War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 482 The Fat Sheep Delivered to Your Door
Along the way, he ostentatiously followed Ji Ma through the transfer procedures for his first off-road vehicle, and by the way, got a license plate for his newly acquired armored pickup. Wei Ran also opened his eyes to Maozi's loose motor vehicle management policy.

After completing all kinds of formalities with ease, Ji Ma was so generous that he drove his off-road vehicle into a car wash shop, ready to go to Maya for a date after cleaning it up.

How could Wei Ran not understand the meaning of this bastard's words, and besides, he himself is not interested in being a light bulb for Jima.

Deliberately driving around in a busy road that is prone to traffic jams, Wei Ran slowly drove back to the large yard by the Kaban Lake, cleared up the complicated mood of being expelled from the Hongqi Forest Farm, and devoted all his energy to his graduation thesis.

Just like what Gorman said, in the next half a month, Wei Ran worked hard with his cheap tutor Kajik, and finally finished his graduation thesis and graduation defense, which was almost a formality.

During this period of time, there was an endless stream of people who contacted him.The most frequent ones were of course Olga and Olena from Petersburg. These two sisters were still foolishly waiting for Wei Ran to help them investigate the origin of the bayanqin in the suitcase.

It's a pity that Wei Ran did have a reason to be busy, so after several consecutive invitations to no avail, Olga finally gave up completely and stopped calling every now and then to urge her.

The time came to June 6nd in a blink of an eye. When Wei Ran finished his one-day work in the studio and drove back to the urban area in a ostentatious armored pickup truck, he found three people standing in front of his house in front of a car from a distance. In front of the car, everyone was chatting with each other while smoking cigarettes.

"Mr. Charlotte, why are you here?"

Wei Ran opened the car door and asked in surprise in Italian. After nearly a month of driving experience, this armored pickup truck can be said to be good everywhere. He is particularly satisfied with the fuel consumption of only 15 liters of diesel per [-] kilometers.

But if there are those who are satisfied, there must be those who are not satisfied. The biggest flaw is that the thick bulletproof windows have no lifting function at all, and are replaced by a shooting hole with the mouth of a bowl. Besides being stupid, he really didn't want to understand what practical effect it would have on him.

"Victor?"

Charlotte was stunned, and then sighed, "Is life in Russia so crazy? Victor, your car is too exaggerated."

"I'm afraid this is the effect Kapoor and the others want to see! High-profile historians?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, changed the subject wisely and asked, "If I'm not wrong, you must have come to see me, right?"

"certainly"

Charlotte spread her hands, "I was looking for the address where Mr. Jima was coming. I wanted to give you a surprise, but you were not at home. If you came back half an hour later, I was going to call you and ask. gone."

"You should have called me two hours ago"

Wei Ran jumped out of the car, opened the door while talking, and at the same time finally understood why Ji Ma, who was still in class at Hongqi Forest Farm in the afternoon, always asked himself when he would go home.

"We didn't have to wait that long." Charlotte walked around to the co-pilot's seat, opened the car door with difficulty and asked, "Do you mind if I come up and take a seat?"

"Of course I don't mind"

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he got into the cab. After Charlotte came up, he gestured to the two men who were still standing at the front of the car with the local license plate at the door.

One of the two people, Wei Ran, has an impression. If he remembers correctly, that person seems to be called Matt. He is the camouflage man who helped Charlotte bring the "treasure" back from the dry well in Libya. .

But he didn't know the other gray-haired old man, or to be more precise, he had never seen that person at all.

Fortunately, after climbing into the co-pilot, Charlotte finally gave an explanation immediately after closing the thick bulletproof door, "That old guy who looks younger than me is Edward, he is my best friend and business partner .”

After finishing speaking, Charlotte groped to open the shooting hole on the window of the passenger's door, stretched her neck and pouted, and greeted in English that Wei Ran could already understand, "Matt, Edward, can you go in with the car?" ?”

"Of course." The old man named Edward responded gently.

Seeing this, Wei Ran lightly stepped on the accelerator, drove the armored truck slowly into the yard, and listened to Charlotte explaining their purpose.

"I am here this time, in addition to being invited by Ms. Anna to review the preparations for the filming for the last time. On the other hand, I also want to introduce Edward to you."

"Is there any treasure he wants to find?" Wei Ran asked with great interest.

"It's hard to tell if it's a treasure"

Charlotte didn't seem to hear Wei Ran's teasing, "But if possible, I hope you can help him."

Hearing this, Wei Ran stepped on the brakes slowly under the oak tree in the middle of the yard, turned off the engine and asked, "Can you explain briefly, so that I can prepare myself?"

Charlotte spread her hands, "To put it simply, his grandfather was a German prisoner of war captured by the British army from North Africa during World War II."

"North Africa again?" Wei Ran frowned subconsciously.

"Of course." Charlotte spread her hands and said as a matter of course, "otherwise how could we be friends?"

"That's right." Wei Ran grinned and asked after a moment of hesitation, "So he wants to find his grandfather?"

"No, no, no, his grandfather is lying in the cemetery, and even vampires won't bother him."

After a joke, Charlotte continued to explain, "Edward's grandfather became an employee of BP after the war and has been working in Egypt for a long time. Even in the last few years before his retirement, he still Worked briefly for almost a year for the not-so-intelligent Card Dazuo."

"In that case, what do I need to do?" Wei Ran asked puzzled.

"Why don't you just ask Mr. Edward?" Charlotte asked Wei Ran with a smile, "He can speak German and can communicate with you without barriers."

"It's true." Wei Ran smiled, pulled out the key and opened the car door.

When the two of them got out of the car one after another, Mr. Edward, who had followed the taciturn Matt to the door of the room, also took the initiative to say hello to Wei Ran in German.

Enthusiastically let these three people into the lobby on the first floor, Wei Ran poured a cup of coffee for each of them, "Sorry, this house has just been renovated, so the only thing I can provide is coffee. But when we finish talking about the business Afterwards, if you have time, I can invite you to try Georgian cuisine, which is very authentic in the restaurant run by my teacher's wife."

"Although we would love to try it, it's a pity that we have just had dinner."

While speaking, Charlotte took out a very familiar silver flagon from Wei Ran's pocket and took a sip, "Later, Ms. Anna will pick us up and take us to the headquarters of the studio, and rest there for the night .”

"You guys did a great job of keeping secrets," Wei Ran said dumbfounded.

"I said I would give you a surprise"

Charlotte seemed very satisfied with the surprise he had created, but he brought the topic back in time, "Edward, why not talk about your grandfather, trust me, this young man will definitely help you."

"Please look at this first"

Edward, who was over half a century old, took out a photo frame that looked very old from his briefcase, pointed to a man in a suit on it and said, "That is my grandfather, Mr. Claus. During World War II, he was sent by Germany to Prospectors looking for oil in North Africa."

"Mr. Edward, why don't you tell me how you need me to help you first?" Wei Ran had to remind, "In this way, I can at least know which information to focus on."

"I'm sorry." Edward put down the photo frame in his hand, "I want to help my grandfather find his colleague who died. That is his long-cherished wish, but he has been working in the North African desert for almost his whole life, but he has not been able to find the body of his colleague. "

"Died?" Wei Ran looked at Edward, the meaning was self-evident.

Edward nodded, but then shook his head again, "This is the troublesome place. My grandfather, Mr. Claus, didn't say what happened to him until his death. He even went back in time to the 40s. When questioned by the British, he just insisted that he was just a German oil prospector lost in the desert."

"Is there any record of where the British captured him at that time?"

Facing Wei Ran's question, Edward took out a map from his briefcase, pointed to a red circle circled on it and said, "Here, in the depths of the desert near the border between Egypt and Libya today, is closer to Egypt. sideways."

"Any other clues?" Wei Ran continued to ask after glancing at the map.

"There is another thing left by my father," Edward said, and took out a badly worn Zeiss telescope from his briefcase.

After taking the telescope and looking at it, Wei Ran couldn't help frowning. There is only one tube left in this telescope and it can still work normally. The glass lens in the other tube is gone. Look around the eyepiece again. There is also no logo related to Naju at all.

This can only prove two possibilities, either when the telescope was produced, the crazy and frustrated painter hadn't planned to go to the beer hall for a drink, or it was to cover up something, so he deliberately erased everything related to Naqu trace.

"That's all?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked.

"that's it"

Edward nodded and said, "He has kept this telescope locked in the safe, and before he died, he held it tightly, begging my father to help find his colleagues and bury them."

"Is there anything else?" Wei Ran put down the binoculars and asked, "Are there any other clues? For example, the specific time when he was captured by the British army."

"September 1941, 9"

Edward replied without thinking, "After being captured, he was imprisoned in Cairo for about a year, and then suddenly became an employee of BP, but how he managed to escape from the status of a prisoner of war has never been revealed. Never said that."

"It doesn't seem easy to investigate." Wei Ran frowned deliberately.

For him, the difficulty of investigation is basically inversely proportional to the amount of commission the other party can pay.

"How about 10 euros?" Edward asked expectantly.

"10 euros of course"

Wei Ran spread his hands, "The important thing is what do you want to exchange for the [-] euros. Mr. Edward, do you want me to find the colleague who died of your grandfather, Mr. Claus, or do you want me to investigate the truth of his death?"

Hearing this, Edward and Charlotte, who was sitting next to him, looked at each other, and said without hesitation, "What if you want both?"

"If you want both, 10 euros may be slightly less." Wei Ran smiled and reminded in a flat tone.

Speaking of which, since the trip to the United States in early May, not only has he not had any serious income, but he has also spent a lot. It is rare to send a fat sheep now, so Wei Ran naturally doesn't mind being a little more ruthless when he strikes.

"Make a price." Edward's same flat tone was full of confidence.

"The price is up to you"

Wei Ran had already picked up his coffee cup while speaking, "The more activity funds you can provide, the more things I can investigate. For me, there is no upper limit for investigation fees, but I think for you Said, there must be a cap on this deal."

"50 euros"

Edward said abruptly, looking at Wei Ran seriously with a pair of old eyes, "This is the upper limit I can come up with, I hope you can investigate this matter as detailed as what Mr. Charlotte's father experienced."

"How about letting Mr. Charlotte be the judge?" Wei Ran also looked at the other party seriously, "Of course, even if you are not satisfied with my final investigation results, I will at least get a guaranteed fee of 30 euros. "

"One month" Edward also stated his conditions.

"Deal" Wei Ran happily stretched out his hand towards the other party.

Edward, who was over half a century old in the "deal", reached out and held Wei Ran together.

(End of this chapter)