War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1444 Negatives

After they finished arranging the pretentious films, Angus also opened the door and walked in.

"I got the news that you filmed the massacre of those stick-carrying people in that village today?" Angus asked bluntly without waiting to stop.

"Why are you so well-informed?" Zach indirectly confirmed the other party's guess with a question.

"Other helicopter pilots learned that from the mouths of those with sticks in their mouths"

Angus paused and asked more bluntly, "Friends, you are not going to publish those jokes in the newspaper, are you?"

"What are you thinking about?" Zach shook his head and waved his hands in confusion, "I just kept it as a souvenir."

"commemorate?"

Angus turned his head and looked outside, lowered his voice and said, "Listen, friends, if you don't want to cause trouble for us, let alone cause trouble for yourself, why not hand over the film and film box you took? How about giving it to me?”

"trouble?"

Zach took out a lighter, lit a cigarette, and asked in a puff of smoke, "What's the trouble?"

"Enough trouble to keep you on the battlefield forever," Angus whispered.

"Angus, no, no, no, Mr. Tamer, we are reporters and photographers." Zach said seriously, "No one can take away every negative we take from our hands. Just like no one can take your weapon away from you."

"If you like, my weapons are yours from now on."

As Angus spoke, he simply pulled out the 1911 pistol from his waist and threw it on the table with a clang. Then he took off the M79 grenade launcher he still carried on his shoulder and placed it on the table.

“That’s not how the game works”

Zach's attitude became more serious, "Angus, no one can take away the cameras and films from reporters and photographers. We also paid for them with our lives."

"But you may lose your life for these things!" Angus reminded in a low voice.

"It's better not to talk about this"

Zach waved his hand and changed the subject, "Where is Platoon Leader Wild Boar George? Is he in the camp? Now that the interview and filming are over, I want to talk to him about returning to Da Nang."

"You're in luck"

Angus picked up his weapon again and whispered, "He is not here today, leading the other two squads to carry out clearing missions around them."

"Is this good luck?"

"If he knew that you filmed the massacre of the stick-hammers and refused to hand over those negatives, you would be afraid."

At this point, Angus shook his head, "Forget it, I can't help you if you don't want to hand it over. Zach, for the sake of your friends, you really won't publish those things in the newspaper, right?" ?”

"Do you think I can?" Zach asked, "Or do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Hide your film and film boxes"

Angus finally said, "I will help find a way to get you back to Da Nang as soon as possible."

"thank you my friend!"

Zach bumped fists with the other party with a smile on his face, "Anyway, don't worry Angus, the next report I send back to CBS will only be about Platoon Leader Wild Boar George and his T-Team, and I promise, There must be a picture of you in my report."

"Hide your things," Angus said at last, then turned and left the wooden house.

Watching the other party go away, Li Youfu frowned and asked, "So is he considered a friend or..."

“Nothing counts”

Zach flicked the half cigarette in his hand out of the window and answered the question, "Reporters and photographers do not necessarily have to uphold justice, but they must be objective and fair, use the lens in their hand to record the facts, and record everything without any hesitation." Keep the presentation to the public without taking a position.”

Having said this, Zach took a deep breath and said, "Everything else, including friendship, should be left to God for safekeeping for the time being."

"Your God really doesn't care about anything."

Wei Ran muttered something vaguely, and got into the bathroom with his toiletries and the fourth-class uniform he had taken off before.

He took a good shower and rubbed his hands through the soaked camouflage uniform. When he came out, the table was already full of food.

"Angus sent it," Zach explained as he walked into the bathroom, "He also sent cold beer."

"From this point of view, he is indeed our good friend." Wei Ran said with a smile.

"Of course, our careers aside, Angus and we are good friends."

After Zach finished speaking, he had already closed the wooden door of the bathroom from the inside.

"Mr. Victor"

Wearing only a pair of soaked shorts, Li Youfu wiped his and Zach's cameras and asked in a low voice, "Why do you want to kill?"

"Kill for what?" Wei Ran asked before the other party finished speaking, and winked at the other party.

Seeing this, Li Youfu smiled, picked up the notebook and pen that Wei Ran had given him, tore out a piece of paper and wrote, "Why did you kill those soldiers with sticks?"

"careless"

Wei Ran said bluntly.

"Accidentally?" Li Youfu was stunned, obviously not expecting such a nonsense answer.

"Okay, my hands are itchy," Wei Ran gave the second reason.

"Forget it." Li Youfu shook his head in confusion, "If you don't want to tell me, I won't ask."

"Do you have any reason?" Wei Ran did not let go of the topic, but threw it back.

"For..." Li Youfu thought for a while, "For justice?"

"justice?"

Wei Ran, who had already hung up his clothes, took out the piece of suede that the other party gave him. While wiping his camera, he continued the question, "Whose side do you think justice is on?"

"Which side is it on?" Li Youfu fell silent when faced with this question.

"How about I change the question?"

"What's the problem?" Li Youfu asked absently.

"We were attacked on the way to the Cowshed Camp."

Wei Ran paused and continued, "What did the girl who fired the grenade say to you in the end?"

Before he finished speaking, Li Youfu shuddered, and a moment of panic appeared on his face.

After a long time, he finally answered with difficulty, "She asked me why I wanted to be the most difficult traitor and why I wanted to be an American dog."

"Do you have an answer?" Wei Ran asked as if talking to himself.

Li Youfu shook his head when he heard this and replied hesitantly, "Before that, before I witnessed everything that happened in that village today, I had always looked forward to becoming an American."

"now what?"

"I don't know." When Li Youfu answered, there was only bitterness on the young face.

"I don't quite agree with Zach's point of view"

Wei Ran threw away the suede in his hand and loaded new film into the two cameras while saying, "Whether it is a reporter or a photographer, they can have a stand, but it is limited to justice and injustice. There is no middle ground.”

"What do you mean?"

“Our cameras and our pens are our weapons”

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the lighter on the table and lit the paper on which Li Youfu asked the question, and then used the paper to light a cigarette, "So we must also choose a side in this war. "

"What about you?"

"I have already made my choice," Wei Ran said with a smile, his tone firmer than ever.

"Have you already made your choice?"

Li Youfu's face showed a hint of confusion, "Since when?"

"That was a long time ago"

Wei Ran took two puffs of cigarette, "But it's similar to you, when a little girl fired a grenade in front of me. From that time on, I had already made my choice."

"Did she say anything at the end?" Li Youfu asked with a hint of expectation.

"no"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already stood up, carrying his camera and walking slowly outside the room, "No, she said it, she said a lot, so I made the choice."

"she"

Before Li Youfu could finish his words, Wei Ran had already left the room.

Taking a deep breath, Li Youfu looked at his camera on the table, feeling confused for a moment, or perhaps he had already made a decision.

Outside the bullpen camp, Wei Ran strolled to the tarmac where Rainbow Herbicide was piled.

The air nearby is still filled with the unique fragrance of Agent Orange and other herbicides, the ground is still muddy, and the trenches are still guarded by South Vietnamese "mercenaries".

Even the children were still in their original position, cooking something in that iron pot. Obviously, they still remembered Wei Ran, so when they saw him coming, one of them immediately picked up a copper bowl made of cannon shells and a copper spoon that seemed to be also made of cannon shells, and filled him with a bowl of meat. Soup.

This time, the soup seems to be boiled with snake meat, and there are some things like luncheon meat slices in it, which is quite similar to the military hot pot.

Wei Ran waved his hand again and rejected the other party's kindness. This time, Wei Ran did not give out dollars to the children as generously as they expected.

After bidding farewell to these half-grown children who were obviously very disappointed, he wandered back to the core of the bullpen camp and found the semi-underground building where the female guerrillas were tortured the night he came.

Fortunately, perhaps because there was no "business" inside this time, no one stopped him to stop him from entering. To be precise, there was no one guarding outside at all.

He walked into this semi-underground building without any obstruction. To his surprise, not only was there a floor, but there was also a strong goat in a cage.

And almost next to the cage, there was a tying bed.

As the name suggests, this so-called tying bed involves people lying on it and their limbs tied up. Suisui and her grandfather used it when necessary when setting bones. It might also be used in certain alphabet games between men and women.

Of course, when this thing appears here, it means that it can also be used during torture, and the process must be extremely painful.

In addition to these things, there is also an iron oil barrel in this torture room. However, this iron barrel, which is also painted with orange horizontal stripes, does not contain any liquid. Instead, it is filled with almost overhanging various more difficult clothing.

There were black clothes and black trousers, green military uniforms imitated from China, camouflage uniforms with a French flavor, and tire slippers mixed in.

After finding a location to take these arrangements into the same photo, Wei Ran just put down the camera when he found Angus walking in.

"Why are you here!"

Angus, who was obviously startled by Wei Ran, let out an exclamation and at the same time put something into his pocket without leaving any trace.

"Of course I'm here to find you."

Wei Ran replied matter-of-factly, "You sent the food and beer, but the person disappeared. I don't know which barracks you are in, so I can only come to your office to find you."

"Office?" Angus reacted immediately, then shook his head in confusion.

"Angus, is this your pet?"

Wei Ran asked, pointing to the goat in the cage before the other party was about to say anything.

"It's called Johnson"

Angus explained, "But it's not my pet, it's Platoon Sergeant George's pet, and let me think about it, yes, it's still my office colleague."

"Office colleague?" Wei Ran reacted instantly, "Is it a torture tool?"

"For licking the soles of the feet"

Angus swore to explain, "No one can resist it. I once saw a female prisoner laugh so hard that she suffocated to death because it licked her soles and other parts."

Before Wei Ran could say anything, Angus said, "In addition, it also likes to eat hair, whether it is the hair on the head or the curly hair below. It is also a method of torture."

"You know so many tricks," Wei Ran said with a grin.

Hearing this, Angus responded proudly, "Of course, well, I've almost introduced my work, should we go have a drink?"

"Of course, I came here just to have a drink with you."

Wei Ran took one last look at the "torture tool" and followed Angus out of the semi-underground building that smelled of animals.

When the two of them returned to the wooden house, Li Youfu had already taken a shower and changed his clothes. He was busy hanging all the camouflage uniforms that he, Zack and Wei Ran had washed on the clothesline that had just been set up outside the house.

Just at this moment, another helicopter landed on the tarmac not far away. When Weiyan and Angus helped hold down the camouflage uniforms that were almost blown away, they also saw at a glance that Brad and others People got out of the cabin.

"Hey! Victor! Angus!" Brad said hello from a distance, and then ran over alone.

"Hi Brad"

Wei Ran said happily across the clothesline, "I thought I would never see you again."

"I heard what happened to you"

Brad gloated and said, "How was it? Isn't it very exciting?"

“Too exciting”

Zach also walked out of the room as he spoke, bumped fists with Brad across the clothesline, and then handed over a cigarette, "How are the conditions of those with sticks?"

"not too good"

Brad said nonchalantly, "The platoon leader and deputy platoon leader are both dead. One of the three squad leaders was killed and one was injured. In addition, many people were burned by their own flamethrowers."

"Compared to the T-Team, it's just garbage," Zack mocked in a contemptuous tone.

“They really are rubbish”

Brad winked and said, "I heard they did something interesting in that village? Didn't you participate?"

"We should have known earlier"

Zach shook his head regretfully, "Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to stand up even with my dick."

"I heard that you took a lot of photos and recorded the images with a camera?" Brad asked enthusiastically.

"Of course" Zach nodded proudly.

"When you develop those negatives, remember to share them with me." Brad said with a wink.

"Five dollars a piece" Zach also winked and offered the price.

"You should call the profiteer Zach!" Brad complained dissatisfied, and then bumped fists with Zach and others again, "Okay, I'm going to work."

"Wait Brad"

Zach called to the other party, "When can we go back to Da Nang? I can't wait anymore."

"I'm afraid it will have to wait."

Brad replied apologetically, "We have no mission to fly to Da Nang recently, and we have to improve it recently. No, I won't tell you the reason behind it, it is a military secret."

"Okay, let's try another way."

Zach flicked the cigarette butt away and asked, "How long do we have until we get out of here? I can't wait for Team T to appear in the newspaper. This time I am confident that it will occupy the front page."

“Even so, we have to wait.”

Brad said apologetically, "But I don't know how long it will take, but I guess about a week is enough. Okay, I have to go to work. We will talk when we have time."

"I'm going to work too"

Angus, who had just been invited by Wei Ran, also said the same, then bumped fists with Brad again, waved to Wei Ran and the other three, and then turned around again and walked towards the direction he came from.

Both of them have problems.

Wei Ran and Zac looked at each other, and then returned to their wooden house after the two people walked away.

"Looks like those negatives are really going to cause trouble."

Zach lowered his voice and said, "Angus has started avoiding us to avoid trouble."

"What's next?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already put on the grenadier vest that Angus had given him.

After a while, this nylon mesh vest is almost done.

"It's unlikely that they would rob openly."

Zach said firmly, "But I'm afraid I will find an opportunity to steal those things or even subcontract them."

"It might as well leave us on the battlefield."

While Wei Ran was talking, he had already made several pockets in his vest and put the shotguns, pistol bullets and even spare magazines in his butt bag into different categories.

"Will not"

Zach said firmly, "That greedy wild boar still expects me to package him as a hero."

"Did you leave a clue?" Wei Ran asked with a frown as he realized something keenly.

"You have to pay something, right?"

Zach said, not forgetting to straighten his back, "How else would they allow me to take photos of them?"

"Do they have the film in their hands?"

"There's a whole volume," Zach replied nonchalantly, "It's all at Mr. Brad's."

"does it worth?"

"Ask those who were tortured and killed," Zach answered naturally.

"Maybe we should ask the Americans." Wei Ran gave a different answer to the question he asked.

"As long as we bring those negatives back to Da Nang, we can ask the Americans."

Zach murmured expectantly, "Ask them if it's worth it."