Less than half an hour after Wei Ran hung up the phone, a taxi stopped at the door of the studio, followed closely by a balding middle-aged man with a big belly and a similar height to Professor Ericson.
He got out of the car, which was a bit cramped for him, and quickly walked into the studio carrying a not-so-large aluminum alloy suitcase.
"Hello, Mr. Victor, this is Herbert who just called me." The middle-aged man with a big belly greeted him warmly after entering the door.
"Hello, Mr. Herbert." Wei Ran enthusiastically asked the other party to sit down at the long table. Before he could say anything, the other party had already opened the suitcase in his hand with a click.
"I bought this when I was traveling in the UK two years ago. Please take a look!" Herbert said as he took out a World War II with khaki paint and a standard 20-liter capacity from the suitcase.
German oil barrel.
Taking the oil drum from the opponent's hand, Wei Ran looked it over and over. The handle in the middle of the oil drum, close to the lid, was fixed with a small iron piece. There was a number enclosed in a circle stamped in the middle of the iron piece.
80, and there is a letter B outside the circle. Just from this small iron piece, we know that this oil barrel was once used to hold gasoline with an octane number of 80.
Placing the oil barrel flat on the table, Wei Ran finally discovered something interesting.
On the square in the middle of the reinforced groove on the side of the oil barrel, the stamped out mark is the double lightning bolt of the gear army, but at the same time, there is a mark shaped like an umbrella painted with red paint on the square. And this
The mark represents the 15th Armored Division of the German Wehrmacht that fought on the North African battlefield.
"Look at the other side, the other side is more interesting." reminded Herbert, who was sitting opposite.
Hearing this, Wei Ran turned the oil drum over, and then discovered that someone had carved a series of irregular letters and numbers on this side with the tip of a knife or something like that. The deep carvings
The paint coating on the oil drum itself has been damaged, replaced by conspicuous brown rust.
"What does it mean?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked Herbert.
"have no idea"
Herbert spread his hands, "But according to my guess, the letters and numbers on it should be encrypted. I once tried to decipher it using the code book used by the 15th German Armored Division, but unfortunately, it didn't work.
Translate the corresponding information."
After opening the lid of the oil drum and smelling it, Wei Ran thought for a moment and asked, "So Mr. Herbert, what do you need me to do?"
Herbert looked at Wei Ran expectantly, "Decipher the secret on this oil barrel, and you will get one-tenth of the profit behind the secret. How about it?"
"not so good"
Wei Ran shook his head without thinking, "This is just an oil barrel. I don't think anyone would use an oil barrel to pass on secrets. Besides, even if there is a genius who does this, I don't think this secret can bring much profit.
Not to mention I can only get a tenth."
"Don't refuse in a hurry," Herbert said, pulling out a tablet computer from his briefcase, pulling out a video and pushing it to Wei Ran.
This video captures an irregular-shaped gold coin. As the hand in the video turns, you can clearly see that one side of the gold coin is a woman's profile, and the other side is a horse.
The video, which lasted less than half a minute, ended. Herbert waited for Weiran to push the tablet over, and then explained, "The Carthage Goddess gold coin in the video was found in this oil barrel."
"Found in an oil drum?" Wei Ran looked at Herbert in confusion. He always felt that there seemed to be some water in Herbert's story.
The latter nodded, "After I bought this oil barrel, I always felt that there were secrets hidden in the letters and numbers engraved on it. It wasn't until an accidental bump that the gold coin stuck in the oil barrel fell out.
Come out."
"So you think those code words on the oil drums?" Wei Ran paused as he said this, "Let's call them code words for now. Do you think there may be more gold coins hidden behind those code words?"
Herbert tapped the tablet computer with the screen still on, "Mr. Victor, such a Carthage goddess gold coin is worth at least four thousand euros, as long as..."
"Even if you find 100 pieces, it's only 400,000 euros. A tenth of them is only 40,000 euros. And even if you really find 100 pieces, it will probably take a long time to sell them for 4,000 euros each.
Bar?"
Wei Ran smiled and looked at Herbert, who was sitting across from him. He actually didn't say anything. Judging from the psychology courses and torture techniques he learned at the Hongqi Forest Farm, he became more and more sure that this pregnant archaeologist
The story just told was either adulterated or some key clues were deliberately concealed.
Since the expected return is not high and the other party deliberately concealed the information, there is no need to take this job. Anyway, he had already made a full 160,000 euros in one go from Noah not long ago, plus the previous year’s
With those profits, Wei Ran's pockets are very fat now, and he has no shortage of money to spend.
"Forehead..."
Herbert grinned, and after a moment of silence he asked without giving up, "Mr. Victor, please give me a price. How much do I need to pay to find out the information hidden in these code words?"
"200,000 euros, cash required."
Wei Ranhun nonchalantly quoted a high price, making it clear that he was refusing. Apart from the two reasons just mentioned, he often met dreamers like Herbert who always dreamed of finding treasures in history books.
Not to mention, even Professor Alexei has been obsessed with finding the treasures looted by Germany during World War II for a long time, but in the end he only spent a lot of time, energy and bottle after bottle of gin.
Apart from the wine, the only reward was that I had a lot of daydreaming.
"make a deal!"
To Wei Ran's expectation, Herbert reached out his hand happily, "As long as you can find out the secret of the code on the oil barrel, I will pay you 200,000 euros in cash."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Now it was Wei Ran's turn to feel uncomfortable. He never expected that there would actually be someone who was willing to pay such a high price for the letters engraved on a broken oil drum.
price.
"According to the rules of Time Studio, half will be paid first as activity expenses."
Weihan, who had already learned how to be greedy with Professor Alexey, added a new rule to the studio in vain. If the other party was really willing to pay 200,000 euros, all the reasons that made him not want to accept this investigation work before were all
Can be optionally ignored.
"Can't we find out?" Herbert put down his hand and asked cautiously.
"Retreat 80%"
Wei Ran added the second rule without any psychological barriers. Can't he find out? This situation does not exist.
Herbert thought about it secretly, and then extended his hand to Wei Ran again, "Let's draw up an agreement first. I'll have a lawyer take a look at it. If there's no problem, I'll send 100,000 euros over tomorrow morning."
"Of course!" Wei Ran shook hands with the other party, stood up and took out a standard contract from the innermost workbench drawer, filled in the corresponding information and handed it over.
This contract was specially prepared for new customers when Professor Alexei took charge of this studio. As for old customers who have cooperated with him, this agreement is basically not used.
Watching Herbert leave with the sample agreement, Wei Ran glanced at the oil drum that was still on the table, stood up, carried it to the inner storage room, and found a random place to stuff it away.
The other party didn't even pay the money, so there was no need to worry about the broken oil barrel. He just wanted to have a good night's rest to calm down, after all, he had to help Mr. Nikolay make a trip to Vienna tomorrow.
While he locked the rolling shutter door of the studio, Herbert, who had been waiting for his taxi to start running, immediately took out his mobile phone and dialed his employer's phone number to transfer the investigation fee that he had just negotiated with Weiran.
Repeated it in detail.
Soon, Herbert hung up the phone after getting a clear answer from his employer. At the same time, Wei Ran also locked the old mobile phone he took out of the food box into the safe in the bedroom. Has this mobile phone been used by Karl?
He didn't know the real-time location that Pu Na used to locate him, but it didn't prevent him from using this method to express his attitude.
After locking his cell phone, Wei Ran took the high-explosive shells he took out from the food box, drove to the bridge across the Volga River, put on rubber gloves, and wiped them carefully with alcohol wipes.
After one pass, they were all thrown into the center of the sparkling river.
After finishing the last bit of work, he drove the windy off-road vehicle through the city, bringing back all kinds of food and drink.
In the blink of an eye, the next morning, almost at the same time that Wei Ran got up, Herbert knocked on the rolling shutter door of the studio with a bulging briefcase.
"This is 100,000 euros"
Before Herbert's buttocks even touched the chair after being let in, he took out a wad of cash from his bag and placed it on the table. He then took out yesterday's agreement and handed it to Wei Ran, "There's nothing wrong with the agreement.
, please sign.”
Taking over the agreement with a smile on his face, Wei Ran became more and more certain that the one who really put the one hundred thousand euros on the table was definitely not this Herbert.
But even so, after carefully counting the cash on the table, he finally signed the agreement happily. After all, it doesn't matter who wants to know the secret on the oil barrel, as long as the cash is not fake.
After seeing off Herbert once again, Wei Ran was not idle either. He locked the rolling shutter door and left, drove straight to the airport, and worked hard as an errand boy for Mr. Nicholas.
It took him nearly two days to revisit his hometown. When he once again stood in front of the bookstore called Shudong with his disguised face, he happened to see Katenka helping the old man suffering from Alzheimer's disease to the door of the bookstore.
Basking in the sun on the bench at the door.
What was both joyful and sad was that the bewildered old lady still had a pink anti-lost rope and a bright red flashing hydrogen balloon tied around her wrist. The other end of the anti-lost rope was stuck firmly.
The card was fixed on a lock on the edge of the bench. Finally, the locator fixed on the old lady's belt was opened. Katenka just straightened up and saw Wei Ran standing not far away.
"Is...is something wrong?" Katenka asked with an unnatural expression, and every move showed that she didn't want to see the former.
Wei Ran pointed to the second floor. After the former nodded hesitantly, he gently opened the wooden door of the bookstore.
Katenka, who was still standing at the door of the bookstore, sighed, took out a piece of toffee from his pocket and stuffed it into the old lady's mouth. She coaxed a child and said, "Let's bask in the sun here and don't run around. I'll wait."
I’ll come back and read Anna Karenina to you.”
Hearing this, a smile immediately appeared on the old lady's old face, but she just nodded quietly without making any sound at all.
