War Photographer's Notebook

Deep in the oak forest, Wei Ran sat in the carriage and lit a cigarette after throwing away the last body, and quietly looked at the swamp through the rain.

It wasn't until a cigarette burned out and he saw the lifeless and tenacious survivors crawling out of the swamp that he ordered the carriage and returned to the door of the country villa in the increasingly heavy rain. I picked up the dropped umbrella.

After unhooking the canvas shed of the carriage, allowing the abundant rain to wash away the blood in the cargo compartment, Wei Ran did not rush into the room. Instead, he untied the two horses and led them not far away. barn.

What he didn't expect was that when he entered the barn, he found that it was extremely lively. Except for the passage about three meters wide in the middle, there were stables on both sides.

Holding the horse with one hand and holding a flashlight in the other, he walked and watched. Only then did he realize that there was a cow and less than ten goats in the stable on the left, as well as a fat pig that weighed almost a hundred pounds and about twenty old hens that were already standing on wooden shelves ready to rest.

Continuing further in, he finally found two free stables, drove the two horses in, and helped them scrape off the water stains on their bodies.

Continuing to wander around the barn, at the very end of the barn, bales of grass were piled almost to the wooden beams of the roof.

Not to mention, on the right side, those extremely clean stables are all wrapped from top to bottom by barbed wire with holes so dense that even fingers can't penetrate.

Among these stables, two of them were stacked with large wooden boxes, and the other two next to each other were stacked with bulging sacks. Not only that, these four stables were also tightly locked with chains.

Without rushing to pry open the stables, Wei Ran continued to check each one with a flashlight. However, among the remaining stables, except for one containing several large oil drums and another filled with coal, The rest looked like cells used to imprison people - there were even blankets and a leather shoe that belonged to someone who didn't know who it was.

Turning around and returning to the four locked stable doors, when he pried open the padlocks and randomly opened several wooden boxes, he found that they were all filled with clothes, shoes and hats, soap, cosmetics, towels, toothpaste and even Daily necessities such as toilet paper, and even "luxury goods" such as butter, cheese, and various alcoholic beverages.

I continued to pry open the stable next door, randomly selected a few of the sacks, and punched holes with my fingers. They were all filled with full-grained oats or wheat!

You really deserve to die.

Wei Ran sighed as he walked out of the barn. He finally knew why Metal Book rewarded him with a murderous job this time. It was not just because of the deceit and deception done by Renault's people.

It was the end of September 1940, and Britain had already implemented a rationing system for a long time.

If nothing else, just from one of the most famous "5 inches of hot water" regulations, we know how tight the British supplies were at this time.

This regulation requires that when people take a bath, the depth of hot water in the bathtub cannot exceed five inches, and it is best to use it repeatedly to save coal.

What is repeated use? It’s similar to the Japanese tradition today: I’ll wash you after you wash it, and he’ll wash it after I wash it.

Wait until the whole family has finished washing, and then take it to wash the clothes. Although the water is definitely not hot at this time, it is much better than cold water.

As for how much is 5 inches?

This is just coal. Other things, such as clothing, soap and especially food, make every British housewife rack her brains to think about how to save and always think about finding relatively more abundant alternatives.

But looking at the things locked in those stables, he was sure that any item he took out could be exchanged for high returns on the black market in Liverpool that far exceeded those in peacetime!

Even the most useless cosmetics have hidden profits far beyond imagination!

For British women who already used beet juice as lipstick during this period, those cosmetics produced in the United States were enough to make them generously take out all the pounds, ration coupons or any valuable items in their pockets.

He was even more certain that the origin of these things was definitely incorrect. If those oats and wheat were the output of this farm, then what about those daily necessities? Could it be that those girls’ lipsticks in the United States are also produced on this farm?

Smuggling, this is the only possible source. However, this is not a difficult thing for Jews scattered all over the world, and he believes that Renault, who has countless pickpockets, is probably just a distributor in this business.

In other words, I don’t know how many people are doing this kind of business in Liverpool and the UK at this time!

It’s really a national crisis with no profit.

Wei Ran snorted coldly, locked the stable and closed the iron door of the barn, walked back to the carriage in the increasingly heavy rain, carefully turned over the clothes taken off the body, and then He wrung it out carefully and carried it into the living room that was still filled with the smell of blood.

After a while, Vanessa, who was covered in blood, had fallen asleep on the sofa, and the emptied wine bottle was also thrown on the table.

Shaking her head secretly, Wei Ran finally picked up her windbreaker and covered her body. Then she threw two pieces of firewood into the fireplace and piled the clothes with most of the water out of them on the fireplace. Bake it patiently by the charcoal fire, just wait until it is dry enough and then burn it.

Putting away the empty wine bottle, he held up a flashlight and checked the first floor of the country house, easily finding the bathroom next to the kitchen.

This country bathroom is spacious and practical. To put it bluntly, it is just a bathtub made of cement and tiles and a small fireplace built together. Just fill the bathtub with water, light the small fireplace at the end of the kitchen, and wait patiently for a while before you can take a hot bath.

Turning on the faucet at one end of the bathtub, Wei Yan ignored the nonsense rule of 5 inches and 8 inches. When the water level rose to less than 10 centimeters from the edge of the bathtub, he tightened the faucet, turned around and walked into the kitchen next door. I lit the small cast-iron fireplace, and by the way, I didn't forget to fill several kettles and iron buckets with water and put them on it to heat.

While the bath water was heating up, he took off his soaked suit jacket, rolled up his shirt cuffs, carried a brush and a bucket of water, and then rummaged through to find a bar of Lux soap and a towel. Went up to the third floor.

Relying on the miscellaneous knowledge he learned at the Hongqi Forest Farm, he patiently and carefully cleaned up the remaining blood stains everywhere under the beam of the flashlight.

However, before he could clean up the second floor where there was more blood, Vanessa also walked up wearing a windbreaker and holding a candlestick.

"Did I wake you up? I boiled the bath water. Go take a bath."

As Wei Ran spoke, he poured a pot of boiling water that he had just brought up from downstairs onto the area on the floor that was surrounded by towels and a sheet.

In the steaming water vapor, the last trace of blood remaining in the cracks of the floor also gave out a faint smell due to protein denaturation caused by the high temperature. It seemed that you could only smell it if you forgot to add ginger slices when blanching raw meat.

"I want to clean the house left by my grandfather before I take a bath."

Vanessa waited for Wei Ran to put down the kettle before saying, "Let me help you. What should I do?"

"Go and boil a new kettle of water."

Wei Ran handed the kettle in his hand to the other party, "Then bring up another kettle of boiling water. Remember to wear your gloves, this is very important."

"it is good"

Vanessa nodded, ran downstairs carrying the kettle, and not long after, she came up carrying another pot of boiling water.

Looking at the gloves in the other person's hands, Wei Ran handed her a few dirty towels, "Use these towels to absorb the hot water that was just poured on you, and then wring it out in the bucket until there is no more water on the floor." water, and finally wipe it with a towel soaked in soapy water in another bucket, and there will be no smell after it dries.”

Hearing this, Vanessa reached out and took the towel from Wei Ran, unfolded it and spread it on the still steaming water stains on the floor. While absorbing the water, she also sucked away the floating water stains. Blood foam.

At the same time, Wei Ran had also walked to another location where there were bloodstains before, surrounded the area that had been scrubbed clean with a sheet, and poured hot water on it again.

"Vanessa, don't you need to wear some clothes?" Wei Ran asked carefully.

"Need not"

Vanessa wrung out the water in the towel and said, "If you like to watch it, feel free to watch it. I don't care. It doesn't matter even if you want to do something to me now."

Hearing this, Wei Ran grinned, and then heard Vanessa say, "Victor, do you still remember the chain dog that let us go?"

"Sammy?"

"Um"

Vanessa nodded, simply took off her windbreaker and put it on the handrail of the stairs. While wiping the blood on her body with a freshly wrung hot towel, she said in a calm tone, "I used that pocket watch to bribe him to let us go, and then used My body was exchanged with his for two ferry tickets from Calais to Spain.”

Hearing this, Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then sighed silently, and continued to pour boiling water on the floor that had just been wiped clean.

"I took the initiative, but he said he fell in love with me very early, from the first time he saw me in the tailor shop."

A self-deprecating smile appeared on Vanessa's face, "That idiot also said that if I wanted to, after the war was over, he would take that pocket watch to the tailor shop and wait for me. He hoped that I could marry him. . Ha! How come that German is as naive and ridiculous as a child!"

Seeing Vanessa with tears streaming down her face and wiping her body harder and harder, Wei Ran put down the kettle and walked over, gently took the towel from her hand, picked up the girl, and walked downstairs again while Said, "Go to the bathroom and wash up. I've already boiled the bath water."

"I hate Jews"

Vanessa let Wei Ran hold her sideways as if her bones had been taken away. She looked up at the ceiling blankly and muttered to herself, "I also hate the Germans and the British who escaped." people.

ha! France! right! And the French! They surrendered faster than the German gendarme went limp inside me! "

Hearing the nonsense and even obscene words coming out of this girl's mouth, Wei Ran became increasingly silent.

The war, that war that swept across Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and almost the whole world, was smeared by later generations. It seems that only the Jews suffered great injustice. How could it be possible for such a 19-year-old? Can a girl influence you?

Even if she is Joan of Arc, it is far from enough!

For such a helpless ordinary girl, buying with money, exchanging with body, and fighting for a way out with life are her only options.

Along the way from Saint-Omer to Liverpool, as long as she is about to take a wrong step, as long as her luck is just a little bit worse, what awaits her may not be the painful appearance of being covered in blood but surviving by chance, but Another relief.

Finally, he walked from upstairs to the first floor, which was still filled with the smell of blood, and then walked into the bathroom without stopping.

He didn't stop Vanessa's vague curses, and he didn't echo or refute those curses. He just silently helped her take off her boots, took off her stockings that were almost soaked in blood, and the last few pieces of cloth on her body, and carefully pulled her off. leaning against the edge of the warm bathtub.

After reaching out to test the water temperature and adding some extra cold water, he picked up a washbasin and filled a large basin with water. He slowly poured it down from Vanessa's head like he did when giving Beria a bath. .

Over and over again, basin after basin, the almost dried blood stains and tears shed on Vanessa's body were washed away, until the hot water flowing on the floor around her was no longer mixed with red or pink, and then she was washed away again. He picked her up and slowly put her into the bathtub.

"I'll wash it myself." As if she had just come to her senses, Vanessa wiped the corners of her eyes and sank into the steaming mist of the bath water.

"Wow!"

Just when Wei Ran, who had remained silent, was about to walk out of the bathroom, Vanessa emerged from the water again, "Victor?"

"What's wrong?" Wei Ran stopped and stood outside the door and asked.

"Shall we have a drink later?" Vanessa said, "If there is still wine here."

"Let's take a shower first, and after I finish cleaning up the blood stains, we can have a drink. And..."

"What?" Vanessa asked.

"Remember to wear clothes," Wei Ran said, and walked out of the steaming bathroom again.

In his silent busyness, all the places upstairs and downstairs that had been stained with blood were carefully scalded with boiling water more than once. Even the floors that had been hit by bullets were lifted up and turned over with the tools he found. surface and then reinstall it snugly.

Until the end, the only things that still had blood stains in the house were his and Vanessa's clothes, the sofa by the fireplace, and himself.

"I'll help you reheat the bath water."

Vanessa walked out of the bathroom and said to Wei Ran who was dismantling the sofa cover, "I also repainted the bathtub. There shouldn't be any bloody smell."

"There's a bottle of brandy in my suitcase. Open it and we'll have a drink later."

Wei Ran said, picking up their clothes and sofa covers and walking out the door, spreading them out one by one and placing them on the carriage to be washed by the heavy rain.

Finally, he took off his clothes and put them on the carriage. Wei Ran walked back to the room with bare feet, walked into the bathroom, scooped up a large basin of water and poured it on himself.

For him, the matter of killing people no longer carries any psychological burden.

But Vanessa's real hesitation and resentment, as well as her emotions that were about to collapse in the next second, and even her forced calmness, made him more uncomfortable and disgusted with everything that had happened than the murder itself.

He could clearly feel that Vanessa was becoming more painful and desperate. Ever since she killed the Jew Reno, no, or should I say, since she bumped into the two chained dogs in Reno's grocery store, she was no longer suffering from the pain in her heart all the time. The agony of regret.

It would have been better if she hadn't stolen something from the grocery store, she must have been thinking.

So what's next?

Will Heidi and Spear get here?

Or did that bastard Spear get here by himself?

Then kill him and throw him into the swamp mud to ferment into fertilizer?

After thinking hard to no avail, he finally chose to put the headache behind him and sink his body into the hot bath water little by little.

When he came out of the bathroom, Vanessa had placed his suitcase at the door.

At this time, the girl who finally put her clothes back on not only cleaned up the leftovers on the long dining table, but also placed a plate of white bread and a plate of sliced ​​canned ham on the table. And opened the bottle of brandy from the basement of the Castle Philip Lighthouse.

"Come over and have something to eat."

Vanessa greeted Wei Ran, who was getting dressed, and filled the cup with maroon brandy.

"What are your plans next?" Wei Ran, who was fully clothed, sat at the dining table, took out his cigarette case and lit a cigarette.

"I'm going to wait here."

Vanessa, who was sitting across from her, seemed to have adjusted her mood while Wei Ran was taking a shower. She picked up a cognac glass filled with only a glass of bottom wine and handed it over and said, "I believe my sister is definitely still alive, even if she dies. If there is an accident, that bastard Spear will definitely come here, so I have to wait for them here."

"Wait forever?"

Wei Ran took the cup handed to him and took a sip. Unfortunately, even though it was 20 years old brandy, he didn't notice much difference. On the contrary, the color of the wine reminded him of the girl opposite. Those blood stains on your body before taking a shower.

"If my sister doesn't come here until the end of the war, I will go back to Saint-Omer."

Vanessa drank all the wine in the glass and said, "I might reopen the tailor shop, and maybe my sister will go back by then, if she is still alive at that time."

"Don't forget to dig out those valuable things," Wei Ran reminded with a smile.

“Of course I won’t forget it”

Vanessa couldn't help but have a relaxed smile on her face, "I will use that money to double the size of the tailor shop. If there is still money left, I will open a shop near the dock in Liverpool." Open a tailor shop!”

"Call it Heidi's Tailor Shop this time, or Vanessa's Tailor Shop?"

Wei Ran picked up the wine glass and clinked it with the other party again, and the question he asked made the smile on Vanessa's face become even brighter.

"Let me think"

Vanessa took a big sip of brandy, burped and said, "The tailor shop in Saint-Omer is still called its previous name, but the tailor shop in Liverpool is called Vanessa's tailor shop! Vanessa Bee Nosh's tailor shop!

In the future, I will go to Dover and Calais to open a tailor shop respectively. One will be prefixed with my sister’s name, and the other will be prefixed with my name! "

Picking up the glass that Wei Ran had refilled with wine, Vanessa took another big sip and said confidently, "But I'm sure that my sister will be here soon, and I'll give her one by then." Just a big surprise!”

"What's the surprise?" Wei Ran picked up a piece of bread and took a bite, then threw a piece of ham with a high starch content into his mouth.

"At least I have to clean up the house left by my grandfather."

At this point, Vanessa was stunned, and then asked in panic, "Victor, my sister has mortgaged this farm to Renault, will she still come here?"

"Yes, she will."

Wei Ran swallowed the food in his mouth and comforted him, "Even without this farm, for you sisters, Liverpool is the city you are most familiar with in the UK, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right!"

Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, "I don't know about my sister's mortgage of the farm, so she will definitely come here to take a look! She must at least come to confirm whether I have been here!"

"So what surprises are you planning to prepare?" Wei Ran brought the topic back.

"At least give this house a good cleaning."

Vanessa stood up as she spoke, walked to the door with the wine glass in hand, opened the door and looked at the rain curtain outside, and said, "I want to wipe down all the places here, and also wipe all the places that were stained by those dirty Jews." Wash all the dirty sheets and the stone wall!"

Vanessa pointed to the direction they came from, "We still need to clean up the weeds that are almost burying the stone wall."

"These things only depend on the two of us?"

Wei Ran asked with difficulty. The girl said it was easy, but just cleaning the room and washing clothes was enough for the two of them to be busy for a long time.

"Isn't the most important thing we have now is time?"

Vanessa didn't know what she was thinking of, and said without any connection, "Victor, I also plan to raise three shepherd dogs, so that when my sister comes here, they can go there just like they did when my grandfather was alive. She was greeted by the stone."

"Then keep it"

As he spoke, Wei Ran poured the last bit of brandy in the bottle into his own glass, feeling that the challenge ahead might be even more tiring than cleaning up the scene after killing the Jews.

"If the weather is nice tomorrow, we will go to town and buy three beautiful sheepdogs!"

Vanessa said enthusiastically, as if she had forgotten what happened not long ago, as if she was deliberately forgetting those things.

That night, the girl took Wei Ran and talked a lot, and talked about a lot of plans that she had thought of at the last minute. That night, it rained heavily and never stopped outside. However, the blood-stained clothes spread out on the carriage had all their stains taken away by the cold raindrops.

Beside the fireplace that burned all night long, Vanessa, who had drunk too much, curled up on the old sofa with the velvet cover removed, frowning to fight against the nightmare that had been intruding on her all night.

Fortunately, every time she woke up, she could see Wei Ran, who was sitting and sleeping facing her across a table. She could also see that in his hand, he was holding a pistol pointed at the door. .