Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Then… what… what are these?” Cui Lizhu asked, sounding surprised.
“I’m not too sure what they are specifically either, hmm…” Zhao Yu said, shrugging his shoulders. “Of course, these were all revealed by the masked man, and he himself wasn’t too sure about it. After all, it was all a job to them, so naturally, they wouldn’t have asked unnecessary questions.
“But… Fa Luo is not an ordinary person. He said he could probably guess some of these answers, and he was very clear their ultimate goal was not the golden treasure or anything of that sort, but it was these items…” Zhao Yu gestured to the screen. At this moment, the staff had finished checking the secret room and were in the midst of clearing it out.
“Please!” Li Jing said. “Stop talking about Fa Luo this, and Fa Luo that! I’m sick of it! Fiona in Chinese is translated as Fi-Ou-Na!”
“Fi-Ou-Na?” Zhao Yu asked, rolling his eyes. “A woman, this…”
“Maybe…” Cui Lizhu said, trying to meditate the solution. “Maybe international criminals like to mix up their genders?”
“No!” Li Jing said sternly. “The Malay peninsula and Iranian region [1] in Southeast Asia like to use the names of biblical saints, so Fiona can also be pronounced as Fei-Ou-Na!”
“Alright, then we’ll stop referring to her as Fa Luo… anyway, this Fei-Ou-Na person…” Zhao Yu continued. “Fei-Ou-Na said that the ‘treasure’ they referred to with the treasure plan was actually all kinds of confidential materials the Japanese Imperial Army used during the Tohoku era. These materials documented various fields of research, in addition to all kinds of weapons, biochemicals, bacteria, etc… it also included the results from the various research and technological innovations…”
“Oh…” Everyone was surprised and held their breath.
“So,” Zhao Yu said. “I was worried that there would be some kind of virus or chemical weapon inside. I implore you to maintain a safe distance before you open anything!”
“Ah…” Everyone nodded. Even though what he said sounded like an exaggeration there was some truth in Zhao Yu’s words. When facing something as unknown as this, preventive measures had to be taken.
“Of course, I think…” Zhao Yu said, spreading his palms apart. “Since someone is willing to purchase these at such an exorbitant price, there must be something great inside, right?”
“Yeah!” Miao Ying replied. “For example, the notorious unit 731? Or maybe we can find some evidence of criminal activity here?” [2]
“Wow, or human experiments!” Cui Lizhu said, wrapping her arms around herself. “No wonder there are so many bottles and cans! There must be some kind of extremely potent virus, right…?”
“That’s not entirely impossible per se…” Zhao Yu said, nodding. “The scoundrels actually wanted to bomb this place. Perhaps they wanted to destroy any evidence that had been left behind?”
“It’s not just that…” Li Jing said, glancing towards the screen. “Although this all happened more than 80 years ago, the Japanese Imperial Army possessed technological research that was world-class at that time! Even after all this time, it still probably wouldn’t be outdated! Perhaps these things still hold some value to them?
“Perhaps the reason they wanted to blow everything up was the same reason they had back at the fortress!” Li Jing explained eloquently. “They didn’t want us to get the real ‘treasure’ so we couldn’t benefit from it!”
“Ah, so whether it’s evidence of crimes against humanity by the Japanese Imperial Army, or the importance of the data itself…” Xiao Hang said, slightly agitated. “I guess we can deem this a huge victory?”
“Aiyo…” Cui Lizhu didn’t seem to care that Miao Ying was right beside them and grabbed Zhao Yu’s arms affectionately, exclaiming. “Boss, you were really awesome this time! Not only did you foil their plans, you even turned the tides in our favor. I’ve run out of ways to praise you, to be honest!”
Seeing how intimate Cui Lizhu was being towards him, Zhao Yu glanced at Miao Ying uneasily. However, Miao Ying was still in a state of excitement. She looked at Zhao Yu with an encouraging gaze, completely overlooking what Cui Lizhu was doing.
“But…” Cui Lizhu paused for a moment and her tone changed as she thought of two important issues. “If the ‘treasure’ is not even real treasure and was just a codename… then what about the gold from that year? The gold that those Japanese b*stards found? Could it be, that there’s still a chance…?”
“No!” Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu sighed and his eyes dimmed. “Fa Luo, erm… Fei-Ou-Na said that he already found the whereabouts of the gold a long time ago…”
“Huh?!” Everyone was shocked by Zhao Yu’s words and an indescribable glimpse of hope appeared in their eyes.
“The gold…” Zhao Yu said, lifting his head. “It’s already been spent by the Japanese! They used it during the war as Japan progressed towards being a developed country. There’s none of it left!
“Furthermore, these gold and treasures are basically nonsense. Back then, during the turmoil and chaos of the war, the gold and treasures were long lost, therefore…”
“Huh?” Xiao Hang said in disappointment. “So… are you telling me that for the past 80 years we have been hard at work for nothing? All this talk of gold and treasures was nothing but a fantasy, a pipedream?”
“I’m afraid so!” Zhao Yu replied. “The higher-ranking officials of the Japanese Imperial Army actually knew about the gold. Actually… the amount of gold, in reality, was far from the exaggerated rumors. They did manage to get a small batch of Tsarist Russia’s gold, but those were not even worth 100 tons in reality!
“Afterwards, the rumors of it being 600 tons worth probably came from the eagerness of the owner who wanted to have the gold returned, so he created them himself. The purpose was to rile up the Japanese and make them jealous of one another so they would search for the gold!
“But in fact, once they obtained the gold, it was quickly spent during the war. There’s no way to trace it!” Zhao Yu said helplessly. “So, the gold that was lost, and the treasure plan, were all devised after the Anti-Japanese war period and are two very different things!”
“That means to say…” Li Jing nodded regretfully. “That the thing we’ve been searching for over the past 80 years is merely their codename. This is really… really…”
At that moment, Li Jing couldn’t find the right words to describe her overflowing emotions.
“That Fei-Ou-Na said,” Zhao Yu continued, “that the news of the Japanese defeat came too fast. That they were worried this crucial information would get into the hands of the Russians or Chinese and that it could spell trouble. Therefore, they didn’t dare to risk anything and sent them back to their home country.
“But all this information was crucial! How could they bear to leave it like that?
“So, in desperation, they came up with the treasure plan to hide all of their important documents and files in a secret place. This way, they could eventually use it when they made a comeback!
“Actually,” Zhao Yu paused. “Other than the fact that the hidden stuff isn’t actually gold or treasure, our predictions were not too far off from the actual series of events.
“In order to keep the secrets safe, the enemies not only killed the soldiers who buried the treasure, which was a fact only known to a few high-ranking officials.
“To remember the location of the hidden treasures, they also made two sets of maps using Russian nesting dolls and kaleidoscopes. The exact location of the buried treasure will only be revealed if you look through the kaleidoscope at the Russian nesting dolls!
“Little did we know that during their great defeat, one of the bombs hit a plane and it turns out, the few high-ranking officials who did know about this were on the plane and all of them died. In the end, the only thing left behind was the kaleidoscope!
“Say, you guys…” Zhao Yu said, smirking. “Isn’t this basically heaven’s will?”
[1]: When translated, this region also includes New Guinea
[2]: Unit 731 was the Japanese unit that conducted human experimentation during World War II
