War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 277 The job rejected by Wei Ran
"It doesn't really matter if those chunks of metal are gold"

Mrs. Amanda said after listening to Herbert's translation, "Or just treat them as gold, find these gold treasures, or find my brother Leo, or his bones, you can all get the agreed investigation cost."

"Is there only one photo as a clue?" Wei Ran looked at Herbert and asked.

"In addition to this, there is a package that arrived from Norway five years ago."

Amanda explained under Herbert's translation, "But the package only contains my brother Leo's watch and an IOU written by him, which is worth [-] German marks."

"IOU?" Wei Ran became more and more puzzled.

Herbert looked at Amanda, who hesitated for a moment, took out a glasses case from the bag, opened it and handed it to Wei Ran.

Inside the glasses box is a gold watch with a leather strap. On the strap of this watch, there is a word that Wei Ran does not know written in black writing.In addition, there is a pencil and a note inside.

"This watch is a Da Vinci perpetual calendar watch produced by IWC. It was only launched in 1985. Whether it was at that time or today, it is considered a luxury."

Herbert came over and introduced, "The words written on the strap are a place name, Bear Island, Bear Island in Norway. As for the content on the note, it is the IOU just mentioned, which roughly means that no matter Anyone who takes this IOU to find Leo's family and returns the watch will get 1989 German marks. The time on the IOU, I believe you can understand it, is January 1, 1 .”

"Have you found the person who mailed these things?" Wei Ran asked as he closed the glasses case.

"no"

Herbert shook his head, "Before I worked for Mrs. Amanda, she was looking for the person who mailed this package, and even posted a missing person notice on Norwegian TV and radio. After I worked for her, she has been looking for the person who mailed this package. Looking for the person who mailed these things, unfortunately, there has been no clue for such a long time."

"Didn't you go to Xiong Island to look for it?" Wei Ran asked while returning the glasses case to Mrs. Amanda who was sitting opposite.

"Go, of course."

Herbert blatantly replied in German, "The scenery there is good, but it's too cold. So I changed the search destination to Finnmark County in mainland Norway, at least it's very suitable for skiing."

"You can just say that you haven't been there, and you don't need to go around in such a big circle." Wei Ran replied with a smile on his face.

Bear Island is one of the bases for Germany to develop weather stations during World War II.Although he didn't know where Herbert's Finnmark County in Norway was, he knew that the shortest distance between Bear Island and the Norwegian mainland was more than 400 kilometers.

In other words, this Herbert spent all his time with the investigation funds provided by Mrs. Amanda.But now that he has taken advantage of him to find him, he is not thinking of making a fortune together at all, this is simply looking for a successor for himself.

"How is it? Do you want to take this job?" Herbert looked at Wei Ran eagerly, "As long as you find that treasure or that expedition team, you can get a reward of 9 euros. low."

"I reject"

Wei Ran stood up unexpectedly, and said straightforwardly, "Herbert, although the salary of this job is indeed not low, I don't want to clean up the mess for you and cause myself a lot of trouble, after all, we are not too big. Familiar, isn't it?"

Herbert opened his mouth to say something, but Wei Ran stepped forward and continued, "Okay, your flight is about to take off, and it's time for me to take my leave. Goodbye, Herbert."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran stepped out of the waiting room without hesitation at all, ignoring the astonished two people behind him, pulled his suitcase, and ran away in a blink of an eye.

The reason why he refused the investigation job so simply was actually very simple.Although the investigation cost of [-] euros is indeed high, what Mrs. Amanda is really looking for seems to be more expensive than at least a truckload of gold and the precious relationship between brother and sister.

This at least shows that either Herbert is not telling the truth, or Amanda is not telling the truth.Or, what he really wanted to find was worth far more than a truckload of gold, and even he suspected that the black and white photo might not have much to do with the real target of the investigation itself.

It doesn't matter if it's just the first two, but if it's the third possibility, too high a value often means trouble.

This trouble is not only reflected in the investigation process, but also in whether it will cause trouble for himself after the investigation reveals something.

Not to mention, Mr. Charlotte one or two months ago is a good example. After he delivered the treasure map recording the exact location of the desert well to his door, what did the other party do?That old guy had a lot of eyeliners staring at him around the hotel.

Although the two parties have almost settled their differences in the end, who can guarantee that Mrs. Amanda in the waiting room who can put aside the relationship between siblings will do something more outrageous than Mr. Charlotte from England? Woolen cloth?

Therefore, based on the principle that it is better to earn more unnecessary money than less unnecessary trouble, Wei Ran will of course choose to refuse.

In the VIP waiting room, Herbert turned around with a happy expression after a short moment of astonishment, and said to Mrs. Amanda who hadn't recovered, "Don't get me wrong, Victor is such a Man, he just said that he already has clues, Mrs. Amanda, if you want to entrust Victor to continue the investigation, how about paying half of the investigation fee first? This is Victor's rule."

"That was his rule, but not mine."

Amanda stood up with her bag in her hand, "Herbert, I'll give you the last three months, before Christmas, if you and your partner don't find any useful clues, all our cooperation will come to an end. If you find out the whereabouts of the expedition team, I will pay the full amount of 18 euros for the investigation as agreed."

"Wait a minute, Mrs. Amanda."

Herbert stopped the fat sheep who had already walked out of the waiting room, "Three months may be a bit tight, but other than that, can you leave the photo and the contents of the glasses box, we may be able to find on it Some clues."

"Forget about the photo, it means a lot to me." Amanda said, reaching for the glasses case from her bag and handing it to the former, "Bring it back to me within a month, Herbert, this is my last time Believe in your ability."

Watching Mrs. Amanda go through the security checkpoint, Herbert was not in a hurry to leave. He returned to the waiting room and sat down, playing with the glasses case in his hand, and began to think about how to persuade Wei Ran to continue the investigation.

After all, as long as he can find out the whereabouts of the expedition team, he can earn a real price difference of at least 9 euros for himself, and what Herbert needs to pay is just a touch of his upper lip to his lower lip.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who had already left this matter behind him, also found his off-road vehicle in the parking lot. After connecting the battery that was disconnected when he left last time, he started the car and rushed to his studio slowly.

However, what he never expected was that at the same time he stepped on the brakes in the parking space in front of the studio, he received a spam text message on his mobile phone.

Naturally, this is not a big deal in itself, but this spam message represents an email sent to him by Kajianka, who is far away in Vienna, Austria.

Opening the shutter door of the studio as quickly as possible and entering the studio, Wei Ran ran into the bedroom and locked the door behind him. He checked the room habitually, and after confirming that there was no problem, he took out the food box from the metal book, took Out of the authenticator placed inside.

He logged into the web mailbox according to the steps given by Katenka at that time. After clicking on the email, he found that there was only one sentence written in it, "She passed away at 19:[-] local time this afternoon."

That old Katenka with Alzheimer's died?
Wei Ran looked at the email interface in astonishment, and after a moment of hesitation, he rushed out of the room. He didn't even have time to lock the shutter door, so he drove the off-road vehicle with the engine still on and rushed towards Nikolai's house a few hundred meters away.

After Nicholas opened the door, Wei Ran looked around and saw that there was no outsider, then he closed the door and said, "Mr. Nicholas, she passed away, old Katenka."

Hearing this, Nicholas raised his eyebrows, and after a while of silence, he walked slowly to the sofa and sat down, without raising his head, he asked, "When did it happen?"

"Local time, 19:[-] this afternoon." Wei Ran paused and continued, "But I just received the email."

"That's it"

Nicholas replied absent-mindedly, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one and lit it on his own, but he didn't speak for a long time.

It wasn't until one of the cigarettes was burned out that Nicholas stood up while leaning on the sofa, and said while walking upstairs, "Wait here for me."

Wei Ran, who had been standing at the door, nodded, and watched Nicholas walk up to the second floor step by step, and soon after, watched him walk down slowly.

He waved his hand to signal Wei Ran to go to the table and sit down, Nicholas took out a palm-sized jewelry box from his pocket and pushed it to Wei Ran, "Go and put it on for her, then bring back her ashes and send them to Qiumen , I will wait for you at the airport then."

Picking up the jewelry box on the table, Wei Ran nodded, "I'm leaving now."

"Victor"

Nicholas stopped Wei Ran, who had stood up, and said after hesitating for a long time, "There is a scar about five centimeters long on her right arm, and there is a mole about two centimeters directly below the scar, and I will check it carefully when the time comes. "

Wei Ran was stunned, "I know."

"Watched her cremation with my own eyes," Nikolai added.

"Is there any more?" Wei Ran simply turned around and asked.

Nikolay finally said, "Notify the new Katenka, leave Vienna and change to a new address, anywhere, as long as you know the location, she knows what to do for the rest.

In addition, no matter what the other party asks, they all agree to it.That's it, remember to close the door for me. "

With a long sigh of relief, Wei Ran quietly left Nicholas' house, and drove the off-road vehicle straight to the airport that he had just left.

On the way, while waiting for the traffic lights, he bought a plane ticket for that night. Only then did he open the jewelry box that Nicholas gave him.

This slightly outdated small box contains a Soviet-era KGB badge, and on the inside of the lid of the jewelry box, there is a small yellowed card with the words " Karenina".

　Thanks to Wu Zexu for rewarding 7500 points

　　Thank you for wearing white silk and not counting women's clothing as a reward of 3000 points

　　Thanks to Tao Miyao for rewarding 500 points

　　Thank you Flying Hands for rewarding 100 points

　　
　
(End of this chapter)