War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1886 Bloody Intelligence

In the slightly stuffy pancake shop, Wei Ran finished his pancake with fried stinky tofu in just a few bites, then slowly drank a large bowl of herbal tea. Then he walked out of the shop and looked around.

This place is not far from the pier. If you stand on tiptoe and look into the distance, you can even see various ships docked at the pier.

It was just inevitable that he wondered who this intelligence mission was actually serving.

After looking around, Wei Ran went back to the back door of the pancake shop, first filled a bucket of water into the water pressure well, then pressed the pressure lever back and forth, drew a bucket of ice-cold well water, threw a towel in it, washed his face thoroughly, and wiped his arms and neck.

After his body cooled down, he fetched another bucket of water and carried it back to the pancake shop in front.

Judging from the height of the sun at this time, it should be close to noon, so naturally there is not much business.

Fortunately, Wei Ran did not expect this business to support his family, so after using a towel soaked in water to wet the floor to cool down the room, he lay back on the recliner in the shop with peace of mind, covered with the cold towel and began to take a nap.

He slept extremely comfortably this time because there was no stench of corpses, he didn't have to go hungry, and he didn't have to fight hand-to-hand with bayonets.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang."

He was awakened by a knock on the door. When he opened his eyes and looked over, he found that the sun outside was already dimming and setting. A shirtless man handed him a few French francs and said in a particularly generous manner, "Ten sesame cakes!"

"Hold on"

Wei Ran quickly got up and opened the basket. Seeing that there were only 12 left in it, he generously said, "These are leftovers from lunch. If you don't mind, how about I give you all 12?"

"The boss is generous!" the man said quickly.

Wei Ran smiled, took a look at the wooden wheelbarrow behind him, then picked up all the 12 pancake skins and put them into the hanging stove, shoveled some charcoal and firewood and threw them in.
While waiting, Wei Ran immediately started to work.

After all, this is an intelligence mission, so he has to run this pancake shop well.

By the time he had finished kneading the dough, some laborers or traveling merchants gathered around him.

Seeing this, Wei Ran hurriedly shoveled the sesame cakes out of the hanging oven, sliced ​​them one by one, put pickles in them, wrapped them in straw paper and handed them to the first person who came. Then he called out to the others and started making the sesame cakes.

Thanks to the careful teaching of the Zhao family father and son, although Wei Ran's speed is not very fast, he is finally methodical and not in a rush.

And I don’t know if it’s because the price is relatively high, but most of these diners just buy one or two to satisfy their cravings.

And from the casual conversations in various local dialects, you can tell that the main reason they are willing to come here to spend money seems to be because the pickles here are delicious.

It tastes shit!

Wei Ran sighed inwardly. He had just tasted the fried pickles on the chopping board. There was not a trace of oil or water in it. It was just salty enough.

For these coolies working under the scorching sun, salt equals strength.

While he was busy, the laborers who seemed to have just finished work had not yet left. Old Man He, who was driving a donkey cart, also stopped at the door of the pancake shop and shouted in a loud voice, "Little boss, five pancakes!"

"Okay! Wait a moment!" Wei Ran responded enthusiastically.

While he was busy, the other diners left one after another with their sesame seed buns filled with pickles.

While Wei Ran was rolling out the sesame seed dough, he rolled the piece of paper that had been hidden in the sesame bowl into the dough and covered it with a thick layer of sesame seeds.

After baking the sesame seed bun that was specially placed on the corner of the flat pan in the hanging stove, Wei Ran specially put some dried vegetable shreds from the pickle bowl on it. Wei Ran did not communicate much with Old Man He at all, and just wrapped the five sesame seed buns he bought in paper and handed them over.

Old Man He also did not have any much communication with him. After paying, he put the sesame cake in a wicker basket and got back on the donkey cart, shouting and walking away.

As his figure disappeared, Wei Ran was still busy back and forth between the hanging stove and the chopping board, but in his hand holding the rolling pin, there was an extra small note that had just been inserted when Old Man He paid.

By the time the distant buildings were lit up with twinkling lights, all the dough in the ceramic basin under the chopping board was used up, and Wei Ran hung up a sold-out sign.

After skillfully closing the door and getting on board, he took a shower beside the water pressure well at the back door wearing only his shorts, then changed into a relatively clean set of coarse cloth clothes and walked towards the dock not far away.

Although it was already dusk, the pier was still extremely lively.

However, he did not see Cheng Bingquan hawking his stinky tofu here.

It was not a disappointment. Wei Ran spent a small amount of money to buy a river fish and some low-quality flour which was not cheap, and then returned to his pancake shop.

Just now when he was changing clothes in the room, he discovered that there were quite a few pickle lumps in the two pickle jars under the bed, but there was not much flour left.

After preparing all the ingredients needed for tomorrow, Wei Ran slaughtered the fish he had bought, took out a casserole and stewed it in the residual heat from the hanging stove.

Knowing that nothing would happen today, Wei Ran took another shower, waited for dinner to be ready, quickly filled his stomach, and lay down on the bed.

This night was quite comfortable except for the annoying mosquitoes.

Before dawn the next day, he got up early and lit the hanging stove. Then he washed his hands and face and started a series of busy tasks such as blanching noodles and cutting pickled vegetables into shreds.

Before the first batch of sesame cakes came out of the oven, early risers had already rushed to his stall, generously throwing down ten or twenty yuan in French currency, and at the same time asking Wei Ran to be more generous and put more pickles in the sesame cake skin.

In the midst of this busy schedule, Wei Ran noticed that a shop diagonally opposite also opened for business at this time. It was a tofu shop.

What he didn't expect was that although he didn't know the young girl selling tofu pudding and tofu at the door of the tofu shop with a clear and pleasant mountain city accent, he knew the man busy making soy milk next to her - it was Cheng Bingquan!
So we are neighbors next door? Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and continued to make sesame cakes.

After dealing with this wave of diners in the morning, Wei Ran became idle again. The tofu shop opposite also closed early.

Not long after, an old man who looked about the same age as Old Man He came in pushing a plate of tofu on a wheelbarrow and started selling it along the street.

After waiting for a while, Cheng Bingquan also left the shop from the back door with his carrying pole, shouting and coughing as he walked away.

Although there were not many customers in his pancake shop at this time, Wei Ran didn't dare to leave.

Based solely on the information exchange last night and the way Cheng Bingquan and the unfamiliar old man just went door to door selling their products, Wei Ran actually already had a rough guess.

This place is an intelligence transit station. On one side of me is Old Man He, and on the other side is Cheng Bingquan and the tofu shop opposite.

Maybe the tofu shop also serves as a warning point, or maybe I am also helping them by serving as a warning?

I don't know what information they are passing on, and to whom this information will ultimately be passed on.
Wei Ran was secretly curious. Although it seemed that passing through his hand increased the risk of exposure, in fact, he was a fuse that could blow at any time.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at the dock not far away.

This is a good position, a good position that can be evacuated at any time, but I don’t know how many eyes are watching here.

Although he secretly became more alert in his heart, Wei Ran did not show any change on the surface.

After sending away the last few diners, Wei Ran took another shower and lay down on the recliner to catch up on sleep after a busy morning.

From morning to noon, and from noon to afternoon, Cheng Bingquan did not patronize his pancake shop all day. Not only him, but even Old Man He did not come.

It was getting close to evening, and before Wei Ran had sold all of today's sesame cakes, dark clouds had already obscured the sunset, accompanied by rumbling thunder.

A moment later, heavy rain poured down, making the air instantly cooler.

The rain not only took away the heat, but also the diners. Seeing this, Wei Ran simply put half of the chopping board on the table in advance to prevent the wind and rain from blowing in and getting the chopping board wet.

Just as he was thinking about what to eat in the evening, a donkey cart came from a distance.

"boom!"

Before he could see clearly who was on the donkey cart, a gunshot was heard from behind the donkey cart.

"broken!"

Wei Ran's heart tightened, and then he saw Old Man He running towards him driving a donkey cart!

"boom!"

Just at this moment, another gunshot was heard from the rear of the donkey cart, and the donkey also let out a shrill scream.

In the rain and dim sky, Old Man He, who was driving the donkey cart, glanced at Wei Ran standing at the door of the pancake shop, raised his hand and threw something over to him, then raised the whip and hit the donkey's butt hard, leaving a series of bloodstains on the stone road that were quickly diluted by the rain.

"Patta!"

Wei Ran looked down at the object that was thrown at his feet and kept bouncing, then quickly retreated back to the shop, picked up the brown glass bottle that was only slightly larger than his thumb, and hid it in the sesame bowl.

After thinking it over and feeling it was not safe, he immediately took out Robert's camera bag, threw the glass bottle in, and successfully retrieved the metal notebook. Then he hurriedly continued to put the board on the pancake.

It was also while he was on the board that he watched several people on bicycles chasing after Old Man He, and he also watched Old Man He fall off the donkey cart as he was almost swallowed by the rain.

"boom!"

In the rain, Wei Ran heard another gunshot, and then heard someone faintly say, "He committed suicide out of fear of the crime!"

"Hurry up and find where the thing is!" another person ordered.

"Ugh"

Wei Ran sighed, looked at the tofu shop across the street that had been boarded up at noon, then put up the last board, pulled the sleeve, and let a bullet fall into the crack of the door that was wet by water.

After finishing all these, he did not leave. Instead, he put his eyes close to the gaps between the wooden boards, hiding in the dim pancake shop and spying on the situation outside.

Soon, he saw the donkey cart, and the old man He lying on the cart with blood dripping from his ears, nostrils and even back, and he also saw the murderers in plain clothes.

Shaking his head helplessly, Wei Ran knew that he could do nothing at this moment. Before he could do anything, someone from outside had already slapped the board he had just put on. Silently stepping back, Wei Ran shouted, "We're closed. Come in early tomorrow!"

"Please, fuck you! Open the door!" the person outside shouted cursing.

Hearing this, Wei Ran, who had already unbuttoned all the buttons on his shirt, picked up the kitchen knife on the chopping board and asked in a panic, "Who is it? I didn't make any money today, please help me..."

"I'm a policeman! I want to question you! Open the door!"

The person outside the door kicked the door hard as he spoke. Then Wei Ran heard the sound of the other person slipping and falling, as well as the ridicule that seemed to come from his companions.

"Danglang"

Wei Ran threw the kitchen knife in his hand to the ground, then hurriedly removed a piece of the door panel to take a look outside, and was casually hit on the head by a pistol.

"Long long long chief"

Wei Ran raised his hands and stammered, "I paid my taxes! I didn't buy flour on the black market!"

"Who the hell asked you that?"

A man who seemed to have just gotten up pushed Wei Ran into the pancake shop. He first looked at the kitchen knife thrown on the ground, then glanced at Wei Ran who looked panicked before asking, "Did that donkey cart throw something into your shop when it passed by just now?"

“No, no.”

Wei Ran looked confused and frightened. "Not only did I not lose anything, but the man's whip almost hit me in the face. It was just this far away!"

As he spoke, Wei Ran also indicated a distance with the thumb and index finger of one hand.

"Search"

The man who seemed to have fallen just now reached out to wash his hands in the wooden barrel against the wall, then picked up an unsold sesame cake and took a bite, "Your sesame cake is good, where are you from?"

“I’m from Hebei Province,” Wei Ran said, nodding his head. “I fled all the way here to avoid the Japanese invaders.”

While he was replying, the other party had already taken a second bite of the pancake and reached into the money basket with his other hand, grabbed a handful of French currency and stuffed it into his pocket.

Seeing Wei Ran's face full of frustration and pain but not daring to resist, the man threw the pancake he had taken two bites of back into the basket, then he and his companions searched it inside and out, making a mess of his pancake shop.

"no"

“There’s nothing in there either.”

"There's a bullet here!" Finally, someone found the bullet that Wei Ran had deliberately dropped.

"Sir! This is not mine!" Wei Ran said quickly, "I am just running a small business, but..."

"Possession of weapons and ammunition is a felony"

The man who had just grabbed a handful of change from the money basket said this and simply put all the money in the basket into his pocket.

"These are considered fines. Are you okay with that?" asked the man who was suspected to be the captain.

"No, no objection." Wei Ran agreed with tears in his eyes.

"Let's go"

The captain waved his hand and left the pancake shop with his men.

After sighing for a while, Wei Ran got back on the board and tidied up the shop that had been messed up by those people with an expressionless face.

He knew clearly that he could not do anything at this moment. He was even worried that someone was watching him.

Suppressing the urge to seek revenge and retrieve Old Man He's body, Wei Ran packed up everything, took out the camera bag again, and then unscrewed the small glass bottle that Old Man He had risked his life to give him.

However, the inside of the bottle was sealed with wax and had a strange stamp on it.

Without opening it rashly, Wei Ran tightened the bottle cap again and threw it back into the camera bag, then began to toss and turn in the rainy night.

After this long night, Wei Ran got up early again, took down the door panels and re-lit the hanging stove. At the same time, he saw that the tofu shop opposite had also taken down the door panels.

"Boss, can I exchange a bowl of soy milk and a piece of tofu for a few sesame cakes?" asked the petite girl from the mountain city in the tofu shop opposite.

"OK"

Wei Ran responded, "I'll call you when I'm done!"

"I'll bring you some soy milk first!" the girl said, and walked over with a big bowl of soy milk.

"Did he die last night?" The girl asked the first half of the question with red eyes, and then said enthusiastically, "I'll bring you the tofu when it's ready."

"Thank you, boss lady," Wei Ran responded loudly and nodded slightly.

Watching the proprietress walk back across the street, Wei Ran sipped a sip of hot soy milk, then continued to work, and greeted her as the first batch of sesame cakes came out of the pan.

Not long after, Cheng Bingquan came over with a small basket in his hand, and a plate of tofu in his other hand.

"Is that your wife?"

Wei Ran took the basket and asked while picking up the sesame cakes from it.

"yes"

Cheng Bingquan nodded, "Her name is Huang Qingqiu. She was supposed to marry He Wenniu. It was Old Man He who adopted me as his godson and acted as a matchmaker for me. I am so unfilial!"

"Now is not the time to talk about this"

Wei Ran put pickles into the pancake and whispered, "Last night, Old Man He threw a medicine bottle at me. Should I give it to you now?"

“Not right now”

Cheng Bingquan whispered, "At noon, before the Minjian ship leaves the port, I will come to ask you to buy sesame cakes. Our people are on the Minjian ship."

"it is good"

While Wei Ran agreed, he handed the other party a sesame seed bun with pickles in it.

Before the other party left, a laborer working at the dock came over and handed over the dirty French currency, and just like yesterday, shouted at Wei Ran to put more pickles.

On this busy morning, Wei Ran tried his best and finally used up the only low-quality flour in the shop before noon.

"Boss, here. Ahem. Cough. Three sesame cakes." Cheng Bingquan once again stopped at the door of his shop carrying a shoulder pole.

"Why didn't you come yesterday? I wanted to buy some of your stinky tofu."

As Wei Ran spoke, he threw the few remaining sesame cakes into the hanging oven.

"Business was good yesterday. Everything was sold out early." Cheng Bingquan said happily, and then sighed, "Not today. Cough cough cough! Cough cough! It's not selling well today."

"Okay, I'll take care of your business, give me one!"

Wei Ran sighed, "I had bad luck yesterday. All my harvest for the whole day was wasted. Alas!"

As he sighed, Cheng Bingquan moved to the side of the shop as if avoiding a snake or scorpion, set up a stove, and started frying stinky tofu for him.

Not long after, Wei Ran handed the other party three sesame cakes filled with pickles, and the other party gave him a bowl of fried stinky tofu in return.

Just like the last time he bartered, Cheng Bingquan placed two of the cakes on the lid of the wooden barrel, then picked up one, pinched the hard object sandwiched inside, took a bite of the edge, and walked towards the nearby dock carrying the shoulder pole.

At the same time, Wei Ran also put the fried stinky tofu he had obtained into the other two sesame cakes, then took out this morning’s profit, hurriedly went on board and walked towards the dock.

He hadn't walked ten meters when he noticed that someone seemed to be following him.

Seeing this, Wei Ran took a bite of the sesame seed bun with stinky tofu in his hand, deliberately slowed down his pace, keeping a distance where he could vaguely hear Cheng Bingquan's coughing and hawking in front of him, and walked towards the dock at a leisurely pace.

Almost at the same time when Cheng Bingquan in front of him passed the inspection of the dock police checkpoint with a sesame cake in one hand, Wei Ran also finished the sesame cake in his hand and allowed the two policemen to give him a rough inspection.

Wei Ran deliberately bought some river shrimps first, and then went around and bought some peppercorns.

He waited until Cheng Bingquan set up a stall not far away and sold a portion of stinky tofu to a crew member before he quickly walked away.

He suddenly quickened his pace, and the people following him also quickened their pace.

Seeing this, Wei Ran smiled secretly, found a stall at random, and used the little money he had left to buy some of the cheapest flour - these were accidentally spilled when being carried out of the cabin and then collected together and sold at a low price, which was cheaper than the damp flour he bought yesterday.

Carrying the things he bought, Wei Ran deliberately threw a ball of paper onto the vendor's cart. Then, listening to Cheng Bingquan's shouting in the distance, he turned and walked towards his pancake shop.

It was as if he had not noticed that the person following him had picked up the piece of straw paper he had dropped, which still had a hard texture on it, like picking up money.

Returning to the pancake shop, Wei Ran took down the fine sieve hanging on the wall, carefully sifted the flour he bought, and began to scald and knead the dough again.

"Woo——"

Amid the dull sound of the whistle, the Minjian ship at the dock began to leave its post. When Wei Ran was about to throw a freshly rolled pancake into the hanging oven, everything in front of him was swallowed up by the rich white light.