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Chapter 438 The Treasure is Within Reach
After leaving Eijiro Tone's room, Shirakawa Kiyoshi brought Mary to the kitchen again and learned the locations of all the clocks in the annex from Motoaki Kurahashi.
After seeing the time difference table, an extremely exaggerated idea suddenly popped up in Baihe Qing's mind.
The inheritance from fifteen years ago was indeed hidden by Eijiro Tone on the first floor of the annex or even lower.
In order to prevent anyone other than himself from discovering the whereabouts of the inheritance, Eijiro Tone set up many mechanisms along the way to obtain the inheritance, the solutions of which only he knew.
This includes the water tower that can control the water level in the annex.
The activation mechanism of the Water Tower is not a specific device, but is on the imported clocks that Eijiro Tone scattered throughout the annex on the grounds of interest.
On that time difference table, the time in Tokyo, Japan is zero o'clock, and the time marked in the capitals of all countries after it is the time difference with Tokyo time.
According to Shirakawa Kiyoshi's speculation, as long as the time of these clocks from various countries in the world is adjusted back to the time of their original countries, perhaps the water tower can be activated.
Thinking of this, Shirakawa Qing and Mary split up again and went to the rooms in the annex where the clocks were placed and began to adjust the time on them.
And Shirakawa Qing's guess was gradually confirmed in the process.
Perhaps Eijiro Tone was worried that after a long time he would not be able to remember which clock belonged to which country. Therefore, the imported clocks in each room had nameplates with their country of production clearly marked on them. This provided great convenience to Shirakawa Kiyoshi and Mary.
Among them, the table clock made in Britain was in Tone Eijiro's room, and the table clocks imported from other countries were also found in different rooms. Only the Japan clock at the top of the time difference table has never been found.
This was also within Shirakawa Kiyoshi's prediction. From this time difference table, we can see that Tone Eijiro used Tokyo time as the benchmark to determine the time difference with other countries.
In this case, the only clock that represents Tokyo time is naturally the Water Tower behind the annex.
When everyone went to the back mountain to look for Clyde's body, Mei Ling also mentioned to Bai Heqing that there was also a time device inside the water tower, which would ring once every hour.
Now, it's almost twelve o'clock noon.
In Eijiro Tone's room, Kiyoshi Shirakawa stood in front of the clock made in England and set the time back to eight o'clock in the evening according to the time difference between Tokyo and London.
"Crack!"
Just as the hour hand stopped here, a slight sound of a mechanism starting up suddenly rang out from inside the clock, and at the same time the hour hand on it stopped completely.
"clang!"
At the same time, the time finally came to twelve o'clock. On the water tower behind the annex, a melodious bell rang on time. Several fountains sprayed from the nozzles on the top of the tower to the surroundings, and the water mist formed a beautiful rainbow in the sun.
After the bell rang, the area around the villa fell into silence again, but the silence did not last long. Half a minute later, just as if an old machine had barely started to work, there were sudden earthquake-like noises coming from the ground around the villa.
"boom!"
Along with this loud noise that shook the entire villa, several drainage holes gradually opened up on the ground of the courtyard outside the villa that was flooded with water.
Through these drains, the water that was originally several meters deep in the courtyard began to drop rapidly, forming one whirlpool after another on the water surface.
"What happened?!"
On the back mountain outside the villa, the people who were originally looking for Kevin's whereabouts noticed the situation inside the villa at the first time.
"The water...is falling?" The eldest young master Tone Takahiro looked at this scene with an extremely shocked expression.
"What is going on?" Kitakami Kazuhiko also stared at the scene in a daze.
"Could it be Detective Shirakawa and the others..."
"You're amazing, detective..."
Mei Ling quickly came to her senses and walked quickly down the mountain.
"Go back quickly. It looks like our two detectives are about to find the whereabouts of the inheritance."
"You guys are really quick."
When everyone returned to the annex, the accumulated water inside and outside the annex had already drained out from the drains. Shirakawa Kiyoshi, Mary and Kurahashi Motoaki stood on the first floor of the annex and looked up at everyone.
Perhaps because it had been soaked in water for fifteen years, even though some waterproofing protection was done at the beginning, the walls of the first floor of the annex were still somewhat blackened by the soaking, and even aquatic plants grew in many places.
"What did you do? Why is all the water gone? Did you find the inheritance?!" The eldest young master Takahiro Tone looked at the three people below and hurriedly ran down the stairs with an anxious tone.
"We just found out how to activate the water tower and drain the accumulated water in the annex. As for the heritage... we haven't found it yet, but it will be found soon." Baihe Qing replied.
"What do you mean by soon? Where is the inheritance?!"
"Come with me."
After looking at him deeply, Bai Heqing turned around and came to a corridor on the right side of the first floor of the annex according to the marks on the graffiti he had seen in Kevin's room before.
On the wall at the end of the corridor, there is a metal world map inlaid, on which the model of the British Isles protrudes slightly outward.
Bai Heqing thought about it, then raised his hand and pressed the bulge in hard.
"Kaka!"
Behind him, a heavy noise was heard again in the hall on the first floor. Tone Takahiro hurriedly turned around and found that a secret door suddenly opened on the huge pillar that was originally standing in the center of the hall on the first floor.
Inside the secret door was a staircase leading down, which was pitch black and bottomless. A figure staggered up the aisle under the gaze of everyone.
"Kevin?!" Looking at him, the two young masters of the Ligen family couldn't help but shout out.
The figure was Kevin. He seemed to have just been soaked in water. He was soaked all over and his clothes were scratched all over. He looked quite disheveled.
"Although I thought you would be able to find my whereabouts quickly, I never thought that you would find a way to drain all the water in the annex. This is really... so much water rushed in at once, I almost drowned under you just now..."
Walking out of the passage, Kevin sat down on the ground, looked up at everyone, still with that hearty smile on his face.
It seemed that he didn't care at all that he had left everyone behind and went to look for the inheritance alone.
Of course, he didn't care, but someone else did.
"You bastard!" The eldest son, Tone Takahiro, rushed forward, grabbed him by the collar, and asked fiercely, "Is father's inheritance down there?!"
"Alright, alright, don't get excited, young master. What's down there? Just go down and take a look, and you'll know."
Chapter 439 Dirty Treasure
"OMG……"
After entering the secret door, everyone walked down the dark and damp stairs for a distance, and the view in front of them suddenly became clear.
Unlike ordinary islands, there is a huge naturally formed cavity underneath this isolated island villa.
The cavity was very large, at least tens of meters high. There was a man-made spiral passage on the surrounding rock walls. At the bottom was accumulated water of unknown depth. Floating on the water was a small cargo ship that looked to be more than 20 meters long. It was rusty and seemed to have been parked here for many years.
On the stone wall a few meters high right in front of the small cargo ship, there is a gate that was also artificially carved out, with a height and width that is just right for the small cargo ship to pass through.
It seems that in order to prevent the seawater from outside from flowing back in, a gate was specially built on this sluice gate to block the seawater from outside.
"That ship! Could that be the ship?!"
Walking on the passage along the stone wall, the eldest young master Takahiro Tone looked at the small cargo ship parked below, and he was extremely excited.
From their angles at this moment, everyone could clearly see that there were several wooden boxes piled on the deck of the small ship, some of which had been opened. Just like the scenes often seen in stories, these opened boxes were filled with all kinds of gold, silver and jewelry, which looked very dazzling in this dim underground cave.
"Yes, on that ship was the 'British Heritage' that Tone Eijiro obtained from Singapore."
Kevin nodded. He walked in front and explained to the people behind him:
"More than a hundred years ago, a batch of treasures looted by Queen Victoria from the colonies of the British Empire were attacked by private navy disguised as pirates sent by the then Governor of Singapore on their way to the British mainland via Singapore. All the ships sank, and the treasures on board were hidden by the Governor of Singapore.
Although Queen Victoria did not suspect him afterwards, the greedy Governor of Singapore was unfortunately killed on a hunting trip shortly afterwards. With his death, the treasure disappeared.
It was not until twenty years ago that the pseudo-chief who was supported during the war found their whereabouts again. Of course, Singaporeans all know that after the war, the pseudo-chief was quickly arrested and executed by the Singapore authorities at that time.
As for Eijiro Tone, a Japanese man who had settled in Singapore for decades at that time, he actually maintained a very good relationship with the pseudo-leader.
During the war, Tone Eijiro may have heard information about the treasure from this person. After the war, he used his influence in the European literary world and promised to call on people in the literary world to seek a reduction in this man's sentence. As a result, he successfully extracted the whereabouts of the treasure from the pseudo-leader.
Of course, I think everyone should know the result of this incident. Tone Eijiro broke his promise. After the pseudo-leader was executed, he became the only person in the world who knew the whereabouts of the treasure.
After that, Tone Eijiro used the same trick again, and used the then police chief Yang Douxin and one of the people in charge of the post-war reconstruction plan, Clyde, to trick the two into helping him get the treasure. Then he took the treasure to England alone and lived in hiding...
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the Governor of Singapore who robbed these treasures ultimately chose to temporarily bury these treasures on the land of Singapore, intending to dig them out after the incident was over.
In order to cover up this act, he even built a luxurious villa at the location where the treasure was buried. As for this villa..."
"Is it the house that our family bought in Singapore?" Hearing this, Kitakami Kazuhiko asked with some surprise.
"You are so smart, university professor."
Kevin looked back at him, smiled and nodded.
"That's right. So in order to keep all the treasures for himself, Tone Eijiro tried every possible means and finally forced your Kitakami family to be ruined and finally gave up the house obediently.
I don't know if it was because the things he did fifteen years ago were too ruthless, which made Tone Eijiro more and more uneasy in his later years. Before he died, he actually decided to call you, as well as his partners Yang Douxin and Clyde, who were deceived by him, to this island and divide the treasures equally among you...
Hahaha! What is this? A fifteen-year-late division of the spoils? "
"Where did you get this information?" After hearing what he said, Mei Ling frowned and looked at him and asked.
Kevin straightened his scratched collar and said, "My father used to be a guard beside the pseudo-leader, and thus got some information about these treasures.
So whether it is out of my personal curiosity or my duty as a reporter, I really want to dig out the whereabouts of this legendary treasure..."
"The thing on that ship! Have you touched it?!"
Suddenly, the eldest young master Takahiro Li Gen, who was running in front, turned around abruptly and glared at Kevin fiercely.
He looked as if he was the one who should inherit the estate.
"Hmm? Please rest assured, young master. I only enjoy the satisfaction of finding these treasures, but I am not actually interested in money.
Therefore, I didn't take anything from the ship. I just opened it and took a few glances. If you don't believe me, Master Guiyang can search me."
As he spoke, Kevin spread out his hands.
"Hmph! You'd better be telling the truth!"
After saying this, Takahiro Tone turned around and ran quickly downwards. He couldn't wait to see his father's "legacy".
"elder brother!"
Behind him, everyone followed slowly.
There seemed to be no standing platform built under this cave. The passage spiraled downward along the surrounding stone walls and was eventually submerged in water.
Seeing that there was no way out, the anxious Takahiro Tone jumped into the water and swam towards the small cargo ship parked a few meters away.
"Ah, actually when I came down, there was a platform underneath."