Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1622 The crime of hiding wine is even greater

Zhou Zhi's attitude made Leah very happy. It was obvious that the box was now worth far more than seven thousand dollars. However, Zhou Zhi did not show any regret because it passed through his hands. Instead, he congratulated Leah seriously. This is the gentlemanly demeanor of the East, or the gentlemanly style of the West, to keep the promise of the transaction.

Except for this small space on the top, the rest of the box is now divided into five drawers. The top one has two small drawers side by side, and below it are three larger drawer spaces.

Each drawer was wrapped in light green canvas and had a metal pull ring on the front. Pulling open the two small drawers, Leah took out two purple velvet boxes from them.

These two boxes are obviously custom-made and fit perfectly with the small drawers. When they are opened, one of the drawers contains two fountain pens, two dip pens, and three bottles of ink, one red, one blue, and one black.

The ink bottle is carved from natural crystal and its shape is a bit like a snuff bottle. There is still ink inside, but it has turned into a paste.

The workmanship of these pens is very exquisite. The pen barrels are made of a special ironwood from the American desert. The pen tips are also inlaid with gems as decoration. The red pens use rubies, the blue pens use sapphires, and the black pens use Dominican amber.

Blue amber will appear blue under natural light, but that is an optical phenomenon that occurs only when viewed from the side. It is a light brown transparent object placed on a black base, and it looks black from the front.

This also shows how finely the pens are made.

There were also delicate curled leaf patterns carved on the pen barrel, which looked like the style of medieval France, but Zhou Zhi didn't understand.

The nibs are all made of pure gold, and also have delicate engraved patterns and two cursive letters LS on them.

"This is a special custom-made pen for recording music scores." Leah nodded and said, "LS stands for Leopold Stokowski's initials."

It seems that there is increasing evidence that this box belonged to Leopold Stokowski.

When he opened another small box, a bunch of valuable gadgets appeared inside, including a pocket watch with a gold case, gold-rimmed glasses, a tie clip, and a silk scarf.

There are also two pipes, one straight and one curved. Both pipes are divided into three sections. The mouthpiece is made of silver, the middle is made of walrus, and the part that holds the tobacco is made of the standard Western pipe material, very fire-resistant briar, which looks very high-end.

In one of the three cabinets below was a stack of hand-written music scores. According to Leah, this was the "Seventh Symphony" by Austrian composer Bruckner. She also inferred that this was probably the reason why Leopold Stokowski did not take the suitcase back from the airport.

The Seventh Symphony is also called the Heroic Symphony. The second movement of the Symphony was created when Wagner died, so the second movement was changed into a elegy for Wagner.

Leopold Stokowski was traveling in the United States during the "terror" period, and he might have been investigated by some agency, so he left in a hurry and didn't even dare to take the suitcase he had deposited with him.

"Maybe there's wine in the second cabinet," Leah guessed.

"Why?" Zhou Zhi now felt that the foreigners' knowledge of antique collection was also unfathomable. The qualities of an expert in front of a layman were almost as good as those of a half-immortal.

He now understands how others look at him.

"Because during that terrible time, hiding alcohol was probably a much more serious crime than hiding the Seventh Symphony." Leah said, "Unfortunately, Leopold Stokowski, you should know from his last name that he is an alcoholic." "Hahahaha..." When Zhou Zhi opened the drawer, "It's indeed alcohol!"

It was indeed wine, and more than one bottle. In the two lower layers of the cabinets, in addition to simple clothes and thin blankets, there were three bottles of wine hidden in each layer.

One could even describe it this way: the clothes and thin blankets were stuffed in to protect the six bottles of wine.

"Ah ha? There are two bottles of Egon!" Zhou Zhi unexpectedly found an old acquaintance here.

His experience with foreign liquor was very shallow, but because he had found a batch of foreign liquor when cleaning out Su Huaxuan's cellar, he had some understanding of old foreign liquor.

The best wine in that batch was Igon. Li Laosanqiang took two bottles back to honor Li Qiyan. Afterwards, Zhou Zhi found out that just one bottle was worth more than 100,000 yuan.

"George, you also know something about wine?" This time it was Leah and Old John's turn to be surprised.

"I just happened to know this." Zhou Zhi smiled modestly: "I read it in a magazine."

"You are the luckiest Curly Coat in the airport's fifty years!" Even Red Hat Bonnie squeezed into the crowd with a camera: "I heard that an original Stokowski Monogram desk suitcase was found?!"

"Yes, but it belongs to Leah now." Old John said loudly: "Little George also did not lose out, and he found a lot of good things in it. Those are still his."

"I won't talk about these two bottles of Igon. These two bottles are Beluga vodka, and the other two are Portela red wine." Leah pointed to the crowns on the bottles and said, "This wine is a very popular Russian wine, but with these, it's different. This kind of wine has two aliases - White Tsar and Red Tsar. They were both good things that were exclusively provided to the royal family in the past."

"I know Igon is very expensive, but what about the White Tsar and the Red Tsar?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"In terms of price, White Tsar is not as good as Egon. After all, the audience for strong liquor is much smaller. Red Tsar is almost comparable to Egon, and the quantity is even rarer." Leah kept turning the bottle of White Tsar over and over, as if she could taste the wine through the glass bottle. "But for experts who understand wine, the strength of White Tsar has been greatly reduced after years of evaporation, so it is the best in terms of flavor."

"Those who only know how to admire Egon and Portela cannot be truly called experts."

  "What's this?" Old John dug out a cane-like object from the remaining clothes. The bottom was like a gourd or a water drop, delicate and smooth, with thread-like lines on it. Each line was inlaid with spiral silver wires, dividing the water drop into six rotationally symmetrical parts. Each part bulged outward, increasing the comfort and firmness of the handshake.

This part is similar to the head of a walking stick, but the front part of the walking stick is much thinner than an ordinary walking stick, and I don’t know what material it is made of. It seems to be plastic and has considerable elasticity.

"Is this plastic?" This thing is very similar to plastic in color, touch, and elasticity, Zhou Zhi couldn't help but ask.

"No, no, no, this is an expensive baton." Even six bottles of fine wine worth tens of thousands of dollars did not move Old Leah, but now his expression became serious: "This is made of narwhal horns and whale bones. It is very expensive."

"The handle of this gourd should be the tusk of a narwhal, but this elastic part is actually whale bone?"

"Whale bone is a customary term in English. It actually refers to the baleen of filter-feeding whales such as fin whales or blue whales," explained Old John.

This is the problem caused by non-native speakers. If you have not integrated into local life for a considerable period of time, many of these phrases will not be understood accurately.