War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 260 Strange Lease Requirements and Strange Family ([-] in [-])

Coming down from the small bar on the second floor of Gubi Jingyi Restaurant, Wei Ran walked to the door, looked at the worn canvas bag and skateboard on the bench again, hesitated for a moment and said, "Monica, and Matthew , I am going to rent this place, now let’s talk about the rent.”

"Mr. Nicholas, before you plan to rent this place, you need to listen to our conditions." The little guy named Matthew said solemnly.

"What condition?" Wei Ran squatted down, keeping himself at the same height as the opponent and asked.

Matthew looked up at Monica who was standing on the side, and then said, "First of all, the first condition is that when you plan to rent the restaurant on the first floor, you must also rent the bar on the second floor."

"Aren't these two one?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

Matthew explained inconsistently, "It is indeed one, but the bar upstairs is the property of Uncle Tassie, and it is just left to me to take care of it."

"Who's Uncle Tassi?"

"The owner of the upstairs bar" Matthew gave a flawless answer.

"Well, regardless of the bar or the restaurant, I will rent them together." Wei Ran said indifferently, anyway, the rent will be included in the investigation fee paid by Charlotte, and he doesn't care about renting an extra floor.

"Second condition"

Matthew stretched out two white and tender little fingers and made a scissors hand, "After you rent this place, except for replacing the burned things, you can't change the layout of the upstairs and downstairs, even if you repair the burned things. things, they must also be consistent with the original layout."

"Why is that?" Wei Ran couldn't help but look at Monica who was standing aside, and now he suspected that this kid named Matthew was amusing himself.

"This is a condition that cannot be compromised." Monica's voice was not loud, but she was extremely firm.

At this point, Wei Ran finally knew why the shop in such a good location could not be rented out.Suppressing his growing curiosity, Wei Ran continued to ask, "Are there any other requirements?"

"If you can agree to the above conditions, after the opening, the upstairs bar will be open at least three days a week, and the types and prices of alcoholic beverages sold cannot be changed." Matthew rented out the store in a childlike voice. The business is eyeing the final coffin nail.

"These conditions of yours are a bit strange, may I know the reason?" Wei Ran asked kindly.

"cannot"

Matthew shook his head simply, "The rent is 36500 euros per year, and you need to pay at least one year's rent at a time. If you want to rent it, you can sign a rental agreement with us and the owner of the bar tomorrow."

"Can I meet the owner of the bar first?" Wei Ran asked patiently.

"Uncle Tassie won't see you unless you plan to rent it and pay the rent for the restaurant downstairs." Matthew said and thought for a while, "Uncle Tassie might be willing to see you at that time."

What and what?Wei Ran looked at the siblings strangely. No, there seems to be a generation gap between the two.

"It seems that you are not interested in renting this place"

Little Matthew stretched out his little arm and pointed in the direction as usual, "Mr. Nicholas, maybe you can go to that street to have a look. We passed by there when we came here and saw that there are also shops for rent. The rent should be the same as Our restaurants are pretty much the same."

"It's a ghost that you can rent it out like this."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, thought for a while and said, "Well, Matthew, I just saw a lot of interesting old photos in the bar upstairs, if you can tell me the stories in those photos, maybe I I am willing to rent this place and rent it according to your terms."

This supernumerary question is obviously beyond the range of questions that Matthew can answer. It is because the little guy who looked like an adult at the last moment immediately looked at Monica next to him with help-seeking eyes.

The latter sighed in distress, and asked reluctantly, "What do you want to know?"

"For example, how about the group photo behind the bar on the second floor?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.

"Matthew, did Tassie tell you?" Monica whispered to Matthew who was standing beside her.

"No." Matthew shook his head bitterly, "What should we do?"

"Or you call Tassie?"

"He locked himself in the studio today. Unless someone goes in, he will definitely not go out to answer the phone." Matthew said close to Monica's ear, "It's rare that a weird person is willing to rent this place, why don't we How about taking him directly to ask Uncle Tasi?"

"No, no, no, he will go crazy, and then we will definitely have to help him clean the room again." Monica seemed to have thought of something horrible, and her little freckled face became a little distorted.

"Let him stay in our car and use the mobile phone to communicate?" Matthew seemed very happy that he thought of this good way, and his voice couldn't help but get louder, "Or let Uncle Taci come out."

"It seems like this is the only way"

Monica straightened up, looked at Wei Ran and asked again, "Are you really planning to rent this place? The requirements we just said will be written into the agreement."

"If there are any interesting stories behind those photos in the bar, maybe I will rent this place." Wei Ran said without leaking, "But no matter what the final result is, I will pay 100 Euros, at least I won't let you run away for nothing one trip."

"Enough for us to buy new games and enough snacks," Matthew said happily when he heard the words.

Monica sighed and said reluctantly, "We'll take you to the owner of the bar to ask."

After finishing speaking, Monica locked the shutter door of the restaurant and the anti-theft iron fence of the floor-to-ceiling windows, while Matthew took the skateboard and backpack on the bench, and took Wei Ran to a convertible Fiat 500 in the parking lot opposite the intersection. , skillfully pushed the passenger seat forward, and then got into the rear compartment.

After he fastened his seat belt, Wei Ran pushed the co-pilot's seat back to its original position, but before he sat down, Matthew said, "Mr. Nicholas, you'd better find a car by yourself. The taxi followed us."

"Why?" Wei Ran, whose buttocks had already touched the seat, asked in confusion.

"Monica doesn't like strangers getting too close to her"

Matthew said solemnly in a low voice, "She will be very disturbed, really, I won't lie to you, even meeting you today, she mustered up a lot of courage."

"Social phobia?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

Matthew spread his hands, "Please, Mr. Nicholas, please find a taxi yourself!"

"All right"

Seeing Monica standing on the opposite side of the road, Wei Ran reluctantly got out of the narrow carriage, and stopped a taxi after waiting for a while on the side of the road.

Following the Fiat bubble car driven by Monica to leave the city, the next road is far beyond Wei Ran's expectation.The two cars spent more than an hour until they saw the foot of the Alps on the outskirts of Turin, and then stopped at the gate of a farm with its back against the foot of the mountain and surrounded by dense woods on both sides.

The area of ​​this farm is not considered large. Almost half of the area is planted with grapes, and the remaining half of the area has a beautiful flower garden and a small pond in addition to two exquisite wooden houses. .

Following the other party's car and parked in the shadow of the thick oak tree not far from the wooden house, Wei Ran handed the taxi a 50 Euro bill, "Your tip, wait for me here, I will return it soon Turin."

"It doesn't matter if you wait until it gets dark." The taxi driver took the banknotes in surprise, and made a promise with a chicken paw gesture.

After getting out of the car, Wei Ran let Matthew pull him into the co-pilot of the Fiat car, while Monica got into the house one step ahead.

"Mr. Nicholas, please wait for me here." After Matthew finished speaking, he ran into another house on his legs.

Not long after, he retrieved a mobile phone and handed it to Wei Ran who was sitting in the car, "The other mobile phone is held by Uncle Taxi, and I will make a video call after I get in. After you connect, I want to ask Anything is fine."

"Can I only communicate with the mobile phone?" Wei Ran asked in confusion, and he became more and more curious about what happened to this weird family.

Not to mention the Monica just now and the Tassie who didn't want to meet and could only communicate with her mobile phone, even this over-mature little guy Matthew seemed a little distracted.

"It's not that Uncle Tassi doesn't want to see you, it's just that he has very, very, very, very serious obsessive-compulsive disorder and cleanliness."

Matthew explained with dancing, "If you invite you into his house, we will help him disinfect and clean up the house for the next week. If you let him come out of the house, maybe he will soak himself in disinfectant water , and even hire a psychiatrist for him. So Mr. Nicola, please use your mobile phone to communicate, okay? I’ll treat you to a pizza made by Monica later.”

"Matthew, where are your parents? Or your Uncle Taci's family? Can't they come forward?" Wei Ran took advantage of Monica's absence and hurriedly asked.

"not in"

Matthew made gestures with a small chicken paw and explained, "My parents both work at the Antarctic scientific research station. Usually only my aunt takes care of me. But in fact, I take care of her and Uncle Tassie." .”

"Where's Tassie's family?"

"Died two years ago," Matthew explained sadly, "the fire in the restaurant took them away."

The expression on Wei Ran's face became a little astonished, and after recovering, he immediately took out a 100 Euro note from his pocket and handed it to Matthew, "I see, I'm here waiting for you to call me come over."

"You are a generous gentleman"

Matthew politely took the banknotes and stuffed them into the pocket of his jeans, and ran to the wooden house just now.This time, Wei Ran even saw him take off his shoes at the door, and put on a new pair of socks for himself, so he opened the door.

After waiting for a full 10 minutes, the mobile phone that Matthew had just sent over rang. Wei Ran quickly pressed the answer and heard it, and then saw a man in a white coat and a dust-free hat on the screen, A young man who looked about the same age as himself was sitting behind a table.

In the area that can be seen on the screen, all the parts of a disassembled watch are neatly placed on the table in front of the young man, and behind him, there seem to be several small lathes that look exceptionally clean and the like.

"Hi, I'm Tassie, I heard from Matthew that you want to ask about that restaurant?" The man in the dust-free hat asked enthusiastically on the other side of the screen.

"Hi Tassi, I'm Nicola."

Wei Ran introduced himself first, and then asked, "Mr. Matthew should have told you that I am interested in renting that strange restaurant and upstairs bar, and operating them according to those strange requirements." , but I would like to know why, especially the story of those photos in the bar, which may be a good selling point."

"Totally understand!"

Tassie nodded happily, and enthusiastically explained to Wei Ran, "The Gubijing Pasta Restaurant and the Gubijing Friendship Bar are jointly owned by my grandfather and Matthew's great-grandfather. How long ago did the World War II end? The store has a long history."

"That bar looks very special, is it only open to soldiers?" Wei Ran asked sideways, and he was relieved that at least this Tacit is quite normal for now.

"No no no, he's only open to peaceful anti-war factions."

Tassi explained proudly, "This is the rule set by the founders of this bar, my grandfather Mr. Trento and Matthew's great-grandfather Mr. Pierre."

"It's on the right number," Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then deliberately asked, "So those photos in it are all posed?"

“It is true that some of them are staged”

Tassie is extraordinarily frank, "But at least the two precious group photos behind the bar are not, it is their personal experience in the North African desert during World War II. If you are interested, you can go to the small bookshelf to the left of the bar. At least when I went there a year ago, there was a memoir written by my grandfather and his comrades in arms, which was very detailed."

Wei Ran wisely ended the topic, and asked tentatively in another direction, "Can we talk about those unique requirements now?"

"Those don't have to be talked about"

Tassie was as straightforward as Matthew and Monica, "Mr. Nicholas, we are not short of money, and we are willing to rent out that shop, but we just don't want it to remain unoccupied. At the same time, for some special reasons, we ourselves There’s no way to run it. So if you’re willing to rent it, it’s a little cheaper on the rent side.”

"How much is it cheaper?" Wei Ran pursued and talked about the price as if he really wanted to rent that restaurant.

"Matthew, how much do you offer?" Taci didn't shy away from Wei Ran at all, and turned to ask the little guy standing aside.

Hearing this, Matthew, who was wearing a small dust-proof suit and even wearing goggles and a mask on his face, came over and replied in a childish voice, "The annual rent is 36500 euros."

"How about 36000 euros a year?" Taci asked, staring at the camera, unable to hide the anticipation in his eyes.

"How about I pay a little more and cancel those special requirements?"

"no!"

"Fifty thousand euros a year?" Wei Ran deliberately quoted a high price.

"500,000 a year is not enough"

Tassie said very seriously, "That restaurant is very important to me and Matthew's family, and we really don't need money."

"Is there really no shortage of money?" Wei Ran deliberately provoked the other party's bottom line, the purpose was nothing more than to break up the business.

He had already obtained the desired result, and he already knew from Matthew's few words just now that their life was actually pretty good, at least not as tight as he thought.

“There is really no shortage of money”

Tassie said with some distress, "But if there is this profit, I can change to a lathe with higher precision, and Monica can also change to a laptop with better configuration. But even so, those requirements No concessions can be made.”

"What do you need the lathe for?" Wei Ran dragged the topic farther and farther and farther and farther, in a rambling but natural way.

"I am a watchmaker"

Tassie proudly introduced his other identity, then picked up the phone, switched the camera, and showed Wei Ran outside the house to visit his studio.Matthew, who was waiting on the side wearing a protective suit, stretched out his small hand with a rubber glove to cover the protective goggles on his face.

According to past experience, no matter who, when chatting with Tacie about these things in the studio, it doesn't take an hour or two to end the topic at all.

Soon, Wei Ran outside the room also realized this problem, because Taxi, who was a little normal just now, unexpectedly began to introduce in detail the working principle and the accuracy range of those processing equipment that he didn't know at all.Even just a perfunctory casual question from Wei Ran, he began to enthusiastically talk about the conversion units between microns and millimeters, and how difficult it is when the machining accuracy is accurate to the micron level.

However, following Taxi's explanation, Wei Ran was distracted and remembered another problem. He was hesitating whether he could ask the other party to help him process some high-precision bullets for the anti-tank gun.

Compared with Alexander, this obsessive-compulsive disorder or cleanliness named Taci may not know much about bullets, but judging from the almost paranoid pursuit of processing precision in the other party's tone, the finished product must be enough to meet his requirements.

And the most important thing is that such a person who is not even willing to go out of the house, and who is almost completely regarded as a random encounter, undoubtedly has a much higher level of secrecy.

With this in mind, he simply restrained himself and listened carefully to the other party's detailed introduction of all the exceptionally clean equipment in the studio. At the same time, he learned some other things from a few words.

According to Tassi, he received long-term treatment with the same psychiatrist as Monica about ten years ago because of psychological problems.

It was also during that time that Matthew's father, who was responsible for sending him to the doctor every week, met Monica's sister.And in a short period of time, the two held a wedding, and in just a few years later, there was the little guy Matthew.

In addition, he also learned from this obsessive-compulsive person who seemed to have no intentions that his current job was basically ordered by Monica from the Internet.

Even in some small circles, he is still a well-known watch repairer and watchmaker who has never shown his face. From this point of view, he is more and more in line with Wei Ran's expectations.

Waiting patiently until the other party finished introducing the last piece of equipment, Wei Ran took the initiative to say, "Mr. Tassie, maybe we can reach another deal."

"Do you need a custom watch too?"

Tassi asked predictably, "But my order is already scheduled for Christmas next year. If you wait, maybe you can talk about your request."

"no no no"

Wei Ran shook his head and denied the other party's guess, "I don't want to process something as complicated as a watch, but some toy models, which require high precision, but it may not be difficult for you."

"Model?" Tassie was a little disappointed when she heard this.

"If you're willing to take the business, maybe I can rent that restaurant right now."

Wei Ran continued to seduce, "The shape and structure of that batch of models are not complicated, and the number is not large. If you are interested, I will send you samples tomorrow."

"I need to see the samples tomorrow to make a decision," Tasi said cautiously.

"No problem, I will bring enough cash tomorrow." Wei Ran said bluntly, "Of course, there are confidentiality issues involved. I hope not many people know about this transaction."

"Don't worry Mr. Nicholas"

Taci said with a self-mockery, "Usually I seldom leave this farm, and I don't like to quarrel with others online like Monica, and besides Matthew, no one has the time to listen to me introduce my studio like you. "

"Those devices are very interesting, and I couldn't help but go in and have a look." Wei Ran comforted the other party, and when a smile appeared on the other party's face, he said, "It's getting late, and I have to go back to the capital too." Ling has made some preparations for our meeting tomorrow, and finally, I wish you a happy work, Mr. Taci."

"I also wish you a happy work." Tassie responded politely.

Hanging up the phone, he put the mobile phone that was running out of battery on the dashboard. Wei Ran didn't wait for the little friend Matthew who was in charge of contacting to come out, let alone eat the pizza that the other party promised him, so he opened the car door and got into the car that was already in the car. After waiting for a taxi for more than an hour, he simply left the farm and drove towards the city.

It took more than an hour to return to the hotel. After eating and drinking, Wei Ran returned to the room and took out the food box in the metal book, and took out a bullet in a plastic sealed bag from it.

Before leaving for England, he prepared and dismantled a 20mm high-explosive bomb, and carefully removed any dangerous things such as high explosives and ignition fuzes in the warhead.

Originally, he was planning to ask Alexander for help, to see if he could make some high-quality products based on this warhead.It's just that he didn't expect that Alexander had already returned to Russia in advance, and at the same time, he met such a strange person as Taci in Italy.

But no matter who it is, as long as a suitable bullet is made, the rest of the bullet reloading work will not be difficult. After all, compared with the bullet that he has no way to make by himself, it is already difficult to accurately load the same amount of propellant into the bullet case. An extremely simple job.

Wei Ran didn't care about whether Taxi could produce what he needed, or whether he was willing to process it according to his own requirements.Even if the other party sees something and chooses to refuse, he is just wasting a bullet and an irrelevant false identity.

After carefully inspecting the bullet samples in the plastic sealed bag, he compared the content found on the Internet, and wrote down some key size information, and then began to think about how to fabricate a reasonable use for this bullet.

At the same time, in the farm far away in the outskirts, after cleaning up her personal hygiene carefully and tediously, in the faint smell of disinfectant, Tassie began to flip through the screen to find the new equipment she was about to buy. up.

　I don't know how to break the chapter, and the technology is rusty, so let's update it together!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)