In the blink of an eye, it was the fourth night of our return to the polar town of Tula. Amidst the surging aurora, twelve large bicycles with dazzling headlights lined up in a long convoy, leaving the frozen Lower Tunguska River and heading straight
We drove into the independent parking lot next to the Aurora Tavern.
As the car doors were pushed open one after another, groups of tourists jumped out of the car and walked into the illuminated Aurora Tavern, led by a Chinese-speaking tour guide.
I do know Wei Ran, that stupid tour guide. He is an old employee of his aunt's travel agency. When Wei Ran first went to Volgograd to study at university, he was already there. However, compared to this acquaintance, the tour guide he led
These self-driving tourists are even more interesting.
Different from the young men and women led by Su Lie a few days ago, although this self-driving tour group from Tuluhansk is not large in number, they are all looking at old men and women who are over fifty years old. And the warmth in their words can be heard
They all refer to each other as colleagues, it seems.
In particular, Suisui, who was busy greeting them at the door, addressed these old men and women with "teacher" as the suffix of their last name.
"Sister April said that this group was organized with the help of her university teachers, and the middle-aged and elderly people are all school teachers. Not only did this group not make any money, but it also cost her about 500,000 rubles."
Anfisa, who was sitting at the same table as Wei Ran, was holding a glass of sparkling wine and explained in a low voice in German, "The young woman wearing a red down jacket with shoulder-length hair seems to be Aurora's college counselor. Now
He is also her partner."
"Last time we were in China, my sister and I met her and had hot pot with her." Anfiya, who was also sitting across from her, said while typing on the keyboard. "Sister Aurora even gave her a gift at that time.
She gave her a diamond as a New Year's gift."
"No wonder you came all the way here. This little fox is trying to bribe the sheepfold guard..." Wei Ran muttered as he picked up the cup. Seeing that Suisui was still busy entertaining the teachers, he looked away and whispered.
Asked in German, "Can you find the detailed information of the Yanano toy company?"
"Can't find it"
Seeing that her sister was still busy, Anfisa took over the conversation and replied in a low voice, "It's just a shell company. No valuable clues can be found through it."
"But in another computer I control, I found an interesting photo." Anfiya said this while still typing on the keyboard.
"What kind of photos?" Wei Ran asked, putting down his cup.
"Pay attention to the clothes those people in the photo are wearing and the position of their chests." As Anfiya spoke, she had already turned the notebook that was originally facing her to face Wei Ran.
Pulling the notebook over and getting closer, Wei Ran recognized at a glance Kitao Chitatsu, who was kneeling in the corner of the photo. And at Anfiya's reminder, he also noticed at a glance that Kitao Chitatsu was wearing
The kimono seems to have the character "carp" embroidered on its chest.
When the group photo was enlarged, Wei Ran frowned. Counting down, there were only seven men of the same age as Kitao Chitatsu in the group photo.
Without exception, they all wear kimonos, but the characters embroidered on their chests are different. Two of these seven-headed devils, like Kitao Chitatsu, have the red character "carp" embroidered on their chests. There are also three others in kimonos.
What's embroidered on the chest is the word "Jin" in blue.
However, the chest of the bald man kneeling in the center of the group photo has the word "Sacrifice" embroidered in white.
Anfiya stood up and walked around to sit next to Wei Ran, controlling her notebook to switch to a single photo.
"This person is also one of the minority shareholders of Yanano Toy Company, and he is also the owner of the computer where I found this photo. But he himself is not in the photo just now, but there are many similar backgrounds saved in his computer.
Photos taken."
After a short pause, Anfiya pulled the notebook in front of her, and while typing on the keyboard, she said, "I found this hot spring hotel through other photos on this person's computer."
Before she finished speaking, Anfiya had already opened the browser and entered a URL copied and pasted from the document.
When the page is loaded, the screen
There is also a wooden building that looks very traditional Japanese style.
Turning on the page translation function and continuing to scroll down, Weiran discovered that the unsound machine-translated sentences on this page seemed to be a review of this hot spring hotel.
However, although the scenery captured in the photos included are all beautiful, the translated sentences frequently mentioned comments such as "the price is expensive", "the attitude is not friendly", and "the food is not delicious"
.
"This hot spring hotel is located in Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka. What I am doing now is trying to figure out if I can find out something along this clue."
Anfiya tapped the screen with her sequined nails and said, "But this hot spring hotel does not have a website, and there is no reservation method on the Internet. It can't even find a contact number. To put it simply, everything that can be found on the Internet is the same as this one.
The information about this hotel is basically negative reviews.”
"Send me the group photo you just took." Wei Ran thought for a moment, raised his finger and pointed at the screen and said, "Send me the detailed address of this pub as well."
"Do you want to take a look?" Anfisa, who was sitting opposite Wei Ran, raised her head and asked.
"I don't have time." Wei Ran took out his cell phone as he spoke, "I'll arrange for someone to go take a look."
Hearing this, Anfiya stood up and sat across from Wei Ran again, and sent the photo he requested and the hotel address to his mobile phone.
After thinking for a while, Wei Ran sent the address of the hot spring hotel to Xia Shushi via WeChat, and then directly sent a voice call to the other party.
In less than ten seconds, Xia Shushi's voice came out from the receiver. At the same time, Wei Ran also left the tavern with his cell phone.
"What does Captain Wei want from me?" Xia Shushi on the other end of the phone asked jokingly. "It's indeed something serious." Wei Ran paused, "Do you have any friends with the Japanese?"
"Yes," Xia Shushi replied without thinking, "I have several friends studying there."
"I just sent you an address. It's a hot spring hotel. It's not far from Osaka. You can find a few people to go there and check it out. All the expenses will be mine."
Wei Ran thought for a while and continued, "It's best to take pictures of the environment inside and outside the hotel. If their hotel provides kimonos, especially men's kimonos, remember to take pictures of them too."
"Is there any more?" Xia Shushi asked.
"That's all," Wei Ran paused and added, "You can let the person you are looking for stay there for a few more days."
"give it to me"
Xia Shushi responded cheerfully, "I'll find someone right now. I promise to go there tomorrow and send you the photos tomorrow night."
"Then I'm sorry to bother you. I'll transfer tens of thousands to you later." "Let's do the math together in the end."
Xia Shushi paused, and finally couldn't help but ask, "Wei Ran, is this hotel..."
"You can arrange for someone to go over and take a look first, and I will tell you the rest after I figure it out."
Wei Ran reminded with a smile, "If the person you are looking for asks the same question, just say that your friend traveled there last time and saw that it was very beautiful, but due to time constraints, he did not have the chance to stay, so you asked him to help him check out the environment.
.”
"Wait for my news," Xia Shushi said confidently.
After a brief exchange of greetings and hanging up the call, Wei Ran turned around and walked into the hotel. Suisui was already sitting where he was sitting just now and was talking to the Katenka sisters.
Seeing Wei Ran coming over, Suisui immediately waved to him to sit down, put down the cup she had just picked up and said, "Tomorrow morning, let's follow these people and take Dmitry's flight back to Irkutsk, and then go back to Irkutsk."
Kazan."
"Not going to Turukhansk?" Wei Ran asked in confusion. "Not going."
Suisui explained with a smile, "I just asked, they met the convoy led by Su Lie on the way, and they also camped in the same camp to rest for one night. The tourists who came with us were very interested in Su Lie.
Lie was very satisfied, and our driver guide also spoke highly of him.
In this case, we don’t have to waste time here. We can wait for him to help us a few more times. If there is no problem, we can
This route will then be handed over to him."
Of course, Wei Ran would not have any objections to this. Anyway, his goal of coming to Tula this time has been exceeded. Now it is naturally a good thing to go back early.
In a blink of an eye, it came to the next morning. Under the arrangement of Old Ivan, several girls wearing half masks drove an off-road vehicle and took the four of Weiran to several hotels in the town of Tula to pick up those people.
Tourists who were preparing to return lined up and rushed to the airport.
It was still a cargo flight, but the only difference was that this time, in addition to these tourists, there were more than a dozen residents from the small town of Tula or other surrounding areas in the cargo hold.
After staying in Irkutsk for an extra day, when Wei Ran followed Suisui and others back to Kazan, Xia Shushi also sent him the first set of photos taken from the hot spring hotel.
On the way from the airport to his home on the shore of Kaban Lake, Wei Ran turned over and over and carefully looked at the photos sent by the other party.
No one knew who Xia Shushi was looking for, but he had to admit that these photos were particularly beautiful. There was even a pretty girl in the photos holding an expressive Shiba Inu as a model.
Wei Ran flipped through one photo after another, but stopped when he saw one of the photos.
In this photo, the girl who is acting as a model has her hands devoutly clasped together, worshiping something in front of an ornament that looks like a Buddhist altar.
Zooming in on the photo, Wei Ran could only vaguely see a painting behind the incense burner. Unfortunately, due to the angle, the only thing he could see was only a corner of the painting, which seemed to have a blue line.
Just a fish tail.
Without any hesitation, Wei Ran drew a red circle on the photo and sent it to Xia Shushi. He also added, "Take a close-up of this painting."
"Received." Xia Shushi responded quickly, and about ten minutes later, he sent two photos.
In the first photo, what was captured was exactly the painting Wei Ran wanted to see.
This painting has a strong ukiyo-e style. In addition to two carps, one red and one blue, the painting also includes the churning sea water, the red sun, the white crane with its wings spread, the highly recognizable Mount Fuji and the falling cherry blossoms.
.
There were so many factors that even when he saw this painting through the screen, he subconsciously wanted to ask the girl sitting next to him who was dozing off, "Suisang, are the cherry blossoms in my hometown blooming?"
Continuing to scroll back, the second photo sent by Xia Shushi showed the wooden tablet placed in front of the picture just now, and a samurai sword placed horizontally in front of the tablet.
But the strange thing is that the words "Koi Festival" are written on this tablet. And in front of this tablet, there is a copper incense stove that is somewhat similar to the "Xuande stove".
The belly of the incense burner is also engraved with an inconspicuous number - "11515"
Koi Festival?11515?
Wei Ran muttered to himself, but he didn't understand what it meant. "Soseki, what is the Koi Festival for?" Wei Ran asked as he tapped the screen of his phone.
"I've only heard of the Summer Day Festival, but not the Koi Festival."
Xia Shushi paused briefly and then sent another text, "Wait a minute, I'll ask my friend. He has lived there for a long time, so he should know what this koi festival is."
"Also ask about the numbers 11515, but don't let him ask the hotel staff."
"Don't worry, I will send you the news as soon as possible." Xia Shushi immediately responded with a text. However, after waiting for more than 20 minutes, seeing that the car had already entered the city, Xia Shushi sent a call request.
"Did you ask?" Weiran asked after pressing the connect button. "No."
Xia Shushi unexpectedly replied, "My friend who is recruiting does not know what the Koi Festival is. There is no local event called the "Koi Festival", and he doesn't know what the numbers mean. Still.
Yes, as you requested, I didn't ask him to ask the people at the hot spring hotel."
"Do you have any idea?"
Wei Ran paused and continued, "To give you a general direction, it's the same as during World War II when there was no electricity... No, in Southeast Asia.
The recruitment of nuclear forces for the battle may have something to do with it.”
"Is it related to the recruitment of nuclear forces in Southeast Asia?"
Xia Shushi muttered something to himself and fell into silence, but soon, not only Wei Ran, but also Suisui, who was dozing next to him, heard the guy shout "Fuck!" through the receiver.
"What's wrong?" Suisui opened her eyes in confusion and asked. "It's okay, just keep sleeping."
Wei Ran quickly lowered his voice, then comforted Suisui and leaned on his shoulders again, and then urged Xia Shushi, who had been saying "wait a minute" on the other end of the phone, to quickly explain.
"If I didn't guess... no, no, no, I definitely guessed right!"
Xia Shushi suppressed his excitement and said, "If we arrange them in order, maybe the tablet should say "Carp Brocade Festival".
"What the hell? Lee Kum Kee? The soy sauce seller?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously. "What the soy sauce seller?"
Xia Shushi, who was almost led astray, corrected him angrily, "The Carp Brocade Festival is still the same three words on the tablet, but the sequence needs to be adjusted."
"Why?" Wei Ran asked.
Xia Shushi took a deep breath and said in a serious but extremely sure tone, "Whether it is Carp Festival or Koi Festival, these three words probably represent the three divisions of the Japanese!"
