War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1578 The Good Will of Merchants

Canary Wharf, London, England, with its tall buildings, at 19:18 a.m. local time on the th.

Today is a sunny Monday, and like every Monday, it is the start of an extremely busy day for the financial industry stationed in this neighborhood.

On the streets, the slightly congested traffic, business people holding coffee or walking hurriedly or chatting while walking, as well as the towering office buildings around, have become the most important scenery of this block.

"Crash!"

In the midst of the usual busyness, a large amount of flying papers fell from overhead, causing everyone to either stop or raise their heads subconsciously.

When everyone followed the trajectory of the flying papers in the air to find the source, they discovered that the papers came from the rooftops of two almost adjacent office buildings not far away.

"Oh! Fucked a dick!"

An elite man who was dressed in a suit and tie but could not hide the smell of Ganges curry exclaimed, "This is Mr. Edward! I know him!"

Hearing this, the people around subconsciously looked over, and then subconsciously picked up the papers on the ground, and saw the sinful photos, blood-red words, and a string of extremely vivid URLs printed on them.

"Why is Mr. Irwin here? Isn't he the president of the Louise Children's Foundation?!"

On the street, a woman in business attire screamed, and the cup of coffee worth 8 pounds in her hand fell to the street, filling the surroundings with a rich coffee aroma.

Amid more and more exclamations and phone calls, more and more papers were thrown down from the roofs of the two office buildings - just like snow.

Finally, with the wailing of sirens and the roar of news vehicles, this tragic farce reached its climax.

"Look there!"

Among the crowd of onlookers, someone exclaimed "China" and pointed to a large advertising screen hanging on the outer wall of a building not far away.

On the big screen, the naked Edward held up photos of his crimes and confessed that he had "purchased" war orphans from Mr. Ohad Mehill, the vice president of the "Mutual Aid Society", and the president, and distributed them to Europe.

At the same time, the two brothers also appeared on another screen nearby.

At this moment, they were standing on the rooftop of two office buildings on the screen, constantly dumping boxes of paper down.

In one shot, Mr. Edward is seen naked and tied to the edge of the rooftop. In another shot, the person tied up is a man who looks about 70% similar to Edward and is in his 30s or 40s.

“We were trafficked to Europe by them.”

After dumping the last box of information, the young man in the camera also stood on the edge of the rooftop, holding the rope that tied Edward and telling the only lie, "God bless us, after so many years of hard work, we finally found this bastard and got the truth out of him.

But it was too late. Our bodies could not support us in catching Mr. Ohad Mehill and the mysterious president.

Now the only thing we can do, and the last thing we can do, is to tell everyone part of the truth in this way, and trust that there are still kind and just people in this world who can find Mr. Mehill and the president of the mutual aid association. "

"besides"

On another large screen, another young man followed up and said, "According to Mr. Edward's explanation, the cargo ship that Mr. Mehill was carrying the goods on should have just docked at the port of Sete in France.

I have already obtained the telephone number of the captain of the cargo ship from Mr. Edward Jr., and we printed this information, along with the news about us a few years ago, on the papers that were thrown away.

Finally, just log in to the website on the scattered papers and enter your email address to get all the photos and evidence of Edward and his son and more demons. "

At this point, the two guys in the video looked at the entrance and exit that they had locked not far away, and said in unison, "It's time to say goodbye. Please stay away from us. We have been infected with AIDS."

Amid everyone's screams and panicked dodging, the two young men, each holding Edward or Edward's son, jumped without hesitation from the rooftops of the two office buildings, from the rooftops of Edward and his son's respective company offices!

"Oh!"

With the first sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, the roof of a police car that had just arrived was smashed.

"Oh!"

In the chaos, two more figures fell to the ground almost at the same time, crashing onto the street littered with evidence of crimes.

"finished?"

Kazan, on the shore of Lake Kaban, Wei Ran, who was taking his dog Beria to fish by the lake to relax, sighed and asked.

Originally, he didn't want to throw out Edward's evidence in this way.

But the brothers who were infected with AIDS and had made up their minds to die, expressed through Hela that they wanted their death to be more sensational and that they wanted more people to know what happened to them.

"It has ended"

Anfia, who was sitting next to him, turned off her phone and said, "All our people have been evacuated safely. The holiday estate was also burned down after being cleaned up. There were only traces of the brothers inside."

“The big screens in the video just now”

"He used Mr. Edward's email to arrange for his driver rental."

Anfia didn't wait for Wei Ran to finish his question before explaining, "The driver also released the video under our surveillance."

"Where is the driver?" Wei Ran continued to ask.

"Killed by Edward's daughter"

Anfia knew exactly what Wei Ran wanted to hear. "He was also a participant in the human trade. He personally drove the children to his clients."

Seeing Wei Ran looking at her, Anfia spread her hands and said, "Edward's only daughter has a long history of drug abuse. She took drugs when she killed the driver, and then committed suicide out of fear of the crime."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true," Anfia spread her hands, "Those photos flying all over the sky were enough to be the straw that broke the camel's back."

"Where is her child?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"The child is less than five years old. If nothing goes wrong, someone will adopt her. Do we need to kill her?" Anfia asked in the same casual tone.

"Forget it," Wei Ran waved his hand, "Do you have anything else to talk to me about?"

"Mr. Culp is here"

Anfia pointed to the courtyard wall behind her and said, "Sister Aurora asked me to call you back to visit the winery next door."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Ran quickly stood up, picked up the fishing box and the Air Force's special fishing rod, called his dog Belia and walked back.

When I jogged back home, Sui Sui was already sitting on the sofa in the living room on the first floor with Karp and a woman in formal attire whom I had never seen before.

"You are finally here. Let me introduce you. This is Mrs. Tkach from the City Asset Management Committee."

When Karp saw Wei Ran coming in, he immediately introduced him enthusiastically, "He is the young historian Victor."

"Hello, Mr. Victor, I heard about your recent experience."

Mrs. Tkach was exceptionally kind and enthusiastic. While giving Wei Ran a Russian kiss on the cheek, she also expressed the care and blessings of the "common Russian people" to him as a "Chinese student studying abroad."

After some greetings and getting to know each other, Kalp took the initiative to suggest a tour of the winery next door.

Everyone came here for this purpose, so naturally they had no objections and they all stood up and walked outside.

"Have you found out the details?"

Wei Ran deliberately lagged behind and approached Sui Sui and whispered in his native language, "How much is it?"

"So many." Sui Sui stretched out four fingers and gestured.

"How many zeros are there at the end?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"The initial offer is 400 million rubles." Sui Sui whispered in Wei Ran's ear.

Before he could speak, the girl continued, "But in fact, we only need to pay 100 million rubles."

"What do you mean?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice while calculating the exchange rate.

"Half of the 4 million is maintenance deposit, which needs to be used to repair the ancient building."

Sui Sui explained, "So even though we still have to spend money, it will all be spent on that winery. In the end, it's still ours, and there's a lot of room for maneuver."

"The other two."

"The down payment is 100 million rubles, and the remaining 100 million can be paid off in three years."

Sui Sui whispered, "To be honest, this price is lower than I expected. And from what Mrs. Tkach said, it seems there's still room for negotiation."

"so."

“The authorities also seem to be showing goodwill.”

Sui Sui made a judgment in a low voice, "And Anfisa just shared a piece of news with me."

"What news?" Wei Ran also lowered his voice.

This time, Sui Sui almost stood on tiptoe and whispered into Wei Ran's ear, "It seems that the authorities took advantage of the last incident to reap some benefits and appointed and dismissed quite a few people. I'm talking about the Russian Federation, not just Kazan."

“But is it really necessary to buy the winery next door?”

Wei Ran gestured with his hand and asked in a low voice, "How much profit can I get from investing 4 million?"

"Don't expect that shabby house next door to make back that money."

Sui Sui said very clearly, "But in other aspects, we might be able to earn it back ten or a hundred times."

"Tell me in detail," Wei Ran asked curiously.

"That's a ticket," Sui Sui said with confidence, "our business will get bigger and bigger in the future."

Without waiting for Sui Sui to explain in detail, the group walked to the yard of the library next door, got into an ordinary inconspicuous car, and Kalp drove it himself to the gate of the winery.

Unlike the former "Lake Caban Candy Company" and the workshop converted into a library, this distillery, which has existed since the late 18th century, did not have its gate on the side facing Lake Caban, but on the other side in the opposite direction.

The road in this direction is relatively wider. Not only does this street have two tram tracks, but there is also a bus stop on the side of the winery entrance.

To describe it another way, this bus stop is located outside the wall of the alley between Wei Ran's villa and the winery.

On one side of the alley is the villa that Teacher Daria gave to Wei Ran, and on the other side is a workshop with a very Soviet Russian style.

From the outside, this workshop has two floors and is built entirely with standard red bricks from the Tsarist era. A row of fireplace chimneys can be seen on the roof.

If you just describe it this way, the building is pretty, but in fact, it is surrounded by a circle of scaffolding. Just looking at the tattered green nets on the scaffolding, you can tell that the construction here has probably been stagnant for quite a long time.

Because of this, they could clearly see without getting out of the car that although the windows in the tattered green net facing the street had been renovated, the windows on the sides were much more makeshift. Some were simply blocked with red bricks with color differences, or simply nailed up with wooden boards and waterproof nylon cloth.

"This workshop once produced artillery shells during World War II"

Mrs. Tkach gestured for Wei Ran to park the car temporarily at the gate on the other side of the workshop while introducing, "It actually belonged to the steel plant next door. You transformed it into a library. At that time, your villa was the cargo yard of the steel plant."

At this point, Mrs. Tkach pointed to the two-story building on the other side of the gate and said, "This was also a workshop for producing artillery shells during World War II. After the war, the workshop was allocated to the brewery, half of it was demolished and turned into a workers' square, and the remaining half facing the street was converted into a warehouse.

Later, when the Soviet Union collapsed, we converted it into an office building and rented it out to raise funds for its renovation.”

“Is this place still available for rent?”

Sui Sui, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked curiously. They rarely came to this slightly old street, so naturally they didn't know much about the situation here.

"Only some official departments are still renting here. If you are willing to buy this place, they will be very happy to move to the new office space." Mrs. Tkach explained with a smile, "Okay, drive forward. I will show you around from the outside first, and then we will go in from the other side."

Hearing this, Wei Ran drove the car forward a few dozen meters. Mrs. Tkach pointed to a taller two-story building next to it and introduced it, "Since the Tsarist era, this has been the exhibition store of this winery.

During the Soviet era, this place became a state-owned store. During the war years, it was used as an artillery warehouse for a long time. When the war ended, it became a state-owned store again.

Mrs. Tkach said with emotion, "Vodka and artillery shells were produced here, both of which were of great help to the front line.

Well, Mr. Victor, keep going."

Hearing this, Wei Ran drove forward a few dozen meters again. Tekach pointed out a red brick gatehouse surrounded by a tin wall and a three-story church-like building next to it, and introduced them in detail, "What's blocked is the main entrance of the store and the winery. When it was still in operation, the workers went in and out from here to get off work."

"What about that building?"

Sui Sui asked curiously, looking at the three-story building on the other side of the main entrance. Just now, when she looked all the way here, whether it was the artillery workshop or the former state-owned store, or the nearest church-like building, no matter what kind of paint was applied on the outside, they were all red brick buildings, and they were all decorated only on the side facing the street, or painted to cover their appearance.

Especially for this church-like building, its doors and windows on the first floor were all walled up, and the windows above the first floor were all covered with thick white curtains. It was obvious that the situation inside the curtains was not optimistic.

“There was originally a church there.”

Mrs. Tkach explained, “But as you can probably guess, it’s not appropriate for a church to be next to a winery, or vice versa.”

"Are you worried that God will drink secretly?" Wei Ran asked in a joking tone.

"Who knows?"

Mrs. Tkach lowered the car window. "Anyway, this church became the winery's office shortly after it was built. During the Soviet era, dances were often held on the first floor of this building."

“I have an impression”

Culp laughed and said, "There are dances every weekend, with free alcohol and candy provided by the company next door, but only workers over 18 years old can participate."

“It is true”

Mrs. Tkach pointed to the tram tracks on the road outside the window. "There is a tram station here for this purpose. It is right next to the shell production workshop we just saw."

“Alcohol and candy stations, and extended runs on off days.”

Karp looked out the window and muttered to himself, "It used to be privately called the alcohol and candy station by the workers."

"No one remembers this name anymore," sighed Mrs. Tkach.

“It sounds strangely romantic.”

Sui Sui, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked at the buildings outside the window and asked, "Is the main workshop of the winery behind them?"

"That's right"

Mrs. Tkach nodded. "The main workshop of the winery is behind the main entrance and the church-like building. Mr. Victor, please continue driving forward and drive to the parking lot next to it."

Hearing this, Wei Ran slowly stepped on the accelerator and drove to the parking lot on the other side of the church-like building.

There is not only a parking lot here, but also a car wash with water stains all over the floor and a greasy auto repair shop.

Standing in front of these two shops, you can clearly see the red brick building behind the church, which is four or five stories high and has two tall towers.

Perhaps it was really due to lack of funds. Not only has the exterior of this red brick building not been repainted, but even a considerable portion of its roof and exterior walls have collapsed. Looking through the remaining windows on the walls that barely survived the collapse, one can directly see the blue sky, white clouds and pigeons flying around.

The remaining part that has not collapsed is not in much better condition. The colored steel tiles used to temporarily cover it are either incomplete or rusty and crumbling.

  Just like the Soviet building in Red Alert that was stabbed by ten Prism Tanks but did not explode!

This may be the most appropriate description that popped into Wei Ran's mind after hesitating for a long time.

Is this piece of junk worth so much money?

A historian couldn't help but mutter, he felt more and more that this was a trap, a trap designed to trap the scapegoat. However, looking at Sui Sui's increasingly satisfied expression, it seemed that she was determined to be the scapegoat.

"Come with me"

Just as he pushed the door open and got out of the car, staring at the dilapidated building in a daze, Mrs. Tkach had already used her key to open a rusty iron gate at the end of the parking lot.

At the same time, she also explained, “The row of houses where the car wash and auto repair shop are located is also part of the winery and was built during the Khrushchev era.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we rented out that row of houses and converted half of the vacant land into a paid parking lot.

“It’s also for.”

"Yes," Tkach nodded with a sigh.

"What was this place used for before?" Sui Sui asked a different question.

“When this place was still in operation, the brewing materials of the winery were transported here for a series of pre-processing such as drying and cleaning.

Of course, the winery’s transport trucks are also parked here, and the auto repair shop was originally built to repair the winery’s trucks.”

As Mrs. Tkach spoke, she finally unlocked the padlock of the iron gate and warmly invited them to pass through the iron gate and into a wasteland covered with weeds and occasional puddles of water.

Standing here, they can see the dilapidated core building of the winery more clearly, and can also see a pile of rusty steel structures under a tattered iron shed not far away.

“That’s the brewing equipment of this winery.”

Mrs. Tkach pointed to the pile of junk and explained, “After the roof collapsed about twenty years ago, the antique equipment was salvaged and put into storage in that building.”

  It collapsed 20 years ago

Wei Ran twitched his lips. The roof collapsed twenty years ago, but it was a miracle that the building did not collapse. It has been twenty years since the roof was repaired, which is also a living miracle!

Seeing that Sui Sui and Wei Ran were silent, Mrs. Tkach couldn't help but get a little nervous. She quickly asked them to walk along a stone-paved path towards the building that might collapse at any second, while explaining, "We originally planned to transform this place into a lakeside park, but because the main building of the winery is in danger of collapse at any time, we can only leave it abandoned like this."

"Are you actually waiting for the building to collapse on its own?" Su Su asked bluntly.

"Although I don't want to admit it, it's true."

Mrs. Tkach confirmed Sui Sui's guess with a bit of helplessness, "It would be a huge expense to maintain this place properly, and it is an investment that is doomed to never recover the cost. In contrast, it would be much more cost-effective to wait for this place to become a ruin, then sell it and build a new building..."

Needless to say, Wei Ran and the others had already guessed the rest. Unless the government had too much money and had nowhere to spend it, it would be impossible to invest here, especially since this was not the center of the city.

After Sui Sui was frightened several times by wild cats that appeared out of nowhere, Mrs. Tkach finally led them around the wall next to the lakeside highway and to the other side of the dangerous building.

There is a parking lot about 50 meters square here, and there is a bronze statue in the middle.

The bronze statue depicts a worker facing the direction of Lake Kaban, standing on a horizontal cannonball, holding a wine glass in his hand, with a bright smile on his face, as if he is giving a toast.

Compared to this statue, apart from a few private cars, most of the cars parked here are engineering vehicles such as snowplows, cranes, tow trucks, and even garbage trucks.

There is no need to ask, they must be making money by renting out this parking lot.

As for the tall building with a high tower, it was surrounded tightly by barbed wire with danger signs, leaving no entrance or exit for people to enter or exit.

“I am very satisfied with everything here”

After just a symbolic look, Sui Sui said cheerfully, "Mrs. Tkach, maybe we can discuss the details of the transaction in more detail."

"Have you decided to buy this place?"

Mrs. Tkach asked in surprise. Apparently, even she hadn't expected that this deal was even possible.

Otherwise, there might not be just her, or at least not just her, coming to show them around.

"Of course, and I will definitely restore this place to its original state."

Susu's confidence even moved Mrs. Tkach, who had never mentioned that her grandfather and father had both worked in this winery.

Knowing that what happened next would probably have nothing to do with him, Wei Ran followed behind Sui Sui obediently, working hard as a driver, taking everyone for a ride and returning to his home next door.

Without even waiting for the negotiations to begin, Kalp, who was helping with the matchmaking, took his leave first. Wei Ran, knowing that he could not help, took the tablet computer that Anfia handed to him and leisurely went upstairs.

From the time Anfia called him back till now, it has been less than two hours in total.

But in less than two hours, the evidence that was scattered along with the murder of Edward and his son caused an uproar.

First, at the French port of Sete, a French-registered cargo ship that had just arrived was restricted from leaving the port. The local police were also more efficient than the average French police in responding to calls. They controlled the captain of the cargo ship and rescued more than a hundred children from refugee camps on the Gaza and Syria-Jordan border who had not yet been killed. They also seized a batch of goods that were about to be loaded onto a ship for shipment to Yisile.

Without continuing to browse the rest of the news, Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief. At this juncture, it was almost certain that even if the president of the mutual aid association affiliated with the 269th Unit was not silenced, he would most likely disappear for a while.

As for the soap factory, they certainly didn't want Mehill to show up at this time, and they could probably guess that Mehill must be in the hands of a historian, and might even suspect that Edward's death was related to him.

  But so what?

Wei Ran glanced nonchalantly at the two tall towers belonging to the winery outside the floor-to-ceiling window. At this critical juncture, even if the soap factory knew all this, their only choice was to keep it secret.

There are only two ways to keep it secret: either kill Wei Ran and Mesir, or maintain a certain degree of tacit understanding with him to compromise with each other and keep it secret.

Just at this time, Anfia, who was busy helping Sui Sui negotiate, also took the time to send an email to Wei Ran.

He took out the authenticator calmly and logged into his email. When Wei Ran saw the screenshot in the email, a smile appeared on his face.

This screenshot of the email is an email received in Mehill's mailbox, and the sender is the "president" of the mutual aid association.

As for the content, it was also quite simple, with only one PY trade request repeated in French, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese: "How about killing him and then we make peace?"

“Show him the email.”

Wei Ran, who had been waiting for a trade request these days, immediately tapped on the screen and wrote a reply to Anfia, "Then hide him in a place I don't even know."

After clicking send, Wei Ran immediately unplugged the authenticator. The so-called "place I don't even know" in the reply email just now naturally referred to the Camp 52 that Hela bought through the small holding company.

As for whether or not to trade with the person who sent the email, Wei Ran is not stupid, so of course he wouldn't do that.

If he really killed Messer, wouldn't it be like being cheated out of a royal flush by his opponent using a 3 of diamonds at the poker table? He would never do such a stupid thing.

Not only that, he even vaguely felt that even the email received in Mehill's mailbox might be a false goodwill implicitly released by Soap Bar.

  No, definitely!

Wei Ran shuddered, the other party was forcing him to "initiate a transaction"!

Simply put, regardless of whether Edward's death was related to him as a historian, it is an indisputable fact that the value of Mehill, who is now being sought by the whole world, has increased.

It is a fact that the Soaps cannot kill Wei Ran, let alone kill or even find Meshil.

In this case, the lowest-cost way is to show goodwill by giving up Mehill and at the same time implicitly remind them that they have already guessed who has Mehill.

The reason for doing so is that Messer cannot live forever, but people will eventually forget history.

Those soap bars were betting that Wei Ran would not easily throw away the trump card in his hand.

  In other words, if you can't throw out a trump card, or you're reluctant to throw it out, is it still a trump card?

Let's go for a walk first, the game has just begun...

Wei Ran muttered incoherently that if he didn't have Hela, then everything would be hard to say.

If the Soap Factory knew that he had a network thug-like organization like Hela, they probably would never initiate the transaction in this way.

That evening, after a long and short day of negotiations, Sui Sui quickly reached an acquisition agreement with the officials, and rarely asked for a discount of even a single ruble.

Before the relevant departments got off work, the girl anxiously signed her name on the acquisition agreement and transferred a down payment of 100 million rubles on the spot.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if it was planned in advance, but just as Sui Sui sent away Tkach and her colleagues and leaders who rushed over after hearing the news, another piece of news was pushed to her and Wei Ran’s mobile phones by Anfisa.

There is only one piece of content in this news - the foreign terrorists who tried to kidnap Chinese students studying in Russia will be sent to the Black Dolphin Prison to serve their sentences after trial. Among the 13 terrorists, the one with the longest sentence was sentenced to 111 years and 11 months, and the one who will be released the fastest will only need to live in the Black Dolphin for a mere 88 years and 8 months before he can regain his freedom.

"I hope the soap factory is still there when you get out of prison"

Wei Ran muttered something unclearly. At this moment, he was extremely sure that the Russian officials and the "Russian girl" Aurora were indeed tacitly showing goodwill to each other.

(End of this chapter)