With those lingering doubts, Liang En and Pierce continued their search. Unfortunately, it seemed like the luck provided by the pen cap had been exhausted in one go.
So, over the next few hours, they only managed to find five or six deformed bullet heads and shattered fragments, a 50-penny Newfoundland mark coin, and a tangled copper button.
"The bullet heads are standard 7.62mm Mosin-Nagant rifle rounds. As for the fragments, they're too shattered to make out their original form," after returning to their vehicle with this haul, they analyzed the findings under the vehicle's lights.
"But judging from the thickness of these fragments, they're likely from small-caliber artillery shells that exploded. Considering they were shot by 45mm howitzers at the time, these shells probably came from that armored vehicle."
"So, we are indeed lucky this time," Pierce's face immediately brightened into a smile. He then picked up the silver pen cap with two fingers. "I think with this, we should be able to get the reward from the Count."
"I believe so—" as Liang En looked at the gold-shimmering silver-plated pen cap under the light, he once again plunged into contemplation.
He couldn't wrap his head around why something that theoretically should have belonged to young Lord Du Lisi could point him to a location in the distant Veblen City, tens of kilometers away.
"Laurence, Laurence, what's the matter?" Seeing Liang En staring at the gold pen cap lost in thought, Pierce immediately whispered to him, his face displaying a tense expression.
"It's nothing, just that this pen cap reminded me of something," being called out by Pierce, Liang En snapped back to reality from his thoughts.
"What is it?" Pierce asked out of curiosity, but quickly his expression turned thoughtful. "Could it be that you used your magical powers—"
"Uh—not at all," with Pierce's prompting, Liang En also realized the aftermath of his previous attempt to play tricks, so he quickly shook his head and said, "But I'm thinking about something, namely, whether young Lord Du Lisi truly died here. Are there any other possibilities—"
"You mean he might have survived somehow?" Pierce furrowed his brows inquiringly. "But if he really escaped this area, why didn't he contact his family afterwards?"
"That opens up more possibilities. Maybe he directly found a civilian lover and eloped with her," Liang En shrugged, saying so.
Of course, it was just a jest. After everyone shared a laugh, they earnestly began analyzing the records left by the group that had been there before. Soon, they discovered a blank area left behind by the previous teams.
"Laurence, your conjecture might be right," after inspecting the materials he had previously looked over, Pierce addressed Liang En in a serious tone, "The other party might have really headed in the direction of Finland back in the day."
This judgment was made because Pierce had consulted a series of documents and realized that the other party had focused all their attention on this battlefield and the Soviet archives, subconsciously overlooking the situation in Finland.
As for why this occurred, the explanation was simple: since the disappearance of young Lord Du Lisi, Finland had provided comprehensive assistance, leading the searchers to fully adopt the information provided by the Finnish side.
Therefore, it wasn't until Liang En brought up this point that the two of them realized that among the many search teams before them, not a single one had actually gone to investigate the Finnish side.
"Yes, so we can split up tomorrow," Liang En suggested after some thought. "You try to find records of unidentified individuals on both sides of the battlefield since young Lord Du Lisi went missing."
"And what about you?"
"I'll head to Veblen tomorrow to take a look. Maybe I'll find some valuable clues," Liang En said, pointing to himself with a smile. "You know, I always seem to have some peculiar good luck."
"I understand, just like that time when we were on the highway and the tires of the New Crisp Organization's cars exploded," Pierce gave a thumbs up gesture. "I hope both of us have enough good luck tomorrow."
The next morning, after finishing breakfast, the two went their separate ways. Pierce used the Count's connections to directly head to the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to inquire about the records of unidentified individuals on the battlefield since then. On the other hand, Liang En drove straight to Veblen.
Veblen was a very small city, with a population of just over seventy thousand. Therefore, after pretending to circle the small city, he drove to the location based on the dot in his mind.
In just ten minutes, he arrived at the edge of a ruined monastery following a clearly abandoned road.
"So, it's here!" After matching his location with an electronic map, Liang En quickly understood what this monastery was all about.
According to the Finnish military map he had obtained from the steward, during the Winter War, this monastery had been requisitioned as a field hospital. It had operated until they were forced to abandon Veblen, at which point it ceased functioning.
The reason why this monastery had been abandoned was straightforward: after Finland's defeat and the cession of Veblen, almost everyone in the city chose to leave with the army.
Subsequently, the new Soviet immigrants naturally wouldn't continue using this religious site in the prevailing social climate. Hence, it was abandoned.
Of course, this abandonment was also related to the fact that this was a Lutheran monastery, while Russians generally practiced Eastern Orthodoxy. Otherwise, the other side wouldn't have chosen to start anew and abandon this brick-and-stone mixed structure monastery, opting to rebuild an Eastern Orthodox church in the city center.
But for Liang En, the thorough abandonment of this monastery was good news. After all, for a country where the majority of people were religious, excavating a church was somewhat taboo.
After making sure there was no one around, Liang En hopped out of his off-road vehicle, then took his metal detector and shovel and walked into the ruins of the monastery.
Clearly, the war of that year had also affected this monastery, leaving obvious traces of artillery strikes on the walls of the main building and on the ground in the courtyard.
Fortunately, from the relatively intact structure of the monastery's ruins, it seemed that during that time, this place had not been considered a defensive structure by either side of the war. Hence, the overall damage was not severe.
Following the direction indicated by the map in his mind, Liang En quickly circled around the core building of the monastery and arrived at a row of bungalows in the back. According to the traditional layout, these were the rooms where the monks had lived.
"It seems like this place was used as a storage area." After pushing open the door of the room where the dot was located, Liang En found that the dormitory was filled with piles of things, most of which were damaged furniture or rotten canvas.
"The upcoming task doesn't seem to be easy." Seeing the room filled with this heap of junk, Liang En sighed and muttered to himself, because he realized that what he was looking for was at the bottom of this pile of trash.
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