After carefully inspecting all the paintings in the studio that was nominally called the "study", Wei Ran couldn't help but cursed him as a pervert.
There are at least hundreds of paintings placed in this room. Half of these paintings depict naked women of various ages, and there are no identical models at all.
But the other half of the remaining oil paintings are all about the ruins of the castle hidden in the forest.
The only difference is that in a fixed window of this ruin, sometimes the frozen picture is a ball of muzzle flash and flying bullets, sometimes it is just an oil lamp, and sometimes it is simply
It is a ball of paste whose color cannot be described in words or words.
After restoring the studio to its original state, Wei Ran turned around and walked out of the room, turned over the shoe covers under his feet and put them on again, and then used the same key to easily open the door of Mr. Dominic's bedroom.
Compared with the two rooms just now, this room is much more normal. Of course, this is under the premise of ignoring the oxygen bottles, ventilators and detectors placed in this room.
A simple and even a little too plain retro iron frame bed, thick and fluffy bedding and pillows, and a ceiling fan with a sense of age above the head, plus a cherry wood cabinet with frosted glass window cabinet door, and an old-fashioned safe that serves as a bedside table. These are
Everything about this room.
He also carefully inspected this room. After Wei Ran inspected the room that he had locked, he opened the cherry wood cabinet facing the foot of the bed.
Unfortunately, the cabinet only contained a set of coffee-making utensils, a jar containing coffee beans, two large boxes of cigars and half a bottle of wine that seemed to be produced in Belgium.
After closing the cabinet door, Wei Ran turned around and walked to the safe. Wei Ran first picked up the desk lamp on the safe and looked at it carefully. Then he lifted up the sheets and got under the bed to check carefully, and took the opportunity to take out the food from the metal book.
box, and took out a set of lockpicking tools placed inside.
After collecting the food box and retracting his upper body from under the bed, Wei Ran took less than ten minutes to open the old-looking safe with a "click".
However, there is no gold or silver jewelry in this safe. In the not-so-large space, there are just an old Leica camera, a pistol in a hard cowhide holster, and a hard
Leather notebook.
Instead of banging the camera sealed by plexiglass, Wei Ran picked up the slightly cracked cowhide holster and carefully opened the button on it.
What he didn't expect was that it turned out to be a rare Sauer 38h pistol, or to be more precise, it seemed to be a Sauer 38h pistol as a reward for an ace sniper.
Because, on the left side of the slide of this pistol, there is also the signature of Heinrich Himmler who is sick of his dick, and the ceremonial phrase "Given to the sniper".
But it is a little regrettable that its grip patch is not original, but a rather exquisitely carved and polished antler patch.
Pulling out the magazine, there was just a bullet inside. Pulling the slide gently revealed a gap, and there was indeed a bullet in the greasy chamber.
I carefully went to the muzzle of the gun and smelled it. Apart from the strong smell of gun oil, there was not much smoke at all. I looked at the trigger again. Although there were some signs of wear on it, it was not serious.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran restored the special pistol to its original shape and temporarily put it back in the safe. Then he changed into clean rubber gloves and put them on again. Then he picked up the hard-cover book that was originally pressed by the pistol and the holster and flipped through it.
open.
Originally, he thought there would be some secrets in this book, but he didn't expect that there was a black and white photo stuck on the first piece of paper.
This is a photo of a man who looks to be in his 20s and a child who is no taller than his chest. Behind the two of them, you can also see a ruins.
Vaguely, Wei Ran could still see that the young man standing behind the child, holding the child's shoulders with both hands, seemed to have a hard cowhide gun holster fixed on his waist, but the child's face had a sharp look on his face.
Wrapped in thick gauze, only what can be seen peeking out from the gaps in the gauze
eyes and mouth and nostrils.
But compared to these, below this photo, on the white grid paper, there is also a time written in beautiful blue pen words————06.02.45
Continuing to scroll back, there is also a photo fixed on this page. The man in the photo is still the same, but the person standing next to him has become a thin young man.
Even the background of this photo has changed to a freighter flying the Stars and Stripes, and the handwritten time under the photo has also changed to 06.02.50.
But what made Wei Ran particularly concerned was not just the change in the date font, but more importantly, the scars on the skinny young man's face that had healed.
Is this young man Mr. Dominic?
Wei Ran instantly identified him through the scratches on his face, but then he fell into doubt. If this young man with scars on his face was Dominic, then the man next to him who looked about 30 years old
Is he his uncle?
There doesn't seem to be much age difference between the uncle and nephew. Wei Ran muttered secretly, and then turned the hard-cover book in his hand to the third page.
As expected, there is also a photo stuck on this page. In the photo, it is still Dominic and his uncle, but this time, the background of their photo has become the ruins in the first photo.
But this time, because of the angle, Wei Ran could see through the window behind the two of them facing the camera at a glance, and recognized that the ruins seemed to be the ruins of the castle depicted in the oil paintings he had seen not long ago!
Look at the handwritten time under this photo again, but it is already 06.02.55 five years later;
"The first photo was taken on February 6, 1945, three days after the Battle of Hürtgen Forest ended.
On the same day five years later, Dominic seemed to follow his uncle on board a freighter bound for the United States.
Five years later, their uncle and nephew returned to this castle ruins again. Could it be that this castle ruins are in the Hürtgen Forest? "
Wei Ran murmured to himself and turned another page with anticipation.
This page is still a photo of the two of them, and the date is still February 6, 1960, five years apart. But this time, Dominic, who already looks about 30 years old, seems to be holding something in his arms, and they
The clothes worn by the uncle and nephew have also obviously improved a lot.
Of course, Dominic's uncle has also aged much, becoming a middle-aged man in his 40s.
Then flipping back, it was still a photo taken five years apart, but this time, what changed in the photo was the ruins behind the two of them. In this photo, you can clearly see that they
There are many busy figures and machines on the ruins behind him.
"Are these two men planning to rebuild that castle?" Wei Ran muttered secretly, and at the same time turned the page again.
The photo taken on February 6, 1970 finally changed from black and white to color, but Dominic in the photo has also become a middle-aged man, and his uncle has a full head of white hair.
On the other hand, the castle behind them already had a rough shape, and the obvious Gothic spire could be seen.
Turning to the next page in 1975, Dominic's uncle was already on crutches, and the castle behind them seemed to have been completely completed.
Continuing to scroll back, in the 1980 photo, Dominic's uncle is already sitting in a wheelchair.
However, when Weiran turned to the photo dated February 6, 1985, Dominic was the only one left in the photo, and the font recording the time on the page also changed again.
In the 1990 photo on the next page, there is still only Dominic. This former boy was already on crutches when this photo was taken.
It is from this page, and until 2005, that the only change in the photo is that Dominic is in a wheelchair.
And after the photo on February 6, 2005
There are no more photos in this hard-cover book, but even so, on each page, a string of dates is still written every five years.
After thinking for a while, Wei Ran took out his mobile phone and took a photo of the photo of Mr. Dominic alone in 1990. Then he returned the notebook and the things he just took out to the safe and locked it, and carefully put the password.
The disks were restored to their original state.
After getting up and leaving the room, Wei Ran took off his shoe covers, wrapped the gloves he took off and threw them into the trash can.
I took the elevator to the basement and took a look. The basement was not big and there were not many things. In addition to a few oak barrels, there were also stainless steel sealed cans filled with coffee heads. Apart from that, there was nothing else.
Nothing superfluous.
Seeing this, Wei Ran turned around and returned to the second floor, once again walking into the collection room he had entered before.
However, this time, his attention was entirely focused on the retro-style key nailed to the table.
Although it was still a guess, he had a hunch that this key was definitely inextricably related to the Gothic castle in the photo.
After thinking for a while, Wei Ran got up and left the collection room. By the way, he sent the photos he had just taken to Anfiya. At the same time, he also arranged a task in German: to find a castle in the Hürtgen Forest in Germany that is not open to the public.
After Anfiya sent an OK expression, he walked along the stairs to the rooftop terrace.
Although this terrace is not large, it is full of flowers and plants. There is also a sun lounger and matching sun umbrella in the middle.
Walking to the railing and looking at Suisui, who was wandering around the plantation taking photos with the Katenka sisters and three pets, Wei Ran turned around and sat on the sun lounger, took out his cell phone and dialed lawyer Carlos.
