Early the next morning after arriving at Fort Augustus, Charlotte arranged for a red-haired white girl who could speak Chinese to take the bleary-eyed Wei Ran onto a sightseeing boat parked in the river.
While waiting to pass through the lock, the British girl whose Chinese name was Feng Shufen, in Chinese with a hint of a Beijing movie accent, leisurely recounted various strange rumors about the Loch Ness monster.
Wei Ran was served a large plate of extraordinarily sumptuous breakfast.
On the dining table, which was slightly rocking as the hull of the boat, in addition to the usual fried eggs, sausages, bacon and tomato-baked beans that looked pretty good, there was also a dish between the two of them that was similar to Chinese tripe in appearance and preparation.
The meat buns are 70-80% similar to the famous local dish Haggis.
Paired with the mashed potatoes that won't be late or absent, Wei Ran took a courtesy taste of the haggis that Feng Shufen highly recommended. He commented in his heart that "a pig would shake his head after seeing it". At the same time, he also said it very sincerely.
A series of compliments came out.
After taking a swig of whiskey to suppress the taste in his mouth, Wei Ran asked curiously, "Shufen, I'm curious who gave you this good name?"
"My college classmates"
Feng Shufen also took a sip of whiskey and explained with a smile, "My English name is Sophie. They sound very similar, don't they? As for my last name, it comes from my Chinese boyfriend. Unfortunately, after I finished studying abroad, I didn't know about him.
All that remains of my memory is this surname that sounds very much like a German aristocrat."
"I can see you like this name very much," Wei Ran said with a strange expression.
"I receive many Chinese tourists, especially many aunts, who like it very much. They all say that they feel much younger after knowing my name."
Feng Shufen put down her cup happily, glanced at the old man driving the boat, and then lowered her voice and asked, "Mr. Wei, you must be Mr. Sherlock's distinguished guest, right?"
"Why do you say that?" Wei Ran stuffed the fried egg into his mouth, chewing it while looking at the red-haired girl sitting opposite.
"He is the weirdest and stingiest person in the entire Fort Augustus." Feng Shufen commented in a low voice, "I have never seen him willing to charter a sightseeing boat for anyone."
"So Mr. Charlotte's reputation locally is not good?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows.
“Quite the opposite”
Feng Shufen shook her head and denied, "Although Fort Augustus is not big, everyone still respects Mr. Charlotte. Many families have actually received help from him."
"This sounds very contradictory." Wei Ran became more and more strange.
"That's why I say he is the weirdest old guy in the whole Fort Augustus."
Feng Shufen said with deep emotion, "This old man never attends any parties, never entertains any friends who come to visit, and even the children on Halloween can't get half a candy from him.
But residents of the town, no matter who encounters unsolvable troubles, will get help as long as they ask Mr. Charlotte for help. Many times, even the town police will ask him for help."
"He is indeed a weird old man." Wei Ran couldn't help but nodded in agreement.
While the two were chatting, the sightseeing boat also passed through the lock and slowly sailed into Loch Ness shrouded in drizzle.
"This weather is not conducive to seeing the Loch Ness monster." When Feng Shufen saw Wei Ran put down his knife and fork and was about to walk to the deck, he immediately picked up a blanket and draped it around him to catch up.
"Can we see it when the weather is nice?" Wei Ran asked, looking at the calm lake shrouded in mist.
"No, that kind of thing only appears in legends, and you can't see it at all even if the weather is good." Feng Shufen, who has a somewhat upright temperament, ruthlessly told the truth, "At least from the time I was born to just now, I have never been on Loch Ness.
Have you ever seen any water monsters?”
"You ruin the atmosphere very much," Wei Ran joked, dumbfounded.
Feng Shufen spread her hands, "But that shy water monster did bring a lot of tourists to Fort Augustus."
Hearing this, Wei Ran remembered that when he returned to China during the May Day holiday, Suisui had asked him to help find a place suitable for summer fun.
Thinking of this, he simply asked, "Shufen, in which season do Fort Augustus have more tourists?"
“Of course it’s summer”
Feng Shufen replied matter-of-factly, "Even in the summer, the temperature here rarely reaches above 30 degrees. Most of the time it's the horrible weather like now. When winter comes, there won't be anything in this place at all."
of tourists.”
"In a month or two, I might bring my friends over."
“You can contact me then”
Feng Shufen immediately smelled the business, took the initiative to add Weiran's WeChat account and kindly reminded, "Or you can contact Mr. Charlotte, I believe he will entertain you and your friends."
“I hope I will have the opportunity to play here”
Wei Ran was sitting on a deck chair under a sun umbrella, looking at the misty lake surface, while bringing the topic back to the Loch Ness Monster, who is catching wind and shadow, trying hard to create a persona of a "Loch Ness Monster lover".
While he was boating on the lake in the company of beautiful women, Mr. Charlotte, who was on the second floor of the souvenir shop, stayed up all night and urgently contacted an old and trusted friend to help him go to Libya to find the treasure on the map.
In the next week, Wei Ran seemed to clock in and go to work. Every day, under the leadership of the British girl Feng Shufen, he would leave early and come back late on a sightseeing boat to wander aimlessly on Loch Ness, deliberately avoiding the French archaeologist.
Herbert, the scientist, also made it clear that he wanted to see Charlotte's joke and see what treasures he could find in the Libyan desert.
But speaking of it, this week was not wasted. He actually had a close encounter with the so-called Loch Ness Monster in the continuous drizzle.
However, after he paid a full tip of two hundred pounds to persuade the old man who was driving the boat to catch up, he discovered that the thing that was so close to the water monster in the photo, with most of its long neck exposed in the water, was just a monster.
It's just a tree trunk floating on the water.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! On the day he discovered the "Loch Ness Monster", good news also came from Charlotte. It was only a week before the other party
He actually found the treasure he had been longing for.
While being amazed at the opponent's speed, Wei Ran also walked into Charlotte's room again under the leadership of Herbert.
Different from the scene I saw the last time I came here, it has only been a week. The large room on the second floor of the souvenir shop seems to have been renovated. Not only are the dusty outdoor products that can be seen everywhere gone,
, even Mr. Charlotte put on a formal suit that suited his status and age.
In addition, sitting in the corner of the living room this time was a balding old man in his fifties wearing desert camouflage uniform.
Witnessed by Herbert, Wei Ran, and the taciturn old man in camouflage uniforms, Charlotte personally took out a wooden box that was at most the size of a microwave oven and painted red from the plastic storage box.
The box was still stained with a lot of sand, and there were a lot of mold spots in some places. But even so, the rusty iron seal on the box was still intact.
Charlotte took a long breath, picked up the needle-nose pliers on the table and cut open the iron seal.
As the cover of the nearly rotten box was opened by an old man almost the same age as it, Wei Ran and others immediately saw that the boxes contained items painted with red paint, with the names of Carlo and others written on the sides.
Tin cans, six bottles of whiskey and a tea set that Wei Ran was very familiar with. In addition, there was a slightly rusty can opener.
Charlotte turned back and said something to the middle-aged man in desert camouflage uniform. The latter spread his hands but did not speak. He just poured himself a glass of whiskey.
"What are they talking about?" Wei Ran asked Herbert next to him in a low voice.
"Mr. Charlotte was asking the man named Matt if he only found this box full of cans?" Herbert translated in a low voice.
While he was speaking, Charlotte had picked up a can from the box and shook it, and then everyone present heard a dull knocking sound coming from the can.
After being stunned for a moment, Charlotte, whose face was originally full of disappointment, had a look of surprise and picked up the can opener in the box.
While the Weiran trio were waiting, the tin can with thick paint was opened. After Charlotte poured out the contents and unfolded the oil paper wrapped on the outside, everyone saw what was inside.
What it contained turned out to be a silver wine bottle.
This little hip flask was exactly the same as the flask that Wei Ran got from the blue swirl of the metal book. It had the same hollow pattern and the same golden lid. Even when he got closer and took a closer look, even the words engraved on the bottom of the flask were different.
Exactly the same, just with an additional Italian name - Trento.
After looking over it over and over with the small wine flask, Charlotte carefully placed it on the table, then took out a small wine flask of the same shape from her pocket and murmured to herself
What.
"He said that the wine flask was a relic of his father. His father, Mr. Harry, made the wine flask himself." Herbert said proactively in Wei Ran's ear.
After placing the two wine bottles together, Charlotte picked up the can opener again and eagerly opened the second tin can.
As everyone watched, as the tin cans were opened one by one, the number of identical wine bottles on the table gradually increased.
Finally, when all the cans were opened, six wine bottles with the same appearance were neatly placed on the table, as well as a can of well-preserved black tea, a can of sugar cubes that had been stuck together, and five
Empty cans with letters and a photo respectively.
I gently picked up one of the photos. This slightly moldy color photo was taken on the picturesque shores of Loch Ness. Harry Burton in the photo looked much more mature than when he was captured in the desert.
Next to him, there was a woman who was not very beautiful but very elegant.
In this woman's arms, she was holding a baby with a pacifier in its mouth, and next to their family of three, they could see a very period car.
"This is me." Charlotte pointed at the baby in the photo and said something in English that Wei Ran could understand.
Carefully placing the photo on the wine bottle, Charlotte opened the unsealed envelope and pulled out a piece of letter paper.
On the slightly yellowed letter paper, neatly written in dark blue pen, there were lines of Italian that Wei Ran could understand, and at the same time, he also told the truth about the treasure.
"My friend Mr. Pell"
Charlotte whispered:
When I left this letter, it was already the seventh year after the war ended, and it was also the last time I came here to wait for the promised birthday party.
Since the end of the Second Battle of El Alamein, I have been worried about meeting everyone on the battlefield again, and the following year I chose to be a shameful and honored deserter and returned to England alive.
Although the war has ended 7 years ago, I still don’t know. If I really met you on the battlefield, should I shoot or surrender? I think the same problem is probably plaguing all of us.
?
The month after I returned to my hometown in Scotland, I brewed a barrel of whiskey myself. In the days that followed, I was waiting for the war to end and for my friends to open the barrel of whiskey together.
In the past seven years, I have come here almost every year in December, hoping to meet each of you.
It wasn't until 1947 that I couldn't help but dig out the bucket at the bottom of the well, and found a photo of someone who had left it in the bucket.
As mentioned at the beginning, it is now the seventh year since the war ended. During this period, I met a girl during my trip to Italy, and in the summer of 1950, we had a relationship with her.
The baby, we named him Charlotte.
In the future, I will be a dedicated father, so I may not have many opportunities. At the end of each year, I will spare one month and three months of income to come here and wait for your birthday party. I'm sorry,
my friend.
The other cans with your name on them in the box are small gifts from me and the whiskey I brewed myself.
On the back of the letter paper, I left my detailed address. If you have the opportunity to see these, please be sure to contact me.
Once again, thank you for stopping Mr. Trento, who was wounded by my pistol, in early December 1941. Thank you for not hesitating at that time in choosing to make me a prisoner instead of a corpse.
Thank you again for your willingness to let me go after you found the water, your willingness to share the gold coins and gold nuggets found at the bottom of the well, your willingness to invite me to your birthday party, and after the party, prepared for me to leave this land without war.
Fuel, fresh water and fragrant red wine are necessary for the desert.
No matter what the final outcome of the war was, your kindness gave me the opportunity to stay away from the war and thus live until the end of the war. It also gave me the opportunity to become the husband of a girl and the father of a child. Thank you, my friend.
