Maybe for most people, this can be seen as Ma Gu's name is mysterious, often some people in the boring life will always imagine unbelievable things, the ordinary and hard to make twists and turns. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The next day, as expected, Geng Daquan went to the meeting by appointment, because he already had the pass given by Robert, and entered the French Concession of Shanghai without any hindrance (all below City A were changed to Hudu).

"I thought you wouldn't come, I've been so busy these days that I almost forgot about you." Evan was surprised and delighted.

"If I hadn't come, I wouldn't have seen you last time."

Evan looked at Geng Daquan's sincere face and said, "Actually, I don't have much hope for this, of course, it's not that I don't have hope for your arrival, I mean what my father begged for." ”

Geng Daquan listened to him talk about Robert. Hurd's matter, knowing that although he said that he was not hopeful, who knew what he thought.

Evan and Geng Da circled a German jeep parked at the intersection and talked over and over again.

"You know, my father, Robert. Hurd, he went to the Qing Dynasty from England when he was young, and later became the chief tax secretary and has been running to regulate relations between all walks of life, and he has been in England for less than a year. ”

"Once, when he led a Qing government mission to England, he left our brother and sister in the hotel when he got off the ship and passed through Dublin, and after a few days he found out, so he asked people to return to the hotel to pick us up, and he did not come to see us until he returned to Shanghai."

Geng Daquan can hear Evan's contradictions with his father, on the one hand, his lack of family affection, and on the other hand, his diligence in his work.

The jeep soon left the concession area, crossed the Huanghu River, and then arrived at rows of low-rise bungalows, and it was not long before the car was already in the suburbs.

The scorching sun is moving westward, the rice fields in the suburbs have not yet been harvested, and a large road paved with stones, on which the car is swaying, and people can hear the small rustle of rubber tires and gravel scraping on the car. The pungent smell of diesel and new leather in the engine really didn't make Geng Daquan think too much about how long he had walked.

Since entering this gravel road, the scenery in front of me has not changed at all, making people wonder if this car has never moved, if it is not for the pines and cypresses on both sides of the road.

Sometimes the distance between the two pines and cypresses is very large, and it takes more than ten seconds to see the next one, and sometimes they are next to each other, and he tries to find out the pattern inside, just like the line in a geometry textbook, whether there is some kind of pattern in it. I don't know when it began, the pines and cypresses suddenly became dense, and then there were other unknown tall trees, and then a cool breeze blew outside the window, and people looked outside, and in front of them was a huge lake, and the scorching sun shone the lake sparkling.

"Is it almost there?" Geng Daquan noticed that the car was obviously slow, so he asked Evan.

"Look!" Evan put a hand out the window.

At first, he didn't understand, but Evan tapped his finger twice, and then he noticed a green spot in the middle of the lake, and suddenly realized and was surprised at the same time. He never thought of Robert. Hurd would live in such a remote place.

"This place is called Qinxin Garden, built by a rich man in Shanghai during the Guangxu period, although the place is remote, it is a good place to escape the summer, and it was purchased by my father more than ten years ago after several turns." Evan parked his car in a clearing surrounded by several large trees, and further inside, he could see some bluestone steps, and several passenger boats were moored under the steps, one of which was still loaded with packed goods, and a few short-term workers in short coats were moving goods, indicating that this was a temporary dock.

"Young Master Evan is here today." A middle-aged man who seemed to be a butler stepped forward.

"It's almost all right, right?" Evan asked casually.

"The large items are all transported away at your command, and now the remaining two days can be properly transported." The butler instructed a craftsman to pack several pieces of porcelain into a wooden box and have them fastened with rivets.

At this moment, on the wharf, there are all kinds of objects like a mountain, including precious yellow, platinum and silver utensils, calligraphy and paintings, and furniture ornaments of ordinary large families.

"Here, please work hard to help keep an eye on the point, and it must not be damaged or lost." Evan reminded again.

Geng Daquan knew Robert. There was no point in Hurd being in China, and along with his vast estate, he would leave China for the British Empire in the Atlantic.

After a while, Evan called a canopy boat, Geng Daquan sat up, the young man at the stern of the boat used a bamboo pole to make the boat away, all the way to carry the water boat, before the shore to see that the island is huge, there are mountains and forests, the place to get off the boat is under a rocky reef, the lake water laps the shore, and the stone steps are really on the island.

Under the leadership of Evan, Geng Daquan came to the residential area on the top of the hill, the corridor is a Chinese-style cloister, but the houses are European Western-style buildings. Downstairs there were a few servants carrying things out. Entering the inner room, there are chandeliers and Taishi chairs, which are completely a combination of Chinese and Western style.

"I have to trouble you to live here, my father will be here soon." Evan led Geng Daquan into a guest room, and by this time someone was already helping to make the bed.

Geng Daquan knew that this was specially rearranged by them, but in fact, the rest of the place was already empty, and the curtains in this room were all new.

Although there are only simple necessities in the house, you can still see the old way, the fireplace is placed on the animal bones, and the charcoal fire that has been extinguished for a long time does not mean that the house used to have an owner.

Robert, Hurd came quickly, an old foreign man with a somewhat bald head, who didn't say a word and wore a straight tuxedo. With a serious and unsmiling expression, he just stared coldly at Geng Daquan.

"I heard Evan say that you brought the letter." Hurd asked Geng Daquan to sit and talk, and then instructed the servant to serve tea.

Geng Daquan didn't know why they cared so much about the letter, so he said: "It's actually a misunderstanding, and this letter came to me somehow." ”

"This Evan has already told me, I still have some memories of Ma Guming, if I remember correctly, once on the way back from England I encountered a tsunami, it was a young man who gave me great help."

Hurd glanced at Evan and continued, "You and your sister were on the boat that time, but you were too young to remember. ”

"When you and your sister Hutton approached the Strait of Malacca, we were still wearing English cotton clothes, and because I didn't take care of it, the weather was too hot and I got sick with the fever."

Evan didn't seem to remember at all, so Hurd didn't go any further, but took it back and said to Geng Daquan, "I'm too old to see anyone. ”

"It doesn't matter if there is a misunderstanding, I do need help, and if you are willing to stay and help me this old man, I will pay you a sum of money as payment."

Geng Daquan certainly hoped to get this reward, but he thought to himself that he was not the first to want to help Robert. Hurd's people, and Robert. It's not the first time Hurd has been looking for someone, and since no one has been able to complete this task, how can he be sure of himself?

Robert. Hurd seemed to know what Geng Daquan was thinking, and dispelled his doubts, "As I said before, I'm too old, I'm too old to have time, and you are my last hope, as for the result, I can't force it." ”

At this time, someone came in to greet Robert. Hurd, Robert. Hurd told him to bring everything in, a large pile of papers.

"Hope these things will come in handy for you." Robert. After Hurd finished speaking, he didn't need to be helped by anyone and left with his cane.

Evan sent his father away and came back soon, looking at Geng Daquan, who was swaying, and suddenly smiled: "You don't have to wonder, my father just doesn't want to go through pain again." ”

Geng Daquan seemed to know something, there were only the two of them in the room at this time, and the servant had already left.

"Ten years ago, my father was crowned as the crown prince, and the official residence was a good product, so he invited people from all walks of life to a banquet in Shanghai, and the place of the banquet is Qinxin Garden, where we are now."

"At that time, there were a lot of people who came, including officials from the same dynasty and wealthy local businessmen, and the carriage alone lined up for several miles."

"The feast lasted from morning to night, and in the evening at the family dinner a servant came to report that Miss Hutton was missing."

"It's raining heavily at this moment in the night, and my vision is very poor, I just thought that my sister Hutton was sheltering from the rain somewhere on the island, and my father sent someone to look for it when he found out, but who knows that he didn't find it until the second half of the night." Evan had finished speaking.

"Miss Hutton's fate unknown?"

"I searched the island for two days, and sent people to the lake to fish for more than ten days, but there was no trace of the whereabouts of my sister."

"Could it be that I left by boat?" Geng Daquan didn't know Miss Hutton's temperament, so he had to guess randomly.

"No way, if my sister leaves by boat, someone will definitely know." Evan decisively denied.

|“ At that time, when the Treaty of Macho was about to be signed, my father was affected by the attack from the outside world, and security was specially strengthened during the banquet, and all passers-by had to be checked, and all passers-by were registered. ”

Geng Daquan felt that this matter was very tricky, and it was obvious that Robert . Hurd has ruled out all other possibilities.

"Could someone kidnap Miss Hutton and take her out?"

"It's not very likely, it must be a kidnapping, but no one has been in touch."

When Geng Daquan came, he had a general understanding of this small island, it was surrounded by water on all sides, and people had to rely on boats to leave this island, and it was impossible for Miss Hutton to leave alone without the help of outsiders.

"I can't do it." Geng Daquan only said apologetically to Evan.

"Anyway, you can't go back tonight, why don't you stay here for one night and give me an answer tomorrow." Sorry for Geng Daquan, Evan has no blame.

After Evan left, a servant asked if he needed anything else, and when it was already dark, Geng Daquan told him to prepare a few more candles. He put all the documents on the bed and looked at them.

Geng Daquan can be said to know nothing about Miss Hutton's disappearance, so he can only read these files first. When he saw that he had not known how long it was, a servant brought him dinner in the night, and told him not to go outside, and he asked if it was Mr. Hutton's order.

The servant said that no one told him that the night on the island was no better than the day, and that some guests had been injured in the past.

Geng Daquan didn't care, and besides, he didn't need to go out, and it was probably in the middle of the night that he had to finish reading the documents about the day of Miss Hutton's disappearance. The documents are very detailed, including the real-time situation of the whole day of the crime, as well as the confessions of servants and family members after the crime, as well as all kinds of possible conjectures.

Miss Hutton got up early in the morning, the servants brought breakfast, the guests arrived at the banquet, Miss Hutton went out of the room to the back mountain to watch the lion dance, the afternoon press reporter sat down, and Robert Hutton. Hutton delivered a speech on behalf of the Qing court, but Miss Hutton had no record, and the servant noticed the dinner party at the back, and the search was fruitless, and there was no news.