War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 281
"Has Herbert been here?"

Wei Ran looked around and saw that there was only one more thing in the studio, and his doubts in his heart became heavier.Not only did I have the key to this studio, but the aunt next door also had it, and Professor Alexey also had it. It can even be said that since the studio was transferred to him, the key has never been changed at all.

But based on my understanding of my aunt, she would never open the door of the studio without her knowledge. As for Professor Alexey, he valued these bottom lines more than my aunt Zhou Shujin.

That being the case, how did this thing get sent in?

Before he could come up with a solution, my aunt came in from behind, "Why didn't you lock the door in such a hurry a few days ago, kid?"

"I didn't lock the door?"

Wei Ran thought for a while, it seemed that the door was really unlocked.At that time, I received an email from Kajianka as soon as I came back, and then ran back to the airport non-stop, as if the door was really unlocked.

"The door is not locked"

Zhou Shujin said helplessly, "It's fine if you don't lock the door, and the phone still can't get through. I almost thought that a thief had broken into the house that day."

"I forgot about something urgent that day, and I was on the plane when the phone couldn't get through."

Wei Ran gave a vague explanation, and quickly asked, "Auntie, what's going on with these things?"

"I also heard from the front desk. On the day you didn't lock the door, someone who said it was your friend brought it with an interpreter, and said that you will know what's going on after seeing these things."

Zhou Shujin explained helplessly, "You couldn't get through the phone at that time, and the girl at the front desk said that he waited at the door until late before leaving."

"It was indeed sent by my friend." Wei Ran pinched his nose to recognize this so-called friend.

"Don't make such dubious friends in the future, that person looks very treacherous and unreliable." Zhou Shujin finally asked, then changed the subject and asked, "Where is Mr. Nicholas? I haven't gone to the travel agency for dinner for several days, and there is no one at home, so something happened, right?"

"Mr. Nicholas is out to play"

Wei Ran hurriedly explained that his aunt is a strong woman who does not take any losses in the business field.But he is definitely a generous person. Nicholas has been working in a travel agency for a year now, and he hasn't heard her say that he doesn't like it.

"He's fine"

Zhou Shujin breathed a sigh of relief immediately, "The old man is old. I remember you said before that he also helped you a lot in your postgraduate entrance examination. You should move around more often."

"Understood, auntie." Wei Ran quickly responded, "I went out two days ago to help him run errands."

"Okay, I have nothing else to do, just remind you to remember to lock the door in the future, and leave." Zhou Shujin finished speaking, turned around, left the studio and returned to the travel agency.

After seeing off his aunt Zhou Shujin, Wei Ran glanced at the glasses case on the table, then took out his cell phone and called Herbert.

As soon as the call was connected, Wei Ran said directly without waiting for the other party to speak, "Herbert, I have two choices for you."

"Which two choices?" Herbert asked enthusiastically, "My friend, do you agree to go find that golden treasure with me?"

Wei Ran didn't answer his words at all, and said unceremoniously, "The first option, you send me your address within 5 minutes after I hang up, and then I will send these things to you Go back. Second option, I'm throwing this stuff in the trash now."

"Wait! Wait for my friend!" Herbert hurriedly said, "I renegotiated the price with Mrs. Amanda, 15 euros. If you find it, you only need to give me [-] euros in the end."

"Within 5 minutes, send me the address. After 5 minutes, I will throw these things out. You can find them wherever you like." After Wei Ran finished speaking, he simply hung up the phone.

It would have been fine if Herbert hadn't raised the price just now, but with such an easy increase of [-] euros, and the fact that he didn't even get a small share, he became more and more suspicious that there was something wrong with this matter.

Before he put down the phone, Herbert called again. After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran pressed the answer button to see what the other party was going to say.

"Victor, calm down and listen to me."

Herbert spoke very quickly, "Ms. Amanda is a rich man, as long as we help her investigate the whereabouts of the treasure this time, in addition to the expensive investigation fee, we can get to know more rich people through her in the future." Man, this is a rare opportunity to make a lot of money!"

"Finished?" Wei Ran asked in a flat tone.

"Uh, it's over."

"You still have 4 minutes" Wei Ran said before hanging up the phone.

"Last sentence! Victor! Last sentence!"

Herbert shouted before Wei Ran pressed the hang up button, "How about giving me four days? After four days, I just have to go to Volgograd. When the time comes, let me take those things away myself. Even if you I don't want to accept this business, and I can't send it directly to me. In case something happens to the package on the way, it will be a trouble for you and me, so how about keeping these things with you for four days? Just four days , four days later, I will pick it up on time."

"Take away the things within four days. If you are an hour late, you can go to the garbage collection station to find it yourself. In addition, you don't need to contact me in the future."

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he hung up the phone again, and at the same time, his heart became more and more disgusted with this Herbert.He could even foresee that after four days, this Herbert would come up with new conditions to try to convince himself.

And once you are entangled by such a "black intermediary" who only talks but doesn't do anything, you will definitely have trouble in the future, so it's better to strangle him from the beginning and drag him into the blacklist forever.

Directly adjust the mobile phone to the flight mode again, Wei Ran locked the shutter door, and carefully checked the inside and outside of the whole studio, until he was sure that there was neither more nor less in the studio during the two days when he went out. After seeing something, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Sitting down at the long table, Wei Ran took out a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on, then picked up the glasses case on the table and took out the contents.

The pencil and the IOU written in French that I can't understand are naturally of no value, and the black and white photo does not appear, and the only clue on the only remaining watch is the French on the strap. Wrote "Xiong Island", a word that Wei Ran couldn't understand.

Put everything back into the glasses case and fasten it. After Wei Ran locked it in the safe, he turned on his laptop and was ready to search for relevant information about Xiongdao.

He wasn't planning to take over the investigation job, it was just to satisfy his own curiosity, because when he saw Mrs. Amanda for the first time, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.This feeling doesn't just come from Mrs. Amanda and Herbert, it's more like I've inadvertently missed something.

"Fuck! Sure enough, there is a problem!" Wei Ran finally found the problem after looking at the real photos of Xiong Island displayed on the screen and the introduction on one side!
In the introduction about Bear Island, this island located in the Arctic Circle and more than 400 kilometers away from the mainland of Norway not only has no bears, but even the vegetation on the entire island is mainly moss and lichen.

This point can also be verified through the real-life photos he searched. Simply put, this small island that was used by the German army to build a weather station during World War II is completely a desert of ice and snow.

That being the case, here comes the problem. In the black-and-white photo Mrs. Amanda showed, there was a dense coniferous forest around it!
Obviously, as long as you have a little more brain, you will definitely be able to find this obvious flaw.So did Herbert find out?A sneer appeared on Wei Ran's face, he must have found out!

Now that he found out, he took over the business and asked himself to cooperate, which is obviously using himself to bluff and deceive.

"Herbert, Herbert, you are so damn picky. The birthday guy is not as appetizing as you when he eats arsenic."

Wei Ran muttered silently, and began to think about how to teach the other party a lesson that was still fresh in his memory.I have not only encountered this kind of thing, even Professor Alexey has encountered it several times in the past few years.

Speaking of which, the routine here is also simple. A "black intermediary" such as Herbert takes the client to meet with someone like Wei Ran or Professor Alexey.Then these intermediaries secretly negotiated deals with customers under the banner of the latter.

Those who have a little bottom line will give an explanation like Charlotte did last time, and those who don't have a bottom line, I'm afraid they will take the money and run away.

I was lucky. During the Charlotte incident, I was extra careful and met the original client directly, so there was no accident.

But Professor Alexey was miserable back then. This old man was far less smart than his wife. Once, he was even almost locked up by the police as an accomplice of a fraudster.

To deal with these black intermediaries, it is definitely not possible to kill the other party directly, that is not only useless, but also easy to cause a lot of trouble.And the best way is to ruin the other party's reputation.And right now, Wei Ran happens to have such a person who is most suitable for this matter.

After carefully reviewing his inner thoughts, Wei Ran took out the food box from the metal notebook, and took out the authenticator that Kajianka gave him back then.

I logged in to the 404 web page with my laptop, and completed the identity authentication in order.Wei Ran uploaded the photos taken in the Qiumen Library, and then asked about the other party's current situation.

And at the end of the email, he highlighted Herbert's cell phone number and the incident with the French woman Amanda a few days ago.In the name of checking Katenka's working ability, he asked her to try to see if she could find out anything.

In less than 2 minutes before and after, Kajianka sent a reply email.

In this simple email, the other party only responded with three short sentences: "Thank you", "I am moving, and it is expected to arrive in two days" and "I will send you a message as soon as possible".

(End of this chapter)