War Photographer's Notebook

After carefully checking all the paintings in this studio called the study, Wei Ran couldn't help scolding a pervert.

There are at least a hundred paintings in this room, and half of these paintings depict naked women of various ages, and there are no duplicate models at all.

But the remaining half of the oil paintings are all about the ruins of the castle hidden in the forest.

The only difference is that in a fixed window of the ruins, sometimes the frozen picture is a mass of muzzle flames and flying bullets, while some are just an oil lamp, and some are simply It is a mass of paste that has no words to describe the color in words and words.

After restoring the studio to its original state, Wei Ran turned and walked out of the room, turned over the shoe covers under his feet and put them on again, and then used the same key to easily open the door of Mr. Dominique's bedroom.

Compared with the two rooms just now, this room is much more normal. Of course, this is under the premise of ignoring the oxygen cylinders, ventilators and detectors in this room.

Simple and even a little too simple retro iron frame bed, thick and fluffy bedding and pillows, and a ceiling fan with a sense of age above the head, plus a cherry wood cabinet with a frosted glass window door, and an old-fashioned safe as a bedside table, these are Everything about this room.

Also carefully inspected this room, after Wei Ran inspected the locked room, he opened the cherry wood cabinet facing the foot of the bed.

It's a pity that there is only a set of drinking utensils for making coffee and a jar containing coffee beans in this cabinet, plus two large boxes of cigars and half a bottle of wine that seems to be produced in Belgium.

After closing the cabinet door, he turned around and walked to the safe. Wei Ran picked up the desk lamp on the safe and took a closer look.Then he lifted the sheet and got under the bed to check it carefully, and took the opportunity to take out the food box from the metal book, and took out a set of unlocking tools inside.

After putting away the food box and retracting the upper body that got under the bed, it took Wei Ran less than ten minutes to open this old-looking safe with a click.

However, there is no gold, silver and jewelry in this safe. It is not a large space, but only an old Leica camera, a pistol in a hard leather holster, and a hard leather holster. leather book.

Without slamming the camera sealed with plexiglass, Wei Ran picked up the slightly cracked cowhide holster, and carefully unbuttoned it.

What he didn't expect was that it turned out to be a rare Sauer 38H pistol, or more precisely, it seemed to be a Sauer 38H pistol rewarded as an ace sniper.

Because, on the left side of the slide of this pistol, there is also the signature of Heinrich Himmler's middle-aged second child, as well as the ceremonial gift to the sniper.

But it is a little regrettable that its grip patch is not the original one, but a rather delicate antler patch carved and polished.

Pull out the magazine, there is only a bullet in it, gently pull the sleeve to reveal a gap, and there is indeed a bullet in the greasy chamber.

...

He carefully moved to the muzzle of the gun and smelled it. Apart from the strong smell of gun oil, there was no smell of gunpowder smoke at all. Looking at the trigger, although there were some signs of wear and tear on it, it was not serious.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran restored the special pistol to its original state and temporarily put it back in the safe, then put on a clean rubber glove and put it on again, then picked up the hard leather book that was originally pressed by the pistol and the holster and flipped through it open.

Originally, he thought that there would be some secrets in this book, but he didn't expect that there was a black and white photo stuck on the first sheet of paper.

This is a photo of a man who seems to be in his 20s and a child who is not as tall as his chest.Behind the two of them, a piece of ruins can still be seen.

Vaguely, Wei Ran could still see that there seemed to be a hard cowhide holster fixed on the waist of the young man standing behind the child with his hands on the child's shoulders, while the child's face was Wrapped in thick gauze, you can only see it protruding from the gap in the gauze

eyes, mouth and nostrils.

But compared to these, at the bottom of this photo, on the white grid paper, there is a time written with a beautiful blue pen———06.02.45
Continue to flip back, and there is also a fixed photo on this page. The man in the photo is still the same, but the one standing next to him has become a thin young man.

Even the background of this photo has become a freighter with the Stars and Stripes, and the handwritten time under the photo has also changed to 06.02.50.

But what Wei Ran was particularly concerned about was not only the change in the string of date fonts, but more importantly, the scars that had healed on the face of that thin young man.

This young man is Mr. Dominique?
Wei Ran instantly identified the other party through the scratches on his face, but then he fell into doubts. If the young man with scars on his face is Dominique, then the man next to him who looks about 30 years old Is it his uncle?

There doesn't seem to be much difference in age between the uncle and nephew?Wei Ran muttered to himself, then turned the hardcover book in his hand to the third page.

As expected, there was also a photo stuck on this page. In the photo, it was still Dominique and his uncle, but this time, the background of their photo had changed to the ruins in the first photo.

But this time because of the angle, Wei Ran recognized the ruins through the window facing the camera behind the two at a glance, and it seemed that the ruins were the castle ruins depicted in the oil paintings he saw not long ago!
Look at the handwritten time under this photo, but it is already five years later, 06.02.55;

The first photo was taken on February 1945, 2, three days after the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest was completely over.

On the same day five years later, Dominic appears to have followed his uncle aboard a freighter bound for America.

Another five years later, the two of their uncle and nephew returned to the ruins of the castle. Could it be that the ruins of the castle are located in the Hürtgen Forest?
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and turned another page with anticipation.

This page is still a photo of the two of them, and the date is still five years apart on February 1960, 2, but this time, Dominic, who already looks about 6 years old, seems to be holding something in his arms, and they The clothes worn by the uncle and nephew have obviously improved a lot.

...

Of course, Dominic's uncle has also aged a lot, becoming a middle-aged man in his 40s.

Then I turned back, and it was still a photo taken five years later, but this time, what changed in the photo was the ruins behind the two of them. In this photo, it can be clearly seen that they There are many busy figures and machines on the ruins behind him.

These guys are not going to rebuild the castle, are they?Wei Ran muttered secretly, and at the same time turned the page back again.

This photo on February 1970, 2 finally changed from black and white to color, but Dominic in the photo has also become a middle-aged man, and his uncle has gray hair.

On the contrary, the castle behind them already had a rough prototype, and the obvious Gothic spire could be seen.

Turning to the next page in 1975, Dominic's uncle was already on crutches, and the castle behind them seemed to have been completely completed.

Continue to turn back, in the photo in 1980, Dominic's uncle is already sitting in a wheelchair.

However, when Wei Ran turned to the photo on February 1985, 2, only Dominic was left in the photo, and the font on the page recording the time also changed again.

In the photo on the next page in 1990, there is still only Dominic alone. This former teenager was already on crutches early when this photo was taken.

It was also from this page that until 2005, the only change in the photo was that Dominic was in a wheelchair.

And after the photo on February 2005, 2
There are no more photos in this hardcover book, but even so, on each page, a series of dates are written every five years.

After a little thought, Wei Ran took out his mobile phone and took a photo of the 1990 photo of Mr. Dominique alone. Then he sent the book and all the things he just took out back to the safe and locked it, and carefully put the password into it. Disks are restored.

Getting up and leaving the room, Wei Ran took off his shoe covers, wrapped them with the gloves he took off, and threw them into the trash can together.

I took the elevator to the basement and took a look. The basement is not too big, and there are not many things. Apart from a few oak barrels, there are also stainless steel sealed tanks with coffee heads.Other than that, there is nothing superfluous.

Seeing this, Wei Ran turned around and returned to the second floor, and once again walked into the collection room that he had entered before.

However, this time, all his attention was on the vintage-style key nailed to the table.

Although it was still a guess, he had a hunch that this key was definitely related to the Gothic castle in the photo.

After thinking for a while, Wei Ran got up and left the collection room. By the way, he sent the photos he had just reproduced to Anfeya. At the same time, he also arranged a task in German: to find out the closed castles in Germany's Hürtgen Forest.

After Anfeiya sent an OK expression, he walked up the stairs to the terrace on the top of the building.

Although the area of ​​the terrace is small, it is full of flowers and plants. In the middle, there is a sun lounger and matching sun umbrella.

Walking to the railing and looking at Sui Sui who was wandering around the plantation with sisters Katenka and their three pets taking photos, Wei Ran turned around and sat on the sun lounger, took out his cell phone and dialed it to lawyer Carlos.
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