War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 697 An Old Book That Doubles in Value
In the yard by the Kaban Lake, Wei Ran vigorously waved his shovel in the vegetable field surrounded by the fence, patiently digging out piles of potatoes that had already matured.

Behind him, the dog Beria and two foxes were sniffing the dirt excitedly. From time to time, Beria seemed to have discovered when he started digging a hole, and deliberately threw the cold dirt there. On the body of two little foxes.

Behind these three little guys, sisters Sui Sui and Katenka are each dragging a wooden box, picking up the potatoes dug out by Wei Ran one by one, and after making enough boxes, they carry them to the armored pickup next to them In the cargo hopper, when there is enough for a car, it will be transported to the basement of the next workshop for storage.

This kind of farm work has lasted for three days, and they have harvested sun-dried melon seeds, more ghost ginger than expected, hundreds of Chinese cabbages, and a dozen pumpkins that they don't know how to eat.

In addition to these potatoes, there are as many sweet potatoes left in the yard today.That's all, without counting the beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants grown in the greenhouse.

"Except for flowers and trees, we can't plant these things in the yard next year," Sui Sui, who was covered with grass leaves, complained with a mournful face.

"Next year we can raise more rabbits"

The Katenka sisters gave their suggestions in unison, and at the same time each threw a few potatoes, which were only the size of golf balls, into the box.

"My aunt called yesterday and said that next year she plans to grow rapeseed in our yard."

Wei Ran wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said with a bitter face, "She said she would come and take pictures when the rape blossoms bloom."

"How about we move to the small town of Tula?" Sui Sui suggested whimsically, "I don't believe that such a ghostly place can grow anything."

"Boss, Uncle Ivan said that their place is full of mosquitoes in summer."

After Anfeiya finished speaking, she exchanged glances with her sister, and suggested again in unison, "So let's raise rabbits, shall we?"

"Forget it, pretend I didn't say it." Sui Sui shook her head tiredly, picked up a potato as big as her face and threw it into the wooden box.

Just when Wei Ran was thinking about whether to call some helpers from the next door, Ji Ma drove the armored pickup truck that Wei Ran replaced into the yard without dying.

However, this guy can be regarded as clever. After seeing Wei Ran and others busy, he walked around the oak tree and prepared to go out.

"Kamei! Close the door!" Sui Sui yelled quickly, and one of the Katenka sisters had already pressed the remote control before she yelled out.

"Bella"

Wei Ran greeted him, picked up a potato that had been shoveled by a shovel, and threw it at Ji Ma's car.

Beria, who was digging a hole and preparing to bury his little friend alive last second, didn't even realize it, so he ran after the half potato.

Seeing this, Ji Ma, who was afraid of running over the dog, had to step on the brakes, and Maya, who was sitting in the co-pilot, watched helplessly as the iron fence gate less than 10 meters away from them slowly closed together.

"I knew I wouldn't come"

Ji Ma muttered resentfully, opened the car door, and let the silly dog ​​with half a potato in his mouth jump up, spit out the potato and licked him wildly.

"Fortunately, I didn't come yesterday," Maya muttered with lingering fear looking at the "devastated" yard outside the car window, and then pushed the car door and walked towards the smiling flower-like spike.

"I knew that as long as the desire was strong enough, someone would definitely come to help!"

Before Sui Sui finished speaking, she handed a wooden box to Maya, "You're welcome, I'll give you as much as you can hold."

"Can I have it already installed?" Maya asked jokingly.

"Of course no problem." Sui Sui is extraordinarily generous, "You can move as much as you want, but remember to come and help after moving."

"Victor, we're not here to help you dig potatoes." Jima took the shovel handed by Wei Ran with a bitter face.

"I know, I know." Wei Ran waved his hands nonchalantly, "If there's anything you need to do, help me dig up potatoes and sweet potatoes first."

Hearing this, Jima and Maya looked at each other helplessly, and finally joined the ranks of digging potatoes with all their strength, while muttering non-stop, "My mother invites you to visit us at home tomorrow."

"Did something good happen to your family?" Sui Sui asked curiously.

"My mom and dad repainted the house"

Jima stopped digging and explained, "Then this morning, three wild boars broke into our house with a few piglets. My mother insisted that it was God who wanted us to invite friends to come and sit at our house. ingredients."

"Although it is true that wild boars broke into his house, in fact it was Jima who kept saying how delicious the red meat made by Victor was." The specialty dish has a new name.

"Braised pork," Wei Ran helplessly corrected.

"I know, I know, Hongsao Rou, I remember."

Ji Ma waved his hands nonchalantly, "In short, are you going? If you go, remember to bring your Chinese seasoning."

"Can I bring the rabbit?" sisters Katenka asked in unison.

"No need!" Ji Ma waved his hands proudly, "I've already bought them in advance. I bought a full 50, which is definitely enough for everyone."

"When is tomorrow?" Wei Ran asked more directly.

"I get up at [-]:[-] in the morning." Jima grinned silly, "Just don't arrive before I get up."

"Would you like to invite Aunt Anna and Aunt Daria?" Sui Sui asked kindly, "Of course, and Uncle Karp and Uncle Gorman."

Seeing Wei Ran looking at him, Ji Ma spread his hands, "Before coming to your place, Maya and I have been to Hongqi Forest Farm, and they should all go."

"Since this is the case, it seems that we need to bring more seasoning."

Wei Ran didn't finish his sentence, but the dog Belia, who was lying at his feet with his belly exposed, suddenly turned over, raised his buttocks towards the courtyard wall and whimpered vigilantly.

Almost front and rear, everyone also vaguely saw a car drive into the dead end between the yard and the winery next door outside the vine-covered wall.

"It's really lively today, it seems that there are guests coming."

Wei Ran muttered something with a smile, then bent down and patted Beria's dog's head.At the same time, Anfisa took out the remote control again and opened the courtyard door.

A moment later, a black SUV with a Chinese brand stopped at the door.Under the curious gaze of Wei Ran and others, the car door was pushed open after waiting for almost 1 minutes, and a man walked out from inside.

"Mr. Victor, can we go in?" One of the plainly dressed old men beckoned and asked enthusiastically.

"Who is this person?" Wei Ran frowned and muttered, "Why do I seem to have seen it somewhere?"

"I seem to have seen it too. Oh——! I remembered!"

Maya patted her forehead, "Victor, do you still remember that Boss Kajik took us to the library in Udino in spring?"

"Oh—! I remembered!"

After Maya's reminder, Wei Ran immediately matched up the old man with the old man who led them on a motorcycle and tricked them with a poor-quality helmet.

"What's his name?" Wei Ran asked while waving at the other party.

"Vassily? Yuri? Sergey? Ivan?"

Maya first listed a few names in Russia's bad streets, and then said uncertainly, "It seems to be Sergey?"

"Mr. Victor, do you remember me?"

The old man ran over quickly and said enthusiastically, "I am Sergey, Sergey from Yudino, the one who sold you the old books in the library."

"I remember, of course I do."

Wei Ran put his hands behind his back, gave Maya a thumbs up with Sui Sui and others, and asked with a normal expression, "Mr. Sergey, what do you want me to do?"

"There are indeed some things"

Sergey looked at Wei Ran with a little embarrassment, then at the black SUV standing outside the door, and finally opened his mouth and said, "Mr. Victor, we came here this time to ask, can we cannot."

"Mr. Sergey can just speak directly," Wei Ran said with a smile.

"We want to buy back those old books, twice the price."

Sergey stretched out two fingers and gestured, "4 million rubles, we want to use 4 million rubles to buy back those old books at that time."

“4 million rubles is a lot of money”

Wei Ran looked at each other without a trace, and said with a smile, "Jima, you go back first, I will consider the matter of lending you money."

Hearing this, Ji Ma nodded with a hippie smile, turned around and got into the armored pickup that already belonged to him, drove away from the yard, and directly blocked the black off-road vehicle in a dead-end alley.

"Mr. Victor, so you agree."

"no no no"

Wei Ran waved his hand without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, "I didn't agree, I just said that this is a lot of money, but I don't intend to sell those old books for 4 million rubles."

"Then" Sergey gritted his teeth, subconsciously glanced at the car at the gate of the yard again, and asked tentatively, "Or 5 million rubles?"

"Why don't you tell me why you want to buy those old books back?" Wei Ran asked gently.

Sergey was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth and said, "It's the request of the people in our town. They asked to buy those old books back."

"It's too late, I've already sold those books."

Wei Ran spread his hands pretending to be regretful, "There is no one left, and all of them were sold. To be precise, they were all sold in August."

"Sold it?" Sergey subconsciously asked, "Where did it go?"

"It's been sold in the United States. It seems that there are still some left after selling all of them. Wait a minute."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran winked at Sister Katenka, and waited until they pulled Sui Sui and Maya towards the door, then he started to follow.

"What's going on?" Sui Sui asked immediately after entering the door.

"Let Maya explain the first half to you"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already walked towards the bookshelf on the first floor, and after rummaging through it, he pulled out a thick photo album from it.This photo album contains all kinds of small cards, bookmarks, children's doodles, postcards and even news clippings from newspapers.

These were all discovered from the pages when he bought those old books. At that time, Wei Ran thought about sending this small gift to the town after the library was demolished and the activity center rebuilt.

Now that the former seller, Sergey, came to the door on his own initiative, it happened to give this item to her.

Strolling out of the room with the photo album in hand, Wei Ran handed it to Sergey, "The things in this photo album were all found in those old books at the beginning, I was planning to wait for your activity center After it was built, it was given as a gift, and now that you are here, you just happened to take it back. But I’m sorry, I’ve really sold all those old books.”

"Mr. Victor, can you please?"

"No." Wei Ran simply shook his head, "I can't disclose the buyer's information to you."

"Okay"

Sergei nodded in frustration, tucked the photo album Wei Ran gave him under his arm, left the yard step by step, and got into the SUV parked at the door.

Taking out his mobile phone, Wei Ran connected to Ji Ma's call, and said simply, "Let them go."

Before he could hang up the phone, Ji Ma drove the armored pickup out of the alley, then turned around and drove into the yard again.

"There were three people in the car"

Ji Ma jumped out of the cab and handed the memory card in the dashcam to Wei Ran, "There are three people in their car, the driver is a middle-aged woman, and there are two people wearing baseball caps sitting in the back seat. You can't tell the gender and age, and the last one is the one who just chatted with you."

"Go ahead." Wei Ran nodded nonchalantly, turned and walked into the room.

Obviously, that old man named Sergey couldn't come up with 5 million rubles in cash. After Ran said that he had sold it, he went to ask about the identity of the American buyer.

But since the other party did this, it can only mean that the value of those old books is far more than 5 million rubles.

Without using his brain at all, Wei Ran thought of the three spiritual issues he found from the pile of old papers when he bought the old books.

Is it because of those subjects?But are they worth that much money?

Besides, does this have anything to do with Kajik or even Maya?
He did not forget that it was Kajik and Maya who invited him to the old bookstore together. This time, as soon as Maya arrived, someone came to the door, and Maya recognized the old man named Sergey at a glance. Man, these small details made him wonder if someone was setting him up again.

Although there were many doubts in his heart, Wei Ranming did not reveal any flaws on his face, and in the ensuing chat, he did not mention any words about the three groups of subjects.

Although the loss of 5 million rubles made Sui Sui a little bit painful, but after all, she would not do something like selling those old books that were purely for appearance on behalf of Wei Ran.On the contrary, it is a decision full of confidence. When I have time, I will take a good look at the 5 million rubles on that bookshelf, maybe I can find some valuable treasures in it.

Sister Katenka didn't respond to this, but Jima couldn't help laughing. He heard from his younger brothers that Wei Ran even used a flaw detector to avoid entrainment when he bought these books. Private goods, after such a careful inspection, if Sui Sui can find anything, it would be a joke.

Deliberately diverting the topic and chatting, Jima and Maya had a sumptuous dinner as a matter of course. By the way, they also made an appointment to go to his house for a party the next day. As for the work of digging potatoes and sweet potatoes, it was natural that everyone Humanity is selectively forgotten.

Sui Sui squinted her eyes and pretended to send Jima and Maya away after eating and drinking, "Little comrade, did you find any problems?"

"What's the question?" Wei Ran looked curiously at the actor beside him.

"Is Maya already living in Ji's scumbag's house?"

Sui Sui asked gossipingly, "So this gathering is not just their engagement wine or something?"

"They still pay attention to betrothal?"

Wei Ran shook his head dumbfoundingly, and said while walking back, "Even if they pay attention to this, if it's really an engagement, Ji Ma's tail would have stuck out of the Milky Way."

"makes sense"

Sui Sui nodded involuntarily, then changed the subject and asked, "Did that Sergey really come here for the old books in the afternoon?"

Hearing this, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and then shook his head, "Probably not, let's go, I'll take you to see something good."

"What good stuff?"

"Follow and you will know"

Wei Ran didn't explain, and took Sui Sui to the third floor, went straight into the room where there were photos of Teacher Dalia when she was young, found the three projects from the metal bookshelf against the wall, and then lowered the The voice said, "I guess the other party should be here for this thing."

"How to artificially manufacture the study of mental illness?"

Sui Sui took over the second portfolio, "Cultivation of group obedience and psychological correction of prisoners of war order? What is this?"

"There is more," Wei Ran said, and handed the last file bag to the other party.

"Investigation of human physical and mental limits in extremely cold environment?" Sui Sui shivered uncontrollably, and commented with a slightly pale face, "These names are really scary!"

"According to the records inside, apart from the topic of how to artificially create mental illness, most of the remaining two topics are the results of research using little devil prisoners of war and German uniforms as research objects."

"Little devil prisoner of war?! Another little devil prisoner of war?!"

The voice of Sui Sui, who was a little bit cowardly in the last second, became a lot higher, and Wei Ran not only heard the excitement in her tone, but even the expression on her face was full of excitement.

"Why are you so excited?"

While speaking, Wei Ran pulled out the "Soviet Medical Encyclopedia", opened it, pointed to the Nagan revolver hidden inside and said, "This thing was discovered together with those three subjects."

"That's a nice little pistol."

"stop"

Wei Ran pulled the opponent's hand and paw away, "I can't give you this thing. It's been for decades. It might explode with a single shot, and there are bullets in it."

"Stingy"

Sui Sui withdrew her hand resentfully, picked up the three project portfolios that Wei Ran handed him just now and asked, "Is it okay if I take this back and have a look?"

"As long as you don't get scared"

Wei Ran reminded indifferently, "Also, since someone has come to the door now, be careful not to show it."

"I'm not stupid, do you still need to remind me of this kind of thing?" Sui Sui had already hugged the three subjects in her arms before she finished speaking.

"It is estimated that the other party is here for these things."

While talking, Wei Ran stuffed the "Soviet Medical Encyclopedia" with the pistol back on the shelf with the spine facing inward, "Okay, let's go down."

Sui Sui, who satisfied his curiosity, left the third floor. After thinking for a while, Wei Ran found out the PSS micro phone that he had borrowed from the old man of Nikolai and never returned when he just met him. The acoustic pistol and the VSS micro-acoustic sniper rifle, together with the spare magazines, were handed over to the Katenka sisters for safekeeping, and they were also reminded to turn on all the monitoring systems in the yard.

In addition to arming the two sisters with weapons, Wei Ran also gave Anfeya the memory card of the driving recorder that Jima had given him, hoping that the other party could find out something.

Unfortunately, until the sun went down, the only clues she found were that the black SUV came from a local car rental company in Kazan, and that there was a car accident two years ago.

At the same time, the black SUV under investigation returned to the city of Kazan after sending Sergei back to Yudino, and parked in a parking lot on the other side of Lake Kaban.

It is only more than two hundred meters away from Wei Ran's home by the lake, and in order to shorten the observation distance, there is even a packaged astronomical telescope set up in the compartment of the car.

"What should we do next?" The person sitting in the back compartment asked with difficulty concealing his disappointment.

"Don't panic"

The female driver sitting in the driver's seat replied calmly, "We must first determine whether the historian named Victor is lying."

"But even if he lied, wouldn't we still be unable to get those things?" The person in the carriage asked while adjusting the binoculars.

"He is a well-known historian"

The middle-aged female driver was full of confidence, "If he didn't lie, we can only give up those things, but what if he lied?"

"Keep talking?" The person in the vehicle urged impatiently, "Why do you always keep it a secret?"

"Sorry, I overestimated your IQ."

The middle-aged female driver spread her hands, "If he lied, then it can only mean that those old books must have important things, and he has even discovered the secrets in those things. If this is the case, we just need to follow them, maybe we will can find those things."

"Could he have found it long ago?"

The person in the carriage assumed again, "According to that old man named Sergey, he bought those old books in the spring, and it took so long."

"That's why I bought those old books for up to 5 million rubles"

The female driver smiled triumphantly, "If he really finds out, he certainly doesn't mind selling the worthless waste paper at such a high price. Since he doesn't plan to sell it, he must think that the value of those old books is far more than 5 million rubles."

"What if he had agreed to sell it then?"

"Then re-schedule the transaction and run away, and then find a chance to visit his home after a while. After all, I can't afford 5 million rubles."

The female driver's tone was already filled with impatience, "Where do you have so many questions, now keep an eye on them, we need to find out the other party's schedule first, and then find a way to climb over the wall."

"I don't dare to go" the people in the car immediately expressed their attitude.

"You don't want those things anymore?"

"think"

"Then be brave"

The female driver said rather resentfully, "Those things belong to us, so there is nothing wrong with us taking them back."

"I hope. I hope that person thinks so too."

The people in the carriage looked at the lit yard across the lake through binoculars, and muttered worriedly, as if they were not optimistic about their companion's plan and point of view.

(End of this chapter)