Old-time musicians

Under the illumination of the lantern, the brass metal box in Fan Ning's hand glowed with a simple dark golden light. The surface was smooth, and no joints or gaps were visible.

Only one side has a circular scale ring with a pointer, an irregular gap in the middle, and a small black button next to it.

Seeing the gap, combined with the key symbol next to the light golden subtitle [135/100] in front of him, Fan Ning naturally took off the art museum key from his neck, inserted it, and was about to twist it——

The number 135 on the light golden subtitles in front of me flashed brighter.

"What is this?" Fan Ning stopped moving.

Densely dense black prompts suddenly appeared on this side of the box!

The layout is a bit confusing:

"Need to pass every tick"

"It can be reset after staying at the current scale for one day"

"After confirming, press hard"

"If the order is not correct, it will explode on its own."

Fan Ning was speechless.

Carolyn Van Ning, couldn't his father be more tolerant when leaving items? He was so confident in his son?

And there are so many messy prompts.

He observed the circular scale outside the pointer knob.

"Isn't this just a clock? With 12 ticks, I can get an idea instantly and it takes much less time than before."

I have already summarized the information forms behind the fragments of the sound sequence before. One is the association direction caused by the absence of "C sharp", and the other is the "sequence", the order of the 12 tones.

The 11 tone sequence fragments were originally numbered, but after deciphering, the tonal arrangement of the pieces was chaotic.

Fan Ning began to recall:

"The first one is Beethoven's "Tempest Sonata" in D minor; the second one is Beethoven's "Dawn Sonata" in C major; the third one is Bach's "Goldberg Variations" in G major; the fourth one is Schuber's Special "Piano Sonata No. 21" in B flat major"

Their disorder is:

D, C, G, B flat, A, B, E flat, G flat, E, F, A flat

The normal pitch sequence going up should be:

C, (no C sharp), D, E flat, E, F, G flat, G, A flat, A, B flat, B

Therefore, if the eleven fragments of the sound sequence are re-stacked in ascending order according to the actual pitch,

The order should be 3, (no 2), 1, 8, 11, 10, 12, 4, 7, 5, 6, 9!

Turn the knobs in this order? Then press the confirm button and open the box?

Fanning read out the current position of the knob pointer.

The pointer is already pointing to 2 o'clock!

"This confirms my suspicion that the missing sequence 2 is C sharp. I don't need to worry about this position anymore."

He took a deep breath, reached out to hold the key, and slowly moved the pointer one click clockwise.

"Tingting, tingting, tingting, tingting" made a fine and dense crunching sound.

The hands are set to 3 o'clock.

Then dial two spaces counterclockwise.

"Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting"

The hands are set to 1 o'clock.

Dial seven spaces clockwise.

"Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting"

The hands are set to 8 o'clock.

11 o'clock, 10 o'clock

Fan Ning operated carefully. The closer to completion, the faster his heart beat and the palms of his hands became slippery with cold sweat.

Finally, he put his finger on the button and his expression changed several times.

Press!

His fingers were shaking a little and he didn't press it for a while.

It seems a little tight, no wonder it prompts to use force.

"Can't you give me a few more chances to make mistakes? How can anyone else open the door? Why are you so careful?" Fan Ning suddenly became timid again and muttered as he took his finger away.

"The meaning should be like this, and the order should be like this."

"But I'm not sure whether it meets your old man's 'format requirements'."

“If you destroy the box, won’t your treasure be lost???

"Forget it, you are not afraid that I will make a mistake, what should I be afraid of!!"

After thinking for a while, Fan Ning finally made up his mind and pushed the button in with his finger!

"Click!" A dry and dull voice.

Fan Ning noticed that black lines suddenly appeared on the surface of the brass box.

They crawled and spread, gradually taking over the smoothness with roughness and ruggedness, and then peeled off in large areas, and finally collapsed into a rectangular square of ashes.

"Hoo~" Fan Ning blew them away gently.

What appeared in front of him was a curled papyrus-like thing. It was dark brown and blackened in some places, making it look very old.

He brought the lantern closer and stretched out his fingers to smooth it out. It felt thick and rough to the touch.

There was a simple pattern on it, but because it was drawn in a ring formed by several arcs of varying lengths, Fan Ning felt that it was a mark or a symbol.

This symbol is four golden lines.

Looking at one line alone, the fold lines are high and low, with chaotic ups and downs and no rules.

But four such similar but different fold lines are juxtaposed in parallel, forming a wonderful and mysterious sense of jaggedness.

"Like, four-part harmony in music writing?"

Moreover, they are not painted on top of it, but on the contrary, they are sunk below it.

A set of grooves with what symbol or imprint?

Fanning obviously has no idea of ​​​​interpretation.

The only thing he feels now is that he is hiding too carefully!

To get it, you need to have the key to the art gallery, have a large amount of familiar classical music memories on the Blue Star, be able to interpret the meaning of the fragments of the musical series, be able to discover the special features of those paintings, be able to get the copper box, be able to receive mysterious text messages, be able to activate the small prompts with subtitles that exceed 100/100 progress, and successfully open it once.

To be honest, Fanning felt that when setting these conditions, as long as one or two of them were met, it would be enough to ensure that the person who finally got the papyrus would be himself.

Such a big fuss can only mean that the person who placed the papyrus would rather delay himself for a longer time, even if he couldn't get it for a year or two, and absolutely couldn't let the papyrus fall into the hands of others, even if there was a slight risk!

Fanning rolled it up, and his hands trembled a little when he thought of this.

He carefully put it in the inner pocket of his windbreaker and patted it a few times.

The light of the lantern was already very weak, and the large tallow candle was almost burned out.

He took out his pocket watch, and the time pointed to 7:40 in the evening.

I didn't expect that I had been in the museum for nearly six hours.

Let me summarize my gains: the interpretation of the dream at the end of the corridor, the deciphering of the sound series fragments, my father's work files, the "Dream Man" incident files, and the papyrus with symbols. The exploration should have come to an end, and I can almost leave.

But the key to the museum itself... I still don't understand it.

Then, Fanning frowned at the open fan-shaped secret compartment.

How to restore this thing?

It's not good to leave it like this. I might be spotted when I come here.

He first tried to push and pull it, but it didn't move.

Then he tried to take the "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper River" down from the second position, but there was no movement. He hung it back to "Twilight and Wall on the Top of the Mountain" and there was no movement.

Finally, Fanning thought about it and made a decision.

He took out the tallow candle from the lantern, found an empty fine ceramic floor, and lit the stack of documents.

The dim room was illuminated by the flames. With a slight "sizzle" sound, the shadows of various objects on the walls of the room kept jumping.

There were many documents, and it took a while to burn them. Fanning did not dare to leave early. If he accidentally ignited other objects, this would be a big mistake.

He watched the files and documents gradually curled up and blackened under the licking of the flames, and completely turned into thin flakes of dust.

When the lantern was reinstalled, the tallow candle burned to only the last centimeter high.

Fanning went out and walked down the stairs to the first floor step by step.

The faint smell of rot appeared in the air again, and he couldn't help but look at the darkness in the direction of the mobile exhibition hall a few more times.

In front of the copper lock of the door, he was just about to insert the key around his neck into the lock, and suddenly hesitated.

To be cautious, he returned to the second floor and casually carried down an oil painting.

"Well, I came to the art gallery to look for auction items, so I took some things out."

When he turned the key in the copper lock, the candle burned out and the light of the lantern on the ground completely disappeared.

"Creaky"

A heavy and teeth-grinding sound rang out. Except for the scattered lights in the distance, the brightness outside the gate was no different from that inside.

He held the painting in one hand, kicked the extinguished lantern a little further inside with his foot, locked the door, and walked straight out of the courtyard with the painting.

The lights in the alley flickered, and many people were returning home.

It was the time when industrial workers were going home, and it was more lively when they left than when they came.

Fanning's eyes were always looking forward, never looking back, and turning a deaf ear to things on both sides until he stepped onto Letchi Street.

But I don't know if it was due to the previous rational analysis or his own emotional intuition.

He felt at this moment

that he seemed to be followed!