War Photographer's Notebook

"Why didn't you spare the children this time?"

In a hotel not far from the airport in North Augusta, Ania sat cross-legged on a soft sofa, while watching the news about the Charleston car accident on the news, she asked a question knowingly.

"I'm helping that little guy, and I'm helping myself."

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, with his back turned to his partner Aniya, Niner explained in slow Russian, "20 years ago, the person who killed my father kept me alive. During these 20 years , I have almost been living for revenge.

I don't want that little guy to live like this in the future, and I don't want to worry that a young man in his prime will come to me for revenge when I get old. "

Having said that, Ninel turned around, looked at his partner not far away, and asked very seriously, "Ania, do you know what is the best way to end the hatred?"

"Choose to forgive?" After Aniya finished speaking, a mocking look appeared on her own face.

"Is to eliminate all enemies and potential avengers"

Ninel took a sip of the fruit wine in his glass, "Revenge has nothing to do with justice or conscience. Whether it's an adult or a minor, whether it's a man or a woman, you won't have nightmares until you kill them all. As for forgiveness. "

Ninel sneered, and continued to speak slowly in Russian as he walked out, "Instead of asking me to forgive my enemy, let me ask my enemy to forgive me."

"Thank you," Aniya said abruptly.

"What?" Ninel stopped slowly.

"Thank you for choosing to let my enemies forgive me instead of asking me to forgive my enemies when I was 17 years old."

After finishing speaking, Ania showed a big smile with a hint of obscenity, "Also, when are we going to Ontario, Canada? I haven't seen the cute and sexy Kou Kou for more than 6 hours. As God bears witness, The way she hits people is so charming, I can't help but want to grab some extreme vegans as gifts for her."

The corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily, Ninel ignored the other party's stupid words, pushed open the door and went straight out. As for the tragic car accident on the TV news in Ania's room, it was naturally because of the couple who never left Ania from the beginning to the end. Gusta, the young men and women who have been watching the basketball game have nothing to do with each other.

For the car accident in Charleston, Wei Ran on the sugar maple farm in Ontario, Canada, where there is no internet or TV signal, of course, did not know about it.

At this time, he is busy making Beggar Duck with the help of Sui Sui and Kou Kou.

As for the beer duck that was originally ordered, although there is enough beer here, because the food box of the metal book is full of poisonous needles and stolen goods for murder at this time, there are no necessary Chinese seasonings at all, so naturally there is nothing you can do .

Fortunately, regardless of the taste of this novel way of eating beggar duck, at least the fun of playing with mud does not distinguish between nationality, race, and gender.

Fill the guts of the wild ducks that have been emptied and washed with a variety of vegetables that have been cut into large pieces, and then brushed with a thick layer of maple syrup and various seasonings that can be found, and finally thickened with tin foil and mud. A thick shell.

When they finally finished their work, Anfeisa had already lit a bonfire with the woman named Tantu in the open space outside the wooden house, and even Anfeisa followed suit by fishing her on the way here. The char that arrived was also wrapped tightly with tinfoil and mud.

He moved away from the bonfire and buried three mud balls of uneven size. Tantu, who is considered a half-landlord, also transferred some charcoal fire to a clean barbecue grill, and then brushed all kinds of vegetables and meat on the so-called ancestral secret. Prepared seasonings were sent in.

Of course, although this place already belongs to Canada, roasted marshmallows are still indispensable, such an American specialty snack that Wei Ran can't quite understand.

Compared with this thing, among this group of girls, there is a professional butcher. As the saying goes, Kou Kou, an unassuming little rich woman, has a cooking skill beyond everyone's expectations.

While waiting for the beggar duck and beggar fish to be cooked, with the help of Tantu and Sui Sui, she swiftly made a large pot of Provence stew that was quite delicious in color and aroma.

When the sun sets, the bright Milky Way lights up the silent night sky. By the edge of the beating bonfire outside the wooden house, the people sitting together enjoy a variety of delicacies and ice wine with cannabis specialties, while listening to the candor. The story of gods and monsters in Indian legends slowly told by the picture.

"So, the Wendigo you just mentioned is actually a monster that cannibalize people?" Sui Sui asked in English while scratching her limp duck neck after listening to Anfisa's translation.

"Actually the Wendigo is real"

Tan Tu changed into English and responded faintly. Such a sentence, combined with the beating bonfire and the very suitable cloud that was about to cover the starry sky, also successfully made Sui Sui shrink her neck.

After Anfisa translated this sentence to Kou Kou, the girl subconsciously moved her butt to Sui Sui's side.

Seeing the girls looking straight at him, Tantu took a sip from the wooden cup filled with ice wine, and said in a deep voice, "In the history of our Ojibwa people, hundreds of years of Over time, there were more than 70 cases of cannibalism, a phenomenon that has since been named Wendigo psychosis."

As soon as these words were spoken, the four girls shivered one after another as if they were infected.Just at this time, a bolt of lightning happened to light up in the dark clouds in the distant sky.

"Boom"

The dull thunder came from the sky, and Sui Sui subconsciously looked at the dark sugar maple forest in the distance, "That... I think we should go back to the room to rest?"

"I'm a little sleepy too." Kou Kou, who was also frightened, nodded immediately after listening to An Feiya's translation.

"Sorry, I seem to have scared you."

Tan Tu spread his hands innocently, "If you are really scared, you can also go to the dormitory of the sugar factory to rest with me, but it may be a bit noisy because it is next to the road."

"Let's rest here." Sui Sui didn't know what was on her mind, but after listening to Wei Ran's translation, she still insisted on choosing to stay.

"Keep the door locked at night"

Tantu stood up while speaking, and reminded as he walked towards the four-wheeled motorcycle not far away, "I can guarantee that there is no monster named Wendigo in this forest, but no matter whether it is a coyote, a moose, or a brown bear Far more dangerous than a Wendigo. Well, good night girls, good night Mr. Victor, I will bring breakfast over tomorrow morning."

"Good night"

Wei Ran responded in French, stood up and watched the other party drive in the direction they came from.

While the four girls were queuing up to take a bath in the washroom on the first floor, Wei Ran simply cleaned up all the food and drink before it rained. By the way, he added some firewood to the boiler for heating the bath water.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by a bolt of lightning that was almost close at hand, the rumbling thunder not only scared a certain girl in the room into a scream, but also brought a splash of rain.

Outside the door of the wooden house, Wei Ran stood in the corridor and glanced at the redwood trees in the distance that were occasionally illuminated by frequent lightning. He found the switch with the light of his mobile phone and lit the dim corridor light fixed on the door frame.

Although the man-eating monster Tantu just mentioned was a little scary, but he had to admit that the environment here was really good, especially on this windy and stormy night, it was indeed a good place for sleeping.

Seeing that the rain was getting heavier, Wei Ran, who was cool enough, also walked into the room with a trace of heat.

Locking the door behind him, he lay on the hammock and squinted his eyes. He watched the four girls who came out of the bath go upstairs together with peace of mind. Then he sat up again, took out his changed clothes and walked into the steamy bathroom.

It was just a matter of taking a shower. When he came out again, the rain outside the window had evolved to the level of a torrential rain amid the occasional thunder.

"Crack!"

After another sound of thunder that was almost at hand, the porch light outside the door was also extinguished. Not surprisingly, the girls Sui Sui and Kou Kou subconsciously exclaimed from upstairs.

“What a great place with a scary atmosphere”

Wei Ran muttered something, turned over and sat up, and with the light of his mobile phone, after searching for a while, he finally found a few extremely clean candle lanterns from the cupboard by the fireplace.

Lighting up these never-used lanterns, Wei Ran first hung one of them on the stairway leading to the second floor, and then took the initiative to give the girls in the two rooms a lamp, a pack of candles and A box of matches.By the way, two PSS small pistols were also sent to the Katenka sisters who lived in the same room.

Returning to the first floor and lying on the rickety hammock again, Wei Ran glanced at the doors and windows around him, and after a little hesitation, a Nagant revolver appeared in his hand.

Gently pulling the hammer and ready to shoot, after putting away the gun, he took out an extraordinarily gorgeous 1911 pistol pull sleeve and loaded it with bullets.

In the end, the titanium alloy pistol with the silencer screwed on was loaded with bullets and the metal book was retracted. Wei Ran, who did not admit that he was also frightened by the cannibal Indian story, closed his eyes with peace of mind.

With the help of the white noise brought by the rain curtain, the exceptionally fresh humid air, and of course, the hypnosis of the dim candle and the lantern, the young people who borrowed in this log cabin soon fell asleep.

This night, people who were obviously frightened by the horror stories slept very soundly. In the distant and warm Miami, the local police took advantage of the night to encircle and arrest a gang composed of Vietnamese refugees.

According to the suggestion of the Gravett family who donated a large amount of the latest police weapons and equipment to their police station, the white sheriff who directed this operation almost showed the posture he had when he helped the motherland steal oil in the Middle East battlefield. So from the beginning of the operation, those non-lethal weapons were left in the equipment room of the police station.

With the help of helicopters and overwhelming firepower, most of the gang that had existed in Miami for at least 20 years was wiped out. A full dozens of kilograms of unique products were produced.

Of course, such a harvest was not only a surprise to the police, but even the gang members who were arrested or directly killed and injured, and even the gang bosses were extremely surprised.

As for where these deadly unique products come from, those transport truck drivers who are in the apartment building across the street, drinking with their arms around the harder girls, and watching the excitement through the windows from time to time, are completely unaware.

After this rewarding night, before dawn, the actual person in charge of the Gravett family also received an email.

In this email, in addition to a photo of a film negative sufficient to prove the existence of an illegitimate child, there is also a photo of a needle tube full of blood.

According to the request in this email, as long as 500 million US dollars, the film negatives and the corpses of the owners of the blood in the needle tubes will be provided in full.

Originally, the actual person in power of the Gravett family didn't care about this, but when a white high school student stupidly delivered an insulated bucket to his door early the next morning and asked for 500 dollars for running errands, Greg The Levitt family finally realized something was wrong.

After carefully paying a full US$500 for running errands, they also found a needle tube buried in an ice pack from the thermos. The needle tube was naturally almost frozen blood.

The person in power who had been hiding behind the scenes from the beginning to the end quickly reacted and immediately tested the blood sample.

And less than 2 minutes after the test results came out, the second email was sent directly to her mobile phone.

"How about the test results? I also got a copy, do I need to send it to the media?"

Just by glancing at the grammatically incorrect query in the email, the person in power immediately realized something was wrong.

"How should I trust you?" The power man replied cautiously to such an email.

"Open the interlayer of the lid of the insulated bucket, and the negative film is inside."

"Insulated bucket! Bring that insulated bucket!" The person in power whom Carlos lawyer referred to as Cinderella immediately ordered loudly.

Soon, the insulation bucket that had been thrown into the trash can was brought over again, and the plastic cover was carefully pried off.

Sure enough, there are really negatives stored in sealed bags inside.It's just that this negative is only half a sheet, and the content inside is only the lower body of the sweet family of three.

"We can't come up with 500 million US dollars in cash for the time being, and only 200 million at most." Cinderella replied to an email after retreating from the screen.

"For the sake of helping me solve the more difficult ones, let's say 400 million. I think this must be the final transaction price that both of us can accept.

No matter the old banknotes without consecutive numbers, Bitcoin or the equivalent gold can be used to pay, we will give you a day, and you can send me a message when you are ready.

Of course, if you want that DNA comparison report to appear in the news, you can choose to solve it in a legal way. "

After receiving this email, Cinderella, who controlled the family wealth, was horrified to find that the emails in her mailbox were completely deleted one by one under her nose!
After a short period of sluggishness, the elderly woman finally sighed, picked up the landline on the table and dialed out.

400 million US dollars, if this price can buy the other half of the negatives and the life of the illegitimate child, then it is indeed a good deal, but whether the person who sent the email is trustworthy is a question that must be considered in advance.
On the same morning, Wei Ran and others on the north shore of Lake Superior were still trapped in the small wooden house by the pouring rain.

Even, because of the lightning strike last night, even the most basic power supply is lost in this small room without TV and internet signals, and the torrential rain that never stopped all night forced Wei Ran to ignite I installed a fireplace that was not used at all in summer, to add some warmth to this wooden house that has not been lived in for a long time, and by the way, it can also dispel the invading moisture.

"So Aurora, can we really make money in this forest?" Kou Koo asked while eating the breakfast delivered by Tan Tu in the rain.

"Of course!"

Sui Sui, who was also eating breakfast, made a sure promise, and then took advantage of Wei Ran's translation to look at Tan Tu, who was making coffee by the fireplace, and asked in English, "Tan Tu, how do you Indians make maple leaves?" Sugar?"

"The traditional method?" Tan Tu asked while busy.

"certainly"

Sui Sui dug a large spoonful of maple syrup into his mouth, and added as he chewed, "Besides the delicious maple syrup, if there are any traditional Indian crafts, you can also talk about them.

Believe me, I can let more people know about your Indian traditions, so that at least you don't have to worry about someday, these things will be snatched away by people with sticks. "

"Is it such a big man?"

Tantu smiled and made a hand gesture with his thumb and forefinger like a man with a stick will be ecstatic when he sees it. After Sui Sui showed an expression that you, a big sister, really understand me, he explained gently, "According to our The tradition of the Ojibwa Indians is to collect sugar maple sap in buckets made of birch bark in the spring, which is then distilled and purified.

Of course, I don't know exactly how to do it.However, while I can't boil maple syrup, I can make Indian feather crowns. "

As he spoke, Tantu pointed to a photo on the wall, "That's what my grandfather taught me, and I have been hunting and gathering with him in this forest since I was eight years old. Birds or hunted wild ducks or other waterfowl, we will collect good-looking feathers and make them into feather crowns.

Later, with the help of Mr. Dominique, I went to France to study fashion design, trying to incorporate Indian elements into the clothing. "

"It sounds very creative," Kou Kou couldn't help but say.

"yes"

Tan Tu spread his hands, "Unfortunately, I met a scumbag boyfriend who not only ruined my life but also my dreams, so I returned to this land again."

Seeing these women from all over the world shift the topic from how to make money to becoming rich to denouncing Tantu's scumbag predecessor, they are completely speechless, and they don't even want them to realize that there is a man in this room, Wei Ran , also quietly walked out of the room, sat on the bench outside the door, relaxed and looked at the rain curtain that almost blocked the sight outside, and the pond that was getting bigger and bigger.

Just as he let go of his daze, lawyer Carlos called.

"It's raining where you are?" As soon as the call was connected, lawyer Carlos heard the sound of rain.

"It started last night, it was very heavy, and it didn't mean to stop at all." Wei Ran, who had switched to German, raised his voice slightly, but even so, the thunder that sounded in the distance completely covered up his explanation go down.

"If you can hear me, let me make a long story short!"

Lawyer Carlos on the other end of the phone also raised his voice, "Victor, just last night, the Miami police raided a gang and seized tens of kilograms of drugs."

"I heard, is there any more?" Wei Ran asked loudly.

"In addition, the Gravett family stated that those recordings you provided played a very important role."

Lawyer Carlos coughed twice at this point, and then continued to say loudly, "For this, they are willing to pay 10 US dollars, and hope that you will keep the contents of those emails forever confidential."

"Is it necessary to sign a non-disclosure agreement?" Wei Ran asked loudly.

"Yes! As long as you sign the non-disclosure agreement, not only can you get 10 US dollars, but you can also become friends with the Gravett family." Lawyer Carlos said loudly.

"no problem!"

Wei Ran readily agreed. The content of the so-called email was nothing more than that crucial photo. As long as you keep the photo a secret, you can get 10 US dollars. This money is nothing but nothing.

"I will send someone to find you to sign the non-disclosure agreement as soon as possible"

Lawyer Carlos said loudly, "Send the money to you by the way, Victor, do you want cash or a check?"

"It will be all right!"

Wei Ran thought for a while and said loudly, "It's better to put this money in your account first! Then I can find you when I need money when I come to the United States in the future."

"no problem!"

Lawyer Carlos readily agreed, and then apologized and said that a call had come and terminated the call.

"Crack!"

Another thunderstorm left a dazzling flash in the rain, and Wei Ran, who was worried about being struck by lightning, also hurried into the room.

After just one phone call, the girls who were denouncing the scum just now had already sat around the table.The woman named Tan Tu also took out a large box full of feathers of various colors and fabrics of various colors and patterns from a locked storage room on the first floor.

Even before deciding to teach everyone how to make Indian feather crowns, Tantu also used cosmetics such as lipstick to give all the girls, including herself, a beautiful Indian-style face painting.

Seeing that he seemed to be a tribute prepared by the Indian female savage tribe to sacrifice to the Feathered Serpent God, Wei Ran, who was unreasonably associated with Jackie Chan and Captain Jack, could only sit obediently on the chair, quietly Helping these French and Russian gossiping girls in making feather crowns.