War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1451 Journalism Professionalism

Under the moonlight, the sad cry of the female guerrilla Nguyen Ching Cha also made Wei Ran and Zac fall into silence. Li Youfu, the only one who could understand the more difficult language, used the little water left in his kettle to throw the tropical scarf around his neck into the water. After washing it, he handed it to Ruan Qingcha and comforted her a little awkwardly.

After a long time, Li Youfu sighed and explained, "Her two companions were her brother and father. They were killed by the Phantom fighter's cannon when they fired RPG at the helicopter."

At this point, Li Youfu added, "She is only 19 years old. Her mother was burned to death four months ago by soldiers with sticks behind a wall. About two weeks ago, her brother was also captured by them. "

Hearing this, Wei Ran couldn't help but tremble, and subconsciously thought of the children imprisoned in the semi-underground cell in the Hambang camp that was blown up by a mortar guided by a flashlight.

Could it be that her brother

"Victor"

Zach's sudden call made Wei Ran shiver again, and he asked in a panic, "Here, what's wrong?"

"Where's the key to the handcuffs?" Zach stretched out his hand towards Wei Ran, "Give me the key to the handcuffs."

After a slight hesitation, Wei Ran took out a pair of handcuff keys and handed them to Zach. The latter took the keys, weighed them, and then opened the handcuffs on Ruan Qingcha's ankles with his own hands.

"Talk to her"

Zach threw aside the handcuffs with the key in them, then found Ruan Qingcha's Type 54 pistol, pulled the slide and loaded a bullet under the girl's alert and desperate eyes.

After swallowing, Li Youfu quickly translated the conditions proposed by Zach to Ruan Qingcha, who looked wary.

Li Youfu thankfully translated, "She said she was sleepy. If we don't plan to kill her or point her to the wall, she wants to sleep for a while now. Also, she said the night watch work is left to us."

Seeing that the two of them were not going to sleep, Wei Ran was too lazy to be polite and closed his eyes in relief. Soon he continued to have a weird nightmare where the world was full of camel spit.

"I really need to get some sleep"

"I'm not crazy"

"So can I go ahead and interview her?"

During the brief silence, Li Youfu took a deep breath, slowed down his speech, and translated Zach's words to Ruan Qingcha in an unprecedentedly pious and serious tone.

When he put on his belt and came back, Ruan Qingcha had already carried her toad bag, and even Zach was busy packing the backpack that belonged to Li Youfu.

Zach said with disappointment and regret, "Then wait until dawn."

As he spoke, Wei Ran had already taken off the medical bag hanging from his waist, "Let me change your medicine first."

However, before he could finish speaking, Ruan Qingcha stood up and walked to the tent and got in, not forgetting to respond at the same time.

"wake up"

"Are you crazy?"

After another silence, Ruan Qingcha sighed, weakly lowered the weapon in his hand, and said something to Zach.

"She said she would take us to find water," Li Youfu said while wiping the dew condensed on the camera body with a chamois leather.

"Good morning, gentlemen and ladies." Zach greeted warmly while stretching.

Zach rubbed the mud and remaining saliva on his neck, but he didn't pick a place at all and just lay down where he was.

I swear on my mother we will not attack you as long as you don't attack us or try to capture us again. "

Seeing Wei Ran, who also lowered his gun, and Zach, who was smiling, looking at him, Li Youfu translated, "She said she would take us to find water after dawn."

Li Youfu, who had been so sleepy that he could hardly open his eyes, was not polite to Wei Ran. He looked around, chose a spot that looked relatively clean, and lay down against Wei Ran's backpack.

"OK then"

Not long after, the big-hearted Zach snored loudly, but Li Youfu, who was obviously too sleepy to open his eyes, and Ruan Qingcha in the tent, each tossed and turned, seemingly without any sleepiness.

"it is good"

He walked closer to Zach, picked up his wrist, and looked at the time displayed on the watch. It was already past six in the morning.

At the same time as Li Youfu exclaimed, Ruan Qingcha had already grasped the pistol handed to her. She didn't care that the 1911 in Wei Ran's hand was pressed against her temple. Instead, she held the gun with both hands quickly and aimed at Zach's chest.

When he was awakened by the rumble of the helicopter and subconsciously lay down on the ground, a thick and putrid mist was already filling the surroundings, but even so, he could tell that it was already dawn.

"This is a rare opportunity!" Zach answered without thinking, "Anyway, ask her quickly!"

"Zach, aren't you sleepy?"

"Aren't you in a hurry to go back to Da Nang?" Li Youfu asked in fear, "Are you going to die?"

But then, Zach turned the handle of the gun and handed it to Ruan Qingcha, "You are not our prisoner. Of course, we don't want to be your prisoner. Now you are free and can take everything that belongs to you. No, Grab everything you want and leave.

Zach spread his hands and said, "Hurry up and translate, or she will shoot."

Wei Ran responded perfunctorily, ignoring the girl who was holding a gun and looking wary from beginning to end. He walked a few steps away and then opened the water gate again and let out a good pee as if no one was watching.

Wei Ran patted Zach's unshaven cheek to wake him up. When the guy got up in a daze, Li Youfu and Ruan Qingcha in the tent also woke up.

Compared with Wei Ran, who knew clearly that Zach would not die here, Zach himself was not afraid at all at this time. He just showed a big smile to Ruan Qingcha and said very calmly, "I am from CBS. War correspondent Zach Kidd, I will loyally adhere to the professional requirements of journalistic professionalism, objectivity, neutrality, true authority, independence and freedom, even if it costs my life.”

Zach immediately asked, "If possible, I would also like to interview her companions, maybe I should say 'her comrades'?"

What a beast

Wei Ran cursed secretly, and then snapped his fingers at Li Youfu, "Troye, you should also sleep for a while. I'll be on guard duty. I'll let Zach take over for me later."

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he yawned and saw that the tent was already occupied by Ruan Qingcha, so he simply sat down against the tree trunk.

"Don't worry"

"Good morning"

By the time she finished speaking, the vigilance on Ruan Qingcha's face had turned into shock, but soon she clenched the pistol again, pointed it at Zach with a slightly trembling muzzle, and at the same time put her finger on the trigger. superior.

"We will be killed by you!" Li Youfu said this, but he still started to translate.

"If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten about it"

As he spoke, Zach put down the backpack frame he was about to put on his back, and unbuttoned his belt at the muzzle of the pistol that Ruan Qingcha was subconsciously raising, revealing his snow-white butt and the gauze on it that had been stained red with blood.

"Do you have the same hobby as President Johnson?" As Wei Ran spoke, he had already helped him remove the gauze that was taped to his buttocks.

"Don't compare me to that disgusting exhibitionist," Zach said in disgust as he kneeled on the ground with his butt stuck out.

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled and did not continue the topic. He quickly helped him change the medicine and dressing, and then treated the wound on Li Youfu's leg.

Finally, each of them was given a shot of penicillin. Wei Ran then packed up his medical bag, picked up his backpack, and conveniently picked up the grenade launcher.

Almost when Li Youfu was getting ready, Ruan Qingcha also said something.

"She said it was time for us to leave."

As soon as Li Youfu finished translating, Ruan Qingcha took a step forward holding the AK rifle that belonged to her father or her brother.

"Ask her, can I interview her on the way?" Zach, who was supporting Li Youfu, asked reluctantly.

"She said if you don't want to die just keep quiet."

Li Youfu had just finished translating, and Ruan Qingcha said something again. Immediately afterwards, the two of them started chatting in increasingly difficult terms.

Seeing that he was kicked out of the group chat, Zach didn't care. He just hung the submachine gun around his neck, then took a water bottle from his waist, unscrewed it and held it in his hand, taking a sip from time to time. .

"Victor, do you think that beautiful lady will take us to their camp?" Zach asked Wei Ran in a low voice, and the latter even heard strong expectations from his tone.

"and then?"

Wei Ran asked angrily, "Be imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp? Or kill us directly?"

"I believe we won't have that kind of experience."

Zach said firmly, "About this time last year, Mr. Clowood, the reporter of Life Magazine, had already been to Hanoi. I firmly believe that even if the beautiful lady takes us to their camp, we will rely on our status as reporters Treated well.”

"Then what?" Wei Ran asked noncommittally, "Then we hand over the films we hid before? Use them to expose Team T's crimes against humanity?"

"I'm just brave, but not brainless."

Zach replied without thinking, "If we do that, we won't be able to return to the United States alive. We still need to come up with those things ourselves. Or to put it another way, we must publish them when we are free. Think about it, If it was on Viet Cong territory, if those photos were released through their channels.

At that time, not only will we be slandered as traitors, or that we were coerced by the Viet Cong, but even those photos will probably be slandered as fake photos taken by the Viet Cong who asked the Soviets to come as guest stars. "

"Since you are so smart"

Wei Ran lowered his voice slightly and raised his chin towards Li Youfu, who was still chatting with Ruan Qingcha, "Then have you ever thought about it. If we are taken to the territory of the Viet Cong, I am afraid that Li Youfu will be the first to be shot as a traitor. ”

Before he could finish his words, Zach frowned and stopped.

Obviously, Zach, who had been immersed in the beauty of meeting a rare interview subject, did not consider this.

"Troyer."

"Just keep walking"

Li Youfu, who had just heard the conversation between the two of them, didn't even wait for Zach to finish, "I'm also a reporter, right?"

Hearing this, Zach was stunned for a moment, then his frown relaxed, and then he nodded vigorously, "Yes, you are also a reporter, a frontline reporter for CBS."

"Then keep walking"

After Li Youfu finished speaking, he changed into Yuehan dialect that Wei Ran and Zac couldn't understand, and continued chatting with the female guerrilla Ruan Qingcha.

Knowing that he could not persuade these two hell-seeking ghosts, Wei Ran, who was already walking at the end, shook his head helplessly and continued walking.

As time passed by, the surrounding fog gradually dispersed and the temperature gradually increased.

Before Ruan Qingcha could lead the three of them to find water, the rumbling propeller noise of a helicopter could be heard overhead.

"hidden!"

Almost when Wei Ran subconsciously reminded the three of them and hid under a tree that had lost all its leaves, so that the body and the trunk of the tree were as close together as possible, Ruan Qingcha actually dropped the AK in his hand. , and quickly pulled out the M72 rocket launcher that was obviously seized from the Americans from her backpack.

No slower than her, Zach also squatted down and raised the Leica camera hanging around his neck, used the viewfinder to cover Ruan Qingcha, who had removed the front and rear covers of the rocket launcher, and pressed the shutter.

"Aren't we going to stop her?" Li Youfu asked subconsciously.

"Didn't we stop the American soldiers when they killed the Viet Cong?"

As Zach pressed the shutter for the second time, he explained naturally, "The reporter's position is neutral and objective."

Hearing this, Li Youfu was silent for a moment, and also chose a position and raised his camera.

What a scholar!

Wei Ran, who had already hidden himself against the tree, cursed secretly, but without any delay, he raised his camera and pressed the shutter towards the three people.

However, although the roar of the helicopter was getting closer and closer, Ruan Qingcha was not in a hurry to take out the aluminum alloy inner barrel of the rocket launcher. He just raised his neck and waited patiently.

Soon, several Hueys flew overhead. Ruan Qingcha, who had been raising his neck, sighed helplessly and re-buckled the front and rear covers of the rocket launcher. Those helicopters flew too high. With just the rocket launcher in his hand, It's simply out of reach.

After a moment of waiting, the roar of the helicopter propeller became farther and farther away. Ruan Qingcha also put away the rocket launcher again, picked up the AK rifle at his feet and continued walking forward, but he never said anything again.

Near noon, the girl finally stopped at the foot of a rock wall that was only four or five meters high.

This rock wall is not too big, but in the middle, there is a small spring that has been gurgling out clear spring water. Even under the rock wall, a cold water pool with a diameter of only three or four meters and no more than waist deep was formed because of this trickle that continued day and night.

Standing on the edge of the water pool, Ruan Qingcha pointed at the water pool and said something, and at the same time looked at Wei Ran and the other three.

"She said the water from the spring is clean, but don't drink the water from the pool. There are many bugs in it, and there may be poisonous snakes hidden in it."

Li Youfu had just finished translating, and Ruan Qingcha had already dug out the kettle in her bag, as well as the Yuan Yue 65 kettle that Wei Ran had picked up from the banyan tree full of corpses.

"Remind her of the kettle."

Before Zach could finish his words, Li Youfu was one step ahead of him and hurriedly said something in Yuehan dialect, while pointing at Wei Ran.

Looking down at the kettle in her hand, Ruan Qingcha filled her own kettle with water as usual and stuffed it into her bag, then filled the Yue Yue 65 kettle with water, shook it vigorously, poured it away, and then started again. Jie Man straddled his shoulders and said something again.

"She said we could take a shower here, but when we were done she wanted us to stay away because she was going to take a shower too."

Before Li Youfu finished speaking, Ruan Qingcha, who was all dirty, had taken out the soap box wrapped in a towel from her bag and threw it to Wei Ran, while she walked away.

"she"

"Be prepared to run, or delay for time to call for help."

Wei Ran said it before Zach could make a judgment. However, this did not affect him at all from taking off his equipment and walking into the clear water pool. Anyway, the return mission involves taking out the prisoner of war camp. In other words, you will definitely be captured sooner or later.

Compared to Wei Ran, who was lying flat and had no wounds on his body, Zach, who had an injury on his butt, could no longer hold back. He immediately winked at Li Youfu, who immediately limped after him.

Squatting on the edge of the pool, Zach hurriedly washed the saliva on his face that had been dried countless times and the sweat stains on his upper body with soap, and then quickly ran in the direction where Li Youfu and Li Youfu disappeared, replacing the former. ,

When Li Youfu, who was also injured, hurriedly washed his upper body and picked up the camera again, Wei Ran, who was standing in the pool, leisurely walked to the edge of the spring and filled all the water bottles he had, and was extremely cautious. Each of them threw a water purification tablet into it.

Before he could wring out his clothes, Ruan Qingcha came back with Zach.

She took off her weapons and equipment and threw them to the edge of the pool. She took the soap box from Li Youfu, walked to the spring and walked behind a big rock that was enough to block her, and took off her clothes. From time to time, she would pop up and glance at the three guards, and at the same time, she would unabashedly show off the 1911 pistol she had been holding in her hand.

"She's stalling for time," Wei Ran, who was wearing only a pair of shorts and asking Li Youfu to help twist his clothes, reminded him more firmly.

"I think it's tempting us, but it must be a trap." Zach guessed with equal certainty.

"You know why and you still don't run away?" Wei Ran became increasingly helpless.

"Running in which direction?"

Zach was rarely sober, "We have no idea where her companions are hidden and how many there are, let alone which direction to go in to get out of the jungle the fastest."

Hearing this, Wei Ran sighed secretly, and he had to admit that Zach was right. If it were him, he would still have the confidence to go out, but with these two reporters who were curious and eager to commit suicide, he was not sure at all.

After waiting patiently for half an hour, Ruan Qingcha finally finished his bath and returned to the side of the pool. He sat on a large rock that was exposed to the sun and combed his hair slowly with a horn comb. He also said something in Yue difficult language.

"She asked us what we are going to do next," Li Youfu, who could hardly move his eyes, helped translate.

Wei Ran, who was watching the fun while putting on clothes that had not dried at all and could not dry, had to admit that although the girl, who had washed the stains off her face, had a very Southeast Asian look, she was not ugly. Even if measured by the standards of later generations, her skin was just a little dark at most.

Of course, it wasn't very beautiful in his opinion. After all, a certain historian's eyes have long been cultivated.

"Ms. Run, you haven't officially accepted my interview yet."

Zach was the first to express his attitude, "Besides, you look much more beautiful now than last night. Can I take a picture of you?"

After Li Youfu translated Zach's words, Ruan Qingcha rolled his eyes helplessly and responded.

"She said that she didn't kill us because we were reporters."

Li Youfu spread his hands, "And she asked us again what our next plans were. She said that if we continue to follow her, we may soon be prisoners again."

"Okay then, I just want Miss Run to answer me a question."

Zach shook his finger and said, "Why are you willing to let us go?"

After a moment, Li Youfu translated, "She said that she saw the people who were pushed out of the helicopter before it crashed. One of the sentences said that the body fell not far from them, and they noticed the body. bullet holes in it.”

After a short pause, Li Youfu exchanged a few words with Ruan Qingcha and continued to translate, "And we didn't kill her, so she also decided to let us go once before she changed her mind."

"boom!"

Before Li Youfu finished speaking, a crisp gunshot sounded in the distance!

The gunshot not only startled Zach and Li Youfu, but a look of panic immediately appeared on Ruan Qingcha's face.

Before she could pick up her weapon, there was a fierce exchange of fire from the same direction!

Just when Wei Ran subconsciously picked up her backpack and weapons and listened carefully to judge how far away the sound of the exchange of fire was from them, Ruan Qingcha had already picked up her backpack and weapons and ran towards the sound of the exchange of fire. That's the direction you're coming from!

"Quick! Let's catch up!"

Before Zach finished speaking, he had already picked up the back frame, and then he picked up Li Youfu, who was carrying the bag and weapons for him, and ran away!

What a good timer.

Wei Ran, who had just put on his equipment and was wondering whether to divide the last piece of compressed biscuit into four parts, cursed secretly, quickly picked up his backpack and weapons and chased after him. At the same time, he also secretly guessed that this time he would exchange fire with "Charlie" Yes, is it an American or a stickman?