head and joked, "Maybe early tomorrow morning, the Guan family will come to meet his son-in-law."

"Then I am at a loss. Doesn't Miss Linglu owe me a child?"

Wei Ran curled his lips pretending to be helpless, and immediately, the carriage was once again filled with laughter.

"The eighth street light ahead of the intersection is out."

Before starting a new topic, Tao Canhua, who was in charge of driving, suddenly said, while also slightly reducing the speed of the car.

Seeing this, Jasmine immediately lifted up the cowhide floor mat under her feet and pulled out an inconspicuous rope from inside.

Almost as soon as the car was level with the street lamp that had been smashed with a slingshot not long ago, Jasmine yanked the rope that passed through the floor of the car.

At the same time, on the chassis of the car, a paper bag the size of a shoe box and wrapped in a layer of white cloth also hit the snow-covered road.

Subconsciously looking at the rearview mirror, Wei Ran also vaguely noticed that almost at the same time as the car drove past, a man ran out of the alley on the side of the road, bent down to pick up something from the snow, and then ran straight to the road On the opposite side, he entered another dark alley.

"Did you buy cigarettes?" Mei Xiang asked abruptly.

"I bought it." Wei Ran nodded and took out the cigarettes and matches in his pocket.

"Keep it away so no one can find it," Mei Xiang paused and then said, "When we get to the seventh heaven, you and I can go up and dance."

"Don't worry." Wei Ran nodded and wisely didn't ask any more questions.

Not long after, the car stopped at the door of Seventh Heaven. After helping Mei Xiang and Jasmine open the door, Wei Ran went around to the back of the car and opened the trunk. Using his body as cover, he secretly took out the food box and stuffed all the cigarettes and matches. Go, and then put it back into the metal book as quickly as possible.