After following the train for nearly eight hours with the sisters Olga and Olena, it was already early the next morning when they arrived in St. Petersburg.
"Which of you will be sent to school first?" Wei Ran asked at the exit of the train station.
The two sisters looked at each other and smiled. Olga shook the key in her hand and said, "Come with us."
Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, pulled his suitcase and followed obediently. As they left the train station, they crossed another road and finally walked into the parking lot of a large supermarket.
A moment later, Olga drove out a new and not old Nissan sedan from the parking lot, lowered the window and said, "Get in the car! Put your luggage in the trunk."
Wei Ran looked at Olena standing next to him, walked to the back of the car, and put the suitcase in.
By the time he got into the car, Olena, who got in first, was already sitting in the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt.
Almost at the same time as the car door hit, Olga stepped on the accelerator and drove the car onto the main road. Seeing that the two sisters, who were talking and laughing, had no intention of explaining, Wei Ran didn't bother to ask.
He just silently turned on the recording function of his mobile phone again.
Contrary to his expectations, when the car finally stopped, it neither drove into the Repin Academy of Fine Arts nor the Petersburg Conservatory of Music. Instead, it parked in the underground parking lot of an apartment building.
"You don't live on campus?" Wei Ran asked in hindsight.
"We moved out the year before last."
Olgahun said nonchalantly, "Of course, don't tell my father, only my mother knows about this."
"And don't tell him about the car." Olena added, "Even mom doesn't know about the car."
"You won't kill people and silence them, right?"
Wei Ran joked while getting out of the car with his briefcase. As for the suitcase, he didn't take it out from the trunk at all. After all, he didn't think he had the guts to spend the night in the sisters' room.
, not to mention that the other party would let him stay.
"As long as you don't talk nonsense, it should be fine."
Olga also joked and replied, "Mom said you are trustworthy, otherwise we would not have brought you here."
"really..."
Wei Ran muttered to himself. He also asked how the two girls could be so bighearted and dare to bring a stranger like him over. It turned out that their mother Yana had already said hello.
Following the two sisters, they took the elevator upstairs. Olena, who was walking at the front, took out her key and opened the door.
This house is not that big, it looks like just a one-bedroom and one-living room suite, but fortunately it is quite clean.
After glancing at the sound-absorbing sponges on the walls around the living room, and then at the old-looking upright piano and some of the captain's completed sculptures placed against the wall, Wei Ran was greeted by Olga.
Sitting on a sofa filled with dolls, Olena put the two large insulated lunch boxes she brought into the refrigerator, and then took out a bottle of cold Coke and handed it to Wei Ran.
.
"Olena, come here and help me!" Olga shouted in a room that seemed to be a bedroom. After hearing this, Olena ran in quickly, followed by the sound of bottles and jars colliding with each other.
Only small sounds will be made.
After a while, sisters Olga and Olena walked out of the river carrying a wooden box with metal corners.
"So big?"
Wei Ran looked at the wooden box that the sisters placed on the carpet in surprise. This thing was at most one size smaller than the bedside table, and there seemed to be some traces of cosmetics and the like remaining on it.
"Since we got it, we have been using it as a bedside table." As Olga spoke, Olena had already taken out a key from her small bag and opened the padlock on the box.
As the box opened, Wei Ran couldn't help but take a twitch. In addition to the things Olga mentioned before, there were actually two armpit holsters with Velcro. The holsters contained
Yes, they are two chrome-plated PSS silent pistols.
"This was a gift from our father when we were in college."
Olena picked up the two holsters, shook them, and said helplessly, "He is worried that we will be in danger when we live in Petersburg, but in fact we are more worried that these two pistols will cause unnecessary trouble.
If we didn't really know what to do with these two pistols, we wouldn't have to move them out of the school."
"Father as a mountain..."
Wei Ran grinned, wisely changed the subject and asked, "You secretly rent a house by yourself, aren't you under a lot of financial pressure?"
"fine"
Olga took out a bayanqin from the box, "This house was rented to us by Olena's teacher, so it's not expensive. The part-time jobs we two usually have are enough to pay the rent.
Last year we even used the scholarship to buy the second-hand car downstairs. Before that, we all rode motorcycles, but it was too cold to ride motorcycles in winter."
While talking, the two sisters had already quickly placed the bayan, which was not much different from an accordion, on the dining table, and then placed the previously mentioned black bread, half a dried fish, a small bottle of coarse salt, and
Half a book of music, a necklace, and a TK pistol were all placed on the table.
After getting Olga's permission, Wei Ran opened the briefcase he brought up, pretended to take out a pair of white gloves that were meant for showing off and put them on his hands. Then after some observation, he picked up the
TK automatic pistol.
He carefully pulled out the magazine, and Wei Ran's heart suddenly tightened. There were actually a few rounds of bullets in the magazine. He tried to pull the slide, but luckily, at least the chamber was empty.
After looking at the words "Soviet Bank" on the wooden gun handle patch, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and finally put it on the table.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! According to what he found on the train last night, most of these pistols use bakelite handle patches and are made of wood. Most of them are early models. As for
How old is this early period? It can be traced back to at least 1930.
In that era, although this small, palm-sized pistol was a "civilian weapon", it was actually never sold to civilians. Those who were eligible to distribute this weapon were basically NKVD, senior officers of the Red Army, important
scientific researchers, and even middle- and senior-level personnel of the Soviet Bank.
Especially the one on the table clearly uses a custom-made gun handle patch. Even if its owner was a certain president of the Soviet Bank, Wei Ran would not be surprised at all.
After looking at the pistol, Wei Ran picked up the bread and dried fish on the table and looked at it. It was obvious that a piece of bread that had been stored for an unknown period of time had been cut off, and the ingredients in the bread could be seen at the cut position.
Mixed with some unknown raw materials that look like sawdust. Look at the half of the dried fish with only the tail left, and there is a vague tooth mark on it.
Putting the things down again, Wei Ran picked up the half of the sheet music. For a music idiot like him, the tadpoles on the sheet music were almost equivalent to the wordless Bible.
I flipped through the pages carefully, and found nothing but the staff. It was as if the music score had been split into two parts, and this was only one of them.
"What piece of music is recorded here?" Wei Ran asked after putting down the music score.
Olga spread her hands and said, "Symphony No. 7 in C major. Of course, most people prefer to call it the Leningrad Symphony. This half of the score records the entire fourth movement, so strictly speaking,
It can be counted as a quarter of a book of music."
Having said this, Olga picked up the bayan on the table, "But no matter what, it is a symphony after all, at least it cannot be played alone with this instrument."
Before she finished speaking, Olga had already memorized the bayan and played a short piece of the popular Katyusha smoothly.
“This bayanqin is very well preserved,”
Olga took off the bayan from her chest, pointed to a small string of musical notations carved on the decorative cover, and said, "This is the main reason why I have always wanted to investigate the origin of these things."
"What's this?"
Wei Ran asked doubtfully. Although he can play two pieces of music on the Chinese guqin and a complete "as time goes by" on the blues harmonica, this does not affect his ability to understand the music on the staff at all.
Tadpole symbol jumping on a rubber band.
"DSCH motive" came out of Olga's mouth a term that Wei Ran didn't understand at all.
"Or you can call it the musical code"
Olga explained helplessly, "To put it simply, it means that the composer converts the abbreviation of his name into the name of the note. The favorite person to do this is Bach, the German composer of the Baroque period. Since his beginning, many composers' music
Every family will use this romantic method to hide their name or their lover’s name in the music score.”
Olga paused, pointed to the carvings on the panel and continued, "If you don't understand music, it would be difficult for me to explain the conversion rules to you.
So let's keep it simple. All you need to know is that these notes are called a DSCH motive, and that this DSCH motive is also the work of the most important composer of the Soviet era, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich.
A musical signature is enough."
"Sister, he may not even know who Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich is." Olena, who had already eaten up an apple, reminded her in a low voice.
"The "Leningrad Symphony" recorded in the half of the music score was composed by him." Olga added a simple and direct explanation about this person.
"So, do you think this accordion..."
"Bayang," Olga corrected seriously, pressing the buttons on the right hand side at the same time, "The right-hand keys of the accordion are similar to those of a piano, and the bayan is a round button similar to an old typewriter."
"Okay, Bayanqin"
Wei Ran corrected his mistake in an obedient manner, "So you suspect that this bayan is who it is? Dmitry? Do you suspect it is the instrument he used?"
"I think it's very possible, but this kind of thing needs to be confirmed in a way."
Olga carefully put the bayan back into the box, and then said distressedly, "But there is no record of this box in our school's music warehouse, let alone who put it in."
"Since there are no records..."
"But what if someone comes to visit me after I make it public?"
Olga asked calmly, "I secretly took it out from the music warehouse. I just wanted to cause some harmless trouble for my teacher, but I didn't want to send myself to prison."
"Don't worry, no one will send you to jail for such a stupid thing. Even if you are sent to jail, your father can get you out."
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then asked after thinking for a moment, "Olija, let's make a hypothesis first. If I find out that it is really the relic of the composer you just mentioned, but it has an owner, you
What are you going to do?”
"What else can be done?"
Olga spread her hands and said matter-of-factly, "Of course, send it back so that its original owner can take good care of such an important thing."
Wei Ran smiled and continued to ask, "Conditions remain unchanged, what if it is already ownerless?"
“Resell to the school at a suitable price”
Olga continued in a matter-of-fact tone, "This will not only help my family get a new fishing boat or two new engines for the fishing boat, but as long as the price is high enough, even the school will pay attention to these things and take good care of them."
Keep it instead of just throwing it in the corner of the warehouse to serve as a moisture-proof pad for other instruments.”
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Victor, have you agreed to help Olga investigate these things?" Olena asked smartly.
"I haven't made a decision yet"
Wei Ran shook his head decisively, "First of all, we haven't discussed the commission issue ourselves. Secondly, I have to go to Sochi tomorrow, and then I have to go to Kaliningrad, which will take at least half a month.
I have time."
"Didn't we discuss the commission?" Olga pointed to the wooden box, "No matter how much it is sold, you can get one-third."
"You did say it, but I didn't agree."
Wei Ran spread his hands and said, "Olijia, how about this, at most half a month later, after I finish all the work? Whether it's the commission issue or the investigation of these things."
“It’s only half a month”
Olga said nonchalantly, "But you'd better call me in advance when the time comes. I occasionally go to the musical theater part-time, and I'm basically at school the rest of the time."
"No problem," Wei Ran said, already taking off his gloves and putting them back in his briefcase, "In this case, I will contact you again before June."
“One last thing”
Olga paused for a moment, and finally asked, "Victor, what did you say to my father when we were picking mushrooms yesterday?"
"Everyone should have their own secrets, even their own daughters."
Wei Ran smiled and said while carrying his briefcase and walking toward the door, "So, which one of you is willing to send me downstairs and let me take my luggage out of the trunk and take it away?"
"Let's go together"
Olena, who doesn't like to talk, was the first to speak, "No wonder he is willing to let you come to Petersburg with us, but no matter what, thank you for speaking for us."
"Mr. Ivan still loves you very much," Wei Ran said as he walked out. "Frankly speaking, he is more qualified than most Russian men I have seen who are fathers."
"It should be said that it is overqualified."
Olga rolled her eyes and complained, "This is not the United States. What father would add a pistol to his daughter's list of things to prepare for college?"
"It's a good thing we're not in the United States," Olena said in unison, "otherwise we might have to carry a rocket launcher to school to make him feel at ease."
Thank you to Flying Hand and Short-bellied Turtle for 100 points respectively.
There is an event in the book club where you can get the title of fan. It may not be available next month. Now, only those who enter the first 100 monthly tickets can have activity funds. If you can't enter, there will be no activities, and there is no way to give the title, so those who want the title
You can participate, although there are only 10 places each...
