War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1565: The Disappearing Historian

On a relatively flat country road outside Graz, a Pinzgauer SUV with a temporary license plate was pulling four tipsy men towards the mountains, with the aroma of cigar smoke and the mellow fragrance of Hedgerow red wine wafting in the air.

During the casual chat along the way, Wei Ran, who was holding half a bottle of red wine in his hand, also learned some miscellaneous information.

For example, Hanward and Aladdin have just finished humanitarian rescue work in the Beirut port explosion and are currently on vacation and recuperating.

For example, the parents of Edelweiss and his brother Kurt died several years ago.

Today, Kurt, his wife, and their grandchildren still live on the farm, while his gun company and trading company are left to his two poor sons.

“It’s our turn to ask you.”

Aladdin clinked the wine bottle with Wei Ran's and asked, "How did you find us?"

"Ambulance"

Wei Ran patted the armrest of the seat gently, "There are also Doctors Without Borders and 6X6 Pinzgauer ambulance. These keywords are enough to define a very small search area.

In addition, I happen to have a friend who runs a mine clearance company, and they happened to be doing humanitarian relief in Beirut recently.

I asked my friends to ask their employees if they had seen targets that matched the above keywords. Apparently, I was lucky. ”

At this point, Wei Ran raised his wine bottle again and clinked it with the three old men. "As for how I found the car modification factory, I'm sorry, this is a trade secret."

What he just said was all true. After he gave some key information, Anfia had already "followed the clues" and found a lot of things. She even helped Kurt's personal computer upgrade the firewall and cleaned up some backdoors.

"About ten years ago, we stopped painting the Doctors Without Borders logo on our ambulances, but I didn't expect it to still be noticed," Aladdin said with a hint of helplessness.

"Why?" Now it was Wei Ran who didn't understand.

“Two reasons”

"First, the warty ones who should be made into soap," Kurt explained. "They have been hunting the humanitarian aid forces in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Crescent, the Red Cross, international doctors, journalists, all of which attract their attention."

"What's the second reason?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

"Doctors Without Borders is a non-profit public welfare organization"

Kurt went on to explain, “MSF’s only position is neutrality, but there are always people who want them to take sides, which can cause unnecessary hostility.”

"Victor, which mine-clearance company did you just mention?" Hanward immediately changed the subject, making it clear that he didn't want to talk more about their work.

"Dongfeng, Dongfeng Mine Clearance Company."

Wei Ran smiled and replied, "The owner of that company is a Vietnamese American named Charlie."

"I have some impression of that mine clearance company"

Aladdin said, "They rented a transport plane not long ago to deliver a lot of relief supplies, including a lot of urgently needed medical supplies. Those medicines and tents were of great help."

"That transport plane belongs to my girlfriend"

Wei Ran pretended to be proud and said, "Those medical supplies were also donated by her and her friends."

"gollum"

The three old men in the car swallowed their saliva in unison, and Kurt asked inexplicably, "Which girlfriend of yours?"

"Pfft! Cough cough cough!"

Wei Ran, who was choked by the red wine, pounded his chest and coughed repeatedly. Aladdin, who was sitting next to him, kindly patted his back and said with great certainty, "Of course it must be that French rich woman."

“What an enviable young man”

Hanwad gave a thumbs up and said, "If I had so many girls around me, Dalal would probably kill me."

"Dalal?"

Wei Ran, who was about to explain something, was stunned for a moment, wiped the corner of his mouth and asked curiously, "Is it the Dalal in your previous story? Is she your wife now?"

"Yes! She is my wife."

Hanward said with a smile, "We have four children, and the youngest is about to graduate from college."

“Is she also Doctors Without Borders?”

Wei Ran asked knowingly, he really didn't know before that the two of them were married. Out of respect, he didn't ask too much about the private lives of these three old men.

Perhaps out of protection for their families, they did not mention their families in too much detail during the previous chat.

Even Hanward's self-mockery just now could only be considered a slip of the tongue at best.

"That's right"

Hanward nodded. "But she is mainly doing clerical work now. More than ten years ago, a shell exploded on her chair and injured her legs, leaving her disabled. She is no longer suitable for frontline work."

Wei Ran didn't plan to continue asking and took a sip of red wine. "I don't even know if this is lucky or unlucky."

"I don't know either," Hanward sighed and took a big sip of red wine. "Let's talk about something else."

Aladdin snapped his fingers and asked the question that Wei Ran had not answered just now, "So which girlfriend of yours is it?"

"Are those pretty girls really your girlfriends?"

Kurt followed up with a question that was so explosive that the young man who was driving subconsciously turned around to look at Wei Ran.

Wei Ran, who had already drunk half a bottle of red wine and was busy trying to prove his innocence but no one believed him at all, didn't know this.

Just as they were leaving the auto repair shop in a car, a middle-aged woman with an ordinary appearance, behind the second-floor window of a pub opposite the auto repair shop, was sending the photos she had just taken secretly to her employer via email.

Almost at the same time when the middle-aged woman received a bank transfer worth 500 euros, the off-road vehicle carrying Wei Ran and others drove into a farm that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

"That's where my sister Clara is buried."

After taking Wei Ran to meet his wife and grandchildren, Kurt led him to the highest point of the ranch and finally stopped under a tall and lush cedar tree.

Looking in the direction of Kurt's finger, around the tree, there was a large patch of Edelweiss that had already passed its flowering period.

In the middle of this overly lush field of Edelweiss, there are two tombstones, one large and one small.

On the larger tombstone, you can vaguely see a photo inlaid with edelweiss. In addition to the name Clara Holler, there is a short epitaph: Here sleeps a little angel who is having a nightmare.

Look at the smaller tombstone next to it, on which is a photo of a St. Bernard and the words "Here is a loyal dog named Adolf, who has been protecting his little master."

"I"

Wei Ran paused, turned his head and looked at Kurt, Hanward and Aladdin who came with him, "Can I stay here for a while?"

Kurt was stunned for a moment, then nodded, pointed to the wooden house in the distance and said, "Of course, we'll wait for you there."

"Okay." Wei Ran nodded, watched the three old men walk towards the wooden house together, and then watched them go in.

With a silent sigh, Wei Ran took out the portable wine flask from the metal book through the cover of his jacket pocket. He unscrewed the lid and slowly poured the remaining half of the wine into the edelweiss in front of the tombstone.

“We agreed to have a drink.”

Wei Ran sighed almost numbly in his heart, put the empty wine jug into his pocket, looked up at the unreachable snow-capped mountains in the distance, turned around and walked towards the wooden house at the foot of the mountain.

On this sunny afternoon, he was also entertained by the Kurt family and was invited to stay.

"The graves of Yashar's parents are in Limassol, Cyprus"

On the wooden terrace shrouded in the sunset, Kurt held a glass of home-brewed beer and said, "My trading company's headquarters and my son who helps me manage the trading company are also there. If you plan to visit the graves of Yashar's parents, you can contact my eldest son Ed when you get there. I just gave you his contact information."

"Mr. Victor"

Aladdin, who was sitting on another recliner, looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance through a telescope and asked nonchalantly, "Can you really find the missing photo negatives? Those bastards have been looking for them for almost forty years and still can't find them."

“It should be fine.”

Wei Ran, who was also lying on a recliner digesting his food, looked around and answered in the same nonchalant tone, "But I need some time. Of course, not 40 years, 4 months, how about 4 months at most?"

“We are not in a hurry”

Hanward said indifferently, "It doesn't matter whether it's four months or four years, as long as you find those photos before the Yishelie people find them. During this period, if you need our help, you can always ask."

"If you need me, I won't be polite." Wei Ran gave an ambiguous response with a smile.

The topic of photo negatives came to an end. The three old men, who seemed to be still a little wary of Wei Ran, once again turned the topic to the beautiful girls around Wei Ran - for them, this was a safe enough option for small talk that could last for a long time.

As night fell, Wei Ran returned to his room early on the pretext of being drunk. He pulled the curtains, checked the room carefully, and then took a quick shower.

He laid on the bed and covered himself with a blanket, then took out a flashlight and shone a beam of light. Then he took out the metal notebook and turned to the latest page.

The countdown behind the address written on this page has disappeared. Turning to the back, the countdown on the white vortex has also disappeared.

Not only that, there is also a blue vortex below the white vortex.

"Mr. Veterinarian, Mr. Dongfeng, thank you for lighting the fire for us."

Wei Ran muttered to himself the problem beneath the blue vortex, and a hint of powerless relief gradually emerged on his face, which hid so much despair, pain and numbness - he could not change anything.

After taking a long breath, Wei Ran, who was covered tightly with a blanket, slowly reached his hand into the white vortex.

He wanted to see what new tricks were waiting for him in this pattern that had never appeared before.

However, almost at the moment when his fingertips touched the white vortex, the expression on his face changed from indifference at the beginning to astonishment, and then to dullness, ecstasy, excitement, and he even shed unstoppable tears of excitement.

At the moment when he was almost impatient to make a decision, everything in his field of vision was once again swallowed up by the thick white light, but this time, everything disappeared except the flashlight that emitted the beam of light.

  and also

Well-known historian, Wei Ran!

Sorry for the late update.