War Photographer's Notebook

Under the glare of the sun, an unremarkable dilapidated fishing boat slowly docked at a small pier outside Kirov city amidst the noise of the engine.

After the engine was turned off, Gorman handed a car key to Jima, "There is a van from the mental hospital in the parking lot, and there is a flight to Kazan this afternoon. I have bought the air tickets for you, and you Your communication tools are all in that car. Olga and Olena, your mobile phones and tablets are in the hands of your father, and he will pick you up in person later."

"Aren't you going back with us?" While Jima took the car keys, he had already helped Maya step on the springboard to board the pier.

"I won't go back," Gorman said and looked at Niniel, "What about you? Are you in a hurry to leave?"

"Don't go," Ninel responded and jumped off the pier, "I'm going to see Uncle Leva, friends, see you again when we have a chance."

Before he finished speaking, he put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the road outside the parking lot, and at the same time said additionally, "Throw away my mobile phone for me, it is useless."

"Hey!"

Olga, who jumped onto the pier, yelled. Seeing that the other party didn't stop at all, she immediately ran after him with her long legs, opened her hands to stop him, and then leaned into the other party's ear and said something.

After a little hesitation, Ninel reluctantly took out an atomic seal from his pocket, ignored Ivan who was just driving the car into the parking lot, grabbed Olga's little hand, and stamped an atomic seal on her wrist. Poked, then tossed the seal in his hand, and walked out of the parking lot freely.

"It's over!"

Olena, who got off the boat a little later, patted her forehead and looked at her father who was trying to get out of the van, but was held down by Karp and Darya's shoulders together.Then look at the wrist holding the other hand, with a smirk on his face, as if he saw his sister Olga at the wedding scene.Finally, she looked at Wei Ran as if she could only ask for help.

"I'm going back to Kazan, and I'm leaving at once."

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he didn't bother to say hello to Ivan and Karp, and urged Jima and Maya, who wanted to watch the fun, to get into the van as quickly as possible, before Ivan shouted his The name screamed before driving out of the parking lot and walking away.

"Olga, who was that bastard who dared to touch your hand just now!" Ivan, who was bearded and staring, finally jumped out of the van.

"Dad, I think I'm going to fall in love."

The grinning Olga said sweetly while clutching her wrists, "I think I might like that weirdo named Ninel."

"you"

Ivan was stunned for a moment, turned his head to look at Olena who had widened eyes in the distance, took several deep breaths, and finally said dotingly, "Good boy, get in the car! Dad will take you to chase Fuck him! We invite him to our house!"

"What did you say?"

Olga, who had summoned up all her courage and prepared for the worst, looked at her old father in disbelief.

"Invite him to our house and let your mother make him the best mushroom pie!"

Ivan confidently made the old father's promise, "Don't worry Olga, even if it is tied, I will tie him home!"

Olga subconsciously exchanged glances with her sister Olena behind her, then looked at their father, and Karp and Daria who had gotten out of the car and were obviously watching the excitement, and finally nodded excitedly, With a happy cheer, he got into the car.

"Do you know who that young man is?" Karp asked slowly, lighting a cigarette.

"Of course I know who that bastard is"

Ivan got into the cab while speaking, "But no matter who he is, as long as my daughter really likes him, even if he is an alien, he must come and sit at home.

Well, that's it!I'll take Olga to chase that bastard first.Olena, you and Aunt Daria Daria go back together first. "

After finishing speaking, Ivan stepped on the accelerator, drove the tattered van, rushed out of the parking lot roughly, and chased after him in the direction of Niniel.

Watching the father and daughter drive away, Karp also walked towards Gorman who was still standing on the pier, and Daria, who had obviously put on her make-up, waved her hand very gently to Olena who was thrown down , "Olena, we met at the beginning of the year, do you still remember? Your mother Yana and I have been good friends for many years."

"Remember"

Olena tiptoed to look in the direction where her father and sister drove away, and finally stopped Daria's arm affectionately, "Aunt Daria, should we catch up and see?"

"Don't you also like that young man named Ninel?" Darya asked with a smile.

"I'm not interested in that kind of weirdo." Olena shook her head without thinking, "I just want to see how stupid my sister looks when she's in a relationship."

"In this case, let's go and have a look!" Dahlia said, looking at Gorman who was not far away, "Are there any extra cars?"

"The SUV on your left, the key is inside." Gorman said from a distance, "Remember to drive me back to the mental hospital."

"Thank you"

After Dalia thanked her, she magically opened her satchel, took out a telescope from it and handed it to the wide-eyed Olena, "Take this, with it here, I'm sure I can see more clearly! "

"Why do you still carry this kind of thing with you?" Olena took the telescope and looked towards the end of the river curiously.

"Get in the car first, and I'll explain to you slowly on the way." Daria finished speaking, helped Olena open the co-pilot's door, and then walked to the driver's seat.

Watching the blood-related mother and daughter leave in the same car, Karp and Gorman, who were left in the end, looked at each other, and then heaved a sigh of relief.

"Will they recognize each other?" Gorman lit a cigarette, and asked a question with anticipation that he already knew the answer to.

"Maybe, maybe not."

Culp said ambiguously, "Before you are sure how much information the bell ringer has leaked, stay away from your family members, and your family members will be safer."

"Culp, I have a question."

Gorman exhaled a cloud of thick white smoke, pondered for a moment and asked, "Victor, young man, what do you think?"

"What do you want to express?" Karp asked with great interest.

"Is he really just an ordinary person?"

Gorman frowned and asked, "How long have we been looking for? How long has he been looking for? Half a month? I'm afraid it's less than half a month. And what happened to Comrade Apolly last time, Karp, I suspect he Maybe there is"

"Well, we suspected this matter two or three years ago."

Karp stopped Gorman's speculation, "I don't understand how he found it, but I can guarantee that he is indeed an ordinary person without any background. Or it can be said that, at least for now, we are him background."

"So...he's a genius?" Gorman asked, frowning. "Genius in history and finding missing persons?"

"Genius for finding missing persons?"

Karp laughed dumbfounded, and shook his head indifferently, "Maybe, but it doesn't matter whether he is a genius or not, and it doesn't matter how he found them."

"So the bell ringer thing"

"That thing doesn't need him to get involved"

Karp's tone and attitude immediately became more serious, "Not only him, but young people including Jima don't need to get involved. We can do this kind of thing ourselves. What's more, Victor even a Russian No, there is no obligation to take risks for us. But Ninel, what is his situation now?"

"Should still be investigating"

Gorman shook his head helplessly, "That little bastard is just as stubborn and crazy as his mother. I just hope he can live in safety, and I'll be satisfied if he doesn't become a criminal wanted by the whole world."

"He's an adult"

Karp sighed, "Okay, go to your hospital for a while, I haven't been here for a long time."

"Let's go." Gorman flicked the cigarette butt away, and pointed to the road in the distance, "My car was driven away by Dahlia, so we can only take a taxi back."

"This pier used to be very prosperous." Karp looked around with nostalgia, and walked towards the road in the distance.

Just when these two middle-aged people, who together could be almost a hundred years old, finally stopped a taxi and rushed back to the mental hospital, Jima also drove the van to Kirov's airport, almost choked, waving The ticket boarded a flight to Kazan.

"Victor, is Olga and Olena's father really that scary?" Jima didn't have time to ask until the four of them walked into the boarding gate.

"Absolutely a hundred times scarier than you can imagine"

Wei Ran couldn't help grinning, and said gloatingly, "Look, our weird friend Niniel is going to be in trouble, even if he is put into an oil drum and sinks into the bed of the Vyatka River, I don't care." strangeness."

"You should be glad that my father would never do such a thing." Thorne joked gloatingly as he hugged Jima's neck.

"Of course I believe that our father would never do this to me." Jima said shyly.

"If you don't change your title, I'm not sure I'd sink you in the riverbed."

Maya gritted her teeth and looked at Jima, then glared at her brother Thorn, "And you! Which side are you on?"

"Of course it's on my good brother Jima's side." Thorne said, and he and Jima walked shoulder to shoulder into the half-filled cabin.

Talking and laughing all the way back to Kazan by plane, after the flight landed smoothly in the heavy rain, it was no surprise that all passengers received warm applause.

Fortunately, he got off the plane alive, so Jima naturally wanted to take his brother-in-law Thorn to his house.On the contrary, Wei Ran declined their family gathering, and took a taxi back to his home by Lake Kaban alone.

But it was beyond his expectation. When he walked into the house in the rain, he immediately noticed that not only the sisters Sui Sui and Katenka, who had gone to France with the little rich woman Koko a week ago, had returned, but Miss Koko had also brought her back. Her legal adviser, Horta, followed her back.Even lawyer Carlos, who had been sent away by Wei Ran, came back!

It's just that these people are just like Lola and Sui Xin, almost all of them have more or less notes on their faces, or use various shades of lipstick to draw various shapes of little turtles and crabs.Especially lawyer Carlos, who is nearly [-] years old, his upper and lower lips were painted in death Barbie powder and gray and black with starlight colors.

Looking at the two mahjong tables set up in the lobby on the first floor, and the lipsticks that the young genius Kelawa held in his hand, who didn't know who they belonged to, Wei Ran couldn't help but patted his forehead, "Who are you?" What are you doing?"

"It's raining, and I can't go anywhere, so let's play mahjong together."

A little pink rabbit was drawn on the left side of the face, and a little red tortoise was drawn on the right side, like the referee of a tortoise and the hare race, Sui Sui explained with a silly smile, "By the way, I'm waiting for you to come back."

"wait me back?"

"I'm just waiting for you to come back"

Sui Sui pursed her lower lip, puffed her cheeks and blew on the note on her forehead, "Uncle Carlos has been waiting for you for two days, if I hadn't called Aunt Anna every day, I knew you would definitely If he could come back, he would have returned to the United States a long time ago.”

"He was looking for me"

"If you have something to say, wait until the dinner table, we will wait for you."

After Sui Sui finished speaking, she puffed her cheeks again, and blew off the three notes on her forehead in one breath, and then continued happily, "Anyway, go take a shower and change clothes, and we'll go to the basement to eat hot pot later!"

"do it"

Hearing this, Wei Ran simply suppressed the doubts in his heart, greeted the lawyer Carlos who had gone and returned briefly, and then went upstairs with a small amount of luggage.

When he got off after changing his clothes, lawyer Carlos finally barely wiped off the various patterns painted by Korava on his face.

"Why are you back again?" Wei Ran took advantage of the time when the girls went back to the room to touch up their makeup, sat down next to Lawyer Carlos, and asked in German.

"Remember that business deal I mentioned to you last time?"

Attorney Carlos asked while teasing Korava, who was playing a finger-scratching game with him, "The business where the illegitimate son of the Vietnam Veteran came back to fight for the family property."

"That rich man's wife you call Cinderella?" Wei Ran smiled, "Since you can appear here, does it mean that she has changed her mind?"

"Just four, probably five days ago, her son was brought to court by another lawyer representing the illegitimate son on suspicion of buying a murder, and he also notified several mainstream media of the key evidence. .”

Lawyer Carlos gloated a little, "Our Cinderella has been cornered, and her glass slipper is about to expire."

"After finding it?"

Wei Ran looked at Sui Sui who came down from upstairs, but asked in a low voice in German, "What if the investigation finds out that the illegitimate child is indeed the illegitimate child of the Vietnam Veteran?"

"That's not our business"

Lawyer Carlos said bluntly, "We are only responsible for the legal part. In addition, although the investigation fee this time is not as high as last time, it is still 80 US dollars."

"The legal part?" Wei Ran smiled, and asked a question, "What about the illegal part?"

"Victor, my friend."

Lawyer Carlos stood up and said in German finally before Sui Sui walked to Wei Ran, "I am a lawyer, and lawyers are always on the legal side."

"I don't guarantee that I will be able to find out a result that satisfies Cinderella"

Wei Ran also stood up and said very formally, "Just as lawyers are always on the side of law, historians are always on the side of objective historical truth."

"I'm glad you can say that"

Lawyer Carlos smiled confidently, "You only need to be responsible for finding out the historical truth, and leave the rest to me."

"80?" Wei Ran asked again.

"Finding out the historical truth is worth 80 yuan"

Lawyer Carlos paused, "Help our Cinderella keep her glass slipper, which is worth 400 million."

"Let me think about it first. Is it too late to make a decision tomorrow morning?"

"Of course, of course it's too late." Lawyer Carlos nodded amiably, took the umbrella handed by Lola by the way, followed him out of the room, and walked into the rain.

"Do you know the purpose of lawyer Carlos's visit?" Wei Ran changed into Chinese and asked Sui Sui who had washed her face and stood beside her.

"I know." Sui Sui nodded, "An illegitimate child worth 100 million robs the family property."

"What do you think?" Wei Ran asked Chao Suisui with great interest.

"Kamei has already found the illegitimate child." Sui Sui whispered into Wei Ran's ear.

"What did you say?!" Wei Ran looked at Sui Sui in surprise.

"real"

Sui Sui deliberately waited for Carlos' lawyer to go far away, and then walked into the rain screen together with Wei Ran holding an umbrella, and continued to explain in Chinese, "On the day Carlos came, I told the general situation of the incident and We talked about it, and then Kamei hacked into the mailbox of the attorney, and easily found the location of the illegitimate child.

Hmm, maybe it wasn't that easy, anyway, after working all night, Xiaokamei told me early the next morning that she had roughly determined the location of the illegitimate child. "

"It's so simple?" Wei Ran frowned subconsciously when he heard the words. If it was so simple, that "Cinderella" might not have to ask him at all.

"Kamei also thinks it's a trap"

The smug expression on Sui Sui's fair little face became more and more obvious, "So yesterday I asked for some information about that illegitimate child under the name of your assistant, and then let us find a big melon. "

"What melon?" Wei Ran moved the umbrella towards the opponent's side, "If you have something to say, finish it at once."

"Kamei said that the illegitimate child is likely to be a fake, because she can see the traces of disguise from the comparison of several photos of the other party."

Sui Sui gave a thumbs up while speaking, "At this point, I think you can completely trust Kamei's makeup skills and eyesight. In addition, she also investigated that Cinderella."

"What did you find?" Wei Ran asked.

"How did Carlos talk to the Vietnam Veteran you described?" Sui Sui asked a question before answering the question.

"Let me think."

Wei Ran slowed down his pace and recalled for a moment, and then replied, "Her husband participated in the Vietnam War as a helicopter pilot, and was captured later. He didn't come back intact until the second year after the end of the Vietnam War."

"Although the facts are true, in fact, that Cinderella probably concealed a very crucial sentence of history."

Sui Sui lowered her voice, and said almost close to Wei Ran's ear, "According to Kamei's online investigation, that Cinderella's husband is indeed a helicopter pilot, but the helicopter he drives is actually used to spray a chemical called orange potion stuff."

"What did you say?!" Wei Ran immediately widened his eyes.

"Looks like you know that stuff"

Sui Sui didn't know if she thought of something, or because the rain made her feel cold, so she shivered uncontrollably, "Besides, Cinderella's husband returned to China after the end of the war. I became an employee of Monsanto, you must know about Monsanto, right?"

"I know." Wei Ran nodded, "The company that dumped genetically modified soybeans."

"That's the company"

Sui Sui simply stopped in her tracks, hugging Wei Ran's arm, moved closer and continued to share the information that Anfeiya had investigated, "Cinderella's prince worked in Monsanto for 11 consecutive years, and then left to set up a family of his own. Chemical pharmaceutical company, and realized wealth freedom in a very short period of time, became a rich man in the true sense."

After a short pause, she greeted Kou Kou and Anfeisa who were chasing up with an umbrella, and then waited patiently for Anfeiya to push Sui Xin to walk over. Then she continued, "Last year , Bayer, which sells cockroach medicine, acquired Monsanto. In the second month of this incident, the stock price of Cinderella's company doubled.

Then, in the fifth month, there were actually rumors that the illegitimate child came to divide the family property, but this matter was quickly suppressed.At that time, the nominal father of the illegitimate child, Cinderella's husband, was actually still alive and healthy. "

"Then Cinderella's prince died?" Wei Ran frowned and asked.

"right"

Sui Sui nodded, "Just last Christmas, that old guy passed away very suddenly, and he was cremated on the day he passed away."

"There are a lot of stories here." Wei Ran raised his eyebrows and muttered, and then said, "Tell me what you think."

"I think it's best not to get involved"

Sui Sui expressed her attitude bluntly, "You, a little historian, can't even make a fuss about such a fight between gods and gods. And no matter whether the illegitimate child is real or fake, if there is no point behind him How could the people who supported him dare to jump out and fight for the family property."

"So you rejected Lawyer Carlos?" Wei Ran asked with great interest.

"Don't!"

Sui Sui proudly gave a contradictory suggestion, "Promise him! Talk to him about the price, talk about $100 million! Then we'll investigate!"

"just."

"Investigate, and didn't say that we must find out the results."

Sui Sui smiled and thought about her calculations, "It doesn't matter even if you can't find anything, but someone offered 100 million yuan to ask you to investigate, just this gimmick is enough. Of course, don't be like Mr. Dominic that time What nondisclosure agreement was signed?"

"Aren't you afraid of that Cinderella's revenge?" Wei Ran asked dumbfounded.

"Even if we don't promote it, the other party will help us promote it."

Sui Sui said confidently, "Anyway, as long as you don't produce results, they don't have to pay. And they are also sure that they won't let you produce any results."

"why?"

"It's just a bluff. Could he not know if that Cinderella's prince had an illegitimate child? If he really didn't, how could he die so suddenly and burn so cleanly?"

Sui Sui curled her lips, and explained with an example, "Like those celebrities, if someone blows up their big melons, if it's a rumor, it will be hardened to the end, but what if it hits the spot?
Their studio will say, us!Which well-known big law firm has been found to prepare for it!We called the police!You are fucked!You wait!We're going to sue you soon! "

"You can see clearly." Wei Ran shook his head dumbfounded.

"Doing business is nothing more than going back and forth"

Sui Sui said nonchalantly, "The first time I saw you use this trick when you parachuted, it's a pity that it didn't scare Aunt Dalia and the others."

Just you little girl?Still trying to bluff them?
Wei Ran twitched the corner of his mouth, but found helplessly, it seemed that this was really the case in essence!And Sui Sui's analysis made him see clearly that this job can indeed be taken over, but the 100 million US dollars is indeed a matter of life or death.

But well.
Wei Ran couldn't help but glanced at the tattoo on the tiger's mouth on his left hand. It seemed that there was no way to get the 100 million, but the bell ringer might be able to meet and have a chat.

Thinking of this, he hugged Sui Sui's slender waist and said while walking towards the entrance of the basement, "In this case, shall I go to America?"

"go together!"

Sui Sui raised her chin toward the entrance of the basement, "Sister Kou heard that we have a cooperative farm in the United States, and she wants to visit it. If possible, she wants to hand over a large farm under her name to me Use whatever you want."

"That silly girl is going to be limp by you, isn't she?" Wei Ran shook his head helplessly.

"Sister Kou is far smarter than you think"

Sui Sui was very serious this time, "She obviously doesn't want to be bound by that elk foundation for the rest of her life, so she wants to work hard to build her own business, otherwise why do you think she came to our house? Could it be that you thought she saw fuck you?"

"Then you have to struggle for decades?" Wei Ran joked with a playful smile.

"No!"

Sui Sui glared at Wei Ran, and then said with a smile, "Many of you have struggled for decades, and found a place with good feng shui to plant you in one step!"

"Forget it, I'll fight on my own."

Wei Ran wisely changed the subject before entering the basement, "When are we going to America?"

"How about the day after tomorrow?" Sui Sui asked with a smile, "We've already bought our tickets. We'll go directly to Houston, to Lawyer Carlos's law firm."

"The day after tomorrow, let's do it the day after tomorrow!" Wei Ran nodded happily, but he began to look forward to what kind of story he would hear from the bell ringer.