War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 253 Secret Word Truth
The white light that filled his vision awakened Wei Ran from his hangover, and when he opened his eyes, he realized that he had returned to his studio by the Volga River.

Last night, or to be more precise, the night before he got drunk, he drank a lot of wine with the surviving Pierre and Trento in that restaurant, but they had a tacit understanding never to drink again. Mentioned their experiences on the battlefield.

Obviously, whether it is the death of Carlo and Panettone, or the battlefield in North Africa filled with yellow sand, they have become memories that the two war survivors do not want to touch.

Amidst the familiar small voice, the metal notebook spread out on the writing desk in the bedroom did not give Wei Ran a chance to sigh. As always, it automatically turned to page 3, and the metal quill suspended on the page looked like no one was there under the photo of the oil drum. The continuation of the following story:
"Treasure at the Bottom of the Well"

意大利第132师第32坦克团坦克手卡尔洛、帕内通，于1942年11月2日第二次阿拉曼战役期间阵亡。

Pierre, the tanker of the 132nd Tank Regiment of the 32nd Division in Italy, had his right leg amputated after returning to the army due to severe burns. After recovering from his injury, he retired and returned to Turin, Italy, where he ran the "Guppyi Pasta" restaurant. He died of illness in 1986.

Trento, a soldier of the 101th Transport Company of the 80st Italian Division, became a German prisoner of war after Italy surrendered in September 1943. He returned to Italy with the help of German journalist Pell, and was invited by Pierre to jointly manage "Guppy Well Pasta" Restaurant, working as a chef, died of illness in 9.

Pell, a reporter for the German newspaper Herald, was killed in an Allied air raid on March 1945, 3, while conducting interviews at the front during the Battle of the Ruhr.

British scout Harry, after the end of the war in North Africa in 1943, forged medical records and retired, returned to Scotland to run the family wine cellar and silverware workshop.After the war, he went to dry wells in the North African desert many times to wait to meet with friends. On December 1952, 12, on his way back to the UK in North Africa, he accidentally crushed a landmine left by the British on the North African battlefield of World War II and died.

As I write this, after the metal quill starts a new line, two addresses are listed.One of these two addresses is on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland, England.The other is in Turin, Italy, and even at the end of this address, it says "Guppyi Pasta Restaurant".

Amid Wei Ran's sighs, the metal quill wrote in a separate line, "The treasure buried deep in the yellow sand in the well is not gold coins, but precious friendship and even more precious peace."

With the sound of flipping pages, the metal quill brushed under the red swirl on the back of the page and wrote, "My friend, after the war is over, please come to my birthday party on time."

When the metal quill that completed the work fell on the table, Wei Ran looked at the ups and downs in the red vortex, and already had a rough guess in his heart.

I reached into the whirlpool and tried to lift it out, but as expected this time I still couldn't get it out.

Putting away the metal notebook, Wei Ran pressed his left hand to the side of the bed, and then three brand new oil drums painted in the desert appeared on the bed.

The positions of the handles and the lids in the middle of the three oil barrels were originally used to fix the small iron plates representing octane ratings, but each was inlaid with a conspicuous gold coin.Next to the gold coins, there are three Chinese characters "oil", "water", and "wine" written in Chinese characters, which are only the size of fingernails.

And beside the three oil barrels, there is still a dilapidated code book.

Pick up the codebook and open it. On the first page, the words "Per Schilling, the Herald" are written in beautiful cursive characters in German. In the codebook, there is also a hand-painted simple map. Wei Ran remembers it clearly , that is precisely the map that was discovered in that dry well.

Put away the password book, and turn to open the first oil barrel, a strong smell of gasoline spread over the surface, and Wei Ran also noticed that the main bodies of these three 20-liter capacity oil barrels did not use the original welding process, but adopted One-piece molding process, even the material has been upgraded to titanium.

"How much does this stupid book like titanium metal?" Wei Ran muttered to himself, after closing the lid of the first oil drum, he opened the second one instead.

Undoubtedly, the contents inside are the same as marked on the side of the gold coin, which is full of fresh water.It was the third one, which only contained more than half a barrel of red wine.

Excluding the oil barrel itself that has been upgraded in craftsmanship and materials, and the three gold coins on it that can't be picked up at all, the contents of these three barrels are exactly the supplies that the German reporter Pell prepared for Harry who was about to return to his camp. .

Turning around and picking up a cup from the table, Wei Ran poured himself a cup from the barrel marked "wine".The familiar texture and taste are almost the same as those red wines used to quench thirst when we lost our way in the desert. It is neither good nor bad, but it is full of memories.

Preciously, he drank the last sip of red wine in the glass, Wei Ran closed the lid, and put them back into the metal book.

Picking up the cipher book again, Wei Ran started to compare it with the book after some research, and translated the secret words left by reporter Pell on the oil drum Herbert sent.

Gradually, a paragraph in German appeared on the screen of Wei Ran's mobile phone:
In the predicament on the edge of the battlefield, I saw the rare peace, the fragility of life, and the betrayal of soldiers from three countries to their respective camps.

But we have all gained precious friendships, an unforgettable birthday party in this dry well, and the hope that the war will end as soon as possible.

I hope that at the next gathering, we can really organize a decent birthday party as friends, and hope that everyone can participate on time and dig out the treasures that belong to all of us together.

Journalist Per Schilling of the German newspaper Herald 9.12.1941
Turning off the phone screen, Wei Ran felt a little drunk from the glass of red wine just now, and after exhaling forcefully, he took out the Guqin Yaoguang from the metal notebook.

Soon, the melodious sound of the piano came from the bedroom, filling the empty studio downstairs, and taking away Wei Ran's inner feelings and negative emotions by the way.

After the song ended, Wei Ran collected his mood, strolled to the long table downstairs, and took out the food box first.

In order to cope with the environment in the desert, he put a basin full of mineral water and refreshing oil on the second floor of the food box, but the metal book did not give him a chance to use it.Now that I have come back alive, these things are naturally useless.Even because of getting those three oil barrels, as long as the metal book doesn't act like a demon in the future, there is a high probability that it won't face the situation of lack of water again.

Cleaned up the stainless steel basin on the second floor of the food box, and put back the box of poisonous needles locked in the safe by the way.Only then did he take out the anti-tank gun that was also useless, and removed the magazine from it.

To his surprise, the high-speed tungsten-core armor-piercing bullets that he secretly withheld while performing surgery on Trento were all in the magazines honestly, not even the armor-piercing bullet in the chamber. Disappearing, this is not a big gain.

(End of this chapter)