War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 267 Building Hope
"Where are my clothes and other things?"

Sitting cross-legged on the dirty floor, Wei Ran played with the satellite phone he found from the other party's body. After finding Teacher Dalia's mobile phone number in it, he was not in a hurry to dial it.

"The clothes, mobile phone and ID are in the guard tower on the right side of the gate, and everything else is in the car. The car has been driven away by Ji Ma." The old man tried to pinch his nose and complained, gasping for air. "You bastard is really dark, my nose seems to be broken by you."

"How many companions do you have?" Wei Ran asked unmoved.

"Two." The old man wiped the blood from his nose, "You haven't said how you escaped yet."

"Bite it open with my teeth," Wei Ran said perfunctorily, stood up and said, "I'll go get the clothes first, and call Dalia by the way."

"up to you"

The old man angrily picked at the keyhole of the handcuffs that were nailed to the ground with a wooden wedge, "You've gone too far, can't you save me some face?"

"I've given you face by not putting you in a cell."

While talking, Wei Ran kicked away all the debris around him, and then left the prison building with the other party's satellite phone and walkie-talkie, and went straight to the sentry tower on the right side of the gate.

To his surprise, although the three-story sentry tower is dilapidated on the outside, it is well maintained inside. On the first floor, there is not only a well-maintained fuel generator and a 200-liter oil tank full of fuel. There are buckets, and there are a lot of chopped firewood in the corner.

Climbing up to the second floor, there are only four high and low bunks placed on iron shelves against the wall, and a small solid wooden table is surrounded in the middle.On the top and bottom of the table and two of the iron canopy beds, there were also a lot of food and drink, as well as several boxes of bullets and a set of radio stations powered by batteries.And my clothes and backpack are placed on one of the iron canopy beds.

After getting dressed and putting on the watch that teacher Dahlia sold him forcibly, Wei Ran put on his bag and walked up to the top floor of the sentry tower.

The top floor of the sentry tower is circular, surrounded by glass windows, and there is a protective net in the shape of shutters outside the windows.And in the direction facing the inside of the prison and the lake in the distance, two shooting holes were opened. Behind each shooting hole, there was a PKM machine gun that could fire at any time!

And behind the window facing the floor of the cell where I was imprisoned, there is also a high-powered target mirror fixed. Through this target mirror, I can barely see the old man who is still handcuffed to the iron fence looking at me. How about waving!
Sitting down on the recliner behind the target mirror, Wei Ran used the old man's satellite phone to dial Teacher Dalia's phone number.

"An accident?" On the other end of the phone, Teacher Dahlia asked with a smile just after connecting.

"It was indeed an accident." Wei Ran also replied with a smile, "I captured that old man."

"Good job." Teacher Dalia didn't seem to be surprised at all in her tone, "But the time is faster than I expected."

Wei Ran sighed helplessly, "So shall I capture his companions next, or drive back to Hongqi Forest Farm now?"

"No need to rush back"

Teacher Dalia paused for a moment and made a decision, "From now on, until the end of the month, you should study with him, give him the phone, and I will arrange the learning content for you."

"He's still locked in the cell." Wei Ran didn't mean to save the old man's face at all, "I'm watching him right now where he used to watch me."

"Then let him call me later." Darya's tone seemed more and more satisfied, "This time I did a good job, at least much better than the time in Yakutsk."

Wei Ran didn't care about the other party's compliment, "Dalia, what do I need to learn from that old man?"

"Let him teach you how to keep secrets, and learn from him how to ask other people's secrets." Dalia explained with a smile, "Also, the next class at Hongqi Forest Farm will be on August 8th, remember to prepare in advance tuition fee."

Before Wei Ran could say anything more, Teacher Dalia simply hung up the phone.

it's been a year
Wei Ran looked at the sparkling lake outside the window with emotion. At this time a year ago, not long after he got the metal notebook, Professor Alexai was still his boss.

But today, a year later, I am completely different from the former international student who relied on connections to study abroad and relied on relatives to eat and die.

So what about the next year?What will it be like to be myself then?
Wei Ran withdrew his gaze in anticipation, left the sentry tower and returned to the prison building, returned the satellite phone to the old man, and at the same time told the old man about Teacher Dalia's decision.

"I knew you were a problem"

The old man shook his feet, then leaned against the wall and said, "I'll call Dahlia, you help me get the handcuffs off."

"Can I fix your nose for you?" Wei Ran picked up the windproof lighter that was turned over from the opponent, and asked while burning the wood in the keyhole of the handcuffs.

"I can't trust your technology," the old man grumbled and then pressed the dial button.

To Wei Ran's surprise, the old man and Teacher Dalia communicated in English, which completely killed his idea of ​​eavesdropping on something.

When the other party hung up the phone, Wei Ran had already opened the handcuffs.Almost at the same time as he stood up, two old men who looked like 60 years old also came out of the stairwell with guns in their hands.

"If you dare to tell what happened just now, you will be the best teaching tool these days." The old man threatened in a low voice.

"Deal" Wei Ran agreed with a smile.

"Gorman, what's going on?" asked one of the old men in old-fashioned Russian horizontal-striped camouflage, "Daria just informed us that it's over?"

"It's really over"

The old man who was captured by Wei Ran wiped the blood from his hands and said, "In the next few days, this little guy will experience life with us."

"Looks like someone got punched"

Another old man came over and gloated at Gorman's bloody nose, then opened his backpack and took out a medical box.

"We are old, and this little guy's fighting is very weird." Gorman raised his head, allowing the other party to help him heal the wound on his nose.

"Don't use your age as an excuse"

While the old man was speaking, he had already stuffed a large ball of absorbent cotton soaked in medicine into Gorman's two nostrils.

"Gorman makes no excuses"

The first old man who spoke put away his gun and said, "I heard that Kuzmich and the others have fought against this weird little guy. Recently, they have been using a crazy dumb smuggler to practice dislocation and reset."

"I've heard about it too"

The old man who was treating Gorman's nose continued to gloat and joke, "But he only hurt your nose, it's a pity he didn't dislocate you."

Gorman said angrily, "If your movements are still so rough, I'll dislocate your retired third leg later."

"It's far away from retirement." The old man quickly finished the final treatment work, and asked while packing up the medical supplies, "What's the next arrangement?"

"You go back first." Gorman touched his nose propped up by the cotton ball, "Just leave us a boat."

"Little guy, I wish you a happy time in the clock tower."

The old man who put away the medical box smiled and shook hands with Wei Ran, then he greeted another companion and turned away without leaving a name.

Gorman, whose nostrils were stuffed with cotton balls, leaned his back against the window at the end of the corridor and asked, "Victor , Darya asked me to teach you some knowledge about torture and anti-torture. Now tell me, what do you think is the most terrifying method of torture."

"Waterboarding?" Wei Ran asked uncertainly. Although he had learned some torture techniques at Hongqi Forest Farm, it could only be regarded as a subsidiary subject of psychology, and he had not had a deep understanding of it.

“Waterboarding is really scary”

Goleman said as he walked downstairs, "The most terrifying method of torture is to destroy the victim's psychology. You have to remember that psychological trauma is permanent, and it is far more durable than physical discomfort. It is also more effective. Of course, just like the water boarding you mentioned, physical discomfort can accelerate the generation of psychological trauma, but at the same time it is easy to turn the victim into a worthless lunatic."

Having said that, the two had already reached the door on the first floor of the prison building. Gorman turned to look at Wei Ran and said, "As they mentioned just now, the smuggler in Yakutsk, I think you must have seen him." passed him, right?"

Wei Ran nodded silently, of course he remembered the smuggler who was hung in the warehouse of the power station, and even more remembered those people who acted as his nanny, decided to perform surgery on his vocal cords in a casual tone, and then planned to use him to practice dislocation Reset, and he even remembered that before those people made this decision, they were originally planning to send the smuggler directly into the electric furnace to burn to death.

Sympathy for the smuggler?Of course Wei Ran won't, but he can predict what kind of experience he will suffer in the days to come.

"That was a failed torture"

Gorman didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave. He sat on the steps covered with weeds, took out a pack of cigarettes and gave Wei Lian one, and then continued to say after lighting it himself, "Kuzmich and the others must have died at that time." Needed to get any information out of the smuggler's mouth, so there was no hope left for him.

Anyone, including you, me, or Daria, no matter what happens, when there is no hope in sight, the only choice is to die as soon as possible. Will soon collapse, become a worthless lunatic, in torture, this is the worst possible outcome. "

Wei Ran, who seldom smokes usually, lit the cigarette handed to him by the other party, but let it burn slowly on his fingertips, lingering in light blue smoke.

A puff of smoke came out of Gorman's mouth, and he continued slowly, "So the first lesson you have to learn is to build yourself a hope that will not be destroyed under any circumstances. It can be a person, It could be a secret, or it could be something that must be done.

Only you still have hope, as long as you persist in not revealing what your hope is, no matter how horrible the torture or how difficult life is, you can survive. "

"Building hope?"

Wei Ran raised his left hand and took a puff of smoke, at the same time, he glanced at the books and feather tattoos on the tiger's mouth in his left hand, and then spewed out a large cloud of smoke that hadn't been sucked into his lungs, blocking his sight.

Looking up at the sky, Gorman nodded, "In the same way, during torture, the first thing we have to do is to create hope for the victim. It is not until he believes in this hope that the torturer sets out to destroy it." His psychological defense time."

(End of this chapter)