War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1379 Charlie Cha Xifeng

In the small living room on the second floor, Wei Ran, who was holding a glory bomb in his hand, frowned and said nothing for a long time. Comrade Channing did not urge him when he saw this, but just returned his attention to the box of "Berlin Honor Guard" "superior.

Even Lu Xinda, who was acting as the translator, had already picked up a Red Cross sword and was waving it around randomly.

After a moment of hesitation, Wei Ran carefully unscrewed the cap of the grenade in his hand.

Both expected and unexpected, the grenade had been cleared of explosives and other materials, but inside the once deadly oval metal shell, there was a ball of cloth.

"Xinda, tweezers." Wei Ran said without raising his head.

"immediately!"

Lu Xinda immediately put the sword in her hand back into the box, quickly opened the pocket bag she carried with her, pulled out a pair of tweezers and handed it over.

The first-aid medicines and a small but critical amount of medical equipment contained in this not-so-large belt bag were what the little girl’s Russian teacher Marta asked her to carry with her.

In the words of the female field doctor who was brought back from the front line of the war, carrying emergency medicine and surgical kits with her and being able to provide first aid at any time was the meaning of her and Lu Xinda's existence.

"give it to me"

"Of course, but I didn't bring an ultrasonic cleaner." Taxi answered before Wei Ran could finish.

Tassie said, having already opened his suitcase, took out a few things from it and started working.

Don't care?

Wei Ran patted the box in his hand and asked, "You brought it."

Wei Ran asked impatiently, "Now."

"What's the deal?" Tassie asked as she gave the feathers to Monica.

Tassie finally said, "I am confident that as long as it is cleaned, this watch will still be able to operate normally."

After Wei Ran let the other person into his studio, he opened the wooden box in his hand again and handed the Dongfeng brand watch to the other person, "The main thing is to see if it is broken and whether it can still keep time."

And, what kind of secret does the Vietnamese who traveled to Moscow hide?

He rewrapped the bullet with the piece of cloth and stuffed it back into the grenade casing. After Wei Ran carefully screwed on the cap, he couldn't help but look at the casing of the glorious bomb.

"For the Chinese people, it has a very special meaning."

"This watch must have been used in a humid environment for a long time."

After re-wrapping it with a soft silicone cover, Wei Ran picked up the Dongfeng watch again and asked, "Comrade Channing, are these two things really gifts? Give them to me to dispose of at will?"

"Then I'll trouble you."

He is an elite. Wei Ran made an almost subconscious judgment.

Before he finished speaking, he had already begun the dismantling work. There were also various precision parts of different sizes in the enamel tray in front of him.

“Not a big problem”

"certainly"

Wei Ran asked the other party to follow him out of the yard to the next door, and then got into the basement of the library.

But compared to the warhead of the 7.62mm rifle bullet, what really concerned him was the piece of cloth no bigger than a palm.

"I have a watch here that I need you to help me maintain."

As Wei Ran spoke, he also turned on the ultrasonic cleaning machine located against the wall, and Taxi also packed the fine parts into a fine metal mesh box and threw them into the cleaning machine.

Although his knowledge of the history of the civil war was far less than that of his friend Xia Shushi, he could still recognize at a glance that this piece of cloth, which once seemed to be stained with blood but was now oxidized and blackened, came from the famous "Big Five-leaf Camouflage" .

Not long after, he took apart the case of the watch, revealing the movement inside.

Although Wei Ran could take out a medical kit at any time, although he did not comment on this, he had to admit that at least since Marta joined Suisui's small group, he has indeed become much more practical.

"Come with me"

Is it a provocation?

Is it a test?

Or taking the exam?

Before Taxi finished speaking, she had already stood up and ran upstairs, and soon after, came down carrying a small suitcase.

He took the tweezers and carefully pulled out the piece of cloth from the grenade casing. After carefully unfolding the piece of cloth, Wei Ran discovered that there was a deformed bullet wrapped inside.

"Check this watch for me"

"It doesn't matter, we have an ultrasonic cleaner in the basement."

Since they are elites, how did these things appear in the hands of a Vietnamese who can speak Chinese?

Is it a seizure or...

While picking up the bullet, he temporarily put aside this doubt, and then began to think again, why did the Vietnamese give these things to him so generously?

The pure black paint is too thick and there is no model number printed on it. Obviously, the paint on this glory bomb was added later.

Wei Ran approached Taxi holding the wooden box. At this time, he was showing Monica some penguin feathers he had picked up from the Antarctic.

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already put the two gifts back into the wooden box. He picked them up and walked downstairs while saying, "I'm sorry, Comrade Channing. Please excuse me. I want to check these two gifts carefully."

"Of course, just wait for me."

Taxi said with almost certainty, "There is already oxidized rust inside, but it doesn't look like the problem is too big."

"Of course, I also want to take a good look at these Berlin honor guards."

Chanin nodded after listening to Lu Xinda's translation, "The gentleman who gave you the gift didn't say anything. He just said that these things were a meeting gift. Victor, are these things special?"

"Tassie, how about you do me a favor?"

Chaning waited for Lu Xinda to translate and said, even though Wei Ran had already gone downstairs at this time.

"Why do you have an ultrasonic cleaning machine here?" Taxi asked curiously until this moment.

"I am a historian"

Wei Ran replied while dismantling the exquisitely carved wooden box, "Occasionally, some clue items need to be cleaned, so I prepared one, such as the lens of an old camera or something."

“So that’s how it is”

Taxi nodded as if suddenly enlightened, and visited Wei Ran's studio with great interest.

Wei Ran, on the other hand, found nothing after taking apart the velvet lining of the wooden box, so he simply used glue to restore the lining to its original state.

After a while, Taxi also took out the cleaned parts and reassembled them.

"Look, I'd say it can definitely still keep time." Tassie said proudly, "But I don't know if the running time is accurate."

“It would be great to be able to walk.”

Wei Ran stared absently at the red dot on the top of the continuously moving second hand on the dial, becoming more and more confused and curious about the purpose of Channing's more difficult friend and the gifts he gave him.

That evening, Comrade Channing's more difficult friend did not rush back to Kazan. Instead, the old man who called himself Hans got Major Schubert's relics in exchange and told the camera about his uncle Hans Er as promised. After reading the story of Mr. Zier's Antarctic adventure, he simply said goodbye and left without any stop. "That man reeks of old rat."

On the second floor of the library, in the Inta athletes' office, April held up his binoculars and looked at the commercial vehicles driving away from the floor-to-ceiling windows. He muttered to himself and made an unusually firm judgment.

"Don't worry about them, it's the cat's job to catch mice."

Anna said with a smile, "It's you, how was your harvest from this trip to Antarctica?"

“Don’t know yet”

April put down the telescope and replied calmly, "That's just the hope I gave myself, but I never had any hope in it."

Hearing this, Anna smiled, changed the subject and said, "Victor has become better and better at disguising himself over the years. Even I can't tell whether he is a historian or a scumbag who likes to collect beautiful girls. .”

"So what is he?" April asked almost subconsciously.

"he?"

Anna threw away the telescope in her hand and said as she walked outside, "He is also a hope, the only difference is that we all have great hopes for him. Take a closer look, April, just look at Gore Just be fine."

"What do you want to do?" April followed up slowly.

“Enjoy the sunshine”

Anna, who was smiling, gave an extremely simple answer, "Let's go, it's time for us to attend the celebration party organized by Aurora."

That night, a bonfire was lit in the large yard by Lake Kaban, and a large barrel of fragrant cider was placed on the table beside the bonfire.

"friends!"

Standing on the hood of the armored pickup truck, Suisui greeted loudly, "After our unremitting efforts to spread rumors, I now declare that our popular science mockumentary is a great success!"

Before he finished speaking, many girls and friends cheered in unison.

"Within seven working days, all investors will receive their investment amounts back, and all participants and staff will also receive their first dividends!"

Suisui held up a glass of fruit wine and told the second good news, and as expected, she received even more enthusiastic cheers.

"Finally, everyone must get drunk tonight!"

"Ula!"

Greva and his younger brothers shouted out the unique "toast" before everyone else this time, followed closely by the other girls and friends who also shouted out the representative toast. The “Ula!”

Needless to say, there was no need to say much about the night of carnival. By the afternoon of the next day, Coco, who was still a little hungover, and her housekeeper Tantu, had even eliminated the dangerous Taxi, Monica and the most important child Matthew. Led by the "female bodyguard" Aniya, they boarded the flight to France.

Also that afternoon, Mr. Charlotte also boarded a flight to the UK.

"Comrade Channing, when will your friend come over?"

After watching Charlotte walk into the security checkpoint, Wei Ran asked Channing, who still smelled of alcohol but insisted on coming to see her off.

Even though it had only been a day, Channing had already become friends with Mr. Charlotte.

"Ming Hiccup——!"

After listening to Marta's translation, Channing burped and said again, "Tomorrow, he will come tomorrow."

"Speaking of this, I forgot to ask yesterday, what does this friend of yours do?" Wei Ran asked curiously as he greeted the other person to walk outside the airport.

"His English name is Charlie"

Before Chan Ning finished speaking, Wei Ran couldn't help but feel happy in his heart. The English name of his more difficult friend, "Where's Charlie?" was probably intentional.

"He is also one of us." As Channing spoke, he also showed off the conspicuous tattoo of the Communist Party of the United States on the back of his hand.

"What else?" Wei Ran waited for Marta to finish her translation and continued to ask, "For example, his occupation and so on."

Channing thought for a while and introduced systematically, "Charlie is an expert in explosive ordnance disposal and runs several shooting ranges and gun shops. He has cooperated with my auction company for many years. We do weapon testing and repair antique firearms. , appraisals were all completed at his shooting range and gun shop.”

As if he had misunderstood Wei Ran's intention in asking this, Channing took the initiative to add, "Don't worry Victor, although Charlie can't escape the one million euro commission, he still has some savings."

"You misunderstood me"

Wei Ran still waited for Marta to finish translating, and then said, "I'm just very curious about why he gave me such a gift, so I can't help but want to know more about him."

After waiting for Marta to finish the translation, Channing spread his hands noncommittally and then rode on his sidecar motorcycle.

"Is there any new business?" Suisui didn't ask in her native language until this moment.

"Hard to say"

Wei Ran shook his head, "The gift from his friend named Charlie is too special. I'm afraid it's not business this time."

"You're not going to make it more difficult, are you?" Suisui asked warily, patting Wei Ran's waist as she spoke.

"The harder it is, the more difficult it is, but it's not free of charge," Wei Ran, who understood the hint, said in a dumbfounded voice.

“It all looks the same to me”

Suisui rolled her eyes and said, "You're not allowed to go. We've made a lot of money in Antarctica this time. We don't need that little money."

"Where is Zhong Zhen?" Wei Ran couldn't help but muttered.

"Which of your scumbag friends is reliable?" Suisui rolled her eyes again, opened the car door and let Wei Ran help her up.

"This time is really different."

Wei Ran muttered secretly, but didn't rush to say anything. He just walked around to the other side and got into the driver's seat.

Time flew by at dusk the next day, and a taxi also parked in the spacious parking lot in front of the library.

As the car door opened, a short Asian man in casual clothes who looked to be in his fifties also walked out.

This man was as lean as a stick, and his height was probably only 1.6 meters at most.

Wearing khaki quick-drying trousers, the skin exposed by the rolled-up sleeves is the color of old wheat, and also reveals obvious muscle lines.

In addition, this old guy also has a short but particularly eye-catching gray braid under his black baseball cap.

"Hello, Comrade Wei Ran."

The old man walked to the door of the library, shook hands with Wei Ran, who was waiting here after receiving the news, and introduced himself in Chinese, "My Chinese name is Zha Xifeng, Cha from Zha Liangyong, and Xifeng from Xifeng Wine. "

I know Xifengjiu, but who is Cha Liangyong?

Wei Ran almost subconsciously began to ponder this seemingly insignificant question.

(End of this chapter)