War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 394 The Unwelcome Edelweiss
While Prohol helped restore the gift, Wei Ran sat on the edge of the well this time and didn’t go anywhere. According to the skills he learned in Hongqi Forest Farm, this landmine has never been laid out. One reason.

Since the ammunition box just now was a camouflaged mine, it was obvious that there must be other dangerous explosives nearby.That being the case, staying where you are is undoubtedly the safest option.

Counseling?This is not called cowardice, it is called being at odds with yourself.

However, Diane misunderstood Wei Ran. She obviously thought that the young historian was frightened by the danger just now.

"Mr Victor"

Diane thought about it and suggested, "Or we can re-select a safe place outside the forest, and then send those bones and finds there?"

"why?"

Wei Ran guessed the other party's thoughts after subconsciously asking, and said dumbfoundedly, "No, just here, I was thinking about something just now, and by the way, wait for Prohol and the others to find out more. "

Hearing this, Diane wisely didn't ask any more questions, but turned around and walked towards the white truck not far away, brought a folding chair with a canvas cover from it, handed it to Wei Ran, and then greeted them and drove them over. The young man who helped bring a small folding table and a wood stove with charcoal fire.

Guarding the well that was used to bury corpses, Wei Ran took the coffee from Diane and sipped it in small sips, but actually focused on the ammunition box landmines, kerosene lamps and On top of the helmet.

Whether these three things can send him back to the time point at that time is put aside first, and whether to help Diane investigate what happened here is what he needs to seriously consider.

In addition, if you take this job, what kind of commission you should charge is also a matter that needs to be carefully considered.But the main premise of all this is to wait for the follow-up investigation results from Kajianka.

During the long wait, time passed by little by little. Prohor and his companions kept busy until the sun went down. Nothing of value was found at all.

"Prohor, which direction are you going to look for tomorrow?" Wei Ran, who had been idle for a long time, asked by the warm campfire.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Prohor took the coffee Diane handed over and asked enthusiastically, "I heard that Ms. Diane said that you are a historian, you must be better than us in which direction to look, right? "

"You guessed it wrong"

Wei Ran spread his hands, "If I were asked to come, I might go directly to the archives. To be honest, this is the first time I have seen the digging party work up close."

Prohol said with a self-mockery, "We also often go to the archives, but every time we can't last long, we will choose to go to the bar opposite the archives for a drink."

"Can you tell me about your impression of this place?" Wei Ran continued to ask, "From your professional perspective."

“We are not professional”

Prohor pointed to the three companions who were busy making dinner in the distance, "We are actually teachers from the same high school."

"Are you teachers?" Wei Ran looked at Prohor who was sitting beside him in surprise.

"I am a physics teacher"

Prohor pointed to his companions in the distance, "The youngest of the three of them is a physical education teacher, the fattest one is in charge of teaching mathematics, and the other one whose hair is about to fall out is the school doctor of our school."

"you."

"Actually, they are considered illegal digging"

Diane said bluntly, and Prohor also nodded simply, "It is indeed illegal. In Belarus, there are very few people who can legally excavate war sites, but this matter is very meaningful and interesting, isn't it?"

"It's really interesting"

Wei Ran secretly glanced at Diane with a weird expression. He thought that the small team of diggers working with Diane would be so professional, but he didn't expect it to be a group of amateurs!

"Don't underestimate us"

Prohor said proudly, "Two years ago, we dug up a T-34 tank in the middle of the school playground, and now that tank has been made into a monument, standing on the edge of our school playground .”

"It's really amazing." Wei Ran praised dryly, and really didn't know how to evaluate these high school teachers who were not doing their jobs properly.

"Mr. Victor, if you return to Liuban later, you can drop by our school."

Prohol said more and more proudly, "Even outside the fence, you can see the tank. It was repaired by the four of us and the school children in a summer vacation. Even the monument is owned by the school. It was built with donations from teachers.”

"Would you like to take a look?" Diane asked Wei Ran using the topic, but she just wanted to ask him if he wanted to go back to the hotel tonight.

How could Wei Ran fail to understand what Diane said?Simply nodded happily, "That's fine, go and see the tank that Prohor and the others dug up, and then tomorrow I'll go to the local archives to have a look, maybe I can find something unexpected."

"Tomorrow we'll be looking in that swamp"

Prohor finally answered Wei Ran's initial question, "Victor, if we have any interesting discoveries, we will keep them for you."

"Then thank you all." Wei Ran responded dumbfounded. Obviously, because he spent 500 rubles to buy the broken box before, the other party has now regarded him as a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Taking the metal ammunition box from which the explosives were removed, the two almost rusty kerosene lamps, and the broken helmet wrapped in newspaper, Wei Ran followed Diane and boarded the off-road vehicle that brought them over again. The ruts left by the car slowly left the clearing in the forest.

Diane waited until the car drove onto a relatively flat dirt road in the forest, and then asked, "Looking at your expression, you don't seem to have any clues?"

"Restoring the historical truth is a relatively long process"

Wei Ran once again used the excuse he had used countless times before, "And if I just drank coffee by the well for half a day, I would have a clue, I am afraid that Ms. Diane would not have to invite me from far away Kazan."

"I was in a hurry." Diane smiled and changed the subject and asked, "Are you planning to go to the archives tomorrow?"

"Maybe." Wei Ranhun nodded nonchalantly, "If it's convenient, leave me a car tomorrow, I want to go around."

"Do you want me to accompany you?"

"No, just keep busy with your work." Wei Ran quickly waved his hand to refuse.

Hearing this, Diane didn't insist, and wisely suspended the topic.

Taking this off-road vehicle with a local license plate, the two chatted all the way back to the hotel. After Wei Ran got off the car, he also got the keys to the off-road vehicle that had sent them from Minsk to Liuban.But Diane did not get out of the car, but left the hotel directly, and seemed to return to the excavation site. As for the tank that the teacher named Prohor mentioned, it seemed that they had forgotten it together. Yes, not even mentioned.

Watching the busy fat woman leave, Wei Ran weighed the car keys, then went upstairs and entered his room with the scrap metal in a canvas bag.

When he went downstairs to have dinner again, he came back to check the room carefully as usual, took a shower and changed his clothes, but there was still no new information from Katenka.

Regarding this, Wei Ran was not in a hurry at all.It was only the second day, and neither he nor Diane could afford to wait, except that Katenka might have to work overtime for a while.

In the blink of an eye the next morning, Wei Ran, who was woken up on time by his biological clock, picked up his phone before he opened his eyes, and then noticed the spam text messages he received around three or four in the morning.

Covering his head with a quilt, Wei Ran took out the authenticator from the food box, then pulled the laptop on the bedside table and connected it to it.

Less than two minutes after he completed the authentication, pictures and documents were automatically displayed on the computer screen.

"These are the things I found from the computer of the financial office of the Edelweiss organization, and Diane's own private mailbox."

After Kajianka typed a line of German on the text document used for communication, he turned to remote control the laptop in Wei Ran's hand and opened a group photo.

"The man in the photo with Diane is named August, who is her husband, one of the top executives of the World Film Foundation, and the main financial supporter of the Edelweiss organization."

After typing such a paragraph, Katenka replaced the photo on the screen with a document that was opened in advance, and then continued to write, "This is what I found in Diane's mailbox, which is basically the same as what I found before. match.

On the whole, first of all, because there are relatively few sponsors, the funds of the Edelweiss Organization are not sufficient.And even the relatives of the descendants of the bones they retrieved didn't seem to have a good impression of this organization. "

"Why?" Wei Ran, who had been enjoying himself, couldn't help touching the touchpad, and then typed a question.

In less than ten seconds, Kajianka on the other end of the network cable called up a screenshot of the news, and then explained in words, "According to the news interview report last autumn, this edelweiss not only brought back Soldiers who disappeared during World War II also brought back their criminal evidence by the way.

But it is obvious that, just like racial discrimination in the United States, even ordinary people in today's Germany, which is overly sensitive to Natur, feel ashamed because their ancestors were aggressors who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

However, this edelweiss flower always shows its good side and bad side unreservedly, which obviously does not meet some people's expectations. "

"Continue" Wei Ran typed out a German word.

After a while, Katenka closed the screenshot of the news that had just been opened, and continued to type out lines of German on the document, "Secondly, this small organization once exposed the German army's attack on a small village in France during World War II last spring. A small-scale massacre by the Jews was intimidated and kidnapped by unknown sources. For this reason, they paid $50 to redeem a volunteer from this organization.

Finally, according to the emails I found in her mailbox, at least a year ago, Mr. Hans, the funder of this organization, had recommended a historian named Victor to her several times. "

Looking at the various screenshots and documents displayed on the screen in turn, as well as the group photo of himself and Hans' family at the beginning, Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded, and finally understood why Diane cared so much about him, and the reason why he co-authored it was because of that enthusiastic Herr Hans.

Carefully flipping through all the information Kajianka found, Wei Ran, who understood the cause and effect, finally let go of his guard against Diane.In any case, at least for now, the three views of the fat woman are quite upright, and this is definitely the basic bottom line for in-depth cooperation.

Randomly typed out a string of worthless thanks on the emptied text file, and by the way continued to ignore Kajianka's request for a bonus for the last incident on the American farm, Wei Ran decisively unplugged the authenticator Buckle up the laptop.

At the same time, in the detached house next to Gubijing Pasta Restaurant, Katenka snapped the screen of his laptop and muttered ferociously, "I think our boss seems to be a bit stingy." ! I just want a bonus of 4 euros, I mentioned it twice, and he doesn't seem to notice!"

"Maybe he already knows about the fact that you blackmailed the farmer before?" The girl who was busy putting on makeup not far away reminded gloatingly, "You cheated 10 dollars from that American, Why do you still need to ask the boss?"

"How could he know about the $10 in the United States?" Katenka muttered confidently at first, and then asked, "Even if he knew, he probably wouldn't care."

"Why don't you give him half of the extorted money?" The girl who was putting on makeup came up with a bad idea without looking back.

"Then give him your half!"

Katenka rolled his eyes, and couldn't help comforting himself, "Anyway, we haven't touched the money yet. Even if he really knows, it's a big deal to return it to him."

"What's the difference between money you dare not use and waste paper?"

The girl who had been putting on makeup just now picked up the small bag on the table before she finished speaking, "Okay, I'm going to the zoo with Matthew."

"Remember to bring the pizza back," Katenka said, and immediately re-entered the bedroom with the curtains drawn.

(End of this chapter)