Chapter 260 Strange rental requirements and a strange family
After coming down from the small bar on the second floor of Gubijingyi Restaurant, Wei Ran walked to the door and looked at the worn canvas bag and skateboard on the bench again. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Monica, and Matthew
, I’m going to rent this place, now let’s talk about the rent.”
"Mr. Nicholas, before you plan to rent this place, you need to listen to our conditions first." The little guy named Matthew said seriously.
"What conditions?" Wei Ran asked as he half-crouched down to keep himself at the same height as the other party.
Matthew looked up at Monica who was standing aside, and then said, "First of all, the first condition is that when you plan to rent the restaurant on the first floor, you must also rent the bar on the second floor."
"Aren't these two one?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.
Matthew explained inconsistently, "It's indeed one piece, but the bar upstairs is Uncle Tassie's property. It's just left to me to take care of."
"Who is Uncle Tassie?"
"The owner of the bar upstairs" Matthew gave a flawless answer.
"Okay, whether it's a bar or a restaurant, I will rent it together." Wei Ran said nonchalantly. Anyway, the rent will be included in the survey fee paid by Charlotte, and he doesn't care about renting an extra floor.
"Second condition"
Matthew stretched out his two white little fingers to show scissors, "After you rent this place, except for replacing the burned things, you cannot change the layout of the upstairs and downstairs, even if you repair the burned ones.
Things must also be consistent with their original layout.”
"Why is this?" Wei Ran couldn't help but look at Monica who was standing aside. He now suspected that this little kid named Matthew was amusing himself.
"This is a non-negotiable condition." Monica's voice was not loud, but she was extremely determined.
At this point, Wei Ran finally understood why such a good store in this location could not be rented out. Suppressing his growing curiosity, Wei Ran continued to ask, "Do you have any other requirements?"
"If you can agree to the above conditions, after opening, the bar upstairs will be open at least three days a week, and the types and prices of alcoholic beverages sold cannot be changed." Matthew said in a coquettish voice when he offered to rent the shop.
The business is eyeing the last nail in the coffin.
"These conditions of yours are a bit strange, may I know the reason?" Wei Ran asked kindly.
"cannot"
Matthew shook his head simply, "The rent is Euro per year, and you need to pay the rent for at least one year in one go. If you want to rent it, you can sign a rental agreement with us and the owner of the bar tomorrow."
"Can I meet the owner of the bar first?" Wei Ran asked patiently.
"Uncle Tassie won't see you unless you plan to rent it and pay the rent for the restaurant downstairs." Matthew said and thought for a moment, "Uncle Tassie may be willing to meet you only then."
What is this and what? Wei Ran looked at the siblings with a strange expression... No, there seems to be a generation gap between them.
"It seems you are not interested in renting this place either."
Matthew looked like he was used to it, and stretched out his little arm to point in the direction, "Mr. Nicholas, maybe you can go to that street and have a look. We passed by there when we came here and saw that there are shops for rent. The rent should be the same as
Our restaurants are similar.”
"You are the only one who can rent it out like this."
Wei Ran muttered to himself, thought for a while and said, "Okay, Matthew, I just saw a lot of interesting old photos in the bar upstairs. If you can tell me the stories in those photos, maybe I can
I am willing to rent this place and rent it according to your terms."
This super editor's question was obviously beyond the range of questions that Matthew could answer. The little guy, who was acting like an adult just a moment ago, immediately looked at Monica next to him with a look of help.
The latter sighed in distress and asked reluctantly, "What do you want to know?"
"How about a group photo behind the bar on the second floor?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.
"Matthew, has Tassie told you?" Monica whispered to Matthew standing next to her.
"No." Matthew shook his head with a grimace, "What should we do?"
"Or you give Tassie a call?"
"He locked himself in the studio today. Unless someone comes in, he will definitely not go out to answer the phone." Matthew said in Monica's ear, "It's rare for a weirdo to be willing to rent this place. Why don't we
How about taking him directly to ask Uncle Tassie?"
"No, no, he will go crazy, and then we will definitely have to help him clean the room again." Monica seemed to have thought of something terrible, and her little face with some freckles became a little distorted.
"Can't we just let him stay in our car and communicate on the mobile phone?" Matthew seemed very happy that he thought of this good method, and his voice couldn't help but become louder, "Or let Uncle Tassie come out."
“It seems like this is the only way to go.”
Monica straightened up, looked at Wei Ran and asked again, "Are you really planning to rent this place? The requirements we just mentioned will be written into the agreement."
"If there are any interesting stories behind the photos in the bar, maybe I will rent it here." Wei Ran said without missing a beat, "But no matter what the final result is, I will pay 100 euros, at least I won't let you run away in vain.
One trip.”
"That's enough for us to buy new games and enough snacks," Matthew said happily after hearing this.
Monica sighed and said reluctantly, "We will take you to the bar owner to ask."
After saying that, Monica locked the rolling shutter door of the restaurant and the anti-theft iron bars of the floor-to-ceiling windows, while Matthew had already taken the skateboard and backpack on the bench, and took Weiran to a convertible Fiat 500 in the parking lot across the intersection.
, skillfully pushed the passenger seat forward, and then got into the rear compartment.
After he fastened his seat belt, Weiyan pushed the passenger seat back to its original position, but before he could sit down, Matthew said, "Mr. Nicholas, you'd better find one by yourself."
The taxi followed us."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Why?" Wei Ran, who had already touched the seat with his buttocks, asked in confusion.
"Monica doesn't like strangers getting too close to her"
Matthew whispered solemnly, "She will be very upset. Really, I won't lie to you. Even to meet you today, she mustered up a lot of courage."
"Social phobia?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.
Matthew spread his hands and said, "Please, Mr. Nicholas, please find a taxi yourself!"
"All right"
Seeing Monica standing on the opposite side of the road, Wei Ran reluctantly got out of the small car, waited for a while on the roadside, and stopped a taxi.
Following the Fiat Bubble Car driven by Monica out of the city, the road ahead was far beyond Weiran's expectation. The two cars took more than an hour until they saw the foot of the Alps on the outskirts of Turin.
, and then stopped at the entrance of a farm backed by a mountain and surrounded by dense woods on both sides.
Almost half of this small farm is planted with grapes. In addition to two exquisite wooden houses, the remaining half also has a beautiful flower garden and a small pond.
.
Following the other person's car, Wei Ran stopped under the shadow of the big oak tree not far from the wooden house. Wei Ran handed the taxi a 50-euro note, "Wait for me here for your tip. I'll pay it back soon."
Turin.”
"It doesn't matter if it gets dark," the taxi driver said as he took the banknote in surprise and made a chicken paw gesture.
After getting out of the car, Wei Ran let Matthew pull him into the passenger seat of the Fiat car, while Monica had already entered the house one step ahead.
"Mr. Nicholas, please wait for me here for a moment." After Matthew finished speaking, he ran into another house with his little legs.
Soon after, he took back a mobile phone and handed it to Wei Ran who was sitting in the car, "Uncle Taxi is holding the other mobile phone. I will call you via video call when I get in. You want to ask after I get through?"
Anything is fine.”
"Can we only communicate using mobile phones?" Wei Ran asked in confusion. He became more and more curious as to what was going on with this weird family.
Not to mention the Monica just now and Tassie who didn't want to meet and could only rely on mobile phones to communicate, even this over-mature little guy Matthew looked a little arrogant.
"It's not that Uncle Taxi doesn't want to see you, it's just that he has very, very, very serious obsessive-compulsive disorder and mysophobia."
Matthew explained happily, "If you invite you into his house, we will help him disinfect and clean the house in the next week. If you let him come out of the house, he might soak himself in disinfectant water.
, and even need to hire a psychiatrist for him. So please, Mr. Nicholas, just use the mobile phone to communicate, okay? I will treat you to the pizza made by Monica later."
"Matthew, where are your parents? Or where are your uncle Tassie's family? Can't they come forward?" Wei Ran took advantage of Monica's absence and asked.
"not there"
Matthew gestured with a small chicken paw and explained, "My parents both work at the Antarctic scientific research station. Usually only my aunt takes care of me. But in fact, I take care of her and Uncle Taxi."
.”
"Where's Tassie's family?"
"Died two years ago," Matthew explained sadly, "The fire in the restaurant took them away."
The expression on Wei Ran's face became a little stunned. After he came to his senses, he immediately took out a 100 euro note from his pocket and handed it to Matthew, "I know, I'll wait here for you to call me."
come over."
"You are a generous gentleman"
Matthew politely took the banknote and stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans, then ran towards the wooden house. This time, Wei Ran even saw him take off his shoes at the door and put them on himself.
I bought a new pair of socks and then opened the door.
After waiting for a full ten minutes, the cell phone that Matthew had just sent rang. Wei Ran quickly pressed the answer button, and then saw a person wearing a white coat and a dust-free hat on the screen.
It looked like a young man who was about the same age as me was sitting behind a table.
In the area that can be seen on the screen, all the parts of a disassembled watch are neatly placed on the table in front of the young man, and behind him, there seem to be several small lathes that look particularly clean.
and other equipment.
"Hello, I'm Tassie. I heard from Matthew that you want to ask about that restaurant?" The man wearing a dust hat asked enthusiastically from the other side of the screen.
"Hello Tassie, I'm Nicholas."
Wei Ran introduced himself first, and then asked, "Younger Matthew, I should have told you that I am interested in renting that strange restaurant and the bar upstairs, and operating them according to those strange requirements.
, but I want to know the reason, especially the story of those photos in the bar, this may be a good selling point.”
“Completely understand!”
Taxi nodded happily and explained to Wei Ran enthusiastically, "Gubijing Pasta Restaurant and Gubijing Friendship Bar are joint ventures between my grandfather and Matthew's great-grandfather. How long has it been since the end of World War II?
The store has a long history.”
"That bar looks very special. Is it only open to military personnel?" Wei Ran asked indirectly. To his relief, this Taxi was relatively normal at least for now.
"No, no, no, he is only open to peace-loving anti-war factions."
Tasi proudly explained, "These are the rules set by the founders of this bar, my grandfather Mr. Trento, and Matthew's great-grandfather Mr. Pierre."
"Right," Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then asked deliberately, "So the photos inside are all staged?"
“It’s true that some of it was staged.”
Tassie was extraordinarily candid, "But at least the two precious group photos behind the bar are not. They were their personal experiences in the North African desert during World War II. If you are interested, you can look for them on the small bookshelf on the left side of the bar.
At least when I went there a year ago, there were also memoirs written by my grandfather and his comrades, and the records were very detailed."
Wei Ran wisely ended the topic, changed the direction and asked tentatively, "Can we talk about those unique requirements now?"
"There's nothing to talk about"
Tassie was as straightforward as Matthew and Monica, "Mr. Nicholas, we are not short of money and are willing to rent out that store, we just don't want it to remain empty. At the same time, for some special reasons, we ourselves There is no way to run it. So if you are willing to rent it, the rent can be slightly cheaper."
"How much cheaper is it?" Wei Ran followed closely to discuss the price as if he really wanted to rent the restaurant.
"Matthew, how much do you quote?" Taxi didn't avoid Wei Ran at all, and turned directly to the little guy standing aside and asked.
Hearing this, Matthew, who was wearing a small dustproof suit, even wearing protective goggles and a mask on his face, came over and replied in a coquettish voice, "The annual rent is euros."
"How about the euro for a year?" Tassie asked, staring at the camera, with the expectation in his eyes unable to be concealed.
"How about I pay a little more and cancel those special requests?"
"no!"
"Fifty thousand euros a year?" Weiran deliberately quoted a high price.
"Not even half a million a year"
Tassie said very seriously, "That restaurant has a very important commemorative significance to my family and Matthew's, and besides, we are really not short of money."
"Are you really not short of money?" Wei Ran deliberately provoked the other party's bottom line, and his purpose was nothing more than to collapse the business.
He had gotten the result he wanted, and he already knew from Matthew's words just now that their life was actually pretty good, at least not as tight as he thought.
"Well...there's really no shortage of money."
Taxi said with some distress, "But if I have this income, I can change to a lathe with higher precision, and Monica can also change to a laptop with better configuration. But even so, those requirements Nor can we make any concessions.”
"What do you need a lathe for?" Wei Ran rambled but naturally took the topic further and further.
"I am a watchmaker"
Taxi proudly introduced his other identity, then picked up his mobile phone, switched the camera, and took Wei Ran outside the house to visit his studio. Matthew, who was originally waiting aside in protective clothing, Then he stretched out his small hands with rubber gloves to cover the protective goggles on his face.
According to past experience, no matter who it is, when chatting with Taxi about these things in the studio, there is no way to end the topic until one or two hours.
Soon, Wei Ran outside the room also realized this problem, because Taxi, who was still somewhat normal just now, actually began to introduce in detail the working principles and the range of accuracy of the processing equipment that he did not recognize at all. Even just Wei Ran asked a perfunctory casual question, and he began to talk enthusiastically about the conversion units between microns and millimeters, and how difficult it is to process precision to the micron level.
However, as Taxi explained, Wei Ran was distracted and remembered another matter. He was hesitating whether he could ask the other party to help him process some warheads for high-precision bullets for the anti-tank gun.
Compared with Alexander, this obsessive-compulsive or mysophobic named Tassie may not know much about bullets, but judging from the almost paranoid pursuit of processing accuracy in the other person's tone, the finished product must be enough to meet his requirements.
And the most important thing is that for someone who doesn't even want to go out of his house, and who is almost a chance encounter, the confidentiality is undoubtedly much higher.
With this in mind, he simply endured and listened carefully as the other party introduced all the extremely clean equipment in the studio. At the same time, he also learned some other things from a few words.
According to Tassie, he and Monica received long-term treatment from the same psychiatrist for psychological problems about ten years ago.
It was also during that time that Matthew's father, who was responsible for sending him to the doctor every week, met Monica's sister. The two held a wedding within a short time, and just a few years later
With that little guy Matthew.
In addition, he also learned from this seemingly unscrupulous obsessive-compulsive person that his current job was basically customized for him by Monica from the Internet.
Even in some small circles, he is still a well-known but never seen watch repairman and watchmaker. From this point of view, he is more and more in line with Wei Ran's expectations.
After waiting patiently for the other party to introduce the last piece of equipment, Wei Ran took the initiative and said, "Mr. Taxi, we may be able to reach another business deal."
“Do you also need a custom watch?”
Tassie asked as expected, "But my order has been scheduled for next Christmas. If you can wait, maybe you can tell me your requirements."
"No no no"
Wei Ran shook his head and denied the other party's speculation, "What I want to process is not something as complex as a watch, but some toy models that require high precision, but may not be difficult for you."
"Model?" Taxi's expression turned out to be a little disappointing when he heard this.
"If you are willing to take over this business, maybe I can rent the restaurant now."
Wei Ran continued to seduce, "The shape and structure of those models are not complicated, and the quantity is not large. If you are interested, I will send you samples tomorrow."
"I need to see the samples tomorrow before I can make a decision," Tasi said cautiously.
"No problem, I will come over tomorrow with enough cash." Wei Ran said simply, "Of course, when it comes to confidentiality issues, I hope not many people know about this transaction."
"Don't worry, Mr. Nicholas"
Tassie said mockingly, "I rarely leave this farm, and I don't like to quarrel with others online like Monica does. Except for Matthew, no one has the time to listen to me introduce my studio like you.
"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Those devices are very interesting, I can't help but go in and take a look." Wei Ran reassured the other person, and waited until a smile appeared on the other person's face.
, then he said, "It's getting late, and I have to go back to Turin to make some preparations for our meeting tomorrow. Finally, I wish you a happy work, Mr. Tassie."
"I also wish you a happy work." Taxi responded politely.
After hanging up the phone and placing the almost-depleted cell phone on the dashboard, Wei Ran didn't wait for Matthew, the kid in charge of contact, to come out, let alone eat the pizza he was promised, so he opened the car door and got in.
After waiting for a taxi for more than an hour, I simply left the farm and headed towards the city.
It took more than an hour to return to the hotel. After eating and drinking, Wei Ran returned to the room and took out the food box in the metal book, and took out a warhead in a plastic sealed bag.
Before setting off for the UK, he had prepared and dismantled a 20mm high-explosive bomb in advance, and carefully removed any dangerous items such as high-explosives and fuses from the warhead.
Originally, he was going to ask Alexander for help and try to see if he could make some high-quality goods based on this warhead. But he didn't expect that Alexander had returned to Russia early, and at the same time, he met a weirdo like Tassie in Italy.
But no matter who it is, as long as they make a suitable warhead, the remaining work of reloading the bullet will no longer be difficult. After all, compared to the warhead that he has no way of making himself, accurately loading the same amount of propellant into the cartridge case is already a task.
An extremely simple task.
As for whether Taxi can or is not willing to process what he needs according to his own requirements, Wei Ran doesn't care. Even if the other party sees something and chooses to refuse, he is just wasting a bullet and an irrelevant person.
It's just an important fake identity.
After carefully examining the bullet sample in the plastic sealed bag, he compared the content found on the Internet and wrote down some key size information, and then began to think about how to create a reasonable use for this bullet.
At the same time, on the farm far out in the suburbs, after carefully and tediously cleaning up her personal hygiene, Taxi began to scroll through the screen to find the new equipment she was about to buy amid the faint smell of disinfectant.
