War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1713 Before and After
On the day when wrestlers Miguel and Juliano and their families visited, Wei Ran, together with Jima and Maya who happened to be guests, and Greva, who was also a gang member, warmly entertained the guests from Spain.

It was obvious that these people who came from the same gang had more topics to talk about, especially when Greva and Dima took them to the sauna villa, these people had already begun to enthusiastically call each other brothers.

As a star, Maya, escorted by Baba Yaga's pink little sisters, took Miguel and Juliano's wives and children to start a check-in tour in the city of Kazan.

With such warm hospitality, Giuliano and Greva even reached some cooperation intentions between gangs.

Not only that, Miguel is even discussing making two movies with Jima, one about Spanish wrestlers, and one about Romanian gangs - based on him and Giuliano.

Although the decision-making power on this matter did not lie with Jima at all, both he and Greva were particularly confident and interested in this matter.

In comparison, it was Wei Ran, the "scholar", who seemed somewhat "out of place" among them.

Needless to say, the result was that on the very next day, Jima and Maya became the main force in entertaining the two Spanish friends and placed them in a studio outside the city.

As the house was quiet and most of the things at hand had been dealt with, Wei Ran hid in the basement of the library and locked the heavy explosion-proof door.

Taking a deep breath, he took out the metal book and opened it, pressing his hand on the page with the outline of white edelweiss. In the strong white light, he entered the farm in Clara's dream for the third time.

"You are late today"

When the white light faded, Wei Ran sat on the sofa beside the table again, and heard Clara's voice at the same time.

“I’m really late”

Wei Ran nodded, quickly picked up the suitcase beside him, and took out some Russian delicacies that he had put in it in advance.

"Are you going to the war again?" Edelweiss asked, handing over a glass of red wine.

"I went to Leningrad and I went to Afkhan."

Wei Ran took the red wine and clinked it with the other person. He tiredly told the only person he could confide in about those experiences that he could only tell her about, and about every person he met in those dreams.

As the hands on the dial ticked tirelessly, time passed by minute by minute, consuming the precious 12 hours.

At the same time, outside the dream.

The Hela organization hidden in the dark also began to exert its strength, and through various means revealed more explosive news related to the floating corpse of Zhaohe, as well as detailed information on the various monsters that jumped out after the disappearance of Ms. Nale.

In this premeditated diversion of misfortune, the fragments of information hidden in Ms. Naile also brought a devastating disaster to some semi-official organizations in Zhaohe.

On the same day, Sui Sui, who was busy entertaining friends in Inta and filming a movie, finally learned about the news about the comic submissions shortly after she got up, and noticed the reward amount for the competition.

Turning her head to look at the Kajianka sisters who had also finished their breakfast across from her, Sui Sui took a deep breath as if nothing had happened and said, "Let's go, we should go check out the recruitment of extras."

"Sister Aurora, aren't you curious?" Anfisa asked after a moment of silence.

"Not curious"

Sui Sui thought about it and answered confidently, "It must be his scumbag friends who did it. If he doesn't want me to know, then I don't know."

"You are so easy to talk to"

Anfia couldn't help but say that it was purely accidental that Sui Sui saw the news, but her attitude surprised the two sisters even more.

“This is not easy to talk about”

Sui Sui patted Anfia's shoulder and said, "This is called trust."

"Is this trust?" Anfisa couldn't help but ask.

“Of course it’s trust”

Sui Sui stood up and walked out while talking to herself, "I'm afraid of earthworms. I've been afraid of those disgusting little bugs since I was a child, so when I encounter earthworms, he will hide it from me, even if I accidentally step on an earthworm."

At this point, Sui Sui turned around and smiled brightly, "I guess there must be earthworms in that writing competition, so I'd better pretend that I don't know. If I'm scared, he will definitely be worried too."

"You two are so in sync," the Kajianka sisters said in unison.

“You two are very compatible.”

As Sui Sui spoke, she had already put on the polar cold weather suit handed to her by Anfisa. "Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. What's our schedule for today?"

“Go to several local schools to select and interview the young actors for The Last Line of Defense”

Anfisa handed over the scarf and replied, "We will also talk to the local education department this afternoon about the plan to offer Chinese courses in local schools."

"Where are Makar and the others?" Susu asked as she took the scarf.

"They took a plane to chase the aurora last night and are now resting in the hot spring camp."

"In that case, let's just ignore them. Let's buy some cakes as gifts on the way," Sui Sui said. "Remember to ask Misha to help prepare some more tropical fruits that the children like. Wash them in advance, cut them into pieces, and put them in boxes."

"I'm ready," Anfisa replied while making eye contact with her sister.

Amidst their own busy lives, Sui Sui completed a whole day's work, and Wei Ran also returned to this familiar and desperate world around nine o'clock in the evening with Edelweiss Clara's kiss goodbye.

In the last few days before the Catholic Christmas, Wei Ran ordered those unreliable but diligent pink little girls to clean and decorate the villa and the library next door. He even built a few large snowmen in the yard and used ice cut from Lake Kaban to build a beautiful dome-shaped ice house.

While he was decorating the house for the New Year's Eve, Miguel and Giuliano from Spain, along with their families, bid farewell to Wei Ran and Greva, who had become their friends, as well as the movie stars Jima and his wife, and boarded a flight to Spain.

On the same day, Dima also took his parents and Maya, as well as Karp, Apoli, and Lyubov who was going to visit her brother, and flew to Volgograd on a private plane.

On December 12, Susu finally returned from Inta with her followers, as well as the families of Makar and Diego.

Only half a day late, Professor Alexei and his aunt or mother-in-law, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, also rushed to Kazan from Murmansk.

For a moment, the yard, which had been quiet for just a few days, became extremely lively again.

'It's incredible'

Professor Alexi leaned against the car window and said with tears in his eyes, "My daughter actually bought me a brewery! God bless me, my daughter bought me a brewery! And you, Victor, what gift have you prepared for me?"

"I've prepared the latest alcohol tester for you"

Wei Ran, who had just personally driven them back from the airport, reminded helplessly, "This brewery is still a construction site."

"Stop talking nonsense, get out of the car and take a picture for me. I want to send it to my friends!"

As he spoke, Professor Alexi, with a rosy face, pushed open the heavy car door and stood in front of the remaining statues in the winery, asking Wei Ran to take a few photos for him.

“I’m going to have a drink today.”

Professor Alexi said to Wei Ran while sending the photos he had just taken to a group chat, "So you better help me find a suitable reason, otherwise I will not marry my precious daughter to you."

"Aunt, professor, no, uncle said he wants to drink, a bottle." Wei Ran shouted directly.

"Drink, whatever he wants."

My aunt, who was sitting in the car, laughed and scolded, "Hurry up and get in the car. It's the last few steps. I don't want to walk over there."

"It's done"

Wei Ran winked at Professor Alexi and said.

"I decided to stay a few more days," said the professor, and he quickly got into the carriage.

Driving the car through the construction site and directly into the yard, Sui Sui immediately opened the car door and jumped out first, calling the old couple to go inside.

Perhaps out of their absolute trust in their daughter or Wei Ran, both Aunt Zhou Shujin and Professor Alexi were particularly enthusiastic towards the large group of young girls who came out to greet them. They even prepared gifts for the little girls of Baba Yaga, as well as Makar and Diego who came to visit.

Just as Wei Ran and Sui Sui were busy entertaining family and friends, in a building in a city far away in the United States, the monitoring of Marcal, his wife, and Diego's family's cell phones was suspended.

"Based on the monitoring results of these days, there is no evidence that the Makar family is preparing to escape, there is no evidence to prove that the Chinese man is related to the accident of Ji Fu, and no keywords that may indicate the woman's survival were monitored." In the office, a woman in formal clothes read out the script.

“It really seems to be an accident.”

The man behind the desk waved his hand, "The Makar family is no longer valuable."

"Do you want to erase it?" asked the woman in formal attire.

"Don't cause yourself any trouble. Stop monitoring their family. Since they are willing to move to Australia, it will save us some money."

"Why don't you kill them?" the woman in formal clothes asked unwillingly.

"are you an idiot?"

The man behind the desk asked, "What if, I mean, that man is still alive? Even if he's dead, what if he still has friends alive? Have you forgotten about that scary poison?"

"The Soviet Union no longer exists," the woman in formal attire said noncommittally.

"If the Soviet Union was still around, those mad dogs would at least have a rope around their necks."

The man behind the desk snorted, “The trouble is that the Soviet Union is gone, so I wouldn’t be surprised at anything they do.

In order to avoid being hung on the streetlight outside our house tomorrow morning, let's keep some dignity for each other. It would be best if that ignorant Makar is willing to leave the United States, and this matter can end here."

"I understand"

The woman in formalwear nodded and said, "Next."

"Next, let's find out when that German woman came to recruit nuclear weapons!"

The man behind the desk said irritably, "This is the most important thing. We need to investigate carefully to find out who that stupid woman sold the missing sensitive information to. Oh, and where are her family members?"

"She has been silenced by her employer," said the woman in formal attire.

"Keep investigating. This will be the most important thing this year, or perhaps next year. Assign more people to look for the biological data and keep a close eye on the dark web and the international black market. Once the data appears, clean it up immediately."

"I'll arrange it right away." Before she finished speaking, the woman in formal attire immediately turned around and left the office.

"The monitoring software on their phones seems to have been cleared," Anfia said while typing on the keyboard in the basement of the library.

"Can we invade them?" Anfisa asked.

"difficult"

Anfia shook her head. "The other party will definitely not make such a stupid mistake. If we invade rashly, we might be suspected."

"In that case, let's go have a drink too."

Anfisa stood up and said expectantly, "I went to Jima's house this afternoon and got another piglet. We will definitely succeed this time!"

"Should we just forget about it?"

Anfia said with a bitter face, "I don't want to try the burnt pig skin."

“It was just a mistake last time”

As she spoke, Anfisa had already picked up some canned vegetables and left the basement in high spirits.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

During the last few days of the year, with the addition of Sui Sui's parents, Chinese cuisine has become a permanent guest on the table.

As expected, Professor Alexi also took a fancy to the flag that Wei Ran brought back from Spain not long ago.

In order to get rid of this drunkard who was both his teacher and father-in-law, Wei Ran could only give him the set of Berlin Guard of Honor that he had received before as a gift.

This gift obviously made Professor Alexei extremely satisfied. As for Wei Ran, he really didn't care about him much. That thing was simply a trouble to him.

Time flies and it is the second day of the new year. My aunt drags Professor Alexi, who has fallen in love with tequila, to Murmans in a hurry. The families of Makar and Diego also say goodbye and leave on the same day, preparing to return to the United States to complete the business transaction as soon as possible.

After seeing off her family and friends, Sui Sui leaned tiredly on Wei Ran, "I'm about to enter a period of social burnout. Why am I so exhausted at the end of the year?"

"How many waves of people have come here?"

Wei Ran yawned as he spoke, "Now it's finally quiet, what are your plans for today?"

"Go to sleep. I want to go back and have a good sleep first." Sui Sui said and yawned.

As early as four days before the New Year, Sui Sui gave all her employees a holiday.

However, except for the pink girls who were busy returning to Inta, the rest, whether it was Hela, Kajianka, Marta and others, were all homeless in some sense.

Because of this, even though these girls had holidays and no work, none of them thought about going out to play for a few days. Instead, they stayed and celebrated the New Year with peace of mind.

Naturally, the smart girl Sui Sui seemed to have forgotten and didn't even ask those employees who were labeled as "international students" why they didn't go home. Instead, she treated them equally like a family head and had fun with them for a few days.

With a certain tacit understanding, this somewhat muddled New Year's Eve was exceptionally successful and lively, and everyone was exceptionally happy.

From the 3rd to the 10th, Sui Sui used the one-week holiday to rest up and then plunged into her intense work again.

Also on the 10th, Wei Ran, who still wanted to continue being lazy, was unprepared to welcome the American client introduced to him by Ninel.

"Hello, Mr. Victor, I'm Brad Downey, and Mr. Fidel introduced me here."

In a specially designated reception room in the library, an old man who looked to be around fifty years old and of typical mixed-race appearance greeted Wei Ran, who had rushed over after hearing the news, in a particularly polite manner in French, and after that he also gave a 90-degree bow with a very cherry-like style.

"Mr. Brad, please take a seat."

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, shook hands with the other party, and asked him to sit down. The Fidel mentioned by the other party was Ninel's name in the United States.

"I did hear Fidel mention you"

"Fidel and my father were very good friends"

Brad explained, "Originally, my father should have come to visit you in person, but he was admitted to the hospital during Christmas. I came this time to ask you to complete the investigation as soon as possible, at least so that he doesn't leave with regrets."

"Your father he"

"Pancreatic cancer," Brad said. "I'm afraid he doesn't have much time left."

At this point, Brad seemed to have realized something belatedly. He quickly opened the briefcase he brought with him, took out a few things from it and placed them on the table, while constantly saying, "Mr. Victor, if you can help us investigate what we want to know, these things will all be yours."

Hearing this, Wei Ran did not rush to speak. Instead, he took out a pair of gloves and put them on, looking at the things the other party had placed on the table one by one.

The first thing was a film album filled with negatives.

After getting the other party's permission, Wei Ran took out his mobile phone and adjusted the screen to maximum brightness. He then brought up a pure white photo, and finally covered the screen with a tissue.

After making these preparations, he placed his mobile phone under the film and took a rough look around.

Most of these photos were taken by aerial cameras, and all of them show the ground on fire.

"Is this what your grandfather left behind?" Wei Ran just flipped through a few pages and then put away his phone.

"Yes, it was left by my grandfather, whose name was also Brad Downey."

"Can we chat for a few minutes?" Wei Ran asked without raising his head, while also looking at the second thing carefully.

This is a photo album with crocodile leather cover. When you open it gently, you can see the English signature of "Curtis Emerson LeMay" on the title page. A metal tube is fixed next to it.

Continuing to flip through the pages, the album was filled with photos from World War II.

There is an airport, ground crew transporting artillery shells, B29 bombers being refueled and loaded with bombs, and American soldiers posing in various poses.

"This cigar was originally stored in this metal tube"

Brad pointed to a third object, then to the metal tube that secured the edge of the album, before asking, "What did you want to talk about?"

“Just chatting”

Wei Ran said casually as he picked up the third item, "For example, your bloodline."

“My grandmother was a nuclear recruiter,” Brad said, “and my mom was a Vietnam recruiter.”

"Did your father participate in the Vietnam War?" Wei Ran asked, looking up.

"That's right"

Brad nodded. "He lost a paw in the harder it was. How did you guess that?"

"I can't think of any other way your father would have had the opportunity to meet a Vietnamese girl."

As Wei Ran spoke, he put the glass tube in his hand back on the table. Inside was a complete cigar, which also had the English signature of "Curtis Emerson LeMay" on it.

"Is this a specialty of historians?" Brad smiled. He didn't seem to think the conversation just now was rude.

“It’s an occupational disease.”

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already picked up the last item, a brass key ring that was as thick as a wrist and extremely solidly made.

On this key ring, there are red ribbons placed one next to the other.

"Is this the safety pin pull ring of the napalm bomb?" Wei Ran asked.

"That's right." Brad nodded, confirming Wei Ran's guess.

“Now there’s only one last question left.”

Wei Ran took off his gloves as he spoke. "Fidel told me that his friend hopes I can find a way to prove that those signatures were indeed left by General LeMay. He will then auction them off and use part of the proceeds to pay for my employment. But you just said that you would use these things as my reward?"

"That's right"

Brad nodded, reached out and opened the album with the signatures. After flipping through them skillfully, he pointed to one of the photos and said, "One of the purposes is to investigate whether those signatures were left by General LeMay, but the main purpose is to hope that you can help us find a way to find where this person went."

"Is there anything special about him?"

Wei Ran asked while looking at the person in the photo. The photo showed a blond young man with his bare chest smiling brightly. Under his feet was a napalm bomb with all kinds of beautiful greetings written on it.

"He's a thief who stole my grandfather's amulet." Brad's tone carried a hint of unhidden resentment, "I want to find the amulet."

"So do you need me to help you confirm the authenticity of the signature, or do you want me to help you find the person in the photo, or do you want me to help you find the amulet that was stolen from your grandfather?" Wei Ran said bluntly.

"Find the person in the photo, just find him." Brad said immediately.

This grandson must be hiding something.
Wei Ran guessed secretly, but said, "Our employment requires a signed agreement. Before I start the investigation, these items, which are both clues and commissions, must stay with me until my investigation is completed or expires. Is there a problem?"

"Stay with you?"

Brad asked subconsciously, then shook his head without thinking, "No, no, no, this is against the rules. These things are very valuable. I can't keep them."

"Here, my rules are the rules."

Wei Ran stood up and said, "For Fidel's sake, I am willing to help your father find out the truth, but if you have any objections to my rules, you can take your things and leave now."

“I need to think about it.”

Brad said as he stuffed everything on the table into his bag, then stood up and left the library.

"Follow him and see where he goes. Don't let him find you."

Wei Ran switched to Russian and whispered to the little girl next to him.

"Don't worry!" The little girl who was helping to earn extra money in the library immediately agreed.

At the same time, Wei Ran also took out his mobile phone and sent an email to Ninel, briefly describing everything that had just happened.