War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1896 Wealth
On the night the four veterans shared a table for dinner, after finishing three bottles of baijiu, Li Xiaowu helped Brother Lu, who had drunk the most and was the most drunk, leave the courtyard.

"Can we go back?"

As Cheng Guanyin helped tidy up the messy table, he asked, "Going home?"

"Yes," Wei Ran reassured her, "we will definitely be able to go back."

"That's good"

Cheng Guanyin seemed to have found his backbone in this obvious comfort, and his drunken face finally showed some less sorrow.

After quickly clearing the table, the two of them fetched some water and hastily washed their battle-wounded bodies in the courtyard before returning to their respective rooms and lying down early on their beds covered with bamboo mats.

That night, Wei Ran slept soundly thanks to the alcohol. Cheng Guanyin, who was in the next room, also gently patted the iron-framed bed beneath him before drifting off to sleep with a satisfied sigh.

Wei Ran didn't know how long he slept that night, but when he was woken up by the horseshoe-shaped alarm clock next door, it was just getting light outside the window.

"Why are you awake so early?" Wei Ran asked, sitting up with a yawn and looking towards the next room.

"Did I wake you up?" Cheng Guanyin said apologetically. "I need to get up and grind tofu."

"So early?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Rowing boats, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu—there's no harder business than this."

Cheng Guanyin sighed, "If we start grinding now, we can go out and sell soy milk and tofu when it gets light. We can also braise the leftovers to sell as stinky tofu, so they won't go to waste."

"You earn this money with so much difficulty, why are you donating so much?" Wei Ran asked from across the main room as he got up.

“I can survive on my own with just a piece of tofu and some salt. If I exchange that money for food and drink and send it to the mainland, maybe a single biscuit will end up in my son Huaiqian’s mouth or my brother Bingquan’s mouth, and that might save their lives.”

Having said that, the two, now dressed, emerged from their respective rooms into the main hall.

"Aren't you going to sleep either?" Cheng Guanyin asked Wei Ran.

"I need to get up and get busy too," Wei Ran said, as he did indeed have a lot of work to do.

Without much small talk, the two quickly washed up and went to their respective rooms.

Cheng Guanyin's business of grinding tofu was arduous, and Wei Ran's work was equally demanding.

After kneading the dough and letting it rest, he immediately started chopping meat and seasonings to make sausages.

He even took a break while making sausages to visit Cheng Guanyin, who was busy boiling soy milk under the light in the wing room across the courtyard, and took a picture of him with his camera.

"You still enjoy taking pictures of people so much," Cheng Guanyin said with a smile.

"You have to have some hobbies to live a good life," Wei Ran replied with a smile, and then returned to the opposite room.

Before dawn, Wei Ran filled the insulated box that had been moved back to the cargo bed of the three-wheeled motorcycle with sesame cakes and sausages.

When he finally cooked a small bowl of pickled vegetables, Cheng Guanyin from the opposite room also carried out a bucket of soy milk and put it in the tricycle. Then he took out a slab of tofu, placed it on top of the soy milk bucket, and tied it up.

"Let's eat first, then we can go out."

Wei Ran called out, and since the sun was just beginning to rise, they had plenty of time.

Without any discussion, Cheng Guanyin brought out a plate of steaming tofu and two large bowls of soy milk, while Wei Ran brought out a plate of stir-fried pickled vegetables, a plate of sausage, and several freshly baked sesame cakes.

Without much conversation, the two finished their breakfast in a few bites and, without even taking a break, rode their bikes out to start hawking their wares.

As the two men shouted, the quiet military dependents' village seemed to come alive.

As the doors of every household opened, veterans and their families from all over the country came out carrying various containers.

Amidst the warm greetings almost identical to those on the mainland, they might buy a piece of steaming hot tofu, a small bowl of piping hot soy milk, or a few sesame seed cakes.

After less than two hours of bustling activity, Wei Ran, who was looking for opportunities to take photos, and Cheng Guanyin, who was being photographed, hadn't even left the military dependents' village when they sold out their sesame cakes or tofu before the weather got hot.

They returned home together, took showers, and then went back to their rooms to catch up on sleep.

Although Wei Ran had already exceeded his daily KPI in the morning, he would definitely still set up his stall in the afternoon in order to learn more about Cheng Guanyin's life.

When I woke up again to the alarm clock, it was already around four o'clock in the afternoon.

Fortunately, there was no fighting and no one would die, so although it was a bit tough, Wei Ran had no complaints.

He quickly got out of bed, first changing the film on his Nikon SP camera, and then went out of the room to start preparing for their afternoon stall with Cheng Guanyin.

Incidentally, he also took a few more photos of Cheng Guanyin.

"Film is so expensive, why do you keep taking pictures of me?" Cheng Guanyin asked with a smile.

"Keep it as a memento"

Wei Ran explained with a smile, "When you and your son Huaiqian are reunited in the future, you can show him your life now."

When this excuse, which wasn't really an excuse, was uttered, Cheng Guanyin was momentarily stunned before saying, "I'll pay for the film."

"That won't be necessary."

Wei Ran waved his hand and walked into the side room. Seeing that the charcoal fire in the hanging stove had reached a stable level, he began to make sesame cakes.

Before he could finish his work, Cheng Guanyin had already said goodbye and left the yard on his tricycle, leaving Wei Ran a plate of deep-fried stinky tofu with plenty of chili peppers.

Naturally, Wei Ran also handed him two sesame seed cakes filled with sausage to eat on the way.

Around the same time yesterday afternoon, Wei Ran, having eaten and drunk his fill, rode his three-wheeled motorcycle away from home.

This time, Li Xiaowu didn't follow his calls to buy sesame cakes, but Brother Lu bought three more, just like he had in the morning.

This time, Wei Ran also saw Brother Lu's son. The little guy looked to be about the same age as Li Xiaowu's son, but he seemed a bit quieter.

As usual, he broke off a small piece of enema for the little guy as a snack. Wei Ran leisurely drove around the military dependents' village, and then drove back to the location where he had raised funds yesterday.

Sure enough, Cheng Guanyin set up a stall not far from the fundraising stage, just like yesterday, doing business with some elementary school students.

After parking his tricycle next to the other vehicle, Wei Ran unlocked the latch next to the stove without shouting, and simply moved a small stool he had brought to the back of the vehicle.

When someone came to buy sesame cakes, he would greet them warmly. When there was no one around, he would occasionally raise his camera to take a picture of Cheng Guanyin, whose business was doing quite well not far away, or a picture of the young man on stage, whom he had already confirmed was Lin Ayong, and the girl he admired.

Amidst this not-so-busy activity, as darkness gradually fell, Wei Ran and Cheng Guanyin each turned on the lights set up at the far end of the cargo box, continuing to serve the ever-growing number of diners.

"Uncle, I'd like two servings of stinky tofu!"

Right after the fundraising event ended, the pretty girl in charge of hosting the event, along with Lin Ayong behind her, came to Cheng Guanyin's booth.

"Two yuan," Cheng Guanyin said, already busy at work.

"Let me do it"

Before the girl could take out her wallet, Lin Ayong handed over the banknotes he had prepared in advance.

"Thank you, A-Yong!"

The pretty girl tiptoed and kissed Lin Ayong, who was wearing a military uniform, on the cheek, and said coquettishly, "I still want to eat that uncle's sesame seed cakes."

"I'll go buy it right now!"

Lin Ayong took the change and walked to Wei Ran's stall, where he bought two sesame seed cakes filled with sausage.

"Your girlfriend?" Wei Ran asked with a smile while busy working.

Not yet.

Lin Ayong, with the shyness of youth, said, "But it will be soon."

"Then I'll give you some extra enema, and I wish you success!" Wei Ran said enthusiastically, but in reality, he didn't add even a single extra piece of enema.

However, he couldn't help but wonder how such a seemingly decent young man could have done something as simple as cutting off Cheng Guanyin's foot.

With these thoughts in mind, the day's stall ended as the sesame cakes and sausages sold out, and Wei Ran and Cheng Guanyin returned home one after the other.

Just like yesterday, they had just finished preparing dinner when Li Xiaowu and Brother Lu arrived with their own wine and snacks. They sat down at the table without being invited.

This time, perhaps because Cheng Guanyin didn't tell them about his experiences during the war yesterday, only mentioning it briefly as "a conscripted laborer," it seems that...

Therefore, both Li Xiaowu and Lu Laoge focused their conversation on their respective hometowns and relatives who remained on the mainland.

“I also have a wife in mainland China, who was my childhood sweetheart.”

Brother Lu sighed as he held up his wine glass, “Back then, I disliked her for being uneducated and for having my mother bind her feet, so I was unwilling to marry her.”

That woman with bound feet was honest and kind; she took good care of my parents. I wonder if they survived.

"My sister-in-law is now..."

Faced with Wei Ran's curiosity, Brother Lu sighed and said, "After I was transferred to Shanghai, the nurses in our hospital..."

We're engaged, and her parents live in mainland China, but they don't know about it!

“My parents are also on the mainland,” Li Xiaowu sighed.

"My family only consists of my younger brother and my son."

Cheng Guanyin sighed, "I wonder if they're still alive."

Let's have a drink.

Li Xiaowu picked up his wine glass, and the other three raised theirs and clinked glasses with him in turn.

Brother Lu didn't drink too much during this late-night snack, nor did he start cursing. However, after a few drinks, he started speaking in a dialect from the vicinity of Langfang City in Hebei Province, which had a strong smell of sausage.

Just like the Shaoguan dialect that only he himself could understand, which came out of Li Xiaowu's mouth, the Cangzhou dialect that came out of Wei Ran's mouth, and even the Xiangnan dialect that came out of Cheng Guanyin's mouth.

After finishing a bottle of baijiu in their nonsensical dialect, Li Xiaowu and Brother Lu left together again. Wei Ran and Cheng Guanyin also cleaned up the mess of cups and plates, washed up quickly, and went back to their room to lie down.

This time, what woke Wei Ran was not the alarm clock with the horseshoe shape, but a thunderclap that almost exploded in his ears.

When he woke up, he found himself sitting at a table in the room. On the table were a half-full bottle of wine, a dish of peanuts, and several newspapers spread on the table as placemats.

Almost instinctively, Wei Ran picked up the newspaper, then his heart skipped a beat.

The contents of this newspaper are not important, but it was published in July 1964!
broken!

Wei Ran quickly got up, but just then he saw a figure riding a bicycle out of the courtyard gate.

Is it Cheng Guanyin's seal?

Wei Ran hurriedly grabbed the raincoat hanging on the wall, put it on, and chased after him.

After failing to start the three-wheeled motorcycle, he could only ride the three-wheeled vehicle that Cheng Guanyin had brought to set up his stall; this was better than walking.

He rushed along, only to find that Cheng Guanyin had finally arrived at the dock.

The wind and rain had subsided somewhat, but the sky was still dark, and the dock was completely deserted.

Before Wei Ran could stop him, Cheng Guanyin suddenly drew his broadsword from his back and cut a small sampan's rope. He then began to pull on the rope, trying to start the engine again and again.

Done
Knowing he was too late, Wei Ran had barely hidden behind a pile of crates when he saw Cheng Guanyin being held at the head by Lin Ayong with a pistol.

By the time he raised his camera and pressed the shutter, several other soldiers had already pulled Cheng Guanyin off the ship.

"It's you? The one who sells fried stinky tofu?!"

Lin Ayong recognized Cheng Guanyin. "Are you planning to escape to the mainland?"

"no"

Cheng Guanyin vehemently denied it, saying, "I bought a sampan, and I came to check on it because I was worried it would get damaged in the rain." "Give me a beating!"

Lin Ayong gave the order like a mad dog, and immediately, the young soldiers around him began punching and kicking Cheng Guanyin, who was nearly fifty years old.

But at this moment, Wei Ran, who originally wanted to rush out, found that he had lost control of his body once again—except for his index finger resting on the shutter button.

With a helpless sigh, all he could do was hide there and repeatedly press the shutter button to photograph Cheng Guanyin, who was being beaten up.

"You want to escape to the mainland?"

Lin Ayong asked again with certainty, "Are you a spy sent by the other side?!"

"I'm not!" Cheng Guanyin, whose head was already bleeding profusely, said weakly.

"No? If you're not, how am I supposed to get promoted?"

Lin Ayong patted Cheng Guanyin's battle-wounded cheeks, then picked up Cheng Guanyin's large knife. After examining it for a while, he untied the tattered cloth on the hilt, took out the half gold bar hidden inside, and put it in his pocket.

"I'll ask you one more time, are you trying to escape back to the mainland? Are you a spy?"

Lin Ayong squatted down next to Cheng Guanyin again and asked expectantly.

"I am not a spy"

Nearly fifty-year-old Cheng Guanyin got up and knelt before Lin Ayong, who was almost the same age as his son Cheng Huaiqian, kowtowing repeatedly. "Sir, I just want to go back and see if my son is still alive. If he is, he is already the same age as you."

"Sir, I beg you, please let me go back and take one last look. I'll come right back, I beg you, sir!"

"Oh!"

Lin Ayong, who had stood up, kicked Cheng Guanyin to the ground. "You old bastard, are you trying to take advantage of me? Who gave you these gold bars!"

"Yes! I have it! I'll go back and see my son, if you just let me."

"Oh!"

Lin Ayong kicked Cheng Guanyin hard again, yelling, "Do you think I'm that easy to fool? Beat him up!"

At his command, the group of thug-like young men around him resumed their punching and kicking.

Wei Ran, who witnessed this scene, couldn't even close his eyes.

I'll ask you one more time.

Lin Ayong grabbed Cheng Guanyin's white hair, forcing him to look at him. "Are you a spy? Where are the gold bars hidden?"

“I am not,” Cheng Guanyin replied weakly.

"Not honest yet?"

For some reason, Lin Ayong, who was so enraged, picked up the broadsword he had once used to fight the Japanese again. "Since you're so determined to go back, I'll cripple your legs! Let's see how you get back!"

After saying that, Lin Ayong gripped the anti-Japanese broadsword with both hands and slammed it down hard on Cheng Guanyin's foot.

"what!"

Amid Cheng Guanyin's screams, splattered blood sprayed out, staining the concrete of the dock red and startling Lin Ayong and several other young men around him.

Coming to his senses, Lin Ayong frantically threw the anti-Japanese broadsword in his hand into the water outside the pier with a "plop," and then said, "Quick! Grab his ankles and throw him in front of the Veterans Hospital! Hurry! Don't kill him!"

Under his command, two thugs untied the cloth rope belt from Cheng Guanyin's waist and used it to tighten around his ankles. They then lifted him onto a sidecar motorcycle and drove off in a hurry.

"Uncle, have I gotten into trouble?"

Only then did Lin Ayong ask another middle-aged man hiding beside him.

"What trouble did you get into?"

The middle-aged man weighed the half-gold bar in his hand. "We're sticking to the fact that he's a spy and trying to escape. With me as a witness and your friends as witnesses, what are you afraid of?"

The middle-aged man, whom Lin Ayong called Uncle, tempted him, "Ayong, just wait to get promoted and make a fortune this time. Maybe that silly girl Xiaoshan will come back to you then."

Moreover, with that half-gold bar, you'll have some savings in the future.

"Yes! That's right! That's right!" Lin Ayong, who seemed to have just broken up with his girlfriend, kept hypnotizing himself.

"Have someone else keep an eye on that old man."

Lin Ayong's uncle continued to offer advice, saying, "Maybe he really does have gold bars. We can split the profits fifty-fifty then!"

"I'll make arrangements right away!"

Encouraged, Lin Ayong agreed without hesitation.

Ugh.
Wei Ran, who had witnessed everything, sighed inwardly. Everything before his eyes was once again engulfed by white light.

When the white light dissipated, he found himself still standing in the same spot, but this time it was not a rainy night, but a sunny day.

Parked beside him was a blue and white Volkswagen T1 van with a roof rack on the front.

Inside the open door of the van, Li Xiaowu's son, Li Minghua, was sitting in the seat, fiddling with a Leica camera that appeared out of nowhere.

I picked up a newspaper from the chair and looked at it. It was already August 1965.

Just then, Li Xiaowu walked over from a distance, carrying a shovel and a jar full of earthworms.

"When did Brother Wei arrive?" Li Xiaowu asked as he walked up to Wei Ran.

"Just arrived," Wei Ran replied, confirming that he had indeed just arrived.

"Ahua, let's go fishing," Li Xiaowu said.

"it is good!"

Seeing that Li Minghua, who was only eleven or twelve years old, readily agreed, he put down the camera, jumped out of the car, pulled out a fishing rod that wasn't very long and a small bucket, then took the bait from Li Xiaowu's hand and happily walked towards the distant pier.

"Brother Wei, can you do me a favor?"

Li Xiaowu handed Wei Ran a cigarette and said, "There are a lot of people watching me and my men, so it's inconvenient for me to make a move."

"Okay," Wei Ran readily agreed.

Li Xiaowu looked around. "Brother Cheng will be out of jail this afternoon. Before he gets out, there are some things that need to be settled."

"Lin Ayong?"

"That's right"

Li Xiaowu nodded. "Last year I had someone chop off three of his fingers and also had that brat kicked out of the army, but that was just interest."

"Just kill him," Wei Ran said noncommittally.

“I killed his uncle when he went out to sea a couple of days ago, and they’re holding a funeral for him now.”

Li Xiaowu said, puffing out smoke, "It's too easy for him to die. Brother Wei, help me break one of his legs. You must leave him with a wretched life no matter what."

"No problem," Wei Ran replied again.

"You can drive this car away after it's all done."

Li Xiaowu patted the door of the van behind him, "I heard you have some friends in Taibei. Go hide there for a few years and then come back."

"Okay," Wei Ran replied again.

“You can leave your beat-up tricycle to Brother Cheng to make a living. He’s still under surveillance, and I can’t help him; it would only get me into trouble,” Li Xiaowu continued.

"When do we make our move?" Wei Ran answered with exceptional decisiveness.

"tonight"

Li Xiaowu said with a smile, "A master once told A Yong's fortune. Today, he came to the dock to burn paper money to guide his uncle's soul. His uncle can not only take away his bad luck, but also ensure his wealth and prosperity in the second half of his life."

Brother Wei has gone to great lengths; how about we give him a sum of money?

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he hits his jackpot when he goes out," Wei Ran promised with a smile.

"Remember not to kill him."

After finishing his sentence, Li Xiaowu handed the car keys to Wei Ran, then picked up the Leica camera and walked towards his beloved son, Li Minghua.

"I knew it was you who did it."

Wei Ran smiled and also left the beautiful van that could be used as a murder weapon, turning towards the direction of the military dependents' village.

However, he did not return to the military dependents' village. Instead, he found a shady spot in a cargo yard where he could see the road at a glance and hid there.

Patiently waiting until the sun set, a person dressed in mourning clothes carrying a wicker basket walked towards the pier from the direction of the military dependents' village.

"This special code is a technical skill."

Wei Ran muttered to himself as he looked around, then took out the Willys Jeep and set up the canvas canopy.

Waiting patiently until the person in mourning passed by, Wei Ran started the car, stepped on the gas, and chased after them.

The roar of the engine made the other person glance back, but the blinding headlights made him instinctively shield his eyes with his hand and take a small step back to the side of the road.

Although Wei Ran recognized that the other party was indeed Lin Ayong, he did not take the opportunity to speed up. Instead, he drove past gently with the engine sound unchanged.

As the distance closed, he suddenly turned the steering wheel, almost scraping the other person's foot.

Amidst a piercing scream, the wheel of the Willys Jeep ran over Lin Ayong's foot, then broke his shinbone.

It was at this moment that Wei Ran stepped on the gas and turned the steering wheel, running over him again with the rear tires and accidentally slamming him into the ditch by the roadside.

Without slowing down at all, Wei Ran simply said an apology in a voice only he could hear, then continued driving towards the distant dock and turned off the headlights shortly afterward.

"If this were 50 years from now, you'd be able to choose your car and house now, so be happy about it."

As Wei Ran drove the car to the dock parking lot and retrieved the metal notebook, he muttered to himself like a madman.

Without any delay, he walked straight to the Volkswagen van parked in the distance, unlocked the door with his key, and got inside—he was going to go back to the scene.

However, just after he started the car, he discovered that his three-wheeled motorcycle was parked not far away in a spot illuminated by the van's headlights.

Behind the illuminated area, a limping, elderly figure was struggling to climb out of the water under the pier, clutching a rusty anti-Japanese broadsword that looked like it had just been pulled up.

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran looked around, picked up a fisherman's hat that seemed to have been left by Li Xiaowu, put it on his head, then hurriedly raised his camera and pressed the shutter button towards the window before immediately turning off the car lights.

Under his watchful eye, Cheng Guanyin placed the large knife in the cargo bed of the three-wheeled motorcycle, limped onto the motorcycle, started it, and slowly drove towards the military dependents' village.

At that moment, many sailors were riding their bicycles back home, but Cheng Guanyin not only did not overtake them, but deliberately lagged behind and used his bicycle headlights to illuminate their path.

Behind him, Wei Ran followed at a distance in his beautiful van.

Soon after, he saw the sailors on bicycles stop beside Lin Ayong, and then he saw Cheng Guanyin stop his tricycle and limp over to him.

The poor old man, without much hesitation, begged the sailors to help him lift the seriously injured Lin Ayong onto the narrow cargo bed of the three-wheeled motorcycle, placing it next to the large knife that had only ever hurt the Japanese soldiers and Cheng Guanyin himself.

With the roar of the engine, the three-wheeled motorcycle suddenly increased its speed and sputtered towards the city.

"Ugh"

Wei Ran shook his head with a sigh, then stepped on the gas and drove the van into the intense white light.

(End of this chapter)