Chapter 133 The Person Taking Photos

  The maximum load of the Huìtōng Bridge is only seven tons. For safety, if a truck full of people passes through, other vehicles and pedestrians can only wait until the truck has driven over two-thirds of the bridge before allowing the next vehicle or pedestrian to cross.

  There were many people and vehicles waiting to cross the bridge on the west bank, making a great commotion. The sounds of car horns, wounded soldiers' curses, children's wails, and the braying of mules, cattle, and donkeys all mixed together.

  Elizabeth Terry, along with a group of foreign journalists, was riding in a truck provided by the military. As they waited for the soldiers from the Bridge Guard Special Forces to let them pass, she stood on the truck and took pictures of everything she saw with her Leica camera hanging around her neck. When she aimed her camera at the bridgehead, she vaguely saw an officer standing next to a sandbag bunker on the left side of the bridge through the lens. She adjusted the camera to get a clearer view, and that's when she realized it was Dong Limao. This made her extremely excited, so she stood on the truck, waving and shouting at Dong Limao, but her voice was drowned out by the surrounding noise. Dong Limao seemed not to have heard her call, so Terry had no choice but to jump off the truck, push through the crowd, and make her way to Dong Limao's side.

  "It's you... Telly..." Dong Li Mao heard someone calling him and turned his head to see Elizabeth Telly standing in front of him.

  Tai Li opens her arms and walks forward to hug Dong Li Mao.

  The camera hanging from her chest was squeezed between two bodies.

  Dong Li Mao suddenly thought of the photo, and separated from Tai Li, picked up the camera in front of her chest and said: "Great, can take a picture now! It turns out that the photo of Old Master Tai was taken by you, Miss Tai Li."

  Tai Li was taken aback and didn't understand what Dong Li Mao said. She asked: "Who is Tai Laolao?"

  "Hehe... nothing." Dong Li Mao felt relieved because the photo had found a home: "Miss Tai Li, can you take a picture for me?"

  Elizabeth Taylor glanced at the large bridge behind Dong Limao and replied: "Of course, it's very historic."

  "It's very meaningful!" Dong Li Mao chuckled and said: "To me, this photo means life and death."

  Elizabeth Terry didn't ask Dong Limao why a photo was related to life and death, she looked at the bridge behind Dong Limao with her camera, then looked up at the sunlight in the sky and said: "This location is quite good."

  As she spoke, Taili raised her camera, aimed at Dong Limao, and began to slowly back away: "You just stand there, right, don't move!" Taili seemed to want to take a full-body shot of Dong Limao, so she wanted to find the best position. She backed up several steps, but was still not satisfied because she couldn't get the big bridge behind Dong Limao fully in the frame.

  Dong Li Mao's facial muscles were somewhat stiff, he wanted to smile, but what he saw in front of him made it impossible for him to smile.

  Elizabeth Taylor couldn't get a full-body shot of Dong Li Mao, so she settled for a half-body one: "Dong Lianchang, smile..."

  Dong Li Mao was about to smile when he suddenly saw a black sedan ignoring the people in front, honking its horn and driving forward from behind. It seemed like it wanted to force its way through. Just as Dong Li Mao's eyes were fixed on the black sedan with the blaring horn, Tai Li pressed the shutter button. Dong Li Mao didn't know if Tai Li had taken a photo or not, he left his standing position, pulled out the gun from his waist and ran to the front of the black sedan, raising the gun and shouting at the top of his lungs: "Stop! Or I'll shoot!"

  The driver of the car saw a military officer in front of him with a gun aimed at himself, who dared not to stop, and slammed on the brakes, with the front of the car only less than a foot away from Dong Li Mao's feet.

  Dong Li Mao rushed forward, opened the driver's door, grabbed the driver's collar with his left hand and dragged him out of the car. With his right hand, he pressed the gun against the driver's temple and shouted: "You son of a bitch! You're looking for death! How dare you drive recklessly!"

  A man in a black satin suit and top hat emerged from the back seat of the sedan: "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding...... Ah...... it's you......" He seemed to know Dong Li Mao.

  Dong Li Mao took a look and found it was Long Shenwu, the commissioner of Tenglong Border Region.

  "Director Long..." Dong Limao pushed the driver away and stared at Long Shenwu, he also couldn't believe that he would meet this greedy and dissolute guy here. Was this also something that Old Master Tai had experienced? Did Old Master Tai have a relationship with this corrupt official?

  "Dong Lianchang, haha...... we meet again......" Long Shenwu said with a smile, his hands clasped together in a greeting.

  Dong Li Mao put away his gun and said indifferently: "Director Long is also fleeing for his life!"

  "This is in accordance with Chongqing's orders, I'm bringing the border government to move inland, hehe... not escaping... but relocating..." Long Shenwu said with an awkward smile.

  "Oh... transfer... haha... what a transfer!" Dong Li Mao sneered for a while, suddenly put away his smile, and pointed at the noisy crowd asking: "Look, does this look like a transfer?"

  The Dragon God Warrior swept his eyes around and smiled, saying: "Director Dong, considering our past friendship, please do us a favor and let us pass first. You see, I have a large family relying on me to take them away from this troubled place..." As he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a garlic-shaped gold ingot, which he stuffed into Director Dong's pocket without waiting for him to accept or decline.

  Tai Li took out her camera and walked forward, taking a photo of Long Shengwu and Dong Limao, just as she was stuffing Long Shengwu into Dong Limao's pocket.

  "Stop taking pictures..."

  Tai Li wouldn't listen to him and continued to snap photos quickly.

  "Director Long, tell your driver to move the car aside for now, it's not your turn to cross the bridge yet!" Dong Limao said with a stern face.

  "Dong Lian Chang..." Long Shen Wu reached into his bosom again, ready to pull out the second Garlic Gold.

  "Cut the nonsense! Do you want me to send someone to push your car into the river?" Dong Limao said with a glare.

  Long Shengwu got out of the car, took off his hat and smiled at Dong Li Mao, then bowed to Tai Li before turning around and yelling at the driver to move the car aside and wait.

  "Miss Tai, let's continue taking pictures." Dong Li Mao watched as Long Shen Wu's driver moved the black sedan away, allowing the cars and people behind to cross the bridge, preparing to stand at the head of the bridge again for Tai Li to take his picture.

  "I've taken it." Terry said, lifting up her camera.

  "Taken?" Dong Li Mao looked at the camera and asked: "When can I get the photos?"

  "Now there is no equipment and place to wash the film, wait for me to wash it out, I will hand over the photos to you." Taili replied.

  "When?" Dong Li Mao's heart sank, he didn't expect that the photo was taken but couldn't be obtained.

  "Till you withdraw to Dali or Kunming, we will meet again." Taili replied.

  "What if I never come back?" Dong Limao thought of his great-grandfather who had never returned, so how did this photo end up in his hands? Would he meet Tai Li again in the next two years? These were all puzzles that needed to be solved for Dong Limao.

  Tai Li's expression immediately turned gloomy, her eyes filled with sparkling tears as she looked at Dong Li Mao and said: "No! You will come back! I have already lost one beloved person, God won't let me lose another!"

  Dong Li Mao listened and understood what was going on. Tai Li's boyfriend was one of the Flying Tiger team members, and it was likely that he had died. To comfort the woman in front of him, who had once spent a day with him, Dong Li Mao stretched out his hands, held her face, and said very seriously: "Tai Li, what you said is right, I will come back! We can still meet again, believe me."

  Tai Li rushed into Dong Li Mao's arms, her tears could no longer be held back, flowing onto the front of his clothes as she sobbed softly and said: "I received the Flying Tiger team's casualty report, he crashed in the Grand Canyon of Mount Everest... it was that day when you and I..."

  Dong Limao patted Taili's back and said, "This is war, we can't control it, let's go quickly, leave here early." Dong Limao said, putting his arm around Taili's waist, personally sending her to the truck where those reporters were riding. Before Taili got on the truck, the two hugged again, and Taili even kissed Dong Limao openly in front of everyone.

  Those reporters all knew Dong Li Mao, and upon seeing their benefactor, they all greeted him.

  "Let the reporters' cars go first!" Dong Li Mao shouted loudly at the special agent soldiers guarding the bridge.

  Several trucks loaded with international journalists slowly drove across the bridge one after another. Dong Li Mao watched the truck that Taili was in disappear into the distance and thought to himself: Is this what they mean by close contact between Taigong and international friends?

  Dong Li Mao believed that the photo was taken by Elizabeth Taylor for Tai Ye, but how did it end up in his hands? Probably at that time, Tai Ye didn't think that this photo would return to him, and then personally hand it over to Dao Lan Xiang, letting her pass it on to Tai Nai Nai. In this process, something else must have happened.

  Dong Li Mao did not want to think about this matter again. Since he had already become Tai Gong, then the path he would take in the future was one that Tai Gong had experienced before, and at that time, he would naturally be able to unravel the mystery.

  The next day, May 2nd at noon, Dong Li Mao had lunch in a military camp east of the bridge.

  "Report to Company Commander, this Lieutenant Colonel wants to see you!" Hu San led a Lieutenant Colonel into the house and reported.

  Dong Li Mao raised his head and glanced at the lieutenant colonel, then lowered his head again to eat, asking slowly: "What's up?"

  Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Zuowu sat beside Dong Li Mao, speaking in Cantonese dialect and introducing himself: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Zuowu of the Expeditionary Force Engineer Command Military Police Battalion."

  Dong Li Mao's eyes widened as he suddenly recalled the fragmented information about Zhang Zu Wu that he had read in a book, and he put down his chopsticks to ask the dark-skinned man: "Are you here to blow up the bridge?"

  Zhang Zuowu nodded and replied: "General Ma Chongliu, the commander of the engineering corps, asked me and a small team of engineers to stay behind. In case of extreme necessity, we would blow up the bridge."

  "Is there a specific time for blowing up the bridge?" asked Dong Li Mao, pulling out a cigarette and handing one to Zhang Zu Wu, lighting it for him.

  "General Ma didn't specify a time for blowing up the bridge, just said to act on opportunity." Zhang Zuowu replied with a sudden intake of smoke.

  "What are you going to do?" Dong Li Mao wanted to know what kind of ability this person, who had left a small mark in the history of the defeated expeditionary army, actually possessed.

  "There is a truck of explosives, which needs to be placed under the bridge pier on the east side of the bridge immediately." Zhang Zuwu replied.