Chapter 766: The Code Book from Berlin
Translator: _Min_
Editor: Caron_
“This codebook comes from Berlin and was donated by the generous Mr. Woolley Fergus. The origin of this codebook can be traced back more than 70 years ago. Hugh Rancy, Churchill’s translator, was the first British man allowed to enter the bunker at Hitler’s hiding place. He was told by Soviet soldiers that he could take some things from the bunker and bring them back to London as souvenirs. In the conference room, he took one of the Brookhaus Encyclopedias and the codebook on the shelf.”
“After returning home, he handed over the codebook to Churchill, but the codebook wasn’t taken seriously. The war had been won. No matter what kind of intelligence was recorded, it wasn’t important to the British who already defeated the devil. After some symbolic deciphering work, the codebook was sent to a museum in London along with other souvenirs. Later, after several twists and turns, the codebook arrived to the hands of a collector from Berlin, that is, our generous Mr. Woolley Fergus.”
At the same time, the host looked at Woolley Fergus with a smile, who also returned the smile.
“No one knows what’s written in it. The disorganized characters are like a madman’s graffiti. If they’re not a leader’s nonsense in his last moments, then he must’ve buried some kind of incredible secrets here… but this isn’t important anymore. It used to belong to a devil, but now it will be used in great undertakings, with a starting price of one million US Dollar and no less than one hundred thousand for each bid. The proceeds of the item will be used to help those who are left without a home due to the war!”
The sentence just finished yet someone already raised their hand.
“One million! Thank you, first, oh, oh my God, two million! Mr. Fergus from Paris has directly increased the price by one million dollars! Thank you for your generosity…”
The auction was conducted in an open manner. For each bidder, no matter how much the price increased, the host would offer a blessing. Maybe shocked by the financial power Mr. Fergus displayed, the host’s hammer dropped twice without anyone raising the bid.
Jiang Chen looked in the direction of Carmen Rothschild and saw him indulging in red wine. He seemed to be uninterested in this item.
“And there are no interested buyers? If not… Three million!”
Jiang Chen raised the sign.
“Three million once! Three million twice! Three times! Sold! Thank you, Mr. Jiang Chen, your generosity will be remembered by everyone!”
Three million to buy a notebook, in the eyes of the people who didn’t know the truth, was completely a waste of money. There was no artistic value in it; the ultimate destination would be a history museum without much room for appreciation. However, this was at a charity party. No one would think that. So they all looked at Jiang Chen with praise and blessings.
Everyone thought he wanted to do something for the poor people from the bottom of his heart, so he directly increased the price by one million.
Only two people didn’t think so. One was Jiang Chen himself, and the other was Rothschild who was sitting on the other side of the hall.
The auction continued, but the following items were nothing interesting. Jiang Chen paid attnetion Carmen’s side. Other than the pen he used, he only bid for two more things. A fifteenth-century armor from Western Europe and a winery located in Croatia.
In fact, Jiang Chen was also interested in that winery, but when he realized Croatia seemed to be located in the Balkans, his interest immediately faded.
The Balkans seemed to be the gateway for refugees to Europe, and it was even more of a mess now. If he bought a winery in this place, Jiang Chen felt he would have no interest in spending his holidays there. Moreover, he seemed to have bought a golf course at the foot of Mount Fuji in Nippon, and the engineering team he hired was changing the golf course to a private estate.
After some time, he would hire several gardeners and plant some grape vines there to perhaps establish his own winery.
When Jiang Chen was deep in thought, Mr. Rothschild had already beaten his rivals with 90 million US Dollar and successfully won the manor.
The auction concluded and Adam Galloway read out the funds raised by the guests present, totaling 420 million US Dollar. Adhering to the principle of openness, Mr. Galloway promised to the people that the official websites of many charitable organizations such as the International Children’s Fund and the International Red Cross Society would monitor the whereabouts of this huge amount of money in real time and invite people from around the world to also participate in the auditing.
Finally, he once again thanked the entrepreneurs for their generosity. In particular, Jiang Chen and Rothschild’s contributions equated almost half the funds raised by the audience.
After the party ended, Jiang Chen met Rothschild who was also on his way to the elevator.
“So, what is that interesting thing you are talking about?”
“Didn’t you already win it?” Carmen smiled.
“You’re referring to the 110 million painting or the sketchbook used by the great Fuhrer?”
“Haha, that’s a good one.” Carmen didn’t hold back and burst out laughing. “It’s not a sketchbook. It’s an original piece of the unsolved mystery from the last century. Someone said the secrets of the Third Reich are hidden in the notebook. People also said it’s a treasure map, and MI6 never stopped deciphering the codebook. A copy of the book has been lying in their confidential archives for decades. Of course, what the host said was right. That is, no one has yet been able to decipher the secrets of this codebook.”
“Do you think I can decipher it?” Jiang Chen joked. “You’re overestimating my strength. I’m afraid that this original in my hands will suffer the fate of lying in the archives.”
“That’s not my problem,” Carmen laughed and mocked him. “I just said that it was an interesting thing, but I didn’t say you would find the treasure.”
The value of items with more than a million dollar in value would generally be handled by dedicated escort officers, who would take the auction items to the winners’ homes. However, at the request of Jiang Chen, after paying, he took the codebook directly from the auctioneer.
After taking Xia Shiyu back to the hotel, Jiang Chen returned to his room on the top floor of the Central with the three million dollar codebook.
When he got home, Ayesha had already filled the bathtub with water. The water temperature was just right.
With Ayesha’s service, Jiang Chen took a relaxing bubble bath. Wrapped in a bath towel from the bathroom, he returned to the study and took a briefcase with the codebook. Jiang Chen sat directly at the desk.
Dark gray leather covered the dust full of history.
Nothing was written on the cover of the codebook. Only a small Swastika was engraved in the middle of the cover…