War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1851 Familiar Perfume (Additional chapter for Atlantic Shark, thanks to the three leaders for the reward!)
As the white light faded, Wei Ran left Clara's dream and returned to the basement of the small western-style building.

He picked up the phone on the table and checked the time, then looked at the several missed calls and unread messages. He just packed up various things in the basement, then went upstairs alone, went into a room at random, covered himself with the quilt, and fell asleep again.

When he was awakened by the ringing of the phone again, the bright sunshine had already occupied the room on the first floor facing the courtyard gate.

I took out my cell phone and looked at it. It was Sui Sui calling. It was obvious that she was worried about me.

"I just woke up." Wei Ran yawned as he spoke after answering the phone.

"In Tianjin?" asked Sui Sui on the other end of the phone.

"right"

“I’m done here.”

Sui Sui didn't even ask him where he went yesterday, and she didn't need to ask. She had already asked Kajianka to help her check the surveillance camera at the door of the small western-style building. Her man didn't leave after he arrived here yesterday, and no one came to visit him at all.

Even when she called him, she was just worried that he would starve to death because he was so busy investigating.

"I'm almost done with my work," Wei Ran said as he got up. "I'll be able to go back today."

"No need to come back"

Sui Sui said helplessly, "The latest news is that my parents and your parents took my grandparents and your grandparents out to play, and they asked the two of us to spend the Lantern Festival with them."

"Are you worried that you won't be able to feed so many mouths during the Lantern Festival?" Wei Ran joked with a smile, and his mood also improved a little.

“Don’t guess”

Sui Sui clearly refused to admit it, and instead asked excitedly, "Anyway, we don't have to go back to celebrate the Lantern Festival. I have also sent Mr. Sebastian away. What are your plans next?"

"Next"

Wei Ran thought about it, then said with a smile, "There are some arrangements to be made next. If you have time, come with me to the Japs."

"Great! I can take everyone to Di."

"Go with fewer people and don't make too much noise." Wei Ran reminded helplessly.

"Forehead"

Sui Sui thought for a moment and said as if she was flipping a card, "Then let's take the Kajianka sisters and Marta, and we have to bring Xinda with us."

"Do you want to come to me, or should I come to you?" Wei Ran asked cheerfully.

"Come here."

Sui Sui said happily, "I'll arrange to buy the plane tickets and stuff. By the way, where are we going?"

"Kyoto"

Wei Ran said that he actually wanted to go to Zhengzhou, Shengzhou, Shaoguan or even Kuala Lumpur first, but reason told him that he must go to Kyoto first, and then he could "naturally" find some "clues".

"Leave it to me!" Sui Sui hung up the phone before she finished speaking.

Putting away his phone, Wei Ran went into the bathroom and took a good shower. Then he took the high-speed train to the capital and met up with Sui Sui and others who were already waiting for him.

"Let's go to the airport now!" Sui Sui put her arm around Wei Ran and said happily as they walked, "If we hurry, we can still catch a flight."

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"of course"

Sui Sui showed off proudly, "In view of my help to Koko and the huge profits I brought to the Elk Foundation last year, Mr. Sebastian took the initiative to say that he could give me an additional 5% investment quota every year."

“So generous?”

"This is what that stingy guy asked me for."

Sui Sui became more and more proud. "If I fool around for a few more years, maybe I can move the headquarters of the Elk Foundation to China."

"I wish you success." Wei Ran smiled, "What about the others?"

"Qin Qi invited Koko to Hangzhou to discuss filming. Some of the others went with her, while others returned to Kazan."

After saying that, Sui Sui asked, "What are we going to do this time?"

"Go chase stars" Wei Ran gave an answer.

"Star chasing?" Sui Sui thought for a while, "Do you have a favorite Japanese star? Wear clothes or not."

"It's a small underground idol group called He Shoujo. It's related to what I've been investigating recently. They wear clothes."

With an inconspicuous glance at the Kajianka sisters who came to pick him up at the airport, Wei Ran switched to Russian and recounted in great detail the process of finding the "He girl", starting from the time when the "nuclear friend" received the threatening letter.

Naturally, the most crucial credit was given to Anfia, who had realized something was wrong when he switched languages, and the network power she controlled.

"How did you find it?" Sui Sui asked Anfia with admiration before getting into the car.

“This is actually very simple.”

Anfia, who was urgently searching on her phone on the way to the parking lot, replied in a nonchalant tone, "Check the time when the letters were sent, and then see if there are any overlapping events in the time and location of these letters."

After a short pause, Anfia got into the car and sat down. "Although the activities of this underground idol group do not overlap, I found that most of the addresses of the letters are not far from the cities where they perform.

Of course, this is just an example. In reality, it is not that simple. It involves a lot of expertise in network attack and defense as well as information retrieval.”

"Little Kamei, you are so awesome!" Sui Sui exclaimed.

I'm not awesome at all! I just made it up!!

Anfia screamed in her heart. She found that her boss was getting more and more excessive. In the past, he would at least give her some information in advance so that she could weave lies without loopholes.

But now this boss didn't even give her time to prepare in advance. Anfia even suspected that this was Wei Ran's annual assessment for her.

I should be able to pass.
Anfia couldn't help but speculate, and at the same time she noticed that her sister sitting next to her began to be alert.

Apparently, Anfisa had similar guesses and was ready for the test. She even let Marta drive the car and Lucinda, who was sitting in the passenger seat and was responsible for navigation, take over the driving duties.

Unfortunately, her preparations were destined to be in vain. Until the car drove from the high-speed rail station to the airport, until the six of them began to prepare to board the plane, until Wei Ran and Sui Sui had already talked about what fun things to do when they arrived in Kyoto, her "assessment" did not even appear.

With the multiple-entry travel visa that he had obtained during the last recruitment, Wei Ran and the girls were able to rush to Osaka for the recruitment as quickly as possible.

"He Girl has an underground performance tonight"

Anfisa shook the information she searched on her phone and said, "It will take about an hour and a half to drive there. If we drive faster, we might be able to catch up with them."

"I've rented a car," Anfia said, "it's right outside."

"Do you want to go and take a look?" Sui Sui asked. She seemed to be more excited than Wei Ran.

"Let's go and take a look." Wei Ran nodded, and followed Anfia to find a business car that she had arranged in advance.

When Marta followed the navigation to start the car running, Sui Sui, who had been racing against time all the way, finally had the chance to take the tablet computer handed to her by Anfia and take a look at the relevant information about this "He Girl".

"A small group of three? The oldest is only 21?"

Sui Sui looked at the information that Anfia had searched for, and asked Wei Ran, who was sitting next to her, in a strange tone, "Are you sure it was these little brats who sent the threatening letters?"

“I’m not sure”

Wei Ran once again put the blame on Anfia, "Anfia said it was probably them, so I came here. Besides, you are not much older than them."

"Thank you for your trust, boss. I am very sure it is them."

Although Anfia, who was sitting in the front row, spoke sincerely, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"I also believe in Kamei's ability"

Sui Sui said proudly. Of course she was proud. Anfia was her assistant. As for the big brat, she didn't understand the barking of a dog.

During the discussion on the topic of "He Girl", Marta drove them for nearly two hours, and finally arrived at the door of a bar in Xiajing District before 10:30 in the evening.

"The public security in Shimogyo-ku is not very good," Marta said as she pulled the handbrake. "It is basically always in the bottom three in terms of public security in Kyoto, especially in a place like this with many bars."

“Worse than the bar street in Kazan”

Anfisa gave her evaluation nonchalantly. Although she and Anfia had no hobby of going to bars and nightclubs, such places were particularly suitable for temporarily borrowing communication equipment from some kind-hearted people. What's more, Greva's gang operated many bars in Kazan, so it was naturally not surprising.

After getting out of the car, Wei Ran took a look at the glowing logo on the door of the bar and couldn't help but reveal a strange smile on his face.

That's a white anti-war sign, but
Wei Ran shook his head. There was a yellow star on each of the three points connecting the "chicken claw" in the middle of this anti-war symbol and the circle below.

This is interesting. If you ignore the glowing and even dazzling anti-war signs and only look at the three yellow stars, you can barely regard them as the three stars of Orion.

Is there anything special about this?
Of course, of course it is special, especially for JRA, these three stars have special meaning. Not to mention, there is a same one on the roof of a classroom at Kyoto University.

Is this not concealed at all? Wei Ran's expression became more and more strange.

"Is there anything special about this anti-war symbol?" Sui Sui asked curiously when she got out of the car a little later.

“It’s really something special”

Wei Ran was not in a hurry to push the door open. He stood beside the car and explained the key points of the relationship between the three stars and JRA.

"So this place is the headquarters of some underground idol?"

Sui Sui asked curiously, "Don't underground idols make money? Many of them are so poor that they have to sell their bodies. How can they afford such a big bar?"

She was indeed right. This bar was indeed quite large. There were six or seven parking spaces outside alone.

"That's what I'm doing"

“I think I can answer this question.”

The one who spoke up was Marta, who had been driving all the way. "I've been to this place before. When I was studying, I even came to this bar to sing for a while."

"You've been a resident singer here?" Sui Sui asked in surprise, "Is it such a coincidence?"

“Not a coincidence at all”

Marta pointed to the conspicuous anti-war sign, then pointed to herself, "I'm from Donetsk, and that sign is attractive enough for me."

"makes sense"

Wei Ran and others nodded in agreement. Peace is something that has great appeal to people in the midst of war - even if it is just a symbol.

However, Wei Ran said something stupid while nodding, "Marta, I remember the first time you interpreted for me was in Sapporo, right? Why did you travel so far to perform here?"

“Because it was winter then, I was just working part-time as a ski instructor in Sapporo.”

Marta reluctantly introduced herself, seemingly a long time late, "Victor, I was an international student studying at the Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University."

"Don't look at me. I already knew it. I just wanted to see when you would remember it."

When Sui Sui saw Wei Ran looking at her, she quickly expressed her opinion. She refused to admit that she had forgotten about this matter a long time ago.

"Since you've been here to perform, why don't you tell me what you know?"

Wei Ran was no longer in a hurry to go in at this time. He didn't expect that Marta had been here.

"The owner of this bar seems to be Mao, but I'm not sure about her last name."

Marta said, "In short, she was a very straightforward female boss. After she learned that I was from Donetsk, she even doubled my salary."

"So are you still in touch?" Sui Sui asked immediately.

“I’m just a resident singer.”

Marta spread her hands and said, "I've only seen her twice in total, and one time she was even drunk and vomiting while holding the toilet bowl."

"That's all?" Wei Ran asked.

"that's it"

Marta thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "Then I wanted to answer Aurora's question just now. Mrs. Mao was very generous."

As she spoke, she pointed to a sports car parked not far away and said, "That blue sports car is hers. In addition, she also has an SUV and a Mercedes-Benz sedan, which should be parked in the underground garage.

That's about all I know, oh! And! This bar has a different theme every day of the week.

Magic, electronic music, ACG, jazz, blues, heavy metal, and even talk shows. If I remember correctly, that was all I had when I was working here. Lastly, the cocktails in this bar are really great.”

"Come on, let's go in and take a look."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already walked towards the bar door with an anti-war symbol and three flashing yellow stars.

What they didn't expect was that the performance of that He girl was not in the ground floor of the bar, but in the basement. Even the tickets were not expensive, less than RMB 100 per person.

Following the instructions on the poster at the door, the group went down the stairs into the basement, and after buying six tickets from a girl who looked like a high school student, they were able to pass through a well-soundproof door.

As soon as they came in, they noticed the spotlighted stage in the basement.

On that not-so-big stage, three young girls dressed like cake towers were singing and dancing with great energy. Below the stage, there was a group of audiences, probably less than a hundred people even if Wei Ran and the other six were included.

Although there were not many people, the audience, mostly fat otakus, were enthusiastic enough. Not only did they shout slogans like they were injected with chicken blood, but from time to time, they would even cooperate tacitly to lift one of them up and high-five the girl on the stage.

As for the three girls on the stage, they were definitely tall among the Japanese and were indeed beautiful. Moreover, they all had a strand of hair highlighted in a conspicuous red.

What was particularly coincidental was that two of them seemed to be twins, which made Wei Ran, Sui Sui and others subconsciously look at the Kajianka sisters who were deliberately pursuing differences in their clothes and appearance.

Just at this moment, with the three girls on the stage shouting in unison and finally posing together, their performance came to an end. The fans in the audience also fell into a kind of madness because of the gloves thrown into the crowd by the three girls.

"Is this really the person who sent the threatening letter?"

At this time, not to mention the sisters Sui Sui and Kajianka, or even Marta and Lu Xinda, even Wei Ran himself fell into doubt - could he really have made a mistake?

Before they could find an answer, the three lovely girls began to bow and thank the audience, and announced the time and place of the next performance.

"What should we do?" Sui Sui leaned close to Wei Ran's ear and said, "We are too conspicuous with all these people."

"Let's see, we spent money on it."

Before Wei Ran finished his words, the little girl who had just been selling tickets at the door came on stage full of energy and started selling tickets for the next performance, while the three girls went behind the scenes.

"Come with me, I know where they are going next."

Marta whispered to Wei Ran and others to leave through the door they had just entered, walked a few steps forward along the basement corridor, and finally stopped in front of another door.

“Behind this door is the underground parking lot”

As Marta spoke, she had already lifted the poster on the wall. There was a not-so-big niche dug in the wall, and inside it was an access card with a retractable rope.

"It's the same as before, nothing has changed."

As Marta spoke, she had already swiped the access card to open the iron door, and then put the access card back to its original place and covered it with the poster.

When they passed through the iron gate, they just happened to see the three girls walking out from another door next to it, talking and laughing.

In just a moment, Wei Ran was sure that it was them who sent the threatening letters - he smelled the same perfume as on those letters.

What’s even more interesting is that what came out of these three girls’ mouths was actually Chinese—Chinese language complaining that they didn’t want to shake hands with those fat otakus.

There is even a hint of Shanghai accent and dialect in their speech.

"Is it them?" Sui Sui asked in a low Russian voice.

“I am now 100% sure it is them.”

While Wei Ran was answering in Russian, the Kajianka sisters had already blocked the three stunned girls from the front and back.

More updates for Atlantic sharks, thanks to three big rewards from the alliance leaders! More updates for Atlantic sharks, thanks to three big rewards from the alliance leaders! More updates for Atlantic sharks, thanks to three big rewards from the alliance leaders!