After resting for two days in Volgograd, Wei Ran, who had seen enough of the first half of the drama between his aunt, husband, and godson, also loaded all his personal belongings into an off-road vehicle and planned to drive to Kazan and move there in advance.
The reason is that the strange look that his aunt Zhou Shujin looks at his son-in-law every day is too penetrating, and the fact that he comes to work from time to time makes him have no time to work on his graduation thesis.
"Good boy, come back often in the future." Zhou Shujin put a pressure cooker filled with braised pork ribs and a big red plastic bag filled with meat buns into the passenger seat of the off-road vehicle with a look of reluctance.
Wei Ran nodded dumbfounded, "I will definitely come back often in the future. Don't worry, auntie. Besides, the house over there is big enough. When you are not busy, you can always go to Kazan for a few days."
"That's what you said," Professor Alexei immediately took over, "I will go and help you decorate your new house in a few days."
"If you dare to leave Volgograd before Suisui graduates, I will break your legs!"
While Zhou Shujin was speaking, she poked the alcohol detector hanging on the former’s waist with her finger, “From now on, you will have a video alcohol test every six hours! As long as there is one milliliter of alcohol in your body, you and
Let’s get married in a bottle!”
"Look at the good things you have done, you bastard!" Professor Alexei, who was beaming just a second ago, glared at Wei Ran fiercely.
"For your own good"
Wei Ran gloated and patted the boxes of gin in the trunk, "Professor, since you don't drink anymore, I'll take these away. And don't worry, I checked the studio carefully yesterday.
Yes, I even took away the empty wine bottles..."
"You are really my good nephew!" Professor Alexei gritted his teeth and praised Wei Ran, then looked at Zhou Shujin with a pleading look on his face, "Wine to accompany the meal..."
"Change to milk"
Zhou Shujin made the arrangements without waiting for the former to finish, and then stuffed a suitcase full of various snacks into the trunk of the off-road vehicle, "Give us a call when you get there."
Wei Ran nodded when he heard this, then turned to look at the old guy sitting astride the Harley motorcycle, "Mr. Nicholas, are you really not going to live with me in Kazan for a while?"
"I will never leave Volgograd again. I will never leave here again in my life."
Mr. Nicholas was particularly kind at this moment, pointing to the studio where the sign had been removed, "In addition, I plan to rent this place, and when the weather gets warmer, I will run a bookstore here, called...Tree Hole
How about the bookstore?”
Wei Ran was stunned when he heard this, then smiled and nodded, "That's a good name."
“Really good”
Professor Alexei said pitifully, "The historical files I collected were also rented by your aunt to Mr. Nicholas."
"I believe that Mr. Nicholas will not allow you to hide any alcoholic beverages here like Wei Ran."
Zhou Shujin glared at Professor Alexei again, turned around and said in Chinese with a smile, "And this will also make it easier for us to take care of Mr. Nicholas, so you can rest assured here. Wei Ran, I wish you all the best in your career in Kazan
.”
You guys? Wei Ran grinned, the hint was already obvious enough, but now that it's become clear, Suisui herself thought it was perfectly concealed.
"Okay, if we keep talking you'll have to stay for lunch."
Professor Alexei angrily picked up the alcohol detector hanging on his belt and blew hard on it before continuing, "Victor, let's go quickly."
After bidding farewell to the three people who saw him off, Wei Ran started the car, slowly left the studio full of memories, and headed north along the sparkling Volga River towards Kazan.
"I should go to work too." Professor Alexei deliberately blew the alcohol detector again in front of Zhou Shujin, and without waiting for the other party to say anything, he bent down and got into his car.
"Mr. Nicholas, remember to come to the travel agency for dinner at noon." Zhou Shujin was too lazy to talk to the demonic Alexei, and said politely to Mr. Nicholas, who was still riding his motorcycle.
"Are there those scrambled eggs with tomatoes today?" Nikolai asked with interest in Russian mixed with the Chinese name of the dish.
"No, you have eaten it for four days in a row, you can't eat that dish anymore."
Zhou Shujin decisively refused and said, "If you can catch fish today, we will eat braised fish. If you cannot catch fish, we will eat beef dumplings."
"Then let's eat the braised fish! I don't like dumplings." Nicholas smiled and started the Harley motorcycle under his butt, "I'm going to catch the fish right now."
"Then I'll leave it to you." After arranging a leisurely job for the old man, Zhou Shujin turned around and walked into the travel agency next door.
Almost immediately, a taxi slowly stopped near Nicholas, and then Diane, a German woman who had visited Weiran two days ago, opened the door and walked in carrying a briefcase.
Nikolai, who had already started the motorcycle, was not in a hurry to leave when he saw this. He turned the handle and hit the accelerator, and asked proactively, "Who are you looking for?"
Diane looked at the studio that had taken off the sign and the locked rolling shutter door in astonishment, and then looked at Nicholas who was wearing a leather jacket and his sparse white hair was tied into a pigtail, looking like a veteran gangster.
He asked tentatively, "Hello, this studio..."
Nicholas glanced at the Edelweiss-shaped brooch on Diane's chest without leaving a trace, and said with a trace of disgust, "It closed down. It closed down yesterday."
"Going bankrupt?" Diane's eyes seemed as round as her figure, "How is that possible?"
"Why is it impossible?" Nikolai said with a smile, "The young man ran away because of debts before, and I have just rented this place."
"Really?" Diane asked in disbelief.
"You definitely didn't come to me to buy books. Whether you believe it or not is none of my business?"
Before Nikolai finished speaking, he was already driving his polished Harley motorcycle to the Volga River not far away amidst the sweet sound of horse hooves, preparing to contribute to the braised fish at noon.
Diane looked at the locked studio again, and then took out her cell phone to call Wei Ran. As expected, the other party's power-off prompt came from the receiver.
Looking at the briefcase in her hand with a bitter look on her face, Diane sighed, bent down and got into the taxi, "Please take me back to the hotel where I was just now."
Wei Ran, who had just missed Diane, didn't know that Nikolai had helped him reject a potential business deal. At this time, he was driving a fully loaded off-road vehicle in the direction of Kazan while thinking about his new business in Kazan.
What about life?
Although the newly renovated house still needs to be smelled, half of my time in a month is spent at the Hongqi Forest Farm, and the remaining half has to go on business trips every now and then, so it doesn't affect it at all.
Thinking about starting a new life in Kazan, Wei Ran drove the off-road vehicle faster and faster, not stopping at all except for a short rest and meal. But even so, waiting for him to drive the dirty off-road vehicle
It was already the afternoon of the second day when the car drove through Ulyanovsk, a city without any good memories.
In the evening of that day, Mr. Hans, who was far away in Germany, dialed his satellite phone again.
After glancing at the caller number on the screen, Wei Ran slowly stepped on the brakes and stopped at the edge of a vast farmland, and then pressed the answer button and the hands-free button.
"Victor, your cell phone is out of reach again." Mr. Hans joked with a smile, "If Mr. Gorman hadn't given me your satellite phone number, I would have really believed Diane's lies."
"What nonsense?"
Weiran didn't bother to explain why the mobile phone he used to contact the business was not turned on. While talking, he also leaned over to pick up the pressure cooker placed on the passenger seat, and picked out a meat-looking piece from the few braised pork ribs left in it.
A lot of it was thrown into the mouth.
Mr. Hans suppressed his laughter and said, "Diane said your studio closed down and you even ran away."
"Go bankrupt? Run away?" Wei Ran was stunned and asked, dumbfounded, "Where did she hear that?"
"It is said that an old man who didn't look very serious told her." Mr. Hans couldn't hold back his laughter after all.
"Professor, this old bastard, thanks to me, he secretly left a bottle of wine in his car..."
Wei Ran, who had no idea that he had wronged his father-in-law, cursed secretly, threw the bones in his hand out of the car window, and then said, "My studio didn't close down, it just moved to another city. As for the mobile phone,
Not turned on..."
"There's no need to explain why you didn't turn on the phone. I've long been used to it."
Mr. Hans said before Wei Ran could finish his words, "Victor, it's not convenient for you to talk to Diane now. She really needs your help this time."
"What about the investigators?" Wei Ran said with hesitation in his tone, "Mr. Hans, I have thought about that matter, but I really don't have time."
"No, no, no, this time it's not the investigators' business."
Mr. Hans smiled and said, "I already know about your refusal to be an investigator for Edelweiss, but this time Diane is looking for you for another matter."
Hearing this, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment again, and then said, "If Ms. Diane is around, just give her the phone."
"Wait a moment" said Mr. Hans on the other end of the phone, and Diane's voice came from the receiver.
"Mr. Victor, this time I would like to ask you to help investigate a corpse burial pit we recently discovered."
"Tell me the specific situation"
Wei Ran picked up the second piece of ribs and stuffed it into his mouth. Although he rejected the previous solicitation from this fat woman named Diane, he liked her straightforward communication habit.
"OK"
Diane paused for a moment before continuing, "The burial pit is in Belarus, near an abandoned village about less than 100 kilometers away from Minsk."
"Belarus?" Wei Ran was stunned, then dropped the second bone and urged, "Keep talking."
“A digging party team we were working with accidentally discovered about 20 corpses in a filled well in this abandoned village. However, these corpses had neither soldier tags nor any traces of their history.
Personal belongings, not even shoes were found.”
"Since there is nothing, how do you think they are Germans?" Wei Ran asked while chewing the ribs.
"This is where we need your help," Diane said with a hint of embarrassment in her troubled tone, "In addition, there is a sentence carved on the stone edge of this well."
Seeing that the other party had stopped here, Wei Ran simply asked in a joking tone, "Ms. Diane, are you going to let me guess what is engraved on?"
"This village may become vibrant again in the future, but your actions are like this well that has been polluted by you. It can never be washed clean."
After Diane finished speaking, she sped up her speech slightly and made a request, "Mr. Victor, we want to know whether the corpse in the well is a German soldier in World War II, as that sentence implies. If so, we
I want to know more about their identities, what they did, and what happened to them."
"That sentence alone does sound like a place where German soldiers are buried."
Wei Ran paused and reminded in a slightly explicit tone, "But it is not easy to investigate the issues you just mentioned based on just a sentence on the edge of the well."
"I'm sorry Mr. Victor, we may not be able to spend 200,000 euros to investigate the truth like Mr. Hans did." Diane still said straightforwardly, "But we may be able to pay you the commission in another way."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "In what way?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.
Diane suggested, "What about investing in your movie studio or studio?"
"Please allow me to correct two points."
Wei Ran, who had been chewing the ribs, swallowed the meat in his mouth, "First of all, I am just a shareholder of Time Film Studio. I have no interest in whether you and the organization you represent intend to invest in this studio.
Relationship. Secondly, my studio does not accept any form of investment."
"If the issue of commission is excluded, are you interested in investigating the body under the well?" Ms. Diane simply put aside the dispute about the commission.
"It's different from your Edelweiss," Wei Ran reminded in a calm tone, "My Time Studio is a for-profit organization, so whether I am interested or not depends on the chips you offer."
"So the only dispute between us right now is just the commission?"
"Of course, it's just a commission," Wei Ran responded happily, while secretly cursing "stingy" in his heart.
"I wonder if I can contact you at this phone number after I resolve the commission issue?"
"Of course, as long as you are sure that the chips you offer are enough to make my heart move."
"I will contact you later," Diane said, and returned the phone to Mr. Hans, who was watching the fun.
After chatting with Mr. Hans for a few words, Wei Ran hung up the phone, then got out of the car and looked around. Seeing that there was no one in front or behind, he immediately took out the gasoline stove from the metal book and lit it.
Picking up the last piece of ribs in the pressure cooker and throwing it into his mouth, Wei Ran slowly took out the meat buns made by his aunt Zhou Shujin, placed them on the bracket of the gasoline stove and grilled them slowly, patiently
Wait for the skin of the meat buns to turn golden little by little.
As for whether Diane on the phone just now could come up with a bargaining chip that satisfied him, he didn't care. Those organizations that do business with old corpses are just stingy, but they have nothing to do with poverty, let alone 200,000
Oh, as long as it's profitable, they can take it out even if there's an extra zero at the end.
Sure enough, before Wei Ran could brown the other sides of the two meat buns, the satellite phone placed on the driver's seat rang again.
After he slowly turned off the gasoline stove and threw the hot meat buns into the pressure cooker where only some thick soup was left, he clapped his hands and pressed the answer and hands-free buttons again.
"Mr. Victor, I think I should be able to pay you a commission that satisfies you now." Diane said confidently as soon as the call was connected.
"Tell me and listen," Wei Ran said, picking up a meat bun soaked in soup and taking a bite.
"We can only pay up to 50,000 euros in cash"
Diane paused and continued, "In addition, no matter what the final result of the investigation is, we can authorize you in advance to make a movie using the historical truth investigated."
"Authorization?"
Wei Ran smiled and reminded in the same straightforward manner, "Ms. Diane, whether the historical truth finally investigated will be made into a movie does not require your authorization. This is a story that happened in Belarus. Even if it is authorized, it will be made by
The Belarusian official came to authorize it. To put it more bluntly, not only I, the Chinese, but also you and the Germans behind you are not responsible for this matter."
“What if we could help a film produced by a film company in which you own a stake be released smoothly in Germany?”
Diane confidently added, "Any movie with positive values, whether before or after."
"Although I still have no interest, your request for film values moved me."
Wei Ran, whose heart was pounding, said in a calm tone, "Okay, Ms. Diane, how about we go take a look at the well and the found body first, and then talk about the commission?"
"I'm very grateful that you can say that." Diane, who was obviously relieved, asked, "Which city are you in? I will help you buy a ticket now."
"Kazan"
Wei Ran, who was still holding a meat bun in his hand, said before the other party spoke, "Buy a ticket for three days from now. I've been busy with some things in the past two days."
"Mr. Victor, is your studio really closed down?"
Diane asked abruptly, "If you are interested, you can actually come to Germany and we can help you open a new studio."
"Once again, my studio has not closed down," Wei Ran retorted angrily, "I just moved, and I don't want to go to Germany."
"How about you move to Moscow..."
"Okay, Ms. Diane, I will send you my ID number later, and I'll leave it to you to take care of the air tickets."
After saying that, Wei Ran hung up the phone and called his aunt Zhou Shujin directly.
"Have you arrived in Kazan?" Zhou Shujin asked as soon as the call was connected.
"Reaching soon"
Wei Ran glanced at the endless farmland outside the window and reminded him with a cute face, "Auntie, I suddenly remembered...uncle, there seems to be a bottle of gin hidden in the glove box of my uncle's car."
