War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 802 Wei Ran's Guess

Seeing that it has been almost a week since returning to China, Sui Sui also successfully organized an industry travel itinerary conference with the help of sisters Kajianka, her classmates, and Wei Ran's parents.

During the same week, Jima took his parents and Maya, with the help of Aunt Fu who was both a translator and a guide, fled from the capital to Qin Province. In the past half a month, after seeing the terracotta warriors and horses, I went for a stroll in the hometown of giant pandas.

In contrast, Wei Ran is much more relaxed.During this week, apart from serving as a driver for Sui Sui and others, and by the way, with the help of her partner, he got a license plate for the newly bought car. His only private activities were just going around the airport, trying to Buy a well-concealed warehouse.

It's a pity that the capital is the capital after all. Even in a suburb an hour's drive from the airport, if you want to buy a closed warehouse or a small farmyard that is big enough to stop the transport truck in the metal book, you need to spend enough money in the suburbs. My hometown is rich enough to buy a house.

As for the purpose of his plan to buy a warehouse parking, it is nothing more than to be used as a safe enough safe.

After all, as long as you endured the severe pain and parked the transport vehicle inside, as long as you could put anything in the safe of that vehicle, even Erlangshen came with a dog, you wouldn't be able to find any clues.

But no matter what, it was just a safe, and Wei Ran couldn't bear to spend a million or so for a safe—even if he was going to put the gold bars at home first.

"Forget it" Wei Ran finally chose to give up, and decided to wait until he returned to his hometown in Cangzhou to think of a solution.

However, before he could drive away from the small village where he had just inspected the house, Xia Shushi called again.

"Brother, when is it convenient for you to come over?" Xia Shushi asked with a playful smile as soon as the phone was connected.

"I am"

"My brother, you've been back for a week." Xia Shushi blocked the excuse that the former was about to say.

"No, look at this eye"

"Looks like it's almost half a month before Chinese New Year." Xia Shushi blocked his excuse for the second time.

Hearing this, Wei Ran shook his head helplessly. In the past few days, one of the main reasons why he repeatedly rejected Xia Shushi's warm invitation was simply because he wanted to spend the new year in a down-to-earth manner.The second main reason is the fear of Savage Mountain.

But on the other hand, during this week, Xia Shushi could barely make a phone call a day, so it was really inappropriate to always refuse.

Thinking of this, Wei Ran pondered for a moment and said, "I can go, but let's make an agreement in advance, don't expect me to help you investigate anything during this period of time, I really don't have time.

In addition, even if I go, I won’t be able to stay for a few days and may come back soon. I still have a few friends from Russia. "

"Ok, Ok!"

Xia Shushi immediately said cheerfully, "Send me your ID number, and I'll help you buy a plane ticket right now!"

"I can buy the air ticket myself, and you can send me the airport of arrival." After speaking, Wei Ran changed the subject with a smile, "How is the old man doing now?".

"I heard that my memory seems to be failing these two days." Xia Shushi sighed, and then said in a normal way, "It's okay, we're all used to it."

"At that time, if the time does not conflict and it is convenient for you, take me to see the old man."

"That's so convenient!" Xia Shushi said happily, "We don't have time conflicts here!"

"Then it's settled"

Hanging up the phone in a few words, Wei Ran waited for the other party to send a message, and immediately dialed Suisui's phone, and briefly explained the matter of his plan to go to Yunnan Province.

"How many days are you planning to go?" Sui Sui on the other end of the phone asked, putting down the pickled chicken feet she had just picked up.

“Not sure how many days to go”

Wei Ran paused intentionally, and then asked, "You guys are almost busy with business these days, do you want to go shopping together?"

"Go! Of course!"

Sui immediately responded to Wei Ran's invitation, and complained along the way, "Everything in this capital is good, but there is nothing delicious, so I just change places for a change of taste."

Hearing this, Wei Ran said with a smile, "Let Anfisa buy a plane ticket and fly a big gift."

"Okay!" Sui Sui agreed in a dizzy voice, hung up the phone and urged Anfisa, who was tasting the donkey roll, to buy a ticket quickly.

At the same time, Xia Shushi, who was far away in Yunnan Province, also hung up the phone call home.The Second King who was sitting next to him also stubbed out his cigarette, "Did your friend agree to come?"

"Finally persuaded." Xia Shushi said, thinking about the phone, "I don't believe it. He will be able to see something from the broken box by then."

"Wait a minute!"

The second generation immediately reacted, "Okay! You are a pig shit, I can see it, your real purpose is to compete with your friend, right?"

"You're a beast that eats shit!"

Xia Shushi raised his middle finger angrily, "You're thinking too much, I want to help you investigate clearly, and I'm also curious about the origin of that helmet."

"Are you more curious about whether that friend of yours is stronger than you?" The second looked at him suspiciously.

"That can't! Absolutely impossible!" Xia Shushi waved his hand, "I'm just simple."

"You are just a leg"

The second gave back a middle finger, and then asked a realistic question, "Brother, let's put aside whether your friend is reliable or not. This time, invite him over, how much hard work is appropriate for him?"

"How do I know that?"

Xia Shushi thought for a while, then made an ambiguous guess, "I reckon, it's about [-] to [-], right? But I guess he should be a rich master. Instead of paying him hard work, why don't you pay him a lot of money?" Move your mind elsewhere.”

"Still a rich man?" The second generation asked happily, with a more teasing tone in his tone.

"The one who just opened his mouth can give that number to that helmet"

While lowering his voice, Xia Shushi made a hand with scissors indiscriminately, and then asked deliberately, "I'm sure I can't get that much out, let alone me, I guess you can't get it out either, right?"

"If I can take out so much money casually, will I still use the big Chinese New Year money to come here?"

The Second Emperor rolled his eyes when he said this, and asked wretchedly, "Why don't I arrange a few girls from northern Burma when your friend comes, and let's have a whole bachelor party?"

Hearing this, Xia Shushi waved his hand indifferently, "Don't you worry that after this matter is revealed, your sister and your brother-in-law will take you back and give you another foreskin like last time, you can arrange it as you like."

"Could you please not mention this?"

The second shrank his neck subconsciously, then glanced in the direction of the door uneasy, then stood up with a haha, and said as he walked out, "I won't waste time with you bitch, wait for your friend When we arrive, remember to ask for the price.”

Watching the other party push the door and leave, Xia Shushi also took out his phone again, took out the photo of the helmet and fell into deep thought.

At the same time, he was not the only one staring at the photo and lost in thought. In the first-class cabin of a flight that was about to take off from the airport in Houston, Carlos was also staring at a black and white group photo in a daze.

And in an office that is relatively closest to Wei Ran, there are also people staring at the computer screen. The video of Wei Ran being interviewed in Russia shows an expression of enlightenment.

As the saying goes, there are as many misfortunes as there are coincidences in this world. Less than an hour before the flight that Cross took landed at the airport, the flight taken by Wei Ran and others also took off at the same airport and flew to The southern tip of the land of China.

More than an hour later, Carlos tried to dial Wei Ran's phone number, but the reply he got was only a cold shutdown prompt.

That afternoon, when Wei Ran walked out of Fengyi Airport with Sui Sui and others, he immediately saw Xia Shushi waiting at the pick-up gate.

"You have a girlfriend?"

Xia Shushi looked at Suisui who was holding Wei Ran's arm in surprise, and then looked at the three girls standing behind Suisui, the expression on his face became more and more weird.He knew that Wei Ran would bring a few people over, but he didn't expect to bring a group of girls.

"Is it strange that I have a girlfriend?" Wei Ran asked puzzled, but Sui Sui was smiling, obviously waiting for his explanation.

"That's right, haven't I seen you show off before?" Xia Shushi grinned, but his eyes involuntarily drifted to Sister Katenka and Lola.

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled but did not explain.Since he took a few intelligence gathering lessons with Teacher Anna at the Hongqi Forest Farm, he directly closed Moments, and almost never posted any photos or the like on other social platforms.

After briefly introducing Sui Sui and others and Xia Shushi to each other, the group followed Xia Shushi to leave the airport and got into a commercial van.

"Let me introduce"

Xia Shushi cleared his throat, pointed to his companion sitting in the passenger seat, twisting his upper body, and said, "This is me, Qin."

"Qin II"

The driver obviously didn't want Xia Shushi to say his name, so he shook hands with Wei Ran warmly and cordially and said, "You can call me the Second King, I've heard of Brother Wei's name for a long time, please take the trouble to travel all the way this time." It’s really a blessing for you to come here”

"OK, OK"

Xia Shushi obviously didn't want to give the Second King a chance to talk nonsense, so he introduced the girls headed by Sui Sui, and by the way, named her relationship with Wei Ran, and the relationship between Kajianka and others and Sui Sui.

"Well, wait a minute, I suddenly remembered that I have to make a phone call." Er Shi and Sui Sui greeted Sui Sui and the others with a dry smile, then hurriedly opened the door and jumped out of the cab, hiding Started to make a phone call from afar.

"What happened to him?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"The dude originally thought that you brought a few friends, you brought a few men."

Xia Shushi took pleasure in exposing his good brother's background, "So this guy found a few girls from northern Myanmar, and now that his sister-in-law is here, he must have urgently notified those girls for a holiday."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Sui Sui looked at each other, although they didn't say anything, their eyes expressed the same content - another quarter horse!
"Is there something to say about your brother's name?" Wei Ran wisely changed the subject and asked, "Who in the old Qin family named himself the second?"

Hearing this, Xia Shushi glanced outside, lowered his voice and explained winkingly, "This guy's name is Qin Shu, Shu from the border, but when his father named him, he obviously forgot their family name Qin."

"Qin Shu? Beast?" Wei Ran yelled out the homonym of the name overjoyed, and he and Sui Sui also showed sudden smiles on their faces.

"Don't call him by his name"

Seeing that the topic center had hung up the phone and walked back, Xia Shushi immediately sped up his speech and reminded in a low voice, "Anyway, just call him the Second King. Only his grandparents can call his bad name, and he can't even call him by his name." Be quick."

Without waiting for Wei Ran and Suisui to agree, Qin Shu also got into the cab, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I just forgot to deal with something urgent."

"It's okay." Wei Ranquan waved his hand amiably as if he didn't know the truth.

"Zhu Shi, tell Brother Wei the specific situation."

The second clearly uttered the nickname he had called for more than [-] years, obviously he had already guessed that when he called just now, someone got to know him.

"Beasts and pig food?" Wei Ran and Sui Sui looked at each other again, and the smile on their faces became harder and harder.

In contrast, Xia Shushi looked unconcerned. After the second stepped on the gas pedal, he immediately focused on describing what the unscrupulous owner of the homestay had done before.

"Look at 500 once, half an hour once? Still not allowed to take pictures?" Sui Sui muttered in surprise, "It's too dark."

"No." The Second King who was in charge of driving nodded sympathetically.

"It's rare for two people to take advantage of you and come to the door. If it were me, I would kill you severely."

Wei Ran gloated and joked, "If you didn't show so much importance at the beginning, you wouldn't be treated like this."

Hearing this, Xia Shushi and the Second Emperor looked at each other in embarrassment, but they couldn't find any reason or excuse to refute.

Chatting along the way and rushing to the door of the B&B located at the Erhai Sea, Wei Ran and the others were amazed, not to mention whether the boss's heart is black or not, at least the place is well-managed.A typical Bai people's four-in-five courtyard-style building, a cluster of lush bamboo is planted on one side of the entrance, and various succulents are placed on the other side.

"This place is quite beautiful," Sui Sui couldn't help but praised.

“Pretty is really pretty”

The Second Emperor sighed, parked the car in the parking space next to the cluster of bamboos, and said with a bitter face, "I just wanted to stay for a few days to rest because I saw the beauty here. I didn't expect the boss here My heart is so dark."

"It's too late to complain about this now"

Xia Shushi had already opened the door of the passenger car while speaking, "Brother Wei Ran, should you take a rest first, or take a look at those things first?"

"Let's take a look first!"

Wei Ran said with great interest, this is all here, he is naturally curious about what is so special about the other things found together with the helmet.

Under the leadership of Emperor II and Xia Shushi, Wei Ran and others carried their respective luggage, walked through the beautiful gatehouse into this extraordinarily exquisite double-storey courtyard, and walked around a small After the rockery, I walked into the room that served as the front desk.

"Brother Wei, how many rooms?" While speaking, the Second King had already opened the wallet that was originally under his arm.

"Is there a triple room?" Sui Sui asked after asking sisters Katenka for their opinions.

"Yes." The Xieding boss pointed to the price list hanging on the wall behind him, "How many rooms do you want?"

"A triple room and a double room."

“Ask for a room on the second floor”

The Second King slapped a wad of cash on the bar while speaking, "Let my brother take a look at the rags in your broken box later, how about with the rest of the money, arrange a good meal for us tonight?"

"no problem!"

The Xieding boss grabbed the money and stuffed it into the money counter and walked it twice. After handing over the two room cards, he said with a smile on his face. "As long as the money is in place, you can eat whatever you want. The rooms are all on the second floor, just go up the stairs on the right hand side of the door."

"You guys go to the room to rest first." Wei Ran handed the room card and his mobile phone to Suisui, "Let me take a look at the boss's treasure first."

"Kamei, let's go up first."

Sui Sui greeted sisters Katenka and Lola, and led them to the second floor. At the same time, the brothers Er Shi and Xia Shushi also left Wei Ran behind, and chased after them diligently, helping The girls moved their luggage to the second floor.

"Take off your coat, let me search you." While speaking, the owner of the homestay had already pulled out a handheld security device from the bar, and by the way, also took out a pair of disposable cotton slippers and handed them to Wei Ran.

Seeing this, Wei Ran took off his coat and threw it on the sofa, then put on the cotton slippers provided by the other party, and let the other party use the security inspection device to sweep his body pretendingly.

The boss nodded in satisfaction until he was sure that Wei Ran didn't hide anything like a camera, and led Wei Ran into a room not far from the bar.

"In one hour, when the alarm clock rings, you have to pay in cash, or you have to come out." While speaking, the boss pulled out a key from his collar and unlocked the padlock of the camphor wood box on the table.

"no problem"

Wei Ran nodded with a smile, and after the other party left and closed the door, he habitually looked at the layout of the room.

As far as the eye can see, the only window is not only equipped with an anti-theft net, but also a camera directly above the head.

The surrounding shelves are also full of things like bed sheets and bedding that are common in hotels.And in the center of the room, on a bamboo table, there was a not-so-big camphorwood box.

Gently lifted the lid of the box, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows involuntarily, there were far more things inside than he thought.

After a little hesitation, Wei Ran reached out and took out a pair of rubber gloves from his pants pocket and put them on, then took out the mask and put them on, then carefully picked up the steel helmet he had seen in the photo from the box.

Compared with the photos, the real thing can be seen more clearly, but even so, he couldn't see the reason for a while. At most, he could only be sure that at least this helmet was indeed a serious British MK-2 helmet, and it was just Even the blue sky and white sun emblem on the top is intact.

Objectively speaking, the appearance of this helmet is really good.Other than a little paint peeling and rust, there is no other damage at all.To say that the only shortcoming is that the suspension system inside is gone.

Putting the invisible helmet on the table, Wei Ran took out a few water bottles from the box.

Among these kettles, there are not only eight enamelled wood stopper kettles that were heavily equipped by the British Army during World War II, but also two kettles with cup sleeves that were used by the U.S. Army during World War II.

Carefully peeling off the cup sleeve and looking at the brand mark on the bottom of the kettle, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows involuntarily. One of the two kettles is made of aluminum, and the production date was 1939.After unscrewing, you can still smell a faint kerosene smell.

Another US military kettle is made of stainless steel and was produced in 1943.Tried to unscrew it, but there was no smell at all.However, it is reasonable to say that the kettle produced in 1943 cannot catch up with the Savage Mountain?
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran continued to take things out of the box.

The next thing he took out were three sets of British M1937 lunch boxes, a large set and a small set, and a 1931-style lunch box issued by the devil, plus an aluminum M[-] lunch box that the German army equipped in large quantities in the early days of World War II.

"Why did the German equipment come out?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and opened the devil's lunch box and the German army lunch box one by one. It's a pity that although there are a lot of parts in these two lunch boxes, there is no extra thing at the same time.

Unwilling to give up, he carefully looked at the production stamp left on it, and saw that there was no useful information, so he put it aside.

Continue to take it out of the box, but this time, what I took out were two kerosene lamps with thick sludge. On the handles of the kerosene lamps, each had a cotton wick about half a meter long.

So far, the only thing left in this wooden box is a few odds and ends, except for an engineering shovel that seems to be produced by the devil and a pickaxe that also came from the devil.

These include a small knife that is very similar to the multi-functional Swiss Army Knife on the bad street today, a double-ended gun oil can that was distributed in large quantities by the US military in World War II, and a zippo lighter with a cupronickel shell.

Forcefully unscrewing the two caps on the oil pot, Wei Ran found that there was solidified red paint in one chamber of the oil pot, and white paint that had also solidified in the other.

And on that lighter, one side was written with red paint——Liang Yimin.Looking at the other side, the same font, the same handwriting in red paint, but the content is mottled with the words "every man is responsible".

Looking at the empty wooden box for the last time, Wei Ran took two steps back, looked at the miscellaneous things on the table, and thought to himself, if he wanted to bring these things into Savage Mountain, how many people would be needed to carry them verb: move.

Not to mention anything else, let alone the stainless steel U.S. military kettle produced in 1943, the other 9 kettles alone are a big burden.The significance of the existence of the kettle is self-evident. If there is no water in it, there is no need to continue to carry it.

Conversely speaking, although a soldier can hang ten kettles filled with water or kerosene on his body, it also indirectly makes the soldier lose his ability to fight.

What's more, he must have weapons and ammunition, and probably not much food supplies.From this point of view, if you want to bring these things into Savage Mountain, I am afraid that at least three to four people are needed. Considering the number of those lunch boxes, Wei Ran finally guessed that it might be four people.

But the question is, among the four hypothetical soldiers of the expeditionary force, how many of them walked out of Savage Mountain alive.as well as.
Wei Ran picked up the US military stainless steel kettle produced in 1943 and looked it over carefully, wondering if it was possible that the people who used these items in the first place were not the ones who entered Savage Mountain, but someone else.

(End of this chapter)