War Photographer's Notebook

On the quiet streets of the small town of Bad Hofgastein, Wei Ran, who had been shopping with Sui Sui for most of the afternoon, leaned on the railing of a small bridge and hung up the call from lawyer Carlos.

"Are we going back?" Before he put away his phone, Sui Sui, who was standing beside him, asked regretfully.

"On the contrary, we will continue to live here for a few more days."

Wei Ran picked up the paper bags containing all kinds of souvenirs at his feet again, and let Sui Sui hug her arm again, "Tomorrow morning, I'm going to talk to Mr. Sebastian... Well, you may Haven't seen him, he's one of the managers of the Elk Foundation, I have to meet with him tomorrow morning, and then I may have to deal with some things, so it will take a few more days."

"Can we still live in that castle?" Suho asked expectantly, "We haven't caught the ghost yet, and I haven't lived in the main building yet."

"sure"

Wei Ran smiled and nodded, but he was secretly laughing in his heart. It's okay to live in the castle for a few days, but this little girl's wish to catch ghosts is probably going to be completely defeated.

"That's good!"

Sui Sui immediately smiled again, and dragged Wei Ran to continue wandering aimlessly in this convalescent town.

As the evening approached, the two joined the Katenka sisters who were free to move around. With the purchased dinner and all kinds of food and drink, they drove back to the castle on the top of the mountain together.

Taking advantage of Sui Sui's time to soak in the hot spring before dinner, Wei Ran also went to the storage room and the sentry tower for a walk.

As expected, no matter the three pretending birdmen or the greedy Lily, they have all been taken away.Even the pigeon nests on the top of the sentry tower were cleaned up.

Satisfied, he turned and went downstairs. Wei Ran turned on the main power switch and lit up all the lights in the castle. Then he raised the drawbridge and closed the heavy hydraulically controlled city gate. Then he changed into loose pajamas, and he and Sui Sui's luggage was moved from the guest building to a room with the best view from the window on the top floor of the main building.

No wonder Dominique doesn't live here, no wonder he doesn't want the grandpa and grandson to know the existence of the two castles...

Wei Ran, who had been climbing the stairs all the way, lay on the soft big bed and muttered to himself, such a big building, just going up and down the stairs would be exhausting.

Not only that, even on the same floor, if he wanted to go from one end to the other, he wished he could build a bus station where he could swipe his card to get on the bus.

What's more, this castle is really too quiet. He and Sui Sui are accompanied by three pets and sister Katenka, so it seems more or less lively.

But what about Dominique or even the grandparents?
If that poor lonely old guy lived here, it would be no different from going to the grave early or confining himself to a cage.

Not to mention him, the grandparents and grandchildren may not be able to live here. On the contrary, after learning that the two castles cost such a large maintenance fee every year, they will put pressure on them through their status as heirs and try their best Cut off the maintenance money wasted on these two castles.

He even had a premonition that if that day really happened, Sebastian, the money target in the foundation, would definitely fully support the wise decision to stop maintaining the two castles.

Dominique, this guy is really sober...

Wei Ran, who wanted to understand the cause and effect, sighed secretly, then got up excitedly, pulled on his slippers, and went straight to the open-air hot spring pool on the second floor, which was full of laughter and laughter.

No more hauntings, and Lily has been taken away by someone arranged by Carlos's lawyer. Wei Ran's heart is naturally much more relaxed.

As the saying goes, people feel refreshed on happy occasions, and want to go to bed after eating and drinking.Although there were still no ghosts in the castle that night, Sui Sui, who was determined to catch ghosts, felt that the time before going to bed was more tiring than catching ghosts.

As for the Katenka sisters, the clever twins probably expected such an event, so they never lived on the same floor as their bosses.

In the blink of an eye, the next morning, Wei Ran was also rang by the phone.

When he fumbled to find the phone that had fallen on the carpet and pressed the connect button, the person on the other end of the phone immediately said, "Good morning, Mr. Victor, I hope I didn't disturb your sweet dreams."

Trying to open his eyes and look at the label on the phone screen, Wei Ran carefully pushed away the girl lying on his chest, and said, "Good morning, Mr. Sebastian."

"I'm already outside the castle, are you interested in having breakfast together?" Sebastian sent an invitation over the phone.

"Of course, but please wait for me a moment." After Wei Ran finished speaking, he hung up the phone and got out of bed lightly and stood up.

"What's wrong?" Suo Suo, who was sleepy, asked in a daze.

"I'm going to work, continue to sleep." Wei Ran helped the other party cover the quilt, and left the room with his clothes.

By the time he got dressed, brushed his teeth and washed his face, and then opened the gate and drawbridge of the castle, Sebastian, who was wearing a neat suit, had been waiting for a long time.

"It seems that I came early?" Sebastian's tone was exceptionally gentle, and his face was no longer serious like it was when he was at the headquarters of the Elk Foundation.

While grabbing Beria, Wei Ran said apologetically, "I slept too late last night."

"Didn't sleep well?"

Sebastian had been prepared to take out a piece of medium-rare steak from the paper bag he was carrying and threw it to Beria, but unfortunately, the dog just looked at him contemptuously and let out a stream of silky Drooling, but didn't eat the steak at all, didn't even lean in to smell it.

"It's a rare opportunity to live in such a beautiful castle, so it's inevitable that I'm a little excited." Wei Ran explained with a smile, then reached out and patted the dog's head, "Go and eat."

Before he finished speaking, Beria immediately picked up the steak, raised his neck, chewed it twice before swallowing it.

"Mr. Dominique asked me to tell you that if you like this castle, you are welcome to come here as guests at any time in the future, even if you stay here permanently."

While talking, Sebastian has already walked towards the locked church not far away.

"Do you need us to avoid it temporarily?" Wei Ran asked Gouzi, who was not eating enough, standing where he was.

"Need not"

Sebastian waved his hand, "Come here, the purpose of my coming here is to take you to the church and the basement according to Mr. Dominique's instructions."

Hearing this, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, turned on the recording function of the phone without any trace, then sent Beria away, followed Sebastian to the direction of the church, and asked at the same time, "Ting Lei Ms. Ya said that no one else is allowed to enter the church and the basement.”

"Indeed it is"

While Sebastian was speaking, he had already used a key to open the two wooden doors of the church carved with various religious patterns.

With a soft squeak, Wei Ran, who was standing a little behind, also saw the beautiful double-layered dome inside the church, as well as the lights that automatically turned on when the door was pushed open, and the dusty ceiling. crystal chandelier.

Of course, in addition to this, he also saw the cameras on the shelf in the center of the church hall, facing the gate, windows, the roof and even the ground.

In addition to the cameras, which were apparently still working, he saw a bronze icon that was almost identical to the one in the Elk Castle church.

And around the church, there are some other bronze statues. These statues in various shapes include boys and girls, some wearing the uniforms of the Youth League, and some wearing the uniforms of the Labor Corps.

Some of them held a pocket watch-style compass in their hands, some held two cans of spam luncheon meat, and some held a flower pot shaped like a steel helmet in their arms, or held a handful of A long-handled spoon of oatmeal, or with her hair in one hand and a cigarette in the other to her mouth.

What's more, two people are either holding hands and keeping running, or hugging each other, burying their faces on each other's shoulders, or sitting side by side, pointing to the distance, no one knows. scenery.

But without exception, these metal faces that will always maintain youth and vitality are all frozen
A bright smile, and a happiness that is completely contrary to the Naju uniform on her body.

Waiting patiently for Wei Ran to finish watching each bronze sculpture, which was at most shoulder-high, Sebastian said while dismantling the cameras, "You can enter the underground wine cellar through the door on the left side of the icon, Domi Mr. Nick said, you can go down and have a look.”

The other party has already talked to this point, Wei Ran naturally will not be hypocritical, and even asked actively while walking towards the icon, "Where is the room on the right?"

"Go and see for yourself." Sebastian, who was busy disassembling the camera, responded indifferently.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately walked to the room on the right and pushed open the solid wood door.As expected, this room is almost identical to the room behind the icon in the Elk Castle Church, except that there are no windows and no fireplace.

Bypassing the camera aimed at the door, he walked up the stone steps and opened one after another of the heavy metal doors that were stared at by the camera.

When he saw the sun again, he found that he had come to an arrow tower connected to the city wall. Not far away, there was a bronze statue of a little girl in a dress with outstretched arms on the top of the church.

Going back to the church the same way, after a while, Sebastian had already put the dismantled camera into a dusty plastic box.

Seeing that the other party didn't need his help, Wei Ran simply went into the room on the left side of the church, walked round and round along the spiral staircase, and finally came to the underground wine cellar of the castle.

With a sound of "crash", the iron fence door in front of him was opened. After some groping, Wei Ran found the power switch on the wall next to the door.

"Patta"

As the switch was flipped, the wine cellar, which was almost as large as the inner courtyard of the castle, was completely illuminated by successive lights.

As far as the eye can see, apart from the beautifully shaped load-bearing columns and the cast iron lamp holders installed on them, the only special buildings in this empty basement are just two corners, one big and one small. It is made of stone bricks, and it is just a cylindrical pillar that goes straight to the ceiling.

The small pillar is about four meters in diameter, and the larger one is probably nearly ten meters in diameter.

In addition to a circle of retro desk lamps on the small pillar, there is also a circle of solid wood tables that look extraordinarily thick. Various tools such as equipment.

On the large pillar not far away, in addition to relying on a wooden ladder that can be pushed and moved, there are also a pair of antler-shaped gun racks installed on it. American traditional lever rifles, revolver pistols, and even some more retro fronts, even matchlocks!

Turning around this oversized pillar, Wei Ran found that in addition to various American civilian weapons, there were also various bayonets, trench knives, fighting knives and sabers that were equipped by various countries during World War II. I saw an anti-Japanese broadsword that I don't know where I got it!

Recalling the situation in the courtyard of the castle, Wei Ran immediately realized that the old olive tree was directly above the oversized pillar, and the well in the courtyard was probably in the center of the thinner pillar.

"What can I do with this money, what's the use of building such a flashy castle..."

Wei Ran, who walked around in the empty underground wine cellar, muttered to himself, and went back to the church along the stairs.

Before he could find the answer, Sebastian, who was busy dismantling the monitoring equipment, said casually, "Lily will be extradited back to the United States, and then sent to the worst prison in the United States to spend every second of her life bell.

The three pretenders headed by Rhyme will be extradited back to Germany, and they will also be sent to prison for the rest of their lives, especially the man named Butch, who will become the darling of all gays in the prison. "

"this is…"

"The guarantee made by lawyer Carlos yesterday" Sebastian explained without waiting for Wei Ran to finish speaking.

"It's also a warning for me?" Wei Ran asked casually while helping the other party remove the camera.

"of course not"

Sebastian spread his hands in a friendly manner, "I just want to make you feel at ease, you don't have to worry about Lily having a chance to retaliate against you in the future."

"Her? Take revenge on me?"

Wei Ran smiled, threw the camera in his hand into the box, and said perfunctorily as sincerely as possible, "Thank you, after listening to you, I feel very safe. However, you will not just talk to me just for this matter. Did you meet?"

"Of course not, it's just a small talk while cleaning."

Sebastian pointed to the statues placed against the wall in the distance, "Mr. Dominique wants you to be responsible for transporting these statues to Elk Castle."

"Transport to Elk Castle?" Wei Ran was stunned.

"Mr. Dominique said the statues should have been in the church at Elk Castle."

Sebastian casually wiped the dust from his hands on the straight suit, "Now Leia is going on vacation, this matter can only be left to you, he hopes you can finish it before he leaves this world This job. Of course, I will help you arrange manpower and transportation.”

"I see. Reassure that old guy who's afraid of being alone. I'll personally oversee the delivery of these statues to Elk Castle."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran gently wiped the dust accumulated on Qiqi's statue's face with his cuff, and walked out of the church that was filled with dust and memories.