On October 1st, under the escort of three armored off-road vehicles, the tourists who had enjoyed some Soviet recuperation at the Hongqi Forest Farm took the bus and rushed to the airport not far away again. Under the guidance of the tour guide, they flew to

It's almost winter in Inta.

"Don't you need to go to Inta?" Wei Ran curiously asked Suisui who got into his car.

"I'm the boss"

Suisui slammed into the car door with a bang, and said while fastening her seat belt, "I'm not Zhuge Liang. I have to do everything myself and why can't I die from exhaustion?"

"Katenka and the others won't follow?" Wei Ran asked as he stepped on the accelerator.

"My two classmates and the tour guide I borrowed from my godmother are enough."

Suisui stretched while speaking, "There will be another group coming the day after tomorrow. We just need to do a good job of receiving them. Go home quickly, I want to go back and have a good sleep."

Hearing this, Wei Ran stopped asking any more questions and turned the steering wheel towards the city.

"Victor, I won't go back with you."

On the radio channel, Jima said in a regretful tone, "Maya is going to the forest farm for training, and I want to go over and help."

"Maya must have said just now that you don't have to go, but it's just right if you don't come, so we can have some peace and quiet."

Wei Ran grasped the radio and responded, then turned off the car radio directly, stepped on the accelerator and caught up with the car driven by the Katenka sisters in front.

When the two cars drove into the large yard by the Kaban Lake, Wei Ran, under Suisui's urging, went into the darkroom and developed the photo he took of the tourists and the distinguished Mr. Gorbachev in the morning without even having time to rest.

came out.

As for why we had to use this outdated film camera instead of a digital SLR that could print directly, we can only blame Suisui for insisting that this method is more compatible with the Soviet-style recuperation projects at Hongqi Forest Farm.

However, when he was holding the developed photos and preparing to ask Suisui for credit, the round and cute Caucasian cub Beria arched his back, stuck out his butt, and let out a childish cry in the direction of the courtyard door.

Grow.

“Stay there for a while”

Wei Ran raised his feet and gently pulled the little guy aside who was already a housekeeper, and then walked outside the door to take a look.

"Who is here?" Suisui, who was holding the photo frame and wondering where to hang it, asked curiously.

"I don't know, a taxi." Wei Ran walked out of the room as he spoke.

At the same time, Anfisa, who was holding a pudding in her mouth just a second ago, quietly walked to the sofa on the side of the door and sat down, and reached into the gap of the sofa.

And covered it with a sofa pillow.

Almost immediately, Anfiya simply quit and just opened the game interface. First, she handed a tablet showing the surveillance screen at the door to her sister. Then she came to Suisui's side and held her arm affectionately to help her.

Let’s think about where to hang the photo frame together.

Even the two little foxes hid behind the bared-toothed Caucasian cubs with their big ears raised, looking warily at the yard outside the door.

Outside the yard, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows when he saw the person getting out of the taxi. The person who came in the taxi turned out to be Wei Ran's cheap tutor at Kazan University, Kajik.

"Boss, why are you here?" Wei Ran pressed the remote control to open the courtyard door and greeted him enthusiastically, "Where's your car? Why didn't you drive over?"

"My car was sold a few days ago."

After Kajik took the change from the taxi, he followed Weiran to the yard and said, "I plan to buy a new car in a few days, but I didn't come to you just to talk about this. Victor, I need

Please help me investigate some things."

"Shall I help you investigate something?" Wei Ran stopped and looked at him with a strange expression.

"Don't worry, there is a commission, and it's not low." Kajik raised his finger while speaking, "It's a full million rubles!"

"Only one million rubles?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously.

"Only one million rubles? What do you mean only one million rubles?" Kajik puffed his beard and stared at Wei Ran.

Wei Ran spread his hands and said, "My previous sales started at a minimum of 200,000 euros."

"200,000? Euros?" Kajik's beard trembled visibly, "Where did you get to know so many rich idiots?"

“Most of them are delivered to your doorstep”

Wei Ran smiled, greeted Kajik into the room, and then introduced Suisui and Sui to each other before leading him to sit down at the long table.

"Your life is really enviable"

Kajik pointed in the direction of the next door, "I heard from Maya that you bought all the workshops next door?"

“It’s been almost a month since I bought it.”

While Wei Ran responded, he poured the other person a cup of coffee in a leisurely manner, while he himself just placed a large cup of hawthorn leaf tea on the table next to him.

Kajik picked up the coffee and took a sip. After pondering for a moment, he slowly opened his briefcase and took out a colorful photo from it and pushed it to Wei Ran.

I took the group photo and looked at it. There were only six men in thick clothes, but behind these six people was a DT-30 transport truck painted in snow camouflage.

On the body of this transport vehicle, there are also the words "Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences" written on it, and a conspicuous Soviet national emblem is also painted on it.

"What is this?" Wei Ran asked, putting down the photo.

Kajik glanced at the two sisters Suisui and Katenka who were busy not far away, and then said, "The only clue I have so far is this photo. If you are interested, you can go with me."

Someone at the school will explain it to you in detail."

"Now?"

Wei Ran asked pointedly. Just from Kajik's eyes just now, he could tell that this old guy didn't know anything. He made it clear that he didn't want Suisui and others to hear.

"Of course!" Kajik picked up the coffee and took another sip, "Don't worry, it won't take long."

"Then let's go"

Wei Ran stood up with a look of helplessness, returned the photo to the other party, and said hello to Suisui before taking Kajik out of the room and into the compartment of the armored pickup truck.

When he started the car, Kajik, who just now said he knew nothing, immediately said, "The photo is of an exploration team sent by the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in the autumn of 1991."

"which year?"

Wei Ran looked at Kajik who was sitting in the passenger seat in surprise, "In the autumn of 1991? Were they still in the mood to send out an exploration team at that time?"

Kajik spread his hands and said, "This is not something I can decide."

"Okay, keep talking." As Wei Ran spoke, he stepped on the accelerator and drove the car out of the yard.

"go to school"

Kajik gave an additional reminder, and then continued to explain, "To be precise, they set off from Irkuts on September 1, 1991, and their destination was in the northernmost part of Irkutsk Oblast.

Katanga District, according to the original plan, they will work there until the permafrost melts the next year before returning."

"etc"

Wei Ran simply stopped the car, "They set off with just a few people and one car? Also, what did they do in Katanga?"

"Of course not. The exploration team consisted of six crawler transport vehicles. There were a total of 38 people in the entire exploration team."

Kajik automatically ignored the second question in Weiran's question and said without a pause, "But in the last few days of 1991, the six people in the photo, the transport truck behind them, and

A driver responsible for driving a transport truck suddenly disappeared."

"What kind of missing?"

"Literally missing"

Kajik once again took out the photo and handed it to Wei Ran, "Due to the nature of their work, they were not with the other five vehicles a few days before they disappeared. Well...according to the records at the time, they were talking to each other.

The straight-line distance between us is at least about 15 kilometers, and the straight-line distance from the base camp behind us is about 20 kilometers."

While talking, Kajik took out a palm-sized notebook from his pocket, spread it out, and drew a pattern similar to a WIFI signal with the carbon pen inside.

"Their base camp is at the center point. There are two crawler transport vehicles left behind at the base camp. Their job is to provide materials and fuel supplies to several other vehicles. The remaining four vehicles explore different directions in a radial pattern.

When Kajik said this, he focused on the upper right corner of the pattern he drew with the tip of his pen. "This direction can be regarded as the northeast geographically. The people in the photo were exploring in this direction and disappeared."

of.

According to the regulations of the exploration team, they will communicate by radio at a fixed time every day. At the same time, although the transport vehicle they are riding in has sufficient fuel reserves, it has very few material reserves. At most, it can only support the six people in the photo plus the transport vehicle.

The driver lasted a week.”

"If calculated according to this, killing six of them can last for one and a half months or even two months?"

"Why do you have such dangerous ideas?"

Kajik raised his eyebrows, pointed at the people in the photo and said, "Of these six people, the two in the middle are doctors, and the four people on both sides of them are their students."

"Where's the driver?" Wei Ran asked.

"The driver was an active soldier at the time. He was only 27 years old when he disappeared, which is about the same age as the students in the photo."

Kajik thought for a while and continued, "According to the records, in addition to an AK74 rifle belonging to the driver in their car, the six people in the photo also carried civilian shotguns for guarding against wild animals and uniformly equipped by the Academy of Sciences.

issued a Nagant revolver."

Putting the photo on the dashboard, Wei Ran looked at Kajik and asked, "Tell me the specific circumstances of their disappearance and why you suddenly came to me to investigate this matter."

"This vehicle was codenamed Cross Pickaxe. It maintained radio contact before it disappeared. However, according to the regulations at the time, they had to return to the base camp for supplies after working outside for a week."

Kajik paused and continued, "But when there were only two days left before they could return to the base camp for supplies, a blizzard suddenly broke out in the area. The blizzard lasted for four days, but after it ended,

The car and its occupants disappeared and have not been seen since."

"Why now..."
To be continued...