War Photographer's Notebook

As the May Day holiday approaches, Sui Sui stays longer and later in the office on the second floor of the library because there are more and more tourists. The Jianka sisters directly disconnected from the Internet, and it was considered as the end of the whole day's work.

Seeing that he could do nothing but carry people home to eat and sleep every day, Wei Ran simply bought a plane ticket and flew to Paris, France alone.

As soon as he walked out of the pick-up gate, Mr. Dominic had arranged to receive him, the strong man who likes dogs immediately waved the pick-up sign with colorful lights at him.

"Mr. Victor, we meet again." While shaking hands with Wei Ran, the strong man subconsciously looked behind Wei Ran.

"Leon, right?" Wei Ran said with a smile, "I'm disappointed, Beria didn't follow this time."

"Yes Mr. Victor, my name is indeed Leon."

The strong man quickly looked away, scratched his head in embarrassment, "I thought you would take him with you, I also prepared the beef stick bones that were slaughtered this morning for Beria."

"I will bring it here again when I have a chance." Wei Ran made a promise, dumbfounded, "Okay, let's rush there now."

"come with me"

The strong man immediately took Wei Ran's not too much luggage, took him out of the airport, and got into the commercial vehicle again.

Looking at the big fleshy bone with a bow tied on the seat beside him, Wei Ran twitched the corners of his mouth, pretending that he was blind, and closed the car door directly.

"Mr. Victor, will you live near your destination tonight?" Leon, who was in charge of driving, asked hesitantly.

"What's wrong?"

Wei Ran looked into the other person's eyes through the rearview mirror between the driver's and co-pilot's seats and asked, "If you have any suggestions, you can just say it directly, don't be so cautious, I'm not Mr. Dominique."

Hearing this, the big man immediately breathed a sigh of relief, then slowed down the speed a little and explained, "You are going to the 10th arrondissement of Little Paris."

"Little Paris?"

Wei Ran didn't know why he looked at the other party. Don't look at him learning French from French prisoners of war in Finland, but he has never been to France. It can even be said that the only thing he knows about this country is the average tanned person. armpit.

"France is nothing but Paris"

Lyon explained with a hint of ridicule, "The Paris mentioned here is Little Paris, and the place outside Paris is Greater Paris."

"City and suburban counties?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and urged with great interest, "Continue, is there anything special about District 10?"

"There are two train stations and there is a lot of traffic, so there are a lot of thieves and robbers, especially when the lights are on."

Leon paused, and added an extra sentence, "In addition, the address you want to go to is also very close to the Place de la République, which is a regular venue for protest demonstrations in Paris.

So if you plan to live nearby, not only it is best not to go out after the street lights are on, but it is also best not to go out during the daytime on Saturdays and weekends, otherwise you will have to go to *** with everyone.Believe me, Monsieur Victor, it's definitely not as fun and safe to watch a French f**k as it is to watch one. "

"Extremely French..." Wei Ran said with the corner of his mouth twitching. "Indeed, very French."

Leon said regretfully, "It might be safer if you take Beria with you, but for yourself, I suggest that you better stay in another place."

"I'll think about it"

Wei Ran glanced at the local time on the phone screen, "It's better to get to the destination as soon as possible."

"Good sir" Lyon hadn't finished speaking, and he had already stepped on the accelerator slowly to increase the speed of the car.

After passing through traffic lights and experiencing several traffic jams, at 42:[-] in the afternoon, while steering the car to turn right, Lyon pointed to the statue of the Goddess of the Republic in the center of the roadside square and said, "On our left is the Republic Square , no exaggeration
Seriously, sex here is like the bronze woman's period.Although I don't know when and how many times I come, but I always come at least once a month. "

"You'd better not let the French hear that," Wei Ran reminded happily.

"Thank you, but it's from my wife's own mouth."

Leon shrugged, "She is French, and I met her at the protest event here. You will not believe it, they were protesting that Paris always held protests through protests. *Activity, which has affected everyday life.”

"This"

Wei Ran grinned, changed the subject and asked, "What about you? Are you French too?"

"I'm Belgian, but I grew up in a French-speaking area."

Before Lyon finished speaking, he had already steered the car to turn left, and stopped at the door of a Chinese restaurant with a signboard in traditional Chinese characters, "We are here. According to the address you provided, the destination is just across the road."

Hearing this, Wei Ran shifted his gaze from the Chinese restaurant on the left side of the car to the right side.

Across the road, just above the window of a shop facing the street, hangs a wooden signboard that looks very old. On the left hand side of the window, there is a wooden door that is probably less than 1.5 meters wide.

"***? This name"

Wei Ran grinned at the French shop name on the signboard, and then couldn't help but look in the direction he came from behind. This jewelry shop named "***" is probably 500 meters away from the Republic Square that he just passed by in a straight line. nothing.

This is also thanks to the fact that there are enough jewelry for display in the window next to the door, otherwise, he would have even thought that the wooden signboard was a slogan in support of the protest.

After thinking for a while, Wei Ran opened the car door and said, "Leon, wait for me here, I may come out soon."

"Okay Mr. Victor." Lyon also pulled the handbrake of the car while speaking.

Jumping out of the carriage and walking across the road, Wei Ran hesitated for a while, then stretched out his hand and pushed open the old wooden door.

As far as the eye can see, the area of ​​this store is not small, and the area that can be seen is probably hundreds of square meters.But what didn't match it was that in such a large store, apart from a few jewelry display cabinets near the window, the rest of the space was filled with a billiard table, an LCD TV, and a set of sofas.

Looking at the workbench next to the jewelry display cabinet and the various licenses hanging on the wall behind the workbench, Wei Ran couldn't help feeling a little bit surprised and disappointed.

It is more accurate to say that this is a workshop rather than a jewelry processing company.

In particular, on the walls around the licenses, the photos displayed in large and small photo frames seem to have been taken during the Communist Party.

Even, in the center of this pile of photo frames, there is still a black flag painted with symbols of unknown meaning.

Looking at the few people who were sitting on the sofa watching the football match on TV, he even had the urge to turn around and leave.

Among these people, there is an old man in his 60s or 300s who looks about six or seven points similar to Mr. Corn, a middle-aged woman wearing a black suit skirt who has stood up at this time, and a Holding a crepe and holding a can of beer in one hand, it must be a big fat man weighing [-] catties depending on the tonnage.

Before the woman who had stood up could speak, and before Wei Ran could open his mouth, the chubby fat man had put down the beer can and stood up with great effort, asking with extra enthusiasm in French, "Want to buy jewelry?" Or do you want to sell stolen goods?"

"Sell stolen goods?"

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, and also didn't give the woman a chance to speak, and asked along the topic, "Do you still accept stolen goods here?"

"Only accept gold and gemstone jewelry and high-end watches"

The man stuffed the last bite of crepe into his mouth, bent over with great effort and pulled out a few pieces of paper from the table to wipe off the sauce on his hand, "If it's something like a cell phone camera, please don't send it over. gone."

"What business do you still do?" Wei Ran asked with a smile

"Precious metal smelting service is also available"

The fat man wiped the corner of his mouth and said as he walked towards the counter, "If you have anything valuable, hurry up and take it out, this may be the last day we do this kind of business."

"Mr. Alan, if I'm not mistaken, this should be Mr. Victor who is planning to buy this store."

Seeing Wei Ran looking at her, the woman in formal attire immediately introduced herself, "Hi, Mr. Victor, I'm Horta, one of the legal advisors of the Elk Foundation, Mr. Sebastian showed me your photo."

"Hi Ms. Horta, sorry to trouble you this time."

Wei Ran politely shook hands with the other party. This time he came to France to buy this disappointing small shop. Speaking of which, it was Sebastian who took the initiative to ask for help. As for the purpose, he naturally wanted to see the sincerity of the other party.

"This is Mr. Alan Gunding, the owner of the *jewel."

After Horta waited for Wei Ran to shake hands with the oversized fat man, he extended his hand to the "Pirate Khrushchev" who had already stood up and introduced, "This is Gaspard Gundin, the founder of *** Jewelry. Sir, he was once a well-known pearl."

"Hello, young man"

Gaspard shook Wei Ran's hand without waiting for Ms. Horta's introduction, "If you don't mind, let's sit down and talk, Alan, pack these things up quickly."

"You came so fast"

Alan muttered vaguely, picked up a trash can, and dragged all the unfinished snacks on the table in the middle of the sofa into it.

"Let's go straight to it"

Alan turned the volume down on the TV and said, "I have to own at least 25% of ***, the company has to be still here, it has to be named ***, it has to be run by me and my father." designer.

If I have a child in the future, if my child is also willing to be a jewelry designer, he or she must get the best designer job, even if it is not the only designer. Apart from these conditions, other things can be discussed. "

"The store itself is not for sale, and it is not considered a real asset, but it can be used as capital to exchange for the 25% of the equity." Gaspard, the old man sitting next to him, added.

"Can I know the reason?" Wei Ran waved his hand to signal Horta not to rush to negotiate.

"The current turnover of this store is not even as high as renting out the house to collect rent."

Gaspard pointed to the top of his head, "When *** was at its most glorious, this building was all assets of ***, but now there are only this shop and a house on the top floor for living in."

Speaking of this, Gaspard looked at Alan next to him, "Now I need a lot of money to help my son Alan lose weight. He is already so fat that he has to consider removing the door frame if he wants to go out."

"Besides my health, to make this jewelry company work, I need enough money to purchase expensive raw materials. If there are no gems and precious metals, those jewelry made of crystal and silver will not bring much profit. .”

"Alan is right"

Gaspard sighed, "So selling part of the equity in *** is our only option at the moment, for the sake of Alan's healthy life and the healthy life of this store."

"The name of this shop..."

"I refuse to explain the origin of the name," Gaspard replied without thinking.

Alan spread his hands, "In fact, even I don't know why this store is called ***, even if I am his son."

"Okay, how much?" Wei Ran, who didn't want to waste time, asked the most important question.

Hearing this, Gaspard and Alan looked at each other, and when the former nodded, the big fat Alan immediately said, "[-], [-] euros, in cash."

"Mr. Victor"

Horta, who had never had a chance to speak before, said in French at a very fast speed before Wei Ran spoke, "The price is too high. The combined turnover of this company in the last year is less than [-] yuan." Oh, and the only thing they're currently worth is this store

If the content of the transaction does not include real estate, the store company is only worth 75 euros at most.Even, because only [-]% of the equity can be obtained, even [-] Euros is an exorbitant price. "

"You heard it," Wei Ran said, "Mr. Gaspard, Mr. Alan, now it's your turn."

Gaspard and his son Alan looked at each other, sighed and said, "5%, the lowest we can accept..."

"2%"

Horta set a new price, "Mr. Gaspard, if you want to sell this store for a high price of 2 euros, and you want it to continue to operate under the name *** at this location, at most You can only hold a symbolic [-]% stake.”

"Designer's seat..."

"The designer's seat can be reserved for you and Mr. Alan"

Wei Ran hurriedly said before Horta opened his mouth, "This company is still operating at the current location, and you don't need to change the storefront, but correspondingly, you can't receive the store rent. In addition, even if you and As a designer, Alan does not have the final decision-making power of this store, and he will not be the only designer.”

"4 euros, [-]% perpetual equity."

Gaspard offered a new price. "This store is 35 years old, and she deserves the price."

"Before that, can you tell me what happened to Mr. Alan's business of collecting stolen goods when I walked in just now?" Wei Ran abruptly changed the content of the chat.

"I always want to make some money." Alan said nonchalantly, "Collecting stolen goods is the only source of income for *** now."

Glancing at Horta who nodded slightly, Wei Ran finally said, "Then 4 euros plus [-]% of the equity. In addition, the future raw material supply of this store will be in charge of special personnel. You only need to be responsible for the design and daily work. business will be fine.”

"Can you still do the business of smelting precious metals and collecting stolen goods?" Alan asked unwillingly. "Of course not" "Of course I can"

Wei Ran gave a completely different answer from lawyer Horta, and then raised his finger to the top of his head, "But you have to do it in your own room, this kind of behavior has nothing to do with sex."

"Young man, get the cash ready," Gaspard said impatiently, "We'd better get the deal done today."