On a midwinter evening in 1989, the city of Milan was flooded with snowflakes, the towering Duomo of Milan glowed with cold light, and classic Italian opera reverberated through the ancient streets. A two-seater carriage drove into the campus of the University of Milan with the sound of hooves, and after a few turns, came to a stop in front of a circular building. A Chinese man got out of the car, stamped his feet on the wet tiled floor, looked up at the still snowy sky, then picked up a little girl in a down jacket from the car, and reached out to help a lady in the car to the ground.

The coachman, wearing a top hat, lowered the salute on the ground one by one, collected the commission, and with a whip of his whip, the sound of hooves disappeared behind the old building. Two boys dressed as students ran from the direction where the car disappeared and asked the man in somewhat awkward Chinese if it was Professor Li? After receiving an affirmative answer. The two took the salute of the three and sent them to the second floor of the dome, where they handed the key to a room in Professor Li's hand.

After the two boys politely said goodbye, Professor Li punched the key into the keyhole. The moment the door opened, the living room was lit up, with a circle of sofas, brand new household appliances, black and gold bookcases, and a marble round table embroidered with thick carpets and napkins...... All the furnishings are exquisite, full of rich Milanese style, like the living room salon in Rembrandt's oil paintings, classical, nostalgic, elegant, opulent, it is impossible to say that it is impossible to overstate.

The two adults and a child standing at the door were stunned for a moment. I can't believe this is the room they are going to live in for a year.

The two adults are a husband and wife, the man's name is Li Yuepu, and the woman's name is Shen Foyin. The little girl is their precious daughter Li Yan.

Li Yuepu is a professor at a well-known university in China. That university has an academic exchange contract with the University of Milan. It was agreed that each would send senior professors to each other's schools to carry out teaching activities for one year. Because Li Yuepu's research direction is the rheological history of the production process of ancient European cultural relics, he is also proficient in Italian. The school selected him as the first academic exchange backbone to go to Milan. Considering the long time, her daughter Li Yan is still young. After obtaining the approval of the school, Li Yuepu mobilized his wife Shen Foyin and daughter to Milan together.

The University of Milan is located in northwestern Italy and is the largest comprehensive institution of higher learning in Italy. Moreover, Milan has a rich history, with a foundation dating back more than 3,600 years, and is also an international fashion design center. Shen Foyin also longed for Milan, so he quit his job, took his daughter, and came here with Li Yuepu.

Li Yuepu and his wife opened the salute. After putting the clothes and daily utensils in the wardrobe and washroom, he took his daughter's hand and walked out of the living room, followed the campus signs, came to the road outside the university gate, hailed a taxi, and came to the famous Paper-moon restaurant in Milan.

The waiter saw that they were Asian and recommended them a menu.

Li Yuepu ordered a breadcrumb, roast beef slices for his daughter, a Milanese risotto for his wife, and a fried milk steak for himself. The trio ate delicious Milanese food. Admire the snow-covered and Gothic classical street scene outside the window, listen to the deep and elegant Italian opera, and drink a few mellow and sweet local wines, and you will fall in love with this fairytale city at once.

In the work that comes with it. Li Yuepu has won high praise from the Education Committee of the University of Milan with his outstanding teaching performance, and has also won the respect and love of the students. In order to expand the results of the exchange, the Milan school obtained the consent of Li Yuepu. He applied to the Chinese university to which Li Yuepu belonged and let Li Yuepu stay in Milan for a long time. Considering that Li Yuepu's research topic is still a blank in China, it is necessary for Li Yuepu to carry out field research work in Europe for a long time. The Chinese authorities quickly agreed to the application of the University of Milan's Board of Education. As a result, Li Yuepu's family stayed in Milan for a long time and stayed for fifteen years. Until Li Yan finished college here.

This year, Li Yan was 20 years old.

This year, everything was running as usual, but Shen Foyin always felt that there was a potential danger lurking around him. This feeling comes from the mailbox on the doorstep. In the past, the keys to the mailbox were all in the hands of Shen Foyin, taking newspapers, picking up letters, and receiving couriers, all of which were handled by her, and her husband Li Yuepu never asked. However, since last month, Li Yuepu has asked for the key and solemnly warned him not to go near the mailbox and not to read any letters in the mailbox.

There should be no secrets between husband and wife. Shen Foyin joked with her husband, you are a spy and an agent, mysterious.

Li Yuepu smiled and didn't answer her. After a few days, he felt that Shen Foyin was full of curiosity about this matter, and tried to cross the red line, so he took advantage of his daughter's absence, and told Shen Foyin with a gloomy face that he could not get close to the mailbox, let alone read the letters inside.

Shen Foyin really wanted to go over to see what strange things were in that mailbox, and when he heard Li Yuepu emphasize this, he was a little frightened, and asked Li Yuepu what happened?

Li Yuepu looked nervously at the door and window, and said that someone was eyeing him, and he didn't want Shen Foyin to have an accident, and asked her to take care of his daughter. It felt as if he could disappear at any moment.

Shen Foyin asked what happened?

Li Yuepu lowered his voice and said, "Don't ask. If I had told you, that man would have killed not only me, but you. ”

Shen Foyin said puzzledly, who is this person you are talking about? Is he intimidating you? We can call the police.

Li Yuepu hurriedly pressed his hand on Shen Foyin's mouth, looked at the door and window again, and said in a voice like a mosquito: "Oh my God, you make a little noise." We can't call the police!"

"Why can't you call the police?" Shen Foyin had to speak quietly.

"The police are afraid of him." Li Yuepu said, "That person is simply a demon, killing people like a cold machine, without any expression on his face, without a trace of humanity. He wouldn't let me tell anyone. ”

"But what the hell is going on?" Shen Foyin knew that something big must have happened to her husband, otherwise he wouldn't be so flustered, "You tell me." I'm not going to tell anyone. You know, I'm not a long-tongued woman. Hopefully, I can help you. ”

Li Yuepu pursed his lips. He closed his lips again, and his mind raced several times. Tiptoe to the door and pull a crack. He stuck his head out and looked left and right. It was evening, dark clouds were over the city, the streets that had just been watered were cold and damp, goose-yellow trams were chiling and ding, and the few passers-by were walking with high collars.

Li Yuepu retracted his head, closed the door tightly, and closed the thick curtains again. The room immediately darkened, adding a bit of weirdness.

Li Yuepu pulled Shen Foyin to his side. Sitting on the couch on his knees, he hurriedly and whispered the truth of the incident.

It turns out that in addition to studying the production process of ancient European cultural relics over the years, Li Yuepu has been paying attention to the ancient cultural relics flowing into Europe from China. Since he is a well-known scholar in the field of Chinese cultural relics, there is an auction house in Milan - a world-class auction house that has been in business for nearly 200 years - he is often asked to distinguish the authenticity of a lot from the age of production, the characteristics of the process, and the selection of materials. He discovered that many of the lots were labeled as coming from the Old Summer Palace rather than the name of the seller. According to the unwritten rules in the industry, all lots must be marked with the name, contact information, and price of the previous holder, so that bidders can check the authenticity of the lot at any time. Maintain the integrity and fairness of the auction market. Since these things are not marked as the transferor, it indicates that they are held by the auction company itself, and what is more terrible is that it indicates that these things were plundered directly from the Old Summer Palace by the auction company.

Li Yuepu checked the company's information and found that it was founded in 1836. It was not well managed until 1860 that it began to make a name for itself in the art market, from 1860 to the present day. It always has artworks from the Old Summer Palace put on the auction market, and these artworks from the Old Summer Palace are all transferred to the transferee at a high price as the auction house's own lots. Since it is its own lot. The auction company has full control over the bidding price at the time of the auction, so it has been able to maintain a successful rate ahead of its peers. and staggeringly high super profits.

Since the University of Milan, where Li Yuepu teaches, is a national university with strong authority, if he recommends and puts his name on the lot, the price of the lot can be increased by three to five times. For this reason, the auction company simply hired him as the chief expert on the demonstration of the lots, and asked him to go to the collection base to identify the artworks to be auctioned one by one, and wrote his comments on the collection labels, signed his name, and promised to give him a 5% share for each piece auctioned.

The 5% share is not a small amount, it can be calculated in 100 million, which is full of temptation for everyone, and it also makes Li Yuepu excited. But he was more concerned about whether all of those things came from China.

The moment Li Yuepu entered the gate of the auction house's collection base, he was completely stunned, it was simply a reconstructed dungeon, with countless squares divided by wooden boards, each of which was filled with cultural relics from China, porcelain, silver, bronze, gold, jade, calligraphy and painting, marble carvings...... You can't see the edge at a glance, and you can see it dazzlingly.

How can there be so many Chinese artworks? He asked the entourage of the auction house in astonishment.

The entourage said that our auction house is a family company, which was established 178 years ago, and the legal person is a pair of brothers from a poor family, because they have no family background, no own lots, the company has been tepid, and then the two brothers heard that they can get a lot of cheap cultural relics from China, so they organized a purchasing team of 20 people, and went to Beijing, China by sea ship in 1860, just in time for the British and French troops to burn down the Old Summer Palace. So, the two led the team to enter the Old Summer Palace many times in the chaos to collect cultural relics, and then directly transported them to Tianjin and Shanghai to ship back to Italy.

Perhaps because Li Yuepu spoke Italian with a Milanese accent so authentically, the entourage did not notice that he was a Chinese, and even chatted with him with great interest about the history of the auction family, and also said that the concept of "robbery" was secretly changed to "search".

Li Yuepu listened to the Italian man's boastful talk, and his whole body trembled, and his blood surged.

Like every Chinese with a conscience, he has a special affection for something from the motherland. When he saw that there were so many Chinese treasures hidden in a foreign dungeon, he was shocked, and goosebumps appeared all over his body, and then a sense of shame and anger at the bandits' actions welled up in his heart.

He used the night time to make an inventory of all the artifacts. - When he was working in the dungeon, he was always accompanied by two security guards who were as strong as bulls and had pistols pinned to their waists. He was not allowed to take pictures inside, and of course he was not allowed to write notes. It can only be entered empty-handed. Empty-handed. He used his memory to complete the list. The list is written on 16-carat paper and is up to 20 centimeters thick. It can be compiled into a large header of 800 pages.

In order to complete the task assigned by the auction house, he spent two months in the dungeon. Under the watchful eye of the security guards, he wrote a treasure tag on all the cultural relics and signed his name. The thought that the things of the old ancestor would be transferred again after his own recommendation, and he didn't know where they were gone, he felt a strong sense of guilt in his heart. This guilt finally prompted him to do something stupid.

It happened on the last day. When he finished writing the last piece of identification, he noticed that a security guard had gone out of the dungeon to go to the bathroom. So, he asked the remaining security guard for a cup of coffee. When the security guard turned and walked towards the coffee keg at the door. He tucked an ancient painting into his trouser pocket. The ancient painting shows a woman in white with a delicate face, leaning on a stone monument, and a crescent-like lake in the distance. The woman's eyes are bright. The corners of her lips are slightly opened, as if she is smiling, and then you look closely but she is not smiling, and after a while, she looks like she is crying, but when you look closely, she seems to be smiling again, and that expression is more unpredictable and weird than the smile of the Mona Lisa. Especially on the shore of the lake, the grass is falling. The strong wind blowing the trees, coupled with the dense clouds, makes the whole picture overflow with a yin wind, as if it comes from the underworld. But. In the lake, there are surprisingly more than a dozen wild birds. Moreover, this wild bird is unique. The Latin name is Baptornis, and the Chinese name is diving bird. The chest is gray and the back is black, and the yellow beak is curved and the neck is curved. They can go into the water for a long time to fish, and they usually gather together when they swim, but these dozen or so are scattered on the surface of the lake, each unrelated, and it is very difficult to understand. What is even more puzzling is that this bird is only found in Latin-speaking regions, and it only appeared on Earth during the Cretaceous period, and has long been extinct. And the woman in this ancient painting is clearly Asian and Chinese, how can the two appear on the same painting? Li Yuepu, who studied the production process of ancient cultural relics, found that the painting techniques of the wild birds on the lake were different from the women in the paintings, which were obviously added by later generations.

This painting is preserved on a silk silk, the shape is intact, it is the work of the middle and late Yin Shang period, it is of great significance to the study of people's life, dress habits, weaving technology, and handicraft level in the Yin Shang period, and it is invaluable. Does the painter want to tell future generations a secret through them?

Li Yuepu counted the number of diving birds, exactly fourteen, remembering that the ancient Chinese astrological constellation Draco was also exactly fourteen stars, and then connected the two adjacent diving birds in his brain, which happened to form a pattern of the dragon soaring into the sky. He followed the trend of Tianlong, and further found that Tianlong's head, that is, the square at the top of the line, was faintly fluorescently flashing, and when he touched it with his fingers, he found that a thin layer of silver powder was stuck on his fingers. He suddenly understood that the painter was using the Tianlong diagram to tell the viewer that it was a direction map, and secretly instructed the Tianlong to have something in his mouth?

Li Yuepu was puzzled by this picture, so he decided to take it out and study it. The feeling is like a person who loves to read and steals books from a bookstore. Moreover, Li Yuepu also rightly believed that this thing was originally Chinese, but others also obtained it by illegal means, and he took it back by illegal means.

Li Yuepu did not take this strange ancient painting home, but put it in a drawer in the school office. It was so weird that he was afraid that it would bring bad luck to the family.

Who is this woman?

Where is the background of this painting?

Only by finding the woman's background can we find the place where the woman is standing. Li Yuepu put the painting in the hands of his proud protégé Zuo Yan, and asked him to check the identity of this woman and use Google Maps to find similar terrain, but there were no satisfactory results. Li Yuepu also recruited his other students into his office to study the secrets of this ancient painting, but he did not find the slightest clue.

Late at night on the third day, he was sleeping in bed when his phone suddenly rang, and an ominous feeling swept through his mind. He picked up his phone from the bedside and found that it was the auction house calling. He nervously answered the phone, the manager of the auction house, and said that he had seen him stuffing an object into his hand from the surveillance footage. I want him to return it immediately.

Li Yuepu knew that he couldn't hide it, so he lied that he had brought it with him to study this ancient painting. It was returned to the company early the next morning.

That night, Li Yuepu got up. Zuo Yan, a Chinese student, was recruited into the school office, and analyzed the secrets hidden in the ancient paintings overnight, and found that the silver powder on the head of the Tianlong was not silver powder, but tin powder. The ancients liked to use fake characters, often using tin to replace the seal character, and the dragon represented the emperor, and the two words of the emperor's seal were combined. In China, the only recognized imperial seal is Qin Shi Huang's "heirloom jade seal", which is written by Li Si "Ordered by heaven." Both longevity and Yongchang", the word "day" is exactly the same as the sky of the constellation of the dragon. It turned out that the painter was telling the reader that the missing "ancient treasure" and the king of cultural relics were hidden at the bottom of such a lake.

However, Li Yuepu was unwilling to return the ancient painting to the robbers of the auction company, so he rushed to produce a realistic piece overnight and handed it over to the auction house the next day, and the auction house did not pursue it.

However, in the past month, there was always a stranger who called Li Yuepu. Let him hand over the real ancient paintings, or let him die unexpectedly. However, Li Yuepu can't report this matter to the police, because according to the current law. Li Yuepu stole the auction company's property and will definitely be arrested. However, the auction house considered that he might reveal his dungeon's secrets to the press. It has damaged his business, and it is difficult to report it to the police. So. At the moment, this stranger is likely to be the gangster hired by the auction house. He knew that the auction house was a regular customer of the gang.

Italian gangsters. has a long history and is notorious, and the original form of the Corian family in the Hollywood movie "The Godfather" came from Italy. They often let their prey die unexpectedly, and even the police can't find any evidence, which is very scary.

However, Li Yuepu did not want to give up this ancient painting, although an ancient painting is nothing, but the heirloom jade seal hidden behind it is a treasure through the ages. Everyone knows that it is carved by the Heshi Bi, starting from Qin Shi Huang, the emperors of all dynasties have regarded it as a symbol of orthodox imperial power, there is a saying that "the seal is the world, the seal is lost and the world is lost", in order to get it, some emperors even snatched it with the whole country's soldiers. Its value is not only the amount of money, but also a symbol of the prosperity of the Chinese nation.

So, Li Yuepu, who had been carefully monitored by the gangsters, sent the ancient paintings back to an old friend in China for preservation through Zuo Yan's hand. In order to protect his family, he took another piece and went alone to meet the gang leader.

When the gang leader knew that he had obtained the goods, he brutally inflicted physical injuries on Li Yuepu, not only beating him all over with a golf club, but also cutting off his big toe with scissors like cutting off excess branches. They communicated with him in letters, forced him to tell him the whereabouts of the real painting, demanded that he confess the secrets hidden in the ancient painting, and threatened him not to tell anyone about it, or else his entire family would be wiped out of Milan.

In order to protect his family, Li Yuepu had to tell the secret of the ancient painting to the gang leader, and also told the whereabouts of the real painting.

The gang leader killed Li Yuepu after knowing that he could no longer provide more valuable information. His killer was none other than Alessandro, a young black man who lied that he was hunting at the time. And the mysterious person who paid compensation to Li Yuepu's wife and did not want to be named was the leader of the gang. After Li Yuepu's death, the gang sent elite people to take the Ying, which had marked the direction of the dragon, to find the real painting from Li Yuepu's old friend in China, and at the same time to find the same landform according to the direction marked by Li Yuepu, and find out the jade seal of the ancient treasure.

In order to get ahead of the gang and find Li Yuepu's old friend, Shen Foyin sent Zuo Yan back to China, found Li Yuepu's old friend, and got the real painting. But, almost at the same time, the gangster's killer also found there, colliding with Zuo Yan. In order to avoid their pursuit, Zuo Yan had to escape to the golden town in Wuling Mountain with Li Yan and his son under the arrangement of Shen Foyin. In order to conceal his true purpose, and at the same time, to protect his wife and children, he had to lie every time he traveled as a business trip to the provincial capital to look for antiques.

However, three years ago, there was an accident, the gang hired two mainland policemen to do the internal response, found Zuo Yan's antique shop in Golden Town, and caused a car accident, knocking Zuo Yan, who was in a Chevrolet car, off a 100-meter cliff.

Although they didn't find the ancient painting on Zuo Yan's body, they thought that Zuo Yan was dead, and there was no one to snatch the jade seal of the country with them.

Li Yan heard this with tears in her eyes and trembling. couldn't help but interrupt Shen Foyin's words, and asked in horror, "Zuo Yan really ......?" She wanted to ask if Zuo Yan was really dead. But she was afraid to say that word.

Shen Foyin frowned and said, I ran to the bottom of the cliff and didn't find his body. Since there were often wild beasts in the area, it was suspected that he had been dragged away by wild beasts. Considering her daughter's psychological endurance, Shen Foyin did not use the sentence "He was gnawed by the beast", but replaced it with "He was dragged away by the beast." ”

Li Yan desperately prayed in his heart that he was still alive, but he couldn't stop thinking of the image of his lover's body being torn and bloody by the beast.

"Zuo Yan won't die?" Li Yan held back such a sentence from her mouth, as if she was cheering herself up.

Looking at her daughter's dejected appearance, Shen Foyin felt that blood was dripping from her heart. Out of the instinct of being a mother, she wants her daughter to completely cut off contact with Zuo Yan and end the days of crisis. She won't tell Li Yan the truth: Zuo Yan was thrown out of the car window. narrowly escaped with his life, but because he hit his head on a cliff, he caused deep amnesia. She repeated the words that made Li Yan feel desperate: "Child, forget Zuo Yan, he is already in the past." You should start a new life and not live in the shadows of the past. Moreover, Yanyan is still ...... young."

Li Yan turned a deaf ear to her mother's words and couldn't cry.

After a while, Li Yan asked her mother again. "Why didn't your father hold him when he went to see the gang?" She admired her father's courage in dedicating himself to the national treasure, but also felt incomprehensible about his father's behavior.

Shen Foyin smacked the corners of his mouth with a few wrinkles, and said in pain: "He is afraid that we will be implicated." I went there secretly and didn't tell me at all. ”

Li Yan's tears clattered and fell on the face of the toddler in her arms. She hurriedly wiped away the tears from her son's face with her hands, and covered her mouth with her hands. Don't let yourself cry.

Shen Foyin took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears for her daughter. "At that time, I strongly opposed your marriage to Zuo Yan, and it was also because of this bitterness. Kids. You have to understand Mom. It's not easy to be a mother. ”

Li Yan took the handkerchief in her mother's hand, nodded sensibly, and said in a choked voice, "Well, Mom, I know." But—I believe—Zuo Yan won't die. ”

Shen Foyin seemed to comfort her daughter and said, "Actually, Zuo Yan's child is really good. When we returned to China, in order to fulfill your father's legacy, he went to the house of an old friend of your father to retrieve the ancient painting, and searched for the same place as the ancient painting. However, gangster organizations with influence all over the world have also extended their black hands into Chinese mainland, where is it so easy. ”

Li Yan asked without giving up: "Mom, you know, he is still alive now, right?" ”

"His phone has been turned off, so ......" Shen Foyin looked at his extremely sad daughter worriedly, not wanting to hit her again, "unless a miracle happens." ”

Speaking of this, Shen Foyin felt that his words had been spoken.

Li Yanfu asked, what is the name of that auction company?

Shen Foyin said, child, I don't know this, and I can't say it if I know.

Li Yan asked again, who is the leader of the Italian gang?

Shen Foyin said, child, I don't know, so I can't tell you. Moreover, I also want to remind you that for the safety of you and Xiao Yanyan, you can't ask others.

Li Yan asked again, who is that friend of her father in China?

Shen Foyin pursed her lips and said nothing ruthlessly, but she also tried her best to make her expression look relaxed to maintain a gentle atmosphere. She wanted her daughter's out-of-control emotions to calm down so that nothing could go wrong. Since her husband's unexpected departure, she can no longer afford any blows. This is the ultimate purpose of so many things she has said to her daughter in a row.

……

Li Yan also asked a lot of questions, but she understood that she couldn't let her daughter know too much, so she either pushed left and right to persuade her question, or talked about it left and right.

That night, Li Yan returned to the teacher's dormitory of the school, washed the child, put him on the bed and fell asleep, fanned him with a pu fan, repellent mosquitoes, turned on the computer, and logged in to QQ to leave a message for Zuo Yan. Over the years, she has maintained this habit, and even relied on it. Although the familiar number had always been black and had never been lit, she stubbornly believed that Zuo Yan would definitely see it.

After a few minutes, a small window popped up on the computer screen, which was QQ News, and the headline was written in eye-catching large letters: The police offered a reward of 100,000 yuan for the wanted murderer of flight DZA130. Since the Malaysia Airlines MH370 crash, the coverage of air crashes in this period has been particularly fascinating. Li Yan clicked on the headline of the line to enter the news homepage. As the picture unfolded, a photograph jumped into her eyes. It was a half-length photograph with a blurred background, and it could only be roughly seen that it was at an intersection because of the zebra crossing on the ground, apparently it was a screenshot of a traffic video footage, but the portrait in the photo was fairly clear.

It was a man with a stubble beard and a haggard look.

However, she knew him.

This person? Oh my god - her pupils dilated several times in an instant. She covered her mouth tightly with her hands, afraid that she would cry out.

This person, she is all too familiar. For three years, she has missed him all the time and didn't want to be close to him all the time. She once thought that she had been separated from him forever, and that she would never have the opportunity to be close to him again. But now he was close at hand. His well-skewed face was not as clean-shaven as it used to be, and was covered with hard stubble; His eyes were red, bloodshot, and a little puffy, not as radiant as before, faintly confused, doubtful, and even frightened; His cheekbones have also become higher, his chin has become sharper, and the collarbones on his shoulders are very visible; He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt, and his whole person looked dark, thin, and haggard, obviously suffering a lot.

Li Yan looked at the screen in a daze, her heart was tight, and she couldn't help but feel pain.

Her trembling fingers slowly reached for the incomparably familiar face on the screen.

When her fingertips touched the warm screen, she felt as if she had touched his body temperature, and her whole body trembled.

There was a glimmer of hope in her heart - he was alive! She tried to steady herself, biting her lip, and slowly scrolling the mouse with trembling fingers, as if the mouse roller weighed a thousand pounds.

…… The murderer left the flame......

…… Illegal Gun Possession......

…… Killing of Italian passengers......

…… Assault on the police......

…… Be at large......

Oh my God, what the hell is going on?

Gangster chase, police wanted, what the hell did he do? How did he withstand the blow?

Li Yan felt a wave of dizziness, as if she had fallen into an unfathomable black hole, the mouse, the keyboard, the desktop, the wall, the roof...... Everything in the eyes is spinning. (To be continued......)